TIKKUN HaBRIT, Kedusha, Special # s, Messianic Obsession, Practical Torah - STUMP THE RABBI (36)

0:17Welcome, everybody. Baruch HaShem, it's good to see a new face from Texas visiting us all the way from Norway and Texas. Baruch HaShem. Yesterday we had somebody from Montreal and it's good. It's good to see some new faces. Baruch HaShem. Today's shiur will be for a refuah shlema for Avi Mori, David Ben Nasriah, my dear mother Doris Bat Jorah, my Rabbanit Levana Bat Sara, Rav Efraim Ben Shulamit, Rabbanit Sara Bat Anat, and Batya Bat Sara, and all of Am Yisrael, will have refuah shlema, refuat hanefesh, refuat haguf, and also our dear friend from Canada, Stefan Ben Katarina.

1:27So for anyone who isn't aware or just needs a reminder, because I know sometimes people need a reminder, the big project with the CDs about Tikkun HaBrit in English is still going, we're still raising more and more money. We already placed an order for about 200,000 CDs so far that are in order. We really would like to get to a million and a half, so that way we know that at least we're going to get to about 10% of Klal Yisrael that we know about. We already placed an order for about 200,000 CDs so far that are in order. We really would like to get to a million and a half, so that way we know that at least we're going to get to about 10% of Klal Yisrael that we know about. once they actually come out. So anyone who wants to have a piece of Olam HaBa and also at the same time fix their own brit, issues that they've had in the past, b'ezrat Hashem hopefully they've done teshuva for it already, this is one of the greatest ways to do it, simply because when you do teshuva, there are auspicious times for teshuva, for this specific thing, and right now is one of those times, because it's Yemei Shovavim,

2:39Yemei Shovavim is during the times when we read the book of Exodus, which is Sefer Shemot, which is right now. It talks about Yetziat Mitzrayim, talks about pretty much the whole story of Klal Yisrael starts right now. You know, it started last week, this week is the second parasha. And the key thing is that when a person listens to the sages, Whether they understand it or they don't understand it, whether they accept it or they don't accept it, they simply do it. They automatically sanctify themselves to such an extent that for that moment when they do it, they're considered tamim. "Tamim tiheyeh im Hashem Elokecha." "Tamim tiheyeh im Hashem Elokecha" means to be complete with HaKadosh Baruch Hu. Meaning whatever You say goes, Hashem. Doesn't really make a difference. I like it, don't like it. I agree with it, don't agree with it. I understand it, don't understand it. I know I have to fix my behavior. I'm going to do it. That's it. I know I have to get married even though I'm not ready. Okay, I'm going to do it. I know I have to quit my job because it's not a kosher job. I'm going to do it. Even though I don't know if I'm going to get another job.

3:50Being complete with Hashem is a very high level. That we see one of the greatest people that ever lived reached that level was Noach. Parashat Noach starts with: "He was righteous and he was complete." Righteous, being righteous is a fantastic thing. Being complete is also a fantastic thing. Who's called Tamim? Tamim is Noach. Who's called Tzadik? Tzadik is Noach, but also Yosef HaTzadik. Yosef HaTzadik. Yosef HaTzadik. What do they both have in common? What do Noach and Yosef HaTzadik have in common? They both protected their Brit. How do we know? We know that in Sefer Bereishit, the whole Maaseh with Yosef HaTzadik, with the wife of Potiphar, who later on became Potifera. Later on you see in the Torah, when he's mentioned again, he's called Potifera.

4:52because he became transgender. He decided to go the other route. So he was called Potifera. And they say, Chazal says in the Midrash that he really hired Yosef to be with him. Even though he had the most beautiful woman in the world, he didn't really care about the most beautiful woman in the world. He was so promiscuous and so vile and disgusting that eventually the most beautiful woman in the world was not enough. was not enough. This is one of the sources that Rabbi Nachman miBreslov uses, and also the Gemara uses, as one of the sources where when someone is promiscuous, whether it's with themselves or with somebody else, eventually they will not have enough. Eventually, it's not going to be enough; they're going to want to do something more taboo. Hence the reason why there's so much more disgusting abomination in the world called homosexuality. So many more people are thinking that it's not only not a problem, but actually it's admirable to be homosexual. It's admirable to be transgender. It's admirable to be somebody who's completely off his rocker, completely against nature.

6:07So admirable that they actually give special laws in different countries, in different states around the world, including the United States and all over Europe. The only place it's not allowed is in the states of the Muslims. They're still smart in regards to that aspect, where they tell you that you are now obligated to teach about homosexuality. And sometimes you're even obligated to learn about homosexuality at such a young age, you don't even know what sexuality is yet. But you're going to learn about homosexuality. And if that's not enough, in Europe they have a special class. What's a special class? You're going to learn about homosexuality from a transgender. Law. Law. Government. Law. You know who’s one of the people that helped this law go into effect, gave this law power? Unfortunately, Rabotai, it was one of us. He was supposed to be one of us. He was one of our enemies, but he technically started off. He was born as one of us, a Jew. The Chief Rabbi of the UK wrote an entire book about homosexuality.

7:17You see that, unfortunately, the abomination in the world regarding homosexuality, promiscuity, and immodesty has become so rampant. It's become the standard; it's become the admiration. The entire Hollywood is built off of it. All of the commercials people watch on their TV, which the Steipler Gaon says, if you have a TV in your house and you watch cable, it's avodah zarah. The Steipler Gaon said it already before cable like we have today. Talk about 60 years ago, he says, you have TV, you watch cable in your house, it's avodah zarah. Might as well put a statue, same thing. Why? Because what are you gonna watch on TV? In the time of the Steipler Gaon, TV was still somewhat kosher. They didn't have nudity and the filth that they have today. And he still said it's considered avodah zarah. Today, you can't even watch Disney. Disney has become a filthy, disgusting network, full of homosexuality, full of disgusting things. Disney. Somebody bought my kids a present. Wonderful people. And they bought my kids a present. And Baruch Hashem, they were smart enough to show us the present before they showed the kids.

8:28If you're ever going to give somebody a present, always show the parents first. Why? You don't know how they manage their kids, how they raise their kids. Baruch Hashem, they did it. They did us a big chesed. A big chesed they did us by showing us the toy first. Why? Because as soon as we saw it, we said, thank you very much. And we put it on the side, and it's going to Never-Never Land. The kids are never going to see it. Why? Because it's a Disney book full of immodesty. Little Mermaid, this mermaid, that mermaid, this princess, that princess—the whole thing is full of nudity. Who wants their holy kids to see such filth? Now, when you're in the secular world, you don't think this is filth. You think this is normal. Why? Your mom is dressing like that. Your sister's dressing like that. Your girlfriend's dressing like that. Your teacher's dressing like that. You think it's normal. You've become numb. You've become numb to what is supposed to be. But if you look at pictures of your grandparents or your great-grandparents, you see that they wore clothes. What happened? What happened is, Rabotai, that we've become numb. When a person does not sanctify themselves, does not make themselves a tzaddik, little by little they go exactly in the opposite way.

9:43Now, Yosef was not only a beautiful person, a very attractive person, one of the most beautiful people that ever lived, including women. To such an extent that the women of Egypt, when they saw him, they were cutting salad. They were cutting salad. They saw him, they continued cutting, and they ended up cutting their own fingers and didn't notice. That's how beautiful he was. They'd cut their own fingers off, like pieces of the finger were off, a bunch of them, just by staring at him and being enamored of how beautiful he was. His skin shone like the sun. When Paro made him Avrech, made him the viceroy of Egypt, they made a whole theatrics of it, a whole thing. He was in the city, and he's an Ish Kadosh. So what did he do? He looked down. He didn't want to look up because he saw there were women, there were men, there was all types of filth in Egypt. It's like today in America. It's today everywhere in the world. So he looked down. But what happened? All of a sudden, he gets hit in the head with all types of things. What is it? The women are throwing their garments at him.

10:54The women are throwing their garments at him. But that's actually also how the Midrash says he found his wife, Osnat. Why? Because one of the things that was thrown at him was a medallion. And he saw the medallion, and the medallion had an inscription in Hebrew. And he's the only one in Egypt who speaks Hebrew. He says, who gave me this medallion? He reads it in Hebrew. It says, I am Osnat, the granddaughter of Yaakov. You found out who she was. How did you get this? Because this is mine; I have had this since I was born. He finds out who this is. This is the daughter of Dinah, his sister, his stepsister. This is the daughter of Dinah. How? From the rape by Shechem. When she got raped, this Osnat was the baby. But every time she saw the baby, she was so, you know, she was reminded of the horrible thing that happened to her, the rape that happened to her. Then Yaakov Avinu gave her advice, he says, listen, you don't want to ruin the rest of your life being in depression forever.

12:01Give the kid away. We'll give her to a good family. I know somebody that could take her away and raise her, but I'll make sure that she'll know that she's a Jew. She'll know that she's one of us. He gave her a medallion. And as HaKadosh Baruch Hu did what He did, He sent little baby Osnat all the way to Egypt, but He also sent Yosef HaTzadik all the way there many years later. You see how HaKadosh Baruch Hu mezaveg zivugim. Mezaveg zivugim. Already she's born. She's just born. Little baby. What zivug? Who's thinking about a zivug for a one-month-old baby? HaKadosh Baruch Hu is thinking about the zivug. He's already thinking about the zivug before she came to the world. So anyone that's worried about a zivug, if Osnat found a zivug in Egypt when there's no Jews, when she could only marry one of 70 people in the entire world, the family of Yaakov Avinu, she cannot marry anybody else. She could only marry one of 70 people. And all of them are not there.

13:04Yosef HaTzaddik is in Egypt. They make him a viceroy. I say yeah, but a viceroy single? What, are you a bachelor? That's not kavod. I remember when I was on Wall Street, I used to have this client Bill Lamb, a"h (alav hashalom), this guy was a nice guy. And I remember when I first started with him, I was still young, I was in my 20s and... He was 26, 27, no, even earlier. He was maybe 23, 24 years old. And we were doing big deals already, but he was one of those guys that never gave me a lot of money. He only gave me a few hundred thousand dollars. And I made him a lot of money. And I said, "Bill, how come?" Yeah, it was at that time, I think I was maybe 23, 24 years old. I told Bill, "How come you don't send me any more money? I mean, you have $10, $20 million. Like, I'm making you more money than your other guys." He said, "Listen, Ron." He used to call me Ron. That was my name in my Goyish life, my previous Gilgul. So he says, "Listen, Ron, I like you. You're a good guy. You're very, very smart. And everything is good. And you're making me a ton more money than everybody else, percentage-wise. But I can't send you more money right now." I said, "Why not?" He says, "You're not married."

14:15I said to him, "What difference does it make to you that I'm not married?" He goes, "Ah, once you get married, then you'll know the answer. Then you'll know the answer of why I'm not sending you more money because you're not married." Guess what? He was right, this old man. The old man was right. Why? When you're a younger guy or older guy, but you're not married, in reality, all you care about is yourself. So, when all you care about is yourself, The way you do business, the way you do everything in life is very selfish. Very selfish. Why? Because all you care about is yourself. When you're married and you actually want to be married, not like some of these people who get married because they're bored or alone. When you're married and you want to be married and you work on the marriage, what do you have to do to achieve that? In order for a marriage to succeed, you have to be selfless. Meaning, everything is about us. There's no more me. There's no more I. I and me are removed from your vocabulary. And the old man was right.

15:17Once you get married and you're trying to make your marriage be the best that it possibly can be, all of a sudden, every decision that you make takes us into consideration, takes we into consideration. There's no more me. You do business differently, you eat differently, you go to places differently. If you're still acting like you did when you were single when you're married, guess what? I'm not a prophet or the son of a prophet, but I guarantee you one thing: divorce is on the road. it's coming, it's coming. Year, two years, five years—guaranteed, guaranteed, all your money back. Why? You cannot be a good husband or a good wife if you're still acting like you're single. Like some of these people, they tell me, "I have a lot of marriage problems." I said, "Oh, how come?" "Because, ah, you know, my husband is really upset at me because I went away on vacation with my friends." My wife is really upset at me because I just came back from Vegas with my friends. She's upset that I went away with my friends and not with her. Guess what? If you were my wife or my husband, I'd tell you to stay there. Stay there with your friends. Don't come home. Why? A person, a married person that goes on vacation with other people other than their spouse, what are they really telling you? They're telling you they don't want to be married.

16:43That's what they're telling you. They're telling you they don't want to be married. Why? Because if you want to be married, that means that you want to spend all of the best times of your life with whom? With whom you're married to. Not with your friends. Who has time for friends? If you're spending all the stress with your wife, all the stress with your husband, but all the good times with your friends, what does that mean? That means you want to be with somebody else. And everybody knows that vacations are not kosher. No guy goes on vacation just to see the mountains. And by the way, no girl goes on vacation just to get some sun. Sun, Hashem has sun also. And guess what? Unfortunately, I hear these stories. I hear these stories. They tell me these stories, these poor people. But usually, it's too late. Yeah, my husband's mad at me. Yeah, I don't know what to do. You know, he's really not nice to me. He's this to me. And, you know, they give me the whole list, 30 minutes of a laundry list of how bad this husband is. And I say, well, what is he mad about? He goes, no, no, it's just something small. What is he mad about? No, I don't know. I just kissed some guy. So he's...

