Transliteration, MONEY, Noah's Flood, BE YOU, Fake Convert, BEGINNER & UNDERDOG-STUMP THE RABBI (62)

0:18all of the new faces and old faces, we're back to our Stump the Rabbi Wednesday night in Aventura, Florida. B'ezrat Hashem, you guys will have some questions, and HaKadosh Baruch Hu will give us the answers. We can learn together. Tonight's shiur will be for a refuah shlema for Rabbanit Levana Bat Sara, David Ben Esria, Doris Bat Jorah, Rav Efraim Ben Shulamit, Rabbanit Sara Bat Anat, Uh... Yosef Yitzchak Ben Baila, Stefan Ben Katarina, Yitro Ben Avraham, Talia Bat Sara, Michal Bat Yael, Serach Bat Batya, Batya Bat Sara, Orit Bat Ilana, Yonah Ben Sherry Haley, Devorah Bat Mercedes, Esther Bat Zipporah.

1:39Sharon Bat Avraham, Adel Bat Sharon, and also for a Hatzlacha Rabba for Yitro Ben Avraham, Shaul Ben Farzaneh, Oshri Ben Doris, Gabi Ben Doris, Elad Ben Doris, Marsha Bat Julie, Ayla Bat Marsha, and Rav Asher Goldenberg, B'ezrat HaShem, Rav Hatzlacha Rabba, Bechor Ma'aseihem HaTovim, all of the donors, supporters, and even people who simply watch the shiurim and learn with us, may Hashem bless you a thousandfold. So, we have, Baruch Hashem, lots of interesting things. We learned a little bit today. And lots of interesting things to talk about. This week's parasha, Parashat Ki Teitzei, has some interesting stuff. But I'm sure you guys also have some questions. Last week, we got a combination of both. We changed it up a little bit, where we started with the questions and then we did some other stuff. Just a brief news announcement of some updates. Baruch Hashem, anyone that...

2:56follows us closely, signed up to our website, BezratHashem.org, got an email today with some announcements, which we usually do, Baruch Hashem, each week. And today, Be'ezrat Hashem, was another sefer, a kuntres, published by Rav Ephraim, our own dear Rav Ephraim, another kuntres. It's a kuntres, Hocheach Tochiach. This sefer, relatively, you know, it's called a kuntres because it's short, but it's about 40 pages or so. And this whole book is about the mitzvah of rebuking people and whether it really is still an obligation for us to do in this generation, and how can we understand the Chazal that have spoken about, you know, is there anybody really that can rebuke in this generation? Because a lot of the people that are anti-rebuke and they want to tell the whole world that they're tzaddikim, even if they're reshaim, they'll tell you, no, listen, there is a Gemara that says that, you know, you shouldn’t rebuke because this sefer destroys that argument.

4:06Simply by teaching how to read Gemara, how to reach Poskim, how to understand it. Because I've told you guys many times, anyone that says that you're not allowed to rebuke or you don't rebuke in today's world, unfortunately is considered a Kofer. Because that's one of the 13 Ikarim, one of the 13 principles of faith, is that the Torah that we got at Mount Sinai will never change. which means that that mitzvah that we have of rebuking was given to us 3,332 years ago. It's still an obligation today. Now, does that mean that everybody should rebuke anybody? No. Obviously, you have to know who, what, when, and how. But the point being is that this is a very, very sophisticated sefer. Anyone that speaks Hebrew, I highly recommend it. Over time, we'll also have it translated to English. You know, English translations are a lot more difficult than people would think, simply because Lashon HaKodesh is not like translating a regular book, a Harry Potter from English to Hebrew, which unfortunately was recently done. You know, if you're going to translate Lashon HaKodesh, you also have to be a little bit of a Talmid Chacham.

5:23uh... in order to know what is really being said here, because you can use the translation but mistranslate it. Meaning, you could translate the right word in the right place but in the wrong context. You have to know a little bit; it's a little difficult. And also, most importantly, it has to be fluid. It has to be fluid. So sometimes, you know, we get some of our stuff translated but then, uh... it falls on me many times, uh... to edit everything because the way you Write is not the way you speak; the way you speak is not the way you write. So sometimes it's, you know, you got it translated, you get the job done overall. It's good, but to do the last batch of work takes sometimes just as long. Either way, this is out. If you can speak Hebrew and understand it, it also has nekudot, which makes it even easier to read for some people. Or anybody, really. So this was out today, Baruch Hashem. You can download it on our website, bezrasHashem.org. In the e-book section, there's this sefer and all of the other sefarim by Rabbi Ephraim, as well as some other sefarim that we have there.

6:32That's one. Number two, I brought you guys a little present that I got from one of my dear students who is somebody that is overcoming obstacles and tests like a champion. I generally don't recommend businesses; I can tell you that. I don't like to recommend businesses for different reasons. People say one thing and do another. I've had business dealings with countless people in my life, and I generally try not to recommend businesses simply because it's very difficult to vouch for somebody business-wise. You know, because he could tell you, "Listen, yeah, I sell air conditioners," and he sold it to you, and he said, "Oh, can you like my page? Can you recommend me?" You're like, "Okay, yeah," so you recommend him, and then 85 people come out, "Hey, yeah, the guy says he sells air conditioners; he's only a lawnmower. You know, I paid for an air conditioner but got a lawnmower instead. What am I going to do? So now I have to go call the guy and ask him to give them the money back. Who needs this headache?"

7:36But because the man, the one that, you know, the person that I deal with is Baruch Hashem very dear to me. But also because it has to do with Kedusha. And number three, most importantly, it has to do with really almost everybody in the English-speaking world today having a very difficult time when it comes to learning, praying, and so on, simply because of the language. Many times people do not know how to read Hebrew. They don't know how to pronounce the right words, and even if they know how to pronounce them, they don't know what it actually says or what it means. You can read the words, make the sounds, but a monkey makes sounds also. Yes, both of you don't understand. So, Baruch Hashem, what they've done here is is they have a store where they sell regular Sifrei Kodesh, Siddurim, Gemarot, Yalkut Yosef, many other things, and Baruch Hashem, at very good prices. But aside from that, the part that I think is most relevant is that they are probably the utmost experts, utmost experts in transliteration.

8:45and transliteration of different things, mainly siddurim and machzorim, all the different things that you need for prayer. Tehillim they have, many, many things they've done. And not only have they transliterated it, which means that you have the Hebrew, You have the English translation, so you understand what you're actually saying, but then you have the transliteration, which is using the English alphabet to make the sounds of the Hebrew. So now you not only know how to say it, even if you don't know what an aleph or a bet is, now you know how to say that it's alef and bet. But on top of it, you could also know what they say. But what they've done differently than anything that I've ever seen is that they really, really invested an enormous amount of time developing this skill set to actually do a transliteration with the correct pronunciations. Many times you see transliterations, but, you know, if you're a native Hebrew speaker, it's like, that's not how you say it.

9:51are you saying what are you that's not how you say it oh hello that's what my book says yeah it's good you get the point what are you saying but it's not the way you see it they've done a fantastic job and I've gotten several things from them to see their work over the last several months and today I got you guys a present, a copy of the Siddur for the Rosh Rosh Hashanah is coming up. So there's the Kiddush for Rosh Hashanah. All the different things that you do for the Yom Tov, the different, the Kiddush is not the same thing as you do for Shabbat. There are other things. So they actually, Baruch Hashem, have Seder Rosh Hashanah, where you have the translation, the transliteration, tells you all the brachot, tells you what to do before, what to do after. Really, really fantastic job. Anyone that wants to purchase this or their many, many other works that they have, you go to israelbooks.com. that israelbooks.com, or perhaps if you want to deal directly with my dear friend, my dear Talmid, David, just send me a text message. I'll give you his phone number, and you can deal with him directly. They are really fantastic. You can meet him and his wife; they are really wonderful people. He's not the founder of the organization, but he's doing amazing things there.

11:17Anyway, they have this Seder Rosh Hashanah, they have Tehillim. If you ever wanted to read Tehillim and actually not only understand what it says, but pronounce the words the right way, every one of their books has this transliteration key in the beginning that tells you why they use this A and O and this and that. They really have wonderful things; it's very different from anything I've ever seen. Very different. I've seen many other transliteration books. Wonderful, wonderful work. I brought some with me, and I can give them to you, Be'ezrat Hashem, after this. I have them in the box right there, Be'ezrat Hashem. Okay, so that's one. So again, benisraelbooks.com. They have really, really good stuff. Regular sefarim also, if you need to read Gemara, you know, Mesilat Yesharim, all the other things. Baruch Hashem, they have a wonderful selection of books. The other thing is, also I forgot to mention recently, that since, Baruch Hashem, the amount of students that we have continues to grow from all over the world, the amount of followers is in the tens of thousands. I think combined there's something like 60,000 people.

12:2860,000 people that are following our shiurim avidly between all of the channels. It's something I wouldn't even imagine in my wildest dreams. You know, you have 15,000 here, but they're only YouTube people. Then you have another 30,000 over here on Facebook, and you have the WhatsApp groups. I don't know, every day it always seems like there's another WhatsApp group. And then there's Twitter, and then there's many, many people. And then there's tens of thousands of people on the email. do i know there's a lot of followers? i can't sleep because the messages don't stop at all hours of the day because they're all over the world. So, because of that, we have to do more and more to try to help people, not only with their basic questions and guidance and things like that, but even just simple things that you need for Judaism, for day-to-day life. Like last week, for example, we talked about mezuzot. Unfortunately, I've heard too many horror stories, too many horror stories about mezuzot. Somebody would tell me, "Listen, can you check my mezuzah?" And I say, "Okay." I look, and then I open it, and I see a cross. There's a cross, and then Yoshke's name is in there, Hashem yishmor. I say, "Where did you buy this?" He goes, "eBay." I said, "Okay, you might as well buy it from a church. Same thing, because the church made this. There's Yoshke in there instead of Hashem's name, Hashem yishmor." Or you have people that had some blind person write the mezuzah, so, you know, it's writing a different parasha. And well, I showed you guys last week.

13:47So from time to time, we deal with mezuzot. Like I told you guys, we deal with high-quality mezuzot. Last week, we placed a decent-sized order from Eretz Yisrael to order some more because a few people want mezuzot. We now have them on our website. Usually, people would ask for this and would just ask me personally, but now you can actually buy them on the website directly. It takes a little bit of time because, again, we're getting them from Eretz Yisrael. But we just ordered a huge amount that hopefully we'll have a little bit of stock for a little while. You know, but it depends. Maybe it'll go away in a week, and we'll have to order it again. But it takes time to write this stuff. If it's good quality, it takes time. You want things that are overnight, you know, that's Amazon. Can't vouch for that one. So anyway, no, no, take the chair, the other side. Tzaddik, thank you. I was doing it for myself, not for you. I knew you were going to do it, but I have to do it for myself. I have to fulfill the obligation. So anyway, that's one. But then also, once in a while, we also deal with tefillin.

14:59Same thing, tefillin. I can't really give you the same type of example on tefillin because you have to open the tefillin, and that's a whole process in itself and a whole skill set in itself. But unfortunately, tefillin are even more problematic. Even more problematic. I had a guy tell me, "Listen, can you give me somebody to check my tefillin?" I said, "Okay, how long do you have them?" He goes, "Oh, I have them for 10 years." I said, "You never checked them in 10 years?" He goes, "No, I never checked." I don't know. I said, "Okay, let's check." All right, send them to such and such person, tzaddik over there, and okay, okay, you can even watch if you want if he has time to show it to you. Okay, they sit there, they open it, guess what? Empty, empty, nothing. There's nothing inside the tefillin. Jack-in-the-box. 10 years laying, reading zero. Nothing, nothing inside. Nothing inside. What is he putting on? He's putting just plastic on, leather on. It's like he put a leather jacket on for 10 years. Why? He bought it again. Somebody doesn't know. Don't listen. It's a good price. $1,000 only. You know, people think that just because you pay a lot of money, that means it's good. A lot of money doesn't mean it's good. Who wrote it?

16:08Do you know him? No, I don't know the guy. Do you know the guy that sold it to you? Well, yeah, he comes to my shul once in a while. It's not enough. You have to know. You have to make sure that the people that you're dealing with, from beginning to end, have your best interests in mind. So, we deal with feeling. But, Ogo, because there is a constant message that we see in the Torah where HaKadosh Baruch Hu is, tells us it is very, very important for us to love His mitzvot. It's very important for us to love His mitzvot. We see in next week's parasha, parashat Ki Tavo, where HaKadosh Baruch Hu says that the punishment came because we did not serve Him with happiness. Not only did we not serve Him, which is already bad, but there is an additional punishment for not serving Him with happiness. And there's many drashot that you're going to hear or read about in many sefarim about Tisha B'Av, that that's a very big reason why the Churban Beit HaMikdash came. The famine and all the horrible things, because we not only didn't serve Him, we didn't serve Him with happiness. Meaning, even if you serve Him, but you're not happy about it, it's not a good thing. So how do we show HaKadosh Baruch Hu that we're happy about it? Many, many different ways. One of the things is that we make His mitzvot beautiful.

