Tools Needed For Emunah | Torat HaChassidut (20)

0:03We are back, Baruch Hashem, after the surgery. B'ezrat Hashem, HaKadosh Baruch Hu helped us and continues to help us. B'ezrat Hashem, He will give all of us Refuah Shelema, Refuat Hanefesh, Refuat Haguf. Tonight's shiur is going to be for the Refuah Shelema and Hatzlacha Rabah for Rabbi Efraim Ben Shulamit, Rabbanit Sarah Bat Anat, Rabbanit Levana Bat Sarah. Sarah bat Levana, Ovadia ben Levana, Yosef ben Levana, Avi Mori Davi ben Esriah, Imi Morati Doris bat Jorah. And with God's help, may He grant all of us a Refuah Shelema, a Refuah HaNefesh, and a Refuah HaGuf. We should thank Hashem for giving us the energy, the ability, and the strength to come back and learn again with you. Baruch Hashem, Baruch Hashem. without, I don't know how much we have. So, we're gonna get right to it. Anyone that wants to donate can go to our website at beezrat Hashem.org. There's supposed to be a video coming out either today or tomorrow of some of the...

1:24Amazing things that we did over the last couple of days with your donations for those fortunate among you who donated to the Purim campaign. You could literally see your merits go up in front of your eyes. I think we're the only organization that continuously does it, where you see that the donations not only were a mitzvah for anyone to donate, but you see there's 500 people. You could literally see your merits go up in front of your eyes. I think we're the only organization that continuously does it, where you see that the donations not only were a mitzvah for anyone to donate, but you see there are 500 people learning Torah during this time. ...of him and bachurim that learned Torah for your merits during Purim in several locations in Tveria. We also had something in Netanya; I just don't have the pictures yet, but with 500 learning Torah during this time to... uh help all of those that supported uh be'ezrat Hashem and donated for them, and each one of them got money to buy food for their families during Purim. uh it's when you see our own dear Rosh Kollel, Rav Shervit, Rav Shlomo, giving each one of them a chizuk shiur in each place that we did it. And uh it's truly amazing uh how much the organization does, whether it's

2:45in the U.S. or in America, in Israel or its other places, Baruch Hashem, HaKadosh Baruch Hu gave us the ability to reach the four corners of the world and, Baruch Hashem, this is just the beginning. There's, Baruch Hashem, a lot more that we want to do, and, Baruch Hashem, we'll have the ability to do it. So anyone that wants to continuously support us, you could donate on the website. You could also donate cryptocurrency. You could donate, you know, different currencies. You could donate checks. There are all types of ways to donate and be generous to help Am Yisrael get closer to HaKadosh Baruch Hu and get the whole world to recognize the hand of the Creator. Now, one of the things that motivated me to overcome any obstacle that we had today to come back a little earlier than I anticipated and give this shiur is because I see that in the last few weeks we haven't been able to learn together with you.

3:47The amount of difficulties that people have been sending, I haven't been able to answer everybody's questions and issues, unfortunately. But I see that the amount of issues that people are having just continues to come in, whether it's during a pandemic. A good economy, a bad economy, it doesn't really make a difference. People's problems continue to rise. And the truth is, rabotai, that difficulty is part of everybody's life. I can assure you that the surgery and whatever else I deal with, I wouldn't even want on my enemies. But the truth is, that difficulty is part of everybody's life. Now, The question that I think everybody is supposed to have is that when you learn Shiurei Torah from time to time, either I, myself, or other rabbis, share stories—stories about tzaddikim, tzaddikim that have dealt with their own difficulties in the past, and even tzaddikim of our generation that have faced challenges. And it really seems like they're going through these trials with a smile, despite the difficulty.

5:08And the question is, what do they do? What do they do to accept the heavenly judgment with a smile, despite the fact that it hurts? Regardless of what the difficulty is, it always hurts. So what do these tzaddikim do to go through their difficulties with a smile? Now, Rabbi Elimelech of Lizhensk, in our series over here, based on the Tzetel Katan, has really opened our eyes to the real world of Chassidut and how they think and what they do, and he continues to open our eyes with every single page, with every single line. Especially, if you've noticed when we look at the small details and not just glance over it or read over it just to say, "you know, we read another book." I know many times a person who learns Torah, whether it's mussar, or it's the parasha, or whatever they're learning, often looks at it almost like a checklist, where they just want to tell themselves that they completed another book. So they put a check next to it: "Yes, I finished this book, and I finished that book, and I finished this book."

6:29And a question that always has to come up is, what did the book do for you? Okay, so you read the book, but what did the book actually do for you? Did you apply any of it to your life? Did it do anything for you other than maybe give you a little bit of inspiration for a moment? As anything changed? Many times, people go through different books, and not much changes, at least nothing long-term. You know, there are a lot of things that perhaps they learned along the way, and perhaps they got inspired or informed. Uh, but not much really changed. The same concept goes with showing. You know, I'd say it always boggles my mind when people ask me different questions, especially people with whom we have a history. We've helped them throughout the years through difficult times, and I tell them to go and watch another series that we've made over the years, and they say, "Yeah, but I watched that already."

7:31Well, obviously, if I know you watched it already, or I assume you've watched it already, if I know you for two, four, five, six, ten years, I assume that you've watched it. However, I still recommended it, despite knowing that you've watched it, because apparently you haven't applied that shield to your life. You haven't applied that series to your life, because had you applied it to your life, things would be different. Not necessarily that the problems would be different, but your perspective would be different. Many times, when it comes to books, you go to people's houses and you see that, you know, people—Jewish people—have a library of books, some more, some less. That's actually one of the things I miss the most. that shield to your life. You haven't applied that series to your life because had you applied it to your life, things would be different. Not necessarily the problems would be different, but your perspective would be different. Many times, when it comes to books, you go to people's houses and you see, you know, people—Jewish people—have a library of books, some more, some less. That's actually one of the things that I missed the most. In the last few weeks, being away from my study, being away from my office with all my books, all my friends, I realized how much I missed them. I took some with me, but you know, you can't take your whole library with you.

8:33where even if you don't read all of them, you can't read all of them, you still feel like they're part of you, and you want them next to you. And the thing is, though, when you go to a Jewish person's house, you'll see books. Of course, you assume that this person has read some of these books, if not all of them. ...simcha, you know, good things happening, everyone can have a smile during that time, especially if they know that that picture is going to go on some type of social media or it's going to be sent to somebody that's important to them. You know, everybody can have that fake smile. But, you know, there's this organization that I'm familiar with where they have these monthly events. It's literally like one of the most bizarre organizations I've ever met. Don't ask me the name. you know, good things happening, everyone can have a smile during that time, especially if they know that the picture is going to go on some type of social media or it's going to be sent to somebody that's important to them. You know, everybody can have that fake smile. But, you know, there's this organization that I'm familiar with where they have these monthly events. It's literally like one of the most bizarre organizations I've ever encountered. Don't ask me the name.

9:45They have these events and I never go to them. I've gone to a few in past years, but I stopped going to them after I saw how fake they are, where it's like literally the whole event, the whole purpose of the event is just to take pictures. You know, they have some people there; they talk, they chit-chat, they say a few things. Nobody really listens, and no one really cares. The main thing that everybody cares about is the pictures at the end. The pictures at the end, oh, you're smiling. Maybe it's going to go in the paper, maybe it's going to go on a website, maybe it's going to go on some, I don't know. news article that we were there and it's literally the most bizarre thing in the world. I don't really understand the purpose of it, aside from just telling people that you're doing something, even though you're really not. So sometimes people's libraries are the same concept. Sometimes people's Judaism is the same thing. Sometimes people's Torah is the same thing. They have these books. They have these shiurim. They listen to them in their car. They listen to them on their phone. They hear these stories. Maybe they're going to remember them long enough to tell somebody else one of the stories. But the truth be told, nothing inside actually changed.

11:04Nothing changed. The behavior didn't change. The anger didn't go away. The arrogance is not affected in any way. It's still there. And the second that there's a problem, already you have all of these doubts and these heretical thoughts. So what happened? What happened? So, you see the main difference between the tzaddikim, and I don't just mean the tzaddikim that you hear stories about. I mean people that you could probably know—could be your next-door neighbor, your local rabbi, or an avrech that's 20 years old—that you don't even know is someone special. It could be anybody, but the main difference between the tzaddikim... Those who cleave themselves to HaKadosh Baruch Hu and pretty much everyone else is how they deal with problems, the way that they deal with the difficulties in life. Even though they have problems, and sometimes even more than others, they go through them with a smile, they go through them without losing themselves, without doubting Hashem, accepting the judgment of Heaven.

12:06uh, they go through them with a smile, they go through them without losing themselves, without doubting Hashem, accepting the judgment of Heaven, you know, with a full heart, without questioning why, like these heretical questions that are so uh, common in the world today, where was God during the Holocaust, where was God during October 7th? All these foolish things that people say when they're ignorant, and I call them foolish because the more you know about HaShem, the more foolish it is to ask such questions because the answers are clearly in it. But nonetheless, the problems that people deal with are very much real. And the issues that people deal with, whether it's with their children, their spouse, their job, their health, their money, or whatever it is, are very much there. And if you go to those same people, people that you see on podcasts, and people that you see talking and chit-chatting in some type of group event at the shul, or people you see that are talking a lot after shul with each other,

13:14Trying to figure out who has the solution. The truth is all of these solutions are probably in their house on their shelves. They're probably in one of these lectures that they watch. They're probably in their pocket because they have, you know, I'm assuming they have the Be'ezrat Hashem app or the AI Rabbi app. And if they don't, I don't know what they're doing in this world. Without having such a resource so easily available to you, all of these things are available to us. Literally, the key to all of your problems is readily available to you for free, yet people go through the motions without having the slightest concept of what to do during the moment of pain. Tzeitel Katan has widened our eyes to see the small details in his words that are literally hidden in plain sight, to show us how we're supposed to have the proper perspective to see the Divine hand that sometimes feels like it's hitting us, feels like it's pinching us, feels like it's hurting us, but in reality, we're missing out on the opportunity to learn.

