Torah vs Biz, Halfway Jew, Basketball, Evolution, HELL, Picking Rabbi - STUMP THE RABBI (5)

0:13First and foremost, it's Lag BaOmer. Chag Lag BaOmer Sameach to everybody. One of the favorite holidays for Am Yisrael is Lag BaOmer, number one. It doesn't obligate you to do that much. But more importantly, it's a celebratory holiday where you have bonfires as in Eretz Yisrael for the most part. Every neighborhood has a few bonfires. You go on the internet, you see that so many different communities have huge bonfires. In America, we're not really allowed to do it. So usually, sometimes you'll have shuls have a little bonfire that they have to get a city permit for a month in advance. And they have to get the fire department to park their car, and it probably costs more money. ...to have a bonfire in America than to build a building. It's just because of all the permits. But one of the interesting things about the bonfires is that, for the most part, most Jewish people don't even know why we have them. Most people don't know why we have them. I mean, there are a lot of happy days for Judaism, but we don't have a bonfire on Purim. We don't have a bonfire on Shavuot. We don't have a bonfire for Pesach.

1:35We don't have a bonfire for any other holiday. But we have a bonfire for the Hilula of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai. The Hilula of Moshe Rabbeinu, we don't have a bonfire. The Hilula of Rabbi Meir Baal Haness, which was also a few days ago, no bonfire. Rabbi Akiva, the rabbi of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, no bonfire. But Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, we have a bonfire. So it's a very interesting question, which b'ezrat Hashem we will answer today. Also, a little bit of an update before we start with the questions. Baruch Hashem, there's a lot of you. I'm glad that many more of you are coming because it shows that HaKadosh Baruch Hu is happy with this amazing Torah Challenge program that we started, b'zchut our dear youth director, Michal. This is going to help the entire community do teshuva. Now, I just came back from New York a few hours ago. We had, Baruch Hashem, a lot of success over there. We did a couple of lectures in Queens and Manhattan. And Baruch Hashem, people are looking for the truth. People are looking for something a little bit different than the usual. And most people are tired of being lied to. Everyone knows that everything is not okay, but we like to pretend like it is. So when someone tells you why it's not okay, even though it requires you to change a few things to make it okay,

3:01It's a breath of fresh air. So that's hopefully what we're going to try to do again, B'ezrat Hashem, today, to give you guys a little bit of a breath of fresh air from the Torah Kedoshah, give you a little bit of insights of what Da'at Torah actually says, and I promise you, if you've never been in any of my shiurim, most likely you haven't heard any of this stuff. Even though everything that we teach, everything from Aleph to Tav, is basic level Judaism. We do not teach any secrets. We do not teach anything overly mystical. We do not teach anything that only belongs to the Kabbalistic world. We don't even teach anything that belongs to advanced learners. We teach what you are supposed to learn in Kitah Aleph. First grade, second grade, third grade, fourth grade, fifth grade. We teach basic level Judaism. The problem is that today, because we live in a politically correct world where everyone tries to be nice and doesn't want to offend people, we have reached a point where many people are afraid to tell you the truth and...

4:03And they pretend to tell you the truth by saying very nice things that agree with your life and cause you to stay exactly the same without ever thinking that you need to change and do teshuva. Now I could tell all of you, regardless of whether you're wearing a big hat and you're one of my students for a couple of years, or you're wearing a small kippah that you just put on for the kavod haMakom and you take it off when you leave. Regardless, all of you have to do teshuva. And I'm one of them. I also have to do teshuva. All of us have to do teshuva. If you don't think that you have to do teshuva, that's alone another reason why you have to do teshuva. Somebody came to the Ramban Nachmanides, almost 900 years ago. He said, "How come I have to say vidui? How come I have to say vidui every day? You know the Sephardim say it twice a day. The Ashkenazim, it depends where you live in the world. If it's in Israel, also twice a day. If it's in America, sometimes nothing. It depends because there are different minhagim. But vidui says, 'I'm sorry Hashem, I did this and I did that and I did this and...'"

5:06So the guy comes to the Ramban and he says, "I didn't do all this stuff. I didn't lie. I didn't cheat. I didn't murder. I didn't do this. I didn't do that. I didn't do all the stuff that it says. Why am I saying I'm sorry for it?" So the Ramban tells him, "You see, you think you didn't do it." You think you didn't do all this stuff, but that only means that you don't understand what you're saying. You read the language, you read the words, but you actually don't understand what you're saying. If you understood what these words mean, you'd realize not only are you guilty of every single one of them, but you have to do teshuva for the stupidity of thinking you don't have to do teshuva. Most of us don't think we have to change. And the reason why is because our life is okay for the most part. Most of us have a few shekels in our pocket. We have a roof over our heads. We have food to eat, sometimes for free, sometimes we have to pay for it, but either way, we have it. No one's starving, no one's going to sleep hungry. Am Yisrael is very rich. We're the richest we've ever been other than the time of Shlomo HaMelech. But that's also part of the problem. So what we try to do is we have to remind ourselves of what HaKadosh Baruch Hu says when He gives us blessings. Instead of us getting closer to Him, we sometimes get further from Him.

6:21because we think that everything is okay. So my goal today is to do the same thing I did in New York, the same thing we've been doing here for the last four or five years, which is to try to answer any and every question that you guys have, for the purpose of giving you a little chizuk, for the purpose of giving you a little bit of strength to overcome your yetzer hara, to get closer to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, to do more mitzvot willingly. Not because you have to, not because it's going to make your mommy and daddy happy, not because you think it's going to make any difference in my life or anybody else's life. The whole goal is for you to understand that you need it. which is to try to answer any and every question that you guys have, for the purpose of giving you a little chizuk, for the purpose of giving you a little bit of strength to overcome your yetzer hara, to get closer to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, to do more mitzvot willingly. Not because you have to, not because it's going to make your mommy and daddy happy, not because you think it's going to make any difference in my life or anybody else's life. The whole goal is for you to understand that you need it. You need to do teshuva. I need to do teshuva. Everybody needs to do it, but you need to do it for yourself. Not to impress your friends, or hopefully to find a shidduch, or maybe because if you do teshuva you're going to get a million dollars. Not for that reason. You have to do teshuva simply because you have to realize that you have an obligation to your Creator. Everyone has to realize they have an obligation to their Creator. If you believe that there is a Creator, you believe that there's a HaKadosh Baruch Hu,

7:21And that HaKadosh Baruch Hu gives you everything and anything that you have. The least you can do is comply with what He's asking you to do. Now, He says in next week's parasha, if you go with My laws, He gives you all types of blessings. Even war you won't have to worry about. Your enemies are going to run from you. One of you can beat a thousand of them. But He says, if you don't go with My laws, if you don't go with My laws, Then He gives us over 40 different verses detailing exactly what happened during the Holocaust without missing a beat. All types of horrible, disastrous things. Now, who wants such a problem? So it's much easier to just comply and just do the laws. The problem is that most of us don't know the laws. Most of us don't even know that we're obligated to fulfill the laws. And that's my goal. My goal is to, first and foremost, if anyone has a safek, has a doubt whether God exists, ask those kinds of questions.

8:26We have to get out of here today knowing for sure that there's a God. Not believing. Knowing. Knowing for sure that HaKadosh Baruch Hu exists. Second thing is we have to come out of here knowing for sure that the Torah is the only document in the world that HaKadosh Baruch Hu gave to the world. There's no other document. There's nothing else. Torah HaKedosha. There's the written Torah. There's the oral Torah. Ask questions like that. Number three. make sure you ask questions about specific things that you perhaps have a problem with, things that you're struggling with that perhaps you don't think you have to do, or maybe you think you should do but you're not really sure you have to. Whether it's business or it's personal, or it's embarrassing or it's not embarrassing, don't be embarrassed. Trust me when I tell you, I've heard it all by now. I've heard all types of wonderful questions, all types of problems, all types of issues. We try to help every single one. Now, The last but not least thing, Baruch Hashem, we got a few copies of Rabbi Ephraim's, our Rabbi's, new book, Bar Yochai. It's the piyut, Bar Yochai. This is one of the most famous songs that Am Yisrael has today, and most families that have Kiddush, that sing songs after Kiddush, sing this song, Bar Yochai. But most people, like I said,

9:45don't actually know what they're actually saying. So Rabbi Ephraim Shakhiyah put a fantastic book together, giving detailed commentary on the book. Now it's in Hebrew only, and it's in high-level Hebrew, so I only recommend it for people that are already very well learned in the Torah, and not just someone that knows how to pronounce words. Not to insult anyone, it's just not going to be useful for you. It's not going to be useful for you to just look at the words because you like the way they look. I gave it to a couple of people that are Israelis in their 50s and 60s. They looked at it, and they didn't know what they were looking at. So it's not even a matter of whether you know Hebrew. It's actually whether you know Torah, you know Lashon HaKodesh. So it's a very high level. But Baruch Hashem, this came out, which also means that Be'ezrat Hashem, we're going to work on it over these next several months. And Be'ezrat Hashem, by this next year, we'll have it translated to English. We'll have it translated to English, so that's going to help anybody that wants to read it in the English language, b'ezrat Hashem. Without further ado, please ask any question you want. And as you all know, the objective is to ask questions that mean something to you. It doesn't necessarily have to mean something to everybody else, but it has to mean something to you. And if you ask a question that I don't have an answer for, it doesn't mean there isn't an answer.

11:08Don't get worried. Don't think that the Torah doesn't have an answer. It just means I don't have the answer. And as a gesture of apology to you, I'll give you 50 bucks. So I'm sorry that I don't know enough. But if HaKadosh Baruch Hu gives me the insight and I know all your questions, then you come back next week and try to figure out another way to ask another question that maybe I don't know. So, who wants to start? Usually, when the camera's off, everybody has a question. Camera's on, nobody has a question, everybody's mute. Last week we were here, or Sunday, Sunday we were here late. Last week, we were here until, I think, what, one, two o'clock in the morning? Asking questions. The second shiur outside was longer than the first shiur. Okay, since none of you have questions, I'll start off with a question. Why do we actually light a fire on Lag BaOmer? Anybody have an idea? Why fire? Why can't we have a barbecue? We have barbecues, but that's not the chag. Why do we light a fire? Why do we light a bonfire? The kids in Israel collect wood for a couple of weeks. All over Yerushalayim, all over Netanya, they collect little pieces of wood from garbage pails and from the woods to collect it, to burn the whole thing in one day. I remember when I was a kid, we used to love it. The whole night the fire is burning, we put some potatoes on there.

12:34It's a lot of fun. Unfortunately, we don't have that in America, but nonetheless, most of you, I'm assuming, realize that there is a fire connected to this chag. The question is, why? No, who wants to volunteer an answer? You had your hand raised. Go ahead. So I believe it's because of that fire that the Kabbalah gives you, and that he created the Kabbalah on Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai's yahrzeit. They light a fire representing his efforts and all his work. And we use fire specifically because it's a tool of Hashem, and Hashem gave him that. Kind of like it symbolizes that Hashem gave him the effort. That's my opinion. Nice answer. It's a nice answer. It's not the right answer, but it's a nice answer. No, it's not the answer. It's not true, but it could be. It could be. It could be that. No, who else wants to volunteer? Usually you have some answers. No, go ahead. I have a question. Oh, a question. Yeah, a question. Okay. How big do the words have to be in the mezuzah? How big do the words have to be in the mezuzah? Yeah. They can be different sizes. There's no specific size. There are big mezuzot, and there are small mezuzot. I mean, there's a minhag to have a standard size mezuzah. Most mezuzot have the same size, but actually, the mekubalim, for example, write in very big letters. Like, if you come to my house one day,

13:55You're going to see in my house, on the front door, there's a very big mezuzah. Usually, they have it on big batei knesset or big buildings. But this mezuzah, this mezuzah I got from my very, very learned kabbalist, that even if you gave me half a million dollars, I wouldn't give it to you. That's the kind of mezuzah. But this mezuzah is about twice the size of your normal mezuzah. What about the parchment? The klaf? That's exactly what I'm talking about. I'm not talking about the casing. I'm talking about the piece of parchment, yes. It has to be the size of a fingernail. It's a nice thing, but the mezuzah, there's different opinions. And there is a common opinion that it can be a large size. For example, my mezuzah is, like I said, double the size of a normal one. If you go to the Kotel HaMa'aravi, the mezuzah is a size a little bit bigger than your arm over there. And it's not just the casing. The mezuzah itself is big. The mezuzah itself is big. They don't care about the casing, it doesn't mean anything. The casing doesn't mean anything. In the old days, there wasn't a casing. In the old days, they would just put the mezuzah itself. But because it would get damaged, they started putting a casing later on. But back to our question of why do we light fire on Lag BaOmer. Okay, so does anybody know the story of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai going into the cave? Everybody heard the story?

15:22Yes, no, you with me? You with your phones? You with the hot dogs? You guys asking? I know this stuff, so I don't have to ask the questions. I'm asking you so you can learn. Okay, so here's the story. Gemara Masechet Shabbat, page 33b. If you're already going to come, you might as well learn. If you want to chit-chat and hang out, you can go outside. This is not school. You don't have to be here. We're trying to get you guys to learn so it helps you. And B'ezrat Hashem helps all of us. But if you're going to chit-chat, you're going to hang out, you're not going to really be interested, and for what? Gemara Masechet Shabbat says that Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai was sitting and talking to a couple of other Tannaim, a couple of the other Gedolei HaDor. And they had a conversation. Now, of course, Chachamim always talk about Divrei Torah, they don't talk about the mundane. They don't talk about you know, what do you think of sports? What do you think of this LeBron James' new contract? What do you think of the stock market? That's not the conversation they have. They have things that they connect to the Torah HaKedoshah. But this conversation was slightly different because one of the Chachamim says that Rabbi Yehuda says, "Look at all of the buildings that the Romans built."

