Torah Basics Explained: Jewish Torah Mysticism

0:10It's very, very important to have a strong foundation. It's very important to have a strong foundation where you know for sure what's the truth. You need to know for sure what is the truth. If you don't know what the truth is, you have to exert every little bit of effort that you have, every ounce of blood, sweat, and tears that you have chasing that truth. To such an extent that Shlomo HaMelech said, you have to chase it like you chase treasure. You have to chase it like you chase treasure. Why? That's the only way Shlomo HaMelech said, that's the only way you'll arrive at Yirat Shamayim—by chasing the truth like it's treasure. If I told you, listen, I hid 20 million dollars somewhere in Florida. Hint, it's in Hollywood. You guys, what are you going to do? You're going to leave the shul in the middle, and you're going to start looking for the 20 million bucks. You start digging under the house, under the fridge, under this. You start digging everywhere. You start getting excavators and everything. Why? There's 20 million dollars. I'm going to surprise you at the end. Surprise at the end. I have to do whatever I can to get it. Shlomo HaMelech, the smartest man of all time, the wisest man of all time, says, Da Torah, you have to chase it like you chase treasure. It's the only way to get it.

1:30But this is why, for all of those people that are still convinced that Torah is full of Care Bears, it's full of gummy bears, it's full of nice things. Baruch Hashem, Hashem Yitbarach gave us this week's parasha, Parashat Bechukotai. And Parashat Bechukotai, there's no mistake about it. There's no two ways of reading it. because people, for example, like Asher Meza, hate the Zohar. They hate the Zohar, and people like him, many of these Zionist-type mentality people, modern Orthodox-type mentality, they hate the Zohar. They hate the mystical aspects and try to reject it in many ways, in many cases even insult it, which is completely stupid regardless, and even if it's not... Even if it's not, even if it is, it's still not something you would insult because there are enough geniuses who were Kodesh Kodashim in the world who accepted it. If Rabbi Ovadia accepted it, if the Steipler Gaon accepted it, if the Vilna Gaon accepted it, if the Arizal accepted it, you're better than them?

2:39You're better than the Arizal. You're better than the Chafetz Chaim. You're better than Rehoboam. You're better than all these people. You, in the year 2018 to the Christian calendar, you figured it out. You figured it out all along. You're the one. That's it. Everyone was waiting for you to say, "Oh, this is not good." You came from Y University. They taught you. Why are you over there? Yeah, yeah. The Arizal doesn't have anything on you. You're better than him. The Vilna Gaon, you're better than him too. Rehoboam, you're better than him. You're better than all of them. with your five years of education, you're better than all of them. The 20 books that you read, the 30 books that you read, you're better than all of them. The level of chutzpah that people have is simply ridiculous. They think now that because our regular people Because our regular people, I knew it is written that they are the Bnei Yisrael. He says these people are purely donkeys, people that think that the sages were regular people and that they would make the same mistakes like us are simply donkeys. They're not fulfilling all mitzvot, and they don't count them for a minyan even. These people are donkeys. They're not regular people now.

3:58The Chida says the Torah has four parts. It's called Pardes. Pardes is an acronym for Pshat, Remez, Drash, and Sod. Pshat is the simple meaning of the Torah. You read the Five Books of Moses, and you have the Pshat. Simple meaning of what it says. Moshe took Am Yisrael from Egypt and brought them to Mount Sinai. That's the Pshat. Remez is you're gonna learn different things that are hinted at. For example, when it says "Vayhi" in Parashat Beshalach, the verse starts with the word "Vayhi." We know from the Chachamim that "Vayhi" is like "Oy vey," bad news, something happened. What happened, we learn. Drash, Drash is like the Midrashim, Midrashim are things that are behind the scenes, and so on.

5:00sod is secret. Secret mystical things, angels coming down, angels going up—all this mystical stuff. A lot of people like it. Some people hate it, like they hate cancer. Specifically, people from the Modern Orthodox world. For some reason or another, some of them—obviously not all of them—are allergic to mystical Judaism and whatever reason or another. Apparently, these people, these types of mentality that hated mystical Judaism, have been around for a long time. So, the Chida says that the Torah without the sod, without the sod, the last part instead of Pardes is just Pered. What's Pered? Tanki. The Torah without mysticism is not Torah.

6:00Mystical aspects of the Torah are not a part of the Torah. They are the Torah. The entire Torah is mystical. The entire Gemara is mystical. The entire Five Books of Moses are mystical. There's nothing natural about our Torah. Nothing. Why do you think that it's natural that Avraham Avinu is willing to slaughter his kid that he waited for for a hundred years? You think that's natural? That a person came from nothing, Hashem created him and called him man? And then He took his rib and made a wife out of it. You think that's natural? That Hashem took a man, his wife, his three kids, and their wives, put them into a little boat, a little submarine with some animals, and started the whole world anew from them. You think that's natural? that Hashem made the number one most powerful civilization in history, Egypt, that the entire world was paying them taxes. The entire world was a slave to them. He made them into the slave and the slave into the master. You think that's natural? You think there's anything that's not mystical about it? You think that the 10 plagues are natural? You think that Mount Sinai is natural? Hashem opened up the seven heavens. Or even us getting the Torah. Even Hashem talking to man.

