Tisha B'AV in the End of Times (Chazaq Tisha B'Av Event-2016)

0:01First, I'd like to thank Torah Anytime. Can you hear me? You can hear me? First, I'd like to thank Torah Anytime for, Baruch Hashem, helping publicize our Torah, also Chazaq for giving us an opportunity to spread the word and for everything they've done even before they knew I existed. First, I'd like to thank Torah Anytime. Can you hear me? You can hear me? First, I'd like to thank Torah Anytime for, Baruch Hashem, helping publicize our Torah, also Chazaq for giving us an opportunity to spread the word and for everything they've done even before they knew I existed.

1:21for Am Yisrael and also for the amazing hosts of Bet Gavriel that have hosted us for this extraordinary Shabbaton, this opportunity to connect to another part of Am Yisrael. Some of you have heard my personal story. I'm not here to tell you my personal story. If you want to watch it with details, you can go on TorahAnytime.com. or you can go on BeEzratHashem.org, which is our website, and you can watch it there and see the details. I'll give you a few footnotes of the story and perhaps why I think it's most appropriate to have somebody who knows what suffering is tell you a little bit about the Churban Beit HaMikdash. We just finished Megillat Eicha

2:21In a generation that was not very different than before I did Teshuvah, who actually thought that Eicha was a name. I thought it was the name of a prophet. I thought it was the name of a person. Most Jews today still don't know what it is. It actually means "how." How did we get into this type of trouble? How did we lose the most holy thing that ever existed? How did it happen? In Megillat Eicha chapter 3 verse 1, the prophet Jeremiah says, "I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of His wrath." He's saying to Klal Yisrael forever, I know what it looks like to suffer. I know what disaster looks like. If someone tells you a story

3:24It's a little different if they lived it. So, to give you a little bit of an understanding, most people in today's generation think that Gehinnom is something that's part of a fairy tale. It's something that's very far away, and in some cases, there are some false people who call themselves rabbis that actually say that it doesn't exist, even though it's all over the Torah, the Gemara, the Zohar, and many places. There's two versions of it. One is here, and one is in a faraway place that no one wants to believe in. Baruch Hashem, I had the zechut of seeing the one that is here. We moved to the United States when I was 10 years old. I became very successful at a very young age, making a million dollars by the time I was 23 years old. and is disconnected from Hashem Yitbarach as it could possibly be. I got to a point like Klal Yisrael that is not connected to Hashem and started making my own rules. Eventually, Hashem fulfilled His promise in the Torah, which is that you have to serve Him whether you like it or not. In the book of Yechezkel, Hashem is making a promise to each and every single one of us

4:50at the end of days, whether you like it or not, you will serve Him. Some of us have an opportunity to do it a little sooner. I didn't think so. I didn't think that I qualified. So I made my own rules, continued making millions, and eventually, on November 18, 2006, a simple surgery that was supposed to take an hour and a half, and maybe be uncomfortable for a couple of days, turned my life upside down. And for the next seven years, I suffered pain from the bottom of my neck to the bottom of my feet, 24 hours a day. To such an extent that at some point I became an experiment as part of a study of what happens to someone that no one has a clue why it happened. They started putting all types of chemicals in my body, ozone in my blood system, vitamins, steroids like the athletes take, not fun. Of course, at this point, all the money that I ever had becomes worthless. And all the friends that I used to have, because you tend to gain friends when you have money, suddenly became enemies. And little by little, vitamins, steroids like the athletes take—not fun. Of course, at this point, all the money that I ever had became worthless. And all the friends that I used to have, because you tend to gain friends when you have money, suddenly became enemies. And little by little,

6:16Hashem started showing me who runs the world. In the beginning, I thought that it's just a bad experience and it's going to be over. But slowly but surely, I saw that not only is it not a bad experience, but I got to a point where I thought it was never going to be over. Most of Am Yisrael in today's world is living in a situation with the same type of mentality I had at that very moment. is living in a situation with the same type of mentality I had at that very moment, where we think that we can just do whatever we want and one day we'll work it out with Hashem. One day we'll get up there and we'll figure out how we can work it out. We'll negotiate with Him. Baruch Hashem, some of us have an opportunity to negotiate with Him here. And I would recommend for all of us to start. Many people ask a common question: Where was God during the Holocaust? The most tragic event that happened in recent history, where we lost six million of our brothers and sisters in a horrendous way.

7:41With torture that you cannot even explain. A disaster that makes my little bit of suffering look like kindergarten. And they asked this question: Where was God? The answer is very simple. It's hard to hear, but it's simple. He did it. How do we know He did it? Because He gave us two parshiot. in the Torah telling us that this is exactly what He's going to do. It's the two parashiot that in our generation most people don't even like to read, let alone read out loud in the Beit Knesset. Parashat Bechukotai, Parashat Ki Tavo. So the next question is, why did He do it? For the very same reason that we just learned in Megillat Eicha, Am Yisrael sinned. Combination of modernizing the Torah, starting to get to a point where Reform Judaism and Conservative Judaism became acceptable, despite the fact that it’s 100% heresy, wanting to be more and more like the goyim. Instead of showing off our Torah knowledge and our closeness to Hashem, we show off our money.

9:11Assimilation to such an extent that in certain parts of Germany, there was over 80% assimilation. Jews marrying goyim and not thinking there's anything wrong with it. The sad news is that recent statistics came out and they say that we're actually in a worse situation today. A recent Ten couples are going to end their connection to Hashem and Judaism altogether forever. And the one is a maybe, because he may be a Chiloni anyway. He just happened to be lucky enough to. Why is all of this happening? Why are we repeating the same mistakes?