14:31We're missing out on the opportunity to accept what HaKadosh Baruch Hu has in store for us, which is for our benefit. So, section number 14 in the Tzava'at HaRivash, you know, it's something that we glanced over a little bit some time ago when, uh, the last shiur that we did in this series, but we're gonna go a little deeper into it. However, we're gonna go in a slightly different direction, uh, perhaps even explore some of the things that, uh, we should have learned. In Megillah and Purim, we just read the Megillat Esther. Am Yisrael (the people of Israel) are all obligated to listen to the Megillah. If you can't read it yourself, you obviously go to shul (synagogue) and have someone read it for you. Whatever it is, you have to hear it twice, but that's already behind us. the key is that most people who hear the Megillah are fulfilling the mitzvah, but they're not learning during that time. They're just fulfilling the mitzvah of hearing it, which is the mitzvah to hear it. Studying it, learning from it, and applying the lessons from it is really what we're supposed to do before and after. It's not for nothing that they included the Megillah as part of the Tanakh, so

15:51Perhaps we'll go into some details of the story that we were supposed to learn during these last few days and, on the other side, apply it to what's going on here now. The Tzeitel Katan is giving us the concluding guidance. to this whole monumental work. Now, of course, we still have much to go, but in essence, he's giving us significant guidance here that really needs to be applied throughout the entire sefer, not just at the end, and that's why he's giving it here in the middle. And he's saying the following: Be extremely careful to review this Tzava'at Harivash, at least once a day. At least once a day, translate each word into your own language. Make it an inviolable practice to study chapter 16 of the Reishit Chochmah before marital relations, as well as the practices of the Arizal. If time permits, you should read chapter 17 of the Reishit Chochmah as well.

17:01and consider this an invaluable rule here. He's giving us something that he hasn't really said before. He's telling us this is a rule of thumb. This is, you know, immovable. This is an absolute must if you're going to take this monumental work of Chassidut, monumental work of Judaism, monumental work. of the Torah and actually do something with it. Do not make it just like another one of the many lectures that you've attended or just like one of the many different books that are in your library. If you're going to do something different with this, meaning if you're going to make something out of it, then you have to comply with this rule. What is this rule? First and foremost, you have to review. He is saying here to review it once a day. What does it mean to review once a day? Why? Where did we hear this before? And if you remember the last lecture, about a month or two ago, I said that this is the same thing that the Ramban, Nachmanides, said to his son in the Iggeret HaRamban, that you have to review this every day. Why? Why review? Why do we need to review this so often? I mean, it's not one of the parashot of the Torah,

18:24it's not a, uh, like some people do the segulah of Parashat HaMan, which is the segment of the Torah that talks about when Am Yisrael received the manna bread from Heaven, and it's a person that reads it every day. The sages say that it's a segula to receive better sustenance, better parnassah, and certainly, it's something that could work if you know what you're doing. If you not only know what to read but read it with kavanah, and you really believe what it says and not just go through the motions, you know certainly it's effective. But here, The book is telling us this: this book over here, I want you to review it; I want you to review it every day. Why? I mean, so I remember it by heart? What good is it going to do for me if I remember it by heart? I mean, there are some people who are blessed with a good memory and they remember different things by heart. Some people waste their memory and their blessing by just simply remembering trivial and useless things by heart, like people's phone numbers, addresses, and names—a complete misuse of the gift that Hashem gave them. But some people remember parts of the Torah.

19:43uh, by heart, which is certainly an invaluable, uh, you know, thing if you could remember, uh, the entire Torah or, at the very, you know, parts of the Torah. Anything that you can remember by heart is certainly very valuable, but it's even more valuable when you understand what you're remembering. If you're just remembering it and you're just going through the motions, like you know, at some point, most people remember big segments of the prayer by heart because, as you know, when you pray as a Jew, you pray three times a day, and it's generally the same prayer every day. with the exception of, you know, Rosh Chodesh, there's an addition; Shabbat, there's some additions; the holidays, there's some different prayers; but generally speaking, the prayer itself throughout the rest of the year is the same. So, naturally, a person, even if they're starting out in their 20s, 30s, or 40s, and they don't even know how to read, if they keep going through the motions, if they still go to the shul and pray every single day,

20:47they'll find that a few years later, they'll remember large parts of the prayer by heart. uh, but that's not going to help you have more kavanah, more, you know, meaning in your prayers. Remembering them by heart is not going to help you have a more meaningful prayer. It may help you, you know, read it with much more ease. It's going to be smoother. It's going to be easier for you to pray. It's going to be easy for you to keep up with the kehillah, especially if they pray fast, so... If you remember it by heart, you're also going to be able to pray faster. But as far as having an extraordinary prayer where you're brought to tears, remembering by heart is never going to help you. In fact, sometimes it could hurt you. So if anyone ever saw the video that I publicized some years ago of the Klausenberger Rebbe praying his regular Mincha prayer that he prayed every day.

21:49not talking about Yom Kippur prayer; we're not talking about a special fast. No, we're talking about just a regular, everyday prayer that the Klausenberger Rebbe used to pray, and the amount of crying and tears that went into that prayer. I wish we were able to pray like that on Yom Kippur, but he prayed like this every day. Now, surely he knew the prayer by heart. but that's not what helped him have that extraordinary kavanah. So yes, there is a value to learning prayer by heart, but it's not the value of kavanah. It's not the value of meaning. Same thing with learning parts of the Torah. There's this extraordinary value to remembering uh, parts of the Torah, uh, by heart, remembering the pages, remembering where certain things are. People ask you questions; certainly, there's a lot of value there, but it's not going to connect you to Hashem in a deeper way. It's not going to connect you in a deeper way. What's going to connect you in a deeper way is actually understanding what you're actually reading.

22:59and taking the initiative to apply that to your life now, understanding what you're reading takes a little bit of time. To understand every word, to understand every segment, and so on, is an ongoing process that continues throughout your entire life, because every time you read it, you... understand more and more, you build on that foundation, but the application to your life is even more so something that is going to take place over stages of your life, based on how much you have fixed, how much you have repaired in your neshama. Because the high-level repair is inconsequential to you when you're still at the first-grade level of tikkun, when you're still working on your arrogance or your anger issues. It's irrelevant to discuss the arrogance that's of a higher level or the different issues that are of a higher level. So a person who wants to apply these teachings to their life has to know that there is no such thing as "I read this book, checkmark."

24:13There is no such thing as watching a lecture that's a meaningful, significant lecture of Torah that has real, uh, real sources, that has real meaning, and saying, "Okay, I have a check mark next to it, I finished it." No, because the Torah is, you know, a never-ending ocean that continues to grow with you. and the more you practice, the more you delve into it. As the Mishnah says, delve into it and delve into it, because everything is in it, and the confusion that people perhaps sometimes think is that yes, everything is in it; it's just that I didn't get there yet. I read this book and that book, and this Masechet and that Masechet, perhaps that other information is in the Kabbalah or is in the Yerushalmi or is in the Zohar. No, no, no. Confusion that people perhaps sometimes think is that, yes, everything is in it. It's just that I didn't get there yet. I read this book and that book, this masechet and that masechet. Perhaps that other information is in the Kabbalah, or it is in the Yerushalmi, or it is in this or it's in that. No, no, no.

25:14Everything is in it. This means that everything is in it, wherever you are in the Torah. Even if you are still in Parashat Bereishit of the Torah you just started, every single detail of every single thing you'll ever need to know is in there. The books you have are sufficient, assuming that they're kosher, good books; they are Torah books. to teach you an endless amount of knowledge beyond what you have right now, even if you've read them already. When a person starts treating their Torah learning like a never-ending ocean, they can truly grow and deepen their understanding. There's no such thing as "I've watched this already, I've read this already," as if you already know the meanings of everything. I mean, there are certainly many stories of different Chachamim that talked about how they read certain books like the Reshit Chochmah or Sha'arei Teshuva or the Shas, of course,

26:18You know, hundreds and hundreds of times, why would you read the same thing hundreds of times? I mean, obviously, they understood it the first time to a certain extent, the second time to a certain extent, even more, the third time. Okay, so let's say it took him 10 times to understand the book. Why read it a hundred times? How much more can you understand it? An endless amount of times, endless amount of times. So even if a person literally studied... any part of the Torah, whether it be the extraordinary Chumash, Tanakh Gemara, the huge works of the Torah, the written Torah, and the oral Torah, or the parts of the oral Torah, like the, you know, smaller books, smaller works, whether it be the Yesharim Teshuva, or the Tzava'at HaRivash, or even the Iggeret HaRamban, the simple letter, at least, you know, in comparison with what it would seem like. Study that countless times. If you study it properly, literally every single time there will be something new that you learn from it. So, the Tanna Kamma is not telling us, "I want you to study this and review it at least once a day because you're tasked with memorizing it." Memorizing it is not going to do you that much good.

