UNITE WITH AHAVAT CHINAM

0:17In the name of G-d, we will do and we will succeed. Shiur Torah, with the help of G-d. We're closing out this Tisha B'Av. With the help of G-d, it's the last Tisha B'Av. Today's shiur is for Ilui Nishmat Tamara Bat Rachel Granik, and also for a Refuah Shleimah for Rabbanit Sarah Bat Anat, Rabbi Efraim Ben Shulamit, Rabbi Chaim Ben Jorah.

1:20for a Refuah Shleimah for Rabbanit Sarah Bat Anat, Rabbi Efraim Ben Shulamit, Rabbi Chaim Ben Jorah, Rabbanit Shulamit Bat Georgia, Rabbanit Levana Bat Sarah, Doris Bat Giora, David Ben Esria, Esther Bat Zipora, also hatzlacha rabah, and refuah shleimah for Yitro Ben Avraham and Talia Bat Sarah. to Brian Montenegro and the rest of his family. Also, Shaul Ben Farzaneh, with his dear wife, Orit. And B'ezrat Hashem, all of Am Yisrael, especially the ones that are constant supporters of Yigud B'ezrat Hashem, whether it's the campaign to do kiruv,

2:24and share CDs all over the world in packages, or it is the chesed that, Baruch Hashem, we are meritorious enough to actually do, with the recent campaign starting to help many families in Eretz Yisrael, and at the very least, try to do whatever we can. To ease the din among our brothers and sisters that are having a difficult time with this whole coronavirus and economic crisis that's happening here. Of course, it's hurting the people that were already struggling a lot more than everybody else. And in Eretz Yisrael, they don't have... the same government benefits that perhaps America has. So a lot of people are struggling. Now, financial struggling is very easy for people to understand because this is something you see. You see with your own eyes that somebody is struggling. You see him, chas v'shalom, he got kicked out of his house.

3:39His car got repossessed. You see he walks around with clothes that haven't been washed for God only knows how long. You can see when someone's struggling. But when it comes to spiritual struggling, it's much harder. Much harder to tell. Because the guy can come to you, for all intents and purposes, looking as religious as can possibly be. ...and you don't even know what hit you as soon as he or she starts talking about the things that they're overcoming or the things that they're failing at. Many times, I try to tell people this: don't spend so much time on your looks. Don't spend so much time on making yourself look like whatever you think a Jew is supposed to look like. Spend your time looking modest. Spend your time learning Torah. Don't spend so much time on your looks. Why? It may make you a liar. Your looks may make you a liar unintentionally. You walk around, you look like a rabbi, but you don't even know Aleph Bet. You walk around, you have the look of a yeshivish type of person, but you're married to a goya. You walk around.

5:08you look like you've been at every kollel in America because you have such verbiage that you use. Sometimes people are not even Jewish. And the reality is, Rabotai, when a person spends an exorbitant amount of time to look a certain way, it says a lot about them, but not good. Now, don't get me wrong. Should you try to look professional, look respectable, look like a Jew? Sure. If you want to grow peyos, you can grow peyos. You don't have to, but if you want, you can. If you want to grow a beard, you can. You don't have to, but you can. What you have to focus on is what's obligatory first. Because if a person tells you to grow a beard, and you grow a beard because he told you, It's not good. Why? One day you're going to get itchy, and you're going to want to shave the beard. And now your beard turns into a Chilul Hashem. Why? You look religious. Because that's what people who are ignorant think religious people look like: beard and a hat. So you look religious for a certain amount of time, and then one day you decide to shave because you don't like the beard.

6:32Or your wife complained. And for Shalom Bayit, you want to take off the beard. Or you want to take off the peyot. Because you didn't really want it in the first place. You just did it because somebody told you. You don't understand the significance that the Baba Sali says that a person who grows a beard lowers the dinim, lowers the judgment on themselves, and brings chesed instead, bringing kindness from heaven on themselves. Or the issue with the peyot. The Ben Ish Chai says that the peyot are the two witnesses that you're a Jew. They're the two witnesses that you're a Jew. So somebody says to the Ben Ish Chai, "Yeah, but I'm a Jew because I have a Brit Milah." He says, "Is that a witness? Nobody can see it. No one can see it." He says, "These are two witnesses. For Judaism, you need two witnesses for everything. And these are two witnesses that you have, you're a Jew."

7:32Now, sometimes you want to grow peyot long. Sometimes you want to grow them and just have sideburns. But many times Jewish people don't know what's right and wrong. They shave their heads like goyim. They shave their heads like goyim, either a one or a zero around their head, and have a little "chicken thing" going on top. And that look is not only not a Jewish look, but it's a sin. Not allowed. Why? Shaving your sideburns. This is a problem sometimes for people that are balding. So because they feel uncomfortable balding, they decide to just shave their entire head. Not allowed. Not allowed to shave your entire head. Why? You have peyot. Your peyot have to stay. Your peyot have to stay. You want to grow them long like the tradition is, to grow them long, grow them long. But at the very least, you have to have peyot. And the Ben Ish Chai says, these are two witnesses. He says, I'll tell you a story. He said, years ago, the Yishmaelim, the Arabs, they don't like the Christians. Because they view them also, like we do, as idol worshippers. But they don't act like we do. When they see somebody as an idol worshipper, they just want to kill them. So many times they would have these crusades.

8:51Where they would look out for Christian people and kill them. Entire cities, entire communities. And one time they caught a group of Christian people, and the sheikh would go and check who's a Jew, who's a Christian, and who's not. How? I don't know if he's a Christian. He'd check if they have brit milah or not. If they have Brit Milah or not. Because people can talk. You could say whatever; it could be a slick-tongued person convincing you of one thing when really it's something else. He says, no, no, I don't need you to talk. I don't need to talk. Just show me the Brit Milah. Let me see if he has Brit Milah or not. Because Muslims have a Brit Milah, but they do it later on in their life. And Jews have it at eight days old. So, are we aligned? Let me see if he has Brit Milah. Because the Christians typically don't have Brit Milah. So they check, doesn't have Brit Milah, kill him. Doesn't have Brit Milah, kill him. Doesn't have Brit Milah, kill him. Why? Idol worshipper, they kill him. Two, two, two, two, two. So the Ben Ish Chai says, at one point they get to this one guy, and the one guy says, hey, hey. He takes off his turban, and he shows the peyot. He says, I'm a Yehudi, and these are my two witnesses. So the sheikh liked it. He saw he has Brit Milah.