17:28Make His mitzvot beautiful. Make it different. So, for example, one of the things that I learned is that you're supposed to have clothes only for Shabbat. Clothes only for Shabbat and Yom Tov. Only. You're not using them the rest of the week. So, what did some people say? Okay, so you know what? I'll buy a $50 suit and I'll, you know, and then the $2,000 suit I'll wear to the office, but the $50 suit I'll wear for Shabbat. Why? Because I only wear it once a week. Wrong. The $2,000 suit goes for Shabbat; the $50 suit goes to the office. You could buy $2,000 suits for the office also, but the point being is you have to have special clothes for Shabbat. Special shoes, just for Shabbat. Special shirts, just for Shabbat. Special hat, if you wear a hat, just for Shabbat. Why? This is beautifying the mitzvah. I love you. I love your mitzvot. I'm going to spend extra money just on this. And the Gemara says, in Masechet Rosh Hashanah and also Masechet Beitzah, that HaKadosh Baruch Hu pays us; already on Rosh Hashanah, He tells us what we're going to make, but He pays us cash for the mitzvot. Meaning, whatever money you spend on His mitzvot is not counted as part of the salary that HaKadosh Baruch Hu decreed for you on Rosh Hashanah.

18:48so much so that the Gemara says to his kids, "You want to go spend money on Shabbat? Go borrow money and I'll pay you back. Borrow money for the sake of My Shabbat and I'll pay you back. You grab a chair and sit over here anywhere." Go borrow money if you have to. Why? Sanctify the Shabbat. Make the Shabbat beautiful. Make the Shabbat holy. Have a special suit. Have special shoes. Have special everything. Why? Shabbat. Shabbat. It's a big deal. No, you have to take the chair. It's the women's section. You have to take the chair. Take the chair with you and just go. You can sit next to the guys right here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever you want. says go borrow money and I'll pay you back. Why? Shabbat. Shabbat. So, Shabbat is a big deal. We have to, you know, never ever be a cheapskate when it comes to Shabbat. Don't look at the price, "Oh, this is three dollars, this one's five dollars, I'm gonna get the three dollar one." Wrong. It's not a good way to look at things.

19:58Big deal. Same thing with holidays. A lot of holidays come up. You have Yom Kippur, you have Sukkot. This is the time. It's the time. This is what He gives us money for. He doesn't give you money so you can buy another fancy car. He gives you money so you can get a fancy sukkah, you get your money to have a fancy kiddush, and so on and so forth. Special things are to be utilized for Shabbat. But we also have the rest of the week. What do we do? We have different things. What are the most common things that guys deal with every single day? Tefillin. Tefillin. Many times, guys, they have a $10,000 watch, but $500 Tefillin. It's really an embarrassment. $10,000 watch, $20,000 watch, but Rabbi, those $600 Tefillin, can you give it to me for $500? Since $600 Tefillin, that's for a beginner. A beginner, maybe if you're 13 years old, yeah, but you know, someone who makes $150,000 a year, why are you buying $600 Tefillin? Were you 13 years old? What are you doing? Oh, no, no, oh, you can't give me a discount? Then forget the discount. Why are you buying $500 Tefillin? Go buy something like your watch. If it's a $20,000 watch, buy a nice pair of Tefillin. People don't understand that if you can afford it, you should buy it. Why buy something expensive? Why?

21:14HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, this is my mitzvot, show me you love them. So one of the things that we did recently, to make the tefillin that we have, not only the mehudarot, we just again placed another order in Eretz Yisrael, it will come soon, it takes a little time to get them. uh, unless they have to be written from scratch. But one of the things we did is that all of the tefillin that we have already for the last few weeks—all of them come not only with the standard batim that you have, the black ones. The packaging on the tefillin—all tefillin come with the black packaging on top of the plastic that covers the tefillin that comes with it already. But we also got special Be'er covers. Now, this in itself, you have the silver and you have the gold. Now, this is plastic, no matter how you look at it. Plastic, you have silver, you like silver, you get silver, you like gold, you get gold, and you also have the business of the sham. Just don't mind; you go to the ocean.com, there's a trip.org, there's a dish in app and do the same everything. But it's plastic. It's not only, it's not only right now, it's not only, you know, makes it holy when you use it for mitzvah. You put it on your tefillin because you want to show Hakadosh Baruch Hu, "I love you. I love you. I want to make your mitzvot beautiful." So this mitzvah of tefillin, I love it so much, I get it rims.

22:41This mitzvah is so nice, I got a Rolex. On Mondays and Thursdays, I put the gold one. On Tuesdays and Wednesdays, I put the black one. On Fridays, I put... Why? I love you. I love you. Bottom line. This is a small, tiny example of how to beautify a mitzvah. So all of our tefillin that we get, the ones that are $900 and up, the ones not for kindergarten kids, they are... for, uh, you know, they're, uh, come with these. Now again, I'm not meaning to insult the "cheaper" tefillin. I only mean to insult the people that are cheap because sometimes people are really, really great people, but they can't afford it. They can't afford those people. if they're buying tefillin because they simply can't afford any more than that, do it. If you're just starting out, you shouldn't buy tefillin for two, three, or four thousand dollars unless it's relative to your means and you can do it. But what happens is that sometimes people spend their money in the wrong places. They spend the money in the wrong places—the house, a million dollars...

23:46You know, the car, $100,000. All these other things they spend a lot of money on. But when it comes to mitzvot, no, no, so what are you going to do for Sukkot? Oh, I'm going to be at my friend's house. What do you mean? You're going to sleep at your friend's house for a week? No, no, I'm just going to go there for the kiddush to eat. What about a sukkah? Are you going to build a sukkah? No, no, I'm just going to use his sukkah. Why don't you get your own sukkah? What are you, 14 years old? Get your own sukkah. Ah, it's expensive, Rabbi. I went to the Sukkot website or to the guy. He wanted $1,500, $2,000. That's cheap, Balash. What do you mean? $1,500 for something I use for only a week out of the year. Yeah, it's nothing. It's free. It's free. It's nothing. For a mitzvah? You know what you're going to get for a sukkah? No, right? Why? Because he wants to save the money for vacation. Vacation is more important than a sukkah. Case is more important. People that are serious about mitzvot spend every single penny on it. Why? That's what you have money for. That's what you have money for. But that's the problem. Sometimes people get the point; sometimes they don't get the point. We have to understand if we treat HaKadosh Baruch Hu like we don't really want Him there, but we have to do what we got to do because it's like, "I don't really want You there, but I got to do what I got to do because You're my Father after all."

25:06if we're generous, we're generous with them. We do what we need to do, whether it's with tzedakah, mitzvot, and so on and so forth. It says to even borrow money. "I'll pay you for it." And many, many times people see open miracles as a result of things like this. So, without further ado, you guys got the basic update. Who wants to start with questions? question is, how come we did not make a tikkun to uh for the day commemorating the destruction of the entire world. Well, first and foremost, the destruction of the whole world was not as tragic as the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash for a few reasons. Number one, it was before Matan Torah.

26:17It was before HaKadosh Baruch Hu chose us as His people. It was before we got the Torah. And it was before HaKadosh Baruch Hu became one with His nation. So HaKadosh Baruch Hu, although He loves all of His creation, there is no comparison between Hashem's love for His chosen people versus the love that He has for the rest of the nations. And Chazal even says that one of the things that will be difficult, if you will—can't really say difficult, but to understand, we use the word, Chazal used the word difficult for Hashem—at the end of days is going to be the fact that He has to destroy many of the goyim. two-thirds of the world have to die and so on and so forth. Lots of really, really bad problems. Why? Because they shine, the idol worshipers, they go against them, and so on and so forth. But even that will be difficult for Him. Even though it will be difficult for Him. Why? The Gemara says, think of it as a parable where someone has an ox and a horse and the ox

27:28is a little bit, uh... you know he's not as, uh... agile and, uh... quick as the horse and he's a little bit clumsy. So one day, the, uh... the ox falls and, you know, injures himself. He can't work anymore. So the baal ha-bayit says, "Okay, you're, uh... you're on leave for a little while." In the meanwhile, he has his horse take the spot of the ox. Now, after a little while, after a little while, the ox is healthy again. He can't come home. He can't come home now. So the Ba'al HaBayit says, "Yeah, technically that was your spot. But already for the last three, four, five, six, seven hundred years, two thousand years, this horse has been here, and he's filling up the spot. It's like his. It's not really his. It's yours. It was always yours. And since you were on leave, he got comfortable here. He did some decent things here, some bad stuff, but you know, he's here. So it kind of pains me to get him out."

28:34That's HaKadosh Baruch Hu's attitude even towards the people that are not exactly servants of Hashem, idol worshippers. Why? Because HaKadosh Baruch Hu says they're still My creation. I don't want to destroy them; I want them to do teshuva. But if they don't, I have to. Why? There's a consequence. It's a consequence for an action: you put your hand into fire, you get burned. It's not that the fire hates you. It's not cursing you out. It's not sending you hate mail and emails and text messages and all that. It's not spamming you. It's just that you put your hand in the fire; it's going to burn you. That's the consequence. HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, you worship idols. Consequences, you get punished. But it still hurts HaKadosh Baruch Hu. Why? He's like, I created him not to be, you know, a hater of Me and an enemy of Me. I created him to do something, but he didn't. He chose not to. So now I have to remove him to make room for My ox, to make room for Am Yisrael. It still pains Me. So, There's a very big difference between the love HaKadosh Baruch Hu has for His chosen people versus the love that He has for even the righteous Noahides. He loves them. He loves everybody that is serving Him and even the ones that don't serve Him. He obviously allows them to live in order for them to do teshuvah. Generally speaking, He wants everyone to do teshuvah. But there are certain times where HaKadosh Baruch Hu punishes a person and says, I'm not going to let you do teshuvah.

29:57Or sometimes, it's bad, but not as bad, where He says, I'm not going to let you do teshuvah until I punish you first. There's a pasuk in Sefer Yechezkel that talks about this; maybe we'll discuss it later today. The point is, there's a big difference. There's a very, very big difference between a righteous Noahide, a wicked Noahide, an idol worshiper, an idol worshiper who is a Jew, a righteous Jew, and so on and so forth. But before Matan Torah, these distinctions didn't exist. Why? All we had was Noahides. That's all we had. We didn't have Am Yisrael. We didn't have Am Yisrael. So the damage that was made by the generation of Noach did not create as much damage, if you will, in heaven, because they didn't have the Torah, they weren't obligated to do as many things, and therefore there's no connection between us, Am Yisrael, and the generation of the flood. We're not mourning their loss. They're not a loss to us. They weren't part of us. They weren't part of Klal Yisrael. But the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash, the attack, and so on, those are our brothers. Those are our grandparents. And so on and so forth. Therefore, we mourn them. So that's it. Now, we learn a Parashat HaShavua each week, you know, from the time that you can read until the time b'ezrat Hashem, until a person leaves this world, you're always obligated to read the weekly parashah twice, and a third time with commentary.

31:24But it's important to know that Parashat Noach is a critical parasha for every person to know back and forth. Back and forth. Why? Because HaKadosh Baruch Hu showed us there, He doesn't need us. He doesn't need us. Clearly, anyone that tells you HaKadosh Baruch Hu needs you, well, how come He didn't need the entire world at the time of Noach? What, we're better than them? How? They were more skilled, they were bigger, they were smarter, there were a lot of things. So what are you talking about? And that's why we read in Tefillah right before the Amidah of Shabbat, on Friday night, it says, "Hashem sat while the entire flood was happening," meaning He let the world be destroyed. I don't need it. If you're not going to serve Me, there's no point.

32:26So we learn a lot from Parashat Noach. We also learn that a tzaddik can make a mistake that can change his entire destiny; he can change his entire reputation in a second. How? By doing the opposite of what he was supposed to do. One example, Rabbi Yagen, alev ha-shalom, said in a lecture one time, he says, look at Noach. The Torah calls Noach a righteous person, complete with Hashem. Meaning what? Whatever Hashem does, I'm going to do it. Whatever He says, I'm going to do. And I'm okay with it. Not, "I don't understand, so maybe when I understand, I'll do it." Or, "Oh, you know what? I'm going to do it, but I'm not happy about it." Or, "Oh, listen, everybody else is, why should I be that tzaddik?" None of that stuff. Noach, despite the fact that everyone's stealing from each other, eating each other alive, robbing, you know, like the cash advance business—all that stuff—but massive.

33:32...everything, people are destroying each other in the streets. Noach says, "Listen, what they do is their problem. No matter what is happening, he's in the teivah for a year." Imagine, the Gemara says, Noach did not even close his eyes for a complete year. Now, you can be a superhero and try to do an all-nighter. The next day, even if you pull the all-nighter, you're like half-retarded... Why? You didn't sleep. The Gemara says you want to be a superhero. You want to stay up for three nights in a row. They hit you and force you to go to sleep. They hit you and force you to go to sleep. Why? Relax. But Noach stayed awake for a year. Why? He didn't want to stay awake. It's just that the animals, it was all of the animals. This one eats breakfast at 6 o'clock in the morning. This one eats at 8:30. This one has coffee with sugar. This one only has tea. This one wants orange juice. This one wants gefilte fish. This one wants sardines. Everyone has meals at different times, at 12 o'clock, at 2 o'clock in the morning.