27:45gonna do you good is if each time you review it, you decide to take another piece, another piece, and apply that today, and the next day another piece, and apply that today, and the next day another piece. "Oh no, I didn't do the last one, but okay, so I'm gonna try to take two pieces," and each time take another chip, another chip at the great mountain. You chip another piece; there's no end to this mountain. Each time, a little bit more, a little bit more, and applying it to your own language is not only referring to reading it in your first language, whether it be English or Hebrew or Yiddish or whatever other language you speak, but rather applying it to your language, meaning the language of your heart. How does the mechanism of your neshama work? How do you apply these Torah foundations to your life? Whether you are a businessman, a housewife, a child growing into the great world, or a soldier in an army in the middle of war, or whatever you are, how are you going to apply all of these extraordinary teachings to the position you are in at that moment in life? And then again, sometime down the road,

29:11Life changes. You're no longer a business person; perhaps you are now an employee in a simple shop because life has changed. Or perhaps you went from being a simple employee to now being a CEO of a great company. Or now you went from being a single woman looking for a husband to a married woman with four kids driving you crazy, and you're trying to... you know, just keep them at bay, and then you are now an older mother who is raising older kids and trying to make sure they all marry the right people. Then you have a different life where you’re struggling with money, and other times you're struggling with giving tzedakah to the right place. Life itself is dynamic, and it keeps changing. In essence, translating any part of the Torah into your own language is not just about translating it into your mother tongue so that you can actually speak the language. Rather, it's about translating it into the language you need spoken to you at this moment, into the words that you need to apply to your life at that moment. This is important because each moment of your life is not the same as the moment when you first heard or read it, whether that was a year ago, five years ago, or ten years ago. If a person starts looking at the Torah from that perspective, they'll realize that their endless search...

30:12to apply to your life at that moment of your life because that moment of your life is not the same as the moment when you first heard it, when you first read it a year ago, or five years ago, or ten years ago. And if a person starts looking at the Torah from that perspective, they'll realize that their endless search For more information somewhere else is literally a wasted effort because everything you need is in front of you. As Moshe Rabbeinu told us in sefer Devarim, "It is in your mouth, it is in your heart to do it." The Torah is in you. If you read the Torah and learn the Torah, it's there. You just have to know how to use it. And the Tanna Kamma is telling us... Make sure that this review is stamped in your heart not just for the time being but for every aspect of the Torah. You have to constantly go and delve into it deeper and deeper.

31:25Don't be one of those people, like in the secular world, where individuals go through books, and they're impressed with each other, commenting on how someone reads a book a week or a book a day, or how they have read 500 books. None of that is truly impressive. Why? Because if you read 500 books and you're still the same person, obviously, the books did nothing for you. All you have are check marks, check marks, check marks, and you have a bunch of papers in your house that you're probably going to sell at some garage sale or throw out. But with Torah, whether you have five books or 500 books, when it's Torah, you literally have endless information from above available to you to use at any given time, no matter how many times you've read it and studied it. Why? Because there's more information in there that you have not applied to your life. And today in the, generation of knowledge that we have, unlike the generation of knowledge of Mount Sinai, where literally they were given the knowledge of everything one can possibly have in this physical world.

32:34Because we're limited. We're not able to have the knowledge that we would have after 120 years. The Torah, the Gemara in Masechet Shabbat, says that the Torah that we received at Har Sinai is the essence of the Torah. It's the essence of the Torah. It's not the entire Torah. It's the essence of the Torah. The whole Torah we're not able to consume in this world. Only Moshe Rabbeinu knew the real Torah. The essence of the Torah is what we're able to handle. And the essence of the Torah, even after all of the exile and the pogroms and the inquisitions and the burnings of thousands and thousands of Jewish books throughout the years, notwithstanding the losses and everything else, we still literally have millions of Jewish books, millions of Torah books available. There are different books from which you can learn an endless amount of information about the Divine, about HaKadosh Baruch Hu, about His world, about His Torah, and about life. Millions of books, that even if you studied from day to night, 24 hours a day for a thousand years, you wouldn't be able to consume all of them. That's just the essence of the Torah. So the books that we have, if we treat them...

33:45like it's a checkmark, like people do in the secular world, and they're impressed with each other over how this guy reads, you know, five books a week, 10 books a week, 500 books, and a thousand books. In reality, all that you were able to retain is maybe, at best case scenario, a hundredth of a percent of some of the information. Or it's a person that studies Torah, knowing that they're entering an endless ocean of where no matter how many times they review and they read and reread, there is always going to be more that they're going to discover. It's an endless treasure chest. So the Tzetel Katan is, in essence, preparing us not just for the Tzetel Katan that requires a daily review, but rather an attitude towards the entire Torah as a whole. that if you do not review it every single day, you're missing the point. You're missing the point. Many times people ask me, "Oh, what book do you think I should read next?"

34:56And the funny thing is that I know these people already have plenty of books in their houses they haven't read. And even if they read, they haven't read them well enough. Why? Because you'd have different questions. You'd have different questions if you really consumed the knowledge that you have at your fingertips. I'm not saying, I'm not against buying more books. By all means, buy a million books. But the point is, don't think for a moment that if you read the book from cover to cover, you've completed it. Torah doesn't work that way. It's not a novel; it's not a storybook that ends with a beginning, climax, and end—whether happy or sad—all irrelevant, all inconsequential to your actual life. It's not some guy giving you a recycled type of self-help business book that simply rehashes old ideas with new words. No, the Torah has invaluable, endless lessons that you can read a thousand times and still get something new out of them. And if a person goes into the Torah with the right attitude, with the right perspective, eliminating their ego, eliminating their ga'avah that tells them, no, no, I already completed this book. I already did this.

36:18Making them realize that a Talmid Chacham, the greatest Talmid Chacham of any generation, is still called a Talmid Chacham. A Talmid Chacham literally means a smart student. Smart student. We translate it as Torah scholar. The literal meaning is smart student. Why "student"? He's a great Rabbi; he's the gedol ha'dor, he's the Steipler Gaon, he's the Vilna Gaon, he's the Arizal, but he's still called a Talmid. Why? Because if he's a real Torah scholar, he's always going to be a Talmid, he's always going to be learning more. The literal meaning is "smart student." Why "student"? He's a great rabbi. He's the Gadol HaDor, he's the Steipler Gaon, he's the Vilna Gaon, he's the Arizal, but he's still called a Talmid. Why? Because if he's a real Torah scholar, he's always going to be a Talmid. He's always going to be learning more. And just like Moshe Rabbeinu told us in the Torah, the Torah is not over the mountains or across the ocean. It's in front of you. It's in front of you. The stuff that you have in front of you, the lecture you have in front of you, the series you've already watched, the books you've already read, the parasha that you think you know, the information is there if you only treat it with the right perspective.

37:29by reviewing it over and over again with the same passion, excitement, and dedication each and every time, surely you will find another diamond bigger than any diamond that you have found before. Because unlike other things where you study them and, from time to time, you'll find new nuggets here and there that are interesting and mentally stimulating, with the Torah, it's different. Every new diamond is bigger than the last, meaning the diamonds that you find as you go deeper get bigger, not smaller. Unlike the physical world, where you eventually find the big stuff and then all you have to do is gather whatever small remnants are left, the Torah is the exact opposite. The deeper you go into it, the greater the diamonds, the greater the treasure. What you thought was big when you first encountered it is literally almost nothing in comparison to the insights you will find as you delve deeper. So, Tzitzit Katan starts already with an attitude change everyone must have when they're learning Torah. The review every day is not for the sake of memory.

38:54The translation of things to your language is not for the sake of translating it to your mother tongue, but rather the deeper meaning is essentially telling us that we must have an attitude change to realize that when we're dealing with the Divine, when we're dealing with the word of HaKadosh Baruch Hu, whether it's directly in the Five Books of Moses or it's through His sages, through the Oral Torah. Sages of, you know, 2,000 years ago, the sages of now, even a hundred years ago, whatever it is, every generation has its Moshe and Aaron, and they have the 70 elders. That's the reason why when the Torah says, the Mishnah in Masechet Avot specifically talks about it. But speaks about it, what were the names? Of the elders that came with Moshe Rabbeinu. You have Moshe, you have Aharon, you have Yehoshua Ben-Nun, you have Pinchas, you have all these great people. But who are the seventy elders? What are their names? There are no names. Why are there no names? Because if there was some arrogant person who thinks, "Listen, if Moshe Rabbeinu would tell me to keep two Yom Tovim in the exile, I'll do it. But Moshe Rabbeinu never said it. He's not here. If I want to coincide, I'll listen. But he's not here."

40:20give me somebody that's great. Yeah, hold on a second, but how do you know that your Rabbi, who dedicates his life to Torah and to connecting to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, is not like one of the elders? How do you know he's not like one of them? That's the reason why they were unnamed. So the arrogant among us that say, oh, if Moshe Rabbeinu told me, if Aharon HaKohen told me, if Yehoshua Bin Nun told me, if Pinchas told me, then I'd listen. No, no, no, but also there were the 70 elders. What about them? They were not named. So how do you know that the Talmid Chacham of this generation is not like them? The point being, Rabotai, when a person goes into the Torah, with ga'avah, with arrogance, with a know-it-all attitude, with learning for the sake of debating and showing their, uh, their knowledge or the knowledge they think they have, they've already missed the whole point. The Tanna Kamma is giving us critical rules, rules of Torah that certainly we need to apply to the Ta'amei Chachamim, but also across the whole spectrum of the Torah.