10:15And he liked his expression so much, he says, give this Yehudi gold on his pretty witnesses. So they put some golden chains, golden bracelets on his peyot. And the Jew says, "Your Sheikh, Sheikh, my witnesses are strong. I can handle more if you want." So they gave him more. They gave him more. So the Ben Ish Chai says that... The peyot is a witness. But the point is, the original point is, whether somebody has peyot or doesn't have peyot doesn't mean that they're religious, doesn't mean they have yirat shamayim, doesn't mean anything. It means something to you, because that's what you see. But for all intents and purposes, the look shouldn't necessarily be the number one focus that you have. I know at least two or three guys that are internet terrorists. Both of them are not Jewish. Neither one of them will ever be Jewish. But if you hear their vocabulary and you look at their looks, they both look like they've been Jewish for 30 years. They act like they're so Jewish they forgot to convert. And they have no interest in converting because all day they make fun of Jews.

11:39make fun of the Torah. But they think that they're doing it in the name of Judaism. So looks, Rabotai, not so much. So now, back to our point of not spending so much time on our looks, is one thing. But that means, how are we supposed to know if someone is struggling spiritually? Because physically, if they're struggling, if you see somebody in pain, you can see. Look at their facial expressions, you can see if somebody's in pain. Materially, you can see. If the guy gets kicked out of his house, if the guy got his car repossessed, if you see him asking for tzedakah, you can tell the guy is struggling, you can help him. But what if somebody's struggling spiritually? How can you tell? The truth is that the only way that you can tell is with Ahavat Chinam. Ahavat Chinam means free love, but not free love like the Goyim from the 70s, where you just love anything that moves or doesn't move, and always connected with some type of immorality. No.

12:54Senseless love, baseless love, free love, whatever you want to call it, however it translates, is, in so many words, loving another person enough to care about them even when they don't care about you. Caring about them even if it doesn't benefit you. Caring about them enough to ask even if it doesn't look like they're interested. In fact, more times than not, if they're struggling financially, They want you to care. And they're looking for your care, but maybe you don't want to care because it's going to hurt your pocket. If they're hurting physically, the best you can do is ask, "Are you okay?" What are you going to do if they're hurting physically? You see somebody in pain, what are you going to do? Ask, "Are you okay?" Do you think that helps somebody? I promise you, if you ask me if I'm okay, it doesn't help me. You ask anybody that's in pain, "Are you okay?" It doesn't help him. It just shows you care. Thank you for caring, but it doesn't actually help in anything. He's still going to stay in pain after you ask him. Sometimes they're in so much pain, they don't want to answer. But they want somebody to say something. Hopefully, maybe somebody cares so you don't just die on the street or something. But when somebody's struggling spiritually, more times than not, they don't want you to ask them. More times than not, they want to be left alone. Unless you agree with them.

14:16So that means that in order to show ahavat chinam, you have to care about a person even when he doesn't care about himself, and you have to be a little bit of a chutzpan sometimes. You have to push yourself in. Because you have to care about him because he doesn't care about himself. Because he doesn't care about himself, and he's, in so many words, ruining his own life, and making all of the worst possible decisions that are against Hashem, and building himself a life that's not worth living, you have to care about him. So what are such examples? One time, a group of rich people, very rich people, that decided to go to Eretz Yisrael to see different things. And at one point, they went to Yeshivat Mir. Yeshivat Mir at the time was led by Rav Nosson Tzvi Finkel, one of the Gedolim, but also a person that suffered an enormous amount of pain. An enormous amount of pain having a that decided to go to Eretz Yisrael to see different things. And at one point, they went to Yeshivat Mir. Yeshivat Mir, at the time, was led by Rav Nosson Tzvi Finkel, one of the Gedolim, but also a person who suffered an enormous amount of pain. An enormous amount of pain from having a

15:44serious illness, and visibly suffering from his Parkinson's, where it was things that were out of his control. But if you ever looked at his face, you're always going to see him happy. So these rich people They came to the yeshiva. It's an impressive yeshiva, with four or five thousand talmidim. Imagine, you have a school, five thousand people sitting in one room. It's a Gan Eden. So they came to see. "Where can we see the Rosh Yeshiva?" Oh, you have to go to the house. Okay, they sit. The Rav at the time was in pain, so they had to wait for him for a little bit. But eventually, they got in, and they sat in front of the Rav. The Rav asked this group of wealthy individuals, "What did you learn from the Holocaust?" One guy says, "Never again. We have to have weapons, Iron Dome, IDF, protect ourselves."

17:10Next one says, "Hate is very bad. We shouldn't hate people; there's no reason to hate people." Another one says, "Different excuse, different reasons." So the Rav says, "You know what I learned? I learned that when you love somebody, and you care about them for no reason, You can find a way to share a blanket among three or four people, even if the blanket usually won't fit one person. That's what I learned. If you don't like somebody, the whole room is not going to be enough. But when you like somebody, even if he doesn't like you, because you like him, because you're on the same team, you can find a way to share a blanket among three people.

18:11So, after that, they left, impressed by the yeshiva, and one of them stayed behind. He said to the Rav, "Rav, I was very, very impressed by the yeshiva, by the chizuk, and I want to donate to your yeshiva. I want to donate to your yeshiva." He says, "Here you go." He gives him a check. The Rav opens the check. It's a blank check. It says, write any amount you want, Kevod HaRav. Now, this yeshiva, you should know, has a $2 million a month budget. We're not talking about a little yeshiva. You need maybe $10,000, $20,000, $30,000, $40,000, $50,000. You get 4,000 people. It's a big budget. Write a check. Because either way, you need millions of dollars. Write a check. So the Rav says to him, "This is mine?" He says, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, any amount you want." He goes, "I can do anything I want with this check?" He goes, "Yeah, anything you want." He writes, "$1,800," and he gives it back to him. He says, "Go to my dear friend; he's a Rav, he lives down the street. Go buy tefillin from him."

19:33Because no, what? For the Rav? No, no, no, this is for you, for the yeshiva, no, no. You said it's for me, it's my check, right? I can write whatever I want. Go buy yourself good tefillin. Good tefillin costs a little bit of money. It costs $1,800. My friend, he lives down the street, knock on his door, tell him he's the man. He'll give you good tefillin. Who told the story? Not the Rav. The guy that gave the check, he was the founder of Starbucks. A guy that really had the ability to write a blank check. Now, the Rav could have told him, "You know what, I need 10 million." Could have taken 10 million. "I need 20 million." Could have taken 20 million. 100 million. His net worth is... But all the Rav cared about is, go get yourself some tefillin. Why? You don't have a kippah, surely you don't have tefillin. Go get yourself good tefillin. That's ahavat chinam. Ahavat chinam means that sometimes you have to look at things beyond your own interest. In fact, all the time.