18:02should hang you like a picture as a memory of the wife he used to have. You're upset that he's mad at you? You're lucky he's still married to you! What are you talking about? He shouldn't even touch you anymore. You touched another guy? No, no, but I only kissed him. When we kissed him, we think it's coming from secular people. Secular people—I don't even tell you their problems because they don't even know it's a problem. We're talking about religious people. Secular people, this is a problem every day. The divorce rate in the secular world is over 80%. You have a better chance, you have a better chance of winning the lotto twice in one year than actually surviving a marriage in the secular world. But this is infecting our religious life, our religious communities. How come? Because, Rabotai Yekarim, we have clear instructions from HaKadosh Baruch Hu. Noach lived in a generation not very different than the generation that we live in. And Noach was the only survivor. Why was he the only survivor, he and his family? Because Noach was a tzadik tamim. First, we find out that tzadik means he protected his brit. Just like Yosef HaTzadik. How do we know he protected his brit?

19:26How do we know? We know that Yosef is the only one other than Noach who is called a tzadik because he protected his brit. When Potiphar's wife tried to seduce him, he ran away from her as if she were the plague. She threatened him, saying, "I'm going to kill you." He responded, "Hashem revives the dead." She said, "I'm going to blind you, take out your eyes." He replied, "Hashem makes the blind see." She threatened, "I'm going to break your back." He said, "Hashem makes the cripple walk again." Meaning, he was telling her, "No matter what you do to me, I'm not touching you, not touching you, nothing." He overcame a test that put him on the map for eternity. For eternity. Imagine, in Shamayim, right now, in Shamayim, they hear this lecture. Or you think it's just here. In Shamayim, they have this lecture, full volume. Full volume. 3D speakers everywhere. And they say, oh, Yosef, they're talking about you. Yosef HaTzadik. Tzadik, Tzadik, Tzadik. Tzadik, Tzadik. The whole world is hearing Tzadik, Tzadik, Tzadik. And everybody says, Amen, Amen. Everybody starts coming to Yosef HaTzadik. And he's right. Yosef HaTzadik. Why? He did something none of us can do.

20:33Most of us can't even handle a day by ourselves without serious Mussar. Yosef was presented with the most beautiful woman in the world, and he didn't touch her. That's why he's called Tzadik. Noach lived in a generation where HaKadosh Baruch Hu destroyed the world, as the Zohar says, because everyone was wasting seed. everyone was wasting seed. When that wasn't enough, they started going with different women—women that weren't their wives, somebody else's wife. When that wasn't enough, that wasn't taboo enough to go with other people's wives. Everyone was cheating. They started homosexuality. They started going with each other. When that wasn't enough, they started going with animals. And even the animals started being infected by it. The zebra wanted to be with the lion. The lion wanted to be with the zebra. The giraffe. All types of filth happened to the world because the acts of man affect the world. But when did HaKadosh Baruch Hu decide this is it? The Zohar says when they made gay marriage legal. Meaning they wrote a ketubah.

21:46Ketubah for gay marriage. Like as if it's a mitzvah to do it. What other generation in history has done such a foolish thing? This one, Hashem. This one. The one we have right now. You go to a Reform shul, you go to a Conservative shul, and you go to some fakers that call themselves Orthodox. Baruch Hashem, not many, but still they do exist. It's okay. There's a whole kehillah of homosexual Orthodox Jews. A whole kehillah. I'm not talking about like three, four, five. A whole kehillah. They call themselves Orthodox Jews, but they're homosexuals. How could this be? Because they forgot, oh, tzaddik is not for this generation. Why do they say tzaddik is not for this generation? How did they arrive at such a convoluted outcome? How did they arrive at such a warped understanding of the Torah? Because in order to be a tzaddik, you also have to be tamim. Meaning you have to be complete with Hashem. All of His mitzvot, I'm taking it. I'm doing it. No exceptions. Understand it, don't understand it, doesn't make a difference. Hard, easy, doesn't make a difference.

23:01I like it, I don't like it, doesn't make a difference. Hashem said it, I'm doing it. That's what tamim means. That's what tamim means. If a person takes the mitzvot that way, where he realizes, she realizes, HaKadosh Baruch Hu commanded us to be modest. HaKadosh Baruch Hu commanded us to cover our heads. HaKadosh Baruch Hu commanded us to pray to Him. HaKadosh Baruch Hu commanded us to learn Torah every day. HaKadosh Baruch Hu commanded us to have a marriage that's only a Jew and a Jew, a goy and a goy. No such thing as intermarriage, even if they're both nice people. HaKadosh Baruch Hu commanded us to eat kosher, and so on and so forth. Once a person says it's a commandment, not a suggestion, and whether it's hard for me or not doesn't make a difference. Whether I'm lonely or I'm not lonely doesn't make a difference. Whether it's easy or it's not easy, it doesn't make a difference. Hashem said it, I'm doing it. And if I fail, I'm going to do teshuva, I'm going to try again. No excuses. Each tzaddik tamim b'dorotav.

24:04Now, the goal, Rabotai HaYekarim, with every one of these shiurim, is to try a little bit, a little bit, every week, to try to sanctify ourselves. Make ourselves holy. Make ourselves Anashim Kedoshim. Each shiur we're supposed to walk out of a little bit holier than we were before we came into the shiur. That's the goal. Now, part of the job is attending. Another part of the job is listening. Because if you fall asleep the whole shiur, it doesn't usually work by itself. I could just give you the shiur, you actually have to listen. The other part of the job, which is the biggest one, is to do what it says. Take something, let's say we spoke for two hours, three hours, you're probably not going to remember the whole thing. But you're going to remember one, two, three, four, five minutes. Take those five minutes and apply them to your life. That's what makes you holier than how you started. But if you come to this shiur the way you are, and you leave this shiur the way you came, I failed you. You failed you. There's no point.

25:19no point. Entertainment? Watch a movie. The reality is, our job is to sanctify ourselves, to make ourselves holy. It's not an easy job, but I'll give you guys a little bit of an example, a little bit of an example of how a person makes themselves holy with something small and how HaKadosh Baruch Hu pays cash. There is a yetzer hara in the light. He apparently doesn't like that we're trying to make ourselves holy. But there's a special Rav. Most of his lectures he gives in Yiddish. Talmid Chacham Tzadik. His name is Rav Biderman. And he has some unbelievable stories. And Rabbi Ephraim told me this one, that he heard from him. True story. There's a guy that he knows, a businessman. Very successful one. Lives in America. But not only, I'm not talking about just successful with money. That's a given. Very successful. But also successful with kedusha. Successful with his avodat Hashem. How do we know from this story?

26:49One day, this businessman, he's at work, he's at his company, they're doing what they're doing, and his assistant calls him. "Hi sir, yes, were you sure about this wire transfer of $70,000 that you emailed me about?" Because this executive assistant, she's the one, she takes care of all of this stuff, including making payments to different companies, buying stuff, selling stuff, big transactions. Transactions could be millions. And she asked him, are you sure about this $70,000 wire to this bank? And he says, what wire? What are you talking about? I didn't send you anything. He says, "No, sir, I have an email from you that says $70,000 to wire to such and such bank." He runs to her desk, "Show me the email." He sees the email and says, "I didn't write this email." They ask the tech guy to investigate the issue. What did they find out? There are a couple of hackers that have been tracking him for the last week and a half.

28:02tracking every one of his steps into his system, and discovered that he has a pattern. Anytime he wants to send money to anyone, or do transactions, he sends an email to his assistant, and she sends the money automatically. And they've been following him, following him, following him, mirroring his computer, not doing anything, just watching, collecting information, and they decide to take the first shot. made a fake email from him, sent it to the assistant, and sent $70,000 to their bank. Immediately, they shut off the systems. Obviously, they didn't complete this wire. They changed the passwords and everything. But after everything, you know, there's chaos in the office. How could this be? Where? Who? What? When? But after everything calmed down, he says, he asks his assistant, he goes, I don't understand. I send you wire instructions to send people money every day for much larger amounts of money. You never ask me if I'm sure or I'm not sure. How come you, what caught your attention on this one? This is the only one. They didn't catch him for any money. This is the only one. They almost got $70,000 from him. How come, what happened with this one?

29:25She says, "I've been working for you for four and a half years. And ever since I've worked for you, I knew that you have a policy in this office to never call a woman by her first name." Why? To have a distance. Don't become friendly with your assistant. Don't become friendly with someone that's not your wife. So when I saw your email, this email, it says, oh, hi, Miri. How are you? Please send $70,000 to this guy. We're doing a deal. So I said, since when do you call me by my name? So it looks fishy to me. So he tells Rav Biderman, he says, look, Rav. Look, Rav. Look what happened here. Just sanctifying myself a little bit. Why? By having a little bit of distance between fellow employees. Don't be so comfortable with somebody that's not your wife. Don't be friends with anyone that's not your wife. Yeah, but she's an employee. You technically can call her by her first name. But it doesn't mean you should. You sanctify yourself just a little bit. He says, "I saved myself $70,000."

30:42And we just learned Torah from it. Imagine how much he's benefiting right now because of this story. Not just the $70,000. $70,000 is nothing. Imagine how much Kiddush Hashem he has made from this story. From all the listeners, from Rabbi Dramein's listeners that will listen to us. Why? To teach us that when HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, "Make yourself holy because I am holy," in Parashat Kedoshim, it wasn't a suggestion. It was telling you this is a commandment, and it's a commandment that you will benefit from in ways that you will never imagine. Making yourself a little holier. Now, the key in the time of the Shovavim is to make yourself holier, especially when it comes to the issues of the Brit. Now, the first and most important thing when it comes to protecting your Brit, whether you're a man or a woman, is that you have to watch your eyes. You have to make sure that you start immediately training your eyes not to look at anything that you don't have to look at. Now, obviously, don't look at anyone of the opposite gender.

32:05That's not your spouse. There's no point. Meaning, guys, obviously don't look at girls that are not your wife, and girls don't look at guys that are not your husband. Now the... ...Issue is much greater with men than it is with women, meaning men looking at women more than women looking at men, because of how the hormonal system and the psychology of a man is. But generally speaking, both men and women must protect their eyes. But even more than that, because we have already discussed this many, many times, you also have to watch your eyes to not look at anything that there's no point in looking at, meaning don't look at your neighbor's house... Don't look at your friend's car. Don't admire stuff that's not yours for no reason because that's going to lead you to jealousy. That's gonna lead you to a point where you're gonna live in a fantasy and that's gonna lead you to a point where you're gonna be miserable with your own circumstances because the grass is always greener on the other side. If you look at your best friend or your enemy's yard, his yard is gonna look better. His wife is gonna look better. His kids are gonna look better. His house is gonna look better. Everything's gonna look better. Why? Because you get a superficial look.

33:22you don't get the real details. So you have to train yourself to not look at anything unless you absolutely have to. You're meeting somebody, you have to look at them, talk to them, no problem. Doesn't mean you have to stare at them. You want to buy a house, you look at the house you want to buy. You look at the neighborhood, see where you're at, no problem. You're doing a deal, you have to evaluate the deal, no problem. But if you're just simply doing nothing, no point, it's going to lead you to a lot of problems. So, protecting your eyes is the first tool that a person must use in order to even have a chance of protecting their brit. The second thing is that you have to make sure to understand that there is a consequence for failure. Even though the English world at large has a bunch of teachers that tell you otherwise, that tell you no matter what you do, everything is going to be okay, you're going to heaven, we see from countless sources from the Torah that that's false. That's a false statement, to say the least. Now, Avot de-Rabbi Natan, as a Mishnah, as a Baraita,

34:44in chapter 16, Mishnah number 2, and it says the following. Rabbi Yehoshua says, the second thing that removes a person from the world is the evil inclination. The following is Yetzer Hara. How so? The sages have taught us that the Yetzer Hara is in a person 13 years. before the Yetzer HaTov is in him. Meaning the Yetzer Hara already comes with you when you're born. Yetzer HaTov only starts fighting him at 13 years old. don't have much strength to overcome sins before 13 years old. You don't even know it's a sin so much; you don't even know the consequences so much. Even if you learned it, it's hard to understand. Even if you tell your kid, "Listen, there's Gan Eden and Gehinom," and so on, at six, seven, eight years old. Like Rav Ovadia, for example, he said in his tradition to teach his kids about Gehinom—not the details, but that there is a bad place called Gehinom—at six years old.

35:53And ask him, how come so young? He says, if you teach him at six, you won't have to teach him at 60. You won't have to teach him at 16. But many times people say, yeah, but you talk, you know, this Gehinnom stuff, the punishment, maybe you should teach it to older people. You know, you're teaching it to young guys, 16, 17 years old, 14 years old about Gehinnom and punishment and all this stuff. Maybe it's too, maybe it's too young. No, it's the opposite. If you don't teach it while they're young, by the time you wait, And they're 25 already, 30 years old, it's too late. They're already addicted to sins. It's very, very hard. Very hard for a 30-year-old to do teshuva in comparison to a 16-year-old. In comparison to a 13-year-old. Now, part of the reason is because their yetzer hara has had pretty much the full freedom to do whatever they want for all those years. If he only had the freedom to do whatever he wants for 13 years, that's, that's, uh, and we have now yetzer hara that's going to help us, good. But if you let this yetzer hara do whatever it wants for 30 years, 40 years, you think you're going to change that after one lecture? Uh, you got a surprise coming to you. Most people are not going to do teshuva. Even if they do, it's going to be very difficult because they're so used to their sins; they're addicted to them.