16:33Look at all these buildings they built, the bathhouses they built, the toll roads they built. Wow, this is amazing that they did it. This is the will of Hashem. This is the will of Hashem. If Hashem let them build it, this is the will of Hashem, right? Rabbi Yossi didn't say anything, but Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai went in the exact opposite direction. He said, no, no, absolutely not. These Romans are reshaim. These Romans are wicked. These Romans are idol worshippers. And the only reason why they built what they built is not... ...help the people, but rather to help themselves. They built the bridges in order to collect more tolls. They built the markets in order to fool more people into buying things they don't need. They built the bathhouses in order to promote more promiscuity and prostitution. They built it for their own needs; they didn't build it for the people. So now, at that time, there was a... young man that was sitting next to them, a convert, was sitting next to them who didn't know right from left, but he overheard the conversation. He was excited about listening to a conversation of three of the biggest rabbis in the world. He started telling, you know, he told some of his family members and his friends, not realizing that this is not a conversation you spread to other people because you're talking about the Malchut, talking about the government. So now, after he told one person, one person told two people, two people told three people, and the next thing you know, it got to the government.

18:01The Caesar heard this, he said, "What? Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai said," that we did this for ourselves, he's talking against us, put a bounty on his head, death penalty. Death penalty, kill him, whoever catches him first, death penalty, you get a reward for it. This also teaches us, by the way, as a side note, if you ever want something to be a secret, don't tell anyone, literally anyone. As soon as you tell your secret to one person, it is no longer a secret, and it's only a matter of time before the exact person that you don't want knowing the secret will find out. So now Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai heard that there's a gezeira, a decree on his head and on his son, so they ran away and they went to hide in a cave. Now Hashem obviously protects the tzaddikim, so He made a few miracles happen. As soon as they got to the cave, they didn't have enough time to pack bags and bring stuff with them. They just ran away. So they didn't have any food, didn't have any clothes, didn't have anything. They just got there. Now, what are we going to do for food? Hashem miraculously makes a tree, a carob tree, grow out of the ground, completely with the fruits. Now, anyone that knows about carob trees, the Gemara says it takes 70 years—70 years for a carob tree to actually get to the point of bearing its fruit. This happened in one second, just like in Maaseh Bereishit, just like in the beginning of the world.

19:26Second thing is for water: Hashem created a river out of thin air, out of nothing, just a river came right next to the cave. So it allowed Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai and his son to hide and learn Torah in peace, and over there Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai learned an immense amount of Torah. They gave a lot of kavod for the Torah to the extent that they knew if they were going to be in this cave for a while, their clothes were going to get ruined. And since they didn't have a second outfit, what they did is they made a big hole in the ground, took off their clothes, went inside the hole, covered themselves in sand, and that way their privates were covered, their bodies were covered, and they could learn Torah all day without ruining their clothes. Anytime they had to pray, or it was Shabbat, they would come out of the hole and put their clothes on. That way, the clothes would actually last longer. Now, This obviously wasn't exactly the healthiest thing to do to their bodies, and later on, when they came out of the cave, they had a lot of scars and bruises and damage and things of that nature. But the point being is that they knew how important it is to not only learn Torah but also give kavod for the Torah. That's why I always tell people that if you're ever going to go to a shiur Torah,

20:38Don't bother to go to the shiur Torah if you're going to play with your phone. Why? Because even if you listen to the shiur Torah, but you're actually desecrating the Torah by playing with your phone, you're making a sin at the same time that you're making a mitzvah. Meaning they both go in the garbage. So you're wasting your time. So the key is that Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai knew, and he's teaching us, that kavod for the Torah is even more important than the actual learning of Torah. And the reason why is because if you learn Torah without having kavod, without having honor for the Torah, your Torah is considered something we're not allowed to learn. we're not allowed to learn. Why? It's a Torah that's not from Shamayim. But if your Torah has kavod, then HaKadosh Baruch Hu will give you a healthy and beautiful Torah. That's why the Gemara in Masechet Moed Katan says that someone that's arrogant is not allowed to teach Torah. But if he teaches Torah, you're not allowed to listen to him. Why? Because this Torah cannot be from Shamayim. He's using his own logic. Because if he learned real Torah, he cannot be arrogant at the same time. Point being is that now, after 12 years, Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai and his son, Rabbi Elazar, came out of the cave. Day and night they've been learning Torah. They got to a completely different level. They were learning Torah with angels. They were learning different secrets of the Torah that are unbelievable—things that literally happen in Heaven.

21:57When they came out, they were on such a high level that when they saw people, regular religious Jews—it wasn't like today that you have to look for religious Jews. There, everybody was religious. Once in a while, you saw someone who was less religious. But they saw people, religious Jews, going to work like a regular person is supposed to do. You know, you're going to learn, you're going to work, you're going to learn, you're going to work. You can't just learn, you can't just work. You have to do both for most people. Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, this was unacceptable. As soon as he saw religious Jews going to work, he said, "How could these people, how could these people waste even a moment that they're supposed to learn Torah chasing money?" And because of his Kedusha, those people caught on fire. They caught on fire. So a bat kol, a heavenly voice came from Shamayim and said to Rabbi Shimon, "Hey, what are you trying to ruin My world?" they're not on your level. You are different. Go back into the cave. Hashem commanded him and his son to go back into the cave. And they had to go back into the cave, and Hashem actually lowered their Kedusha by a little bit in order for them to be able to deal with the world. So, what do we learn from here? We learn that Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, his Kedusha was fire, just like he was saying.

23:18But that's the reason why we actually light a fire on Lag Ba'Omer. It's a representation and a reminder for us that if we don't learn Torah, and if Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai were next to us, he'd light us on fire. That's why we light a fire. It signifies that if you're not learning Torah, and I'll answer your question in a second, Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai is screaming at you from Shamayim and saying, "What are you here for? Why are you in this world if you don't learn Torah? Okay, you want to work? Work." No problem working. But when are you going to learn? Oh, I'll learn, you know, maybe once or twice a month. Once or twice a month? How are you going to fulfill the mitzvah of Torah learning once or twice a month? Okay, I'll learn once or twice a week. How are you going to fulfill your role in the world learning once or twice a week? Can you live eating only once or twice a week? No. Just like you have to eat every day, you have to learn Torah every day. Every person, different amounts. Like I said, when I first started doing teshuva, learning 5, 6, 10, 15 hours a day was impossible for me. So I started with 15 minutes a day. That's how I started. I made a rule for myself. Every day I'm going to learn 15 minutes. No matter what. It doesn't matter how busy I was, how big the contracts I was signing were, how many medical problems I had. It didn't make a difference. 15 minutes a day, commitment. That's what I'm going to do.

24:35Little by little, 15 minutes became 20 minutes, then 25 minutes, 30 minutes, and so on and so forth. But the point is that every single Jew has to make time to learn Torah. You have to make time to learn Torah, and the reason why is not just because of luck. On the contrary, because HaKadosh Baruch Hu says that if you don’t learn Torah every day, you cannot be resurrected with the dead when Mashiach comes. He won’t look at you in a very good way. If you don't learn Torah, there's nothing for you to do in Gan Eden. You have to learn Torah every day. Every day. You can learn shiurim, watch it on YouTube. You can come to the shiurim, you can learn from a sefer. Baruch Hashem, in this generation, we have many, many ways to learn Torah, but the point is, we have to make time for Torah every day. Chavruta, question: in regards to when they went back in the cave, I heard that there's a story, and when they came out of the cave after the second time... After everything was burning around them, I heard that they met a hunter, and there was a goat, like a bird in the sky. There was a specific hidden message sent to them. I can't recall it, so I'm asking if you could—do you know exactly what that message from the dove was? Yeah, it wasn't necessarily specific. Well, I think—I believe—that's before they came out. Yes, what happened is they saw the hunter, they saw the hunt outside of the cave.

25:59And they saw that the hunter is able to get parnassah. So he says, if HaKadosh Baruch Hu is worrying about parnassah for this person, if HaKadosh Baruch Hu is protecting the life of this person, needless to say, He's going to protect us. He's going to protect our parnassah. He's going to protect our life. So obviously it's time for us to leave. We don't have to be worried about the Caesar killing us. So as soon as they realized that HaKadosh Baruch Hu gives special protection to tzaddikim. Eliyahu HaNavi showed up and said, "Ah, you got the point. Now it's time for you to leave. Now it's time for you guys to exit. Now it's time for you to go." But that was the first time they exited. The second time was actually a semi-punishment, a semi-punishment to the tzaddikim, where they said, "You're overly holy." Where do we learn from that? We learn that someone who is a gadol, someone who is big, someone who is significant, understands his own limitations. But someone who is even bigger than a gadol, someone who is a gadol among gedolim, even bigger, has to understand the limitations of the people—not just his own, but everybody else's. So HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, "Go, you're a gadol now. But you only understand your own limitations. And you can't stand these other people because they're not on your level. You have to go back to become even bigger. How? By understanding that they have limitations. They cannot learn Torah 24 hours a day like you."

27:17So that's why there's a Gemara in Masechet Berachot that has a debate between Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and Rabbi Yishmael about whether you're supposed to learn Torah 24 hours a day or not. Rabbi Yishmael says, no, you're supposed to learn and work. Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai says, no, you're supposed to learn only. So what's the conclusion of the debate? The conclusion of the debate is if you can learn all the time, that's what you should do. If you can't because you don't have bitachon, you don't have confidence in Hashem who's going to give you parnassah, or you simply don't have the capability to do it, then you should do a balance of work and learning. And the Rambam writes that how much you should learn versus how much you should work is as much as you work is how much you should learn. If you work eight hours a day, you should learn eight hours a day. to learn, you know, for most people to learn an hour a day. But the point is that's technically what we're supposed to do. Next question. Yes. If every generation were getting further and further away from Moshe and God, how are we supposed to bring Moshiach? It doesn't depend on our high level of Kedusha. In fact, the Ohr HaChaim HaKadosh says that

28:22Am Yisrael, before they got to Mount Sinai, were at the 49th level of Tumah, and HaKadosh Baruch Hu had to take them out of Egypt at that moment. The reason why is because if they would have made one more sin, they would have reached the 50th level of Tumah, the 50th level of impurity, and HaKadosh Baruch Hu would have had to destroy the world, just like in the time of Noach. So He took them out right away to save them. He says, and then at that point they got up to the 49th level of Kedusha, they got the Torah, and so on and so forth. But the Divrei Chaim says that before Mashiach comes, Am Yisrael will get to the 50th level, meaning they'll be worse than Mitzrayim. The 50th level... ...of Tumah. So Chachamim asked, "Wait, how could this be? We thought that if we get to level 50, then Hashem has to destroy the world. So how are we going to get to the 50th level when Hashem is not going to destroy the world? In fact, we have to get to the 50th level before Mashiach comes. How?" He says, before... We got to the 49th level before Matan Torah; we didn't have a Torah. So the reason we couldn't get to the 50th level is because there was no recovery for us. The Torah wasn't going to be able to help us. But now that we have already had the Torah for 3,300 years, we can go to the 50th level because we have the Torah that's going to help us recover. So that means that it's not necessarily dependent on how many people are going to be like Moshe Rabbeinu. There's not going to be a Moshe Rabbeinu in this generation.

29:48It's just that how many people are going to be tzaddikim, how many people are going to be reshaim. And the Gemara Masechet Sanhedrin says that the Mashiach is not going to come unless certain conditions are met. There are different types of conditions. One of those conditions, it says, is that he's either going to come in a generation where everybody's righteous or everybody's wicked. So Chachamim say, wait, how could this be? It's never going to be a full generation where everybody's righteous. Never. It's never going to happen. There's always going to be a Haman and a Korach and some Hitler somewhere. It has to be. It has to be, even if he's a Jew. It could be a Hitler. On the other hand, there's never going to be a generation where everybody's wicked. There's always going to be a few tzaddikim. Why? Because the Torah says you have to have 36 tzaddikim in order for the world to maintain itself. So what does the Gemara actually mean? It says that what is the requirement for Mashiach to come? Which answers your question directly. ...means not that everybody is righteous, but rather a generation where everyone has picked a direction. Either you're righteous or you're wicked. Nobody in the middle anymore. Like today, most people are somewhere close to the middle. Sometimes worse, sometimes better, but for the most part, everybody's in the middle. Before Mashiach comes, everyone is gonna get their test...

31:08or tests to make a choice: I'm either going all the way ultra, ultra, ultra, ultra, ultra Orthodox with Hashem Or I'm going to be an idol worshiper. One or the other. No more halfway. No more I'm a religious guy that plays basketball on Shabbat. No more I'm a religious guy but I like to go to the movies. No more I'm a religious guy but I have a girlfriend. No more of that stuff. Either you're 100% with Hashem or you're 100% with the Satan. One or the other. No more I'm a religious guy but I cheat in my business. No such thing. no such thing. You have to make a choice, and that's what has to happen. We don't have to have—we have to have people that make a choice. And from my experience over these last several years of seeing people, I'm seeing it clearly, just like I'm seeing all of you guys in front of me, that everybody is getting a chance. Everybody's getting a chance, which to anybody that's a little bit of a chochom, a little bit wise, that sees, that's been around for a while, will know everyone is getting their last chance.

32:09The train is coming. The last train is coming. You're either going to get on it, or you're going to miss it. You're going to wait. You're going to waste time. You're going to joke around for a while. You're going to lie down. You know, just be lethargic about it. You're going to miss the train, but it's the last train. Or you're going to get on the train, take advantage of it. You will see Mashiach, and you'll celebrate. Chabad in the back—you asked a question. Next one, you ask the question. Yes, yes, yes. Why are you trying to get everybody to ask the question first, huh? Why are you not, what? Why are you not allowed to play basketball on Shabbat? Oh, now, if you look at the Torah, there's a law called muktze. Muktze is something where it's pretty much supposed to be, literally mean that this is something that's set aside. This is something that belongs to the mundane, the regular week. So you set it aside and you know that this is not something, get up, don't lay down, it's not your bedroom. it's not something that belongs on Shabbat. It's not something that you're going to use on Shabbat. Everybody knows that you're not going to use a barbecue on Shabbat. Why? Because you don't barbecue on Shabbat. It's not allowed. Everyone knows you're not allowed to make a phone call on Shabbat or use your Facebook account on Shabbat. Why? Because you're not allowed to touch electricity. So because you're not allowed to touch the barbecue, you're not allowed to touch the phone, therefore those items become muktzeh. Now...

