Upcoming Crisis, MONEY EPIDEMIC, MaShiach Wars, SABA GIBRI, Lawsuits, INSURANCE-STUMP THE RABBI (52)

0:17You are back in Sunny Isles, Florida, doing our weekly shiur of Stump the Rabbi, with a few questions, B'ezrat Hashem, that hopefully you guys have, and B'ezrat Hashem, we will have the answers. Today's shiur will be for a Refuah Shlema for Rabbanit Levana Bat Sarah, Orit Bat Ilana, David Ben Esria, Doris Bat Jorah, Rav Ephraim Ben Shulamit, Rabbanit Sarah Bat Anat, Serach Bat Batya, Batya Bat Sarah, Talia Bat Sarah, Yitro Ben Avraham, Devorah Bat Mercedes, Esther Bat Tzipporah, And all of Am Yisrael, Be'ezrat Hashem, we have Refuah Shlema, Refuah Ha'Nefesh, Refuah Ha'Guf, and also Hatzlacha Rabah to Shaul Ben Farzaneh, Oshri Ben Doris, Gabi Ben Doris, Elad Ben Doris.

1:30And all of Am Yisrael, especially the ones that are investors in Yirgun Be'ezrat Hashem, to help Am Yisrael do teshuva, to help Am Yisrael see Yeshuah, to see the salvation. And Be'ezrat Hashem, to have something to say to Mashiach Tzidkeinu when he finally arrives, that we did something to bring him. Also, as a short reminder for people who mentioned to me that they saw in last night's shiur, we spoke about the new USB we have of the Pirkei Avot, the Mussar Pirkei Avot, 179 shiurim, plus 34 movies on this USB. It's now available on our website. Just go to bezrathashem.org. You can purchase one for yourself and whoever else you want. they're not for mass distribution because, as I said a few times, they're too expensive for it to be mass distributed for free. But, Baruch Hashem, the

2:34The cost of them is not out of this world, but what we're also doing is, since we've updated our Kiruv package, our Kiruv package, Baruch Hashem, has a few new books, a few more CDs, and we're also going to be including the USBs. So the price of the Kiruv package is going to go up a little bit, but relatively speaking, you're still getting a lot for your money if you buy the Kiruv package because it will include these USBs as well. We have two USBs now. One is the Mussar Pirkei Avot and one is the Tikkun HaBrit USB. So lots of shiurim. Just this one alone, for example, has 437 hours of Torah. Bottom line is if you listen to all of it and actually pay attention, you become a rabbi. 437 hours of Torah. So anyway, this is available. It's on the website. The situation in the world seems like it's taking on a slightly different direction now. While people are starting to go back outside, some people are going back to work, and some people have nothing to go back to because they don't have a job.

3:53because they don't have a job. And the last few months of being enclosed has helped many people start reflecting on their life and start doing teshuvah. But now is the real test. What we had in the last few months is preparation for the test. But what we have right now is the real test of what we're supposed to get ready for. And it has nothing to do with the disease. Of course, people are coming back to the world, and you're seeing some more infections, you're seeing some more people sick from Corona, Hashem Yerachem. But still relatively under control, it seems like, at least for now. But there's a new test. There's a test that we discussed before coronavirus began, which is going to be the financial test. The financial test that's going to assess and evaluate whether we really did Teshuvah or we're just fakers.

5:10That's really the test. Why? Because when a person was scared to death that he's gonna get sick and die, like they showed all the Asian people dying in the middle of the street, all the Italian people dying inside their houses, everybody was scared to die in the last three months. Except the tzaddikim that come to my shiur. Everybody else was scared to die. and which, by the way, as a side note, if you haven't noticed, we were the only shiur in the entire world that has continued going without a break throughout all this corona. I have to thank G-d just for that. Imagine, people are scared to die, and you're still giving Torah. Now, many people... Started learning. He told me, listen, Baruch Hashem, watching shiurim, two, three, four, five, six, eight hours a day. Baruch Hashem. Very good. But that's not the test. What's the test? Now. Now that things are going back and you ran out of money because you didn't work for the last three months, what are you going to do now? What are you going to do now? You said you did teshuva, or you got chizuk.

6:34If you're already frum, and you have Yirat Shamayim now, so what are you going to do now? You don't have a job. What are you going to do right now? You don't have any money. What are you going to do? And you're starting to see that people are pretty much taking all of the Torah that they learned, and putting it to the test. Some people, Baruch Hashem, are staying strong. They have emunah in Hashem, they know that parnassah is going to come one way or the other, but they're not willing to break the rules. They're not willing to go against Hashem. And then you see other people saying, "Wait a minute, Rabbi, I can't get a job right now, but there's this one place that is willing to hire me. But you said in the shiur that if I do that, I have no share of the world to come." So, can I work there though just for now? Like, can I just like not have a share in the world to come for a little while until I get a better job? People are playing with their lives like it's ping pong. So, what job is this? All types of horrible jobs. Most famous, cash advance. I got just today a few questions from people looking to go into the cash advance business.