20:47You have to look at things beyond your own interest. And it's very, very difficult for people to look at anything beyond themselves because, naturally, we are selfish creatures. We want to eat what we want to eat. We want to go where we want to go. We want to pray the way we want to pray. And many times, we do things not necessarily because they're right or wrong, but because it fits us. You know, one of the good things that's a big difference, for example, if you go to a shul like this, for example, it's a Bukharian shul; most people that come here all the time are Bukharian. If you go to, there's one in New York, a big Bukharian shul, a few of them over there, most of the people there are Bukharian. Surely there's always going to be ups and downs, different people disagreeing, but overall, everybody has the same understanding: this is how we pray, this is what we do, finished. But then sometimes you go to regular Sephardic shuls, where you have a mix of people; he's from Egypt, he's from Tunisia, he's from Baghdad, he's from here, he's from there. You know what happens over there? Chaos.

21:58Every Shabbat there's a fight. Why is there a fight? No, no, no, no. Read it Yerushalmi. I don't want Yerushalmi. I want this one. No one agrees how the Baal Koreh is going to read the Torah. No one agrees because he wants it read the Yerushalmi way. He wants it read the Moroccan way. He wants it read the other way. And the problem is, why? Because they all have different traditions. But what's the real truth? The truth is everyone looks at it from their own perspective. From their own perspective. And it's very difficult. It's very difficult to have a united shul when everyone's looking at it from their own perspective. If we're going to turn the next Tisha B'Av into a day of simcha, it can't be by continuing to do what we're doing. Because obviously, it's not working. Klal Yisrael, whether it's in America or in Eretz Yisrael or anywhere else in the world, for the most part, is not becoming more religious. The venom of the secular world is well into the religious world. It's affecting it in many, many ways. People have no idea what's right or wrong, both in the religious world and the non-religious world. People are having a very difficult time.

23:21gluing themselves to Hashem, and many times you see that people are having a spiritual crisis, but no one loves them enough to help them. Many times it's because they were taught to mind your own business, don't judge him, don't tell him what to do. You worry about you, he'll worry about him. But if you worry about you, and he worries about him, and he worries about him, and he worries about him, you know what's going to happen? We're all going to turn into goyim. Because Am Yisrael has a mitzvah that says, "Kol Yisrael areivim zeh la'zeh." obligated to each other where it doesn't really matter if I like you, if you're Moroccan, or if you're Ashkenazi or Sephardi, or if you're Hasidish, or you're this or you're that. The fact that we both have the same Father in Heaven automatically obligates me to care about your spiritual status, even when you don't care. In fact, even more when you don't care, because your financial status, if I could help you, I'd be more than happy to, but that's not necessarily gonna buy you Olam HaBa.

24:34If I give you some money, and you're able to buy some bread, okay, so you'll live another few days. But if you use the money that I gave you to go gamble in the casino, then you're going to buy yourself a bigger gain. No, it's not going to help you. But if I help you to do teshuva, if I help you to learn Torah, if I help you to do mitzvot, that can get you a lot more. But that also means that I have to care about your spiritual status because you're not going to come to me and tell me, "Listen, I'm having some emunah problems. Listen, I'm having some problems understanding this. Why do I have to keep Yom Tov Sheni? I'm already in Israel." Yeah, but it's a vacation. Yeah, it's vacation. I'm there already two months. You have to keep Yom Tov Sheni. Why? That's the halakha. Unless you live there, you have to keep Yom Tov Sheni, two days of Yom Tov. Yeah, but isn't there this? No, no, there isn't. So unless you come to me and you tell me, there's no way to know. Which means what? Which means I have to go to you. Because many times, what do people do? They just assume. They assume that they made the right decision. One guy tells me, "Listen,

25:56I heard your tikkun habrit shiurim scared me to death. I found myself a wife. So, chazak u'baruch, mazal tov. Oh, I don't know. I just, I wanted to ask you something. Is it okay that she's not a Christian? That's okay if she's not a Christian, but she's a Jew, right? He goes, well, not so much, really. No, not exactly Jewish, but she's not an idol worshiper. If she's not Jewish, it's a problem. Well, listen, she's a Noahide. She's a Noahide. She doesn't worship idols. I said, you're not allowed to be with her. But listen, you said that she's keeping me away from the sin. You know, a guy needs to stay. I'm not going to sin, at least. I said, no, now it's double sin. Now it's wasting seed, and on top of it, it's an issur goya. What, you're telling me I'm still in trouble? I said, no, you're in double trouble. Before, you were in trouble. Alone, you were in trouble. Now you're in double trouble. Why did you come to the Rav? Why didn't you go ask if this is okay? I don't know, I just assumed that since she's not... Can't assume. You have to see what the pesak is. You have to see what the halacha is. You have to see...

27:10And the reality is, Rabotai, 99% of the time people are not going to ask because they assume they made the right decisions. This happens every day. If you look at him, he looks like a religious person. Talk to him, he sounds like a religious person. You know how many times this has happened to me? No less than a half dozen times. I see a guy that went to yeshiva, he's married to a non-Jew. But because he thinks that since they're not married-married, like they didn't go to court, and they're just like boyfriend-girlfriend. it's not so bad. And since they're old already, and they're not trying to have kids, so it's not so bad. People assume. Which means that if we do not go out of our way to help people who are in spiritual crisis, they will stay that way. They'll stay that way. They're not going to change. Now, many times, you see that the... Chachamim act very differently than we do, where their main concern is their Torah. Their main concern is their Torah. That's what they spend their whole time on. But you would think, oh, so if they're learning so much, they don't care about Am Yisrael. The exact opposite. They learn the Torah in order to help Am Yisrael. So, for example,

28:39Rabbi Ovadia, one time Bibi Netanyahu wanted to come visit him. Bibi, he doesn't walk around alone. He has a whole team with him. He has, you know, like a typical president. He has a whole staff of people that follow him to protect him. Then you have the news, this, all the Erev Rav that follow, everybody comes. He can't even go to the store without an entourage of people. So they show up to Rabbi Ovadia's house. And they see Rav Ovadia is in the middle of writing a teshuva. Writing a teshuva. So Bibi Netanyahu is walking around with a lot of people. Rav Ovadia is still writing a teshuva. He's learning. He's got sefarim in front of him. Writing, writing, writing, writing. So one of the people that helps Rav Ovadia says, "You want me to tell Rav that you're here?" He goes, "No, this is unbelievable. What, he doesn't realize we're here?" He goes, "No."