33:37Now, a ball, a ball does not belong on Shabbat for adults. Children are allowed to play with balls. Children are allowed, you know, little kids that are not at the educational age, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9—they're allowed to play with a ball. If they have a father or mother that wants to play with them, the father and mother are allowed to play with them because they're playing with them with that ball. But an adult... someone that's already, for a male, over 13 years old, or a female that's 12 years old, once they become a man or a woman, according to Judaism, they're not supposed to play with balls on Shabbat. Why? Because they're adults. They're supposed to learn Torah on Shabbat. They're supposed to honor Shabbat. Oneg Shabbat. Playing basketball on Shabbat is not Kavod HaTorah. It's not honor for the Shabbat. So a lot of times when you see so-called religious communities that have a synagogue with a basketball court in it, and the rabbi's playing basketball on the court on Shabbat, you should just pretty much assume that this rabbi either never went to rabbinical school, or he's a little bit reformed. He's a little bit Christianized.

34:43But according to, according to halacha, adults are not supposed to be allowed to play basketball on Shabbat. Why? It's divrei chol. It's something that, number one, violates the oneg Shabbat, and number two, it does not belong in an adult lifestyle on Shabbat. You want to do it on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, for exercise and things of that nature, enjoy yourself. But to do it on Shabbat is not allowed because it leads to the violation number three, which is, when you play basketball, naturally, you're going to sweat profusely. You're going to sweat profusely. How are you going to go to shul sweating profusely? You're going to smell up the place. No one's going to want to be next to you. So what happens? A lot of the guys that play on Shabbat, what do they do? They take a shower. Guess what? You're not allowed to take a shower on Shabbat. Oh, so you're going to say, well, I'm going to use the leniency to take a cold shower. That leniency is for sick people. It's not for you to do l'chatchila. It's not for you to do, you know, I'm going to just plan on taking a really cold shower every Shabbat. You're not supposed to do that. It's supposed to be for exceptional cases. The problem is with modern Orthodox mentality is everything became an exception. There are so many exceptions, we forgot what the actual halacha is.

35:50So that's why if you want to honor Shabbat, spend your time learning on Shabbat, spend your time resting on Shabbat, spend your time with family on Shabbat, but not playing basketball on Shabbat. Since we know that Hashem controls everything, do we have free choice? Yes, we do. But our ability—and I'll give you, obviously, more color, more color meaning more details. We answered a little bit of this question last week, but free choice definitely exists, but it's not like what we think. Most people think free choice is that you could just do whatever you want. That's not what we have. What we have is choice, but it's not free. Meaning, we have our Torah, and the Rambam writes, In Shemona Perakim, at the end, the 13 principles of faith. The 13 principles of faith are the foundation of Judaism. This is the ideology of Judaism. If you follow all 13, you believe all 13, you are a kosher Jew. If you violate a single one of them, you are no longer considered a kosher Jew. You are in the class, chas v'shalom, of being a heretic. We cannot count such a person in a minyan, to that extent. One of those principles is that

36:59Reward and punishment. So that already tells us that our choice is not free. If we do good, according to what Hashem said, we get s'char, we get reward. If we do bad, we get onesh, punishment. So yes, technically, you can do whatever you want, but there's a consequence. Free choice means you can do whatever you want. What is it like? It's like, for example, if you work for someone, and he says, listen, if you come to the office, I'll pay you a thousand dollars. If you don't come to the office, I won't pay you a thousand dollars. That's free choice, meaning there are no consequences. You either get paid or you don't get paid. What we have in reality is this: He tells you, "You come to work, I'll pay you a thousand dollars. You don't come to work, I'm going to send the entire staff, all 30,000 people, and each one of them is going to get a jab at your face until you have no more face." That's what we have: reward and punishment. If you do good, you get rewarded. If you don't do good, you get punished. When do you get punished? At some point, you get punished in this life, but most importantly, you have to know that this life is only a corridor.

38:07The real punishment and real reward is after this world. And the Gemara Masechet Rosh Hashanah, page 17a, says that there are certain people that are wicked, but their punishment is for 12 months. But there are certain people that are so wicked, according to Hashem's definition of wicked, that their punishment will never end. Meaning that they will go to a place called Gehinnom and will never ever leave it. There are seven levels in Gehinnom. The first six levels have a certain time frame: one year, two years, five years, a thousand years. But the seventh level is a place that whoever enters never leaves. And there are certain types of sinners that enter that place. If you want to know which types, I can tell you. But I'll answer the next question. Go ahead. You're talking about the 49 levels of Tumah and the 49 levels of Kedusha. I'm wondering if the Omer has anything to do with that. Yes, it does. So now, why do we count the Omer until Shavuot? Shavuot is a holiday that's a little bit peculiar.

39:12Because technically, what is Shavuot supposed to represent? Shavuot is supposed to represent that at the end of Shavuot, we got the Torah. From Pesach until Shavuot is seven weeks plus one day. So at the end, from the time we left Egypt until the time of Shavuot, technically, we got the Torah. We actually got the Torah on the 51st day. So Shavuot is the seven weeks in between. But technically, we should call this holiday the holiday of Matan Torah, the holiday that we receive the Torah. But we don't call it that. Why? Because HaKadosh Baruch Hu said that in order for Am Yisrael to receive the Torah, they had to do two things. One, get rid of the tumah. Get rid of the sins. Stop sinning. Stop, stop. Being idol worshipers. Whether the idolatry was idol worship of money, or idol worship of statues, or idol worship of sex, or idol worship of anything that separates them from HaKadosh Baruch Hu. Anytime you are obsessed and fanatical about anything other than Hashem, it could be idol worship. And most of the time it is. Idol worship is not just statues. Idol worship can literally even be money. Elohei HaKesef Elohei HaZahav.

40:23So HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, first and foremost, stop sinning, the big sins. Second of all, prepare yourself. How do you prepare yourself? Fix yourself, fix your middot, fix your neshama. So what is Shavuot all about? The whole holiday of Shavuot, the 49 days, is not about Matan Torah. HaKadosh Baruch Hu says even bigger than Matan Torah was the preparation for the Torah. We have to prepare ourselves for the Torah. So every day, we count another day. Day one, day two, day three. Why? As a constant reminder, we are one more day closer to getting the Torah. Did I do anything about it? Did I prepare even more? Did I learn more? Did I fix something? The whole holiday of Shavuot is not actually about Matan Torah, but rather about preparing to receive the Torah. And each one of us during the Omer is constantly reminded that today was supposed to be a day that you prepared to get yourself to the Torah and not just another day to play basketball. I have a follow-up question. If it is connected, why don't we count 98 days? Why only 49? Why 98? Because we started out at the 49th level of Tumah. We ended up at the 49th level of Kedushah.

41:40Ah, yes, because it didn't work that way. It wasn't one day we got one, another day we got one. It didn't work out that way. The tumah we got rid of much faster. It was almost instant. But the kedushah we acquired one level at a time. So it didn't work like one day, one day. Next, in the back, go ahead. Can God create a stone that He can't lift? This is a non-starter question, meaning that people ask this question, especially Israelis love to ask this question, because they want to know, wait a minute, if God is unlimited, then can He create a stone that He cannot pick up? Because if He can create a stone that He can't pick up, then that means He's limited, and therefore He's not omnipotent, He's not everywhere, and so on and so forth. This is a non-starter question because it is distorting what God really is. First and foremost, God can do anything and everything that He can, but because He can do everything and anything that He can, He has to give rules to Himself. He has to guide Himself. He created the Torah, He created the world, He created you according to His own rules.

42:51And He's so great and so powerful that He cannot even restrain Himself. So His inability, if you will, to create a stone that He can't pick up is not a limitation, but rather a show of His almightiness. Next question. Yes? So if God created the world and man in the first seven days, what about the primeval earth? What's the Torah's explanation for that? What do you mean? The earth, like... Millions of years before there was any recorded presence of man. Who says there were millions of years? Scientific thought. Scientific theory. Now, if you look at a person, a scientist by the name of Gerald Schroeder, I believe it is, there's a movie you can watch called The Fingerprint of God. The Fingerprint of God. It's a movie that was made about 30 years ago, and until this day, no scientist can reject it. This movie, he's a scientist, he's not a rabbi, he's not a priest, he doesn't have any religious agenda, but he's a scientist that actually proved that all of the dating methods that say that the world is a billion years old, two billion years old, a million years old, 60 billion years, whatever number you want to throw,

44:11or anybody wants to throw because every scientist has a different theory. No one has any facts. Theory does not mean facts. Theory means a theoretical guess, an educated guess if you will. They are putting certain facts together with certain likelihoods, certain possibilities together, and they are arriving at some type of thesis that this is a likely possibility. The problem is different scientists use different factors, different scientists use different methods, and therefore you'll have different scientists with different numbers. One guy says the world is only 13.4 billion years old. The other one says, no, no, it's much younger. It's only 5 billion years old. Another one says 250 million. Another one says 700 million. And everybody has a different number. Now, if you really think about it, most of you guys are still teenagers or close to it. You're 20, let's say. Now, maybe a little older, don't take offense to it. I know young people take offense to being called young. But the point I'm trying to make is that just think about how much happened in your life over the last year. If you think about it for a second, lots of stuff happened in the last year. You went here, you went there, you went here, you went there, you did this, you did that. Lots of stuff happened in one year. Lots of stuff. Ten years?

45:24Even more stuff. Twenty years that you're alive, it's almost like your whole life. Now, it's a lot of time, right? So when you realize how much stuff happened in the world over the last twenty years, it's even more impressive. It's extraordinary. It's amazing. I mean, you realize that when you guys were babies, there was no such thing as iPhones. Like from this generation, there's no such thing as iPhones because that's the world you grew up in. But really, twenty years ago, there were no iPhones. In fact, the internet was still in its infancy. So just think about how much change has happened in the last 20 years. To casually throw around billions of years as if they're worthless—oh, 250 million, 300 million, three billion—literally shows that people don't know what they're talking about because they're just discarding years as if they don't mean anything. Now, this same scientist showed that all of these methods are wrong, and the reason why is because all of them depend on specific factors to stay the same, meaning...

46:27Whether it's carbon dating, using the atomic method, or employing various other theories or studies, every one of these methods depends on certain factors being static. For example, the temperature of the atmosphere has to remain constant for all of them. Now, why? Because, let's say, for example, I have two eggs in front of you. Okay, I have two eggs. Imagine two eggs in my hands. And now I'm going to tell you which one is older than the other. Now, one of them looks black, and the other one is white. You're going to tell me, of course, the one that's white is probably younger, and the one that's black is probably older. That's the logic, that's rational, because what you can see is what you get. The problem is that you're wrong. Why? This one, this black one, I put it next to a bonfire. I didn't put it inside the bonfire. I put it next to a bonfire. So little by little, the charcoal and the smoke and everything else affected it, so it looks older. The other one, I put it in the fridge. So the conditions for both of these eggs were drastically different. So even though they both look drastically different as far as how old they are, in fact, they're the same, or perhaps even the black one is younger.

47:42Same concept when you rely on an atmosphere staying the same. They're all relying on the atmosphere staying the same. And one thing that we do have a scientific fact about is that the atmosphere has not stayed the same. One scientific fact we do have is that the atmosphere has increased by at least one to three degrees. 1 to 3 degrees throughout the last several thousand years, which means that unless you can pinpoint exactly when it changed that 1 to 3 degrees, it is impossible for you to do any type of dating whatsoever because you are not... comparing apples to apples. And that's why many times when people have put these different types of dating methods to the test, they actually try to make them fail. Why? Because making it fail is really testing it, not making it pass when you don't have an agenda. So what do they do? They give them two types of bones. And they said, okay, tell me the dating. One, they said, oh, this is 60 million years old. And the other one says, no, this is only 50 million years old. Said, well, this one is actually 30 days old. And this one is only 60 years old. They're both monkeys.

48:48So how come you thought it was 60 million years old? Because the dating system depends on certain factors and it already assumes a lot of things that are literally theory and not fact. The point is that even though scientists say that the world is very, very old, it doesn't mean it's right and We have to always remember that theory is not fact, but it also doesn't necessarily negate the Torah. Meaning that even if the world was 13.4 billion years old, nothing would change anyway. And the reason why is because our Torah doesn't start from, like Adam HaRishon didn't start from 13 billion years ago. we start counting the 5779, 5,779 years from the day he was born. So everything that happened beforehand is irrelevant. It doesn't change whether there's Shabbat or not. It doesn't change whether there's kashrut or not. The laws of the Torah, the history of the Torah, and everything in the Torah don't change regardless of how old the actual world is. And when you look into the Zohar, you'll also find that HaKadosh Baruch Hu did create six other worlds before this one.

49:57six other worlds before this one. They're not the same as this one, but nonetheless, He did create other worlds before this one. So, this world is not the only thing that ever existed, but it is the last thing to exist because this is the last world. Next question? Yes, you have a follow-up? Oh, yeah, yes, I was going to say, does that mean the Torah completely denounces evolution? Yes and no. Yes and no, meaning we denounce the evolution as scientists have. where they say that everything came from one cell, and the cell went through mitosis or meiosis, and split into two cells, and then into four cells, and then into eight cells, and eventually the cell became a little fish, and then the fish became a lizard with a nice little tail that was yellow, and then the lizard didn't like being a lizard anymore, so he decided to become a little pig, and the pig decided that he doesn't want to be a pig, he wants to climb trees, so he decided to be a monkey, and the monkey decided, you know what, I want to give lectures for a living, so he became me. That didn't happen. We don't believe in that. What we believe in is that, yes, nature has changed. Nature has changed. Even human beings have changed to a certain extent but not to the same extent as what science says. Science says that people came from nothing, from monkeys and apes, and so on and so forth.

51:15We don't say that. We say that, yes, human nature has changed. We actually used to be much bigger people. Moshe Rabbeinu, for example, I told you guys last week, Moshe Rabbeinu was 20 feet tall. A huge, huge person in comparison to us. But in comparison to his generation, he wasn't the tallest guy. In fact, he was a tiny little midget in comparison to Og, Og the King of Bashan. So nature has changed. Our ability, our strength has changed. The Gemara says, how do you know what belongs to you in a field? What belongs to you in a field? Let's say you have sheep and cows and things of that nature. How do you know what belongs to you and what belongs to somebody else? It says, what belongs to you is as far as you can see. As far as you can see. So the Gemara asks, well, how far can you see? It says, well, the average person can see 10 miles. In today's world, there's not a single human being that can see 10 miles. At best, at best, at best, maybe you can see half a mile to a mile. At best, if you have some eagle vision. The average human being, a few hundred feet. A little bit further from that, it looks like an ant. You go up to, let's say, the Empire State Building, you go to the top, you look at everybody else downstairs, they all look like ants. You don't know who's who; you don't know if it's an ant or a human being.