37:12Now it's always possible to do teshuva, it's just much more difficult. Why deal with it? Why add difficulty to your life? You already have enough difficulty in the world. So Rabbi Yehoshua continues and he says, from the time he leaves his mother's womb, the yetzer hara continuously grows with him. As time goes by, if he begins to desecrate Shabbat, the yetzer hara does not protest his doing so. If he commits murder, the yetzer hara does not protest against him doing so. If he goes to commit a sin of immorality, wasting seed, and otherwise, the yetzer hara does not protest. The yetzer hara is enjoying it, saying, "Go, go, go, do it. You're doing the job for me." The yetzer hara is not even helping him. He's just doing it by himself. After 13 years have passed, since the evil inclination, the yetzer hara, first entered him, the good inclination, the yetzer hatov, is born inside of him. And it tries to wean him from the sins which he has grown accustomed to. Now, when he's about to violate Shabbat, as he has become accustomed to doing, the good inclination says, empty one.

38:38It says in the Torah, "You shall observe the Shabbat for it is holy to you. It is desecrated; it shall be put to death." Meaning the yetzer hatov tells them, "What are you doing? There's a consequence for your crime. You violate Shabbat, Hashem's gonna kill you. Every day you are alive and you have violated Shabbat, it's borrowed time. It's mamash a miracle. You should say, twice you should say." a joke, don't only say it once. The point is that if a person violates Shabbat and they continue to live, it's a miracle. Every second they're alive is a miracle. Why? Who says you violate Shabbat, I'm going to kill you? So people say, "Where's Hashem's mercy? How come He's giving me all these problems?" You're lucky you're alive; that's His mercy. The sins you've made should have already killed you long ago. The sins you've made should have already killed you long ago. You're still alive, He's just giving you a few problems. Baruch Hashem, you should say. Now, when he's about to commit murder, as he has become accustomed to, the good inclination says to him, "MT1." It says, "Shofekh dam ha'adam ba'adam, damo yishafekh."

40:00What is this? Parashat Noach. HaKadosh Baruch Hu teaches us that wasting seed, wasting seed is even a commandment on the goyim. Why? Shofekh dam ha'adam, spilling blood of a man, that's murder. But he doesn't say that. He says, Shofekh dam ha'adam ba'adam. He spills the blood of a man within a man. What's the blood of a man within a man? That's the seed. That's the seed. That's the sperm of a man. If a person spills the blood of a man within a man, he wastes seed, his own blood will be shed. So Yetzer Tov says, "Empty one." It says that anyone that spills the blood of a man within a man, his blood is going to be shed. What are you doing? Now when a person goes to commit a sin of immorality, he wants to have a girlfriend before marriage.

41:04No, we're just dating, Rabbi. We're just dating. She's a nice girl. No, we're just having a good time. We're not serious yet. He wants to commit a sin of immorality, as he's become used to. Why? Even his parents are supporting it. They're saying, "Oh, she's cute, son. Wow, nice girlfriend. She's going to sleep over tonight?" It's foolish for parents to have their kids sleep over at their houses. They don't think twice about it. "Yeah, my daughter's boyfriend is sleeping over for the weekend." It's hard to even say, but this is reality. This is reality. It's happening in the world every day. Where's your daughter? No, no, she's sleeping at her boyfriend's house today. What? Is she married to him? No, she's too young. She's only 16 years old. Oh, she's too young to get married, but she's not too young to sleep at the boyfriend's house. To act like she's married. What foolish mentality is this? It's mamash a lesson from the Satan. She's too young to get married, but she's not too young to act like she's married.

42:18Think about it. How does this make any sense to anybody? Who actually thinks? What does it show? We don't think. We don't think. And that's why he calls us "empty one." The yetzer tov calls us "empty one." He says, your brain is empty. There's nothing there. It's cockroaches. There's nothing there. How could you let your daughter sleep at some person's house? How could you let your son sleep at some person's house? How could you let them have boyfriends or girlfriends? How? How do you do it? Do you have anything in your head? Is there a mouse in there at least? Mouse, something? when he comes to make a sin of immorality like he's become accustomed to, the good inclination says to him, "empty one." It says in the Torah, "An adulterer and the adulteress shall be put to death." Anyone that commits these sins of immorality, kill them. No, they've been dating for three years already. They're still alive. Yeah, it's a miracle.

43:23It's a miracle. Moreover, when a person arouses himself and goes to commit a matter of immorality, he wants to watch some filth on the internet, television, or some movie. He arouses himself. The Gemara says someone who arouses himself intentionally is bringing the mabul. He's bringing the flood because that's what HaKadosh Baruch Hu destroyed the world for. Here, the Tanna de Rabbi Natan takes it a step further. Why? It came to the Brit. It came to the Brit, it's not even with anybody else. It's by itself. It's more addictive. It's much worse. So here it says, when a person arouses himself and goes to commit a matter of immorality, zima is immorality. All of his limbs stand ready to obey him in his sinful desire, meaning his entire body is aroused. It started with his member. It started with one part of the body, but the whole body has now gotten involved. Every part of the body is now on cloud nine. They have no idea what's going on. Why is this tingling? Why is that tingling? Why does my head feel this way? Why are my eyes feeling this way? What's going on? The whole body is going crazy.

44:53because the evil inclination is like the king over all of a person's 248 limbs. However, when he goes to perform a mitzvah, then all of his limbs begin to become burdensome on him because the evil inclination that is in one's innards is like the king over all of the person's 248 limbs. whereas the good inclination is like nothing more than someone who's bound in a prison. As it's stated in Kohelet 4:14, "because from the prison he emerged to reign." This refers to the good inclination. So we see here, ...that all of the other sins, whether it was with a woman, or Chilul Shabbat, or actual murder, or anything else, the evil inclination says, "Do this." The good inclination says, "Don't do it, you empty one." But then when it comes to the sin of zima, when it comes to the sin of immorality with a person's self, not even with another person, he says, "This is worse than everything else." Why? There's no age to this.

46:14There's no limit to this. The issue of wasting seed is an epidemic for every age group, for every religion, for every gender, for everyone. For married, for single. Most people think that if you get married, this problem goes away. It's actually quite the opposite. If you didn't take care of it before you got married, the problem gets worse after you get married. And part of the reason is because you realize that your spouse is not necessarily always interested in doing the same things you are interested in doing at the same time you're interested in doing them. Why? Because there are kids, there is work, there is stress, there are health issues, there is life. So you want to do it, but she doesn't want to do it for whatever reason or another. So a person who does not have self-control Okay, no problem. She doesn't want to be intimate, okay. No problem, tomorrow, the next day, no problem. It's not the end of the world. A woman that wants to be with her husband, and her husband makes the mistake of not wanting to be with her, is actually obligated to be with her if she wants to be with him according to the Ketubah. She doesn't lose her mind and just start looking for something else. Okay, next time. We're not animals. But if a person does not have self-control...

47:42and he starts arousing himself, his entire body, every part of his body, every limb in his body, every limb in our body, everything starts getting affected, starts becoming a contributor to the crime. And guess what? Before you know it, they start preferring that intimacy by themselves over the marriage. Suddenly, the next time their spouse wants to be together, they're like, "Nah, I'm tired." What do you mean you're tired? Why are you tired? It's six o'clock in the afternoon. Six o'clock. The sun just went down. The sun's not even tired. How are you tired? "I have a headache." What? Eight days in a row? We should take you to the ICU. What's the matter with you? How come you always have a headache? No, I don't feel good. You felt good when you were with your friends. You were laughing with them right outside the house. How come you felt good and were laughing over there? No, I don't feel good. I'm tired. I'm busy. I gotta do stuff. I gotta work. You didn't have to work last time. What happened? Once you start seeing that your spouse has lost interest,

48:52More times than not, it's not because they're cheating. Sometimes it's because they're cheating. But more times than not, they're not cheating with another person. They're cheating with themselves. And they simply have become a prisoner, like the Mishnah says here, the Beraita says here, a prisoner of the Yetzer Hara. Why? The Yetzer Hara says to them, listen, who needs this headache? You have to wine her, dine her, talk to her this way. Who needs it? Just go do it yourself. Two minutes, you're finished. You get your pleasure, finished. What do you need all this headache for? What do you need it for? And the Yetzer Hara tells them this is the best way. This is the best way. What are you doing? And him getting married, not only did it not solve the problem that he thought it was going to solve when he was still single, it actually made it worse. He's further addicted to it. Now he's looking for a way out. And that's why, Rabotai, this is a challenge every year for everyone.

50:04Every single human being that wants to follow the Torah, the way HaKadosh Baruch Hu and His sages have taught us, at the time of Shovavim, knows it's an auspicious time to get stronger when it comes to this issue. They have to sanctify themselves. They have to take something on. If you're not protecting your brit, this is the time. Take it on. You have to start watching your eyes, even watching yourself. You shouldn't even look at yourself naked. As I've told you guys many times, take a shower, don't touch yourself skin to skin. Use a sponge. If you're single, you're not allowed to touch yourself, even to urinate. do you do it? You either direct your member in a certain way or use toilet paper or something to not have skin-to-skin touch. Why? Skin-to-skin touch leads to arousal, leads to thoughts, leads to Hashem. Same thing with showers, same thing with everything else. No one's saying don't be clean. Be clean, be hygienic. Hygiene is very important, but you have to understand that the yetzer hara is looking for an opening everywhere, as it says in Bereishit.

51:23there's a small opening, you leave a small opening for the yetzer hara. That's all he needs. He doesn't need a big opening, he doesn't need a stadium. Just a small opening, a little thing you leave him. That's it. That's all he needs. He's gonna catch you. He's gonna catch his way around the corner, got you. You don't watch your eyes? Got you. You watch your eyes, but only with real-life people, not stuff on the internet? Got you. You watch movies? Got you. You're too friendly to women that are not your wife? Got you. You're not careful with yourself? Got you. You look in the mirror too much? Got you. You're too much into yourself, your own physicality? Got you. He doesn't need a big opening. He doesn't say, listen, you got to go to clubs and, you know, no, small little opening, tiny. How about this? You curse? Got you. You say words that are vulgar? Got you. You don't control your temper? Got you. Small opening. Small opening. Got you. Guys, tell me every single day. Every day I have new people. But every day I have people that say, "Listen, I'm doing it three, four, five months straight. I'm good. But I failed. Something happened. I don't know what happened. I failed." I said, "Okay, start again. Start again. Do a tikkun. Do teshuva. Learn about it."

52:53which is you have to donate a certain amount of money based on how many times you wasted seed. Each time you wasted seed, it's $420 minimum. Some say it's much more, but nonetheless, at least $420 you have to donate for this issue. Now, if you take this seriously, that donation is going to help save your life. Why? Because now it became expensive. Once you put your money where your mouth is, you realize, "Okay, you know what? It's not worth $420 for two seconds of pleasure. It's not worth $420. Let me go eat a burger or something. Let me go do some push-ups. Let me smash my head against the wall a few times. Do something. It's not worth $420. I worked so hard the whole week, barely made a thousand bucks. I'm gonna spend $420 on this? Who needs this?" a person does this seriously, he realizes, first of all, he's in big debt for all the things that he already did, and he has to fix it. You definitely, definitely do not want to go to Olam HaBa in debt, I promise you that. Now, for all of those people who say, "Listen, all the times that I've wasted seed and was promiscuous and so on, I have to pay millions of dollars." Okay, you have millions of dollars? No? Okay, so don't pay millions of dollars. Pay what you can.

54:15You have 400 bucks, pay 400 bucks. You have 4,000, pay 4,000. Whatever you can, you do. Hashem is not going to punish you for something you don't have. But at least show HaKadosh Baruch Hu that you understand that you have an obligation. And guess what? When HaKadosh Baruch Hu sees that you are fulfilling your obligation to the best of your ability, suddenly He makes your ability bigger. Suddenly, He makes your ability bigger. Why? He sees you're donating on a regular basis to do Tikkun HaBrit. You're trying to help other people fix this sin also because you're giving money for other people to do teshuva. So you're doing double, double whammy here. Double tikkun. First, your tikkun yourself is just a donation by itself. And second of all, what are you donating for? You're donating for a CD that's going to help many, many people do teshuva. Meaning that's also fixing your past at the same time. HaKadosh Baruch Hu sees that you're very serious. Guess what? All of a sudden, your boss wants to give you a raise for no reason. Hey, listen, I like you. We're going to raise your pay by another 20%. Why? I don't know.

55:21But for some reason, I want to give you a raise. What do you think is going to happen? Last month, somebody told me. Last month. No, less than a month. Two months ago. Two months ago. Somebody says, I don't know what happened. I have no idea. All of a sudden, my boss just told me, listen, we're going to give you a 25% raise. I said, did you do any of the projects well? He goes, no. I said, perfect. He says, why perfect? I said, because now I know for sure it's from HaKadosh Baruch Hu. You cannot blame yourself, your work, your effort, your genius, your anything. You know, you didn't do anything special. You got a 25% raise. HaKadosh Baruch Hu is approving your teshuva. He's approving what you're doing. He's showing you a blessing. You're giving when you barely have. You're doing it. HaKadosh Baruch Hu will give you more. But if you don't believe in HaKadosh Baruch Hu, why are you even here? Why are you watching? Some people do that. So, you know, there are many people, there's a group of people, at least a half a dozen or so, that watch my lectures even though they hate HaKadosh Baruch Hu. Why? They want to see what I'm going to say so they can make a clip out of it to make fun of me. You know, they want to make themselves a nice villain in Gehinnom, so they figured, let's do this. But most people, Baruch Hashem, that watch the shiurim are trying to do teshuva. They're trying to do teshuva. They're trying to fix themselves. This is the time to do it. Ladies, it's time to be serious when it comes to modesty.