10:17In Megillat Eicha, Jeremiah gives us the news, and he tells us that Hashem is not kidding, that the punishment continues to get worse. But because most of us don't really understand the holy language, we read it and we make the sounds, but we don't really understand the meaning. This is why the rabbi yesterday, or today also, mentioned that anyone that hasn't read it and understands the words, they should read it in the language they speak, so they understand the disaster. In Parashat Bechukotai, Hashem gives us five levels of curses. Each one gets worse. He says, if you treat Me, you treat Me like a happenstance, like the disaster that's happening in your life is a coincidence. It's just bad luck. It's not Me pulling the strings. In addition to not doing teshuva, you're treating it like it's not a big deal. I'm going to give you an additional punishment.

11:31One punishment for not doing teshuva, and one punishment for treating it like a happenstance. And each... And unfortunately, he ended up being one of these people that still think Shabbat is optional. So he was at the Beit Knesset, and I asked him, you know, it says in the Torah... So much so that the Rambam says, a Jew that violates Shabbat is considered 100% an idol worshiper. Now in Hebrew it says, he's considered a goy. But that's not the English. Because a goy just means a nation. As a matter of fact, there are parts of the nations that are considered the righteous amongst the nations. The righteous goyim that keep the seven Noahide laws will have Olam HaBa. They have Gan Eden.

13:01So, a Jew that doesn't keep the mitzvot, he doesn't become one of them. A Jew that drives on Shabbat doesn't become one of those tzaddikim that's going to have Olam HaBa and is going to see Iyov. He's not going to be there. The Rambam explains, a Jew that drives on Shabbat, whether it's to Beit Knesset or to the mall, A Jew that cuts himself away from Judaism is considered an idol worshiper, which is the worst possible thing you could be considered as. Unfortunately, most of us don't know this. So Hashem said that one of the sins is Chilul Shabbat, but there's many others. There's wasting seed. There is Zera Levatala. Modesty or immodesty, there are many, many other things that Hashem told us to do and not to do. But every time we commit a sin, we'll get punished. However, if we treat it like it's not a big deal, not only do we commit the sin, but on top of it, we make it seem like it's not a big deal that we're sinning. He says that for that, there is a separate punishment. So in Parashat Bechukotai...

14:22He finished; there were the final levels of punishment, and he told us this: "You will eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters," meaning we will get to such a level of starvation. that we'll have to eat our children. Bar Minan. Now, most people who haven't read the Torah or history books think this is just Hashem trying to show emotions. He's trying to show us that we better listen to Him. You know, like the bully who pretends he's going to swing but isn't really planning on doing anything. But then we have Megillat Eicha, And Yirmiyahu, who was a firsthand witness, told us exactly what happened. And if you remember in chapter four, he told us that Am Yisrael's babies were dying from starvation at the bosom of their mothers, and then the merciful mothers would boil their children.

15:51and eat them. Hashem is telling you here, I didn't just write it. It happened. Now, how does this connect to the Holocaust and provide an answer as to why the Holocaust happened? Obviously, we already have an answer as to why it happened. But another reason that we need to know and understand is that Hashem makes drastic decisions, drastic moves. And even the Holocaust was one of the tools Hashem had to use in order to wake us up. that happened during the Beit HaMikdash HaRishon and the Beit HaMikdash HaSheni. It is a good time to mourn all the major losses that have happened to Am Yisrael during this time of Tisha B'Av. If you look at history, we have the spies who came back in the desert,

17:10With Lashon Hara against the land, Lashon Hara against Moshe Rabbeinu, and worse than all, Lashon Hara against Hashem Yitbarach Himself, saying He only took us out of Egypt because He hates us. Due to today's foolishness. And then we have Hashem tell... So, as Hashem would have it, the Churban Beit HaMikdash HaRishon happened on Tisha B'Av as well. The Spanish Inquisition, 1492, happened on Tisha B'Av. And from what I read recently, even World War II started on Tisha B'Av. If the first two were coincidence, you still can't explain the next five or ten events. Rabbi Meir Mazuz says that this is a time for us to mourn, mourn for Am Yisrael. Rabbeinu Yechezkel in his book, Kaf HaKela,

18:38He was talking about being in the Holocaust. And he wrote in his book, the worst part of it, the worst part of the Holocaust, that the parents will eat their children came true. He says, one of these days, these Nazis made the Jewish people work nonstop to such an extent. Let them stop without drinking, without eating, without even breathing like a normal person. Everyone came back to camp. And they saw that there's a Nazi soldier cooking in a giant pot. made the Jewish people work nonstop to such an extent, without drinking, without eating, without even breathing like a normal person. Everyone came back to camp, and they saw that there was a Nazi soldier cooking in a giant pot.

19:38...and everyone was so hungry and thirsty, they couldn't ask any questions. They thought to their own logic, which you cannot blame them for, maybe this is a reward for the slavery we went through. Maybe these Nazis actually have a heart. So they ran to the pot and just started grabbing whatever they could see, whatever meat they could see, and started eating. It was the first time they saw meat in years... Eventually, one of the Jews runs from the camp that wasn't part of them. He says, "No! These are your children. These are your brothers and sisters, Hashem yerachem. Imagine a mother that has to do such a thing." You should imagine, today at least. One of the reasons that Jeremiah says all of this happened is because we didn't have enough people telling the truth. We had the number one poison in today's generation already active nearly 2,000 years ago. It's called political correctness.

21:08It's called being nice to people because you don't want to hurt their feelings. The problem with political correctness is that it's pretty much knowing someone is going to die, but you don't want to tell them because you don't want to hurt their feelings. This may be a problem. If two people have an option, two people obviously have a disaster in their life, And the doctor knows that two people are going to die. And one he decides to tell, and the other guy, he doesn't say anything. Who's better off? The one who doesn't know. That's what it sounds like usually. That's what political correctness also sounds like. Why? The one who knows, he finds out he's going to die. Initially, he's going to be depressed. But after a week, two weeks,

22:10he's going to call his wife, his kids, his parents, his friends, his family, whoever he can. He's going to spend quality time with all those people and try to live the last year of his life happily, praying for salvation. The other guy that we all think, in our natural human logic, is better off for not knowing is What's he doing the next year? He goes to work. And he decides to work overtime because he wants to save up for a vacation for year number two that he's never going to see. And he wants to save in his IRA account. And he wants to save for all these wonderful things that he's never going to see. And he works overtime, so he says, listen, it's a sacrifice. I'm not gonna see my family practically this whole year, but next year I'm gonna see them. When he realizes the plan was not as he planned, unfortunately it's too late. And there's no one in the world he's gonna be more angry at than the doctor that told him the false news. The prophet Yirmiyahu told us that...