34:40Everybody, he's on Australian time. He's on New York time. He's on CNN. Everybody's on different schedules. Noach has to feed them little by little. Here you go. Here you go. Here you go. One time he was late with the lion. The lion hit him, and Noach suffered the entire year because of it. Agony and pain for a year. So imagine, imagine what a tzaddik he was. Imagine there's a pasuk in the Torah that says you are a tzaddik. Imagine. Imagine that Elchanan is a tzaddik tamim b'dorotav. Yaron Reuven, tzaddik b'dorotav. I give up. I retired, guys. There's a pasuk in the Torah. Set of a tzaddik, I retire, I'm finished. I'm finished. I achieved my life's goals. It's not pasuk. What are you talking about? The pasuk in the Torah says that Noach is "Ish Tzadik Tamim." But then, what do we see? The Gemara says the Mabul is named after Noach. It's not called, like in English, the Flood. In Lashon HaKodesh, it's not called the Flood. It's the Mabul.

35:51But it's called, what is that like? It's like saying the Holocaust and the Holocaust of Noah. What? I killed everybody? What did I do? I saved everybody. I'm the reason why you guys are alive. Why is it called after me? Meaning, you, Noach. Why? Why Noach? First and foremost, Chazal tells us because Noach did not rebuke the people. You have to come back as a gilgul, the Arizal says, as Moshe Rabbeinu. You have to come back in a gilgul. Second, Noach made a mistake. What mistake did he make? What's the whole point of everything I just said? Despite being a tzaddik, despite being a tamim, Noach made one mistake that HaKadosh Baruch Hu shows every first grader every year. What? After the whole Mabul is over. What does Noach want? Peace of mind. Leave me alone. I survived a year with all these animals. A year with all these beasts. A year with all the barking. A year with all the peeping. A year with all this. Cleaning up after everybody. A year. Let me have a drink. Let me have a little drink. Let me get some. A little bit of wine. What's the problem? Kiddush. No.

37:10Kaddosh Baruch Hu says to Noach, "Mistake. Why, Noach? Why is it a mistake for Noach? If you have a drink for Kiddush, no problem. Noach gets drunk—mistake. Why? Noach, you are an Ish Tzadik Tamim. You were always straight." complete with Hashem, never asking any questions, never complaining, never having anxiety, never thinking, "Oh, I need a break, I need a vacation." You were always straight, you always had your head straight. The wine is the exact opposite of you. Why? What does the wine do? shake your mind up a little bit, goes dancing a little bit, looks over here, looks over there, sometimes at the same time. It's not you, Noach, your tzaddik. Your tzaddik is not you. It's like somebody who always says all wonderful things and then, all of a sudden, says one of these curse words. Hey, what happened? Now, if you see a truck driver or somebody at the gas station or somebody at the store saying a few curses, whatever, it's like common language.

38:26Common language is a big deal. But someone that has a Peh Kadosh, he says something, it shakes up the world. Why? You're a tzaddik. It's not you. It's not you to do it. This is also why HaKadosh Baruch Hu gets upset, really, really upset at Bat Yisrael. You know why? Because he loves Bat Yisrael. He loves Bnot Yisrael. That's his daughters. And he says, my dear daughter, look at your grandmother Sarah Imenu. Sarah Imenu was so beautiful, so beautiful, her skin was shining to such an extent that the most beautiful, Gemara says this, most beautiful woman in the world that you could ever imagine looks like a monkey with hair on its face next to Sarah Imenu. Next to Sarah Imenu. And Avraham did not even know how beautiful she was. He didn't even know how beautiful she was. Until one time he saw her shin. One time. They had been married already for a hundred years. But he just said, "Oh wow, you're beautiful." Thank you. Baruch haba. Thank you for noticing a hundred years later. If I was Sarah, I'd say, "Avraham, what's the matter with you? You're missing out."

39:47Where are you going to marry me if you're not even going to look at me? Sarah was so beautiful, even Avraham didn't see her. How come? She covers herself. Why? Because that's what Bat Yisrael does. That's your grandmother. So HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, how can you be the opposite of your grandmother? How can you be? I have a pasuk in this week's parashah. You, Bat Yisrael, you read Tehillim every day. You go to shul on Shabbat. You hear what the rabbi's drasha is. You get the girls together to do challot. Everything great, right? You want to be a tzaddeket, but what do you do? You have a wig longer than the exile. Your sleeves just went on vacation. Your dress is not even a dress. In the previous generation, it was considered underwear. Why? You want to be cute. Like the goyim. HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, it's not you. It's not you, my daughter. Look, all you do, you do hafrashat challah, and you do Kiddush, and you do the nerot, the candles, you tzaddeket.

41:01But you forgot this pasuk. This pasuk says, HaKadosh Baruch Hu will not see a shameful thing among you and turn away from behind you. Meaning, the moment that you look immodest, you don't cover your hair, you don't cover your body, my dear daughter, I simply cannot even be next to you. HaKadosh Baruch Hu tells His own daughter, my dear daughter, I love you, I created you, and I want to see you in Gan Eden, but I cannot even stand next to you, or even accept your prayers, or even allow your husband to pray next to you when you're so immodest like you are. Why? HaKadosh Baruch Hu can't be there. Immodesty, I run away from it. I put my back to it, HaKadosh Baruch Hu. I don't want to see it. Why? It's my daughter dressing like Shem Yishmael. It's not you. It's not you. You're not acting like you. Noach was not acting like him. Why? Noach, this Tzaddik Tamim walks to you and wine. What are you doing? A bat Yisrael walking around in immodesty, it's not you. It simply doesn't belong.

42:22And this is what we do mourn every day when our brothers and sisters don't act like they are. And unfortunately, there are many that are so far away that they become self-hating Jews. Jews that are anti-Semitic. Jews that are anti-Torah. Why? They're acting not like themselves. Because they don't even know what they're supposed to act like. No one apparently ever taught them or no one taught them the right way. Or they simply are so addicted to their sins that they forgot what a mitzvah even looks like. So that is what we do mourn because this is our brothers that perhaps are still living now, are still among us now and self-hating Jews, Jews that are anti-Semitic, Jews that are anti-Torah. Why? They're not acting like themselves because they don't even know how they're supposed to act. No one apparently ever taught them, or no one taught them the right way. Or they simply are so addicted to their sins that they forgot what a mitzvah even looks like. So that is what we do mourn because these are our brothers that perhaps are still living now, are still among us now, and Our whole goal is to get them closer. Next question, good question. How about in the back? Okay. Real conversion, no? Okay.

43:35Very good question. So if a goy converts to Judaism, a real, authentic conversion, and then after a certain amount of time he decides to go back to his idol worship, does his conversion get canceled? The answer is no. His conversion does not get canceled. If at the time of his conversion, he had legitimate intentions, or she had legitimate intentions to keep Shabbat, to keep Taharat HaMishpacha, to keep the laws of the Torah, all the things that she knows, all the things that they're supposed to learn, they had the intentions to keep them, that conversion is final. That conversion is final. It's only not final if it's a child that's below 13 for a boy and 12 for a girl. If you convert a child that's, let's say, five, six, seven years old then that child has to go back to the beit din when they're bar mitzvah or bat mitzvah age and the beit din will ask them if they want to remain a Jew because that conversion was, in essence, something that's subjective to the follow-up meeting

44:45that will happen at a later time when they become an adult, at 13 for a boy and 12 for a girl, and can choose for themselves. If the boy or girl says no, that's it. They become a goy instantly, and if they want to go back, no, no, I didn't mean to. Oh, you have to do conversion. You have to do conversion like an adult. So that's why the parents have to be very, very serious about educating that kid Torah, to get them to a point where they love the Torah. By the time they get to Bar Mitzvah, Bat Mitzvah, they don't even see themselves as anything but a Jew. It's not a question for them, do I want to be a Jew? No, I'm a Jew. Unfortunately, this happens sometimes where kids are not educated the right way or they're brought up in a house where the parents are, you know, a little bit of religious "Nazis," where everything is with the whip. no stories, no songs, no fun. Everything is, "Oh, what did you eat?" Relax, he's eight years old! Teach him. No, what happens is parents are too strict and cause the kids to hate Judaism, and it really has nothing to do with Judaism. It has to do with the parents. They hate the parents, but they express it by their hatred of Judaism, and this happens unfortunately.

45:59Now, if a person is an adult and they converted to Judaism and they decided to go back to their idolatry, they are at that point considered a Jew that is sinning. A Jew that is sinning. And if they do not do teshuva, they will get themselves a very, very warm and not-so-pleasant gift. That's called Gehenna, perhaps even Kaf HaKela will be in the mix too. And unfortunately, it's not a good idea. And actually, people like that are really stupid. Why? Because had you stayed a goy, you would actually have a chance of being in Heaven. with some of the things that you're doing, not with idolatry. Idolatry, anyone that's an idol worshiper, Jew or Gentile, goes to Gehenna. It doesn't matter what you are. But if, let's say, for example, the person just decided that, you know what, I don't want to be religious anymore, I want to drive on Shabbat. Now, if you're a goy, you can drive on Shabbat, you can fly on Shabbat, you can dance on Shabbat, you can do whatever you want on Shabbat. It's not for you. You don't have to keep anything. But if you are now a Jew and you're violating Shabbat,

47:05have a very serious problem. Why? Violating Shabbat is like denying Hashem. It's like denying His existence. It's equivalent to idolatry, and such a person has no share in the World to Come. What does "no share in the World to Come" mean? Permanent Gehinnom, permanent Gehinnom, horrible, horrible things. So, such a person is a fool, unfortunately. One of the things that causes people to do such things, I know a couple of stories like this, where somebody told me, "Listen, I'm watching your shiurim, I love them, da-da-da-da-da. I need to do teshuva." I said, "Oh, okay, well, you are a ba'al teshuva." He goes, "No, no, actually, I used to be religious." "Oh, what happened?" "I married a goya." "Well, hold on a second. Why? Why did you marry a non-Jew if you're religious?" "Well, actually, I converted to Judaism." Oh, so you were a tzaddik then? Yeah, everything was going great. Yeah, but my first marriage didn't go well, so we got a divorce. We fulfilled the mitzvah of get. Get is a mitzvah also. Not suggested to have one, but you have to get a get. Meaning divorce. So the first marriage didn't work out. They ended up getting divorced. He got a little lonely and found maybe his old girlfriend.

48:13the goya that he used to be in love with when he was a teenager, now she's 35 or 40. She's cute, he's cute, everybody's cute, and both of them ain't getting younger. What happens? Four kids later, he's like, "Oh, I gotta do teshuvah." Yeah, but you have four kids with a non-Jew, and you're a Jew. That's a very, very difficult thing to fix. It's fixable, but very difficult to fix. I have at least almost a handful of stories like this right now. Almost a handful of stories like this. So, this is a very serious problem. Why? Because he is now a Jew that is intermarried. He's intermarried. Very, very serious problem. So, again, if it's an authentic conversion, the conversion does not get canceled. The only time that it does get canceled is if it's right away. meaning she converted and she decided the next day that she's going back to Yeshu, that already shows that obviously the conversion was not authentic, and they cancel it. There are some people who say no, even then she's considered as a Jew, but many would simply avoid the conversions that happen right away.

49:17It's a very complicated issue because, again, you want them to go to heaven. But at the same token, you can't just change the law for them. You can't just change the law for people. So if you're going to convert, you have to make sure that you want to do it. You have to make sure that you want to do it. One of the indications that you want to do it is you're never, ever going to complain about the conversion process. Virtually every single person that I've dealt with—right now, we have in our group probably over a hundred and thirty families that we're helping in the process of conversion—virtually every person that complained to me about conversion, most, I would say almost every one of them, never made it. Why? They didn't understand what it means to be a Jew. didn't understand what it means to be a Jew. How come it's taking so long? Well, how long is it taking? Oh, I'm already doing it for four years. I only met you two months ago. Yeah, but before you. Oh, before me your world didn't exist. I can't convert you because you've been reading books? Before you, I can't take you. I can't vouch for you. I don't know what you do. You could tell me four years; it could be four days. How do I know? I have to make sure that you know what you're doing. I have to make sure that I can put my own name on the line for you.

50:30I'm not going to put my olam haba on the line for you just because you like books and you like my shiurim and you press like. No, no, but I donate too. Don't donate for that. I'll put my olam haba for money. What do you think, I'm for sale? What's the matter with you? No, but it should be easier. What do you think this is, Christianity? And why do you care that it's taking so long anyway? Everything you have to do, conversion, you have to do for the rest of your life anyway. What difference does it make? No, then it becomes real. It's real today. It's real now. But the problem is, people want things their way. They think that if they pay a certain price, or they do a certain thing, they can speed up the process, and those people are usually terrible converts. Terrible. And there's a special, special section for those people. What section is that? I'm not talking about Gehinnom. You'll be surprised. I'm not talking about Gehinnom. I'm talking about... Those people are always magnets to heretic rabbis. They're heretic rabbis, the rabbis that try to beat the system. Like one heretic who lives here in Florida, he does mass conversions. I won't even mention his name simply because I don't want to make him any more popular than he is. He's already causing enough damage. He does mass conversions, meaning just come to the beach, boys and girls.