7:52Last few weeks, people have been telling me that people that are in that business were losing everything, but now it's getting a second run. A second opportunity to destroy the economy. A second opportunity to destroy people's lives. A second opportunity to cause Chilul Hashem. People are asking. So I said, did you watch the shiurim? He said, no, I watched one of the clips. Did you watch everything? No, I just watched one clip. I said, you didn't get the point yet that it's not allowed? Well, I don't own the company. Who said anything about owning the company? You're lending money with predatory rates, meaning you are setting up people for failure. And you think that's a good business for a Jew or anybody to be in? Well, I don't have any other job. What difference does it make if you don't have any other job? If you want, I could hire you. I have a few people I want to kill, 25,000 a name. You don't have any other job? You don't have any other job, no? Go kill people. No, Rabbi, I'm a killer. I said, by the way, you're going into the cash advance business, you're much worse than a murderer. Much worse. Much worse than a murderer. Why? A murderer kills one person. You're killing every customer and his family. No, but why? I gave him the money. Yeah, you gave him the money. That was the bait. Until he can't pay because the rates are so high that nobody can catch up.

9:17And what ends up happening after a couple of rounds of you making it even worse for him by giving him even more money? His whole business collapses, his house goes into foreclosure, his wife divorces him, his kids abandon him, and he ends up committing suicide, going into drugs, becoming an alcoholic, going into depression, or most importantly, just simply hating life, hating people, and hating Hashem. And best of all, hating Jews. Why? Because it was a Jew. Named Shmuley. Named Tzvika. Named Yaakov. Named Jason. Name whatever name you made up for yourself. No, no, I don't go by my Jewish name, Rabbi. Oh, what, you think Hashem doesn't know your real name? You think Hashem doesn't know your real name? You think Hashem is not going to expose you in the court papers when all of this business gets completely exposed to the world and every single fake Jew that's in that business is not going to be exposed in all of the legal files? You think that's not going to go all over the internet? You think they're not going to take pictures of all the fake Jews in handcuffs? You think they're not going to do that?

10:31Every single one of them that's in the cash advance business will eventually be exposed, one way or the other. Either through that business or after that business. You want to go in there? B'chavod. Go. But don't say you weren't warned. No, no, but my rabbi said it's okay. Your rabbi will also have a place in Gehinnom right next to you. Why? It is a predatory business that destroys people's lives by overcharging them. Interest, fees, all types of strange policies. Everyone that's in that business that I've spoken to has told me themselves, "Rabbi, listen, you don't really have to argue with me. I know it's not good. I don't have anything else. What other business can I make $30,000, $40,000 a month, Rabbi?" I said, but it's wrong. He says, I know it's wrong. I said, so why did you argue with me for three days? He said, whatever, I was trying to convince you. But I was convincing myself that I'm full of it. I know it's wrong, Rabbi. I know. Everybody knows it's wrong. Anyone that's in this business knows it's wrong. A bunch of guys, Baruch Hashem, left the business. A bunch of guys. But there's still many in there, pretending to be religious.

11:48One guy tells me, "Listen, if there's so many religious people in it, it must be okay." I asked the guy, "Are you sure that you're not lending to Jewish people?" He said, "Yeah, yeah, we sign all types of deals." I said, "Did you listen to all my shiurim?" He goes, "No, why, why, what's the difference, why?" I said, "Because it's not allowed to do this business with goyim even more than Jews." Even more than Jews. With Jews, you have a situation with charging a Jew interest, which means that you're finished. Your Olam Haba goes into the garbage pail. But when you do with Goyim, it's Chilul Hashem. And even Shlomo HaMelech, as I brought you guys countless sources when I was in New York and also over here, Shlomo HaMelech says, anybody that's in the business of lending money is going to get cursed from Shamayim. He's going to lose all of his money eventually. All of his money. So you can have a little bit of money for now. You're going to pretend like you're making 30, 40, 50, 100,000 a month. You're going to pretend to your friends like you're rich. You're going to pretend to your friends like you bought a new house, like it's yours. And then HaKadosh Baruch Hu is going to take everything. And on top of it, you'll get embarrassed. And all of it is going to be good for you. Why? Because hopefully, you'll suffer enough that you'll have a share in the World to Come. You'll do teshuvah. But why go to that? Why put yourself through that? Don't you like yourself a little bit?

13:12No, no, no, it's not going to work out like that for me. I'm going to be different. I'm only going to deal with people. I'm only going to charge this. Okay, pretend. Make pretend. The question I have is how come? How come people do this? How come? How come people sell G-d for five bucks? How come? In Parashat Va’eira, HaKadosh Baruch Hu punishes Paro and his people with another plague. What's the plague? Barad, hail. Huge balls of ice and inside them, lava. Something that defies nature. Fire and water cannot coexist unless HaKadosh Baruch Hu decides it will. For example, the sky is a combination of fire and water, something that nature cannot do. Here again, HaKadosh Baruch Hu made a miracle and put fire inside the hail to make sure everybody knows He's the one who decides what nature is going to do. He is nature.