52:36and that's only a few hundred feet. But in those days, a couple of thousand years ago, the average person was able to see, have a vision that was literally 10 miles. They could see clearly like I see you. So yes, nature has changed. There are certain animals that existed back then that no longer exist today. There are certain animals that even changed slightly, but not to the same extent as what the scientists or an atheist likes to say. And by the way, the reason why they like to say this stuff is because if the world came from nothing, meaning that the world started with a cell and no one is running the world, then that means they don't have to listen to anybody. came from nothing, meaning that the world started with a cell and no one is running the world, then that means they don't have to listen to anybody. They can do whatever they want. So, in essence, the whole argument is just there to justify their behavior or misbehavior that's against the Torah. In essence, everybody loves the truth until it obligates them. Yes? You were talking about how they were 20 feet tall. Ken? So, when did humans start becoming smaller? Certainly, I mean there were smaller people even in his generation. The Levi tribe, the Gemara, and the Gemara says that the Levi tribe themselves weren't all 20 feet tall. The reason why we know that is because the Mishkan, the Aron Kodesh, that they would have to carry throughout the desert for 40 years was also that height.

53:55...so if they were short, they wouldn't be able to carry it because it would constantly drag on the floor. So, at the very least, since the pole was in the middle, they would have to be as tall as the Mishkan. When they carry it, the Mishkan would be, let's say, half their height because they're not carrying it like this; they're carrying it on their shoulders. This means that they had to be at least as tall as the Mishkan in order to carry it without it hitting the floor. Some people were bigger, but some people were much smaller. For example, in the same generation, there was Par'oh. Par'oh was one and a half amot or one amah. One amah is a little bit less than two feet. Par'oh was less than two feet, but he was a wizard, and he was powerful because of black magic. So there were multiple sizes. It wasn't that everybody was 20 feet tall or 100 feet tall. There were different sizes. Today, for the most part, everybody's relatively the same size unless you play in the NBA or NFL. Why did He wipe out the dinosaurs? Well, He wiped out all of the animals that lived at that time and only kept two of each because the animals, in essence, react to the actions of men. When men sin...

55:13it leads to the animals sinning, meaning the animals doing things that are against their own nature. A lion, originally, when it was created, was actually just like a cow. It would eat grass. That's actually what's going to happen when the Mashiach comes; it's also going to go back to eating grass, and straw, and things of that nature. But what happened, because of all the sins that man made, they affected the animals, and the lion started eating meat, becoming a carnivore. On top of that, the sheep the sheep, which is usually a very pleasant, relatively peaceful animal, became very vicious and started chasing the lion away. It wanted to eat the lion. And then the other animals, like, for example, the zebra, didn't want to be a zebra anymore. It wanted to be a donkey or a rooster. So, they started inbreeding between different species. So, HaKadosh Baruch Hu destroyed all the animals because of that and only kept the ones that didn't sin. And those were literally newborns. Now, Aside from that, the reason why He destroyed the dinosaurs, or at least most of them—99% of them—is because they no longer had any use in the world.

56:25They lived their time. They had use in the world during that time because people were able to handle them since people at that time were much, much bigger. There was a generation of giants and Nephilim at that time. They were able to deal with the dinosaurs. But since Noach wasn't a giant and his family weren't giants, and Hashem only kept one giant alive just to show people what used to be, there was not going to be a whole generation of giants. Therefore, it didn't make any more sense to HaKadosh Baruch Hu to keep these animals in the world. Next question. Yes? Never. If He is God, then there is no birth date. If He has a beginning... then that means that He has an end also. If God is limited to time, space, height, weight, or anything physical, then that means that He's just like you. So someone that's very old does not mean that they're unlimited. But when someone has no age, when someone has no body, when someone has no face, when someone has no likeness of a face, when someone has no limitations, no time or space, that means it's God. But once it's subject to time and space, then it's not God. Then it's just a creation of God. So God does not have a beginning or an end. If He did, then whoever was there before He had a beginning, that would be God.

57:50like if God had a creator, then He wouldn't be God. He would be the son of God. Space was created when Hashem created everything. Originally, there was nothing. The Torah says originally there was nothing; there was just God. And God created space in order to create man. So originally, the only thing that existed was God, and then God, in essence, minimized Himself in order to create space, to create mankind, and to create Am Yisrael and the Torah. What was the purpose of the dinosaurs? Like many other creatures, they had a purpose in that generation to help mankind in one way or another, whether it be for food or for work. They could use them for farming, things of that nature. Animals in general only exist to serve man. So anyone that, for example, is a vegetarian or they call it a vegan today, because they feel bad, they call it feeling bad for animals. That's actually a form of heresy. And the reason why is because who said you have to eat animals? You have to eat kosher animals during the holidays, during Shabbat. It's a symbol of happiness. But if you say, "No, no, I don't want to eat a cow, I don't want to eat a sheep because I feel bad for it," so what are you saying at that point? You're saying that you're more merciful than God.

59:19And saying that you're more merciful than God is a form of heresy. It's a form of kefirah. So, HaKadosh Baruch Hu created kosher animals in order for you to eat them, in order for you to use them. HaKadosh Baruch Hu created non-kosher animals in order for you to distinguish the kosher animals and also use the non-kosher animals. But there are certain non-kosher animals, like the pig, that you're not allowed to use. For example, a pig, a Jew is not allowed to grow, not allowed to raise them. Even as a pet, like some people in Texas and other southern states like to have these pigs. It's disgusting, but they like to use them as pets. But like it's a dog, you don't have to do that. Nonetheless, other animals that can be domesticated, you can have, but you can't eat them. The other animals that are kosher animals, pure animals like a cow or a sheep or a deer or anything that has hooves and split hooves, and choose its card that has those two signs, those animals you're supposed to eat. If you don't eat them because you don't like the taste, that's one thing. But if you don't eat them because you have mercy, that's a form of kefirah, actually. It's actually heresy. Next question. Yes? Can I clarify something you said before? You were saying that there's going to come a time where you

1:00:37where man's going to have to choose either righteousness or wickedness, and there's really no room for the middle, right? Yes. But one person's 100% into Judaism could be another person's 50% or middle. It could be, you know. So he did. Objective is your full potential. So it says that, for example, Shmuel was like Moshe and Aharon together. Obviously, he wasn't like Moshe and Aharon together because Moshe was Moshe, Aharon was Aharon, there were two Gedolei HaDor, and Shmuel was also a Gadol HaDor. But what does it mean? Moshe reached his full potential. The full potential of Moshe was not the full potential of Aharon. Aharon also reached his full potential. Shmuel also reached his full potential, but in essence, he did above and beyond, as if in his generation, he filled his full potential to such an extent as if he was representing both of them. So the purpose of you, me, and everybody else here is not to become Moshe Rabbeinu. Even though the Rambam writes in Halacha that every Jew can become Moshe Rabbeinu as far as righteousness, and every Jew should try to become as righteous as Moshe Rabbeinu,

1:01:51You're not judged as Moshe Rabbeinu, meaning, judged as righteous as Moshe Rabbeinu, meaning, reach your full potential. You, let's say, for example, Moshe Rabbeinu was able to reach, let's say, from zero to a hundred, zero being Esav, a hundred being the best, Moshe Rabbeinu, let's say. He reached a hundred. He reached a hundred. Now, we don't have the ability to be 100. We're not prophets, we're not this, but let's say we can reach 70. So your goal in the world is to reach 70. That's your goal. You can't get to 100, but you have to try your best to reach 70. So if you reach 60, it's good. It's just not your full potential. There's a missing 10, but it's not. But if you only reach 20 or 25, then you have a very serious problem. Why? Because that means you didn't even try. But what if, what if somebody's 70 is still bad, it's not good? Like someone who was a murderer. Right, if Moshe Rabbeinu only reached 70 instead of 100, he would have a very serious problem. No, but a regular person, like an evil person. An evil person’s 70 is still bad, like objectively. You cannot be evil and go to heaven.

1:02:58So as far as not everybody goes to heaven. Some people go to Gehinom, some people go to Gan Eden. The Gemara says in Masechet Megillah, how big is Gehinom? How big is Gan Eden? So the Gemara says that Gan Eden, heaven, is 60 times the size of earth. 60 times the size of earth. So how big is Gehinom? He said, Gehinnom is maybe 60 times the size of heaven. But then the Chachamim said, no, that's not true. It's not 60 times the size of heaven. So how big is it? He says, it has no size. Why? It continues growing. Because so many more people go there than go to heaven. So evil people cannot go to Heaven. You cannot be evil and go to Heaven. You cannot be a thief and go to Heaven. You cannot be someone that's evil and go to Heaven. You could be a sinner that goes to Heaven after you repent for those sins either in this world or the next, but you cannot be evil. Now, when it comes to reaching your full potential, your job is to try to reach your full potential. Every person has a full potential, and HaKadosh Baruch Hu did not create a person with an inability to reach their full potential. Everybody has an ability to reach their full potential. Your full potential may be much higher than somebody else's. Somebody else may have a higher potential than you. Needless to say, you both have different targets. But both of you need to get to the max.

1:04:19If you get to the max, you have a fantastic, eternal Olam HaBa. If you don't get to the max, you'll have maybe a little bit of a hiccup between you and Olam HaBa. But if you don't even try, and you try to coast, and perhaps act like a goy, and perhaps look like a goy, and actually even be like a goy—for example, one of the guys that I met yesterday, he went to yeshiva for 15 years, but he's been married to a goya for three and a half. He has a very serious problem if he dies tomorrow. If Moshiach arrives tomorrow, it's a very serious problem. Why? Because even though he went to yeshiva for 15 years, it didn't help him. Why? Because his desire for women was so strong that he forgot Hashem. So he says, I believe in Hashem, but I like this girl too. So that's a serious problem. So now, if he does teshuva, gets rid of the girl, says "I'm sorry" to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, b'ezrat Hashem finds a Jewish girl, b'ezrat Hashem raises a Jewish family, learns a lot more Torah to make sure that this sin never ever happens again, not for him or his descendants. Then he can fix all of his mistakes in this world and he can have an eternity of good. If he does not, then he has a very, very serious problem because a person that's married to a Goya cannot go to heaven in an easy way, if at all.

1:05:35So, the point being is that he may have the same potential as you, more than you, or less than you—it's irrelevant. You have to try to reach your maximum, and he has to try to reach his maximum. You have certain obstacles in front of you that you can handle. He has obstacles in front of him that he can handle. You probably can't handle his obstacle, and he probably can't handle your obstacles. But that's why you don't have his problems, and he doesn't have your problems. Whatever problems you have in your life, Hashem knows for sure you can handle. Whatever problems he has in his life, Hashem knows for sure he can handle. And so on and so forth. Each one of us has our own suitcase full of problems and our own suitcase full of blessings. And each one of us can use those blessings to reach our full potential or ruin everything. It depends on which one a person chooses. Next question. In the back, front. What's the purpose of having such a big house if it's just like a cleansing place? That's what rabbis in the generation of this Sodom and Gomorrah we live in make you think, that it's a cleansing place. But there's not a single source in the Torah that says that.

1:06:51Not a single one. I made a shiur. I speak about Gehenom here and there. I mention a fact. I try to get people's attention once in a while. But actually, because my dedicated students asked me for a specific shiur about Gehenom for a couple of years, eventually, I did one. And the reason why it took me a while to make it is because the very, very difficult subject because the nature of Gehenom is incomprehensible to people. And the reason why is because we're limited in our thoughts, we're limited in our understandings, and we think that Hashem is limited also. But HaKadosh Baruch Hu says to the prophet Yeshayahu, I don't think like you. I don't have limits like you. ...meaning that we think that HaKadosh Baruch Hu is all-loving, and because He's all-loving, the punishment has to be limited; meaning that because He loves us, because we're His children, because we are created in His image, because He wants the best for us, therefore, if we ever deserve a punishment, that punishment must be limited to maybe a year or a few months or something like that. There's no way that He will give us an eternal punishment. That's the mistake...

1:08:06The mistake is that we think He thinks like us. If we look at the Gemara Masechet Rosh Hashanah, if we look at the Gemara Masechet Sanhedrin, if we look at Masechet Shabbat, if we look at the Book of Isaiah, the last verse, if we look at somewhere in the neighborhood of about, maybe, I'd say 150, maybe 160 sources that I mentioned in that shiur about Gehenom, and within the first five minutes, you realize that everything and anything you've ever heard about Gehenom is completely fake. What's the truth? The truth is that just like HaKadosh Baruch Hu has unlimited love, that even if you're wicked your whole life, He'll still welcome your teshuva if you do it. Because He has unlimited love, He also has unlimited wrath. Meaning that if a person doesn't do teshuva, the punishment is just as bad as the reward would have been. The punishment is eternal, just like the reward is eternal. Some people's punishments are obviously not eternal. It depends on what kind of sins you commit. For example, if somebody steals, they have a certain punishment. But if somebody murders, they have a bigger punishment. But if somebody violates Shabbat, it's not even just a punishment. This is an eternal punishment.

1:09:21Why? Because violating Shabbat on purpose, meaning dying without doing Teshuva for Shabbat, somebody driving on Shabbat their whole life, somebody working on Shabbat their whole life, somebody simply caring less about Shabbat, a person like that dies, or Mashiach arrives, that person goes to Gehinnom and doesn't come out. Reason why? It's because HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, if you do not keep Shabbat, you, in essence, are saying, I don't believe in G-d. And if you don't believe in God, then I don't want to see you. I'm in Gan Eden. You're not going to stay. I can't have you in Gan Eden. So you have to go somewhere else. Where do you go? You go to Gehinnom. Well, Gehinnom is lots of fun. There are seven levels. The point is that the people that tell you that it's a cleansing place or they call it a washing machine, or they call it a, or there's one heretic that calls himself a rabbi, says that really there's no such thing as Gehinnom, it's just that your soul goes to a place, but it doesn't know how to be a soul. Your soul doesn't know how to be a soul, so it's confused for a month. It's confused for a month, but after a month it learns what being a soul is. There's actually a rabbi that says this. And he puts this on the internet too. He says it on a regular basis, and he has thousands of followers.