51:55We're going to convert you. Who? Me, Julio, and Steve. We're not even sure they're Jewish at all. No, no, but we're going to do it according to the... You converted by him, you're still a goy. I'm going to tell you that. Why? Because no one in the world that has a little bit of Yirat Shamayim would accept his conversions. Why? He himself doesn't have Yirat Shamayim. himself. He himself goes against the sages, makes fun of the Torah on a regular basis. But not all. Why is he going to convert? Because he converts anybody. You want to convert? Where do you live? Where's your next door neighbor? 40 miles away. What about the synagogue? 900 miles away? Okay, you're qualified. Come to the beach, we'll convert you. is this guy going to be a Jew in Oklahoma by himself? How does he know how to do what? Watching your videos on the internet? He's going to know how to do what? You think just because he knows how to fast for 24 hours that makes him a Jew? No, it makes him know how to do a diet. In order to be a Jew, you have to live in a Jewish community. Yeah, but I can't move, I can't afford it. Okay, so it's not time to convert. No, but I want to. Okay, I want to go to Mars. Does that mean I'm going to go?

53:04If HaKadosh Baruch Hu wants you to convert, guess what? He'll open the gates of Heaven for you. If He didn't, that means He's not ready to accept you. Simple. But what happens? People try to beat the system. Beat the system. No, I'm going to go to the guy that does it for free. I'm going to go to the guy that does it under the table. I'm going to go to the guy that no one knows. I'm going to go to the guy that no one cares about. Why? Why? Traditional way: stick to the system. Stop trying to beat it because I promise you, you can't beat HaKadosh Baruch Hu. You may beat the rabbis, you may beat the so-called systems, but ultimately you'll end up losing. A lot of times, people try to buy their conversions. A rabbi asks, "How much can I convert?" Well, who wants to convert you? "You're Jewish?" "No, yeah, no, no, my girl." "Well, what is she?" "Oh no, she's in the car." "What do you mean, Shabbat?" "Yeah, no, you know, but she wants to convert, Rabbi. She really likes Judaism, but she's in a car on Shabbat." You know, she's actually not in the car right now, she's in the mall. Why, you want to see her, Rabbi? Well, if she wants to convert, don't I have to see her? Okay, maybe she'll come next Shabbat. After the mall, you know, she usually goes with the girls to the mall. After the mall, she'll come to you, Rabbi. How much is it going to cost to convert? For her, $25,000. The guy pays. Why? The Rabbi gives. Why? Because both of them are resha'im.

54:23And some people do that. They pay the Rabbi, and he'll convert anybody. He would even convert a horse. I know firsthand. Firsthand, I know. I know firsthand. There's a guy living next door to me. Wanted to convert. Wanted to convert. Tzaddik. His wife? I think the Satan's wife is jealous of her. She says, wow, this woman, she's better than me. This woman was mamash, like, picture perfect of gehinnom. Nightmare. I felt so bad for the guy. They already had kids. I would have told them to divorce. Anyway, long story short, she cheats on him. She cheats in a positive conversion. She wants to convert. Little kids, tzaddikim, cute little kids. Mamash, precious. I wanted to, like, adopt them. So cute. Hashem yishmor v'yatzil. So what are you going to do? It's a package deal. One day he decides, "I'm leaving her. Why am I leaving her? Oh, she's cheating on me. She's cheating on me with some guy. I don't know who, what, when, and how, but I'm leaving her." I said, "Okay, listen, it's best for you to..."

55:26at least present she won't convert, right? She never liked it; she didn't want to keep anything. It's better that she doesn't convert. Thank God, he comes back to me two weeks later. He says, "Rabbi, you're never gonna believe it." I said, "What?" went to the Beit Din and I told him I'm ready to do the conversion. They told me, "Listen, we're not ready yet." The guy is already at a level where he finished everything he needed to learn for conversion. He's already at a point where he's studying with several people. He already started studying things that are—you talk to the guy, he's dedicated his life. Serious, serious guy. Kids, tzadikim—you would never think that they're not Jewish. Three to four years later, they said, "No, we're not ready yet. We're not ready yet. We're not ready yet." So, I said, "Okay, whatever this Beit Din, you know, I wish you would have come with me. I, you know, take your turn, all that Din working." He was not what I'm telling you, sister. "What's the problem?" He says, "My wife, my ex-wife, she just converted yesterday." I said, "You mean Satan's wife? You mean your ex-wife?" He said, "Yeah, yeah, that one." I said, "How? She doesn't keep Shabbat." He says, "Rabbi, she doesn't know what Muktzeh is."

56:42I asked her after the conversion, "Did they ask you questions?" She said, "No, not really." She says, "What are you going to do about muktzeh?" She goes, "What's muktzeh?" After the conversion, she doesn't know what it is. I said, "What do you mean? How? How did they convert her?" He said, "Listen, apparently the Beit Din is friends with her new boyfriend." "Why are they friends?" "He's on the board of directors of the shul." He's on the board. A Jew is already going with the Goyah, so the Beit Din said, no, come on, hafif, hafif, let's convert her right away, so it's kosher. Such a Beit Din, Rabotai, has to be destroyed. I saw this with my eyes. They convert a Rasha'it that should not have any connection whatsoever to Am Yisrael. Why? Because her boyfriend's on the board of directors of some big shul. But the Tzadik, we're not ready for you. We're not ready for you. So this unfortunately happens. ...happens. Stuff like this happens. All types of bad things happen, which means what? If you want to convert, do what you're supposed to do. Follow the process—difficult, not difficult, whatever it is. Keep going. Don't complain. Why? When HaKadosh Baruch Hu is ready to say, "Come, my darling, you are now part of my first-born nation," don't worry, He will tell you, and no one can get in the way.

58:03no one can get in the way. All of these that delay and cause problems or give fake conversions for money, fame, or to pretend like they're really nice people by converting the masses—none of that is Hashem saying, "I love you." That's not Hashem saying, "I love you." You'll know it. You'll know it. You don't need to beat the system. don't need to beat the system. When He's ready, you will know clearly. Hashem loves you. Hashem wants you to be you. You don't need to beat the system. Just do what you're supposed to do. Follow what the rabbi says, follow what the halakha says, follow what the Beit Din says. Obviously, make sure it's a kosher Beit Din recognized by the Rabbanut in Israel, and so on and so forth. And that's it. You'll be fine. Trying to beat the system is not a good idea. Why? It shows you don't really want Judaism. You just want something. It's like attaining some type of degree. Where if somebody told you, listen, we can give you your doctorate after one year in college. Who would say no? Who would say no? One year in college, you...

59:12one month in college, we'll give you a doctorate. You can go to the hospital, start giving surgery. Who would say no? Everybody would say yes. Why? First of all, you save yourself a few hundred thousand dollars. Second of all, you save yourself a bunch of time. Third of all, you could already get a job. Fourth of all, who wants to go to school? But what does that mean? You don't actually care about the doctorate. You don't care about, you know, the skill. You just want the job. Like if somebody just told you, listen, forget school, I'll give you a quarter million dollars a year. Who wants to be a doctor anymore? I just want to make money. which means that if you just simply want to attain the degree regardless of whether you have to overcome any obstacles, then you don't actually want to learn. You just want a piece of paper. If you just want a piece of paper in Judaism, don't convert. Go to the printer, type yourself. Dear, write your name. You are whatever you are in your mind, sign yourself, print it out, and let's say put it on your wall and pretend like you're a Jew. Stop it. It's not a piece of paper. Be serious. Go through the process. Be patient. Learn what you need to learn. When HaKadosh Baruch Hu is ready to tell you "I love you," He'll tell you "I love you." You're going to hear it loud and clear. Next question. Yes, chavruta.

1:00:28If you and your friend were punching a punching bag and it broke, did you break it on purpose? No. That's the... Ah, okay, so you had a competition to punch a punching bag, and the punching bag broke? No, you don't have to pay for it, because number one, you didn't do it on purpose, and number two, in essence, you followed the instructions of what it is meant to do. Number three, it was there, present, so for what you did, you don't have to pay for it at all, no. Uh, I would recommend you don't have aggressive hobbies because aggressive hobbies, in general, make you more aggressive. People think like the psychiatrist—I used to study psychology in school for a few years—and it's the opposite of what people tell you. People tell you, "Listen, if you're upset, punch a bag, and that will relieve your anger." It's the exact opposite. It's the exact opposite. The more you express your anger physically, the angrier you become. So by punching, you're not relieving your anger. You're not calming yourself down. You're actually making yourself angrier or more aggressive. You can see the same thing even without aggression. If somebody says something that's really annoying.

1:01:46Really annoying. Somebody said, "Oh, such and such person just said this about you." Now, if you don't react, you just simply sit there, you'll see that the annoying feeling or perhaps even the anger goes away within a few seconds. If you just simply don't react at all. But the second you say a single word, suddenly your anger sparks up. A second word, it sparks up higher. A third word, it sparks higher and higher. Why? Now it has become an argument. You've reacted to it. So, reacting actually causes you to become angrier. Punching, being aggressive, causes you to be angrier. It doesn't relieve any anger. So, if you want to contain contain your anger, make yourself less angry, make yourself less aggressive, make yourself more righteous, make yourself closer to Hashem. You should not have any type of hobbies that are aggressive. And even exercising, by the way, even exercising itself, you should be careful with certain exercises because certain exercises are aggressive by their nature.

1:02:46by their nature, and there is a better way to do it. You can still get the same result, but without necessarily the same movements and level of aggression. So again, I only say this because the Gemara in Masechet Shabbat, I believe it's page 108b, says that anger being expressed physically... is being compared to idol worship. Idol worship, in so many words, is not good—it's not a good thing at all. So you have to do whatever you can to be extreme to the exact opposite of anger. With everything else, the Rambam writes you should have a middle ground. When it comes to generosity, middle ground. When it comes to any other type of character traits, middle ground. But when it comes to anger, the Rambam writes you have to be extreme—extremely far away from it. The further from it, the better. So when people have aggressive hobbies and exercise and things like that, it actually makes them, unfortunately, angrier. This happens, and I remember for myself in the past, I used to exercise a lot and lift tons over my head, and it didn't make me less angry. It didn't work out so much. It made other people less angry, but not me. Next question.

1:04:14Next question. Kavod Ari. So in the Akedah, Genesis 22, Hashem tests Avraham and tells him to take Yitzchak as an offering. But then an angel came and stopped him. So why an angel? And why, when he stopped it, did he speak in the first person? It says, "Now I know that you fear Hashem." Now I know that you fear Hashem. As if the angel is speaking for himself. Right. So a couple of things. So why did HaKadosh Baruch Hu use an angel to... so why is he using an angel? Who is the angel? Do we have his name and address? Maybe we'll go visit him for Shabbat. And third, why is he speaking in the first person? Okay, so the question really is why does Hashem even have angels to begin with? Because in reality, who is the one running the world? He does not need any angels to do anything.

1:05:33It does not need any angels to do anything. There are different angels that HaKadosh Baruch Hu has that do different things. There are certain angels that are created. They say, Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, and then HaKadosh Baruch Hu destroys them. And then new angels are created, and they say, Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh... And Hashem destroys them again and over and over again. Then there's the chayot, different types of angels. Some angels are literally the size of planets. Some angels are the size of light-years in length. Some angels are big. Some angels are tiny. Every little blade of grass, every little strand of grass, has an angel on top of it. Every single one of them. Not all grass. Not the whole lawn. Every single strand of grass has an individual angel standing on top of it saying to it, grow. That's it. That's his job. Sits there and says "grow." Just imagine how many angels there are. Does that angel need anything? No, he doesn't need anything. He is complete. He is perfect. So why do you have angels? Why do you have those angels? The answer to both is the same.

1:06:43it is the way of the king to have servants, meaning it is not the way of a king to serve himself. If there is a physical king, a flesh and blood king, and he is on an island, And he has nobody there. He's by himself. Him, the chimpanzees, the giraffes. You're not going to call him a king. Maybe you'll call him Tarzan, make a movie about him, but you're not going to call him a king. Why? He has no servants. Who's a king? The one that has not only servants. Who's a bigger king? The one that has more servants. The more servants, the more you know how great His Majesty is. Hashem has an infinite amount of servants. Not because He needs the servants, but rather because this is the way of a king. Okay, this is the way of the king. So that answers why they use an angel for that or for any other reason. The second thing is, there is a role for every single angel. Sometimes the angels are given a role to represent Hashem as if they're in the first person. As if they're in the first person. As if the angel is Hashem, but it's not; they speak as if they're Hashem, but they're not Hashem.

1:07:58Why? Because Hashem is trying to give a certain message that is clearer than the typical, rather than Hashem said such and such, I'm saying such and such, but obviously the viewer knows this is not Hashem. Why? To show you the degree of seriousness of the message. Degree of seriousness of the message. So Hashem uses a certain angel, this is... This is someone that's considered a mini-God. The Gemara even says there's an angel, the Malach Metatron, who actually used to be a human being called Chanoch, who sanctified himself at the time before Noach, and HaKadosh Baruch Hu took him. Why? He became too holy to be a human being. And HaKadosh Baruch Hu made him Malach Metatron. Metatron is an acronym. It's not really his name. What? Serious angel. But in Shamayim they call him a mini-God. Not that Chas v'Shalom he is God, but he's the first person. He's the vice president. Big deal, this one. This one's a big deal. So HaKadosh Baruch Hu will sometimes use this one. As if it is Him, but it's not Him. And everyone else is not Him. But in essence, when he's there, when he's talking to you, it's pretty much, you don't have to ask, can you go back to Hashem and ask? No, no, no.