29:39He's learning. He's learning. He doesn't realize you're here. He goes, "Well, how long is that going to last?" He goes, "It's going to go on for a long time. Unless we tell him, you can sit here for two weeks." He goes, "Let's see how long it's going to last." So they wait, and they wait, and they wait, and they wait. Now, I have a video of this on the internet. They wait for a while. One of the helpers already starts feeling bad. The media is there. There's a lot of people there. Oh, I was just writing. He doesn't realize they're there. He's in his world. He's in his Torah world. One of the helpers says, okay, okay, let me just go tell him, okay? It's enough already. It's not amusement. Comes to the Rav, Rav Chaim Kanievsky, the Rosh Yeshiva here. Oh, okay, okay. Finishes writing his Teshuvah. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. So somebody that gets to that point, learns that kind of Torah, you would say this person doesn't have any connection to this world. Better yet, when he already got, in his later years, he had a health problem, and a doctor said that he has to have surgery. Oh, but you had to have surgery. But the doctors told his children,

30:51That because of his age, they’re scared to do the surgery because it requires anesthesia. And at his age, it’s so risky to give anesthesia, he may not wake up. So they don’t know what to do. Now surgery, it’s not like a little needle and, you know, surgery is cutting the meat, this, that. Worse than what you do for your steak. Worse than what you guys are going to do tonight when you get home to eat. Can’t eat meat tonight, by the way. Tomorrow night. Meat is for Shabbat, not for us Sephardim that we keep also to the tent. But surgery hurts. So they come to the sons and they tell them, listen, we don't know what to do. So the sons come to the father, come to Rabbi Ovadia, and say, Abba, what do you want to do? He says, no problem. Just tell them to let me know five minutes before they want to start the surgery. Tell them five minutes. And they can do whatever they want after five minutes. Okay. So, the same story is also told about Rav Aharon Kotler, by the way. And I believe there's one other tzaddik that I heard the story about, I just don't remember the name. So, doctors are there, he's in the surgery room, he's sitting there,

32:19And Rabbi Ovadia says, "Tom, okay, you have five minutes." Okay. Rabbi Ovadia starts going into a deep thought about a certain halacha. A minute, two minutes, five minutes. Doctors don't know what to do. They didn't do anything. But you poke somebody, it's going to hurt. Because in the beginning, they were scared to do anything. But they saw no matter what they're doing, he's not here. They perform the entire surgery, cutting the flesh, going inside the body. This surgery is not two minutes; we're talking about several hours. Several hours of cutting the body, this and that. Serious surgery. They finish everything, sew everything back up. Finished. He's still like this. Nothing changed. Hasn't moved. Continuing, studying. One of the sons said, "Okay, it's finished? Finished. Abba, Abba, the doctors, you can wake up." He goes, "No, yalla, start the surgery already." He said, "No, no, what start the surgery? You're finished." He goes, "What finished? I didn't feel anything. What finished? You sure?" He goes, "Yeah, yeah, Abba, look at you." "Oh, okay, okay." So a person like this that gets their mind into such a high level of kedusha...

33:49You would think this person has nothing to do with the rest of us. He doesn't care about anybody's spiritual status. He doesn't care about... Opposite. One time a woman calls the house of Rav Ovadia. Crying. She said, I wanted to see the Rav. Can't see the Rav. Sorry, the Rav is studying. No, no, but I need to see the Rav. No. She comes to the house anyway. I need to see the Rav. Can't. No, but yeah. Happens to see. Yeah, yeah, no, no. Come on. He doesn't know this woman. Doesn't know this woman. They start talking, and he starts crying with her for over an hour. Doesn't know her. She tells him her problems, and he starts crying with her for an hour. Why? Why? We're part of the same team, part of the same people. She's having a spiritual crisis. How is that not going to make you cry? The same thing goes for all of the tzadikim. All of the tzadikim worried so much about the rest of Klal Yisrael, and they utilized their Torah in order to do it. There was nothing that would stop them from doing it.

35:15Now, many times, one of the things that hold us back is when we have our own problems. So, you're so enamored with your own problems, it's hard for you to think about somebody else's problems. But that's what Ahavat Chinam is. Ahavat Chinam means that you have to put your own problems aside in order to deal with other people's problems. Because the fact that you have a problem doesn't mean that he has to suffer. The wife of the Chafetz Chaim was known as a Ba'alat Chesed. One of the things she would do is give money to poor people at funerals. Funerals, people would come, and there were always poor people there, and she would give the money. She'd collect tzedakah and give the money. As it happened, one of her own sons died. One of the Chafetz Chaim's children died.

36:16And there's a funeral. And at the funeral, usually when you see a funeral, everybody's crying. They see the Rebbetzin like normal. She sees the poor people, she goes over there and she gives the money, gives the money, gives the money. One of the people says to the Rebbetzin, "Your son just died. Shouldn't you deal with the levayah for your own son?" She says, "My son died. Why do the poor people have to suffer?" Why do the poor people have to suffer because my son died? They know me, that I give tzedakah during funerals. Yeah, but you... Okay, me. I have a problem. Okay, I have a problem. It doesn't mean this problem is going to be solved that way. That's ahavat chinam. Ahavat chinam means that you have to go out of your way in order to help the other, which includes putting your own problems aside. If you have the ability to help another person, many times we ask, "Oh, should I do this? Should I not do it?" Generally speaking, when it comes to spirituality, if you have the ability to do it, do it. That's why Hashem is sending you. So, for example,

37:37A lot of times people ask me, "Oh, you know, I don't know if I should send a shiur to this guy. Maybe he'll get offended because he doesn't keep Shabbat, and you spoke about Shabbat in this lecture." How do you know if you should send a lecture or not? What's the gauge? How do you figure that out? If you should send a lecture about Shabbat to your friend that's a mechallel Shabbat, how do you know? Very simple. If you have his phone number, and coincidentally you also have a finger, and you can press the send button, you send it. That's all you need. The rest of the calculations, leave to the Satan. Let him do calculations. We don't do calculations like that. He doesn't keep Shabbat, you have a finger, you have a lecture, you have his phone number, send the lecture. Why? What do you have to lose? Oh, maybe he'll get offended. From what? From you trying to help him? From you trying to help him, he's going to get offended? Yeah, because last time I sent him something, he said, "Stop sending me stuff." You did stop sending him stuff. You haven't sent him anything in a week. So, send him now, something new. Why? Because the reality is, when you care about another person, when it's real ahavat chinam, you start looking at people and you start realizing, if...