41:37The review is daily. Not once a week, not when you get a chance, not when you have time—it's daily. Every single day, you have to go through the Torah more and more. The material you've read, the material you haven't read; in so many words, consume as much information from the Torah as you possibly can, as much as you can get your hands on. The second thing is, try little by little to translate it into the language that you need to speak, into the life that you're living, the situation that you're in. Then, a person has to understand that the Yetzer Hara is going to try to convince you of everything he possibly can to stop you. He's going to try to convince you that you don't have time. He's going to try to convince you that you've already done it and that you need something new. You need a new lecture, a new book, a new rabbi, a new this, a new that, just to distract you from where you're supposed to be. Unfortunately, one of the painful things you'll see is...

42:56The failure of people is when they fall for the trap and actually believe they need something new. "No, I already did this. I did this for a few years now. I need something new." No, you don't understand. If you think you need something new, it means you haven't truly accomplished what you think you did. Why? Because you don't even have the basic foundational tools to understand what Torah provides. Yetzer Hara convinced you that you need something else to get you off of the direction. Why? To get you someplace else. He's not gonna tell you, "Go this way straight to Gehenom." No, he's gonna try to tell you, "No, no, there's a different chamber. There's a different place. There are different options. There are nicer things over here," and try to get you just simply to agree to get off of the path that's succeeding. Why? Because the second you agree and... to veer off the path of success, let's say he's got you. Little by little, he'll get you into a first-class ticket to Gehenom. Why? Because just like Rabbeinu Yonah says in the Chovot HaLevavot, a thousand years ago, Rabbeinu Bachya teaches that the Yetzer Hara is awake on you while you're sleeping on it.

44:23Think the yetzer hara is only coming to you with the obvious? He's coming to you with a new commercial on TV, or on the phone, or he's coming to you with some co-worker, or he's coming to you with some money scheme. So you think, "Oh, I got it, I'm ready for the yetzer hara, I'm ready for him, I'm ready," because you're looking at all these places. You're asleep, my friend. Why do you think the yetzer hara is going to come to you where you think he's coming from? Yet, he is coming to you in all possible ways. You're asleep and he's awake. So, the Yetzer HaRa (evil inclination), in essence, tells us the perspective change that's necessary now that we've reached the 14th section of this book is an absolute necessity if we're going to gain anything from it. Furthermore, in all of the problems that people deal with in life, the

45:24Tools that are at our disposal are not being utilized. It's like having the greatest weapons in the world, the greatest talents in the world, but fighting with politics, fighting with tweets. Fighting with news articles. Sort of like how they fight in the world today about what's happening. Instead of fighting with weapons, they fight with tweets. "Oh, he tweeted this." "He wrote an article about that." Unfortunately, sometimes people address their problems like this, where they have the tools, but they're not utilizing them. And here the Tzava'at Harivash is saying, study chapter 16 of the Reshit Chochmah before marital relations, as well as the practices of the Arizal. What is this chapter 16? For those of you that have been watching us for some time, and you merited to study with us the Igeret HaKodesh of the Ramban,

46:49The whole series that we did about Jewish intimacy is a very high-level Kabbalistic work that has fundamental lessons necessary for every single human being if they apply the ones they can understand. There are certainly high-level concepts in there that I even say in the lectures are not relevant to the vast majority of people. But there are lessons, and there are fundamental lessons in there that are applicable to every single person, whether you're a teenager and you haven't even gotten married yet, and you just simply need to know how to treat your body and treat the person you want to marry in the future, or it's people that are newly married or people that have been married for a long time. The "Igeret HaKodesh" has an enormous amount of information in there.

47:49of how to truly sanctify yourself. Now, even though the issue at hand is in essence talking about intimacy, anyone that watched the series realizes that the act itself is a very, very small part of what's discussed in the book. There's an enormous amount of information given in preparation, before, after, the mindset, the diet, what to consume, how to consume, the thought process. There's a lot of information in there. A person that watches this particular series, especially if they read the book alongside it, could transform their life tremendously. Whether they're married or not is irrelevant. Why? Because it's, in essence,

48:50teaching you how to sanctify yourself, and that's, in essence, what the Tikkun HaBrit is highlighting here. Go to the sefer that talks about one part of what we discussed in the Igeret HaKodesh, and we actually went over that part. The part that he's referring to is Chapter 16 and 17. Those were some of the things we highlighted in the series as well, and... The big part, big takeaway that you get out of what the Reishit Chochmah wrote there is that the goal of intimacy is not what the filthy media has been brainwashing people to think. It's not what the yetzer hara (evil inclination) wants you to think; it's not what your animal instincts think, but rather, the goal of intimacy is to sanctify yourself. It's another opportunity to become holy. In fact, as the Ramban himself says, and countless sources that I mentioned in the series,

50:20the highest level of sanctification, of holiness, can be achieved through intimacy. Of course, if a person doesn't study Torah and doesn't do anything else, as the Ramban is talking about, they are never even going to understand what the word intimacy means, needless to say what holy means. But the goal of what... Tanya Katana is mentioning here, highlighting in essence what was discussed in the shiur, which is to use intimacy as an opportunity to become holy. How can someone become holy? Of course, if you watch the series, you'll understand, but it'll take time. To shorten it a little bit, it is the same concept that we just discussed. it's a perspective change. It's looking at things differently. First, as he mentions, Chapter 17 also needs to be read. Chapter 17, if you see over there, in the Rashi Tuchma, is talking about how a person has to stay away from wasting seed and all of the immorality. So on one end, he's talking about sanctifying yourself. On another end, he's giving us the very, very things that need to be avoided, especially in today's society. In the context of Rabbi Akiva's teachings, we must understand the importance of maintaining our spiritual purity.

51:41scary warnings of immorality, wasting seed, immodesty, promiscuity - all the filth running rampant in the streets today where literally you go to a place and you're not even sure if you went to the zoo or you went to a store to buy milk and The way people carry themselves today, the way they dress, it's mamash (really) disgusting. You want to vomit. You go to a zoo, and you're not sure if the animals are outside of the cage or inside the cage. The way people behave, the way they dress, here the Tikunei Zohar is telling us... you are spending half your morning looking at yourself in the mirror just to make sure that you have the right expression on your face. If you care about what Carlos and Steve are going to say at your job about how you look every day, then being holy unfortunately is not in the cards. Why? You're missing the point. You're missing the point now here.

53:06You're spending half your morning looking at yourself in the mirror just to make sure that you have the right expression on your face. If you care about what Carlos and Steve are going to say at your job about how you look every day, then being holy, unfortunately, is not in the cards. Why? You're missing the point. You're missing the point. Now here... A person thinks about it enough, they might realize, "Wait a minute—the last thing that the secular world associates with, especially in the idolatrous world that has turned intimacy into something that's filthy, is holiness and intimacy in the same sentence." This is the exact opposite of what the Torah says intimacy can be. way a person can reach the highest level of holiness if you know how to behave and i'm not just talking about the act itself we're talking about everything that comes before, during, and after life. But in order for that to ever be achieved, a person has to already know that staying away from filth is a prerequisite.

54:33means you want to have any chance at holiness, you want to have any chance of having holy kids, you want any chance of your kids being holy, you want to have any chance of your husband being holy, you have to stay away from all the stuff that represents unholiness. watching television shows, movies, and YouTube shows, and all types of things that, you know, show people with no arms, no legs, and, you know, nothing covering their bodies, and, you know, highlighting their different body parts — all that stuff has to go. This doesn't mean that you can't be in the world and do business and do all types of things, but you have to know where to look and where not to look. You have to know where to spend your energy and where not to. So, Rabbi Elimelech is telling us, take a look at this chapter because that's going to give you an insight about how you can sanctify even the most intimate motions, even in the most intimate moments of your life.

55:55which requires you to pay attention to the smallest details when it comes to things that are unholy. Now, why is this relevant to every single person, even a person that's not perhaps ready to go that far yet? Because when you're dealing with trouble in your life, you're dealing with difficulties in your life. it's very common for a person to feel like they're alone. It's very common for a person to feel like God is not with them, like no one's helping them. But the truth is, Hashem is always with us. The question is whether you have pushed Him out of your life or you're not paying attention to where He is. Because if you pay attention, you'll see Him everywhere. For example, See Him everywhere. For example, we're going to talk a little bit about Purim. In hindsight, everyone knows the story and how everything worked out. It's the only book in the Tanakh where the name of Hashem does not appear. But that's because, just like the Megillat Esther, which also translates to "the hidden," Hashem was hidden.

57:21But in reality, when a person pays attention to the many details that are mentioned in the Megillah, they're not for the sake of telling us a story. They're for the sake of teaching us how Hashem hides His endless impact in every small detail. In the beginning of the Megillah, we hear about a party. And we see already from the beginning that all of this had to have happened in order for the great rescue to happen. Now, of course, had Am Yisrael, had Am Yisrael listened to Mordechai, the whole thing would not have happened. However, some Chachamim say that part of the reason Hashem allowed this decree that nearly annihilated all of Israel was because of them going to the party and celebrating with the goyim. Some Chachamim also say that part of the reason was because of what happened at the time of Nebuchadnezzar. That's why he's mentioned at the beginning of the Megillah.