1:09:14talk to me, whatever you want, you can talk to me. HaKadosh Baruch Hu uses such angels, and there are different levels of angels. There's Raphael, which has to do with health and things of that nature. There's Gabriel, which has a certain role. The Malach Gabriel was best friends with the prophet Daniel. Best friends — in the Book of Daniel, you see them talking to each other. Malach Gabriel says to Daniel, "You gave me, you gave me." Now imagine, the angel comes to you — a big angel, a giant angel. Knows a lot of things. Knows the entire Torah. He comes to you and says, you know what? I like your shiur. Give me chizuk today. You're the best. So, Daniel the prophet, his best friend was Malach Gavriel. Then you have Malach Michael. This is a big deal. And so on and so forth. Different angels. HaKadosh Baruch Hu has many, many angels. Each one has different roles and so on. Now, as far as I'm talking to him, the first question we've answered. As far as why Hashem has the angels, we've answered. What is the third question? Why did he come back? Why did he come back the second time? Why did he come back the second time? So there's a Zohar HaKadosh that is very difficult to believe. If you understand it, it's not difficult to believe, it's difficult to understand. The pshat,

1:10:33Simple meaning of the Akedah is that Avraham Avinu was standing over Yitzchak, and the Gemara says that Yitzchak, the reason why it's called Akedah is because Akedah is the way that he was tied. The way he was tied, he was tied like an animal. If you don't want an animal to move on Shabbat, you can't just tie its four legs. And leave it that way because it'll suffer. It'll suffer. On the other hand, you cannot tie it because it's going to run away. So what do you do? There's a certain tie that you tie a couple of its legs together where it could still be mobile, but it can't run away. So Yitzchak Avinu, the Gemara says, asked Avraham, "Tie me like you tie the animals, with my hands behind my back and my legs behind my back, and you tie the three of them, three out of the four." Three out of the four limbs, you tie them together, so that way I can move a little bit, but I can't run away, and I can't hit you when push comes to shove. You are on top of me with an iron if I get scared. So that way, that means that Yitzchak Avinu was tied like an animal, and he stuck out his neck, Hashem Yishmor. Why? To show Hashem I love this mitzvah. Why? You said this is a mitzvah, you want us to do it, we're going to do it. But what do we learn from the story? The pshat is that Avraham never touched him.

1:11:59But the Zohar HaKadosh says otherwise. What does it say? The reason why HaKadosh Baruch Hu spoke to Avraham twice is because after HaKadosh Baruch Hu told him, "Don't touch him," Avraham says, "A little bit. We're already here. Chaval. We're already here. We did everything already. You're not going to have a korban. Let's at least do something. Let's at least do something. Let me do a fulfilling mitzvah for HaKadosh Baruch Hu." a little bit of something you read about this, by the way, a little bit, and there's a whole thing about how Sarah Imeinu was dealing with it. She's crying, you start crying, you start crying about what actually happened there. Long story short, the Zohar HaKadosh says that he actually did cut his neck. He did cut his neck, and HaKadosh Baruch Hu took him and put him in Gan Eden to heal him. Why did HaKadosh Baruch Hu allow this? The Zohar says because Yitzchak Avinu had a feminine neshama. Feminine neshama. Not that he was gay, chas v'shalom. Not that he was feminine, chas v'shalom. But rather there's two parts to a neshama.

1:13:14And one, in essence, represents the feminine side, one represents the masculine side, and in order to bring children into the world, you have to have both. Because this was Yitzchak Avinu's test, he had to have his neshama replaced. This was the way to do it. And because had he not done this, he would have not been able to have children, meaning Yaakov would never come to the world. So this is a very, very high-level Zohar, Kabbalah, all types of mystical things. Again, when I first heard this, I got upset, to be honest with you, because it didn't make any sense to me. I thought that the guy was saying it was crazy. But it's real. It's true. It's this. And the point being is that there's a lot of things that... are beyond the Pshat, there are different secrets, different Midrashim, and various other things. The point being is that every single letter in the Torah has a multitude of explanations. A multitude of explanations as to why this letter is this way and that letter is that way, why the Nikud is here, why the sentences are here—everything has explanations, which makes anyone that deals with the public

1:14:29has to have relatively endless patience. Endless patience. Why? Because many times people come to you and say, "Listen, I looked at this and I couldn't find it anywhere in the Torah. Do you know the answer?" And that, by default, means that the person didn't look anywhere. Why? You're telling me you looked in the entire Torah and you didn't find the answer? Really? You looked in the entire Torah? Do you even know what the entire Torah looks like? If you fill this room a million times with books, it's not the entire Torah. You tell me they looked at all those books? So people say, "No, I looked everywhere in the Torah and I can't find it. It doesn't talk about this anywhere in the Torah." That's a person who's spiritually lazy, just wants a quick answer. That's what he wants. So, every letter has an explanation. Every sentence has an explanation. Some of them, your neshamah will receive and accept with love. Some of them, your neshamah will reject. Not because it's false. Not because it's bad. But rather because it's not ready for it. It's not ready for it.

1:15:38You have to be at a certain level to get certain things. So that one particular Midrash, I believe, is a very high-level Midrash. And some people will reject it. Again, I wouldn't recommend rejecting anything that we say because we're saying you think that it's in the Torah. But nonetheless, if you want to double-check it, you can check yourself in that parasha in the Zohar. It gives you details. There's also Midrashim, Midrash Me'am Lo'ez, or Midrash Rabbah. Several other places talk about different parts of the Akeidat Yitzchak. There's an endless amount of books that talk about Akeidat Yitzchak. Next question. Yes, guys. It's kind of a two-part question. Okay, try one part. So the first one is: on Shabbat, when you have the challah, is it customary for Sephardic Jews to keep it on the challah plate? i mean, again, having a challah plate, having a cover for the challah is symbolic of the manna, the manna bread. The manna bread, because HaKadosh Baruch Hu did not want us to be disgusted by it, plus He did not want it to get dirty, and He wanted it to be protected, so it had a certain tal, a dew.

1:16:47A dew that covered it from the bottom, a dew that covered it from the top, and we would have to open the dew and take and eat the manna from it. So the symbolism of the manna that we ate in the desert for 40 years is that we have something on the bottom of the challah, usually a plate of some kind, and some type of cover, a fancy cover, or just a cover that you like, that's utilized for Shabbat that covers it. In essence, symbolic of what happened in the desert for 40 years. So it's not just a custom for Sephardim, it's a custom for all of Am Yisrael. But different people have different practices. It's not like if somebody doesn't have a plate for their challah, they're not going to gain or lose anything significant. It's not a sin, but this is one of the many, many customs that we have. So then the second part would be, is it considered muktzeh on Shabbat when you're allowed to move it around to clean the table or to rearrange the table? The plate? The plate is not muktzeh. No, the plate is not muktzeh. Muktzeh is something that you would not normally use on Shabbat.

1:17:57That's what muktze is. Muktze means something that you put aside. So, since we're forbidden from writing on Shabbat, that makes the pen muktze, because you're not allowed to use the pen on Shabbat. Therefore, the pen is muktze. You know, rocks. Rocks are muktze. Why? Because, in essence, you're not allowed to build, you're not allowed to destroy, you're not allowed to use them to draw. So a rock, you're not allowed to throw a rock at anybody, even a mechalei Shabbat, even a rasha, even a kofer, even anything. Why? It's muktze. The rock is muktze. So when anybody says, "Oh yeah, these religious people throw rocks on Shabbat at cars," they're not religious. They just wear a costume. Because if they're picking up rocks on Shabbat, they're making sins on Shabbat. They're violating Shabbat themselves. If they're throwing it at other Jews, they're even bigger sinners. They're called resha'im. In fact, according to the Torah, Moshe Rabbeinu taught us a rule: the second you lift your hand in the air, without hitting anybody, just lift your hand to threaten somebody that you're going to hit them, already the Torah calls you a rasha. Already. Throwing rocks at Jews, there's nothing religious about you.

1:19:02So muktze in essence is things that are set aside, that they don't belong in the Shabbat atmosphere and so on. So a rock obviously doesn't, unless you've decided to make this rock part of Shabbat, where this rock is going to be my doorstopper. Or this rock, I'm going to use it for decoration. If this rock, you've decided before Shabbat, this is going to be... this is part of my, you know, beautifying of Shabbat, honoring Shabbat. That rock all of a sudden became allowed. You're allowed to pick it up, you're allowed to toss it hand to hand with no problem. Why? Because you've decided this is going to be part of your Shabbat. But just to go pick up a rock in the middle of the street? No, you can't decide in the future by the street. So, there are different things that you can make not muktze even though they are by default muktze. There are certain things you can't make not muktze, and there are certain things that are always going to be muktze. Okay, now, something that you use as a tool for Shabbat, whether it be a dish, plates, or otherwise, obviously, they are not muktzeh, because these are things you need for Shabbat. You need these things for Shabbat; you're allowed to lift them, you're allowed to do whatever it is that you need to do with them, no problem at all. Next question. Somebody that hasn't spoken yet. In the back, yeah.

1:20:26if you have something in one hand and another hand, so let's say I have an apple here and I have a phone in this one. Because I'm not going to eat the phone... No, I mean, in essence, I mean technically you don't even need to have it in your hand. Sometimes it's not possible to have it in your hand, like for example, if you're eating a dish of rice, you don't need to lift the rice and say "borei minei mezonot." I mean, you don't—you just look at it and, or you know, just think about the rice. Now, if you want to pick it up because that's the way you eat the food—it's a cookie, it's a chip, or something like that—you could pick up one and say the blessing. You don't have an obligation to do it, but if you're already going to pick it up, pick it up with your right hand. Pick it up with your right hand. But if you have something in your left hand, it's irrelevant. In essence, your main focus needs to be on what you're blessing. And the best way to remind yourself to focus when you're making a blessing is to break up each blessing into three. Baruch ata Hashem. That's part one. Elokeinu Melech ha'olam. That's part two. And then, let's say it's mezonot: borei minei mezonot.

1:21:44So, you broke up the same one blessing that really, most people say, like, you don't even know what the guy said. You said, you have no idea what he said. The best way to do it, I've learned, is to break up your blessings into three. That, in essence, forces you to have kavana, focus, on what you're blessing, thanking HaKadosh Baruch Hu, admitting and recognizing His creation, recognizing His significance, recognizing His majesty, and, obviously, knowing that you're not an animal. Recognize that you're not an animal, because an animal doesn't bless. An animal doesn't bless. He just eats. Next question. Yes? So I heard something about it. In what ways is it permitted? In what ways is it not permitted to give tzedakah and do Tehillim at nighttime? Some say it's allowed for certain people. What's the deal with that? Tzedakah or Tehillim, or both? Okay, so what night? Okay, we'll settle. So what's the deal with tzedakah and Tehillim at night time?

1:22:48Okay, so the easy one is Tehillim. I mean, you can give at any time. You can give tzedakah. You can even give tzedakah on Shabbat, not physically but make a promise to give it. Meaning you say, let's say the Knesset or some Jewish organization of some kind, and they say, "Listen, we're raising money," and they're raising money on Shabbat. they're not getting checks from people. Don't give them a check or cash at that moment—that's not allowed. But you can make a promise to give the money on Yom Kippur or on Shabbat. Why? Because you're doing a mitzvah, and in essence, you're not fulfilling the mitzvah at that second; you are planning the mitzvah. And planning a mitzvah is allowed on Shabbat, allowed on Yom Tov. Okay, so you're saying, like, you can talk about, let's say, for example, you want to build a synagogue. or you want to have a siyum HaShas party, or something that involves a mitzvah or a shiur Torah, you can plan it on Shabbat. You can plan it on Shabbat. Why? Because you're planning a mitzvah. A mitzvah you can do at all times. Now you're not giving them the actual money on Shabbat; you're planning to give them. You promise, "I'm going to give you $20,000, but obviously not on Shabbat. I'm going to give it to you on Monday." So that you're allowed to do anytime, at night, on Yom Kippur, on Shabbat, anytime. Whoever told you you can't give tzedakah at night is wrong.

1:24:10To heal him, on the other hand, is a little bit more difficult. Why? It has to do, again, you guys are all Kabbalists over here, apparently. It has to do with the mystical part of Judaism. Now, there is a concept in Judaism that's called the powers of impurity and the powers of holiness. Tum'ah is impurity. and kedusha is holiness. Now, there is a certain time of the day when the powers that are in the world of holiness have more significance. And there are times of the day when the powers of impurity, HaKadosh Baruch Hu gives them their time when they have more significance. presence has more power, if you will, at that time of night, but not the whole night. From the time of Tzeis HaKochavim until the middle of the night.