38:52He doesn't change. If she doesn't change, only bad follows this. When a person lives their life without Hashem in their life, without keeping Shabbat, without learning Torah, without doing mitzvot, without being an honest person, without doing all of the things that HaKadosh Baruch Hu says we have to do, when a person lives a life that's simply careless and he lives no different than the goyim... For sure they're going to lose in the end. You, as his friend, as his colleague, as his brother, as his sister, as his nephew, niece, whoever you are, because you care and you want to show him, you have to push, you have to be a little chutzpan, you have to get him to at the very least review the other side so they can make an educated decision. And in order to overcome your own yetzer hara that tells you, no, maybe I shouldn't send it, maybe I shouldn't invite him, maybe this, maybe that; in order for you to overcome your yetzer hara, you need ahavat chinam. Ahavat chinam means that it doesn't even make sense for me to do this, because I know that after I send this, he's probably going to yell at me.

40:04I know that after I send this, he's probably going to get upset with me. He's not going to invite me to his bar mitzvah. He's not going to invite me to his kid's wedding. He's not going to invite me to the next simcha that he has because I'm worried about his spirituality. The truth is, you should still do it. Why? Because no matter what you lose as a result of it, you're always going to gain with Hashem. You're always going to gain with Hashem. Now somebody came to the Lubavitcher Rebbe one time and told him, "Listen, Rebbe, I have a friend that's not religious, but he says he doesn't want to hear about it. What do I do?" So the Lubavitcher Rebbe says, "Your friend is like a person that's a roommate of somebody who's really upset and comes back home from work and he tells you, 'Listen, I'm tired, I'm frustrated, don't wake me up. I'm going to sleep. Don't wake me up. I don't care what happens. You get upset that he's talking to you this way. You leave the house. As you leave the house, you walk down the stairs. You start smelling smoke. You start smelling smoke, fire. You turn around, you see that there's a fire. Now, of course, your friend, although he made you really, really upset...'" Don't wake me up. I'm going to sleep. Don't wake me up. I don't care what happens. You get upset that he's talking to you this way. You leave the house. As you leave the house, you walk down the stairs. You start smelling smoke. You start smelling smoke, fire. You turn around, you see that there's a fire. Now, of course, your friend, although he made you really, really upset...

41:28And if it was up to you, you wouldn't want to talk to him for the rest of his life after such a nasty attitude. What are you going to do? You're going to run upstairs and wake him up. Now, after you wake him up, he's going to tell you, "Hey, hey, I told you not to wake me up. I told you not to wake me up. I told you I'm going to sleep. Leave me alone." And you're going to tell him, "Listen, whatever you want to say, fine. There's a fire here." Is he still going to be upset at you? Is he still going to be upset at you after you woke him up because there's a fire? No. Why not? Because you saved his life. Before, when he didn't know there was a fire, of course he's upset. But one day he's going to wake up. One day you're going to show him something that's going to wake him up. And he's going to realize that he is on fire. He is married to a non-Jew and he's a Jew. He's eating non-kosher food. He's learning things that he's not allowed to. He's doing things that are forbidden, and so on and so forth. And he doesn't realize that he's on fire or his future is very fiery.

42:37He doesn't know. Until one day you wake him up, it may take you one video, 20 videos, 100, one shiur, 100, who knows? But the point is, at some point, he will wake up. At some point, she will wake up. And she's not going to be upset at you anymore. Why? Because she's going to realize all you're trying to do is save her life. All you're trying to do is save her life. Now, sometimes they won't want to admit it because they have an ego and they don't like to be wrong. And you don't like to be wrong. And nobody likes to be wrong. And that's also where Ahavat Chinam comes in. If you did it because you care, you care about his Olam HaBa more than you care about his Olam HaZeh, and more than you care about your Olam HaZeh, then you won't care if he doesn't say thank you. Then you won't care if he doesn't even give you the credit. In fact, you won't even care... If he pretends like he's always been this way, why? You did your job. You did your job. He's going to go to Olam HaBa. You move on with your life. Next customer. But if you did it because you want to get something out of it, it's going to destroy you. Not to get the credit. That he's not saying, oh, thank you for saving me every single time he sees you. There's a wedding for his daughter to some tzaddik.

44:00You want him to give you a special announcement. Listen, Rabotai, I want you to know, my friend, my daughter wouldn't be here, she wouldn't marry this tzaddik, if it wasn't for my friend who helped me do teshuva 20 years ago. That's the type of announcement you want. Thank you, I want you to know. If that's what you're looking for, it's not good. That's not ahavat chinam. Ahavat chinam means, no matter what. You simply want to do it because it's the right thing to do. It's the right thing to do. Now, how do we get to such a point? First and foremost, you have to learn Torah. Because even to help people do teshuva, you have to have some merit. The servant doesn't want to give this type of reward to a person just because. You have to really want to help people. You have to really want to work. And to do that, you have to learn Torah. You have to know right and wrong. You have to know... What's allowed, what's not allowed, and so on and so forth. Now, the second thing is, you have to be able to overcome your own obstacles, like I said, and pretty much look past them. One of the examples is a story by Rav Yitzle Mislachov. Rav Yitzle Mislachov

45:23was a big Talmid Chacham, and his son, Rav Michale Mislachov, also ended up becoming Gadol HaDor. But when Rav Michale was a little boy, he says that because his father was an Avrech, learning all the time, he didn't work a regular job, so they were constantly struggling. And one day, his mom told him, "We don't have any food. There's no food. It's not like today, where you don't have the dish that you like, but you have 87 other dishes. Simply nothing. You open a fridge, empty. In those days, not even a fridge. Anyway, there's no food. What do we do?" As you would have it, somebody knocks on the door. Yes. Some guy looks like an Arab. Yeah, I can help you. Oh, I'm here to sell you a chicken. A nice chicken. Sorry, we don't have any money. Oh, it's okay. I'll take an IOU. You pay me back whenever you want. Really? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You can take the chicken. Pay me whenever you want. So Rami Khaled says to his mom, "Don't take it." "Why not?"