58:22whole thing would not have happened. Now, even though some chachamim say that part of the reason Hashem allowed this whole thing to happen—and the decree that nearly annihilated all of Israel—was due to them going to the party and celebrating with the goyim, some chachamim say that this also was part of the reason because of what happened at the time of Nebuchadnezzar. That's why he's mentioned at the beginning of the Megillah. where were the ones that jumped into the fire and were not willing to bow to the statue of Nebuchadnezzar. You know, Daniel fled, you know, with permission from Nebuchadnezzar, because Nebuchadnezzar literally turned Daniel into a deity. And he knew that Daniel was not going to bow to the statue. But then he would have had to kill him. And he didn't want to kill his own G-d. So he allowed him to flee. But still, what about the rest of the people? Unfortunately, the rest of the people bowed. They didn't jump into the fire. They didn't jump into the fire. So some say that perhaps that's the reason why Hashem brought this whole thing. Either way, the point is that it all starts with

59:40The powerful person of the day is having a party. What is he celebrating? He's celebrating the fact that the Beit HaMikdash was not built according to his calculation, which he concludes would mean that if it was not built in this amount of time, according to his calculation, he will rule the world forever. Therefore, his whole party is about the fact that he's going to rule. He is celebrating with all his grandiosity, taking various items from the Beit HaMikdash, celebrating its destruction. For the Jewish people to celebrate this is... concludes with the fact that if it was not built according to his calculation in this amount of time, that means that he is going to rule the world forever. And therefore, his whole party is about the fact that he's going to rule. He's celebrating with the big decor, taking a bunch of different things from the Beit HaMikdash and celebrating with them. So, in so many words, he is celebrating the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash. For Jewish people to go and celebrate that is... Obviously, he's ridiculous, but now people say, "Yeah, but listen, I understand, but you have to, you know, he's the king. If we don't go, it looks bad for our community. Maybe he's going to put past bad decrees, bad this, bad that." Mordechai says, "No, no, we can't go, we can't go to this party. This is not what we're supposed to do."

1:01:05If there were other rabbis or other tzaddikim that would have supported Mordechai, perhaps the whole thing wouldn't have happened. But instead, we see that Mordechai is the only one who is telling people that you're not allowed to go to this party. He's the only one saying that this is against the Torah, meaning that the other... Rabbis of the generation, the other leaders of the generation, not only are they saying to people, "Listen, you know what? It's the king, after all. Maybe we could be lenient here, you can go..." It's like, "You know what? I'm going to go also." It's like, unfortunately, in the fake world of today, where people are permitting all of these... fake leniencies to allow to kosher the pig practically, whether the pig is the, you know, corrupt businesses like the cash advance business or the corrupt, uh, scams about wigs or the corrupt, uh, understanding of how halacha is supposed to work. A lot of corruption, unfortunately, exists among many of these leaders.

1:02:27Go with the flow, go to the party, because of one leniency that they create and invent after another, saying, "Listen, it's the king, maybe it's pikuach nefesh after all. They have kosher food there." You know, they're being very welcoming. All types of strategies of the Satan allow this to happen, are viewed as fanatic. is viewed as someone that people simply don't listen to. They say he's of the old generation, he's too fanatic. He's saying that you can't do it, no, don't listen to him. So they go to the party. That is the beginning of the story—that's the mistake that was made. Okay, but now, of course, this mistake is going to lead to a decree, a heavenly decree that comes nine years later. where HaKadosh Baruch Hu allows Haman to rise to power, with a meteoric rise, just like Hitler, who went from nothing, a zero, a loser, to a most powerful person in the world at the time. And this guy,

1:03:55has the desire to destroy Israel, and then he gets the permission to destroy. So the Chazal teaches us that before Hashem issues an evil decree, a decree that's going to hurt, He already brings the cure. But without paying attention to the details, you're not going to see it. before you got that pain that you have in your life, whether it be financial pain, loneliness, or any other type of pain - whether related to children or marriage or whatever pain a person deals with in their life - before that decree was passed, Hashem already issued a decree that is the cure. And you're only going to be able to see it if you have the right perspective. So now we can't dissect each and every single person's life right now, but we can dissect certain parts of the Megillah to see how these few details that are mentioned in the Megillah were not there for the sake of telling us a story but rather for us to see how the hand of Hashem works. ...life right now, but we can dissect certain parts of the Megillah to see how these few details mentioned in the Megillah were not there for the sake of telling us a story, but rather for us to see how the hand of God works. We start off with a party...

1:05:19Somebody has a party; they want to have a good time, they want to do all types of things, show off. But generally speaking, when somebody has a beautiful wife, typically they are very, very protective of that beautiful wife, and they don't want anybody else looking at her. In fact, many conflicts and grievances have arisen over this very issue. Many of the battles, fights, and murders that happen today are over a woman. Somebody looked at her, somebody didn’t look at her, somebody spoke to her the wrong way. But here, Achashverosh has this crazy idea that, in order to show off how beautiful his wife is, he commands her to come and walk around naked. Who in their right mind, even if their right mind is a wrong mind, would ever want such a thing? So okay, she’s beautiful. And you have her. He commands her to come and walk around naked. Who in their right mind, even if their mind is misguided, would ever want such a thing? So, okay, she's beautiful, and you have her.

1:06:37Why would you want to show that to anybody else? Would you want everybody else thinking about her? Why would that ever be something anyone in their right mind would do? Do you think that Donald Trump would ever say to his wife, Melania, "Honey, I want you to show yourself"? No, absolutely not. He'll demand respect for her. You have to respect her. You have to speak to her with respect, talk to her with respect, treat her with respect. The same thing goes for anybody. Even if the woman is 80 years old and not beautiful, you’d still want it. You still expect it. The last thing that any person in power would ever want is the whole world to look at his wife in the clothing she wore when she was born. Nobody in their right mind would ever want that. He has the craziest idea, and this is not like an idea that he had his whole life or had ever implemented before. No, no, this is new. When he has a party with literally tens of thousands of people, now, of course, some people are sick and have these types of inclinations to show off, but they would never involve their wife in such displays.

1:07:55He wants to show his wife. His wife, so this obviously has to happen. Why does it have to happen? Because this is part of the divine plan. Had this not happened, then she wouldn't have been able to refuse. If she couldn't refuse, he wouldn't execute her. If he didn't execute her, then there would be no opportunity for Esther to become the queen. So this part of the story, as crazy as it is, has to happen. This crazy, insane thought has to happen, but not just, oh, I want it to happen. I'm commanding for it to happen. Now, as you would have it, this wife of Vashti, the wife of Achashverosh, she has no problem with the whole thing. She is a resha'it of the highest level. But Hashem puts her in a situation where she can't do it on that day. Why? He makes her have tzara'at. So her whole skin becomes like little pieces of white scales...

1:09:19Uh, like, uh, the scales of a fish practically, and a tail grows out of her, and horns. She literally looks like a monster. Now, he doesn't know this happened to her. So when she says, "No, I'm not coming," he thinks she's going against him. Now, usually, you know, anybody that's married for a long amount of time, at some point or another, you ask your spouse to do something, and they say no. and it's, you know, you're not happy about it. You want to go somewhere, you want to do something, and they absolutely, for no rhyme or reason, reject it. So, okay, you have a disagreement, maybe even an argument, but it's over. But here, he doesn't know why she says no, doesn't care that she says no, and he's upset. She obviously has to have this thing happen to her in order for her not to be able to come and also not to even tell him the reason why she's not coming. Because she knows that if he finds out what happened to her, for sure he's going to kill her. So she thinks maybe this is going to go away, maybe it's just a cold, maybe it's... I don't know, whatever it is, but I'll hide away from him for a long enough time.

1:10:36Figure out how to deal with this thing, but for now, I obviously can't do what he wants, even though on any other day I would do it. So, this second part also has to have the hand of Hashem causing this to happen, that she can't come. But the critical part of the story here is that in every kingdom, we have a king and a queen. president and a first lady, whatever it is, there are helpers to both sides, servants to both sides. There are people who are serving the king and serving the queen, and usually, they act loyal to their superior. but internally they're always looking out for their own self-interest. In general, nobody ever wants to go against one another. No one is going to tell the queen, "Listen, why don't you kill the king?" or tell the king, "Kill the queen," because obviously, they would think, "Why are you telling me to kill my queen? Are you going to tell the queen to kill me? I bet you're going to kill me." But in this particular case, his advisors...

1:11:58one of these advisors, which obviously later on we find out is Haman, has the audacity, the courage, to go and tell the king: "Listen, Your Highness, she didn't listen to you. You know that she's going to teach all of the women of your kingdom of 127 nations also not to listen to their husbands." gonna be a revolution, it's gonna be feminism, it's gonna be all the stuff that's pretty much happened here in America and in the world for the last four years—all this garbage. It's gonna be there. You gotta kill her. Who in their right mind will have such courage to tell the king to kill his wife? Listen, there are disagreements. I am sure that there were disagreements between Ahasuerus and Vashti before that day, and in fact... The Gemara tells us there were disagreements between them, where she said, "Listen, I am of the lineage of Nebuchadnezzar, I am of the lineage of kingship. You are a farmer boy who found some treasure. You're not of royal blood." So they had disagreements between them before, but he never killed her, never did anything. But here, today, he has this crazy desire to show off.

1:13:27his wife, and then when she rejects him, he gets upset but not upset to the point of wanting to kill her. He's just upset. But then one of the servants, one of the ministers, says, "You gotta kill her." This is a critical part of the story that has to happen. It has to happen. That's the way to empty the seat in order to open the door for Esther to come. So we see the hand of HaKadosh Baruch Hu literally steering the wheel nine years before Am Yisrael even knows there's a problem. Now, after all of this, we move forward. He obviously wants to get married again. and you see that Esther, who the Gemara says was 77 years old, she's not exactly a young lady, but Hashem makes a miracle happen where the Megillah says everyone that looks at her finds her beautiful. How could it be?