23:35Many of the prophets of his time did not want to rebuke the people. They also wanted to be politically correct. Why? Yirmiyahu says to Hashem, when Hashem picks him and chooses him to be a prophet, he says, which prophet told the nation the truth and they did not want to stone him? I'm just a young guy. I don't want to die. I don't want to tell these people that they're going to be punished. And Hashem says, "I picked you because you're young. You haven't been tainted yet. You don't even know what political correctness is yet." So, Yirmiyahu, on the first day that he went to Klal Yisrael and started rebuking them, in chapter 15, verse 19 of Yirmiyahu... Jeremiah curses the day he was born. Why? Because he went to the tribe of Ephraim and he told them, "Listen, I see that you guys are all wasting seed on purpose," a topic that our generation doesn't even know what it means. For anyone who wants to know, we have a three-hour shiur on TorahAnytime.com.

25:05It's unfortunately the longest shiur about the topic available on the internet in the English language. He sees the tribe of Ephraim wasting seed, b'mezid, on purpose. And he says to them, "You know that for this type of sin, the Gehinnom doesn't end." So what do they do? They don't like to hear the truth. They force him to waste seed. So, he curses the day he was born. So we lived in a generation where we fulfilled the prophecy of a nation full of people who didn't know what modesty was. So Jeremiah says to Hashem, "Look at the situation that I'm in."

26:06I have to go tell Am Yisrael the truth. I have to go tell them things they don't want to hear. It's like going to rebuke your mother about inappropriate behavior to such an extent that Jeremiah explains to her, he says, I'm going to reprove a woman, telling her that she's a sotah. She's a wayward woman, she's accused of cheating on her husband. And then I find out that the woman is my mother. So I wanted to come to Am Yisrael and give them good news, but instead I'm telling them that destruction is about to come. The word sotah... telling her that she's a sotah. She's a wayward woman, she's accused of cheating on her husband. And then I find out that the woman is my mother. So I wanted to come to Am Yisrael and give them good news, but instead I'm telling them that destruction is about to come. The word sotah has a very special meaning in our generation. Said, I never understood why women of our generation want to look like the sotah. The sotah is not exactly a compliment. The sotah is someone that's accused of cheating on her husband

27:36And they have to test her by drinking the bitter waters. But before she drinks the bitter waters, they put pressure on her and embarrass her. And the main event that happens before she drinks the waters, that's the final test, they take off her head covering because they said that even someone who cheats on her husband is still not bold enough to show her hair to the public. So the question is today, why do so many Jewish women today want to look like the Sotah and show their hair? It's not a compliment. Why is it that sometimes we have things that are plain and simple in the Torah, yet we decide to make our own rules like I used to? We have to take things into consideration because when the mother decides to show her hair to the public, or better yet, cover it with a wig and think that it's okay by all poskim, which is a problem of its own. But nonetheless, the next generation is usually worse than the previous. So in this generation,

29:03I don't think it fits, but so in this generation, our women today took the sota to the next level and decided, okay, so if we made a new rule over the last 100 years that you don't have to cover your hair with a scarf or a hat, Let's also stop covering our bodies too. And that's why every time you walk outside, whether it's December in New York or January or February or any of these months, it doesn't make a difference. Women have gotten to the point today where they think that the fewer clothes they wear, the better they look.

30:04we're so far from the foundation of the message from Hashem that we're doing everything the opposite. It's to make sure that we realize that what He wrote in the Torah is still very, very valid. In chapter one, verse four of the book of Eicha, it says, our maidens grieve and she's embittered. The Midrash here says that they took three boats.

31:07of young Jewish kids, full of virgins, in order to use them for their pleasure. But Klal Yisrael, the young kids at least, were very, very holy. And when the girls found out that this is what they were going to be used for, They decided to jump into the water and kill themselves. When the boys saw that the girls jumped into the water, they also jumped into the water and killed themselves.

32:08It's in Masechet Gittin, page 57b. The story you may not have heard is a story of Sarah Schenirer. Sarah Schenirer took over a Beit Yaakov, a girls' school, in the days of the Holocaust. And one day, the Nazis came to the Beit Yaakov, full of 93 young girls that have never been tainted by anything tameh, never been touched by anything that's not kosher. Holy kedoshim. And these resha'im, these Nazis, took these young girls and after torturing them for a couple of days, they put them into fancy rooms and Sarah Schenirer knew what was happening. She knew that right now they tried to break their spirit first, just like Pharaoh did to Am Yisrael. Hitler did the same thing. And after trying to break their spirits, they figured that, you know what? They already prepared poison, and she told the young girls,

33:37We have to be the am kadosh. We cannot let these goyim touch us. We cannot let anything impure taint our holiness. Because when you're a Jewish woman, you're considered a queen. You're not a regular person, whether you like it or not. You're not allowed to make your body public property, not for viewing and not for touching. So those 93 young girls drank the poison, and the only thing that was left was a letter from Sarah Schenirer telling the story of what they did and asking Am Yisrael to say Kaddish for them. 93 young girls that died for Kiddush Hashem, so the goyim wouldn't touch them. So can you explain to me why Am Yisrael right now is volunteering their bodies by showing them to the world, walking around half-naked, thinking it's okay to have a boyfriend,

35:00By living together like you're married, and it's sometimes even Hashem and Rachel living in the parents' house. The reason why is because we don't know these stories. In Masechet Ta'anit, Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus, one of the greatest sages that ever lived, One of the rabbis of Rabbi Akiva knew there was a decree from Shamayim. Am Yisrael had sinned. There was a decree from Shamayim that something had to be done. He told Am Yisrael that it was time to pray. But when everyone left the Beit Knesset, he saw them just going back about their business. The fast was over.