1:25:17The middle of the night doesn't literally mean 12 o'clock a.m. all the time. It depends where you are in the world, and it depends when it is during the year. Because the Jewish clock is not exactly the same as the secular clock. You could download an app called CalJ, C-A-L-J, on your phone. It tells you times of when to pray in the morning, what's the middle of the night, if you do Tachanun today or not, when the holidays are, and so on. CalJ. You could download it on the... uh, stores, whatever the uh, the phone stores, um, app stores, uh, anyway. Now, from the time of Arvit till the time of Chatzot, that's when the powers of impurity have more significance, have more presence in the world, if you will, or essence. They are given permission to do more. So because of that, because of that, Chazal said that, the Chachamim said actually, that you should not simply read, read the written Torah during that time, because it bothers them and can create problems for you, if you will. Now, this only applies to simply reading it.

1:26:36not studying it. For example, if you just feel like reading Tehillim just because you feel like reading something, don't do it during that time. Let's say if it is eight o'clock p.m. and midnight is the middle of the night, during those four hours, don't do it if you just feel like reading the parashah, just reading it. Superficially reading it, don't do it during that time. Why? There are other things you can learn. There are other things to do. It can create different problems in your life. Now, studying and praying, you can do anytime. What's the difference? Reading the parashah, let's say, reading the parashah is just simply saying, okay, ויתד תהיה לך על אזנך. Pasuk says, "And you shall have a shovel in addition to your weapons." That's reading. You've read what the Pasuk says. That's it. Studying means, oh, this way it says, oh, let's see what the commentary says. Oh, the commentary says such and such. Rashi says this. The Ramban says this. That's studying. That you can do anytime. Anytime you can do that.

1:27:48Reading, don't do it during that small window of time. Why? Again, like I said, there's a whole concept of impurity powers. Now, as far as Tehillim is concerned, if you're just simply going to be reading it for the sake of reading it, it's better for you to go learn a shiur Torah or something else. But if you're going to be in a time where it's either you read Tehillim or you're going to go hang out with your friends and waste your time, go read Tehillim. Why? Because the amount of demons you'll create from hanging out with your friends is much worse than, you know, bothering them a little bit with reading Tehillim. Needless to say, if you're not going to do anything at all, it's better to read Tehillim. So, And if you need to pray for somebody, somebody, say chas v'shalom or something like that, you can do it anytime. So, it's important to understand that there's a difference between superficially reading things, studying them, praying, and so on.

1:28:49Usually, most people are utilizing the Torah for a real reason, either to pray or to study. But the sages were very, very conscious of things we're not aware of and can't even see with the naked eye most of the time. and they were cautious about certain things. But again, if they were alive in this generation, I would dare to say that maybe they would not have told us to follow this particular teaching, simply because if people are not doing something that's connected to Torah in this generation, most of the time they’re causing trouble and committing sins. So, uh, it's it's that's why I say, and I asked, I verified this with my Rav. If somebody is either gonna read Tehillim, with their uh, you know, or they're gonna go hang out with their friends, have a beer, tell them to read Tehillim until their face turns blue. Why? It's much better to go read Tehillim than to go waste your time and do other things. But if you have other options, you could watch a shiur Torah, you could attend a shiur Torah, you could read Gemara, you could read a sefer Mussar, something like that, then you should do those things during that time. Do those things. Next question. Ken Sutton.

1:30:07So the question is, how did the fish survive the flood if the water was very hot? So there are a few explanations in the Gemara and in the Midrash. One is that HaKadosh Baruch Hu did not intend to kill the fish. The fish did not die because the fish did not sin. So he did a couple of things. First and foremost, not all of the water was boiling. Only a certain part of the water was boiling, only a certain part of the surface. Some say it was only the top of the water, some say it was only a part of the ocean that was applicable to affect the people that needed to be punished. Then there's another stage that says that only certain parts of the world were simply not affected. You know, the ocean was not affected at all, not relevant at all. And there's even a Gemara that says that there's actually a place in the world that even the raindrops did not go there. Where? Yerushalayim. There was no flood in Yerushalayim. There was no flood in the ocean. So, with all of those different explanations, we see that one could have, let's say, an endless amount of explanations. But, in just these few quick ones, you have the fish. Obviously, they don't need to go to the top and breathe. They don't need to do that. That's just us when we act like fish and go to the top. So, fish can go into the ocean, hang out at the bottom with some mermaids too if they want, and have a good time.

1:31:24They don't need to think, oh, wait, there are mermaids? Yeah, the Gemara says there are mermaids. Just a little chiddush for you guys. The Gemara says there are mermaids. Rashi says there are mermaids. They say, oh, why? You guys are... Yeah, there are mermaids. There are mermaids. Well, you didn't see one? You didn't see the mermaid stories? There are mermaids. limit is that it is not saying that there is a creature that looks half-human, half-fish. Rashi talks about it, other poskim talk about it. Of course, the heretics make fun of it, but the point being is there are a lot of strange creatures in the world. Some we see, some we don't see. But the point being is that the fish can go into the depths of the ocean and And if Hashem wants, He could have unique protection for certain creatures in different ways. But the fish did not sin like the other creatures, and therefore they did not get punished. How did the other creatures sin? The other creatures sinned by cohabiting with different species, meaning the giraffe wanted to dance with the lion.

1:32:26And the sheep wanted to go hang out with the alligator. This is defying nature. Since they defied nature, they went against their nature, they lost their right to exist. The only ones that survived are the few that did not sin. Meaning the lion that survived, that all the lions in the world come from today, he didn't sin, like the rest of his friends that were lions. The giraffe that survived, that all the giraffes of today came from, she did not go hang out with the sheep and the alligators. She was a tzadeket. She was a tzadeket giraffe. And that's the story there. Yes? Chabad in the back. I'll give you a follow-up in a minute. There's someone who's at a level of learning to mark, right? And comes at night after work, breaking his head, right? Yeah, he doesn't want to break his head; he wants to coast.

1:33:32If someone is at the level of learning tough Torah, and he doesn't feel like it, he wants to learn something simpler, and he learns Chumash, is that considered to be Torah? It could be, and it could not be. It depends really on what level he is versus what level he thinks he is. Most people, by their nature, think that they are much greater than they are. And they think that some things are beneath them, like they think that Chumash is beneath them. This is a very big mistake. Chumash, by the way, Rabotai, anyone that wants even a remote chance, like an inkling of a chance, like a microscopic chance of being a talmid chacham, has to be an expert, an expert in Chumash. Expert. There is no talmid chacham, a real talmid chacham, that does not know Chumash. Why? Chumash is the foundation. Everything you learn—the Gemara and Poskim and so on—has to come from Chumash. So people that insult the Chumash, saying "Oh, you're only learning Chumash," or "Oh yeah, one day you'll learn," that person is not a talmid chacham; he's an am ha'aretz if he has an attitude like that towards Chumash. So, that's one thing. Chumash also has an endless amount of mefarshim and lessons that you can learn.

1:34:55that are beyond, beyond difficult. You could literally break your head 500 times and not understand why this pasuk says this and not that. And so on and so on. So Chumash is not as easy as people think it is. That's number one. Two, Chumash is the only thing that you are obligated to learn every single week. Where the Shulchan Aruch says you're obligated to read Chumash, twice Mikra and once Targum. You have to read the weekly parasha, no matter if you're the biggest Talmid Chacham in the world, you're the Rishon LeZion, you wrote 500 books, it doesn't make a difference. You have to read the same Chumash, just like the first grader. Just like the first grader. So, first, the person needs to know that Chumash is not like some little first grader stuff. Chumash is a big deal. A very, very big deal. You think it's not a big deal? You're an idiot, at best. At best, you're an idiot. Why? Because it's a big deal. This is the Torah. Now, some people will say, yeah, but I heard a certain Rav, that's Talmid Chacham, that said, yeah, but if this guy learns Chumash, that's Bittul Torah. So what does that really mean? If someone is a serious Talmid Chacham, he knows Poskim, he knows Gemara, he's somebody that you could do some big deals with. He's a big deal guy. And that guy already did a Shnayim Mikra Ve'Echad Targum.

1:36:20already did everything, he knows what he's talking about. But, you know, it says, listen, you all go, we got our derech, we got our thing, we got to learn. No, no, I'm going to read some stories, I don't feel like it. If there's a reason, potentially, it's not a problem, but if he, one-off, two-off, he does this, it's not a problem. But if that's all he does, he has the mind of the Arizal, but he wants to read 24 hours a day all the time, yeah, that's between... But if it's a one-off situation, it's not a big deal. It's not off, it's not a big deal. Many Chachamim say that, for example, on Friday night, Friday night you get a lot of sechar, a lot of reward for learning Torah. But many Chachamim had the custom to read easier parts of Torah on Shabbat, on Friday night, then during the week. Why? To do more. To toil, to be able to accomplish more. Why? Because the more you strain yourself, the more difficult it is to do it the whole night if you want to do an all-nighter. So sometimes they'll do easier Torah. Meaning they'll read the Midrashim, perhaps, versus the Gemarot and the Poskim, where you might have to work on one sugya for nine hours. You could just, you know, read something for several hours, you know, without breaking your head. So many Chachamim had the custom

1:37:37to read easier parts of Torah. But again, it all depends on the level of the person. To simply say a one-size-fits-all, anyone that reads a Chumash, when he can learn Gemara, that's Bittul Torah. Whoever said that, he's an Am Ha'aretz. He doesn't know what he's talking about, and he's a very arrogant person. He thinks he's a Talmid Chacham. But according to the Torah, he's not even close to it. Not even close to it. Why? Because in today's world, in today's world, any Torah you learn, is a big deal. In today's world, anything you learn is a big deal. Why? Look how far we are. Look how far we are. Look how most people, to get them to a shul, you got to beg them and their mother. Just to get them to come to the shul. To get a guy to learn, you got to tell the guy, no, no, no, I don't want... That's arrogance. One time, they came to, I think I told you guys this story, but it's worth repeating. They came to Rav Elyashiv and told Rav, there's this company, this publisher called ArtScroll. And they want to publish a Gemara with the commentaries in English and in Hebrew, where everything is going to be on one page, and you're not really going to have to toil to figure out the basic pshat. And they want...

1:39:05to publish this, and we want the Rav—we want to go against it, because if they publish this ArtScroll, people are not going to toil over Torah anymore because it's going to be easy for them. He says, "Not only am I not going to go against it, I'm going to support it." thought he just they thought they didn't understand him. This is his own family who say, "No, no, no, for the people, no, no, you don't understand. You think I don't, you don't understand. What they're trying to do is increase the Torah in the world." That's what they're trying to do. So people can understand the basics of the Gemara and therefore be encouraged to continue reading more. This will increase the Torah in the world. And if you're so worried about people not toiling, then that means you haven't toiled enough. Why? Because you don't even start toiling until you understand the basics.

1:40:11if you don't understand the basics, you're toiling over a mistake anyway. What's the point of toiling? Not only am I not going to go against it, I'm going to support it. And many supported ArtScroll, and he was a hundred percent right, like a navi (prophet). Look what happened since they started publishing their books over the last few decades. The amount of Torah that's being studied by the English-speaking world and other parts of the world has magnified tremendously. Why? Because finally, people have an easier, clearer understanding to get the basics. And people that are against it are not only completely disconnected from society, but many of them have such arrogance you shouldn't be in the same room as them. That's the reality. So again, if a person is a serious talmid chacham, And he just decides to always read easy stuff. Yes, that is a problem. But if he's tired, and he knows that if he opens the Gemara, he's going to fall asleep in three seconds, if he opens the Chumash, if he opens the Midrash, he'll be able to study for an hour. What's better? That hour. Learn that hour. But if it's a one-off situation, and if it's all the time, he's never studying Torah, obviously he has to study more difficult stuff.

1:41:32this also opens up to a, uh, a really interesting subject. Why should a person—I'm going to ask you guys a question—why should a person study difficult Torah? Why shouldn't I just study easy stuff? No, you ask the question. Let's see what kind of answer you have. Why do I need to break my head? Why can't I just coast? Why can't I just read stories? The Gemara in Masechet Nedarim, page 20b, says that there are certain people that are called Posh'im and Mogdim, criminals and traitors or betrayers. Kabbalah says, who are these people? And it gives titles of different types of people. And one of them is people that are born from a nidah.

1:42:54For a woman who did not go to the mikveh, and she was intimate with a man, whether it's her husband or otherwise, a boyfriend, and a baby came out of it, even though she didn't go to the mikveh, she was a nidah. The Gemara says those people already come to the world as criminals. Criminals. So, you say, oh, this... Neshama is already coming to the world with their hands tied behind their back. How is this guy ever going to be a tzaddik? This guy already came from a nidah. This guy already came into the world from a sin, a big sin. How does anybody, why does Hashem even allow these people to come to the world? So, the Arizal in Sha'ar HaPesukim writes... based on commentary on the Sefer Iyov, the book of Job, chapter 14, verse 4. He says, in the story of Avraham Avinu, one of the things that we learn is that Avraham Avinu's father, Terach, was not only a Rasha, before he did Teshuvah, but also a Machti HaRabim.