1:14:50People have different tastes. It's an old saying in Hebrew in Israel, "על טעם וריח אין להתווכח" (al ta'am vere'ach ein lehitvake'ach), which means "on taste and smell, there's nothing to argue." Everyone has their own sense of taste, and you can't argue, "Listen, this smells good; this smells bad," to somebody else. Your sense of smell and what you desire is different than his. You can't say, oh, this is the best food. Oh, but he doesn't like it. Ah, you don't know what you're talking about. No, he does. To him, it doesn't taste good. To her, it doesn't taste good. Whatever your taste buds are is for you. Whatever his taste buds are is theirs. You can't challenge somebody based on their taste. He finds her beautiful. You find her hideous. She finds him attractive. You find him to look more like a monster. Fine, no problem. But you cannot say, no, he's ugly. He's ugly maybe in your eyes, but to him, he's not. These are certain things that people don't understand, but it's literally a part of reality. That's why when people spend an obscene amount of time and energy trying to fit this look they want to have, usually the more you spend time trying to, you know, make yourself look into something, the more lonely you're going to become. Why? Because when you yourself are not happy with yourself, certainly the world is going to get that impression of you. So even if you are attractive, you're going to be a repulsive person. But yet you'll see people that literally...

1:16:05they want to have. Usually, the more time you spend trying to, you know, make yourself look into something, the more lonely you're going to become. Why? Because when you yourself are not happy with yourself, certainly the world is going to get that impression of you. So, even if you are attractive, you're going to be a repulsive person. But yet, you'll see people that literally not attractive in any way, shape, or form, especially not in comparison to those people that spend all of their energy in front of the mirror. Yet, they're married happily with kids; somebody apparently found them attractive. So here the Megillah is telling us that everyone finds Esther beautiful. Beautiful. How could it be? Simple. There's something called chen. Chen is not a physical feature. Chen is a blessing from above that Hashem puts on a person in order for that person to be pleasing in the eyes of those who see them. And in the case of

1:17:27Still, Hashem put the ultimate chen on her despite her older age. Despite the fact that she was not like everybody else, anyone who saw her thought she's one of them. So, the Persians that saw her thought, "Oh yeah, she's Persian, like us." The Iraqis that saw her, oh, she's Iraqi, she's like one of us. The Italians that saw her, oh, she must be Italian like us. The French that saw her, oh, how are you doing, how are you? They thought she's French. Everyone thought she was like them, and everybody obviously likes their own. 127 countries that... Ahasuerus rules, they're all at this party. Everyone is present all the time. There are always people from all over the world in Ahasuerus' kingdom. Everyone sees Esther. She's just like them. "How did you get one of us here? How'd you get her from China? How'd you get her from Bangladesh? How'd you get her from Italy? How'd you get her from America? How'd you get her?" Everybody finds her beautiful, including her husband Ahasuerus. Why? It is a blessing of chen.

1:18:49To be pleasing in the eyes of those that see you. There's actually a special Tehillim, segulot of Tehillim, where a person could actually pray to have chen. Especially when they go in front of superiors or meetings, especially if it's authorities, lawsuits, things like that. You want to have what's called chen. Why? Because when people are pleased with what they see, not physical features, but you have this blessing on you. automatically the world is going to treat you differently. The world is going to treat you differently. Hakadosh Baruch Hu put this blessing on Esther to the point where She, without any of the special oils that all the other girls were using, without all of the immodest behavior that all the other girls allowed themselves, whether married or not, all the other girls were doing everything and anything possible to win the heart of the king. The 18-year-olds, the 20-year-olds, whoever they were, every one of them was doing everything possible.

1:20:00Win the heart of the king, the only woman who did not take even a drop of oil or even a drop of makeup—nothing, no effort whatsoever to win the heart of the king—was Esther. The only one who won the heart of the king was Esther. Why put chen (grace) on her? I did this because this had to happen in order for Esther to be the queen at the time of need nine years later. Now, every king has many servants. Now, every king has many servants. And no matter how good the king is, or how good the CEO is, or how good the rabbi is, or how good the leader is, there's always going to be some conniving, dishonest people that want to steal something from him. Whether it's everything or some parts, there's always going to be. There's always going to be a Gehazi.

1:21:10You can see it in modern politics without even following it; just simply see the headlines in the news in one of the parts that led to the downfall of Donald Trump after his first term: his own vice president, the guy that he took, the guy that no one even knew who he was, no one knew he existed in the world, his own mirror didn't recognize him. He became vice president only to betray the guy that put him in power, and in essence, started the downfall of Donald Trump and his fight for the next several years until he became president again, and so on and so forth. You see this constantly; you see this in corporations, in all small businesses, and big businesses. The guy that was like a junior partner or developer, programmer, all of a sudden puts a virus in the system or gets someone to try to pretty much destroy the leadership and take over, become the leader. This is a constant failure in society. People are never happy with their share. They're never interested in negotiation. They're interested in hostile takeovers. That's the attitude of people.

1:22:35Same thing goes with rabbis. There's a shul that I went to years ago, built, I don't know, 50 years ago. The rabbi that built it, built a community, spent his time, money, everything possible to build this place. Now he's a little older, maybe in his late 70s, 80s, whatever it is. And of course, his kids were supposed to be good, religious kids, rabbis, and so on. Eventually, they were supposed to take over the shul that their father built. But instead of waiting until the day comes after their father passes away, some of the kids became impatient and started fighting with the father over giving them control now while he's alive, and the shul went from being a light in the community that was constantly growing and prospering, and so on, into literally being a center of animosity. All created because of the greed of these ungrateful kids that this rabbi had or has, and it's still going on to this day. started fighting with the father over giving them control now while he's alive, and the shul went from being a light in the community that was constantly growing and prospering, and so on, into literally being a center of animosity. All of this was created because of the greed of these ungrateful kids that this rabbi had or has, and it's still going on to this day.

1:23:59ultimately led to lawsuits. Another story that came to me was about a woman who didn't spend much effort serving HaKadosh Baruch Hu in her life. Instead, she served the god of money, gathering money, money, money, her whole life. She justified this by the fact that she wanted to give her kids everything she didn't have when she was a child, so her kids grew up benefiting from this hardworking mother and father who made a bunch of money in their business and so on. The kids benefited; they grew up practically with a golden spoon in their mouths. Everything they wanted, they got. Even as they grew up to be adults, they received houses, cars, and everything they desired. They got, they got, they got. Now, of course, you know...

1:25:01Life goes on. The mother is older, she's now in her 70s, late 70s even. And for the first time in her life, she comes, she's seeking a rabbi's help. "What happened? Ma'am, how can I help you? You're not exactly looking for a segulah for parnassah." What's what could what seems to be the reason that you're contacting a rabbi to help you. I need you to help me with my kids. Your kids? You mean your grandkids, infants? No, no, my grown kids. Your kids are in their 40s? What can I do to help your kids in their 40s? Well, they're suing me. Why are your kids suing you? Because they don't want to wait until I die. Take the inheritance. They want me to give them all the money now, so much so they started stealing the money. So now she gathered all of this money throughout her life in order to give her kids everything they needed, in order for her to live whatever her retirement in peace. But HaKadosh Baruch Hu showed her who's boss; your whole life you served...

1:26:27Money, because you thought you're going to beat the system. You serve money, so then you're going to have an easy life to retire into. The exact opposite is now happening. Everything you built is being thrown in your face. The kids you spoiled and gave everything to will become your number one enemy. The money that you accumulated will become the poison of your life. The retirement you thought you had will become the most tumultuous and horrible time of your life until the day you die. And there are literally endless stories like this that I know. I have enough examples to make 10 lectures, each no less than three hours. And that's just part one. When a person thinks that they can live life absent of God, all they have to look forward to are the disappointments that they're going to have for all of the plans they made. But Hashem is patient. He lets a person think that they're rich, think that they're comfortable, think that they're going in the right direction. Even though He gives them signs along the way to do teshuva (repentance) to return to the right path, each time they ignore, each time they press snooze, each time they go in a different direction, that's another case against them. So when the decree is passed, as Hakadosh Baruch Hu (The Holy One, Blessed be He) says in Tehillim (Psalms), no one will be able to save you from My wrath. There's a Tehillim that we read in our prayer.

1:27:51Even though He gives them signs along the way to do teshuva, to return to the right path, each time they ignore it, each time they press snooze, each time they go in a different direction, that's another case against them. So, when the decree is passed, as HaKadosh Baruch Hu says in Tehillim, no one will be able to save you from My wrath. There's a Tehillim that we read in our prayer... every Wednesday. The God of vengeance is Hashem, the God of vengeance has arrived. So now, Rabotai, you have a situation where this king that rules the entire world has

1:28:52a couple of servants that don't like him so much and they want to kill him. I'm sure every boss has somebody that doesn't like him; every boss has somebody that would be happy if he wasn't there. Everybody thinks that they could do the boss's job; everybody thinks that they could be the, uh, the, the, the leader. Everybody thinks that we'll do a better job. In this particular case, these two losers, Bigtan and Teresh, decide to have a conversation about this. Now, what are the chances that they're going to have a conversation about this inside the kingdom next to the only person in the entire kingdom that understands their foreign language and... Mordechai. Mordechai was part of the Sanhedrin and knew 70 languages. So certainly, he knew their language. Now, anyone that's planning evil against the master, whoever the master may be, whether it be a CEO, a king, a president, or whoever it is, usually they would do it somewhere away from the king so nobody overhears them.