46:37What kind of person is he? He doesn't even know you. He's going to give you a chicken without you paying him? He probably stole it. He's trying to get rid of the goods. Probably stole it. Why is he going to give you a chicken for no reason? He doesn't know you. She didn't have any food. She didn't listen to him. He said, okay, fine. Give her the chicken. A few days later, he comes back. Hello? Yeah, yeah. I have a chicken and some flour for you. Yeah, I'm sorry. I still don't have any money. No, don't worry. It's okay. You can take it. Sure? Don't take it. He's a thief. The guy's a ganav. Nobody trusts this guy. He's a ganav. Don't take it. No, come on. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. A few days later, Three weeks have passed already. He comes back again. "Oh, listen, I have some chicken, some flour, and some other stuff. Oh, fruits." "Oh, yeah, I don't have any money." "It's okay, it's okay. You pay me, I know you. You pay me, you pay me the money." So that Shabbat, she had everything for Shabbat: fruits, vegetables, meat. So she set up Shabbat.

47:52Now this Shabbat, the other times there was a little bit, Baruch Hashem, they made it. But this time the guy gave us so much stuff, so she figured, maybe the Rav is going to notice finally. He's going to ask, where are we getting this? He never asked where we're getting the food. So they're sitting on Shulchan Shabbat, and the Rebbetzin is waiting for Rav Yitzchak Mislachov to say something. He doesn't say. She says, "For the Rav." Don't you wonder where we get the food or nothing? He goes, no. I know already. She says, what do you mean you know? I know, I know already. She goes, what do you know? He goes, I know, I know everything. I know everything that's happening. She goes, how do you know? He goes, because Eliyahu HaNavi is coming to the kolel three times already. He keeps telling me that Michalik keeps calling him a ganav. He's coming already to the kollel for a month already, telling me that Michalik keeps calling him a ganav. So, when a person is so enamored with Torah, HaKadosh Baruch Hu is going to send him help. But that doesn't mean he doesn't have any tests. So when you care about Am Yisrael,

49:17and you want to help them do teshuvah, get close to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, do all these different things, you have to overcome your own tests. So if you have your own struggle, your own financial struggle, your own marriage struggle, your own this, your own that, that doesn't mean that other people should suffer. Ahavat chinam is one of those things where we're forced to get ourselves out of our own head and focus on what's in front of us. If anybody is sent in front of you and you have the opportunity to help them, yalla. You have to go for it. When it comes to Torah and mitzvot, People have a much harder time than they do when it comes to money. Because usually with money, you say, listen, the guy's struggling, he's asking for help. So, if you have the money and you're generous, you give him the money. When it comes to Torah and mitzvot, people are a little bit more cautious. Because they figure, listen, maybe he has a rav already, maybe he has this, maybe he has that. Now, we've talked about already that sometimes you have

50:30People that learn, or they think they know, but many times they're still doing the wrong thing, like the example I just gave you. Tonight, in Arvit, you're gonna do something that we do every day. You're gonna read Arvit. In Arvit, it says, "He pays retribution to all of the enemies of our souls." Meaning a punishment at some point has to come to all the people, all the things that are enemies of our souls. Sometimes the enemies of our souls are a choice of friends. Sometimes the enemies of our souls are different people that we view as leaders. So that also means that even with Ahavat Chinam, you still have to be picky with who you help. Because sometimes there are certain people you're not allowed to help. Certain people, you don't have to love them. Why? Because they're anti-Torah. There are certain people, they're just ignorant. They don't know. Maybe he's driving on Shabbat because he doesn't think it's a big deal. That's not anti-Torah. That's just an ignorant person. That's the vast majority of Am Yisrael. They may know that you have to keep Shabbat, but they don't know the significance of violating it. They figure it's like maybe going over the speed limit.

51:56You know, okay, so it says 65, and I went 75. What's the worst that could happen? The guy's going to give me a $500 ticket? Okay, so Hashem's going to give me a $500 ticket every month, every week. And when I go up to Shamayim, I say to Hashem, I don't have any money. What do you want? I don't have any money. That's what people think. People think it's like a parking ticket, maybe. When you actually let them know, listen, no, no, no, it's not a parking ticket. It's not even a traffic citation. It's not even a revocation of your license. Violating Shabbat is a very big deal, and you give him some details. All of a sudden, the guy is going to be much more receptive. Now if the guy is ignorant, you have to do whatever you can to help him. But then there are certain people that are anti. They like to make fun of the Torah. They like to go against the Torah, even if you tell them and you explain to them, and sometimes they actually get even worse if you tell them. People like this, there's no ahavat chinam there.

52:58People that are empty to that point and mock the Torah, there's no ahavat chinam with them. You have to go somewhere else. Why? There are just too many people that are much easier customers. There's no need for you to go and fight this guy. You know, people say, oh listen, why don't you debate? Why would I debate? Oh, listen, you know, because he has a different idea than you. I said, how many people are going to do Teshuvah as a result of this debate? No, but it's entertaining. I said, for entertainment, go to Hollywood. The goal is to help people do Teshuvah, not entertain people. And it's not about skills. I've been debating for 20 years. It's not about skills. It's about what's the point of what you're doing. If you look at it, you have a certain amount of time every day to spend helping people, to fulfill the mitzvah of Ahavat Chinam. You don't have the whole day. You have a certain window every day. That means you should not waste that time on somebody that is empty. What you're doing is looking for easier customers. So, all of those different people that like to argue religion just for the sake of arguing are the worst customers in the world.

54:12All of those people that already think they know everything are terrible customers. Who should you go to? People that are completely ignorant. They don't know much but are still respectable. There are a lot of them—Sephardim, Ashkenazim. In fact, you'll even find them inside the religious world. Many times, I meet people—they look a certain way, I think that they're extremely religious. They start talking, they start saying certain things, and they don't even know the basics of halachot Shabbat. They don't know the basics of Judaism, many times, even though they look more religious than anybody else in this room. Why? Because looks are deceiving. Looks are not always a representation of what somebody is. Right now, there are certain people in government office, in New York and other places, who call themselves religious Jews. They call themselves religious Jews. But instead of helping the yeshivot deal with the crisis that's happening from the New York government, which is trying to force the yeshivot to change the teachings altogether, to have seven hours of secular study, pretty much destroying the Torah, these people are actually fighting against the yeshivot and saying, listen, leave the yeshivot alone.