56:45This is the time why every single guy that looks at you if you're immodest is going to sin. He sins, guess what? You're going to join him in Gehinnom. Hashem is not only going to punish him and you're going to be scot-free in Gan Eden. It's never going to happen. It's time to take on modesty. Modesty is not that difficult. Cover everything that's supposed to be covered. In so many words, the only thing you're supposed to see on a woman is her face, her hands, and her feet. That's it. That's it. So, you wear long sleeve shirts. If you want to be a little more lenient with yourself, you can show your wrists. But you have to cover your elbows. you want to be a little lenient, you could show somewhere about a third of your leg, the first third, meaning the skirt that you're wearing, first of all, has to be very loose and not show your figure, but more importantly than that, or as important as that, is that it has to be long enough where it reaches when you're sitting down, because your skirt gets shorter when you sit down. It has to reach the bottom of your knee, further than the bottom of your knee, by six inches. So calculate, whatever your bottom of the knee is.

58:03Six inches, which means that the most you can possibly show is approximately a third or a little less than a third of your leg. In reality, it is supposed to cover the whole thing. Why would you want to play with the borderline? Unfortunately, today people think that that's the line, so they start wearing skirts right on the line. The next thing you know, they cover right at the knee, but it's already not modest at all. Then you have people go to Beit Knesset, and you cannot even look at them. They think that they're modest by simply wearing anything that resembles a skirt, even though it doesn't cover anything. It's better they wear pants. Or better yet, if they wear something so tight and so provocative, it doesn't matter how long it is. If you're wearing a dress, but the dress is like a skin-tight outfit, it's not modest. It has to be loose, and it has to be long. Also, you have to cover your chest. You know, these dresses that are V-necks, completely not allowed for women. If you have something that's very pretty, that you like, that's your favorite dress, that's V-neck, that's it. All you have to do is just wear a shirt under it. You can still wear it, but just wear a shirt under it. Why? Your skin is the property of your husband. Oh, I'm not married. Okay, then it's the property of Hashem. Yeah, but my husband likes it. Okay, so tell him that he's wrong.

59:33No, but he says I have to wear it. Tell him that he can wear it. Well, you're not going to go to Gehenom for him. Husband, I love you, but I'm not going to Gehenom for you. You're married, you have to cover your hair. You have to cover your hair. There's no exceptions here. All Jewish women have to cover their hair. The Rambam even says that even single women have to cover their hair. But we don't pasken this as halakha. The Shulchan Aruch says it has to be married women. Nonetheless, there are some people in the world who are very, very righteous, and they already cover their daughters' hair when they're single. Six years old. Some even younger. This is not halakha. You don't have to do it. But the bottom line is, you have to do it once the girl is married. Now, how are you going to get your daughter to cover her hair... If the mother covers her hair, the daughter will cover her hair. If the mother doesn't cover her hair, guess what? The daughter is not going to cover her hair. But even if the mother covers her hair but she doesn't show that she likes it, she doesn't celebrate her tzniut, guess what? The daughter is going to hate it. Just like if the husband doesn't show that he loves Torah, his kids are not going to want to learn Torah. You have to show that you love the mitzvot. You're excited to do the mitzvot, or else your kids are going to fall off.

1:00:53This is part of sanctifying ourselves. Every day we invest a little bit more, a little bit more to sanctify ourselves. We learn a little bit more. And the biggest thing is to make sure we protect ourselves from sin. Once you protect yourself from sin, it helps you do mitzvot. helps you do mitzvot. The most important thing is to use these tools. The last tool to protect ourselves is to know that there's a consequence. What does it mean to know there's a consequence? You need to learn at least every other week, if not every week, about what the consequences are of not following Hashem, both in this world and the next. You have to know that there is a Gehinnom. There is punishment. You have to know this, why? Because that's how the human psyche works. If we know that there's a consequence for our crime, automatically our desire to perform crime decreases. Doesn't mean we don't do it anymore, because there's plenty of people that know all the details of Gehinnom, but they still fail once in a while; they're human. But they don't completely lose their mind.

1:02:07So you have to know that there is a consequence for losing your mind. There is a consequence for doing these things. And it's very critical for every Jew to know that. That's why he talks about Gehinnom. He talks about Kaf HaKela. He talks about everything that happens to a person once this person goes and becomes a prisoner of the Yetzer Hara. And that's also part of our parasha. And we'll finish with this point, and you guys can ask as many questions as you want. There's a very peculiar event that happens in the parasha when Moshe Rabbeinu comes and meets Pharaoh. Because the Midrash says that Pharaoh was surprised when he saw Moshe Rabbeinu. Shocked. What are you so shocked about? What's so shocking? Moshe came to frighten people. What are you so shocked about? And you even know who he is from many years ago. What's shocking about it? Two parts. One, Pharaoh had lions, trained lions, two trained lions at every one of his gates.

1:03:22some people today have guard dogs that are very, very annoying, very dangerous, and not kosher. You're not allowed to have these dogs that scare people. If you have a dog like that, you have a very serious problem with Hashem. Why? Because if that dog barks—not even bites, just barks—next to a pregnant woman, she could have a miscarriage because of him, and it's considered murder. So even if you have a guard dog, you have to make sure this guard dog is nowhere near people. Pharaoh had lions... Not guard dogs. Lions. Real lions. Big lions. Trained. They sat at the entrance. If anyone came without permission, the lions had dinner. So now Moshe Rabbeinu comes with Aharon HaKohen. The lions are there. But Moshe Rabbeinu had the Shechinah on him. Suddenly, all the lions, not just the lions that were at the gate, came to Moshe Rabbeinu and started dancing like dogs. They wanted to play with Moshe Rabbeinu and they started following Moshe Rabbeinu, all of them.

1:04:23All of them started following Moshe Rabbeinu like little puppies. Next to him, coming to Pharaoh. Pharaoh saw, he was shocked. "What are these lions doing here?" He's scared of the lions. Pharaoh is scared of the lions. "What are these lions doing here?" They're all friends with Moshe Rabbeinu. But then the Midrash, the Midrash says something fantastic. I found this actually in a very interesting book called Let My Nation Go. It uses a lot of Midrashim from different places. And he says he brings the source from Yalkut Reuveni. Yalkut Reuveni says that one of the other reasons why everyone else was okay, but Pharaoh was petrified of Moshe Rabbeinu. Petrified. Why? Because HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, "I'm going to make him like a servant to you. He's going to be scared of you." Why is Pharaoh, the most powerful king in the world at that time? Why is he scared of Moshe Rabbeinu? Moshe is not coming with an army. He's not a ninja or samurai. What does he do? Why is he so scared of him? He says, every time Moshe Rabbeinu would come, suddenly, Midrash Reuveni says this, suddenly, Pharaoh would see Gehenom. HaKadosh Baruch Hu would show Gehenom and what's happening in Gehenom and what's going to happen to Pharaoh.

1:05:47What's going to happen to Pharaoh in Gehenom? He starts seeing it. And he's petrified. Everyone else doesn't see it. He's the only one that sees it. That's what Midrash Reuveni says. I'm just wondering, is it the 12-month Gehenom or the eternal Gehenom? I'm not sure. But the point is, Rabotai, that it's very, very important for us to know that there is a consequence for our actions. Just like there's a consequence for our actions if we don't perform well at work. Just like there's a consequence for us if we don't do good service for our clients. There's a consequence if we're not good spouses. You're not a good husband. You're not a good wife. You're not a good child. You're not a good parent. There's a consequence in everything in life. It's even a consequence based on eating, a consequence based on drinking, a consequence based on everything, including looking. We also need to know that there's a consequence for not listening to Hashem. But by not listening to Hashem, I don't mean, oh, violating Shabbat. No, no, I mean simply not aspiring to be an Ish Tzaddik Tamim.

1:06:54Not aspiring to be righteous, to be a tzaddik or a tzaddikah, and tamim, and complete with Hashem. Because if you're not aspiring to be complete with Hashem, you're not aspiring to be completely righteous with Hashem, guess what? You're aspiring to do something else. that's something else is not a good destination. You have to aspire to be the best of the best. You may not get there today or tomorrow, or even this year or next year, but you have to aspire to be the best of the best. Because that's the only way you can assure yourself that every day you're going to try better, you're going to try more, you're going to do teshuva every day, you're going to work on yourself because you're constantly trying to be better. But if you're okay With your neshama parked on neutral, you know, you're just going to go with the flow. Whatever's going to happen, then guess what? Eventually, you get to a hill and then you start reversing. No, I'm okay where I'm at. Where HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, no, you're not going to be okay soon. There's no such thing as a Jew getting better by not trying.

1:08:02You have to aspire to be Ish Tzaddik Tamim. Man or woman. You are modest already in your eyes. Look at your pictures from last year. You're modest in comparison? No problem. Next year, look at the pictures of this year. You'll see that you're not modest enough. Every year, become even more modest. Every year, become even more righteous. Every year, do more prayers. Every year, do more crying. More crying to Hashem. Pray for Am Yisrael. Pray for your kids. Pray for your husband. Every year, do more. Every day, do more. But the point is, Rabotai, that this is the goal. This is the ultimate goal that we have every day, but especially at a time like this, where the Chazal tells us that there is a special gate in heaven opened for people that do teshuva for Shovavim right now. And there's a pure miracle that's happening. I don't know if you guys realize it. Some of the shiurim, some of the main shiurim we did on Gam B'rit, we did four years ago. I tried coming out with a CD about this issue in English already two years ago, three years ago. It never worked out. We came out with other CDs, but never this one. Every time there was a problem—no money, whatever it was—it was always an issue. It just never happened. We started working on this project a long time ago and it kept failing, failing, failing. It just never worked out.

1:09:24We started again and said, let's do it this time. We started already almost four months ago. Usually, to do a CD, it's about, let's say, a month or so of work, then production, then the ordering, and so on. You're finished already. Meaning, by now, we should have already had it in the market. But in reality, it's happening right now. happening right now. Everything is ready right now. The first part of the order is already in right now. Why? Because this is the time where not only is it giving people an opportunity to not just give tzedakah and not just to do something good what they do all year, but to do it at this specific time. At this specific time where Hashem says this is an auspicious, special time to do tikkun ha'brit, and tikkun ha'brit, rabotai, is both for men and for women. And if you're a man and you wasted seed either by yourself or with somebody else, each time it's tikkun ha'brit. If you're a woman and you were with a man and it wasn't in marriage, it wasn't your husband, guess what? You also have to do tikkun ha'brit, and you have to do tikkun niddah because you need to; you didn't go to the mikveh.

1:10:43This is a time for everybody to do it. This is not just for men. This time is not just for men. There's no such thing as this is just for men. It's men and women. Why? Because HaKadosh Baruch Hu wants us to fix as much as possible. So we arrive at the chagim pure. We arrive at the chagim clean. We arrive at the chagim in a status that we've never seen before, that we've never been in before. That way, He can start giving us the rewards that are waiting for us. He has a treasure chest with our name on it, but He doesn't have permission from Himself to allow it to go free. Why? We still have baggage. We still have baggage. Every person that does whatever they can, HaKadosh Baruch Hu knows what you can and what you can't do. This is why I tell you, take advantage of it. Again, none of this, not a single dollar of this, goes to me. For anyone that's worried about my personal bank account, this is for you. This is for people that want to fix whatever they can; they fix it. This is the time to do it. I highly, highly recommend it. And again, the biggest thing that a person can do for themselves is not only the donations; that's not the biggest thing. The biggest thing is learning.

1:11:55The biggest thing is to learn about the subject. And that's one thing that this CD and this USB that's coming out are going to help people with. It's the compilation of almost 60 shiurim that we've done over the last five or six years, just about this topic. Just about this topic. There's never been anything like this in the world in English. So, Baruch Hashem, we have the merit to do it. Baruch Hashem, we will be able to do a lot more than what we're doing. But, of course, we need many, many more partners. With that being said, Bechavod, who wants to start with questions? Questions, you guys? Take the mic, please. So, Ten Commandments and Ten Makot in Egypt. And before we got the Ten Commandments, after the women were singing the songs, if you hearken diligently to the voice of Hashem, your God, and do what is just...

1:13:11than any of the diseases that I placed in Egypt, I will not bring upon you. For I am Hashem, your healer. Is this a clue that... So the Ten Commandments, the Ten Makot. Is this a clue to Gehenom that we're going to get the Ten Makot or maybe Gog and Magog? Because like... And then the next verse, the next sentence... There's also, like, it seems, I don't know. I'm asking. It seems like there's a clue. They say they arrive in Eilim where the 12 springs of water and 70 date palms were there. Giving a clue to 12 springs, 12 tribes, and 70 date palms, 70 people. So is there a connection between the commandments and the punishments? So, there are certain numbers that HaKadosh Baruch Hu favors that appear and reappear in the Torah. For example, the number seven is one of those numbers. It appears and reappears several times. The number 40 appears and reappears in the Torah, 40 days that it rained at the time of Noach, 40 days and 40 nights that Moshe Rabbeinu was in Har Sinai, and 40 se'ah that a mikveh has to have in order for it to be a kosher mikveh, and so on and so forth.