1:10:33There's not a single source in the Torah that agrees with him. He just creates out of his thin head. Now, when I spoke to his son, I said, why is your father lying? Why is your father lying? If you're not comfortable talking about Gehinnom, don't talk about it. Talk about Gan Eden. Talk about other things. But don't lie to people. You know what his response was? So what if he lies a little bit? This is what he said: So what if he lies a little bit? Look at the results. I said, what? The stock that you guys get? The buildings you're building? Those are the results? We need people to do teshuva. Oh, yeah, really? We need that? We need people to do teshuva? So, Rabotai, if you're going to live a certain lifestyle, if you're going to live a certain way, be a smart person. Make sure you verify all the things you believe in. Don't be one of these fools that has blind faith for no reason. If somebody tells you there's eternal Gan Eden, find out for sure. Maybe he's wrong. If somebody says there's eternal Gan Eden, find out. Maybe he's wrong. If somebody says there's even a God, make sure. Maybe he's wrong. Find out. Find out. Look, do some homework. Find out. You can ask questions. You can look at other lectures that we did. You can double-check the books yourself. Find out for sure. Don't just believe somebody because he has a long beard. Don't just believe somebody because he calls himself a rabbi or because he wrote a few books.

1:11:58Don't bully people because they wrote books. There's a guy by the name of Shmuley Boteach. He calls himself a rabbi. Now, Shmuley Boteach was also a so-called rabbi to Michael Jackson, the pedophile. Now, Shmuley Boteach calls himself a rabbi, and he likes to call himself a rabbi. He calls himself "America's Rabbi." But what kind of rabbi writes a book with one of the most popular porno stars in history, Pamela Anderson? He wrote a book with her. Now, he's not writing a book with Pamela Anderson about how she did teshuva, and how she regrets the past, and, you know, if she could do teshuva, you could do teshuva. No, what is he talking about? He wrote a book about what? About sex. So, if anyone knows a little bit about how... intimacy is such a holy and special subject in Judaism, and how you're not allowed to desecrate it, and how you're not allowed to be promiscuous, and how you're not allowed to waste seed, and how you're not allowed to even be immodest, and so on and so forth, understands that even being friends on Facebook with such a person is not allowed.

1:13:10It's not allowed. Needless to say, writing a book. Because when you write a book with such a person, in essence, what are you saying? Checkmark to all of our work. She's good. In the name of Judaism. So, the point being, if anyone told you something, I recommend you say, do you have a source for that? You have a page number. Can I see? Can I see with my own eye? They may not remember it off the top of their head. Not everybody has a good memory. But if they're worth their own salt, they're worth their weight in salt, they're going to know where to get it. So I don't have it now, but I'll get it to you by the end of the day. I'll get it to you by tomorrow. I'll get it to you by the end of the week. I'll get you the source. I forgot. I know somebody else who knows, but I'll get you the source. If they got you the source, you see what they say in black and white, you can go with it. But if they say, no, some rabbi said it. Okay, who's the rabbi? I don't remember. Everything they just said goes in the garbage pail. Delete box. Why? It's sourceless. The Torah is very, very critical of people who say the Torah without bringing the source.

1:14:15...without bringing a source. Even more so, saying the Divrei Torah as if it's yours when it really belongs to somebody else. Like some other rabbi said it, but you're saying it as if it's your new insight. That's also stealing, geneivat da'at. The point being is that if someone's going to tell you something, and you're going to base your life on that, you're going to base your future on that, you're going to base your marriage on it, you're going to base your present on that, you have to make sure you have some legs to stand on. And that's what I told somebody yesterday when we were talking about the cash advance business. and he told me that some rabbi told him that it's okay to be in it. I said, okay, well, the rabbi made a mistake either because he doesn't know the logistics of the cash advance business, or he simply doesn't understand business at all, or you misspoke. Or he has a very big yetzer hara. I'm not sure. But either way, it's a mistake, one way or the other. But it doesn't make the rabbi bad. It just makes it a mistake. So what I suggest is to connect me with this rabbi, and I want to see what sources he used to say it's allowed, and I'll show him what sources say it's not allowed.

1:15:18And then we can bring everything to any giant posek you want to bring it to. You bring it to the biggest posek in the world. We go to Rav Ovadia Yosef. We go to the Rishon Lezion. We go to Rav Yitzchak Yosef. We go to any big posek, someone that's reputable, not the local posek in the community. What a big posek. We bring them all the facts. If you have a single posek in the entire world that's reputable, say it's allowed, I'm going to make an entire lecture pitching you guys to go into the business. I'm telling you guys to go into it because it's allowed. I said, if the Rabbi wants to do it, no problem, I'll do it. But I can save you the time. You won't find anyone. You won't find a person to say it's okay. You won't find anyone with a sound mind to say it's okay. You won't find anyone that understands the business to say it's okay. Why? Because even the people in the business, every single one of them, even the goyim, know it's an unethical business. Everybody knows it's unethical. There's no question as to whether it's unethical or not. The question is whether you like money or God. That's the question. Which one do you like more? If you like money more than God, then you'll have a lot of money from this business, but you won't have God. And if you don't have God, then eventually you'll find out what that means. Next, yes? You said earlier that God doesn't give you any challenges He knows you can't complete. Yes. So what would you say in regards to God giving challenges to some Jews that will ultimately feel like they can't complete and kill themselves?

1:16:45They killed themselves because they gave up. They didn't kill themselves because they couldn't complete them. So, for example, suicide is a rich person's problem. When the U.S. government conducted research in 2017, they found that over 72% of the people who commit suicide are middle to upper class, meaning that suicide is a rich person's problem. Poor people generally don't commit suicide. Now, this defies logic. You would think that poor people should commit suicide because they have nothing to look forward to. That's the opposite of the truth. The reason why is because rich people get to a level of depression and hopelessness because they assume that their wealth will buy them happiness. Their cars will bring them happiness. Their house will give them happiness. And once they acquire all the material they have, the material they want, and they realize they're still depressed. They're still going to get a divorce, their kids still hate them, they're still addicted to drugs, and they pretty much have the same or even worse problems than anybody else they know. They become much more hopeless faster than the poor person, and the reason why is because the poor person still has hope that all of his problems could potentially be solved if he had more money. If he had more money, now...

1:18:09That rich person or poor person that committed suicide did not commit suicide because he had a problem that he couldn't deal with. He committed suicide because he got to his own conclusion, wrong conclusion nonetheless, but wrong conclusion, that his current status is permanent. Meaning that his current misery, whether it's a broken heart or a broken bank account, broken company or broken marriage or perhaps even a loss in a family like somebody died. He believes that his current state of mind, his current sadness, his current situation is never going to change, and anyone that lives long enough will tell you that it does change eventually. It does change eventually; time does change. So even if somebody lost a son or a daughter, chas v'shalom, or perhaps somebody lost their company, lost their money; there are plenty of people that have recovered if they continued. For example, during the 2008 crash of the market, there was one German billionaire that lost 90% of his wealth. He was already in his late 60s and was worth 9 billion dollars in 2006.

1:19:22By 2008, he had lost over 90% of his wealth and was left with only a few hundred million dollars. He decided that life was not worth living with just a few hundred million dollars. So he committed suicide by stepping onto a train track and letting the train hit him. Now, his son, who inherited all of his problems, all the debt, and all the failed companies, was left with those few hundred million dollars, which, as you know, is not so much money. Guess what? Between 2008 and 2018, he grew those few hundred million dollars to even more money than his father had. Because the situation that his father saw wasn't actually as bad as his father thought. It wasn't permanent. Some of the assets recovered. Some of the companies recovered. Some of the things weren't as bad as they looked at that time. And that's the problem with people who get depressed. They assume that their current depression is permanent. And that's the problem when somebody does not have emunah. When you believe that you're the one that controls your own destiny, it's very, very simple to become hopeless; it's very simple to justify suicide. But when you realize that HaKadosh Baruch Hu is the one that's running the world, and He's the one that can save you from everything, He's the one that can heal you from everything, He's the one that does everything, meaning that if you have a pain,

1:20:47your side, if you have a pain in your heart, if you have a pain in your bank account, if you have pain anywhere, He's the one that's doing it, and He's also the one that can heal it. If you understand this single point... You'll never get depressed, and you'll always have hope for the future, regardless of how many problems you have. But if you don't realize this point, and you think that you are in control of your own destiny, your own bank account, and your own success, then it becomes very, very easy to become depressed and suicidal, simply because you realize that you cannot fix it. And you're right, you can't fix it. But you're wrong because you think that you're the one who's obligated to fix it. Hashem is the one who's going to fix it. You just have to believe in Him. Following that up, considering that Hashem knows everything—past, future, and present—since He knows that some students may kill themselves given the task that He gives them, why does He still do it? Because it is still their choice to kill themselves.

1:21:47Even though HaKadosh Baruch Hu knows the future, to Him there's no such thing as future. HaKadosh Baruch Hu sees the past, present, and future as a single vision. Meaning the minute He created the world, the world ended. But For us to understand what I just said is impossible because we think of everything in the context of time. We measure everything according to time and space. He's not subject to time and space. He created it. If He didn't create time and space, He would be subject to it. Once He creates it, that means He's above it. So now, since HaKadosh Baruch Hu, past, present, and future are all the same to Him, He knows how the world's going to end. He knows what was in the beginning. He knows at all points. But nonetheless, that does not change our free choice. What is it like if, let's say, for example, I told you I know the future? And you say, "Nah, no way. I like your beard, but no way. You don't know the future." So I say, "OK, I'm going to show you. I can prove to you that I know the future. How can I prove it to you? I'm going to write everything."

1:22:49and a piece of paper. I'm going to put it in an envelope and give it to you so you know I'm not manipulating it. You carry that envelope but don't look at it the whole day. In fact, the whole week. Might as well, if I know the future. The whole week, you carry that envelope but don't look inside. you go about your business. We say bye. We'll meet next week, same day, same time. You come back the next week. We say, "Okay guys, audience, clap, cheers. Let's open the envelope and see what happens." We open the envelope. We see the paper. Everything that you did that whole week, I wrote down already. Did that change your free choice? No. So even though I knew it, nothing changed for you. That's, in essence, a little bit of an understanding of how God's knowledge works. He knows your free choice, but He doesn't influence your free choice. So that's why the Gemara says, "Everything is from Heaven except fear of Heaven." Whether you are born or die is from Hashem. Whether you're male or female is from Hashem. Even though some people want to be girls, even though they're boys, and boys want to be girls, and girls want to be boys, in reality, the boy will always be a boy, and the girl will always be a girl, regardless of what name they choose and what dress they decide to wear.

1:24:03Now, HaKadosh Baruch Hu decides whether you live or die. He decides whether you're tall or short. He decides whether you're beautiful or ugly. He decides whether you're rich or poor. He decides everything except whether you will follow what He says. That's your choice. Everything that you do in accordance with your relationship with Him, that's up to you. So, what does that mean? You know that there are rules. You know that you are, as a Jew, obligated to eat kosher food. Non-Jews don't have to eat kosher food, but they're not allowed to eat animals that are still alive. If the animal is still alive, don't chop off its leg and start eating it, because that violates the seven Noahide laws. At least kill the animal, then you can eat whatever you want. But Jews cannot eat whatever they want. They can only eat kosher animals, animals that are called pure, that have two signs for the cattle, which are chewing their cud and having split hooves. And if it's a fish, it has to have fins and scales. If it only has one of those signs, it's not kosher. So you now know this.

1:25:03You know this, and you decide that, you know what, I know that I'm supposed to eat kosher animals, but I don't feel like it. I like McDonald's. Not only do I like McDonald's, I like a cheeseburger from McDonald's. And you decide to do it. So even though Hashem does not want you to do it, you still have a choice to do it. He's not going to interfere with your choice to do it. You can still do it. If you do it, you'll have to pay for that choice. If you don't do it, you'll get rewarded for making that choice. The point is that even though He knows that you can make both choices, He doesn't interfere with those choices. So that's, in essence, a little bit of an understanding of how free choice works, but at the same token, how that coincides with Hashem's knowledge of the future. Yes? What you were saying about fish having scales and fins, let's say we genetically engineer a form of shark or something to have scales. Would that be considered a kosher shark? Well, sharks, it's not a shark if it has scales. Well, with science, genetic engineering, you can make certain animals have certain things, like some fish we can make glow in the dark, you know, like science is reaching a whole bunch of different places. Yeah, I know a little bit about science, and yeah, they're interesting, reaching certain things, but if they create a fish, they're not really creating anything.

1:26:24They're improvising. They're changing the nature of something that already exists. For example, they created, or some people say that they found a way to genetically engineer a pig. a genetically engineered pig, and since this pig does not come from a real pig, it comes from a seed of a pig. But nonetheless, it's genetically engineered, so somebody says, oh, this should be kosher. And there was even a rabbi that they found in some garbage pail who says, oh, yeah, this pig is kosher because it's not a real pig. It's a pig that was genetically engineered. And all the rabbis who are real rabbis said, why don't you just stay in the garbage pail and stop with your nonsense? So yes, there are certain things that can change, and there are certain things that cannot change, but for everything to change, it always has to have the Gedolei HaDor review all of the specific issues, because there's no such thing as a one-size-fits-all when it comes to halacha. We have to review each specific case, see why, who, what, when, if it should be allowed, even if it is technically allowed, should we still allow it? Because there are certain things, for example, that technically, according to the Torah, are allowed. But the rabbis said that it's still not allowed. Why? Because we know that if this would be allowed, it would look bad. It would look bad, it would look like something else is allowed. So, for example,

1:27:49you're not allowed to eat blood as a Jew, you're not allowed to eat blood. But the Torah says you're not allowed to eat the blood of animals. A fish, you are. You want to drink the blood of the fish as a nice little juice? Enjoy. Yeah, some people like it; that's their taste. Not for me, I don't even like the fish itself. But some people like the actual blood of a fish. You're actually allowed to drink the blood of a fish like you drink orange juice, if you want. But if you're going to do that, you have to make sure that the skeleton of the fish is right next to you. Why? If anybody comes and sees your cup of blood, he's not going to be able to determine whether this cup of blood is from a cow or from a fish. So for him, you say, "Oh wow, this guy's a rasha, he's a rabbi of a kehillah, and he's drinking the blood of a cow. I'm going to tell everyone, I'm going to put him on YouTube. I'm going to put him on Facebook, this guy's wicked." So that means that you also have to be worried about what other people see, what other people interpret. So, there are certain things that are allowed and certain things that are not allowed, not necessarily because they are in the Torah, but also because the rabbis were commanded by God Himself. There are several pesukim in the Torah that talk about how HaKadosh Baruch Hu asked the sages to put a fence around the fence. Meaning, you know your generation, you know your generation's weaknesses, you know your generation's strengths. Make sure that they have a fence around my fence. Why? If they violate...