36:01and everyone was going back, playing with their iPhones, checking the baseball game, seeing how much money they made on Sunday. No big deal. Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus was a little different than us. Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus said that if all of the water in the ocean was ink, and all of the trees were... And what he knew was not even 1% of the Torah that was available out there. So when Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus saw Am Yisrael treating a decree from Shamayim like it's not a big deal, he asked the Kehilah, did you finish digging your own graves for the upcoming death that's coming? The entire Kehilah started crying hysterically, no.

37:10And then he told them, now the gezeirah is over. Now the decree is over. Now you did teshuvah. During this extraordinary day, you have to find a way to cry. If it's not for what's happened in the past, at least you should cry for what. Think that we're in an okay situation. Am Yisrael is in a relatively good financial situation. In the land of Israel, Israel is considered the leader. Nation in the world only challenged by Silicon Valley. We constantly talk about the power of the IDF and all the fancy missiles they have. We forgot the fact that during the Churban of Beit HaMikdash, we had better missiles. We had better weapons. We were much, much stronger relative to the time. But none of it helped us.

38:41So, we constantly compliment Eretz Yisrael for Tzahal, for the IDF, and Mossad, and all these really smart people. Okay. In America, Jews control a large part of the economy. Most people think that this is a good thing. But according to Yirmiyahu, as we learned from Yaakov Avinu, it's a bigger test to be rich than to be poor. I'm not saying that everyone should go burn their money tomorrow and become poor.

39:44but I'm just trying to give you a perspective of where we stand and what perspective we have to have. Having a diagnosis, maybe, just maybe, we can find a cure. When I had my sickness, the unexplained sickness, I explained to everyone that worse than all the pain, worse than all the money loss, millions of dollars running out the door, friends becoming enemies, having pain as if a large knife is being stabbed into my body, but it's also connected to the wall outlet at the same time. having infection after infection in different parts of my life. That wasn't the worst part. Yes, living in pain is terrible. Losing money is not fun.

41:12When there was no more, they went away. In Hebrew, they say, "it's better to have a dog as a friend than a friend that's a dog." So now... millions of dollars being spent on doctor appointments and over 50 doctors. No one could give me a diagnosis. I didn't care about a cure; I only wanted the diagnosis. Not having a diagnosis eliminated my hope. And it's a few sicknesses. One is political correctness that we talked about. It's a disease that's swarming the land. The other one is ignorance. If you don't think that anything that Hashem has said is serious, by being politically correct, you're not going to say anything that's the truth.

42:39So someone who's listening once a week is not really going to want to hear it again. It's like, okay, so I went to Shabbat. I heard on Seudah Shlishit the halachot of etrogim. In the middle of the year, I went on Shabbat for Seudah Shlishit. They told me a nice story of why it's good to give tzedakah. Okay, it's not a bad thing. It's just not gonna make anyone do teshuva. We have a diagnosis. The question is, can we take the cure? The Admor Mitzantz was told that as part of being in the concentration camp, he had to shave his beard.

43:42with the razor. And he says, no. They tortured him, they beat him up. He refused to let up. He refused to let them cut his beard with a razor. Eventually, they went to the general and they said, what should we do with this crazy guy? He says, no, no, you should listen to him. Don't cut it with the razor. Just take a knife and peel his cheeks off. And that's what he let them do. He preferred that they peel his cheeks off rather than shave his face with a razor, when many of us who have no idea what... You're allowed to shave; you're not obligated to have a beard in Judaism, although it's considered chesed. You're not obligated to have a beard. But you're also not allowed to shave with a razor. And the Admo"r mi-Tzanz, whose son today is the Admo"r in Netanya, in Israel, preferred that they cut his cheeks off rather than make a sin against Hashem, even though technically he was an anus, he didn't really have to do this.

45:08But just to show you that when you're connected to Hashem, glued to Hashem, the thought of sinning is not a possibility. Before this event happened, Klal Yisrael was in Germany. Germany was the America of its day. We were rich, we were powerful, We're in politics, not different at all from today.

46:25tells a story of the Holocaust. And he says that when I was in line at the concentration camps, I saw one Jew smashing his head against the wall over and over and over again. And I asked him, why are you doing this? And he refused to respond. He just kept smashing his head. blood coming out. Eventually, I pulled him and stopped him, and I said, why are you doing this? He says, before I came here, I was a very big businessman. I decided to marry a non-Jew despite my parents begging me not to. After the Nazis took control

47:26They started looking for us in every house. And one day, they came to my house, and the one that showed them where it was, was my wife. So you see the one that's pointing at us and yelling, "Keep going, keep going"? That's her. So the same head that went against my parents... because I thought that my logic was better. The same head that went against my forefathers because I thought that I was wiser. The same head that went against Hashem because I thought that I created myself somehow. I'm smashing that same head because that's the head that got me here.

48:55Now that we know that we have a serious problem and that Hashem made many, many other events that we can't go over into each one of them because I'm assuming at some point you guys want to sleep, we see the gravity of our situation. Now that we know that we have a large portion of Am Yisrael that's in trouble because they have no idea that they have a disease. When you don't know that you're sick, you're not going to look for the cure. Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, who preceded the Gemara, who wrote the Mishnah, put it together. He said in Masechet Shabbat, page 54, if someone sees his friend sinning and doesn't say anything, He takes on the sin himself. So someone went to a lecture, started keeping Shabbat. They arrive at Olam HaBa, happy. I started keeping Shabbat 50 years ago. Baruch Hashem. They show up to the Beit Din Shel Ma'alah, very proud. And the Beit Din Shel Ma'alah says, oh, you're the Mechalel Shabbat we've been waiting for.