7:12Even the simplest of all prophets, the last of all prophets, is Yechezkel. He saw things that are in Shamayim. You think that's natural? That's not mystical? The entire Torah is mystical. You think that if a rabbi prays for a certain person and the person is healed, you think that's natural? I'm not talking about 2,000 years ago. I'm talking about today. Today I'm talking about. Miracles you see every single day. Every single day you see the fact that you exist, the fact that you have these two little balloons and you call them eyes, and they work. And they clean themselves, and they wash themselves, and they're thinner than a balloon, and they move wherever you need them to move. You think that's natural? No, that's physiology. That's your physics. There's nothing natural about physics. There's nothing natural about your body. There's nothing natural about anything. There's nothing natural. If you're not believing in mysticism, it's pretty much like you're not believing in reality. Mystical Judaism, mystical Torah, is reality. It's like somebody saying, "I don't believe in gravity." Okay, you know what? Let's test it out. Jump out of a plane. Let's see what happens.

8:37out of the first, second, third, fourth, or fifth floor, depending on how many floors you have, jump out. Let's see what happens. We don't believe in gravity, so it's not going to happen, right? So, all of these people that he died are saying these people are just simply donkeys. I'm not saying you have to advocate for it. I'm not saying you should even teach it. Quite frankly, I don't think most people should learn it because most people don't understand that. They need to start with ABC. They need to start with Parashat HaShavua. They need to start with Moshe Rabbeinu. They need to start with Avraham Avinu. Basic parasha with Rashi. Then, after that, we start learning some basics of halacha. How do I conduct my day? Then, after that, we start learning a little bit of Gemara. Then, we start learning some of the roots of it. You go to Shulchan Aruch, you go to Mishnah, and so on and so forth. You learn Mussar, and so on and so forth. Mystical parts of Judaism are going to come anyway along the way. But to go and spend your time learning the Zohar, unless you're an expert of experts and everything I just mentioned plus ten times more, you shouldn't touch it because you're not going to understand it anyway. So, I'm not saying everyone should learn it, and I'm not saying anyone should teach it.

9:58To say you simply don't believe in it and it's nonsense, and it's heresy, and it's not Judaism—all of these things are completely ridiculous. It's a ridiculous notion. It's an egotistical notion because you're thinking you're greater than all of the giants that came before you that did believe in it. So, you're saying you're bigger than the Baba Sali? You're saying you're bigger than the Steipler Gaon? You're bigger than Rav Moshe Feinstein? You're bigger than the Chafetz Chaim, the Chida, the Arizal, the Vilna Gaon, Rabbi Akiva? You're bigger than all of them? That's it? Everyone, the whole world was waiting for you? Okay, maybe you're Mashiach. If you're Mashiach, save us. Save us and that's it. Why are we even suffering anymore? That's it. Why do we have to study Torah? Just come save us and be finished. That's the thing about it: a person needs to know that if there's something they don't understand in the Torah, it's not because the Torah is lacking. It's because we are lacking. We are lacking. You don't understand because you didn't learn hard enough. You don't believe because your brain is full of too much; your neshamah is infested with spiritual garbage and...

11:14Now, if you were going to have a special guest coming to your house, Mashiach was invited to your house. Okay, Mashiach called you and said, "Listen, I'm coming over." Okay, wife, kids, everybody shower, everybody clean, everybody this, everybody that. The walls have to be painted. The ground has to be redone. Everything has to be done. All of a sudden, we're only an hour away. Your little kid runs outside, plays in the mud, in the rain, in the mud, in the rain, in the mud, in the rain, and he comes, and the Mashiach comes inside, and the kid with the mud on his face like this is going, What are you going to do with the kid? You're going to grab the kid, put him in the shower, and start spraying him. You can't look like this next to the Mashiach. You're filthy, disgusting with all this mud on you. It's cute for us, but not in front of the Mashiach. It's cute, but not in front of the Mashiach, not in front of the special guest. Hashem wants to give you a ḥiddush. When Hashem wants to give you the Holy Torah, you can't come to Him filthy with sins. If you're filthy with sins, if you're infested with sins, you can't come to Him and say, "Oh yeah, Hashem, that ḥiddush you wanted to give me. You know there's ḥiddushim in Shamayim for everybody; that ḥiddush, give it to me now." What — give it to you now? You just wasted seed, you just stole some money, you just looked at a girl that's not your wife, you just did this — you want me to give you a ḥiddush?