1:29:15My rule, that's deep trouble. That's deep trouble. If they violate your rule, it's not good, but it's not like violating My rule. So what do you do as a rabbi, as the sages? What was the job of the sages? Put a fence around the fence, meaning make sure that you know enough about your generation that you keep them away from ever even coming close. to violating My mitzvot. So for example, that's why they created muktzeh. Muktzeh is not from the Torah; it's from the Rabbis. So HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, "You're not allowed to write." You're not allowed to write. So the Rabbis say, "Yeah, well, before he writes, he has to pick up a pen." And if he picks up a pen, most likely he's going to write. So what are we going to do? Let's put a fence around the fence. Let's protect him from himself. To already give him in his mind, don't even touch the pen. If you touch the pen, it's a sin. It's not as grave of a sin as writing, but nonetheless, it is a sin. Why? Because you're violating that fence of the sages. So the sages' job is to know their generation, know their limitations, and know their weaknesses.

1:30:20that's the job of the sages, and nothing has changed. So, for example, regardless of what science will come up with, whether it be genetic engineering of specific animals or perhaps different types of foods, everything has to be reviewed by poskim and has to go through a discourse of different opinions, and then they'll make a determination. That's actually all of the books that you see today that keep coming out. It's not new laws. It's not new laws. Everything that we do is based off of the Torah, and then you have the Oral Torah, which is the Gemara, and then you have the Shulchan Aruch and the Rama. So all of the laws, everybody agrees with the same laws. No, it's not like different laws. So what are all of these new halachic books? It's how to apply these old laws to new situations. When Rabbi Yosef Karo, 500 years ago, put together the Shulchan Aruch, there was no such thing as cars. So you can't make a law on something that doesn't exist at the time. Once cars came into the world, then the poskim of that generation said, okay, so how do we apply this original law from the Torah, from the Gemara, from the Shulchan Aruch to the car that exists today in the early 1900s? How do we apply it? Is it fire or is it not fire?

1:31:37Some people say, wait, I don't know, I don't really see a fire coming out, so maybe it's not fire. Well, I have a student who's an actual engineer, and he actually did a study, and he sent it to me, and he said, the fire, it's not a single fire. It's actually thousands of fires, but it all depends on how many miles per hour you're driving. On average, If you drove, let's say, 60 miles per hour, you have lit thousands and thousands of fires just by getting to that speed limit. If you drove 15 minutes, let's say, from your house to some really far away shul, you probably lit somewhere in the neighborhood of close to a million fires. And for each one of them, it's a new sin. the people that drive to the knesset on Shabbat thinking that they're doing a mitzvah, little do they know they violated Shabbat a million times just on the way there and another million times on the way back. And Hashem knows how many more sins by people seeing them do it. So that's why it's important to know what is permitted and what is not, what we can do and what we can't do, and who we can rely on.

1:32:44Who can't we rely on? And don't just take people's word for it. Look for it yourself in a book. Just like if you want to learn how to invest, you read a book. You want to learn how to be successful, you read a book. You want to learn a certain trade, you read a book. Everything you read and you learn. Same concept. Learn about your own life, your own future, from a book. We have, Baruch Hashem, millions of books in Judaism that, Baruch Hashem, will give you every single answer you can imagine. Yes? Since there is no unbroken chain of semicha from the beginning, what is a rabbi like nowadays? Gemara 2, Masechet Bava Metzia, page 32a. It has a debate between three rabbis: Rabbi Meir, Rabbi Yehuda, and Rabbi Yossi. They say, who's your rabbi? So Rabbi Yehuda says, who's your rabbi? Your rabbi is the one that taught you the Ivrei Chokhmah. What's the Ivrei Chokhmah? The one that teaches Gemara. That's your rabbi. Rabbi Yossi says, no, it's not the Ivrei Chokhmah. It's the one, meaning the Ivrei Chokhmah, meaning the things of wisdom. Things of wisdom, the Gemara says the Ivrei Chokhmah, what's things of wisdom? The one that taught you Gemara. So then Rabbi Yossi says, no, no, it's not the one that taught you

1:33:52but rather the one that taught you Torah. What does it mean, Torah? You have, let's say, 100% knowledge. Whatever your knowledge is, it's 100% of your knowledge, right? Now, you didn't learn 100% of your knowledge, most likely, from one rabbi. You usually learned it from, let's say, two, three, four, five rabbis. whoever taught you the most out of those three, four, five rabbis. So if, let's say, you have five rabbis, 40% you learned from four of them, and 60% you learned from your main guy, your main rabbi. That main one, that's your rabbi, Rabbi Yossi says. But then Rabbi Meir Baal HaNes says, no, no, no, we learned from David HaMelech. Who's your rabbi? Anyone that taught you even a single halacha. And from there we learn anyone that teaches real Torah, Real Torah, not Smurf's Torah. Real Torah, according to what the Chachamim say, according to what HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, is considered a rabbi. The semicha, as far as getting a certificate, is only something that's a relatively recent invention.

1:34:55It's a recent invention in order to give significance to leaders, in order to make the communities respect rabbis, but also in order to make sure that the people who call themselves rabbis have some basic form of knowledge and not just call themselves rabbis because they want a job. So, they did create a semicha that, you know, in America you have certain types of tests that you have to take in order to get a semicha. In Israel, it's a completely different type of way of acquiring a semicha. Needless to say, there is a semicha process. But as far as a real semicha, as far as to be a rabbi, according to the Torah, it's a Moshe Rabbeinu gave it to Yehoshua Bin Nun; that doesn't exist anymore. The other form of semicha is simply if you teach Torah. That's what the Gemara says is the semicha that will always exist. Anyone who teaches Torah is considered a rabbi. As far as having a certificate on the wall or something that, you know, let's say it says that you have a certain base of knowledge, that exists also, but that's not from the Torah. That's more of something that's become part of our tradition over the last few hundred years, which is a good thing to have simply because it helps understand who and what and where.

1:36:06This person, what kind of knowledge does he have, especially in today's world where you have a lot of people that don't know anything but yet they have a Beit Knesset? And some people, you know, have a certificate, but they don't actually use it. So, it's important to know who you're dealing with. I'd say that we still have to go to the Gemara, which is to go and figure out what he is actually saying. Is what he's saying according to the Torah, or is it his opinion? if it's his opinion, whether he has semicha or not is irrelevant. If all he talks about is his opinion, it doesn't make a difference whether he has semicha or not. Why? He's pretending to be Moshe Rabbeinu. But if he's telling you what the Torah says, then it also doesn't matter if he has semicha. Why? Because all he's doing is repeating what the Torah says. What does the Torah say? He's telling you what Rashi says. He's telling you what Rambam says. He's telling you what Moshe Rabbeinu says. Then it's actually irrelevant what he says. Why would I like for him to have semicha or not? If I need a specific skill that that semicha verifies that he has. For example, if he's a shochet. I'm not going to have just anybody slaughter my animals. I want someone that's an expert.

1:37:15That's baki, an expert in slaughtering. So I want to know that he got training to be a shochet, to slaughter the animals in a kosher way. Not if you just tell me, no, no, I did it a few times. No, I want to know that he did it. How do I know? If he has a semicha that says, I have an expertise in this trade. Or if he's doing chuppah and kiddushin. The Chuppah and Kiddushin, people think it's simple. Anybody that does a few blessings, they think they can do it. Big mistake. Big mistake. To do Chuppah and Kiddushin, you have to be an expert in the halachot of Chuppah and Kiddushin. One time, I had a student who told me that he's getting married. I said, Mazal Tov, and then he told me bad news. What did he tell me? He told me that a certain rabbi was going to do his wedding. And I asked him, well, is this rabbi... Bikhi, is he an expert in Chuppah and Kiddushin? He goes, well, he did many weddings. I said, I didn't ask you if he did weddings. I asked you, is he an expert? Is he an expert in doing weddings? He said, well, I already spoke to him about it a few times, and he said he could do it, and he did other weddings. I said, I didn't ask you that. Again, is he an expert? Does he have semicha, that he's an expert? Does he have certification that he's an expert?

1:38:24He said, I don't know if he's an expert. I don't know if he has semicha. I said, okay, so let's start. Let me ask you a few questions. Did he ask you about your divorce? He says, no, he doesn't have a divorce plan. I said, okay, you're not allowed to use him. Why? That's the first question you have to ask a person. Why? If you never got a get, you're not allowed to get married. If he didn't ask you whether you're divorced or not, and you already know this guy for three, four years, He doesn't know what he's talking about. Why? He's going to read you from the Siddur. You can get a Palestinian to read you from the Siddur. You don't need to be a rabbi for that. No, you need to know whether you're allowed to marry these two people. Did he ask you about your wife being a convert? Did he ask you about your wife whether she's divorced? Did he ask you all these different things? No, this guy doesn't know anything. He knows how to read from a Siddur. I'll get you a Palestinian from Hamas to read from a Siddur. They have to be an expert. Why? Because if he marries you and you're not allowed to be married, you have a very, very serious problem on your hands. If she, for example, never got a get, and you're with her, it's eshet ish, no Olam Haba.

1:39:30So, people need to know that there are certain things you need to have a semicha for. There are certain things you don't need to have a semicha for. Needless to say, if somebody has it, it's not a bad thing. It's definitely a plus. If they don't have it, it doesn't necessarily cancel them out either. It all depends on what they are doing. If they're teaching Torah, semicha doesn't necessarily matter that much. But if they're doing a specific trade, then you need to know that they have the semicha to actually perform that trade. Next? Yes? We know that eel is not kosher to eat. Eel, yeah, no scales. No fins either, I think. So I've seen, though, correct me if I'm wrong, I've seen somebody kosher at a restaurant, eel eggs and make an eel sauce. Is that kosher? A lot of the stuff that you see in restaurants, for example, you see lobster or eel. It's not real lobster. It's soy. Soy-based products. It's not real eel. They just put flavoring that they believe is the flavor of that. And some of them actually know that's the flavor because perhaps maybe they ate it if they didn't eat kosher one time. But nonetheless, it's soy-based. It's not real eel. It's not real lobster. It's just a soy product.

1:40:49Even that can be soy-based. Today, with the technology that they have, they can make humans from soy. They can make anything from soy. It's a fantastic product. But as far as eggs, for example, fish eggs have to come from a kosher fish. You can't eat, let's say, eggs from non-kosher fish. Because the Torah says, something that's impure only produces impure. So you cannot eat something from something that's impure. So if the animal itself is impure, there's no way that you'll be able to eat anything that comes from it, okay? If you're obligated to do that, when a Jewish person sees something of the sort, like a goy or a secular person getting attacked or in danger, can you as a Jewish person call the police or help that person in that situation? Or do you ignore the situation? If you see another Jew get attacked, can you call the police? No, not another Jew. So if you see... another person get attacked, can you call the police? You're obligated to. Okay.

1:42:06Yeah, you're not allowed to, if you see, that's what the Pasuk is saying. If you see that another person, their donkey fell in a hole, you're not allowed to just ignore it and pretend like the donkey, because it's not your donkey, it's okay, you can just walk by. You have to care about humanity, not just Jews. So if you see your friend suffering, or if you see your fellow human being suffering, you have to do whatever you can to help them if it's within your power. If it's not within your power, it's not within your power. You're not obligated to sacrifice your life for them. Like, for example, if you see that a bunch of members of the mafia or some gang are shooting up some guy, you're not obligated to go and fight them because that's going to put your life at risk. In fact, you shouldn't put your life at risk. But if you choose to, it could be a praiseworthy act, depending on who, what, when, and how. But as far as helping somebody simply by making a phone call or taking them to the hospital, things like that, that is definitely an obligation.

1:43:07That is definitely an obligation. If it's within your ability to do it, you should definitely do it. Anything else? Yes? How would you describe God's infinite mercy? HaKadosh Baruch Hu is the most humble of all because all day we violate His laws and He still gives us more time. So, for example, If you and I were good friends, and one day I decided to just slap you in the face, you may like me and say, you know what? I don't like that you slapped me, but I'll forgive you. And if I slapped you again five minutes later, you might say, hey, stop it. I like you. I don't want to fight you. if I slapped you the third time, most likely you're going to give me a beating that I'm not going to forget. Why? You don't like being slapped. Hashem doesn't only get slapped; we spit on Him, we step on Him, we curse Him. People say they don't believe in Him. People ask questions about where did He come from. People ask different types of things or think different types of things that are literally anti-God. They start organizations against God. They have entire websites against God.

1:44:12And he sits there, quietly, mercifully, saying, "I'm going to give you more time to do teshuva. I'm going to give you more time to fix yourself. I know that you have an evil inclination. I know that you have peer pressure. This guy influenced you. That guy influenced you. All types of things influence you to do certain things, and that's the reason why you're doing it. So I'm going to give you more time to..." turn around and come back to Me. I'm gonna help you out a little bit. Sometimes I'm gonna give you hardship so that you're gonna realize that your friends can't help you. So I'm gonna give you that hardship in order for you to realize that you need Me. Not just that you should believe in Me, but that you actually need Me. And He waits for certain people more than they deserve—quite frankly, all of us, more than we deserve. But that mercy... it has a limit per se according to His own rules, which is He gave Himself a rule that He's not allowed to put a wicked person in the same place as a righteous person after they leave this world. Meaning, even though the wicked person was funny and nice and he gave charity...