1:14:18The number seven is one of those numbers. It appears and reappears several times. The number 40 appears and reappears in the Torah: 40 days that it rained at the time of Noach, 40 days and 40 nights that Moshe Rabbeinu was on Har Sinai, and 40 se'ah that a mikveh has to have in order for it to be a kosher mikveh, and so on and so forth. The number 10 is another number. So there are several numbers that HaKadosh Baruch Hu favors for different reasons. each represent different things. For example, one thing I know for sure is that 40 represents cleanliness and purity. Anytime 40 appears, it is, in essence, to represent that purity is happening. So there's 40 se'ah, which is a quantity of water that has to be inside a mikveh in order for your neshama, not your body—your body could still be dirty—but your neshama becomes purified. in order for a mikveh to be kosher, it has to have 40 se'ah of rainwater and as much as you want of any other water. Meaning, to such an extent that if, let's say, for example, you decided to make a huge pool. The pool is the size of New York. But it's not coming from rainwater; it's just coming from the city. It's coming from pipes.

1:15:48It's not going to purify anything. Yeah, but it has soap. Doesn't make a difference. Yeah, but it has detergent. Doesn't make a difference. It's not cleaning. It's purifying. Now, the Rambam says that even if you take all the water of the ocean and pour it on a person, it still won't purify him. only way that the water of the ocean or the water of the rain can purify someone is if it comes to the place undisturbed, meaning that you cannot take rainwater, collect it in a bucket, and then push it to the place. It has to come undisturbed into the mikveh. So, the mikvehs have to be designed in a certain way where the rain falls directly into the pipe and goes directly into the mikveh. You can't collect it and then move it to a different place and so on. So, it's not the quantity of water, it's not a, it's more about how it arrived and it's, again, where the source is in general. But it has to be 40 se'ah. Now, if you have 40 se'ah of water that came from rain,

1:17:01top of that, you could add regular water that came from pipes, no problem. Even if you added a hundred thousand liters, no problem, as long as the original 40 se'ah is from rain. Now, what if you have a pool and on top of it you get 40 se'ah rainwater? No, it has to be the original 40 se'ah. Why? Because this represents purity. The same thing that Hashem purified the world at the time of Noach by simply destroying everyone, with the exception of Noach and his family, and also Og Melech HaBashan. He saved him; he was one of the giants. This was the only people that survived. Hashem destroyed the entire world, purified the entire world. So this number appears several times. Moshe Rabbeinu went to Har Sinai for 40 days and 40 nights, bringing the holiest thing that exists in the world, which is the Torah. So these numbers appear and reappear. As far as the...

1:18:05The reasons why He chose these numbers are beyond me. I have no idea. I don't believe that we have complete clarity on why He chose those numbers over other numbers. I don't remember learning that, and I don't believe it exists, but I don't know the entire Torah or even a portion of it, so I've never learned that part. As far as the second part of your question, is Hashem saying that if you follow My commandments, Won't bring upon you all of the punishments and the diseases that I brought into Egypt. Is that a threat of punishment? Yes, absolutely. Absolutely, and this is one of many threats, one of many promises, if you will, that Hashem makes to Am Yisrael and the world. For people that do not follow His Torah, this is one of many. This is not the first time. Almost half of the Torah is... Almost half of the Chumash that you're reading, Baruch Hashem, is full of Hashem's promises or delivery on a promise of punishment. Where He says, if you don't do what I said, I'll punish you. And when you get to certain parashot, for example, you get to parashat Bechukotai, you'll see that more than half of that parasha gives horrible, horrific, and extremely scary details of punishments in this world. Doesn't even talk about Gehinom.

1:19:23you'll see that more than half of that parasha gives horrible, horrific, and extremely scary details of punishments in this world. It doesn't even talk about Gehinnom. where he says that when Am Yisrael violates the Torah, Hashem will punish them with all types of diseases. Things that are known to man and things that are not known to man. Things that were known, like for example, whether it be hemorrhoids or all types of abscesses and things of that nature that were known to man throughout all of history, or things that only appeared in the last 40 or 50 years, like AIDS. He says things that you know of and things that you don't know of, things that actually existed in Egypt and things that didn't exist in Egypt. then he says that if that's not enough for you, if that punishment is not enough for you and you treat Me with casualness, you treat Me with casualness, you don't take the punishment as if it's from Me. You're just gonna say something like, "Oh no, you know, I got sick. Everybody gets sick. I got into an accident. Everybody gets into accidents. It happens, it's an accident."

1:20:41If you don't think that your accident, your financial loss, your divorce, any problem that you have, including even pricking your hand with a needle, if you don't think that's a punishment from Hashem trying to get your attention, you're making a very serious mistake, the Gemara says. Hashem says every single thing that you have that hurts you in this world, part of the reason is its punishment. Another part of it could also be a tikkun and so on. But part of it for sure is a punishment for a crime that you've committed. You have a problem with something, Hashem is punishing you for something. If you don't think it's a punishment, you don't take it seriously, you don't start reflecting and doing teshuva, Hashem says, "Oh, you're not getting the message? I'll make the punishment worse." And he says in that parasha, and he says it actually in a couple of places. He says it in parashat Bechukotai, he says it in parashat Ki Tavo, he also says it in Sefer Eicha, and several other places in the Tanakh. He says that we can get to such a horrible level of punishment where there will be massive starvation, famine, to the extent where the people will eat their children.

1:21:58Now, anyone that thinks this is exaggerated, you could just review history. It has happened several times in history where Am Yisrael was starving to such an extent where the parents ate their children. At the time of the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash, the first one and the second one, and even including the Holocaust. So the point is, when Hashem is furious at us, and He wants to save the nation at the same time, He cannot simply just let things go. So what you're mentioning is that Hashem says that if you follow My commandments, you will be healthy. Yes, He's giving you reward and punishment there. You'll be good. But if not, you'll get all the diseases and more than what happened in Egypt. Punishment? Every day. Just this morning we got horrible news that two Jewish girls in Yerushalayim jumped off of a roof and killed themselves. You don't think that's a punishment for the parents? That's not a punishment for the friends? It's not a punishment for the rest of Am Yisrael that has a heart. Two young girls, one 19 and one 22 or 23 years old, decided that life is not worth living, jumped off of a roof in Yerushalayim, a hundred meters away from Rav Ephraim's house.

1:23:16100 meters away from Rav Ephraim's house, jumped off the roof, and killed themselves. That's as horrible of a punishment as you can give a human being. Killing a child while the parent is still alive. Punishment of the firstborn? All types of punishment. What do you mean? Hashem killing firstborns en masse? That hasn't happened in recent history that I know of. But one of the things that the prophets say in Yirmiyahu and Zechariah and a few other places is that all of the things that happened in Egypt, the Makot that happened in Egypt, will happen at the time of Gog and Magog, but even to a higher extent. In the one example that Yirmiyahu gives, actually it's Yeshayahu, is that there were three days of darkness in Egypt, but at the time of the end of days of Gog and Magog, there will be 15 days of darkness. So whatever happened in Egypt will be magnified before the end. The point being that we have to do teshuva. Nuclear winter, maybe.

1:24:20I have no idea what Hashem is planning. No idea. All I know is that it's going to be something that we never saw and don't want to see. But b'ezrat Hashem, if we do teshuva, we'll be protected. If you do teshuva, you'll be protected from all of these things. Just like Am Yisrael, the righteous ones, were protected from the darkness. They weren't affected by the darkness. Who was affected by the darkness? Two types of people. The Egyptians, ...and the Jewish people that did not want to do teshuva, Hashem killed all of them during the plague of darkness. He didn’t want the Egyptians to see Him killing the Jews, so He killed them because then they would argue, "Oh, He is punishing everyone." So He killed them during the plague of darkness. But during the End of Days, which is where we're at right now... There's no second chances, meaning that whoever has done teshuva by then is in good shape. He's not going to see the darkness, not going to be affected by it. Whoever is affected by it, Hashem Yerachem. Next question. It seems like the text is saying...

1:25:41only at the, I think, what was that, the plague with the animals, uh, came to, you know, destroy everything. Only then was the Goshen, uh, spared. Or was that with the first, the previous, uh, plagues as well? None of the plagues affected, except the darkness plague. The darkness plague is the only one because during the first First nine or eight plagues, Hashem wanted to show both the Egyptians and the rest of the world, as well as Am Yisrael, B'nei Yisrael at the time. that He's in control of everything. So He started with controlling nature by turning water into blood, by making the frogs go against their own nature, leaving the water and going against men. The alligator and the crocodile left the water and started eating people. All these things really defied nature.

1:26:48top of that, after that, He also showed that He could change nature itself within itself by doing things that are opposites. For example, when He brought the hail, the hail itself, the Midrash Ma'am Lo'ez says, was something out of this world. It was something that defied nature because inside the hail was lava, and which the two cannot coexist. If you have ice and then you have lava next to it, the ice is going to melt. But Hashem wanted to show everyone that that's only for, you know, if it's in the control of normal situations. But in this case, He wanted to show things that are beyond normal. So He gave everyone an opportunity to do teshuva, and anyone that did not do teshuva got punished during the darkness plague. So that's what happened. But there's also certain things that, you know, even now, they're learning about nature that we didn't know. There's a lot of things that defy what we think is normal. For example, one thing I learned recently is that everyone knows that water freezes at a certain temperature, zero degrees or close to it, it freezes. And if you increase the temperature of water, it boils.

1:28:11But scientists recently discovered that if you actually boil it to even higher temperatures, I think, don't quote me on the number, but I think it's a couple of hundred degrees or maybe more, something like that, you get to a really high temperature, it actually freezes again. At a high temperature. Meaning everything we thought we knew about water is not exactly correct. So the point is that HaKadosh Baruch Hu wanted to show them, and is showing us now, through scientists, through different things that are happening in nature in general, in the world in general, that He's in charge constantly. And everything we think we know, we really don't know. In order to wake us up, In order to wake us up, a regular person can look out the window and see a bird and think nothing of it. A person that has Yirat Shamayim looks at a bird and is amazed by the Creator. Why? You go take a piece of meat, put some feathers on it, and throw it in the air. See what happens. That's really what a bird is. You ever look at a bird fly? Why does it fly?

1:29:22Why does this piece of meat fly? Because it has feathers? Go put feathers on yourself and see if you can fly. Try it from the top of a building. How does a bird fly? So a person that understands that everything is a miracle, and that's what the Ramban says at the end of Parashat Bo. Anyone that says, that everything is not a miracle has no share of Torat Yisrael, no share of the God of Israel. Everything is a miracle. The bird flying is a miracle, the fact that there's water is a miracle, the fact that you're able to see, the fact that you're able to smell, everything is a miracle. So Hashem makes miracles on a regular basis, but at the time of Egypt, He made things that are even beyond the normalcy, beyond the miracle. that we identify as a miracle, meaning the miracle of miracles, and at the time of Gog and Magog, it will be even bigger than that. To such an extent that the prophets say, Hashem will no longer be remembered as the God that took Am Yisrael out of Egypt, but rather the God that took Am Yisrael out of the Land of the North.

1:30:32Land of the North, obviously, being North America. To me, it's clear; other people want to argue that maybe it's Russia, but to my knowledge, there are really not that many Jews living in Russia today. There are some, but it's not exactly the majority of Am Yisrael living in Russia. So, why would that be mentioned and not North America, which is where the majority of Jews live in the world outside of Israel? Anyway, next. What is the difference between the process of how Mashiach ben Yosef is coming and versus how Mashiach ben David is coming? So, one of the peculiar things about Mashiach is that there are two of them. There's Mashiach ben Yosef and there's Mashiach ben David.

1:31:34This really requires a shiur of itself, explaining the difference between the two. But in short, the one that fights the initial battles will be Mashiach ben Yosef. The initial battles of Gog and Magog will be fought by Mashiach ben Yosef, from the lineage of Yosef, and he's going to be a very righteous person. And he's going to be a warrior that Hashem obviously will instill power in him. He's not going to have muscles because he went to a gym. He's going to be given power by Hashem, and he's going to fight the initial parts of the war. There is a prophecy that he may die. And we pray, part of our prayer, there are some tzaddikim that pray in the world specifically for him not to die. But even if he dies, he will be resurrected with the dead. But at some point, this war will climax, getting even worse than it started, and the situation will be dire—worse than we even imagined it to be.

1:32:51At some point, there's a prophecy that the land of Israel will be taken hostage by Yishmael, by the Arabs, meaning it will be under the command of the Arabs. And at some point, Mashiach ben David, Mashiach ben David will appear, will be revealed to the world, and he will destroy everyone who is against Hashem, both the non-Jews and the Jews who are against Hashem. He will become the king until the end of this world. He never dies. So, as far as the details of who, what, when, and how, that's long and extensive and requires a different shiur. But really, for the sake of knowledge, this is all we need to know. Because, like the Rambam says, delving too much into the topic of Mashiach, who is the Mashiach, and what's going to happen at the time of Mashiach, does not add to a person's Yirat Shamayim or his love of Hashem.