1:30:11Here they feel comfortable having it inside the kingdom without a problem. Why? Because they figure that nobody speaks their foreign language. As HaKadosh Baruch Hu has it and designs it, not only do they have this conversation in the kingdom, but they have it next to the only person in the entire kingdom who understands it. However, even in situations like this, I'm sure there are a few people who have wanted to kill one of the presidents or one of the ministers or someone in a similar position. I'm sure there are people who were planning to oust one of the CEOs or whoever it may be. And other people overheard it. I'm sure before they had the plans against Trump, other people overheard it. I'm sure there were certain people that went against the guy from OpenAI before they ousted him, before he returned. I'm sure other people heard it. Sure, before any one of these famous stories, whether it be the stories of Steve Jobs getting fired from his own company, Apple, or it’d be some of the other countless stories that I know from the years, there's always somebody else that hears it and understands the story. So what if Mordechai knows their language? Usually, people overhear it and they either join in and say, "Yeah, you know what..."

1:31:36I'm in. I want him killed also. I want to take the job also. I want some of the spoils also. Usually, that's what would happen. Or they just simply ignore it. It's like, okay, listen, guys, I'm not telling you what to do. Just don't involve me. 99.9% of the time, when people hear evil spoken about the boss or the leader by some of the co-workers or conspirators who want to destroy the leadership, they either join in or simply ignore it. rarely will you ever have somebody that not only hears it, he's in the right place at the right time, but actually goes to the king and says, listen, your highness, I know that you don't know who I am. I know that you're probably not going to believe me. I know that I'm probably risking my life either from you or from them killing me by telling you this. But by the way, they're trying to kill you.

1:32:56no benefit for him to say whatsoever. In fact, there's only risk. Who designs it in such a way that not only do these two fools speak about the assassination inside the kingdom, but they speak it Next, to the only person that can actually understand what they're saying and do something about it, who designs this? Why does this have to happen in order for Ma'hdi to go into the book? Now, of course... If somebody does something good for a leader, certainly the leader wants to say, thank you. Hey, listen, you did good for me. I recently saw this clip. Somebody showed me this guy that worked for a company for 40 years.

1:34:06got a present of an old, fancy, very, very expensive car. And he was crying about it and emotional about it, how after working for 40 years for this company, he got his dream car, blah, blah, blah. Okay, great. Generally speaking, somebody that's loyal to the leadership gets rewarded, but usually they get rewarded as quickly as possible. Why? Because the king wants to incentivize others to do the same thing. help me get this, I'm gonna give you a bonus. You help me get that, I'm gonna give you another bonus, and so on and so forth. I'm sure that the people that were in charge of Donald Trump's security when they tried to assassinate him twice, I'm sure they didn't get any bonuses. Why? Most likely, they were in on the plan. But if somebody would have jumped in front of the bullet, certainly they would have. Got in a great position today. In fact, one of the people that got highlighted and rewarded was a guy that, I guess, he died as a result of the assassination attempt on Donald Trump. And his family got rewarded for it. But the point being is that every leader that has people do something good for him, especially life-saving or career-changing or something like that, wants to reward them right away. But in this particular case, we have something unusual happening.

1:35:36The king confirms what Mordechai says, which, by the way, the fact that he even knows that Mordechai is the one who saved him is, in itself, something that's against nature. Why? Because Mordechai did not tell this to the king; he told this to Esther. He could have sent a letter to the king. He could have tried to go to the king directly. Nobody spoke to Esther, which is a huge risk. Why? Because if Esther had been like most people, she would have simply taken the credit for herself, just by saying, listen, my husband, these two people are trying to kill you. Okay, so he confirms they're trying to kill him. That's it. He gives her the credit. He loves her more. He gives her another castle. That's it. Most people, when you tell them, "Listen, do me a favor. Tell your boss that he has to do this, this, and this to save himself a big headache," will go to the boss and say, "Hey boss, by the way, we had a good idea. You should do this, this, and this. Save yourself." "Oh, thank you so much. Did somebody tell you about this?" "No, no, no, we came up with it. We just thought of it. We love you; that's why we're helping you out." People usually take the credit for themselves. Esther doesn't do that. This is also divinely inspired.

1:36:58HaKadosh Baruch Hu makes sure that Mordechai tells this to the only person who is not going to betray him. Now, even if Esther doesn't mean to betray him, but simply tells the king, "Listen, these people are trying to kill you." And she just simply forgets to mention that Mordechai told her by accident. That doesn't happen. Better yet, what if the king is like most people? He doesn't have a book. He doesn't have a journal to remind himself of all the good people in his life. Who has such a book? Do you have such a book of all the nice people, all the things that people did for you? The rabbi saved my life. Did you write that in the book? No. My mom gave birth to me. Did you write that in the book? No. My father gave me a loan. Did you write that in the book? No. Most people don't remember anything, and sometimes they simply rely on their memory but conveniently forget when it's necessary. Here, the king, the non-Jewish king, has a special book to remember all the people who did good for him. This is divinely inspired. This is something the king started many years before.

1:38:16You think, oh yeah, he's, uh, you know, he's very, uh, kind and, uh, he wants to make sure to show people what he said. This guy, he's not a tzaddik. Why does he have a special book to say thank you to people? Why does he need to socialize with them? He needs them to like him. Now, he's a king; he's got the top power. He doesn't need anybody to like him. needs people to fear him, so it's not like he needs this book in order for people to like him. He's got this book. Why? Because those who gave him this idea to have this book to write all types of people who did good for him, because one day one of those names, out of countless names, is going to matter. Why? That name is going to save the entire Jewish people. So the thought process... that HaKadosh Baruch Hu instills into the mind of Achashverosh to have this journal, to have this book that accumulates names of the few people that he wants to do good for because they did good to him. The whole thing is for the sake of Mordechai's name appearing there one day. Now, usually when a king gets good from somebody, when a leader gets good from somebody, right away he gives them something good, buys them a house, gives them a car. In that case, we'll give them horses, give them a bunch of gold. In this case, who makes this king that apparently spends an extra amount of effort to remember the good that people do good for him to forget?

1:39:28...gets good from somebody. When a leader receives benefits from someone, they immediately give something in return. They might buy them a house or give them a car. In certain cases, they would give horses or a bunch of gold. In this case, who is it that makes this king, who apparently goes to great lengths to remember the good that people do for him, forget? reward the very same people that are in the book. Why do you have this whole book just to remember, and you forget? Yes, why forget? Oh, because you forgot for a week, you forgot for a month, you forgot for six months. Are you eventually going to remember nine years later? He finally remembered after nine years. You remembered? I mean, even if you remember, listen... I'm sure there are other people who have been written in this book over the past nine years. So many others, apparently, are trying to curry favor with the king that it has already filled so many pages that you wouldn't even remember whom you forgot nine years later.

1:40:42Why? HaKadosh Baruch Hu designed it in such a way that no matter how many names are added to this book and how many millions and millions of dollars are given to all of the people that are in this book because they did good for the king, there's one guy that's never going to be forgotten. He's never going to be paid. Until the exact moment that it matters to save Am Yisrael, the cure of HaKadosh Baruch Hu comes before the decree of... When a person delves, this is just the beginning of the Megillah. Imagine if we went into the entire Megillah. Literally, you have to spend a lifetime going into every detail of the story and you realize this is not a storybook. The Megillah is not a storybook. The Megillah is showing us how to see Hakadosh Baruch Hu in our life today.

1:41:51when you're going through a crisis, when you are lonely, when you're broke, when you're missing things, when you need things, when you're struggling, HaKadosh Baruch Hu is saying, yes, you are, and I'm the one that did it. Why did I do it? Because that's part of the cure. Yeah, but it hurts. Of course, it hurts. That's the point. because the more you hurt, the more likely you are to cry out to me so I could finally show you, ah, now you're calling me. Here I am. Here I am. Now I'm going to show you my cards, just like we saw in last week's Parashat Ki Tisa, where after the golden calf, the horrible thing, the horrible thing the Erev Rav influenced Am Yisrael to do, either worshipping the golden calf or not rebuking them. Regardless, everybody got punished; some people got punished with the sword because they actually worshipped the golden calf after being warned not to. Some people were not warned and they worshipped the golden calf, so they died in the plague. But some people...

1:43:07they had thoughts, maybe we should join them. They didn't go and actually worship the Golden Calf, but they thought maybe we should join all of these people that are celebrating idolatry. Maybe we should join all these people that are destroying people's lives with all types of corrupt businesses. Maybe we should join all of these people that are walking around acting immodestly—it looks like fun. All of those people that thought that the shem reshaim (name of the wicked) were right. when they drank the bitter waters that Moshe gave them, they died, just like the Sotah. But after all of this transpired, who is pleading for Am Yisrael, telling HaKadosh Baruch Hu, "Please don't destroy them, don't destroy them," and HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, "Because you fought for Am Yisrael, because you fought for Am Yisrael, because you spoke good about My kids, even though I told you I'll destroy them and start a whole new nation from you, you don't lose out of the whole thing," but you said, "No, Hashem, if you're going to destroy them, destroy me first."