50:18No, no, no. It's me. No, no. I went to Rabbi Mizrachi's lecture. I started keeping Shabbat. What are you talking about? He's like, no, no, no. You're the one. Let me see. They look at the picture. Look at him. Yep. Same guy. He says, how? Maybe there's a mistake. He says, no, no mistake. You remember your roommate? You remember your brother? You remember your sister? You remember your colleague at work? Why didn't you tell them about Shabbat? The fact that you didn't tell them, and you knew that by violating Shabbat they're cutting themselves out of the nation of Israel and putting themselves on a first-class ticket to eternal suffering. You knew this, and you didn't say anything? How do you expect to go to Gan Eden with blood on your hands?

51:20The same Gemara says if someone has influence over an entire city but wants to be politically correct because otherwise, he won't get donations, he wants to be politically correct because he wants everyone to like him on YouTube. He wants to get a million views. He wants to be popular on the internet so they can invite him to congressional meetings in the White House. We have people like this, unfortunately. One of them even wrote a stupid book called "The Kosher Jesus." He calls himself an Orthodox rabbi. Chilul Hashem, like you wouldn't know. And he's invited to the White House regularly because he's politically correct. So politically correct, idol worship became legal.

52:20So you want to be politically correct and you actually have the ability to go to the White House and influence the world. Am Yisrael is supposed to be a light to the nations. Am Yisrael is the most important nation in the world. You're supposed to wake up your own nation because Hashem gave you this power of speech, this power of popularity. And you're using it to make money with books? You're taking on all of their sins. And if you're a Gadol HaDor, where you could influence the entire world, and you don't rebuke them, the same Gemara says you take on all of their sins. So being popular has a cost. But this does not eliminate our own personal responsibility. As I'm sure you've heard throughout your entire life, and I'm sure several times over the last few days, they say that the Churban Beit HaMikdash HaSheni happened because of Sinat Chinam, baseless hatred. Now, most people are like I used to be,

53:40And they think that it's just because the Ashkenazi hates the Sephardi, the Sephardi hates the Ashkenazi, the Yemenite hates both of them, the Bukharian doesn't get along with some and likes the others, everyone thinks their food is the best, the tefillah of this one is better, the tefillah of that one is not good. They think that's the sinat chinam we're talking about. I'm here to tell you that's only 1%. one percent. What's the 99 percent? About 200 years ago, a tzaddik lived his life in complete mesirut nefesh, trying to help Am Yisrael. There was not a day that the people did not go against him, calling him names, beating him up, anything and everything you can do, even trying to ruin his reputation. calling him names, beating him up, anything and everything you can do, even trying to ruin his reputation. But he continued sacrificing himself, looking for any Jew he could find so he could help them by showing them their way home, showing them the way back to Hashem.

55:02Rabbi Yonatan Eibeshitz, he says the number one sinat chinam we have for over 2,000 years and we're not even close to fixing it. He says when one Jew sees another sinning and he says nothing, that's sinat chinam. Because the one that learned some Torah and yeshiva The one that went to kollel. The one that knows what a halacha is. Even the one that knows what Hashem is. He already knows more than most people. And he also knows a little bit about the consequences of not following your Creator. And as the Rav said earlier today, your Boss. So, Rabbi Yonatan says, if you know the consequence and you don't tell somebody something, there's no one more evil than you. What is it like? If you saw a train going really fast on a track and your friend, your brother, your sister, your colleague, your neighbor, a human being, anyone, was standing on the tracks

56:29Would you tell them to move? Or would you just let them get run over? When you don't tell them that violating Shabbat is worse than the train, when you don't tell a woman that not dressing modestly is worse than the train, when you don't tell people that eating non-kosher pizza the dominoes and all types of non-kosher places is worse than a train. You just keep it to yourself. "I don't want to offend them. It's not my business." That's sinat chinam. That's sinat chinam. So now that we have a little bit of a taste of how Hashem repeats Himself. He's repeated Himself in the Torah several times. about both the reward and the punishment. If it wasn't enough to hear it from Parashat Bechukotai from Hashem Himself, we heard more details from Moshe Rabbeinu in Sefer Devarim and Parashat Ki Tavo. The punishments have more details. And if we didn't believe it, He made the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash happen. In Beit HaMikdash HaRishon that we lost,

57:56all types of sex crimes. And most people think that it's like we just worship idols. We don't have that problem anymore. We're okay. We passed this test. Unfortunately, If the Beit HaMikdash HaRishon was still here, as the Rav said earlier today, it would actually be destroyed instantly. And the reason why is because we're still committing the same sins. The sin of Avodah Zarah in those days was idols. But that wasn't it only. In our generation, it mutated. It's called money. If you notice, the dollar bill has a statement on it. It says, "In God we trust." A lot of people take it literally, and they think the dollar is God. This is the only way they can justify working 18 hours a day, barely seeing the family, barely seeing what a Sefer Torah looks like, barely connecting to the same One that's given them parnassah.

59:25Why? Because they figured that by working for money, they're connecting to him. Just the wrong him. Unfortunately, in our generation, it's still happening. Not that we're murderers of people, but many of the younger generation, including young yeshiva kids, that don't even know the significance of the sin, destroy souls every single day. It's called wasting seed. Scientists have estimated that an average person that ejaculates has 300 million seeds come out. that don't even know the significance of the sin, destroy souls every single day. It's called wasting seed. Scientists have estimated that an average person who ejaculates releases 300 million seeds. This means it's 300 million opportunities for a soul. 300 million opportunities lost because you wanted 30 seconds of pleasure. There's a lot more details to this, but we had a shiur for about three hours, another one for one hour, detailing how someone who wastes seed is building themselves a home in both this world and the next. Most people just thought it was the next; I'm telling you it's here also. Scientifically, there's a book written about 100 years ago, 180 years ago, detailing how it destroys the body. Bones become weaker, hair being lost.