1:44:16He was causing the people to sin. Why? He was the Walmart of idolatry. He not only served idols himself, but he sold idols to people. He was causing the public to sin. That's Avraham Avinu's father. If that's not bad enough, the Arizal says that Terach was with Avraham Avinu's mother while she was niddah. And from that intimate act, Avraham Avinu was born. Meaning Avraham Avinu himself was a product of nidah. Now, even though it wasn't Matan Torah yet, it wasn't a time of Torah yet, we know that Avraham Avinu had the entire Torah and so on, but the point being is that it was an act that was not viewed favorably by HaKadosh Baruch Hu. Meaning that Avraham Avinu fits this description before he became Avraham Avinu, that the Gemara in Masechet Nedarim says, meaning his neshama came to this world with its hands tied behind its back. And then the Arizal elaborates; he says, from there we learn that when the neshama

1:45:46overcomes the obstacles by making itself holy, by sanctifying itself. Not only does it elevate itself to a higher level and fix the deformity, if you will, that it has because of coming from a forbidden relation. But if it elevates itself, it also fixes those that came before it. Meaning, Avraham Avinu fixed the deformity of his father Terach. What do we learn from this so far? The more righteous you are, the more your parents will benefit, even if your parents weren't exactly Avraham Avinu. Why? The more you sanctify yourself, the more your neshamah, even if it came from a niddah, you came from something bad, and so on. Don't think for a second that that's a bad thing. Why? You have an opportunity that others don't. What's your opportunity? You can elevate your neshamah to a point where you can not only elevate yourself but also fix the ones before you. You can fix the ones before you.

1:47:11As we learn, he says, from the pasuk in the book of Iyov, chapter 14, verse number 4, "Who can produce purity from impurity? No one." Now, the Arizal continues and says, "Where is our proof of this?" Proof is that throughout history, we see that many of the tzaddikim came either from resha'im, complete ignoramuses, or outright goyim—people that weren't even Jewish, idol worshipers in some cases. Some examples are several generations before the rabbi of Rabbi Akiva. They were so extraordinary, so holy, that literally the rules changed for them. Both of them were born goyim. Both of them were born goyim and became the biggest rabbis of their generation—giants, kodesh kodashim. Rabbi Meir Baal HaNes came from goyim, through conversion. Rabbi Akiva, through conversion.

1:48:37Ruth, the Moabite, the grandmother of the Messiah, converted herself. The wife of Yehoshua bin Nun. The wife of Yehoshua bin Nun, convert. And many, many other tzaddikim throughout history, not just at that time, but even now, you see that HaKadosh Baruch Hu made these tzaddikim come from places that you would never imagine because our logic is, wait, he is a big rabbi because his father was a big rabbi and his grandfather was a big rabbi all the way to David HaMelech. Not necessarily. His father could potentially be a massive killer. His father could be a mass murderer. And he is a tzaddik yesod olam. Why? He chose to elevate his neshama. Now, The Gemara in Masechet Avodah Zarah, page 14b, says that Avraham Avinu, how did he elevate his neshama to be so high? He studied a lot of Torah in the Yeshiva of Shem and Ever, the son of Noach and the grandson of Noach. So,

1:50:03Avraham Avinu is known for his chesed, for having guests and things like that. But what did he do anytime he didn't have guests? He studied Torah non-stop. So the Gemara in Masechet Avodah Zarah, page 14b, says, what kind of Torah did he study? So you see how we have our tractate Avodah Zarah, which has five perakim, five sections. Avraham Avinu had 400 sections. Meaning his tractate, Avodah Zarah, was bigger than all of the Gemara put together. That's emet. So they say, wait, what happened to all of it? It's gone. He had it, we didn't have it. The Admor MiGur, the Admor MiGur, the Imrei Emet, says something really interesting. In Likutei HaShas, on the tractate Avodah Zarah, He gives a fantastic chiddush. He says, what does it mean? Avraham Avinu had 400 sections to tractate Avodah Zarah. Where did it go? What happened to it? How come we don't have it? How did we lose 395 pieces? He says, what do you really have? He reads from the commentary on the Midrash Rabbah, on the Song of Songs, chapter 6, verse number 8. He says,

1:51:24It says that there's 60 melakhot and 80 pilagshim. It says this symbolizes the 60 tractates of the Gemara and the 80 different ways to learn them. So he says, Avraham, what did he do? You see, what do we have? We have five sections to the tractate of Avodah Zarah, right? If you want to be holy, what do you do? You're not only learning once; you keep learning. Avraham Avinu not only learned it, he learned it 80 different ways. There are 80 different shitot, 80 different strategies of how to learn the same exact thing. He learned these five sections 80 different ways. ...do you get 80 times 5? 400. That's the 400 that he had. But when you study it from this way, from that way, from this way, from that way, from this way, from every single one of the different holy strategies, you get to see the Gemara in a completely different way. Now, the question is, why would Avraham do such a thing?

1:52:52says that when a person wants to destroy avodah zarah He has to learn Torah l'shma. He has to learn the Torah just for the sake of learning. Not because "I'm going to read this because I understand it" or "because it's easy." No, no. You're not studying because it's easy. You're studying because this is what HaKadosh Baruch Hu said to do. "Yeah, but I'm reading it for five hours and I don't understand. Why should I study? Should I just study something easier?" No, no. If you study the difficult... That's Torah l'shma. No, no, I'm only going to study it because I need it for a test. That's not Torah l'shma. I'm going to study because I'm going to write a book. That's not Torah l'shma. I'm going to study because I can use this material to go show off to my friends. That's not Torah l'shma. That's not Torah for the sake of Heaven. Torah l'shma means Torah for the sake of Heaven. No, Torah for the sake of Heaven means you're studying it just because this will bring nachat to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. No benefit.

1:54:04Not because there's more mitzvot and more this, more that. What's the benefit of doing things just because HaKadosh Baruch Hu said so? It destroys avodah zarah. It destroys idolatry. This is why, by the way, what you said is 100% correct. ...when you study more difficult Gemara and different halachot and things like that, it rectifies the sin of wasting seed. Why? Difficult Torah is, by definition, difficult. Meaning, the only way you can continuously sustain going back and breaking your head, breaking your head, breaking your head, breaking your head, is why? Because you love HaKadosh Baruch Hu. Because if you're just loving yourself, you're going to pick up one of these easy books, read somebody's story. Oh yeah, the rabbi went from this place to that place, 500 pages repeating the same exact thing. Yeah, I'm going to read some rabbi that wrote a book three years ago. Why don't you read one of the Rishonim? Why don't you read one of the G'dolei HaDor? Why don't you read something more difficult? No, no, no, I'm going to read something. I'm going to read the Harry Potter, but the biblical version. You want it easy? That's not learning for the sake of heaven.

1:55:19you study the hard stuff. Why? You love Hashem. Yeah, but it's hard. That's the point. That hard Torah shows you love Hashem, and it has power. What kind of power? Destroying idolatry. Destroying idolatry. And wasting seed, by the way, the Gemara says, is considered a form of idolatry. A form of idolatry. Not idolatry, but a form of idolatry. That's why, for example, anyone who knows a little bit about the crazy people that call themselves Satanists or people that deal with all types of witchcraft, whether it be witchcraft from third-world countries or Wicca or all types of voodoo and things like that, those people, part of their witchcraft or the like, has to do with seed, wasting seed, and blood and things of that nature. Why? Because that's the Tumah of Tumah. So, if a person fell for those types of things and wants to fix himself, he has to study Torah Lishma. Meaning that when Avraham Avinu studied Torah,

1:56:34The tractate of Avodah Zarah in 80 different ways. That means he did the most difficult thing known to man. It's not reading the same book 80 times. It's reading it from a completely different and unique perspective every single time, as if you've never read it before. Doing things the exact opposite that a normal person would look at. 80 different ways. Why? I love Hashem. I do it this way because I want to bring nachat to Hashem. I want to show Him I love His Torah. I'm going to look at it in every single possible way there is. Yes, but it's the most difficult. Why don't you go on vacation type of Torah? No, no, no. I want the most difficult. Why? I love Hashem. When a person studies Torah that way, he destroys avodah zarah. such an extent that he's even fixing not just his own neshama, but the ones that came before him, and things that are around him. It helps a lot of different things. It's not just a simple read-a-Harry-Potter-book-and-maybe-you'll-remember-part-of-the-story-a-few-weeks-down-the-road-to-tell-your-friend. No, it's this type of learning Torah...

1:57:48sanctifies HaKadosh Baruch Hu's name with the amount of love that you have, and in essence makes a person's neshama elevated to a level that is like nothing else. Yes? Yes, every person at his level. Every person at his level. So if a person is already learning Torah Like Rav Chaim Kanievsky. Okay? He already read the Chumash. Hashem only knows how many times. He already completed the entire Gemara, the entire Shas. I would estimate probably no less than a hundred times. Most likely much more than that. Okay? He reads more in one year than most people will ever do in several lifetimes. Not just one lifetime. Now if he... reads the Chumash with basic commentary of Rashi. For him, obviously, it's much easier than other parts because he's done it many, many times. So for him, it's much easier, right? On the other hand, if somebody's just starting out, like imagine your own Reuven 10 years ago, 12-15 years ago, whatever that was, okay? Imagine me, okay? I was a little bit half-retarded. Why?

1:59:04Because I spent my whole life on Wall Street. Almost 20 years in the business. I knew anything you could tell me about business, I knew. Your business, my business, any business. I was an expert in business. I knew a little bit about people too. I knew a little bit about psychiatry. I knew a little bit about art. A lot of different things. Torah, not so much. Not so much. So when I first started, it was brand new to me. Everything was hard. Everything was hard. I knew how to read. I was always a reader. But everything was new. And when it's new, it's hard. So I didn't understand, why does Hashem have to put Noach in a teivah? Why didn't He just protect him in a different way? Why put him in a boat? You want to protect Noach? Tell him, "Noach, listen, Jerusalem is not going to have any rain. Go over there." What? Save the animals? I'll tell them all to come there. Why have him build the thing for 120 years? Rabbi, again, I'll ask the same question. Why have him build this thing for 120 years? Until he planted the tree. Until the tree grew. And they all made fun of him. And the animals finally showed up. Then he has to deal with the cockroaches. And then he has to deal with the mice. He has to deal with the lions. Who wants to deal with all this? You want to protect him? Tell him to go get himself a villa in Yerushalayim on Har HaZeitim over there and have fun. What's the problem? Why a whole thing by Hashem for a hundred years? It's difficult for me to understand this. Why?

2:00:25I started as an individual. As you learn more and more Torah, you start understanding why HaKadosh Baruch Hu loves His people so much, and you realize there is no individual in Judaism. It's all about the klal. It's all about the klal. told Noach, "Yeah, build this. It's going to take a hundred years." Why? "I want to give these people more time to do teshuva. I want to give you more time to do kiruv." You know, Noach did not exactly fulfill the full job. He didn't do enough kiruv. He stayed in his place; he didn't travel; he didn't rebuke. That's why he had to come back into your group. But he still said, "Let's not discount it for a second." But when it came to unity, it wasn't a complete tikkun. But many others also failed with certain things. You go into the Shevatim. You go into the Shevatim, you ask yourself, hold on a second. Why did HaKadosh Baruch Hu already tell us, listen, by the way, you're all going to be going to Egypt, you're going to become slaves. What did we do? I didn't even make any claims yet.

2:01:39Why do I need to go to be a slave? If I did a crime, I killed somebody, okay, make me a slave. I didn't do anything yet. Several reasons. One of them is that we are an am k'shei oref. We're a stubborn nation. Not stubborn just because we like our opinion and not anybody else's opinion. Even if our opinions are wrong and we know it, we still like our opinion. Not just because of that. but rather because HaKadosh Baruch Hu, when He created the Shevatim, they were superhuman in comparison to the rest of the people. By default, He made them superior to others, superior to other children. In so many words, we were something intolerable to the other nations. In order to humble us, Something had to happen. Well, naturally you were better. Hashem had to humble us. That's one simple explanation. The other one that I want to focus on is that, have you ever noticed that it says that there were 12 tribes?

2:02:46There was Reuven, Shimon, Naftali, Yehuda, Binyamin, and Yosef. Twelve tribes, right? And guess what? Each one of the tribes said, yeah, Yosef, here. Shimon, here. Yehuda is over there with Tamar. Everybody out there. Everyone looked at themselves as individuals. I got my shul, you got your shul. Whenever you want to come visit, let me know ahead of time. Like in America, if you ever want to visit somebody, you have to make an appointment three weeks in advance. You know, when I grew up as little kids, we would just show up at your house. "Hey, you’re home? Okay, let's have coffee." In America, it's very different. You want to show up? You want to, okay, I come for coffee again three weeks from now at 2 o'clock. Make sure it's not 2:30 because I have another appointment that was already made six months ago. Very different. Twelve tribes. Everybody's different. Hakadosh Baruch Hu says, "I don't want a nation of twelve different sections. I don't want Ashkenazi, Sephardi, Yemenite, Moroccan, this one, that one, his shul, three Jews, eighty-seven different shuls. No, I don't want that. I want everybody to be My chosen people."