1:44:10They're kids. They're foolish, but they're still Your kids. Don't destroy them. If You destroy them, destroy me first. Because you did that, my little Moshe Rabbeinu, I'm going to give you something that no man has ever had before or after. He had the light of HaKadosh Baruch Hu, the light of the Shechinah on his face. That's the reason why his face shone so much, because he defended Am Yisrael at a time there was no argument to defend Am Yisrael. Who is he defending Am Yisrael for? He's defending against HaKadosh Baruch Hu. Now, of course, the whole thing was a test, but Moshe Rabbeinu didn't know it was a test. And after that, Moshe Rabbeinu says to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, "Since I passed the test, You want to give me a gift? Show me Your honor. Show me Your honor. Show me, show me how You run this world." Show me how you run this world, how you do what you do. You can see my back, but you can't see my front, can't see my face. What does that mean? I have a face as I have a back, not like the heretics say that He has an arm. He doesn't have. Anyone that says that physical features are 100 percent a means an apikores, has no share of the world to come.

1:45:33Who says to Moshe Rabbeinu, you can see my back, meaning everything I've already done and completed? What happened to the generation of Noach? What happened to Avraham, Yitzchak, Yaakov? Why did I do what I did? All that, I can show you. But the future, my face, the future, you're not going to understand. I showed you Rabbi Akiva. I showed you his life. I showed you he's a Ba'al Teshuva. I showed you how he became Gadol HaDor at 120 years old. He had tens of thousands of students. He loses everything, rebuilds everything. He's the greatest. And then the Goyim slaughter him and sell his meat in the market. You're not going to understand why I did what I did. You're not going to understand because I haven't finished the job yet. But everything I already finished, everything I did in the past, I can show you that you can understand. Here HaKadosh Baruch Hu is showing us in the Megillah, literally small little details that are told like a simple story. But in reality, the details that are in there are simply life-changing.

1:46:40Who is showing us, "Look, I hid my face, I hid myself throughout the entire Megillah. However, in reality, if you pay attention, I am in every single letter, every single word, every single sentence, every single paragraph, every single event. There had to be divine inspiration for each and every single event to happen in order for the story to be what it is." The same concept applies to our lives. Why is he saying all of this in the Megillah, where you don't see his name? Because sometimes when you're dealing with hardship in your life, and you're lonely, miserable, in pain, and suffering, and whatever you're dealing with in your life, you feel alone. Hashem says, "Look, I wasn't explicitly named in the Megillah, but if you studied it, you saw me all over the place." You don't feel Me in your life. That's because you're not looking for Me in the right place. You're not looking for Me. You're looking elsewhere. You're looking for something new. You're looking for something far. You're looking for something over the mountains and across the ocean. But in reality, I'm right in front of you.

1:47:50because you're not looking, you're not finding, and you're finding yourself alone. But if you look in the right place with the right perspective and realize that it's all in your hands, it's all in your lips, it's all in your heart because I put it in there at Har Sinai. I put it in there before the evil decree came. The cure already existed before the decree, and all I'm asking you to do is cry out to HaKadosh Baruch Hu and believe that He is with you. Because the moment you feel like you don't have HaKadosh Baruch Hu with you, you have just nullified the entire Torah. It's worse than any possible thing you could ever do. That's why avodah zarah is so horrible—it's believing in a nothing, it's replacing everything, replacing HaKadosh Baruch Hu. everything of everything with absolutely nothing. And the same thing goes when a person does not believe that Hashem is with them. When a person does not believe that Hashem is helping them. When a person does not believe that Hashem is the one doing every single thing in their life. When you do not feel Hashem, you are violating your relationship with HaKadosh Baruch Hu. So the whole purpose of this Tzetil Katan

1:49:09is to put us in the right perspective to look at the Torah and realize that's where God is; you're not going to find it anywhere else better than you're going to find it in the Torah. You don't need a different this and a different that; it's right in front of you. But if you do not have the right perspective, even if you read a million books and watched a million videos and spoke to a million people, if you're looking in the wrong place, you're not going to find it. If you read the Megillah a thousand times, but you don't look at the details, the few small details we just simply told you today, You wouldn't know that Hashem was even part of all of that. You would think this is just part of life happening. Part of life happening that two people wanted to kill the king. And it happened to be a coincidence that Mordechai heard it. And it happened to be a coincidence that he understood their language. And it happened to be a coincidence that he told the king. And it happened to be a coincidence that this happened and that happened.

1:50:18Big coincidence? There is no coincidence. It's all divinely inspired. It's all divinely structured. It's all drawn. Just like when you go to the aquarium, you see the different beautiful fish. This one has this shape and that one has that shape. And this one has these colors, and that one has those colors. And then you go to a different species of animals. the various species that exist, each in unique shapes, sizes, and colors, and all of the beauty encapsulated in this artwork we call the world. You're certainly not capable of seeing or comprehending like HaKadosh Baruch Hu, because my ways are not your ways, and my thoughts are not your thoughts, just as you cannot even quantify. the different types of species that are out there in different shapes and sizes and colors, and all of the beauty that He put in this artwork you call the world. You're certainly not going to ever be able to see and think just like HaKadosh Baruch Hu thinks because my mind does not work like your mind; my thoughts do not work like your thoughts. Just like you cannot even quantify

1:51:29The amount of things, the variety of things that HaKadosh Baruch Hu has put into this world, literally, you go to an aquarium, you go to a zoo, you go and see nature, you see the different flowers, the different butterflies, different things that are in the world, you see literally there's an infinite amount of variety in the world that HaKadosh Baruch Hu has literally drawn, and everything is beautiful. And we cannot even quantify how much there is. You just look at the human body. You see how many different types of cells and how many different jobs each one has. If one does not do its job, the whole system breaks. Literally, the amount of structure... and we cannot even quantify how much there is. You just look at the human body. You see how many different types of cells there are and how many different jobs each one has. And if one of them does not do its job, the whole system breaks down. Literally, the amount of structure That you have the mind of intelligent design you have in the smallest cell is literally infinite, infinite, infinite. And HaKadosh Baruch Hu says to us, just like you cannot understand the infinite, you will never fully understand the magnitude of creation or the Creator Himself. The smallest cell can have on your life. The smallest butterfly can have on your life. The smallest zebra or fish or whatever it is—that's how you simply cannot understand how big the world is. You're never going to be able to understand how big HaKadosh Baruch Hu is.

1:52:41But if you look for Him, you will find Him, and you will find Him in your language, in your heart, and in the way that you need Him to be, just like the Tzitzit Katan says. If you review your connection to HaKadosh Baruch Hu... his Torah every single day and you look at it like it's new, like a brand new child, like a baby, like the cherubim—the cherubs that were on top of the Aron Hakodesh. They're two little children. Why? Because HaKadosh Baruch Hu wants Am Yisrael to be like two little children that are always crying to Hashem, wanting more answers. Kids want all the answers; they always ask for more. Adults often think they know everything, but children seek answers. Hashem says if you're going to look at My Torah every single day like it's brand new... like you've never seen it before, even if you've read this book a thousand times. You review it every single day and look at it from your own language, trying to sanctify yourself every single day. First and foremost, you must know that you must sanctify yourself, and second, by staying away from all immorality. You will find HaKadosh Baruch Hu in the deepest of the deepest problems and blessings that you have. But if you can't see Hashem...

1:53:53It's all because you haven't done any of this. You think you know it all. You think you did it all. You think you looked everywhere. You looked everywhere and you couldn't find it. It's like going to the ocean and standing on the beach and saying that you can't find sand. HaKadosh Baruch Hu is everywhere. But if you can't find Him, because you didn't do what the Satan says, you came in there thinking you know everything, thinking you did everything, and therefore there's no hope. You're right, with that kind of attitude there is no hope. But if you look at what they are telling us, hope is your decision. You look at the Torah... the way you're supposed to look at it, and you'll see Hashem everywhere. Just like we saw Hashem in so many places, just in the first few verses of Megillat Esther, imagine if we had the time to go through the entire Megillah, line by line, word by word, how many more places we can find Hashem in. Imagine you went and did the same exercise in your life,

1:55:22Line by line, day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute, how many places you will find Hashem. So the only one that agrees with you that Hashem is not there in your problems, in your difficulties, is the Satan that instilled that argument in your mind. Because he's trying to convince you that you're alone and therefore you should leave everything and go in a different direction. If you're listening to this, it's because the Kadosh Baruch Hu has mercy on you and is trying to remind you that it's not too late to turn back around and go in the right direction. And B'ezrat Hashem, you do. Thank you very much for learning with me. We will all succeed in getting and staying on the right path with Hashem, getting closer and closer to Him every single day and continuing to grow each day on the same right path that we've been on.

1:56:43And finding even greater diamonds on that same path. May Hashem bless all of you to succeed in that journey. And Be'ezrat Hashem, we will continue to show more and more people the same thing. Anyone that wants to support and help the organization, whether it's the distributions that we have, the books we're publishing, all the amazing things that the organization is doing, fighting the different battles, you can donate on Be'ezratHashem.org. And for those of you that are asking about some of the channels that have been taken down as a result of the whole hack, the kids' channel, the Teshuvah Music channel, the Chinese channel, and also the Netherlands channel, we still haven't been able to get them back yet, but, B'ezrat Hashem, we have a plan in motion to get something out, B'ezrat Hashem, very, very soon. So we're still working on it, but hopefully, we'll have some type of results in the coming week or two, B'ezrat Hashem, if not sooner. School of Mitzvot, bracha ve'hatzlacha, and b'ezrat Hashem, we'll learn again soon. Kol Tov.

1:58:04I bless the rabbis, Rabbi Yaron Reuven and Rabbi Efraim Kahlon, the leaders of the group with God's help. May Hashem bless you. May Hashem bless you.