1:00:48detailing how someone who wastes seed is building themselves a home in both this world and the next. Most people just thought it was the next; I'm telling you it's here also. Scientifically, there's a book written about 100 years ago, 180 years ago, detailing how it destroys the body. Bones become weaker, hair being lost. starts to grow in different places that it's not supposed to grow. You start losing your vision. You stop thinking straight. You start doing all types of things that we think is just, we call it ADD in our generation. It's not ADD. As far as the next world, without elaborating too much, because there's a whole shiur about it. Cancel out any good plans.

1:01:50Now, the problem is not the kids. The problem is that we don't have enough education about this. When someone who just did teshuva a few years ago is the only one that did a shiur about it, other than Rav Mizrachi, of course, and Rav Elchananov, it should tell you what kind of situation we're facing. When a yeshiva kid doesn't know that wasting seed is one of the worst possible sins he can commit because he thinks he's learning Torah, so it's all good. then what do you think the Hiloni thinks? What do you think the secular kid who doesn't even know what Torah is? We have to start changing our education and start teaching our kids the truth. We also have to start teaching ourselves the truth. Because that's our only way. So now that we have a diagnosis, we see that Hashem is repeating Himself.

1:02:52showing us that what He wrote in the Torah as promises, even when they were not very good promises, even when they're not favorable promises, even though we don't like to hear them. He says, "When you go against Me, I'll have to fulfill it, because when I wrote the Torah 974 generations before I created the world, I had to sign it." And my signature is Emet. Emet means truth. Emet means that it cannot change. And because I know that I love you so much, my children, I know that if I didn't sign it, I would change it for you. I would say, you know, Moshe Rabbeinu, Tzaddik, he has Gan Eden. Shmuley, he didn't keep Shabbat. he hung out with his friend Freddy. He didn't eat kosher, only at home at his parents' house. He wanted to go to the bar that made drinks look like fun, even though they didn't use kosher ingredients and it had all types of immodesty in the place. But he wanted to have fun. But he was a very funny guy. So he arrives at my office in Shamayim. I say, "Oh, you know,

1:04:21You're such a funny guy, I'm going to put you in a sin-free Gan Eden because I don't want to punish you, you're my son. But Hashem says, no, I can't do that. I want to do it, but I can't. Because then Moshe Rabbeinu is going to say, well, you signed it, I meant it. You signed it, the Torah doesn't change. The Torah, you said, there's a din, there's a dayan, there's a punishment, and there's a reward. It's one of the 13 principles of faith. If you do not believe in punishment and reward, there's this effect of how Jewish you really are. If you were in the process of converting, they would not convert you. So Hashem says, "I had to sign it because I know that I would want to change it, but I can't. Because once I change it, then it's no longer emet. It's no longer relevant." then Sodom and Gomorrah become normal. So Hashem did us a favor by giving us a little bit of instructions. What happens if we do good? What happens if we do bad? If you read the instructions, they're pretty simple to follow. Your reward

1:05:48It's for netzach netzachim. It's eternity. And no good in the world could ever even explain or compare to one second of good in the next world. This is part of the reason why we don't have many details about the good in the next world because our human minds cannot understand it. Bad we understand. Suffering we understand. So Hashem gave us more details about the suffering because we understand it. In the Gemara, it says that Gehenom has no size. Gan Eden has a size. They give you the exact measurements of Gan Eden. But Gehenom, they say, has no size. It keeps growing. put the two and two together, he realized that it has more attendees. It's good to know about this, because that's how you know how to avoid it. Chazal says that without Yirat Shamayim you cannot connect to Hashem. Most people have this theory that you're supposed to love Hashem.

1:07:16But Chazal say that a connection with Hashem Yitbarach that's purely based on fear, purely based on Yirat Shamayim, is an incomplete connection. It's a connection, but it's not complete. It's not perfect. A connection just based out of love, Chazal say there's no connection at all. It's impossible. It's impossible to love Hashem only. Why? As we learned from Sefer Iyov, Gemara Masechet Sotah says there's a machloket whether Iyov served Hashem purely out of love or purely out of fear. One thing that everyone agrees with is that even if it was only fear, it was the highest level of fear. And Chazal tells us that from here we learn that the highest level of fear of Hashem is just the beginning of loving Him. So anyone

1:08:50Anyone want to base their relationship with Hashem fully on love? But, little footnote, you have to fear Him first at the highest possible level that will challenge Iyov. By the way, Iyov has a sefer in the Tanach. He's one of the 24 books. I'm not in there. I don't think anyone here is either. So to say that we can get to the level of Iyov, It's a little difficult to say. Yes, you can get to a love of Hashem, but pure love? Very, very high level. I don't think it belongs in our generation, at least not for regular people. Let's try fearing Him first. The same sages that give us these very, very important instructions on how we need to fear Hashem, When Shlomo HaMelech said that the beginning of wisdom is fearing Hashem, it means that if you even want to think that you're wise, you could only have one sign. If you build a building, it doesn't mean you're wise. It just means you know how to build a building. If you're a good diamond cutter, okay, you have a skill set. But wisdom, the beginning of wisdom, is fear of the Almighty. Shlomo HaMelech, the smartest man that ever lived, said this.

1:10:21means that if you even want to think about calling yourself wise, first you have to check if you have any yirat shamayim. If you have no yirat shamayim, you're not very different than the animal, Shlomo HaMelech says. Even the animal knows who's God. So these very same sages, they also told us Aside from this instruction set, they were kind enough to give us a little bit of insight about the end of days. As you can find it in the book of Jeremiah, there are some prophecies, the book of Ezekiel, Zechariah, or you could just go to Gemara Masechet Sotah, page 49. The last page of the Gemara. It gives you all of the details of what's going to happen at the end of times. And it says all types of things that we will do right before the Mashiach will come. Once you start reading it, everything becomes familiar. It looks like you're reading the newspaper because everything that they wrote is very much what we have today.