14:38That's why the numerical value, the gematria of the word "Hateva," which means nature, and "Elokim" is 86, the same number. Hashem hides Himself inside nature. So, HaKadosh Baruch Hu defied nature again and brought huge balls of ice, inside them lava, only hurting the people that had no yirat shamayim. it says anyone that had fear of Hashem went inside the houses and didn't get hurt, but those who didn't pay attention, it says, died outside. Why? Because there's no such thing as no yirat shamayim; it's either you have yirat shamayim, or you're not paying attention to who's running the world. So then Paro says for the first time to Moshe Rabbeinu in chapter 9... verse number 27 he says, "This time I have sinned. Hashem is the righteous one, and I and my people are the wicked ones." So, Pharaoh did teshuva, Pharaoh did teshuva, but then we see

16:06gives him another plague. How come? How come? Paro Rabotai Yekarim went back to his evil ways because he had a little bit of ta'avot, little desires. He wanted control, he wanted kavod, he wanted people to pray to him. So although he knew he was wrong, I'm not a sinner and God's the one that's running the show. I'm a rasha, he says. I know I'm wrong. But then he goes back to it again. What are you, stupid? You just saw HaKadosh Baruch Hu destroy your entire civilization, one plague after another. He turned your god into blood because their god was the Nile River. He turned your god into blood to make it smelly and disgusting. Just imagine not living with water for three, four weeks. No sewer system, no bathing, no nothing, no water. Just imagine not living with water for three days. No flushing the toilet. Hashem Yishmor, just thinking about it. Not only that, He turned it to blood. Then on top of that, to destroy their god even more, He turned their god into what? The place where all the frogs came from.

17:26And then there's kinim, there's lice. Chazal say each louse was not like the little lice that sometimes you find in the heads of little kids. You know, tiny little lice. You have to have a little microscope to see it. Kindergarten teacher, ah, your kid has lice, throws you out. Okay, clean your kid, okay, next day you're back. No, no, no. Lice in Egypt, you didn't need a magnifying glass. Why? It was the size of a chicken egg. Lice was the size of a chicken egg, Hashem Yishmor. You have lice. Then you have polar bears, lions, cobra snakes, all types of animals they've never seen before in their lives appear. They only killed Egyptians. A Jew passed by and said, "Hello, I'm going to kill the Egyptian now. Bye-bye." All types of animals. The polar bear came with the ice. The tiger came with the jungle. Each animal came with its...

18:27Habitat. Unbelievable. It's not enough for you to believe in Hashem. All types of plagues. Fast forward, we get to Barad. Pharaoh finally says, I made a sin. God is the Tzaddik, meaning he believes in God now. I'm a Rasha. And my people are Resha'im. but then it goes back again, becomes a shoteh. How come? So Chazal teach us that Pharaoh was a ba'al ga'avah, a big egotistical person. He told everybody, "I'm G-d." So the people said, "If you're G-d, so when we build you the castle..." You don't need a bathroom then, because gods don't go to the bathroom. Yeah, yeah, no bathroom, no bathroom. So what are you going to do now? The whole castle of Pharaoh, no bathroom. So what did he do? He made a rule: in the middle of the night, from this hour to that hour, no one's allowed to come out. Why? So he could go to the bathroom in the Nile River. That's why every time Hashem sent Moshe, He told Moshe, go meet Pharaoh in the river.

19:54He met him in the river. Why in the river? While he was going to the bathroom. Catching him. "We know your secret. You're an egomaniac." But Pharaoh, no matter what, had a huge ego. An ego the size of the moon. He wanted everybody to pray to him. He wanted everybody to worship him. He wanted everybody to say, "Chazak U'Baruch. You're the best." And for a little bit of desires, he remained a Rasha. Despite knowing the truth. Unfortunately, Rabotai, I'm not telling you the story because Paro matters to me. I'm telling you the story because you matter to me. Everyone that's watching matters to me. We cannot do what Paro did, know the truth, and remain Resha'im. when a person knows what the truth is and still goes against it. Why? A little bit of desires. He wants to make money. Yeah, but it's not kosher money. You're not allowed to go into the cash advance business. You're not allowed to go into an illegal business. Illegal according to Hashem. You're not allowed to lie to people. The Torah says, from a thing of lies you must stay away from, run away from. Every other sin it says don't do it.

21:15But with sheker, with lies, it says stay away from it. Meaning, it's so bad, not only don't lie, don't even get close to it. If you have somebody you know that's a liar, don't be friends with them anymore. If your boss is a liar, don't work for him. Find a new place. If your whole business, your whole industry is full of lies, run away. Yeah, but I don't have another job. It's better to be unemployed, homeless. to be selling people a business that's going to destroy their lives. Why? At least if you're homeless, you starve in Olam HaBa. But if you sell people a business that's destroying lives and you cause Chilul Hashem, no Olam HaBa. No Olam HaBa. Now, People, rabotai, many times say, no, no, I love Hashem. I love Hashem. I believe in Hashem. It's just that it's hard sometimes. So the question is, when does it get hard? Rabbi Yisrael Salanter, alav ha'shalom, one time went to a new city, and he went to the market. The owner of the market saw him and ran up to him.