2:03:55One nation. So how can I make twelve unique, powerful, amazing, righteous people become one? What a solution. Let's make them slaves. And they'll say to me, we were slaves. Not I was a slave in my section. Shimon was a slave. No, nobody said that. What do we say in the Torah? We were slaves. We were tortured. We. All of a sudden, we became a people. we suffer together. Who says sometimes I have to make you suffer together in order to make you realize you're brothers, in order to make you realize you're together? So, this in the beginning, in my wildest dreams, I wouldn't have arrived at this. I wouldn't arrive at this like figure. Everything was difficult. So, the point being is, to get back to your question, in the early stages, everything is good. Chumash is good. Mussar is good. Everything is good. Grab as much as you can. In fact, the Chachamim specifically talk about how when you're in your early stages, you should only study the things you like. What's considered the early stages?

2:05:15Early stages means as long as it's not sweet. As long as the Torah is not sweet yet to you, it's not delicious yet, you're not necessarily always looking forward to it, you're not always necessarily just, oh, I can't, no. Like when it's not your number one in your life yet, then it's still early stages. That's not a problem. That doesn't make you a bad person. It makes you normal. It makes you normal. During that time where you're normal, anything you could possibly get your hands on that's kosher, that's good, study it. Chumash, Midrash, Mussar, Halacha. Just study as much as possible. Get it into your blood system. Get it into your DNA. The more the better. see how it's affecting you. If you're not changing, change it up yourself. Make sure that it's, uh, you know, you have to study. If you're seeing you're studying the same thing, you study the same book, you finish the whole book, and you're still the same animal that you started, there's something wrong with you. Either something wrong with you or something wrong with the book. You have to know that the Torah that you learn is supposed to change you. If it doesn't change you, it's either something wrong with what you're reading or something wrong with you.

2:06:27sometimes a combination of both. The point being is, in the beginning, anything as much as possible, as much as possible. As the Torah becomes sweeter to you, then you graduate to higher levels. When you first graduate out of engineering school, what do they give you? "Listen, make me a little engine for what? For a little fan that people are going to buy for 9.99 at the gas store." "Yeah, but I'm an engineer! I went to school for eight years!" "Yeah, exactly, that's why we gave you the job to make fans at the store." after a few years, okay, make me an engine of what? Of this, uh, you know, laundry machine. Okay, at least it's better than the fan. After a few more years, you get some more experience. Okay, make me an engine of what? Of a car. Oh, okay, fine. A car is fine, I like cars. Okay, after a few years, okay, make me an engine of what? Of a plane. Then of a jet. Then of a rocket. Why? More experience, more of this, you are making yourself more acclimated.

2:07:27of a fit to higher things. But you can't start at high levels. This is why it always amazes me how people think they can simply skip all of the basics and go to the highest level of Torah on day one. "Oh, I'm studying the Zohar." Did you finish the Shas? what's the Shas? Oh okay, good, you're that one, you're that guy. Oh no, I'm already studying Kabbalah. I go to the Kabbalah Center. Yeah, you're going to get Kabbalah. Kabbalah? You're studying? Exactly, you're a Kabbalist already? No, no, not yet, that's next month. Okay, after you pay the fee though, right? Yeah, you become a Kabbalist with fifteen hundred dollars? Yeah, that's definitely in Shamayim—in heaven—they wrote fifteen hundred dollars for perpetuity. It's always going to stay the same price. Adam paid fifteen hundred dollars just like you. Kabbalist? No, I'm a commentator. I'm a commentator. Wait, you keep Shabbat? Yeah, no, I keep it in a bag. I keep it in... What is it again? What is it again? I want to keep it. What is it again? Shabbat? Oh, okay. People want to become commentators on day one. I think this Pasuk means... Wait. You think? Don't think. Learn.

2:08:43Don't think. Learn. Well, aren't we supposed to ask questions? Yeah, after you know how to ask them. First, learn all of the possible and available answers. Then ask questions. Don't read and assume that your question even has any value. First, read all of the possible answers. Meaning, read what it says. Read the commentators, especially Rashi, if you're learning Gemara, or if you're learning a Chumash, Tanach. Rashi, you can't live without him. If you're in Gemara, you're also at the Maharsha. There's no page in Gemara without the Maharsha. You have to. Don't start asking questions until you have all of that covered. No, no, but I have questions. Okay, keep them deep down inside. It'll come back later on why. First, learn what to ask. Learn what to ask, then you can start becoming a little mini Rashi like you've been playing in your head. You need to know what you're talking about first, but everybody wants to jump and...

2:09:52He wants to be, he wants to already write a book. He wants to write a book. Oh, Rabbi, listen. I'm working on a book. What kind of book? Harry Potter? The new vampire movie? What kind of book? No, no, I'm going to write my opinion of Bereishit. What I think happened. You look at the guys; they're actually serious about what they're saying. They're actually serious. This is what happens. We have it in the world. This is what happens in the world. We have in the world a lot of this. So why? Because people don't have a concept of what a Gadol HaDor is, what a giant in Torah is, what Torah is b'chlal. So the Torah requires us to humble ourselves, to know where we stand. And it's very important for a person to know that in the beginning, there's nothing embarrassing about being a beginner. There's nothing embarrassing about being a beginner. In fact, HaKadosh Baruch Hu Himself says it. Where? We have the Aron HaKodesh. On the Aron HaKodesh we have the keruvim. Right? The keruvim are what? Two little babies. Two cute little babies. Right? Why did HaKadosh Baruch Hu pick two cute babies? Why did He pick Moshe Rabbeinu's image? Bah!

2:11:16Ten amot, 20 feet tall. He beat Og Melech HaBashan... If I was HaKadosh Baruch Hu, I'd be like Moshe Rabbeinu, Avraham Avinu. HaKadosh Baruch Hu, obviously, put two little babies. Why? He says, HaKadosh Baruch Hu, He says to us, "I love you when you act like little babies." What kind of little babies? The little babies that constantly yearn for more knowledge. Why? "I'm new." "Yeah, but you're learning Torah already five years." "Exactly, I'm new." "You're learning Torah already 15 years." "Exactly, I'm new. I'm a beginner, HaKadosh Baruch Hu. I want more, more." A kid, what does a kid want? More. Of what? Of anything. Yeah, but it's not allowed. But I want more of it. But it's not allowed to go there. I want more of it, though. Not only do I want more of it. HaKadosh Baruch Hu loves us when we're beginners. We act like beginners. We want more. There's nothing embarrassing about being a beginner. Halavai, we all act like beginners even when we become much more. Why? That's why HaKadosh Baruch Hu loves us the most.

2:12:23Problem is, many of us, we want to be finishers already. Old men, 16 years old, he's an old man already. 26 years old, he's already a veteran. No, no, I already know this. I already know this. Rabbi, I covered it already. Covered. Covered. Blanket, maybe. But that's the problem. Arrogance, Rabotai, ruins people's lives. Ga'avat adam tashpilenu. The arrogance of a man is what HaKadosh Baruch Hu will use to bring his downfall. Bring his downfall. But unfortunately, that downfall doesn't happen quickly enough at certain times, where a person has to cause a lot of damage for himself and others around him, thinking that he knows more or she knows more. And many times you see this in society today, where people simply think that they're much better than what they are. know because they don't think that the basics are for them. They already want to do the extras, and this is a very, very big mistake. So, to finalize the question, which I think is a fantastic and very necessary question: Is there difficulty for beginners in Chumash and all that stuff? Again, it all depends on where you stand in your life. If you are in the early stages, study anything that you like.

2:13:40If you're in the process of conversion, study what the syllabus says. Why? These are the basic minimum requirements of what you need to know to be a Jew. To just handle day-to-day life. If you're a Baal Teshuva, same thing. Study that same syllabus that we have. You can download it on our website, bezrat Hashem dot org. You can just ask us for it, email us, whatever it is. That syllabus is basic stuff. It sounds basic, it sounds limited, but it's a lot of material. It's a lot of material. People think that you're going to skip around. "I read all those books." Okay, buddy. If you read all those books, you'd be a teacher already. The problem is, people disrespect the basics. Why? They think they're better than the basics. The truth is, the basic level of Judaism will take you no less than 20 years to know. Unless you're something special. Basic level, 20 years of learning. Straight.

2:14:41It's a lot of information, a lot of information. Not that this is basic. That's just on our syllabus. I'm doing a basic level of Judaism, a basic understanding of what Shabbat is, a basic understanding of what kosher is, a basic understanding. But people want to skip. Why? Arrogance. So, there's nothing embarrassing about being at the basic level. Nothing. That's why even the biggest rabbi in the world is always called Talmid Chacham. What's Talmid Chacham? A wise student. Why student? Why isn't he called a rabbi? No, no, he's a student. The greater he is, the more he understands how valuable it is to be a student. So, this gives us a little bit of a clear understanding of what we need to do, whether beginners or further along. The most important thing is to learn. learn kosher Torah. Furthermore, make sure that you double-check with your Rav certain things that you're right about, what you're wrong about, what you're studying, and what you're not studying. Don't study by yourself. You have to obviously read commentaries and double-check with your Rav. If you can get a chavruta, get a chavruta. Shiurim and so on should always be a combination.

2:15:49A combination of books and shiurim. In the beginning, sometimes books are difficult for certain people because they've never read in their life. So shiurim is all they're going to do. That's fine too. In the beginning, you're all just going to watch shiurim. I just spoke to somebody today. I told him, "Listen, you learning a shiur every day for an hour is a big deal. You learning a shiur every day for an hour is huge." Why? Because right now you're doing zero. So if you can get to a point where you can learn a shiur every day for an hour, that's huge. I'm not even going to ask you to read a book. Once you get the urge to see what the rabbi is saying in a book, okay, we can start that too. But for now, just get it into your system an hour a day. Get it into your system. As a person grows, books... start becoming a permanent fixture on his desk. You have a mixture of both books and shiurim. Why? Books and shiurim. A book is going to teach you a certain subject. The shiur, usually, if it's a good quality shiur, is going to cover different subjects, different books, much more than you can read on your own. So you have a mixture of both. Plus, reading is different than hearing it.

2:17:03And then, little by little, a person grows. But remember, if the Torah is not changing you, there's something wrong. Something is wrong. Because the Torah is powerful enough to not only change you, but to change everything around you and everything that even came before you, meaning it doesn't exist anymore. But you can change with the Torah. Which means that if you're not even changing yourself, you're not becoming less angry, you're not becoming less arrogant, you're not becoming more generous, you're not becoming more clear-minded, you're not improving. There's something wrong. Because the power of the Torah can not only improve you, but improve the previous generation, like Avraham Avinu fixed Terach. And if you're not even fixing yourself, surely you're not fixing anything before you. Because you're not even fixing yourself. There's something wrong with that. You have to double-check. Most of the time, arrogance is the reason. Most of the time. From my experience, most of the time, arrogance is the reason. You can have certain people learning sefarim, know the sefer, recite the sefer to you by heart, but they're still the same animal that they started. Why? Why?

2:18:23Hitof, all of these people, we drop their names and we say these people have no share in the World to Come. What were they? They were stupid? These were ignorant people? Each one of them knew more Torah than the entire world we have today combined. That's how big they were. All of them are in Gehinnom to this day. Why? Arrogance. That's how bad it is. That's how bad, that's how much of a poison arrogance is. Arrogance leads to anger. Arrogance leads to wasting seed. Arrogance leads to immorality. Arrogance leads to everything. A person not changed by the Torah is the reason. Usually, that's the reason. Torah is supposed to soften you. So, hopefully, this touches at least my neshamah. to work on myself and maybe you guys too. Anything else? You guys are not arrogant. I just have to work on myself. Last question. Go back. Why did he give the presents? Why did he give the presents?

2:19:41Why did he give Maaser to Malki Tzedek? Oh, who is Malki Tzedek? Malki Tzedek. The question is, Avraham Avinu was Kodesh Kodashim. Why did he give Maaser to Malki Tzedek? After the whole issue with, say, Sodom and Gomorrah. Why did he give it to him? Why didn't he just use it for himself, for yeshiva? Why did he give it to Malki Tzedek? Who is this Malki Tzedek? Who is Malki Tzedek? Malki Tzedek is Shem. Malki Tzedek was the Gadol HaDor. The yeshiva that Avraham Avinu was learning in was the yeshiva of Shem and Ever. Who is Shem? Malki Tzedek. and before him, he had met Mesushelach all the way to Adam. All the way to Adam, he was the Gadol HaDor.

2:20:43What else remained of Malki-Tzedek? Mashiach comes from Malki-Tzedek. How do we know? His daughter is Tamar. Tamar married Yehuda. Yehuda had two sons; from them comes Mashiach. From Peretz comes Mashiach. So, from Malki-Tzedek, which is Shem, comes Mashiach. So that's why Avraham was a good investor. Don't worry. Amen. We're very excited to offer you the new Be'ezrat Hashem app 3.0. It's a newer, faster app, full of Torah, and lots of Kedusha in the shiurim that we do. Myself, Rabbi Ephraim, Rabbi Chaim,

2:21:46where you'll also have newer features where you're able to use the app while using other applications on your phone. You'll be able to share the lectures directly from the app. You'll be able to donate online and support our Kiruv and our Torah work that we're doing. And the most exciting feature is that you'll be able to actually ask questions directly on the app and get answers from the rabbis directly from the app. This is something unprecedented, and Baruch Hashem we'll be able to offer it. Thank you again for all of your support. Check it out. Make sure you have the Kosher Torah that will re-energize your neshama each and every single day. Kol tuv b'hatzlacha.