12:40You're lucky you're still alive. You cannot expect to learn Torah if you're infested with sins. Now, all of these people that have their own opinion, I'm going to tell you, no. Why? I read, you read. I read, you read. What's the difference? We both read. Now, anyone that has an ounce of intellect knows that's complete nonsense. Many people read, but not everybody is Gadol HaDor. Many people read, but not everyone's a genius. Many people read, but not everybody remembers or understands what they read. You read and I read means nothing. You learn and I learn means nothing. You can learn for five hours, and I can learn for five minutes. I may get more than you, or the opposite. I learn for five hours, you learn for two minutes, and you get more than me. Why? Hashem gives chochmah. Moshe Rabbeinu came to Hashem after 40 days and 40 nights and said, "Hashem, everything you taught me one-on-one, you're the best chavruta in the world, but unfortunately I forgot everything. What's the point? I went, I did, I forgot everything." He says, "Continue learning and I'll gift it to you." After 40 days, He just gave him the entire Torah on a silver platter. That's how the Torah is, but if you're filthy with sins...

14:02Ga'avah and ego and your own opinion and your own this and your own that, and you think you run the world, and you think that the world cannot revolve without you. You're not getting anything; all you're getting is mistakes. Every word that comes out of your mouth is a sin. So please do us all a favor, do yourself a favor, be quiet. It's better for you. I... Better future? Be quiet. Don’t teach, or better yet, be a parrot—read what it says. You know, it's more productive anyway. But for all of those who learn, before you watch any speaker, double-check what they are saying. Where are they coming up with this stuff? Provide a source. Did anybody say before him, someone that everyone agrees is reliable? Chafetz Chaim is reliable. Okay, if I was speaking, he's reliable. I can listen to him. Well, buddy is reliable like my eyes are reliable. There are certain things that are reliable; his opinions are not reliable. It's like somebody came to a restaurant and...

15:15System is kosher here. You're asking if it's kosher. Look at the wall: Baba Sali, Chafetz Chaim, Moshe Rabbeinu, Avraham, Yitzchak, Yaakov. Look at all the pictures I have. He goes, “Hey listen, if they were here giving me the food and you were on the wall, I'd buy the food. But since it's them in the pictures and you’re here, I have to ask you, is it kosher?” They're reliable, but they're not here. They're just on the wall. That's what we have to understand before you watch any speaker, before you attend any lectures, before you read any book. Double-check, double-check. A lot of times, people send me questions, and the question itself is wrong. I ask them, "Where did you get the question from?" and they tell me, "A book." I say, "Oh yeah, look who the author is. The author is a Reform Jew, the author is Christian, the author is some guy that doesn't believe in God. The question is wrong, it's not that the answer—there's no answer. The question is wrong." and That's about it. It's important for us to know that we need to have a strong foundation. The reason why is because today, we're a דור (dor), a generation of either you're gonna be a complete צדיק (tzaddik) or a complete רשע (rasha). No more middle ground, no more 50/50. It's either you're gonna spend your entire day watching television and wasting your life, or you're gonna be doing תשובה (teshuvah). You're either gonna be continuing to make sins and justifying them, and...

16:40You're gonna find a way to do Teshuvah for the things that you did and the things you don't even remember doing. The point being is that it's time to make a choice. the choice is becoming more and more difficult to make because of all of the different tools that the Yetzer Hara is using to get us all to fail. He's using the kids, he's using wives, he's using children, he's using husbands, he's using teachers, he's using food, using major rabbis, small rabbis, local rabbis, distant rabbis, Jews, non-Jews. He's using every tool he has. Why? This is his last hurrah and This is the last chance. Last chance to destroy you. You make it now, you make it forever. Destroyed now, destroyed forever. No more teshuva. So this is critical. It's critical for all of us to learn this week's parasha. This week's parasha is Bechukotai. It's Behar and Bechukotai, but Behar is very short. Bechukotai...

17:48If you never did the mitzvah, you have to read the weekly parasha three times. You have to read it three times. If you never did it before, do it this week. Make sure you read it with commentary, and make sure you read it in the language you understand. Don't be a hero; read in Hebrew only if you know Hebrew extremely well. Meaning, you know Lashon HaKodesh. Otherwise, read it in English or Spanish or whatever language you speak. Read it in that language and read it with commentary. You have to make sure you know what it says. So when it gets to the part where it says the fifth level of sin is to get to such a level of starvation where the Am Yisrael says they're going to eat their own children, Chas VeShalom, you're going to say, "Oh wait, Yaron said that. I guess he wasn't making it up. It's actually in the Torah." it's actually in the Torah, and it's not the only place. In several other places, you need to know this stuff because this is what gets us to stop sinning.