1:34:01It doesn't add. Because, yeah, it's interesting, and people love talking about Mashiach, people love talking about what's going to happen after Mashiach, but they're not really worried about if they're going to even survive to see Mashiach. You know why? Because the only way you're going to survive to see Mashiach is if you do teshuva. If you work on yourself every day, a person that does not do teshuva, does not work on themselves, does not give up horrible habits and addictions, does not give up horrible sins, does not give up all types of things that Hashem thinks are disgraceful, that person shouldn’t even care about Mashiach. They should care about today. They should care about this week. Why? Because HaKadosh Baruch Hu can give each person their own personal judgment day today. It's called death. And Baruch Hashem, I was faced with it more than once in my life. And I can promise you, it's not fun. It's not fun to look at death in the face. So, the key is a person should not really care so much about what's going to happen once Mashiach comes. They should care about what can I do today to prepare for tomorrow, to prepare for next week, to prepare for Mashiach whenever Mashiach comes.

1:35:18Because to prepare takes an enormous amount of work, an enormous amount of learning Torah, an enormous amount of working on your character traits, an enormous amount of giving up things that you really want but you know are not allowed, an enormous amount of effort to prepare. And that's why it's foolish, foolish for people to base their entire belief system and servitude of HaKadosh Baruch Hu only on Mashiach. It's a known thing that people who base their entire service of Hashem on Mashiach eventually collapse. The reason why is because everyone who already has Mashiach in their mind constantly, you know, and they serve Hashem because of Mashiach, Mashiach, Mashiach, Mashiach, they subconsciously develop a date. when he's supposed to come, everybody does it. Everybody thinks, "No, he's coming this year," "Oh, he's coming this month," "Oh, he's coming on Pesach," "Oh, he's coming in two years from now," "Oh, he's coming within the next five years," "For sure he's coming in 20 years." People that have that in their mind, little by little, they destroy their own neshama.

1:36:29Because when that time comes, that year comes, that holiday comes, that time that you thought was the time that Mashiach would come, and that time comes, and Mashiach didn't come, a little piece of your neshama just dies. Why? Because you're disappointed. You figure, ah, he didn't come, ah, he's probably not going to come for a long time. And all of a sudden, you don't want to serve Hashem anymore because your whole servitude of Hashem was based on Mashiach. you're not supposed to serve Hashem because of Mashiach. You serve Hashem because He's Hashem. Mashiach is a human representation of Hashem in this world. Meaning, it's not Hashem, it's a human being. Born of a woman, born of a putrid seed. But Hashem is going to instill power in this person to run the world. He's going to be a king, like King David, like Shlomo HaMelech, like Moshe Rabbeinu. So, in reality, In reality, you shouldn't even care so much about who it is, because all he's going to care about is what Hashem wants. And the problem is that the Yetzer Hara makes us forget. Forget what the purpose of our life is. And we make a very critical error. The Chofetz Chaim says that if you were told

1:37:55That archaeologist just found a book, a very special book that was written by Gavriel HaMalach. The angel Gavriel wrote a book. How excited would you be to go learn that book? Very excited. If they say archaeologists dug and found in the tunnels, in the mountains, in some hole in the wall, they found a book written by one of these angels, but also alongside one of the sages. Let's say Rabbi Akiva. And it even has a picture. How excited are you going to be to learn this book? Excited. They say they found a book, even bigger, written by Moshe Rabbeinu himself. Moshe Rabbeinu wrote a book, and they found it. It has a picture of Moshe Rabbeinu, with his signature: Moshe ben Amram. How excited are you going to be? The Chafetz Chaim says, look how foolish we are.

1:39:13We would be excited to go read a book by an angel. We would be excited to go read a book by a sage. We would be excited to go read a book by Moshe Rabbeinu. We have a book by HaKadosh Baruch Hu, but no one cares. You have a Sefer Torah, HaKadosh Baruch Hu Himself wrote it. But everybody wants to skip. They want to go to something else, as if the book by HaKadosh Baruch Hu is less. That's how the Yetzer Hara works. We have HaKadosh Baruch Hu to serve every day. You have three opportunities a day to talk to HaKadosh Baruch Hu face to face. Abba, I need everything. Abba, I don't know what I have even. Abba, please help me. Abba, Abba, Abba, Abba. Three times a day you have an opportunity to pray to Him that you're obligated to do. Then you have an endless amount of opportunities to pray on top of that. Then you have an endless amount of opportunities to learn about Abba. It's called learning Torah. But why don't we want to learn? We want to go learn about Abba's servant. Now the servant's good. It's a righteous servant. Go learn about Rabbi Akiva. Go learn about Moshe Rabbeinu. Go learn about Tzadikim, of course. But what about Abba? What about HaKadosh Baruch Hu? We forget we're so focused on HaMashiach. What about HaKadosh Baruch Hu? HaKadosh Baruch Hu obligates you today.

1:40:39That's what people don't understand. They focus on something far away because the Yetzer Hara comes to you in a tricky way. He says, do this mitzvah, but do it tomorrow. Give, but give next week when you get the check. Marry, but not this year—next year. won't tell you, "Don't do it." They'll tell you, "Do it, but later." Why? Because he knows the second you delay, that excitement, that passion you have for the mitzvah dies a little bit more every day. By the time you arrive at that time, you don't feel like doing it anymore. And many, many times when we procrastinate our obligations, we end up not doing them at all. So, that's why if you look at the Torah... asks the question: What is the most important mitzvah in the entire Torah? Who wants to volunteer and answer? The most important mitzvah? Shabbat? Shabbat? Learning Torah? Most important? Important?

1:41:48Highest also. Highest, important, luxurious, rewarding, whatever you want. Any adjective you want to use. All of them. Commandments are an order of importance. Everything you want. Commandments, everything you want. What's the most important? Tachlis, whatever. What's the most, best, greatest, everything? Torah. Torah. Learning Torah. Shabbat. No? There's more mitzvot than two mitzvot in the Torah. Huh? Parents. What about your parents? Honoring your parents. Honoring your parents. Okay, no? Have no other gods. Have no other gods. Not saying His name in vain. Not saying His name in vain. Keep the mitzvot. Keep the mitzvot. Provo. Provo. Okay, by the time we finish, we'll name all 613. Guess what? You're all wrong. And you're right at the same time. All of them. All of them and none of them. Why? The most important mitzvah in the entire Torah is the mitzvah that you have in front of you right now.

1:42:50Whatever mitzvah you have an obligation to do right this second, that's the most important mitzvah. So if you just left the bathroom, the most important mitzvah in the entire Torah is for you to say Asher Yatzar. If you have a shiur Torah scheduled every Monday, the most important mitzvah that second at 8 o'clock is for you to attend the shiur Torah. If you're with your wife, the kids are sleeping, everything is good, your wife says, honey, you say, honey, the most important mitzvah is p'ru ur'vu. Meaning, it's not Shabbat, or Torah, or netilat yadayim, or asher yatzar, it's all of them and none of them. Meaning, which one is in front of you now? Because that's the one that you can do now. Saying Shabbat is the most important mitzvah, yeah, chazak u'baruch, but if it's Monday, how can you do anything about it? Prepare, okay, you prepare, you bought some cholent, but the reality is, if you're buying cholent with stolen money, then what's the most important mitzvah right now is what you have in front of you now. You say, okay, learning Torah, but what if you're inside a bathroom? You still can learn Torah? You can't learn Torah. So the mitzvah of learning Torah, you cannot fulfill it if you're inside a bathroom, if you're in a sewer, if you're drunk, if you're high.

1:44:12If you're drunk, you're high, you're in a sewer, you're in a bathroom, you're not allowed to learn Torah. So suddenly, at that moment, you cannot fulfill this mitzvah. So obviously, there has to be another mitzvah. What's another mitzvah? Whatever mitzvah you have in front of you. You have a mitzvah in front of you. So the point is, Rabotai, that all of the mitzvot are important, but you have to always remember, the most important mitzvah is the one that's in front of you right this second. And that's why, when... someone came to the Chazon Ish and told him, "I have a little bit of a doubt in myself about something that I did. I went to a synagogue that I'm not familiar with and I went to pray there, Mincha. And I didn't know that usually right after Mincha, before Arvit, they have a Shiur Torah."

1:45:13So I prayed Mincha and I thought that they were going to go directly from Mincha to Arvit, but no, the rabbi immediately went up to the podium and started teaching a shiur. I had to go, so I figured, okay, I already prayed. I'll pray Arvit later on. So I left. Is that okay since I prayed with a minyan? The Chazon Ish answers him, writes a Teshuva. He answers him, how could it be okay to make a mitzvah in the way of a sin? You went to pray with a minyan, and you went to a place that has a shiur Torah, and you left in the middle of a shiur Torah, and embarrassed the rabbi by leaving in the middle of a shiur. Even if he didn't see, someone else saw you, you left the shiur Torah. What, for you to go pray with the minyan? No, no, my friend. You're not allowed to leave if you're not going to stay. You're not allowed to go there if you're not going to stay. You have to stay. Yeah, but I had to go to pray. Point being, rabotai, is that we don't think like that. But that's da'at Torah. That's da'at Torah.

1:46:35You are at a synagogue. The most important mitzvah is what you have in front of you, praying. Praying! Once the shiur starts, that's the most important mitzvah in the world. The second the shiur starts, you're not allowed to leave. Not allowed to leave. Now, if a person wants to leave, he has to leave before the speaker starts talking. What about if the speaker is not, uh, not makpid? He's not stringent about that and you let the speaker know, "Listen, I'm only going to be here for now," you tell him in advance or you make a statement, "Listen, I'm sorry, I have to go." Okay, then there's a, uh, leniency in that respect. But if you're just simply going to walk out without a care in the world, you're going to walk into a shiur and leave 5, 10, 20 minutes, a half hour later because you just don't feel like listening to it or you got something that you think is better to do... Then the Chazon Ish says you have a serious problem. Why? Because the mitzvah that you were supposed to fulfill at that moment was to learn Torah, to listen to a shiur Torah. Instead, you committed a sin. You committed a sin by walking out and giving people the impression that this is not a good shiur Torah, this is not an important shiur Torah, this is not an important mitzvah at all.

1:47:46So when a person learns more and more Torah, he starts noticing that he's got a few flat tires, not just one. Because he didn't notice some of these flat tires he had. He didn't realize that he has a few problems in his own actions. Because he just thought, what? I'm just going. I don't want to listen for two hours. I just want to listen for 20 minutes and go. If you go, you have to know. There are certain issues that go along with it. Same thing with every other mitzvah. Same thing with every part of the Torah. You cannot just do whatever you feel like and fulfill the mitzvah the way you feel like. HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, listen to Me. Follow My commandments as I say them. As I want you to. Not as you want to. And that's why we have the Chachamim. They debate constantly, not about whether you're allowed to drive on Shabbat or not. No, they don't debate about that. What do they debate about? What's the best way to honor Shabbat? They don't debate whether to keep something or not keep something generally. They debate what's the best way to keep it or what's the best way to stay away from it.

1:48:53So that's a very common part of the debates that you have in the Gemara. It's not about whether something is necessarily allowed or not allowed, but rather what's the best way to do something. What's the best way to honor Hashem? Hence, you see the constant repetition by the sages where their focus is on Hashem, not Mashiach. You're not going to see that much talk about Mashiach by the sages. They know Mashiach exists. They know Mashiach could come on any given day. They're all petrified of it. They all understand that it's part of our 13 Ikarim. You have to expect Mashiach and believe that Mashiach can come on any given day. But their focal point is not Mashiach. Their focal point is Hashem. and anyone that goes against that, literally, slowly but surely starts a new religion. That's how Christianity was born. Their focus went away from Hashem and started focusing on a human being. That's what happened in Chabad over the last 30 years. It even happened beforehand, but much more so after the Lubavitcher Rebbe died, where Chabad became two camps.

1:50:07One camp of real Chabadniks that focus mostly on Hashem, and the other part, which seems to be much, much larger these days, their focus is on Mashiach. And they're focusing on a person. And since they're so focused on a person, they forget Hashem. You ask the average Chabadnik rules from the Shulchan Aruch, they don't know. You ask the average Chabadnik different halachot Shabbat, they don't know. But they'll tell you a sicha that the Lubavitcher Rebbe mentioned in 1987. Okay, thank you very much for the sicha, but what about God? And that's why many times it's very disappointing that you see famous Chabadniks, who are otherwise Talmidei Chachamim and good people, in their own lectures they rarely mention HaKadosh Baruch Hu. And even when they do, you compare it to how many times they mention the Rebbe, it's a chaval. How many times do they mention the Rebbe? How many times do they mention Hashem? It's almost like, who are you serving here? Who are you serving? That's what the Gaon of Vilna, 200 plus years ago, was afraid of when it came to Hasidut and why he fought against it. The Gaon of Vilna fought against Hasidut viciously.

1:51:21Because he believed that there's too much focus. Already 200 years ago, there's too much focus on a human being. Even if that human being is righteous, is perfect, is Moshe Rabbeinu even. Putting too much focus on a human being, little by little, is going to be distorted. Maybe not by the Rebbes themselves. Maybe not by the greatest of the sages of Chabad or of other Chassidut. But by the regular average person. they're going to get confused more times than not. So the people that are worshipping the human being are not the smartest of them. It's the fools. It's the fools. But the problem is, what is the reality? What is there more of in the world? Geniuses or fools? Fools. No comparison. Of course, there are more fools. Why? The geniuses are rare. That's why they're geniuses. If the genius was average, then the genius would be considered average. There are many, many more fools. There are many more people who are average or below average than there are geniuses.