22:39Says Rabbi Yisrael, Rabbi Yisrael, you know, Jewish rabbi, Jewish rabbi. You a shochet? You a butcher? You know, with kosher shechita? Rabbi Yisrael Salanter, even though he was baki, he was an expert in shechita, he says, no, I'm not. He wasn't a butcher, he knew the halachot. He taught some people halachot of shechita and so on, but he didn't, he wasn't a shochet. No, I'm not, sorry. Oh, okay, okay. So as the guy was about to walk away, Rabbi Yisrael Salanter says to him, "Mr. Yehudi, Mr. Yehudi, a Jewish person, can you lend me $100?" The guy says, "No, no, I don't know you." I don't know you. Oh, okay. Chazak u'Baruch. Chazak u'Baruch. The guy was about to turn. Oh, $50. Can you lend me $50? I don't know you. It's a lot of money. I don't know you. I'll lend you $50. Oh, okay. Chazak u'Baruch. Chazak u'Baruch. Well, how about $10? Can you lend me $10? $10 you can lend me? The guy starts thinking. How do I know you're going to pay me back?

24:03I don't know you. What's to say you're going to pay me back? Rabbi Yisrael Salanter teaches a lesson. He says, look at that. He tells the guy, look at that. Do you know how many halachot you have to learn in order to be a shochet? In order to be a kosher butcher? You have hundreds and hundreds of halachot that you need to know—what's allowed, what's not allowed, what's kosher, what's treif, what to check, what not to check. You have to know biology, chemistry, everything possible. You have to be a farmer, a vet. You have to be so many different things, and you can still mess up anyway. For that, you trust me blindly. You saw I'm a Jew. give me ten dollars. Oh no, what's to say? I don't know you. I don't know you when it comes to kvod Hashem.

25:05Yeah, but he's a rasha, the guy. No, no, give him kaf zechut, give him kaf zechut. But when it comes to your own kavod, meaning it comes to your own pocket, no, no, no, I don't trust anybody. I only do business with people that I know. Uh-oh, uh-oh, what happened? Not everybody is a tzaddik? Not everybody is a righteous person all of a sudden? No kaf zechut? No, no, no, I don't want to rent him the apartment. Why not? No, he declared bankruptcy six years ago, so... Yeah, but he hasn't declared bankruptcy in the last year. He hasn't declared bankruptcy yesterday. No, no, no. I only do business with people that I know. What do you mean? But your property is listed to the public. Yeah, but you know, and you know, and you know, and you know. Oh, it touches your pocket. All of a sudden, we're not all tzaddikim. We're not all tzaddikim. Everybody's resha'im now. But when it came to kevod shamayim, And he said, a mechalei Shabbat mot yumat, has no share of the world to come. No, Rabbi, why are you so kitzoni? Why are you so extreme, fanatic, calling all the Jewish people that are violating Shabbat idol worshippers? The Torah calls them that. Yeah, but you have to give them kaf zechut. Maybe he's a tinok she'nishba, he's a captured baby, maybe this, maybe that. You've got to find a way to love Jewish people, Rabbi.

26:23Wow, you know, that's an idea. It's an idea. Wow, you're a tzaddik. By the way, can I borrow $10? Rabbi, I don't know. How do I know you're going to pay me back? How do I know you're going to pay me back? What happened to everybody's tzidkut? What happened? That's what happens all the time. People today, almost on a weekly basis, get spam mail. It used to be spam mail on the email, but now it's spam WhatsApp, massive WhatsApp. Somehow they have a bracha from the Satan, this thing. A famous mekubal, by the name of whatever they came up with that week, woke up after having a dream and he saw his father. And his father told him, the Mashiach is coming in three days. You have to move to Eretz Yisrael. You have to fast. You have to, I don't know, stand on your head. You have to give tzedakah to the next rabbi that calls you. Whatever gimmick they come up with. And you have to share this with at least 10 people or you have no olam haba. All types of stupid things, but in the name of some mekubal. Sometimes the mekubal actually exists. Sometimes he already died. Sometimes he doesn't even exist. Every day there's a new campaign in the name of Rav Kanievsky.

27:48I highly doubt Rav Kanievsky knows about any of these campaigns. Every day there's a new, "Oh yeah, Rav Kanievsky said such and such." You record Rav Kanievsky every single day for every move that he makes. How come you didn't record him saying such and such? But on WhatsApp, they have it word for word. "Oh, Mekubal such and such, that you never heard of and you never will, said that everybody has to move because in three weeks the Mashiach is coming." People start panicking, sell their assets, start causing fights between the husband and the wife. "No, we need to move." "No, we can't move." "We got to this, we got to that." "No, but the Mekubal said it." So Rabbi Efraim has a question for all of these people that want to listen to WhatsApp Mekubalim. If this Mekubal, he didn't send you a WhatsApp, he didn't send you a WhatsApp. If he showed up at your house, showed up at your house, and he said... Can I borrow $100,000? Would you give it to him? Right now, I need it. No cosigner. Can I borrow $100,000? Can you give it to me? You have it. Now you don't have it. You have it. Now, do you have millions? You have it. You have $100,000 in your account. He wants to borrow it. Can I borrow $100,000? You never heard of this Mekubal. You saw him on WhatsApp.