55:37The religion and state should be separate, right? You know what they did? They're the ones that brought the problem to the government. They're the ones that went to Congress, and there are videos of this, and they're proud of this, that's what they're doing. They went to Congress and said, listen, we're here to complain that these yeshivot are not following your government's rules. They're not teaching secular studies. They're not teaching social studies. They're not teaching this and that. They're only teaching for 90 minutes a day. So what happened? The government said, oh, yeah, okay, good. Okay, we're going to shut them all down. We're going to cut out the funding. Now, if you look at these people, they look religious, keeping everything. Another group of people that are in the government, they have a occupation where all day they're forcing people to share their opinion of what they want to go into law. What do they want to go into law? Things that promote homosexuality. Things that promote perversion and are against the Torah. Why? Because if this goes in, something else they want will go in, and therefore... Now you look at them and say, well these are religious people, how are they doing this?

57:03Looks can be deceiving. Looks can be deceiving. If somebody looks religious, acts religious, and conceives religious things, it doesn't mean anything. How do you know if somebody's religious? By how they act. By how they act. Looks are only a small part of it. So, when you... know that there's going to be a lot of people that are ignorant because they're seeing all types of versions of religious people. They're seeing the good version, they're seeing the not-so-good version, they're seeing the real one, and they're seeing the fake one. So surely anyone that's not already in is confused because he's not really sure which one is the reality and which one is an exceptional case. which one is the one that's the norm and which one is not because sometimes some people are so unfortunate that most of the people they meet are the fakers. I can tell you that for the first 30 years of my life, all I met were fakers. They would come to my office three times a week, and the problem is that sometimes you think that's the standard, and it's not.

58:15How do you know what's Judaism? You have to learn Torah yourself. Jews are not always the best representation of Judaism. The only representation of Judaism is in Torah itself. So that means you have to learn yourself. You have to double-check, you have to have your Rav, and so on and so forth. But that also means that you have to prepare yourself, that the next time you approach your friend, your colleague, another guy in the minyan, another guy in the community—you know them, you don't know them... already know that this guy, if he's not religious, there's a reason for it. So if he's a little defensive, don't be surprised. Don't be surprised. Why? Because he probably got offended by somebody. Maybe he got hurt by somebody. Maybe he saw the wrong impression of what Judaism is at some point. So you have to go there prepared with these tools. You have to go prepared that, okay, this guy already probably has a warped version of what Judaism is. That's the reason why he's not religious. He's not religious because he hates God. He's not religious because he probably has the wrong version of what Judaism is, what Torah is. That's why he's not religious. So you have to already go into this prepared. Now, that means that you have to prepare yourself for a headache. Why would you want to do that if not for ahavat chinam? You're not going to make any money out of it.

59:39Sometimes he's not going to like you as a result of you doing it. Sometimes he'll love you, and he'll become your chasid. But sometimes he'll hate you. Sometimes he'll tell you to go fly a kite. Sometimes he'll even use some foul language. You have to be prepared. Now, in the business world, if you want to talk to me, you have to pay me $3,000 for one hour. But in kiruv, it's free. why in business it's about money. In business, if you're going to work in business, you have to think about how much you're going to make for spending this amount of time. You have to look at what's worth it for you. Certain customers are going to make me a thousand dollars, and some customers are going to make me ten thousand dollars. Which customer do you go to? If you're a good businessman, you go to the ten-thousand-dollar guy. Why? Because that's where you're going to make more money. Now, you could be a superhero and say, no, no, no, but the other guy, he's a much nicer person. Okay, good luck with that. You're not going to succeed in business. In business, you go where there's profits. In Torah, it's not where there's profits. In Torah, it's where you need it. Where can I be most successful in helping people do teshuva?

1:01:01Now, every single person can be a Mezakeh HaRabim. Some people can do it by speaking. Some people can do it by their skill set, whether it's computers or graphics or whatever it is. All types of skills. People have skills; utilize your skills, both for your business and for Torah. Some people can do it by inviting people to a shiur. Some people can do it by arranging events. Some people can do it in all types of ways. that you can use your creativity to do it. Why would you do it? It's not for profit, it's not for money. And anyone that says, "Yeah, yeah, but it's Olam Haba, it's heaven," yeah, all that's great. But when you have a tough customer, suddenly you forget all that stuff. So that means that the only thing that's going to keep you coming back is Ahavat Chinam—loving Am Yisrael more than sometimes you even love yourself. Because that means that you have to get yourself to do something that's not profitable, at least nothing that you can see, in order to help other people. You do it because you know that if you don't do it, it's very likely nobody else will either. Because everyone else is going to make the same excuse you're making. Their excuse is they're busy with work. So, if you say you're busy with work, they don't need to be unbusy. Why should I do it? You do it.

1:02:26If you say, "Listen, I don't have the time." I don't have the time either. Nobody has the time. It's amazing how, no matter how many technological developments we have that make the world more efficient, we have less time. Rav Zelig, alav ha-shalom, used to like talking about how no matter what we did, the yetzer hara never left. Where he says when the washing machine was first released, people were enamored by it. It's like, wow, look how much time we're going to save instead of washing the clothes with our hands; there's going to be a washing machine. Oh, that's amazing how much time you save by not having to go to wash the clothes. You have a washing machine. It's hours of time. We're going to have so much time. I'm going to be able to relax. I'm going to be able to work. I'm going to be able to be with the kids. I'm going to be able to learn. I'm going to be able to do all these different things that I never had time to do because I was washing clothes. Guess what? In America today, it's completely standard to have a washer and a dryer. In other countries, it's not so standard. Some yes, some no. But yet, nobody has any time. With the washer and the dryer. And sometimes people have two. No time. No time.

1:03:46Why? Yitzchak tells you, listen, yeah, you save the time with the washer and dryer, but that means you have other stuff to do, and other stuff to do, and other stuff to do. So if you're going to wait to finally have time, and then you're going to make a lecture, and then you're going to arrange an event, and then you're going to go and give out CDs, and then you're going to go help people do teshuva, time is never going to be. You're going to make the excuse, he's going to make the excuse, everybody's going to have the excuse. Nobody has any time. means you simply have to make time, because it becomes a priority in your life. When you make the Torah a priority in your life, it's not just a Torah that you learn for yourself, to learn more Gemara, to learn more Mishnayot, to learn more Shulchan Aruch. It's not just about that. It's also to live the Torah. It's to live the Torah. It's actually to look at the Torah and say, okay, how could I do this? How could I do it? Okay, I learned this, oh wow, it's amazing. How could I do it? How could I apply this to today?