1:11:53So this very same Chazal that's already told us what the signs are, we look at the signs, and we pretty much have every single sign that Mashiach is going to come, except one. We have the Red Cow, we have Pnei HaDor K'Pnei HaKelev, both a insinuation that the generation is going to be full of chutzpanim, full of rude people that have no shame, similar to a dog, which touches itself whenever it wants. But also, scientifically, there are actually pictures; if you look at dog owners and their dogs, they tend to look alike. No, it's not a joke, it's b'emet, it's funny, but it's really serious. I have a picture. And you continue to see more and more of the prophecies they had in our grandparents' and great-grandparents' generation. The mother-in-law would be like a second mother. Chazal says that in the end of days, the mother-in-law will become an enemy, become a difficulty, will create Shalom Bayit issues, will break up marriages.

1:13:21We'll break up zivugim. No, no, he's not good enough for my daughter. No, no, she's not good enough for my son. You ever notice no one's ever good enough for anyone? It's also written in the Gemara and many other things. We made a shiur in New York a few months ago, also on TorahAnytime.com. It goes over this page. But one thing that the Gemara says that I want to finish with: it says that there are only two things that are going to save us at the time of Mashiach. Torah and Gemilut Chasadim. Torah is obvious. Start learning it, and then start following. It says keep Shabbat. That means every Shabbat, not three times a month. It says keep kosher. That's all the time, not just at home. It says modesty. That means even for men. So stop wearing skinny jeans. I don't have the picture with me.

1:14:45But skinny jeans were always something I detested. But I never really knew why. And then I saw, when I was in Israel doing a lecture tour over there, I saw a yeshiva kid running in front of me with skinny jeans and tzitzit hanging out. He's running, he's running. I've seen these pants before. And then it clicked. Where did I see those pants? The pants that are wide on top and skinny on the bottom. Can anyone guess? Nazi Germany. It's the exact pants that the Nazis used to wear. I actually made a picture with one of the helpers. Putting skinny jeans next to Nazi pants. No words. Because the picture can speak a million words. And I had a lecture in Israel, and I asked them. It was Yom HaShoah, and I asked them all, you're all very sorry for the Holocaust, huh? Everybody says yes. Yes.

1:16:07You all know somebody that suffered in the Holocaust, huh? Everybody says yes. Somebody knew somebody. You all hate the Nazis, right? Everyone says yes. So why do you keep dressing like them? If it was just someone that's completely far from Hashem, lives in an Arab village or in the middle of a jungle, I can understand. He has no idea what reality is. The problem is that this disgusting style has started to infest our religious communities. We have yeshiva kids wearing skinny pants because they want to be fashionable. So aside from not being modest, it's also levush goyim. or in the middle of a jungle, I can understand. He has no idea what reality is. The problem is that this disgusting style has started to infest our religious communities. We have yeshiva kids wearing skinny pants because they want to be fashionable. So aside from not being modest, it's also levush goyim. We have a shiur about that too. So Hashem is telling us that you have to start complying with the Torah. That's 50% of the deal. Modesty for men, of course, modesty for women. Women have to stop wanting to look like sotah and look more like Sarah Imeinu.

1:17:33Tzaddeiket, people have to start learning how to become human beings, become a light to the nations, work on their Middot, connect to Hashem, build your Emunah, that's Torah. Instructions are easy, maybe a little difficult to follow in the beginning, but over time you get used to it and actually start liking it. The second part is the part we're all confused about: Gemilut Chassadim. Most people think that Chesed, which is being referenced by Gemilut Chassadim, is like giving someone a challah bread before Shabbat or giving them a ride to work. Although yes, that is Chesed. Ashrecha v’ashrecha chelkecha. May he be rewarded in this world and the next for giving him a challah or giving him some tzedakah or giving him a ride to the shul or somewhere else. Good job. I hope you don't really believe that that's what's going to save you in the days of Mashiach. It's not that easy. Chazal says that the highest level of gemilut chassadim that one person can do for another

1:18:57is getting them close to Hashem. Because any other chesed that you do for him, any other kindness that you do for him, you can buy him bread every week for his whole life, you could take him to work for 50 years straight, you could donate to his cause, you could smile every time you see him. If he's not connecting to Hashem, none of it's gonna help him in eternity. he's still gonna get hit by the train. So, connecting him to Hashem is the most important kindness that we have in this world, especially in this generation. Not only is it something that's going to save us in the days of Mashiach, but it's also something that we can get rewarded for in this world and the next. In the book of Jeremiah, the Prophet tells us, first, Jeremiah tells us, Hashem says, if you do teshuva, you'll stand next to me. Meaning I'll always accept your teshuva. You won't be a second-rate citizen.

1:20:27I'll accept your teshuva; you'll stand next to me like you were a tzaddik your whole life. But it has to be genuine teshuva. However, if you make someone else do teshuva, you will be like my mouth. If you make somebody else do teshuva, you'll be like my mouth. And Chazal asked, what does it mean to be like Hashem's mouth? and Hashem answers them and He says, "I created the heaven and the earth and everything in between, and I can bring back the dead. You'll be able to do the same. Meaning, I'm able to change nature because I'm above nature, and your prayers will get first-class treatment. Your prayers will be answered." You have a completely different account with me. Why? Because if you take enough time to take care of my children and bring them back home, you're special. You're not like everybody else. So, on one end, we know that it's a responsibility for us to do it, to be saved from the days of Mashiach that are coming very soon. On the other end,

1:21:55We see the benefit because there's not one person on earth who doesn't want their blessings to come true. But the last piece of the puzzle is, how do you do it? You have to be able to do Kiruv on a regular basis, not just once in a while, in order for this to really come true. You have to support causes that genuinely care about Am Yisrael getting back to Hashem. Your donations to Chanukah parties are not it. Although it's nice and you should donate to Chanukah parties because everyone likes to have fun once a year on Chanukah and Purim, it's not going to save you at the times of Mashiach. What's going to save you at the time of Mashiach is getting a Jew to realize who is God. So you have organizations like TorahAnytime that's complete mesirut nefesh to advertise Torah every day, putting people like me on, and Rav Mizrachi and many other great rabbis that tell the truth. You have organizations like Chazaq. You have shuls that allow the truth and welcome the truth to such an extent that they promote it, like Beit Gavriel.