29:17How about this: Rav Kanievsky shows up to your house and says, "Can I borrow $100,000?" Would you give it to him? Rav Kanievsky, a normal mekubal, comes and says, "David, can I borrow $100,000?" Would you give it to him? If you say yes, you're a liar. How about this: I'll up the ante. Rav Kanievsky says, "From now on, everybody has to take all of their money and invest in XYZ stock." You invest? Know what you're going to do? You call your broker. Listen, can you do me a favor? Do some research on XYZ stock. Rav Kanievsky recommends it. Wait a minute. How come you don't just take him at face value? How come you're still researching it? If Rav Kanievsky or other mekubalim say, listen, I want you to invest in property in Guam, we feel the Beit HaMikdash maybe will be built over there. What are you going to say? You're going to go buy property blindly? No.

30:19Do some research, ask a few people. Does Rav Kanievsky have any references? Anybody that could vouch for him, maybe? Does he have any investment history? Does he have any experience investing? Why do you have so many questions? For lending your money, you have questions. For investing, you have questions. But to just change your whole life and do something strange? No questions. Why? When it comes to kvod Shamayim, we throw it in the garbage. Garbage. When it comes to our own kavod, we have to honor ourselves. No, no, no, don't touch my pocket. Don't touch my business. Don't do this, don't do that. A person has to realize that the more he's going to identify with the truth, the more he's going to realize how much of a faker he was before he did. Because people have a very easy time saying, oh no, no, I love the shiurim, I watch all of them, I love it, this is the best shiurim in the world, changed my life, oh wow, okay, great. Listen, there's a campaign, we're trying to raise some money, maybe open a yeshiva.

31:42There's a campaign; we're trying to feed some poor people who don't have any money. There's a campaign to publicize some CDs. There's a campaign for something else we're trying to do that's good in the world. How about you join in? Maybe donate $500, $1,000, $2,000, $5,000, whatever you have. You know, you have $10,000, $20,000, $30,000 in the account. You could donate a little bit. Oh, no, times are tough, Rabbi. You know, there's no jobs. There's no work out there. I don't know how long the situation is going to continue. So I got to preserve. Oh, you got to preserve. But you said that the shiurim changed your life, though. You said the Torah changed your life, though. How come? When it comes to kevod Shamayim, bupkis. Comes to our pocket, comes to our life. We have to honor ourselves. So much honor. So much honor for ourselves. The Rambam writes in Igeret... In a letter, that's what Igeret means. In a letter, he wrote to his talmid named Rabbi Yosef ben Yehuda. And it was regarding some zaken, some elder that went against the Rambam publicly. Went against him, went against his teacher. And Rabbi Yosef went against this zaken, said, you're not ashamed of yourself, you're going against the Rambam, Gadol HaDor.

33:13You're like a crazy person. So then this zaken, this elder, who was a very powerful person, wrecked him. Started putting posters everywhere. Pashkevilim, they call it. Posters everywhere. This Rabbi Yosef is a rasha. He has no share in the world to come. Don't go to his lectures. He's a machti et harabim. He's this, he's that. Made up all types of lies against him. Horrible things. Fake. So poor Rabbi Yehuda sends his Rabbi, the Rambam, a letter asking him, "What should I do with this guy?" So the Rambam writes a message to him. He says, "Regarding your difficulties with how this person is speaking against you, it shouldn't be so difficult for you."

34:14Why? I'm sorry, it's normal that it's difficult for you. Because there's no such thing as a person that you hit, and he doesn't scream. Of course, it's going to be difficult for you. It's not a chiddush that it's difficult for you that people are going against you. But you shouldn't be surprised. Why? You cannot expect, don't expect someone that you hurt to love you and to say thank you to you. Why? You went against this, this zaken, this leader, telling him that he's doing something wrong by going against your Rabbi, Rambam. And what are you expecting him to say? You rebuked him. And you think he's going to thank you for it? No. You harmed his reputation. And don't expect him to have any type of Yirat Shamayim. You can't expect him to have any Yirat Shamayim. Because such things are even being done by people who are bigger than him. Bigger leaders than him.

35:36because they do not have yirat Shamayim when it comes to these things, except when it comes to big things. You know, they won't drive on Shabbat, these big rabbis. They won't go out and cheat on their wives publicly—in secret maybe, but not publicly. They won't do things that are going to cause a public Chilul Hashem, at least if people actually know it's Chilul Hashem, like bringing a pastor to a synagogue. People don't know it's Chilul Hashem, so they go, "No, it's a mitzvah, it's a mitzvah. United." So these people that are leaders, he says to them, 900 years ago, they don't have any Yirat Shamayim on the small things, they have Yirat Shamayim on big things, meaning they're not going to make any public sins that are big. But in regards to the small things, where it comes down to working on their Middot,