1:52:33Both Jews and non-Jews alike. So when you give instructions, when you give teachings, there's a saying in the business world and generally, that whatever you do that you want people to listen to, you have to make it idiot-proof. It's a funny term, but it's true. Idiot is not necessarily to demoralize or insult people. Idiot means average or below. Idiot means an average person. So you have to make it idiot-proof. Why idiot-proof? Because eventually an idiot is going to look at it, and you need him to understand it, not the genius. The genius doesn't need you. He can figure it out himself. You need the average guy or below him to understand it because that's the vast majority of people. That's why many times people that are really serious Talmidei Chachamim have a very difficult time communicating with the public. I know one guy. He's an enormous Talmid Chacham. I'm talking about one time he tells me, I told him, I gave him some type of compliment after I learned together with him and

1:53:44I said to him, God bless you, you're like, you're like the last of your generation. Unbelievable. He learned with the biggest Chachamim. I mean, some giants he's learned with, and I told him, "You're amazing! You're considered like a Tanna. You know, I wanted to make him feel good, so I said, 'You're like a Tanna, one of the sages of this generation.'" So, he's a very humble person naturally, and he says, "Ah, what are you talking about? Every day, I forget one." Now, the average person doesn't know what he just said. Why? They have no idea, number one, what a daf Gemara is. Number two, they don't realize what's the big deal of remembering or forgetting it. Why? Go remember one line from the Gemara by heart. When he says, "Every day I forget one daf Gemara," what is he saying? He knows the entire Gemara by heart. And he's upset that every day he forgets a little bit.

1:54:48If he doesn't learn enough, in reality, he doesn't forget. Everything he knows is better than a computer. But the point is that this guy is a genius. You ask him anything, he'll give you a place, a number, a page number, 20 different sources if you want. You want something in a Gemara, he'll tell you exactly what page and how many Gemaras mention it. Pasuk in the Torah, he knows the entire Torah by heart. Everything you want, it's something out of this world. Now, I met some other people similar, but with him, why do I mention him specifically? It is because when he gives a shiur, gives a shiur Torah, unless you yourself are above average in knowledge of Torah, you're not going to understand 90% of what he says. Why? First of all, he speaks really, really fast. if you're not already aware of what he is talking about in the context, you have no idea what's going on. Number two, he already assumes you have a basic knowledge to work with, that he's just giving you the milui, he's giving you the filling. He assumes you already know the basics and is not giving you all the details, so if you don't know all the details, you have no idea who he is talking about or why he is saying it.

1:56:05And this is a very common problem among many Talmidei Chachamim. And this is a difficult thing because they are used to their knowledge. At the same time, they're humble to the point where they don't actually value their knowledge so much. So they just assume you're just as knowledgeable as them. They don't know that you don't know anything, so they figure that they're saying something and you understand what they're talking about. They have no idea what an average or below-average level of knowledge is. Why wouldn't everybody else learn 20 hours a day? So that's what happens. Many times Talmidei Chachamim have a very difficult time communicating with the public. And that's why Rav Tzion Abba Shaul, one of the famous stories, is that when his students asked him to explain something, he would say several times, "You know, all the Torah that I teach and learn, I'm not going to heaven for that." What am I going to go to heaven for? I'm going to heaven because I've simplified and lowered my Torah, all of it, to be relevant to the average 14-year-old. Meaning when he taught, it's not like when he learned. He learned at the highest level. But when he taught it to his students, he simplified it. He lowered it for the average person to learn, a 14-year-old to learn.

1:57:23Now, when you're learning alef bet, it's not so difficult to lower it. When you're learning one plus one, it's not so difficult to lower it. But when you're learning, let's say, the highest level of physics, to go and dumbify that for a 14-year-old to understand is not so pashut. Hence, the reason why they don't teach the highest level of physics in high school. It's very difficult. The Torah makes physics look like alef bet. Torah, real Torah, serious Torah, poskim, halachot, all this stuff, real Torah makes the real gemara, makes physics look like alef bet. Simple. So to dumbify that, meaning to lower that, to be the basic, basic level for average people like us to learn, that's a lot of work. And that's why Talmidim said, Talmidim said that at the end of every shiur, He was drenched as if a river had poured on him, from sweat, from how much he toiled to ensure they understood everything.

1:58:32unbelievable effort. You have no idea how difficult it is to explain things and make sure you take everybody into consideration. The talmid chacham can understand it and appreciate it and value it. At the same time, the average Joe that just started learning last week can also understand it. It's an enormous amount of extra work because you can say the same thing in one sentence or in 25 minutes. One sentence or 25 minutes? One sentence takes you one second. Twenty-five minutes, twenty-five minutes. Why? Because in twenty-five minutes, everybody's going to understand. That's why people who are serious, who like my shiurim, usually watch the clips mainly. Why? Because they get to the point in the clips. Next question. really quick, related to what you're saying, where do we find practical applications? Not even the complicated things, the complicated rules, like just starting with the Ten Commandments and starting from there. But the practical things in daily life, for example, how

1:59:44application of the laws, applications more like how it affects your life here, not in Gehinom or Heaven, but like how it, for example, Shabbat for me as an example, it's a time to disconnect and reflect, disconnect from the phone and everything, and get back to basics. So, for me, that's in the moment. I'm not thinking about Gehinom, I'm not thinking about Heaven. I'm just... For example, other things like... So, that's basically the question. I think, for me, and maybe for a lot of people who watch the videos, maybe they're not thinking about, like you said, they're not thinking about The spiritual aspect, the thing about right now, the mitzvot right now. So where can we find how the mitzvot affect literally your life in the day? There are two parts of applicable Torah that affect your life. One is Halacha Lema'aseh and two is Mussar.

2:01:01Now, Halacha Lema'aseh is learning the laws that you have to apply to your day-to-day life, whether it's washing your hands, eating kosher, keeping Taharat HaMishpacha— all of these different things. First of all, you need to know them. That is one aspect of knowing how it applies to your life. But the other aspect of it is that once you start applying the ones that you learn, you will see how it suddenly changes your mentality and your day-to-day behavior. For example, before I did teshuvah, I had different times in my life where I got stronger with religion, weaker with religion. At one point, I got stronger with religion when I was 17 years old. And for a period of time, I tried to do a few blessings, put on tefillin, and make blessings before I ate. But then I stopped. I never really thought of it as something I have to keep forever. It was just something I wanted to add. Once I did real teshuvah, or at least I'm trying to do still to this day, real teshuvah,

2:02:13I started learning about why there is even a blessing. Why do I need to bless everything with what I need to bless? Specific things, you know, what’s the purpose behind the berachah? What are the laws and so on? The more I learned about it, the more I realized that there’s a lot of meaning to each blessing. There are many different types of blessings and opportunities to make a berachah. After I started applying this knowledge to my life, I started looking at the world very differently. So, for example... Before I eat, I, Baruch Hashem, do my best to make a blessing, and I try to make the right blessing. If I don't know the blessing, I don't eat. This means that if I see somebody else A regular person could be a very kind person, could be a very nice person, could be a beautiful or ugly person. It doesn't make a difference. If I see a person take a piece of food and eat it without a blessing, to me, it looks like they're an animal. To me, that person just became no different than a dog, no different than a wolf, no different than a lion. Why? Because they also don't make a blessing.

2:03:21They don't put any thought into their actions. They simply just ingest, ingest, and eat, and consume, and that's it, and just worry about the after effect, not what's happening here. Whereas when you make a blessing, you're thinking, wait, first and foremost, that I actually have food to eat. Second of all, look at the amazing, extraordinary creation. He made an apple. He made, I don't know, he made cholent. He made a schnitzel. He made this bird. know, fly, not fly, and so on for me to eat it. Some birds that we eat most often, Hashem miraculously made them not fly, so it's easy to catch them. It's called chicken. All right, Hashem made these people easy to slaughter, and I can eat it for a relatively cheap price. My wife knows how to cook this chicken in a fantastic way that makes me want to eat as much as possible. So you think about all this stuff, and then you're thinking all these things... And you're thinking, this is going to taste good. And my wife cares about me that she made this. And this, and that. You think all of these things go into your mind just during the blessing. And you see another guy just eat without a thought at all. It's like, what the hell is wrong with you? Don't you think? Don't you thank Hashem at least for the chicken? Thank your wife for cooking? Like something? That's a lion.

2:04:40That's a dog. That's an animal. So, the learning of that mitzvah and then applying it is the first aspect of knowing how these laws apply to your day-to-day life. But you need to learn them and then apply them in order for you to truly appreciate them. The second aspect of the Torah that is a way for you to see how it applies to your day-to-day life and not Gan Eden or Gehinom is learning Mussar like we do every week. Because many of the things that we talk about, even though we do mention Gan Eden, we mention Gehinom even more often, the reality is if you really look at the entire scope of the shiur, that's a relatively minor part of the shiur. It may stand out because it scares people, but it's a relatively small part of the shiur. The other 95% of the shiur is me telling you about how this stuff applies to day-to-day life. Meaning, if somebody protects their brit, what's gonna happen? That means that they're going to wait for marriage. That means they're going to be more reserved. That means that their marriage is going to be more valuable to them. That means that their kids are going to grow up that way and not going to end up jumping off of a roof. Not going to end up having boyfriends and girlfriends before marriage, and so on and so forth. So, we discuss all of the other things because you see from there how keeping this mitzvah protects you from all of this other filth that you don't want to have.

2:06:04so, but it takes time, yeah, it takes time to see yourself. You have to try yourself; you have to do it to believe it. Meaning, everyone's about immediate gratification. It only works for iPhones, probably not, but, uh, immediate gratification effects that can kickstart the emunah (faith), the teshuvah (repentance). Immediate effect? I don't believe that there is. is because Hashem wants to always leave free choice as something that controls your reward or punishment. Because if there was even a single mitzvah, that you knew for sure, you do this, guaranteed to get a reward for it, then everyone would harp on that mitzvah and abandon everything else, making everything else less significant, making everything else as if it's not important. So for example, if giving tzedakah

2:07:08always worked, where you know that every time you gave tzedakah, Hashem paid your reward right away. Not just gave you a reward, but gave you a reward right away. Every time you gave $10, Hashem gave you $20. Guess what? You'd be standing next to the rabbi all day, "$20, oh I got $20, oh you have $40," all day you'd be next to the rabbi chasing him with money. So it removes your free choice; it becomes business. Feel good? I mean, feeling good is also something that requires effort. Because even learning Torah is not something that you automatically feel good about. Sometimes you feel good about it right away, but only for a short period of time, and then you get tested. The sages teach constantly about learning Torah with suffering. Now, that doesn't mean they don't feel good, but they feel good enough to suffer for this feel-good. So, for example, the Chazon Ish also himself said that since the age of 18, since the age of 18, he's been blessed with suffering every minute that he learned Torah.

2:08:17Every time he learned Torah, he suffered. Pain, agony, problems, and so on. All types of suffering. Suffering comes in all forms and shapes and sizes. I know a person, I think I've told you guys in the past. I know a person, God bless him. He's trying to do really good. He's trying to do whatever Hashem says. But this guy, he's been blessed with something very special. If he opens the sefer Torah, he starts learning Gemara, he starts learning serious Torah, all of a sudden he feels like he's on fire. Painful, not pleasure fire. Painful. He's in agony, agony, agony of pain. Hashem is giving him a very, very serious test. he's trying to do really good; he's trying to do whatever Hashem says. But this guy, he's been blessed with something very special. If he opens the Sefer Torah, he starts learning Gemara, he starts learning serious Torah, all of a sudden he feels like he's on fire. Painful, not pleasure fire—painful. He's in agony, agony, agony of pain. Hashem is giving him a very, very serious test. that every single minute that he studies is like the average person studying for 10 years. Because the average person doesn't have such a test. But Hashem knows that he can withstand the test, so He gives him this test. So many of the sages suffered enormously during their learning of Torah. There's a famous story that I just actually heard today from Rav Chaim.

2:09:24There was a guy that was having some type of medical procedure, and he was very scared. So he ran to Rav Elyashiv's house. Rav Elyashiv, alav haShalom, was one of the Gedolei HaDor who left us a little over a decade ago. And Rav Elyashiv, his whole life was learning Torah. He couldn't study at home, couldn't learn Torah at home because of all the stuff that was going on at home—the kids, the wife, everything else. So every day, he would wake up, go to the Beit Midrash, you know, pray, and he'd be at the same shtender all day, all night, just constantly, hours and hours and hours of time. No breaks, no snacks. He was studying to no end. Somebody left, somebody left the yeshiva one time, And he says he came back to the same Beit Midrash 60 years later, and Rav Elyashiv was still sitting in the same chair. He says, "60 years ago, I left that Beit Midrash. He used to go to the same Beit Midrash that Rav Elyashiv used to learn in. He says that's where he would sit. 60 years later, he went to America, made a bunch of money, did a bunch of business, had a family, this, that, the other thing. And then he decided, 'Let me take a trip to Israel and see my old Beit Midrash.'"