1:23:19You have, of course, my organization, Be'ezrat Hashem.org, where we print out CDs and books and send them to different people all over the world to help them get back to Hashem. And of course, you have the rabbi that probably influenced every single one that's in this room, Rabbi Mizrachi, who's been influencing the nation for the last 22 years. So your choices are pretty simple. If you know how to speak, start talking. to your neighbor, to your friend, to your mom, to your dad, to your colleague. If you don't know how to speak, bring someone to speak. Arrange a lecture. It's not that hard anymore. Arrange a lecture, just like you arrange a birthday party, and you get 50 of your friends to show up. Okay, get 50 people to show up to a beit knesset or a house, and listen to the Torah. Bring a real rabbi. Don't bring a politically correct person. If you can't arrange a lecture because you're too busy with material and life in general, Hashem made it even easier for you. It's called a CD. It costs one dollar. Sponsor as many as you want.

1:24:46We have Mizrachi CDs, my CDs. They're full of Torah. Each one of them has 30 hours of Torah lectures similar to this. And we give them to people for free to get them to do teshuva. And it's extraordinary. You want to give one CD, five CDs, 5,000 CDs, it doesn't make a difference. Do something. If you don't have any money... Hashem felt bad for you because He's the one that actually didn't give you the money. He said, okay, you still have the ability to do kiruv. Yeah, you can't arrange lectures, and I didn't give you the ability to speak, and you don't have any money. But you spend half your day on the internet anyway, right? Okay, so copy and paste. Go to a link of a good Torah lecture. Press copy. Then press paste. And send it to as many people as possible. It's free. I'll finish off with one thing. I have a student in Bulgaria. He's in the process of converting. Where he lives, there's not a site that is relevant to Judaism. Nothing. One day he realized that Shabbat is very important to Hashem, and he decided to quit his job.

1:26:10and apps and internet, it's not a glorious job. We're not here to have a glorious job, guys. So he became a shepherd so he could keep Shabbat. And he could study Shulchan Aruch and all types of halachot to get ready for his conversion. In the process, he asked me, what else can I do for Am Yisrael? What else can I do for Hashem? ...and apps and internet, it's not a glorious job. We're not here to have a glorious job, guys. So he became a shepherd so he could keep Shabbat. And he could study Shulchan Aruch and all types of halachot to get ready for his conversion. In the process, he asked me, "What else can I do for Am Yisrael? What else can I do for Hashem?"... I told him the answer to both is the same. Get people back to Hashem. Show them Torah. And that's what he's been doing for the last several months. But that's not the story. The story is that earlier this week, or last week now, he had his brit milah. Now, when you're eight days old,

1:27:39And you have to believe me, it's not exactly a big deal. I don't think anyone remembers it. You remember it? Shreiyach. I don't remember it, Baruch Hashem. Most people don't remember it. It's not to be funny, it's true. I don't want to embarrass anyone. Sure, I don't remember it. Most people don't remember it, don't have that kind of memory. I have a decent memory. I remember almost everything since I was the age of three. But eight days old, I don't remember. I'm glad I don't remember it. When you're a grown man, though, and you have a Brit Milah, it's tough to forget. It's a tough experience. So the day that he had his Brit Milah, I was expecting him to obviously be in pain, lying down, relaxing,

1:28:40letting time pass so the pain goes away. Having a little bit of familiarity with pain for seven years, I thought that that would be an understatement. I usually thought that he would probably just stay in the hospital until the pain goes away. I would be. But instead, I see him back on the internet posting Torah lessons, my Torah lessons, Rabbi Mizrachi's Torah lessons, and other great rabbis showing the truth. And I couldn't help myself and I asked them, Emmanuel, what are you doing? Did they not do the Brit Milah? He says, no, no, no, I finished. I said, are you in pain? And he says, yes. So why don't you go lie down? He says, what would Am Yisrael do without Torah? If I don't post the shiurim, who's going to post the shiurim instead of me? Who's going to get them back to Hashem? So, b'ezrat Hashem, when the Mashiach comes, he's going to ask each and every one of us, what did you do for Hashem? If you answer, "I learned Torah," Mashiach is going to tell you, you did that for you.

1:30:06That was your ticket in. Say, "I did mitzvot." And say, "Yes, that was also for you. That was exercising the ticket. What did you do for Hashem?" It's going to be a hard question. But when he asks Emmanuel, "What did you do for Hashem?" Emmanuel can answer, "You know the day that I had a Brit Milah, I posted some Torah lectures online and about 1,500 people did Teshuvah over time because of them. And no one even knew it was me posting it. That's what I did for Hashem. What are you going to say? What excuse are you going to use? If someone that is not even obligated to do Kiruv, ...is doing kiruv on the toughest day of his life. We have to understand. It's time to take this seriously. Be'ezrat Hashem, this influences and touches your hearts to start taking five minutes a day doing kiruv in some way. Again, your choices are endless—money, speech, time, contribution in some way or another. Save the nation so we don't have to chas v'shalom repeat this holiday...

1:31:33Again next year. Baruch Adonai le'olam. Amen ve'Amen.