36:44And to be precise on how they treat people, how they talk to people, whether they're lying, whether they're being pushy, whether they're being arrogant, whether they're being stingy, all of these things, nothing, no. There's no such thing at all. Why? He says the following. This is in Iggeret, in Ot Tet Vav. He says, most of the religious people that are heads or connected to the heads, their yirat shamayim simply disappears. The moment they become leaders, the moment they become someone that's honored and respected, it's like they enter, Yirat Shamayim leaves. Rambam 900 years ago, needless to say, in 2020, according to the Notzrim, according to the Christian calendar. So in Tet Zayin, he says,

38:08There's only one thing that I want from you, the Rambam says to him. If you are my student, act like I do, with my character traits, something that's more fitting to you. And even if someone goes against you personally, don't go against them personally. And don't just say whatever's on your mind. Start cursing people, yelling, acting like some hoodlum. When they're against you, it doesn't make a difference. But if they're against Shamayim, that's a different story. So, Rambam gives us a very important lesson, where he says if someone goes against you personally, who cares about you personally? Someone goes against you personally, makes fun of you, looks at you funny, says bad things about you. Rambam says, don't say anything. Don't say anything. And the Reshit Chochmah, the Reshit Chochmah has a source, says somebody that's publicly embarrassed.

39:26and doesn't respond, and in fact even does a favor to the other person and embarrasses him, you get to a level where HaKadosh Baruch Hu becomes his chavruta. Big deal. Why? HaKadosh Baruch Hu is constantly being shamed. He doesn't do anything. What does He do? He gives people favors. The same people that go against Him. You act like HaKadosh Baruch Hu, HaKadosh Baruch Hu says you're a fitting chavruta. I'll study with you. Somebody goes against you personally, makes fun of you personally, looks at you, this, that, don't respond. Why? What difference does it make? But if they go against Hashem, it's a different story. The question you have to ask, when you're mad, because there's no such thing as you not being mad. The Rambam said it himself, there's no such thing as you not being hurt by this. Even if you're not responding, you're still going to be hurt, because there's no such thing as somebody that you hit, and he doesn't say, ow. It hurts. So, we're not saying don't get hurt; you gotta get hurt. We're just saying don't respond. Continue, go, because it's you personally. So when you're upset that you're hurt and you can't respond because it's a difficult test, ask yourself this question: When the guy drove to shul and you saw him, were you just as upset?

40:54When he drove to shul on Shabbat and on Yom Kippur. When he showed up to the synagogue with his non-Jewish wife. When she showed up to the Pesach Seder with her boyfriend from Peru. When all of these people violated Hashem's name openly with no questions asked. When they tell all of the religious kids that don't even know Aleph-Bet, come join the cash advance business, no matter what the halacha says. No, no, it's kosher, it's kosher, and you know it's not kosher. They're violating Hashem's name. Were you as hurt? Were you as pained? Did you want to go and go against them that way? Not so much, huh? No, I don't know him like that, you know, so I don't want to, it's not my business. It's not your business? Hashem's business is not your business? Hashem's honor is not your honor? But when it came to disrespecting you, he called you a funny name, he called you a not-so-funny name, he made fun of your mother, he made fun of your sister, he made fun of your kids—all that stuff, oh, you wanted to go against him. But when he went against Hashem, not so much.

42:10so much he brought a Catholic priest to the synagogue. No, no, it's not my business, it's not my business. He put thousands of Jewish lives at risk, not so much. Distorted online for thousands of people to watch. No, no, why should I spread this? Why should I share this? When it came out to the honor of Hashem, you didn't really feel like honoring Hashem, you didn't really feel like defending Hashem. But your honor, you wanted to defend. No. No. You still expect to go to Gan Eden? You still expect to go to Gan Eden only defending your honor and not Hashem's honor? So the Rambam says, you know what? If you're not going to defend Hashem's honor, it's not so good. It's not so good. But at the very least, make it equal. Don't defend your honor either. Don't defend your honor either. Why? There's nothing to honor anyway. you're not bigger than Hashem. If you're not defending Hashem's honor that's bigger than yours, it's not right for you to defend your honor. Your honor is not more important than Hashem's. But that's the mistake that sometimes we make. When good things happen, we say, this deal goes through with Hashem's help, this goes through. I made this money.

43:36Bad things happen. Ah, everything's from Shamayim. Everything's from Shamayim. Everything's from Hashem. If you look at the words of the Satan, this is 100% the Satan. Why? What happened here? Good things happen. He's saying it's the help of Hashem. Bad things happen. Ah, everything is from Hashem. Meaning the good, Hashem only helped us because I contributed. I worked, and I went to the office, and I had this good idea, and I made the phone call. I did a lot, and Hashem helped me. But the bad stuff, everything is from Hashem. There's always a reason. The bad is only Hashem. Not you. You didn't do anything bad. You're a tzaddik. You're perfect. They're going to write books about you. It's the opposite. It's the opposite. The good, Rabotai, everything's from Hashem. The bad, that's Be'ezrat Hashem. Why? You contributed to the bad. That's why Hashem is helping you bring bad. When you get the right understanding

44:47of what role Hashem plays in your life, all of these things become very, very clear, and you're able to make decisions that seem ridiculous to other people. We'll finalize with a story, and then you guys can ask questions about what it looks like when someone has complete emunah in Hashem. You see, when somebody opens a store, next to another person in the same business, naturally they're going to get annoyed. Why couldn't you open the store somewhere else? I have an electronics store. You have an electronics store. I'm not telling you not to open a store. Why does it have to be next to mine? I have a synagogue. You have a synagogue. Why do you have to open your synagogue next to mine? I could lose customers to you. What is that? Heresy. Why? You believe that You're in control of your own parnassah. So you're upset that someone's getting in the way. What does it look like when you have real emunah? Rav Yaakov Schechter, the story was told by his son, Rav Aharon Schechter, and I heard it from Rav Efraim. He opened a very successful leather store. Became very, very successful.