2:10:41He says the most amazing thing he saw in his life was that when he walked in, Rav Elyashiv was exactly in the same place, doing the same exact thing he was doing 60 years ago when he left. So Rav Elyashiv was known to be someone who was a matmid, very devoted to Torah in the highest level possible. And one time, a guy was very scared about a health issue. So he ran to Rav Elyashiv's house and started screaming, you know, banging on the door, "Rav, Kvod HaRav, Kvod HaRav, please help me." The Rebbetzin says, "I'm sorry, he's not here." "No, no, but I need help." "Okay, but he's not here." "Okay, but it's Pikuach Nefesh." She goes, "It's Pikuach Nefesh, not Pikuach Nefesh. Pikuach Nefesh means life risk. Whether it's life risk or it's not life risk, he's not here. I can't help you." She says, "Where is he?" "He's in the Beit Midrash, where he always is." So the guy ran to the Beit Midrash. Tries to open the door. It's locked. Locked. Looks in the window; he sees Rav Elyashiv; he's inside. He's learning, but he doesn't want to be disturbed. So he locked the door. He starts banging on the window, almost breaking it, and screaming, "Please, please help me!" Screaming, banging on the window, almost breaking it. And Rav Elyashiv does not move. Does not move, nothing.

2:12:09And he's banging; he doesn't even look at him. Eventually, the guy gives up and leaves. Sometime later that day, he comes back. Right at the time, Rav Elyashiv exits the building. He says, "Oh, Kavod HaRav, Kavod HaRav, please help me, help me. I have Pikuach Nefesh." He says, so Rav Elyashiv looks at him and goes, was it you? What, me? He goes, was it you that was making all that noise? He goes, yeah, yeah, yeah, it was me, it was me. You heard me, Kavod HaRav? He says, I've been suffering an enormous amount of pain all day because of you. All day I've been suffering in pain because of you. He goes, yeah, but Kavod HaRav, it was Pikuach Nefesh, I need help. He says, "What? And it's not pikuach nefesh to disturb me from learning Torah. It's not pikuach nefesh for me to leave my Torah, leave HaKadosh Baruch Hu, and go talk to you. It's not pikuach nefesh. It's not a life risk for me to leave Hashem, for me to leave the sefer to go talk to you. You don't have any mercy on me."

2:13:27He was so glued to Hashem, it was a life risk for him. It was a life risk for him to leave his sefer, to leave his Torah. That's how much he enjoyed it. That's how much he loved it. That's how much he was glued to it. So he says, I'm sorry to disturb you, I didn't know, but I'm really sick, he says. He smiled at him and said, "Be'ezrat Hashem, Hashem will give both of us less suffering, give refuah shlemah for both of us." He was a very cold person, but the guy said, he gave him a big, big hug, which was unlike Rav Elyashiv. And the point is, Rabotai, the Chachamim, they don't get to become Chachamim by simply reading a bunch of books. They don't become chachamim by giving a few lectures every week. You become a chacham by simply accepting, accepting with love all forms of suffering that are required in order for you to inherit Torah. Required. You're required to suffer in order to inherit Torah. Required. There's no way that you can get Torah without suffering.

2:14:46You can learn basic stuff. You can learn where we came from. You can learn the weekly parasha. You can learn basic stuff about how to be a Jew. But to become a talmid chacham, to become somebody that understands what HaKadosh Baruch Hu wants from you, to have a high level of emunah, to have a high level of bitachon, to understand your purpose in the world—impossible without suffering. Impossible. So, for all those people that are looking only for pleasure in this world and no suffering, that also means they're not looking for Torah either. But this is the part that people don't like to teach. Suffering is sacrifice. Sacrifice is suffering. Suffering is partially sacrifice. But suffering comes in all forms. Sometimes it's because you're learning for a long amount of time and it's difficult. Sometimes it's health problems. Sometimes it's financial problems. Sometimes it's marriage problems. Sometimes it's children problems. Sometimes it's every type of problem you can imagine. Chachamim, at some point or another, have had it. There's actually one Chacham, I forget his name. He's one of the giants in the previous generation. Hashem have mercy on me for forgetting his name. He had...

2:15:59a machala, a disease that is very rare. So rare that I think only two people in Eretz Yisrael had it, and the other one died. It's called Itabdut. This machala, this disease, is called suicide. But not suicide like the person commits suicide, but everyone that has it commits suicide. Everyone that gets this disease commits suicide. They can't live with it. That's how bad it is. And this Tzaddik, this giant, had it his whole life. Had it his whole life. And every picture that you see of him, he's smiling ear to ear. Smiling ear to ear, but he's in agonizing pain. Pain that the rest of us would be jumping out of windows from. Agonizing pain, but you're never going to see a picture of him not smiling. He knew this is from Hashem, and he found a way to live with it somehow. I have no idea how. This is a special level. I have no idea. This is like, might as well be an angel. Point is, is that the suffering is, you know, it's not something that you necessarily want when you want a regular life, if you will. You want to just live in this world. But if you want to inherit Torah, you want to become a Talmid Chacham,

2:17:19You have to know that suffering is a prerequisite. It's a payment, if you will. It's like you want to cross a bridge, there's a toll. You want to inherit Torah, suffering. The Gemara says it. The Gemara says that three things do not come to a person without suffering: Torah, meaning to know the real Torah at a high level, does not come without suffering; Eretz Yisrael, living in Eretz Yisrael does not come without suffering; and three, Olam HaBa. You cannot enter Olam HaBa without suffering. You have to suffer. Meaning, you have to make many, many sacrifices in order to go to Heaven. You think that this life is the place to be, to have a good time, to go on vacation every few months? That's not exactly the path to Heaven. The path to Heaven is to overcome the suffering, accept it with love, accept it with love and understand that it's for your benefit. Use it to get closer to Hashem. It requires a lot of work, but in the end, we succeed. Next question. Almost finished, yeah? Maybe one more question or so. Anything else? Are you guys finished? Are you guys depressed about the suffering? I'll give you this without going into detail because it's very, very long.

2:18:45I'll give you a proof, if you will, for what I just said. The Gemara in Masechet Makkot, page 24a, mentions a Tehillim, mentions a psalm that David HaMelech wrote. And he says, who may dwell on Your holy mountain? Meaning, Hashem, who will see Mashiach? Who will go to the next world and be next to You? Who? someone who walks in perfect innocence, meaning complete with Hashem, tamim with Hashem, and does what is right, he is righteous, speaks the truth from his heart, not one of these filthy liars that say one thing here, one thing there, based on the audience.

2:19:59who has no slander on his tongue, doesn't just decide to badmouth people for his own benefit, doesn't decide to simply say bad things for no reason whatsoever. Who has done his fellow no evil, doesn't hurt people. How does he hurt people? By his fellow meaning people that are keeping Torah and mitzvot, not the wicked people. For wicked people, it's a mitzvah to do evil to them. nor does he cast disgrace upon his close one, meaning he never disgraces Hashem. He never commits Chilul Hashem. He never does something where he makes Hashem look smaller, or Judaism look smaller, the Torah look smaller. He's never going to do anything that's going to disgrace Hashem's name. In whose eyes a contemptible person is repulsive, this person that wants to go to Olam HaBa, this person that wants... ...see Mashiach. If he sees a person that's going against Hashem, it's disgusting to him. He can't stay quiet; he has to say something. He has to fight it because someone that's against Hashem is repulsive to him, disgusting. It's like seeing vomit or a dead animal in the street. How dare you go against Hashem, you filthy, filthy thing...

2:21:21but who honors those who fear Hashem. But if he sees someone that has Yirat Shamayim, all the kavod in the world, "Kavod HaRav, how are you? How are you? Do you need something? Can I help you? Anything you need, no questions asked." You see somebody has Yirat Shamayim, to you it's like you saw Mashiach. Why? Yirat Shamayim. You have Yirat Shamayim, HaKadosh Baruch Hu created the world just for you. So imagine you meet the one person that Hashem created the whole world just for him, and you're actually in this world. You're alive because of him. Imagine such a thing. Who wouldn't be excited? Who wouldn't give this guy a ride? Who wouldn't give this guy anything he wants? Who can swear to his detriment without retracting? Even if he says something that hurts himself, but he knows that's the emet, no problem, he's not going to take it back. Listen, you know, I said in the lecture that Gehenom is forever. But I saw a lot of people got weaker, so no, no, it's not really forever, it's 12 months.

2:22:46No, why? Because he saw the donations go down. So now he wants donations to go back up. So he wants to be nice. Oh, you remember I said wigs are not allowed. But no, no, I found a leniency. I found a leniency. It's okay, it's okay. Never. Stays with the emet even if it hurts him. Stays with the emet even if it hurts him. Who does not lend money with interest. If you're in a cash advance business, if you're in a lending business, you charge people interest, guess what? You have no share in the World to Come. You have no portion. When Mashiach comes, you'll be the first one for him to destroy. you're thinking I'm talking about people. Yeah, yeah, but that means if he's lending to goyim, right, if he's lending to Jews with interest, yeah, that's not allowed. Why did I mention to you if I'm reading Tehillim?

2:23:57Rabbi Yochanan says, who is David HaMelech talking about here? Who is David HaMelech talking about lending with interest? Of course, we know if you lend with interest, you have no share in the world to come. Why is David HaMelech mentioning it? Rabbi Yochanan says he's talking about even lending with interest to goyim. Yeah, but wait a minute, hold on a second. Some say that to goyim, you're allowed to lend with interest. You're allowed to lend with interest. Rabbi Yochanan says, yes, you're allowed to lend them with interest, but only if you meet certain conditions. Condition number one, you are a talmid chacham. If you're a talmid chacham, you don't have time to be a manufacturer of stuff. You don't have time to produce things. You don't have time to pick up boxes. You don't have time to work. Why? Because you're learning Torah. Then you're allowed to make easy money. Go lend money with interest. No problem.

2:24:57But if you have the ability and the time to go work in companies, go work. Don't make money off of interest. Condition number two, you're only allowed to charge interest as much as you need to live. The second you have as much money as you need to live, let's say you need $4,000 a month, that's it. You're not allowed to lend any more money. You can just make just enough to live. Just enough to live. They say, wait a minute, so how come this interest is such a bad thing, even whether it's to Jews and to non-Jews? And there are several different answers. The Gemara says, if he starts lending money with interest to goyim, eventually he's going to want to lend money with interest to Jews. Two, if he lends money to goyim only, guess what? All of his customers, all of his friends are going to be goyim. So why is he going to learn Torah? He's going to learn Torah from goyim. He's going to learn the New Testament. He's not going to learn Torah because all of his friends and all of his customers are goyim. So he's going to learn something that's not Torah. So Chachamim come up with several different answers of why this is horrible. David HaMelech says, you want to see Mashiach? You cannot lend money with interest, my friend.

2:26:15And even if you do, you have to be so careful. There are several conditions. I'll bring you all those conditions when we do the full shiur about lending money. Then he says, and takes no bribe against the innocent. Meaning, a person cannot be bribed in any way, shape, or form. You cannot be bought. someone cannot just simply buy you and you're going to be on their side because you know this soothes you. You're going to go with whoever's right, and you're going to go against whoever's wrong. Even if that means that you're going to lose your job, even if that means that you're going to lose your house, even if that means you're going to lose everything physically, you're still not going to go against the person. Why? Because you're going to stay with the emet at all times. Many times, people judge in favor of the rich people. They judge in favor of the powerful people because it soothes their own interests. That's what being a politician is all about. But the original word for politician in Greek, I believe, means bloodsucker.

2:27:24Hence the reason why David HaMelech says if you're a bloodsucker and you take bribes, you're going to go with whoever suits you. You're going to be like Bibi Netanyahu. One day he's against the religious people; the next day he's for the religious people. One day he's against the Torah; the next day he's for the Torah. If you take bribes, whoever is going to give you votes, you have no share in the world to come. You're not going to see Mashiach, you're nothing. The doer of these shall not falter forever. Someone that fulfills all of what I just said, David HaMelech testifies it's in the Tanakh. This is not a suggestion; this is in the Tanakh. HaKadosh Baruch Hu says this is like I said it. David HaMelech says someone that fulfills all of this is never going to die, going to live for eternity. Their body, their physical body at some point ends over here, but their neshama, eternity. Eternity of Olam HaBa, eternity of Gan Eden, eternity of heaven, eternity of good, eternity of the greatest things that you cannot even imagine. Just simply follow this.

2:28:32So hence the reason why I started off the shiur with being Tamim and Tzadik. Why? Because that's the beginning of what he says. You cannot be Tamim Tzadik and at the same time lend money with interest. At the same time go against Hashem in other ways. It's the whole package. It's the whole package. You got to accept everything. Can accept everything. Now it's hard, because you have a Yetzer Hara, and I have a Yetzer Hara, and I'm sure my Yetzer Hara is probably bigger than your Yetzer Hara, and can probably beat up your Yetzer Hara. But we have to do it. We have to do it, Rabotai, we have to do it. That's the only way. That's the only way Mashiach is going to help us. That's the only way HaKadosh Baruch Hu is going to help us. That's the only way. It's the only way we are going to be able to help ourselves and live a good life for eternity. Only way. We have to take on everything. No questions asked. You fail? Pick up again. You fail? Pick up again. You messed up? Pick up again. Again, again, again. Teshuvah again, again, again.

2:29:35B'ezrat Hashem, we all get chizuk from what we said today, what we've said in the past, and B'ezrat Hashem, the things we'll say in the future to get closer to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, to serve HaKadosh Baruch Hu, and only HaKadosh Baruch Hu. B'ezrat Hashem, that will help not only us, but the rest of Klal Yisrael. Amen v'Amen. Baruch Adonai L'Olam. Amen v'Amen.