1:04:49That's what learning Torah is. It's not just looking at things where sometimes you see different people learning together, and they go back and forth about what his opinion is, and that opinion is, and his opinion is, and an hour and a half they're talking about some halacha that's not even relevant to today. Some korban that was 2,000 years ago at the Beit HaMikdash, and it's good to learn it for the sake of learning, but that shouldn't be your foundation; it should be part of your learning. But sometimes people like to toil. Toil and toil in things that are inconsequential. They call it pilpul, where they just go back and forth for the sake of learning, instead of learning things that you could apply to your life. Whether it's mussar or specific halachot or whatever it is, the key to your learning should be to learn to do. learn to do. So when you're learning, ask, "How could I do this? Can I do this? How could I do it?"

1:05:50How could I apply this today? How could I apply this to my tefillah? How could I apply this to my Shabbat? How could I apply this to my Yom Tov? How could I apply this to my day-to-day? How could I do all these different things? A person learns Torah that way, he'll succeed. But if a person learns Torah in a selfish way, just for the sake of his own learning, the Gemara in Masechet Avodah Zarah says, a person that learns Torah just for his own learning, but never to teach others, it's like a person who does not have a G-d. Why is it that a person doesn't have a G-d? Because learning Torah, the first thing you're supposed to learn from it, is about Hashem. If you don't believe in Hashem, go back to page one. Now, you believe in Hashem? Okay, so now you believe in Hashem. What are you supposed to do now? Emulate Hashem. Be like Hashem. Whatever His character traits are, you be like Him. What's the first character trait we all know about Hashem? Aside from the fact that He's awesome and He's great and He's amazing and there's not enough descriptions. But what do we know? He gives and never receives. He's kind.

1:06:51So if, after learning Torah, you've gone through the Shas a few times, you've gone through the Shulchan Aruch, you've done different things, you're good, you got it, and you still don't share your Torah, that means that you're learning the Torah like it's a history book. Because the point of your learning is supposed to be to emulate Hashem. And if emulating Hashem doesn't mean to you sharing the Torah, that means you haven't learned about Hashem. You learned about something else. You learned about something else. So that way, when a person learns the Parashat HaShavua, what should be his goal? His first goal should be to understand. The second goal should be teaching it to himself. The third is to share it with his family. ...or her family, then whoever else. And little by little, spread the Torah to people that are knowledgeable, people that are less knowledgeable, people that don't know anything. Little by little, try to get Am Yisrael to know more and more about HaKadosh Baruch Hu. That's ahavat chinam. That type of ahavat chinam is not really chinam. It's not really free because it's a lot of headache.

1:08:01But it's worth it. Because then you start seeing one guy change, one couple, another couple, another family, another few families, another few people get married to good people, and so on and so forth. Before you know it, you build communities in different places of different people and you see how people transform their lives. If every single person that's watching this, you will hear live and wherever, simply takes on himself, you know what, this year, from this Tisha B'Av till next Tisha B'Av, I'm going to do everything possible to get at least 10 people to do teshuvah. At least 10 people, I'm going to get them to start learning Torah every day for at least 15 minutes. That's my goal. 10 people, that means almost one a month. How could I do it? Some people could do it because they have good speaking skills. They're good talkers. Instead of talking to her on the phone for five hours about the mall, talk to her about HaKadosh Baruch Hu. Instead of talking to him about sports and all of these athletes making a lot of money and losing it, talk to him about HaKadosh Baruch Hu. You use your time that you already have anyway, talk about HaKadosh Baruch Hu. Or share the shiurim. Or bring him to the shiurim. Or share the CDs. Or do whatever you can to help other people do teshuvah.

1:09:14If every single person does that, you're going to have literally tens and tens of thousands of people do teshuvah over the next year. that could literally change the reality that's already in this world. All of the horrible things that are happening in this world, whether it's the possibilities of war, poverty, the Great Depression, recessions, disease, all types of horrible things are literally on the surface. It's like a black cloud all over the world. People are scared to leave their house, but at the same time, they can't stay inside anymore. They're going crazy. No one knows what to do. No one knows whether to invest or not to invest. Go to work, don't go to work. Get married, don't get married. Everyone is scared, Jews and Gentiles alike. There's a revolt everywhere. In Eretz Yisrael, there are all types of marches. In America, there are all types of marches. There are certain places in America where you're not allowed to walk around with an American flag, even though it's America. In Israel, chas v'shalom, you walk around like a religious person. The world is boiling.

1:10:23why there's less Hashem here. There's less Hashem because people are not learning. People are not doing. And even the ones that are religious, everybody's worrying about themselves. Most people, they worry about themselves, maybe their kid, maybe their daughter here and there. No one loves each other to the extent where even if you don't know him, you care about his spiritual status. In order for us to have this horrible decree change, we have to change. We have to start caring about everybody that we don't know, not only the people that we know. But not about their pocket, about their spiritual status. Because that's the only thing that HaKadosh Baruch Hu cares about. The pocket part is the one that He takes care of. If we each take initiative to actually start helping people do teshuva, A lot of things are going to change. Some people are busy making money, so you can use the money. You donate, we help people do teshuva, we share more CDs, we do more lectures. Some people, they have a certain unique skill. Use that skill. Some people have a certain ability to bring people, they're networkers, they know a lot of people. Arrange shiurim. Everybody can do something. But always know that in order for that to succeed, it has to come chinam.

1:11:48has to be free. It has to be because you care about him or her, even though they don't care about you. If you do it that way, B'ezrat Hashem, you'll succeed. B'ezrat Hashem, next year, we'll see each other again, but under better conditions, where HaKadosh Baruch Hu's decrees are much better than they are today, where a lot more of Am Yisrael are close to Him, B'ezrat Hashem, and hopefully, hopefully, we have the merit to see Mashiach Tzidkeinu. Amen. If you do it that way, b'ezrat Hashem, you'll succeed. B'ezrat Hashem, next year, we'll see each other again, but under better conditions, where HaKadosh Baruch Hu's decrees are much better than they are today, where a lot more of Am Yisrael are close to Him, b'ezrat Hashem, and hopefully, hopefully, we have the merit to see Mashiach Tzidkeinu. Amen.