46:10Making parnassah, baruch Hashem, everything is good. One day he sees an old friend of his. He starts talking to him, "How are you doing?" Rav Schechter asks him, "In parnassah, how are you doing in parnassah?" He goes, "No, nothing going on. I don't have anything going on now." "Oh, you don't have anything going on? You know what? I got an idea," Rav Schechter said. "I have an idea. Why don't you do this? Open a leather store right next door to mine." My next door to mine is you can sell the leathers and I'll help you out. I'll get you all the different leather, everything. His friend says, "No, chas v'shalom, I'm going to take your customers." He goes, "No, chas v'shalom, you'll be helping me because that way some of my customers can go to you." He says, "What? Your customers go to me? No, chas v'shalom, I'm going to steal your parnassah." He goes, "No, ma pitom, chas v'shalom, I'm the only one there, so you're going to be a second guy." He goes, "What?" That's the opposite of what you want in business. You have a monopoly on the whole market. No, because I'm never going to steal your money. No, no, no. You're going to be helping me out. It's a big chesed you're doing for me. You open. I'm going to help you out. I'm going to get you everything that you possibly need. And the customers are going to go, you're going to have like a leather center. So why should people go to different places to look for leather? Now they have multiple choices. You know, there's going to be competition. People are going to go here. People are going to go to you, me. It's good for them.

47:38He says, "No, you're doing me a big chesed. Please open over here. I'll help you out with everything you need." He says, "No, I can't do it." He says, "How about this? Here's what we're going to do. I'm going to buy the place. I'm going to buy all the goods. You just run it, and I'll give you all the profit. You just pay me back whenever you have time, somewhere down the road." What? Yeah, I'll buy you out. You know, you're going to buy the whole business. You're going to pay for everything. All I have to do is just run the place, and I'm going to keep all the profits and I'll pay you back sometime down the road. Yeah. Next door to you. Yeah. I'm not going to do that to you. You have kids at home. You have to feed your kids at home. I can't do it. And he leaves. Rav Schechter comes home. He says, I'm going to convince him.

48:40He starts praying for it all night. "I'm going to pray, I'm going to convince him, he has to do this." He travels to his friend, who was in a different city, three different times, the son says. Three different times when it was far, to try to convince him to do this. He says to him, "I'm going to buy everything, I'm going to pay for everything, you just have to run the place, and you keep all the profits." And the friend says to him, "No, I'm never going to do it." He says, "What, don't you understand that parnassah is from shamayim? Don't you understand that there's no way in the world that you can take one dollar away that belongs to me? Don't you understand? By you taking my help, you're doing me a chesed. I'll have a mitzvah in shamayim. Parnassah, you think I'm going to lose money because of this? Chas v'shalom, parnassah is from shamayim." Yeah, but the customer went to me instead of to you. It's not to you instead of to me. It was always supposed to be you. That's when a person has real emunah in Hashem. Not only does he do a kosher business, but he never for a second considers not being kosher. And he never for a second is going to feel threatened.

49:59by any competition, by any other Jew benefiting, by anybody, in fact, benefiting from what he does. In fact, he does whatever he can to help other Jews make parnassah without asking for anything in return. Why, rabotai? Because that's the way you're supposed to do things. I know a guy, well, tries to work really hard, does whatever he does. One time, someone calls him recently and says to him, "Listen, can you do me a favor? I have nine houses I want to sell. Each house is almost a million dollars. Can you sell them for me?" Now, in the business world, you'll know, you don't really need much to sell houses. Now you say, "Wait a minute, you need a license." No, you don't. Why? You can find somebody, some broker that doesn't have food to eat, and tell him, "Listen, I'm going to get the customers, I'll sell it, we'll use your license, and I'll give you a small percentage. The rest of the money goes to me." Why? Because the other guy's never going to get the money anyway. And the guy's going to say, "Thank you very much for the opportunity." Thank you very much for the opportunity. Why? It's free money for him. Why does he care? You give the guy $10 million, the guy's going to get $50,000, he doesn't have food to eat, he'll give you $9 million. Why does he care?