1:45:17But if he was wicked according to the Torah, and he violated Shabbat, and he wasted seed, and he was married to a Goya, and so on and so forth, even though a lot of people like him, it doesn't matter to Hashem. What matters is how our relationship was. So if a person finishes their life that way, and wants to get up to Shamayim, there's no more mercy. There's no mercy. At that point, there's judgment. Here, there's mercy. The mercy is that I'll give you more and more time. I'll give you more and more opportunities to turn things around. If you turn things around, I'll welcome you with open arms as if nothing ever happened. Which is something that a human being can't do. Why? If you listen, for example, to marriage. If a woman, a normal woman, loves her husband, she is going to care a lot about him. But if one day, after they're married for, it doesn't matter, one day or 50 years, she finds out he cheated on her, relationship is over. Why? I know it's not a matter of just the physicality. It's a matter that his heart, which he dedicated to me, he gave to somebody else. I want nothing to do with him.

1:46:25Now if he says, "I'm sorry," you can say "I'm sorry" until you're blue in the face. Even if I forgive you, it's only partial forgiveness. Why? Because I still know you did it. And I still know that, you know what, you're not 100% with me. So the relationship, even if she's willing to take him back, which is not normal, but nonetheless it happens, the relationship can still never ever be the same. And most likely, it's just a matter of time before it breaks anyway. Why? Because she knows he's a cheater. He's not honest. So she's never going to trust him again. HaKadosh Baruch Hu is different. HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, I knew you cheated on Me your whole life. 20, 30, 40, 50 years you cheated on Me. You went to Buddha. You went to Jesus. You went to Islam. You went to pork. You went to beef lo mein from the Chinese menu. You went to all types of things that I said no. Then one day you got a chiddush from some guy that came from New York to Florida. And he gave you some insight. Wow, I want to believe in Hashem. I love Hashem. What do I do? And all of a sudden you start changing your whole life. I love Hashem. I love Hashem. I love Hashem. I'm going to do everything He says. And Hashem says, I love you too. As if nothing ever happened.

1:47:36all the past, let it be past. That's assuming you did real teshuva, not you did it today and you're back to being a rasha next week. You did real teshuva, you repented, you're sorry for it, you're not going to do it again, and so on and so forth. So that's also another aspect of the unlimited mercy that Hashem has, which is something that a human being simply can't do. Can't do, because we have emotions that are subject to our, you know, our own mentality, our own limitations. And even when we say that we forgive somebody, most of the time, we don't forgive 100%. Let's call it that. Most of the time, there's a part of us that still hates him. A little bit. I still hate him. I forgive you. I forgive you. But in my heart, I hate you. But I forgive you. I love you. I give a hug. Give the hug. Hug. But in reality, you look at me the wrong way. Why? Because that's us. That's us. That's the way we are. We have a nature that, okay, I'll forgive you, but I'm always going to watch out for you to see if you do it again. Which means what? I don't 100% forgive you. Even Yosef HaTzadik, Yosef HaTzadik, the Torah says, Yosef HaTzadik, when did he die? At what age? 110 years old. Why did he die at 110 years old? He lost, all of his brothers died at 120. He died at 110. Why?

1:48:52says, because he didn't forgive his brothers 100%. He lost 10 years because he didn't forgive his brothers 100%. Even though he said, "I forgive you." Even though he gave them power and strength and he said, "I love you and everything is good," in his heart, who knows, he didn't forgive them 100%. So for that, he lost 10 years. If Yosef HaTzadik couldn't forgive 100%, needless to say, it's very hard for us to forgive 100%, especially for big things. I'm not talking about if somebody is late to an appointment. If you didn't forgive them for that, then there's something wrong with you. You're supposed to forgive people. I'm talking about big things. Somebody really did you wrong. You're supposed to forgive people 100%, but in general, it is very, very difficult. You have to be on a very high level of Kedushah in order to be able to forgive people 100%. What level of Kedushah is that? You have to be as humble as you can possibly be. Meaning that you have to put yourself in a situation where somebody spits on you and you say, "Wow, it's raining? Wow, I can't believe it's raining." That's the type of personality you have to have. And everybody here can do it.

1:50:01meaning you're creating excuses for his crime, justifying his crime. Why? Because you don't want to be angry at him. This work requires effort because you need to work on your character, and if you do that, you'll succeed. And if you're merciful to other people, then they'll be merciful to you in Shamayim. If you're not merciful to other people, then obviously, needless to say, it's... They won't be merciful to you. So ideally, we should forgive one hundred percent. Naturally, it's impossible for us, which means that the only way we can get to that point is by working on our character traits, our middot. Is there another Shema or anything else? Yes. Okay, yes. So the Chachamim say how much bitachon you should have and how much effort you should exert. And the answer is you should exert as much effort based on how much bitachon you have.

1:51:10The debate in the Gemara Masechet Brachot, page 35b, says there's a debate between Rabbi Yishmael and Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai. How much Torah you should learn versus how much work you should perform in order to make a living. And the Gemara says that Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai says, "V'hagita bo yomam va'layla," all different types of pesukim, that tell you that you should learn Torah non-stop. You should never stop learning Torah and don't bother working. Don't even bother working. Why? Because HaKadosh Baruch Hu will provide. If you're learning Torah, of course HaKadosh Baruch Hu is going to provide. Why should you even bother working? Rabbi Yishmael says, no, no, no. You have to work. You have to work a little bit. You have to learn a little bit. As it says in the book of Devarim, chapter 11, verse 14, meaning that you will gather your grain, meaning that HaKadosh Baruch Hu already gave you mitzvot, saying, Go work. It's okay to work. So what's the real debate here? How much should you work? So the conclusion is as follows. Rabbi Yishmael says, I'm not saying that Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, the Tanna HaKadosh, is wrong.

1:52:24What I'm saying is that not everybody can withstand the test that Rabbi Shimon and his students can withstand. Why? Because in order for you to learn 24 hours a day, meaning in order for you to only learn without working for some company, without making a living in a traditional way, you have to have 100% bitachon in Hashem. You have to have 100% confidence in Hashem, and Hashem says, if you have really 100% confidence in Me, the money will arrive at your door. Where do we learn this from? From the man. From the man. HaKadosh Baruch Hu gave all of Am Yisrael man from Shamayim. But not everybody got the man at their doorstep. Some people got it at their doorstep. Some people had to walk four, five, six miles to get it. Why? It was based on your bitachon. If you were righteous, if you had a high level of bitachon, if you knew that HaKadosh Baruch Hu was going to provide for you, the man arrived right at your doorstep. If you had a little bit of a doubt, maybe I should get two today instead of one. Maybe I should get a second job. Maybe I should do this. Maybe I should do that. If you had some lackings, the more lackings, the further the man was. So now, Rabbi Shimon, he's not telling you don't work. He's saying, have a lot of bitachon. If you have a lot of bitachon, you don't have to work. Why? Because the man will arrive at your house. Whatever you need will arrive.

1:53:50such an extent that Rabbi Sammy Samad, even motarot, even things that are extras, even fancy stuff. If you have a high level of bitachon, you can even get fancy stuff. You could even be rich. It's not just like, "Oh, you're gonna eat, you know, a little three-day-old bread with cheese." No, if you have a high level of bitachon, you can even become a multi-millionaire. without working a single day in your life, traditionally, if you have bitachon. If you don't, then you have to work. How much should you work? Depends on how much bitachon you have. And that's what Rabbi Yishmael is trying to say. Rabbi Yishmael is saying, yes, if you're like Rabbi Shimon, you have 100% bitachon, only study, don't waste a single minute working. But if you're like most people, you have bitachon, but not 100%. You have, I don't know, 60%. You have 50%. You have 70%. you know, you have. So he says, okay, so work. How much should you work? Depends. If you have 70%, then you can work a part-time job. You work four or five hours, study the rest of the day. If you have a little less bitachon, you have, let's say, 50% bitachon, then you work a regular job nine to five. If you have no bitachon,

1:55:09then I don't know why you even leave your house, because how do you have bitachon to even survive the day? If you have a lot of bitachon, you can do anything. If you don't have any bitachon, you should be scared to leave your house. Meaning that every person has to have some level of bitachon, and if they don't, they have to work on it. But the point being is that you should work as much as you have bitachon. Now, People have a problem with this simply because they believe that HaKadosh Baruch Hu, if you trust Him, then at best, all He will provide for you is your basic needs. Meaning you'll eat bread, you'll be like one of these half-homeless people. You know, like your house will have holes in it. There are cockroaches everywhere. You know, you're eating the same bread for three weeks. The kids don't even have pants that fit them. But you're alive. You're alive. But, you know, you're not like the guy that people invite to their house. You're like the guy that people say, "Oh, stay away from him. He's homeless," even though you have a house. No, that's what people think. People think that HaKadosh Baruch Hu only provides like homeless parnassah. If you have a high level of bitachon, HaKadosh Baruch Hu could literally make you a multi-billionaire.

1:56:18without working a single day in your life, without a lot of tickets. But He can do it. And He's done it. We've seen several examples of it. One of the examples is Moshe Rabbeinu. Another example is Rabbi Akiva. So we've seen many times in the Torah that The righteous became very, very wealthy. For example, Rav Ovadia. Rav Ovadia, at the beginning of his marriage, they were barely able to afford a house where the entire house was a single room. Not a one-bedroom. It was a single room. Meaning the kitchen, the bedroom, everything was in one room. It was simply like what we call a closet. That's where they lived. That was his house. They didn't have any money. Somebody came to visit him. To learn Torah. And they sat at a table together. A big table. They were learning, learning, learning. After about an hour and a half, the visitor starts hearing a baby cry. And he's looking around. The whole house is tiny. So he wonders, where's the crying coming from? And he finds out it's the rabbi's wife and a couple of kids who are under the table, letting them study.

1:57:26So, she didn't have a problem with it, but her sisters had a problem with it. They said, "Why'd you marry this guy? What are you gonna do, eat his books? Why'd you marry this guy, are you crazy?" Well, as you would have it, Rav Ovadia Yosef, Aleiv HaShalom, got an award from the country itself for writing one of his books. Little by little, he went up in Torah, became the Rishon LeTzion, became the Gadol HaDor. And Baruch Hashem, he lived a life full of wealth in every aspect. He cared less about wealth, but nonetheless, he never lacked a single meal. He had lots. I mean, just his house, I think, is worth maybe 10-15 million dollars. So it's not like if you have Bitachon in Hashem, you will be homeless. Hashem will give you exactly what He wants to give you. If you believe in Hashem 100% and you believe that Hashem can give you an infinite amount of money, He can give it to you. If you don't, then you already lost before you started. So the point being is that we have to constantly learn about this specific subject of Bitachon in order to increase our Bitachon. And you have to give yourself tests in order to see where you stand. For example, HaSabba M'Slabodka used to give himself different Targilim, they call, different tests. So he would say, I have Bitachon in Hashem, that He's going to allow me to study Torah in the middle of the woods,

1:58:49without me needing to bring any fire. So he went into the woods. He had a cabin in the middle of the woods. He didn't tell anybody that he's going there, but he told everybody the story after and they had proof of it. He said, "I'm gonna go learn in this cabin in the middle of the woods." No one knows he's going. Now, in the afternoon, he's learning. In the late afternoon, he's learning. But then it started getting darker. Well, his test was that he knew that HaKadosh Baruch Hu will provide light no matter what. As the second it got dark, where he wasn't able to see the words in his book, he opened the door. He saw somebody over there holding a candle, a lit candle. He took the candle, and he continued learning for the rest of the night. What was the proof of it? He kept the candle for two decades. For two decades, that candle was there, showing everybody how he learned. It was lit for many years, like the candle never went out. It was one of those miracles. So why? He didn't ask, "How will Hashem provide? When will Hashem provide? Who will Hashem provide?" He didn't ask those types of questions. Why? Because he had 100% bitachon that Hashem will provide. How? That's His business. When? It's His business. Why? That's His business. All I need to do is believe that He's going to provide. David HaMelech says, if you have confidence in Hashem, kindness will surround you.

2:00:15If you have a high level of bitachon in Hashem, all you'll have is constant miracles around you. So the Gemara says, and we'll finalize with this, the Gemara says, why does it say that someone who has confidence in Hashem, kindness will surround them? Why does it not say that a confident, righteous person will have kindness? So the Gemara says, this means even if the guy is a rasha, but he has bitachon in Hashem, Hashem will even help him. Why? Because having bitachon in Hashem is so significant that even if he's wicked, but he has confidence that Hashem will help him to rob the bank, to go steal, to go do wrong things, Hashem will actually help him do it. That's how valuable bitachon in Hashem is in Hashem's eyes. B'ezrat Hashem, we'll have some more shiurim next week. We have Sunday night, we're back here. Baruch Hashem, we learned a little bit about Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, his Torah, HaKadosh Baruch Hu, his Torah, Baruch Hashem. And I think, you know, hopefully next week we have some new questions. On Sunday, we have a...

2:01:22...a series, actually a series. On Sunday, Tuesday, we'll be back. Sunday is here, Tuesday we will be in Aventura, and Wednesday we're back here again. For anybody that wants to contribute to the... Feeding the poor kids in Eretz Yisrael. There's a special account that we started for it, a campaign that we started for it, that anyone who wants to contribute to it. We're trying to feed at least as many families as we helped on Pesach. On Pesach, we were able to help about 400 families. So, so far right now, we have about a hundred. Enough for 100. So we're trying to get to a little bit more. Anybody that wants to contribute, please do. Obviously, kiruv is not just learning Torah, but it's also not just feeding the poor. And of course, anyone that wants to contribute to this program, this amazing program to help young people come to the shiurim, can also contribute to that. We'll make a separate campaign for that. And needless to say, anyone that wants to have a mitzvah should take the shiur, share it with their friends, share it with their family, without thinking twice, because every single person that watches this can learn something from it. Yes, hi. How are you? What's doing? I want to be able to see the source for altering your state of mind.

2:02:50altering your state of mind as far as what? Oh, you mean the marijuana stuff? Yes. I have a shiur about it. Text me and I'll give it to you. I'll give you an old shiur. You sent me the shiur. I sent you the shiur? Yeah, you sent it. But it's an hour and 30 minutes, you know. I started watching it a little bit. Oh, well, you want to be spiritually lazy with me? No, I just want to see where it says in the sefer. Is that okay? It's no problem, but it is more than one source. It's more than one source. You look at it. The Torah doesn't work that way where there's a simple yes and no and we're finished. There is a process, how they got there, and so on and so forth. So, for example, if you remember, in the Torah, there's something called a ben sorer u'moreh. So, what if it's not disobeying your parents? What if your parents... No, no, no. I'm talking about... Okay. Hold on.

2:04:05Why is it? Because they say he's a drunk, he's an alcoholic, he's a, you know, all types of bad things. So for somebody like that, it's better to kill them than to let them live. So Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, alav hashalom, says that someone that distorts their state of mind has the din of a ben sorer u'moreh. Here, this is all the different sources. So, one second. Yeah, this is it. So here you have Masechet Pesachim, page 113a. Then you have... Oh, thank you. Then you have the Rambam Hilchot Deot, Halacha number 20. Then you have Masechet Pesachim 113a. Then you have Rabbi Shabtai Sofer, Shaarei Deah. Then you have, over here, Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetsky talks about it. Then you have a... Rav Moshe Feinstein, as I told you, this is Igrot Moshe, Chelek Yoreh Deah, Chelek Gimel, Siman Lamed Bet. He calls it a Ben Sorer Umoreh. Then you have the Book of Deuteronomy, Sefer Devarim, Chapter 21, Verse 18. That's the Ben Sorer Umoreh, that's the original source. Then you have the Shulchan Aruch, Shulchan Aruch, Choshen Mishpat, Siman Tafkaf, Se'if Lamed Aleph.

2:05:29Then you have Yoreh De'ah. This is also another De'ah. Then you have the Shulchan Aruch. Then you have, this is the Siman. This also talks about cigarettes. Then you have Rashi, Masechet Sanhedrin, page 68b, and also 78a. And obviously you have all these other ones. Then you have over here, Rabbanim of Yerushalayim, they put a specific din about it. It's not just one source after another. I think I mentioned it. I'm going to get down to watching. I mentioned many, many sources. and it's a it's not something you say lightly because people don't like to hear this stuff, but that's what we have—a lot of sources. And not just if it was one source, one thing, one verse—one thing be a lot more careful with saying such a thing. But when you have all across the Torah talking about it and

2:06:56So, let me ask you. So, a ben sorer u'moreh is someone that, like a son that disobeys their parents. Okay. Right? Let's say it's the case where by doing, like let's say smoking marijuana, you're not disobeying your parents. Because let's say your parents don't mind or don't care. They say it's fine. Right. So, would that still be considered a ben sorer u'moreh? No, no. The ben sorer u'moreh meaning, it's not saying that the... someone who smokes marijuana is a ben sorer u'moreh. See, he has the same din as him, meaning the same judgment as him: the death penalty. Meaning, if the Sanhedrin were here, the original Sanhedrin, and somebody smoked marijuana, they would give him the death penalty. It's not that this is the same thing; it's two different sins. One guy is altering his mind, and the other guy is being wayward. He's disobeying. But because he's disobeying, he has a certain judgment. Because he's altering his mind, he's disobeying Hashem, not his parents. It's irrelevant to his parents. In essence, he's disobeying. He's being wayward to his parents. He's being wayward to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. Meaning the din is the same thing. It's not the same sin, but the judgment is the same.

2:08:06So that's what Moshe Feinstein said. Other Rabbanim looked at it in a different way. They looked at it simply that you're not allowed to alter your state of mind because you are a Jew. I believe it's one of the commentaries on the Ten Commandments itself. As a Jew, you're supposed to constantly be in a state of mind where you are in front of Hashem, as if you're in front of Hashem. Now if Donald Trump came here or some leader that's respectable came here, you wouldn't be high. Normally, you would most likely be at your best. You wouldn't, uh, personally... normal people, people that, uh, people that are... because I would care. You may not care, yeah, because you're still young. Once you get a little older, you'll start caring. If your life was on the line, you are about to meet a judge that is going to determine whether you live or die. The last thing you're going to do is smoke marijuana beforehand or be drunk. I'm not going to meet Donald Trump to have a coffee with him. I'm talking about somebody that has a position of power that can determine life or death. You're not going to smoke marijuana before him. You're not going to take a few shots before him. What are you going to do? You're going to be your best. All of a sudden, you have a tie on, a three-piece suit, and you fix your hair. Everything is fixed. Why? Because you want to look like you're a perfect human being. If you're going to do it for flesh and blood, needless to say, you have to do it for Hashem. And you're always in front of Hashem. Therefore, it's not a lie.

2:09:28But it's allowed when it's needed for medical reasons. If somebody has chronic pain, and traditional medicine does not work for them, and this works better for them, then they're allowed. But even for that, because recent technology has allowed the THC, I believe, to be removed, and the CBD to give that, if it uses the medical part, then you use that. all right, uh, you know, you don't need to get high anyway. You can use the drug without getting high, right? That's a hundred percent. Um, so I actually asked a different Rabbi because I felt like it's better to get multiple opinions rather than just relying on my own. All the sources, yeah, um, so he told me that it's okay as long as it doesn't get to the point where it would affect any learning Torah or doing mitzvah. It would affect your ability to do Torah or do mitzvah. What's the source? I don't know. Zero. You can make copies of it if you want. Or you could take the shiur. You could take the shiur. All these sources are mentioned in the shiur. You could watch the shiur.

2:10:44Show me one. I have, I don't know, many sources. I don't know how many sources there are, but a few pages' worth of sources. Small handwriting. A few pages' worth. If he gives me one source that says he's right, I'll make a whole shiur about how you're supposed to smoke marijuana. Okay. It doesn't exist. You can look. Enjoy it. It doesn't exist. The only leniency is if you're sick. To do it recreationally, there's not a single person that would say it's allowed. To say as long as it doesn't interfere with the learning Torah, you see? You probably smoke marijuana. You probably smoke marijuana. That's what he says. That's how he makes his own agency. I doubt he does, but you never know. People tell people a lot of things because they feel that the public is weak. So they tell them what, you know, okay, if I tell him, yeah, what do you want to hear? Because they say, listen, if I tell him that he shouldn't smoke marijuana, then you know he's not gonna listen to me, and then he won't come to me for maybe something that's a bigger problem, like maybe he wants to marry a goya. So let me just tell him, "Okay, smoke, but not that much," and hopefully, I'll get him, you know, I'll connect to him stronger and stronger over time, that hopefully, I'll influence him to stop at some point. This is flawed logic, but that's the logic that people use. Same thing, for example, the guy I met yesterday, he says that his rabbi in New York told him that cash advance is allowed as long as you only deal with goyim. The problem is that that's completely false.

2:12:07Number two, you cannot know if you're dealing only with goyim. We don't have such distinct names anymore that you know for sure that this guy is Jewish or this guy is not Jewish. There are plenty of John Cohens in the world, and you cannot know if he's Jewish or not. And you're not allowed to ask him in business or in this country. But the rabbi told him, "Yeah, you could do it as long as this," because he figured that if he told him, "You can't do it," he wouldn't be able to do it anyway. That's not how halacha works. I have to tell you what it says. Whether you do it or not, it's your business. I have to tell you yes or no. I tell you what HaKadosh Baruch Hu said. You want to do it? Do it. You don't want to do it? Don't do it. But at least I told you. When people start taking, you know, stuff into account, it always leads to failure because you're pretending to know what's in their mind. I'm pretending, you know, the guy that's telling you, "Oh, whatever you want to hear," he's assuming he knows what you can handle. Like, he's assuming you can't handle the truth, so therefore, he's not telling you the truth. Right. That's not fair. What if you can handle the truth? If he simply told you, "Yes, you're not allowed," there's at least a 50% chance you just say, "Okay, I'm not allowed. That's it. Finished. I can't do it." Or you can say, "You know what? I can't do it. I'm going to continue. But at least I know that I have to try to stop at some point." But now that you have two opinions, you're more confused than you started.

2:13:30Why? Because he's a rabbi, and some people call me a rabbi, and I have a bunch of sources, but you don't really know if he has a source. You're assuming he has a source. You're hoping he has a source. So now, the next time you're going to go to him and you ask him, "Show me the source," and he doesn't provide it to you, guess what? That relationship is completely destroyed. He said he hasn't learned any sources that go against it. He said if you find any sources, show it to him. That's what he said before he finished. Take a picture and just send it to him. Oh, Rav Moshe Feinstein. There you go. Go over here. This is the main one. He's probably Ashkenazi, right? Yeah. Okay. Rav Moshe Feinstein. That's the one he's going to care about. The rest of it he's not going to care about. That's enough. Rav Moshe Feinstein says something, for Ashkenazim, it's like God said it. Might as well be. No, that's enough. Once he sees that, finished. Finished. But again, always, always ask for sources. It's sad that we have such a weak generation of rabbis. that people assume a lot of things. That was my big problem. That's why I speak against it all the time. Because I had rabbis come to my office a few times a week for years, 15 years. Not a single one of them ever told me to do Shabbat, keep Shabbat, nothing. So if they would have told me, at some point in 15 years, there's at least a 50% chance I would have saved myself a lot of agony and pain. Maybe I wouldn't have listened, but there's a 50% chance I would have listened.

2:14:54you know, so that's the thing. That's why I always tell people, listen, anybody can call themselves a rabbi. Who cares whether they're a rabbi or not? It could be a dog. Right now, if I have a source, that's all that matters. You know, Bilam, as you remember the story of Bilam, he got rebuked by who? By a donkey. The donkey who opened the mouth of the donkey? The donkey started talking to him and rebuking him. And we learn from that, what? Even if the truth comes from a donkey, you still have to listen to it. Why? Because it's irrelevant what the source is, as long as it's true. But once somebody says, "Oh, you know what, I don't know anyone that says it's not allowed, so therefore I should assume that it is allowed," that means his ideology is wrong. He's supposed to assume the opposite. He's supposed to assume it's not allowed. Because he doesn't know if it's allowed, he's supposed to assume it's not allowed. Why? Because there are a million and a half reasons why it shouldn't be allowed. Until recently, it wasn't even legal. So, obviously, there has to be a reason for it. So, I don't know what kind of rabbi he is, but maybe he's a little old. I don't know what he is, but I would question. He told me from his standpoint, he's never seen anything.

2:16:14That goes against it. That's pretty much what he said. So he hasn't learned. So now, yeah, I'll show him the picture. But you can show him the shiur also. There are many other, many other sources. You can take pictures of all of them. I'm just saying that, say, the whole shiur. The whole shiur mentions all of these sources and everything else, and it's a... I don't know. I mean, it talks about addiction, drug addiction, already 1,500 years ago. And this is Masechet Pesachim, the first thing that I started the lecture with. So... I don't know. God bless these brothers. It's really sad to hear this. I don't know. I don't know. I mean, honestly, I think yesterday I met a kid who went to yeshiva for 15 years. He's with a goyah for three years. I said, you know what? He was better off just going to public school, save the money. If he's still going to be with a goyah at the end anyway, what's the point? I asked the kid some questions. He doesn't know a single thing in Torah. I said, "I don't understand. So what did you learn in school?" He goes, "I don't know. We learned how to be robots. We learned how to just, you know, pray." I said, "Okay, do you know Hebrew?" He goes, "No." I asked, "How do you pray?" He goes, "I read." I said, "So what do you read?" He goes, "I read Hebrew." I asked, "You don't understand anything?" He goes, "I don't understand a single word that I'm reading." So what did you do for 15 years in yeshiva? He said, "I don't know." So that's the thing. We have a troubled generation, both of rabbis and of people, but all of a sudden, that's what we do when we're doing it.

2:17:31You know, so little by little, you'll see the light. You'll see this, you'll see other things, and you'll start realizing. Okay, you know what? Certain things I can do, certain things are hard for me to do, but nonetheless, either way, I know the truth. I know what I need to do. So I think you can stop right away; certain things are going to take you a little time. But either way, you'll know the truth constantly, and that way, you'll at least know which path to go. So, b'ezrat Hashem, I'll see you guys Sunday. Yeah. What's your name? Menachem. Menachem, okay. It's my brother. Oh, okay. You said you're going to talk about Bitachon on Sunday? Yes, Bitachon. So I learned something on Tuesday. It was about Bitachon. I'm going to bring it with me. Great, great. Perfect, perfect. Shkoyach. Kol tuv. Thank you, thank you. How's everybody? Yehoshua's good? I spoke to Reuven. I spoke to Reuven. And I had a nice conversation with him. He's a nice guy, but I told him he's too connected to his son. I said, why are you going to put yourself in that situation? I told him, you're not my student, but I'm talking to you like you are. You love your kid. He's been connected to you for four years. You will go visit him every day. Now you're going to move to Florida. How are you going to go visit him? So, I'm going to go once a month. How long is that going to last? Then let's say maybe you have a kid. Then what? At some point, you're going to have to pick. And then that's going to lead to a problem. So, why get into that? Just get somebody local. There's no relationship yet.

2:18:58It was a friendship. There's no relationship yet. Just go somewhere. He understood it. He gave it to the bank. No, you have no friendship either. What I'm saying is that the best is a friendship. There's just like, there's no, like, love here, like, oh. It's just like, it's an idea. I said, no. Yeah, but you kept on insisting. I mean, you kept on saying, I posted your shiurim in New York. Nice guy, nice guy. Yeah, that was the best, yeah, that was the best, that was the only way I was going to have a conversation like that because on the phone it would just take too long. But, yeah, no, he seems like a nice guy, seems like he has good intentions, it's just that I think he's so desperate to just start something new that he's not thinking of all the things that will come from it. And If he goes into a relationship like this, it will be a divorce within a couple of years. Or it will be a miserable relationship because he'll constantly resent the wife that's separating him from his son. Who wants to be married to such a man? We already have enough problems. So, let's give it to God on Sunday. So, O Hashem, we're getting a lot of people. So, O Hashem. Hashem is answering our prayers, O Hashem.

2:20:17Ken, Ken, you're back. It's good to see you. Ken, it's good to see you. How is your son? Is he still working at the bank? He works at the bank, right? He works at the bank. He left and then he became a barber. Okay. Yeah, he went to school for it, I remember. He went to school to be a barber. But I thought he would do well in the...