51:24What does he care? It's free money. That's what a lot of people do anyway. You're not supposed to do it, but that's what happens in the world. But this guy says, my dear friend, I don't have time for this. Why? It's going to disturb my learning. I have to learn. I don't have time to sell you houses. But I need help. No, no, no. I didn't say I'm not going to help you. I'm going to help you. I just don't have time to do it myself. I'll get you somebody. Oh, yeah. Yeah. He makes a call. Calls the guy. He says, listen. Call this guy, tell him I sent you, and he's got $10 million for you in business. What? Yeah, he's got $10 million in business for you. Good luck. No, no, we're partners. No, no, no, we're not partners. You do what you have to do, go help him. What do you want? Nothing. He didn't understand. What do you mean? Why did you just give me $10 million in business? What do you want? Nothing. Why are you doing it? You need help. How do you have too much? No, no, no. I'm struggling. Call him. He's a good guy. Call him. Tell him I sent you because if you don't tell him I sent you, he's not going to do business with you. Go call him. Send him. It's not a shame you succeed. Never heard such a thing in his life. That's the way it's supposed to be. No, listen. I'm going to give you a deal, but under the table, you've got to take care of me, you know, right? You've got to take care of me. That's how you get hurt. That's how you get hurt.

52:52Start doing business with people. Oh, they take care of me. I called one guy one time. I told him, listen, I need to ship a bunch of CDs from point A to point B. Do you do it? Well, I don't really do it, but I can find you somebody that does. Okay, can you give me the phone number? Well, you know what? Let me introduce you to him because maybe I can make a little bit of money out of it. Man, you can't just give me your phone number. No, no, I'm going to introduce you. I know the owner, so I'll make the call. I'll introduce you to the guy and hopefully he shares some of the profits with me. It's a big deal. $20,000, you know, I should get paid. So give me your phone number. You're Jewish, right? Don't do business without making money. That's the wrong way. That's the wrong way, rabotai. I'm not saying you're not entitled to make a living. But what are you making a living from? you think you're making a living just by sticking your nose into every corner. You have no emunah, zero. Why? Because eventually someone's going to tell you to go do something that's not legit, go do something that's not right, and because you're so addicted to money, you'll forget Hashem altogether.

54:10You'll forget Hashem altogether. The key, Rabbotai, is to remember, there's not a single dollar that will ever be taken from you if it belongs to you. Everyone right now that's struggling financially, the only thing you need to do is pray to Hashem, make an effort to make an honest living, and nothing else. Don't start doing stupid things and ruin your olam haba just because you need a few dollars. Trust me when I tell you, Hashem knows you don't have any money. Hashem knows you don't have any money, and He'll take care of you when He feels like it. We don't tell the Boss what to do. We don't tell the Boss what to do. He knows you're struggling because He's the one that's causing you to struggle and... When you start selling Hashem for peanuts, Hashem says, ah, you're going to start doing things that are not so good? I won't talk to you anymore. You're like a snake. You pretend to be my friend. Why? You were enclosed behind closed doors for three months. You're pretending to do teshuva. You're watching shiurim eight hours a day. No, no, Rabbi, I'm watching shiurim all day. The second he got a parnassah test, Hashem went into shem yishmo. Forgot about Hashem.

55:32What about the shiurim? Eight hours a day times 90 days, 720 hours of Torah. You still didn't do teshuva yet. For a few dollars, you sold Hashem, that's it. 720 hours of Torah went into the garbage. That's because, rabotai, Torah is not just something you learn from books. Torah, real Torah, you learn from experience too, by applying what you learned in the books to your life. It's not just theoretical. Torah is what you apply to your life. If your Torah is not being applied to your life, you're living two lives. And that's why you have to know that tests are going to come to everybody. Especially now with regards to money, in regards to all types of things, you have to make sure that you pass these tests. Because these are the tests that are going to either build you or break you. They're either going to say, this guy is a tzadik, this woman is a tzadeket, because they withstood the test and they stood up for Hashem. They defended Hashem even though it put their reputation on the line. They stood up for Hashem even though it created a lot of inconveniences. They stood up for Hashem even though it hurt their pocket. They stood up for Hashem even though it put them in danger.

56:58And not be one of the people that says, ah, this guy's a faker. No, what do you mean? He gives a lot of tzedakah. Yeah, he only gives a lot of tzedakah when he wants to look like a tzadik. But in reality, not so much. And that's one of the most important things that I believe we are going to be facing right now. That people are going to be tested. Because 40 million people have been fired in America alone. Countless more have been fired and are unemployed all over the world. many of those people are going to remain unemployed for a while because technology is so advanced that you don't need people to do the same work that they used to do. So, it's going to be a little difficult for people to find jobs. Many people are going to have to start their own businesses, become entrepreneurs, even though they don't even know how to balance their checkbook. But in order to create some income, they're going to have to become entrepreneurs. In order to create some income, they're going to have to do different things that they're not used to. And they're going to have different tests. But don't worry for a second. Don't worry for a second. Why? HaKadosh Baruch Hu will take care of you. Don't do anything. Or even assist anything. Assist anyone. If you know that they are corrupt. If you know that this person is a cheater, a liar.

58:26You should not work with them. You shouldn't even associate with them. Even if it's the last job on earth. It's better to be completely broke than be associated with a sin. The test, unfortunately, will come to many people. And only the people that are really strong, spiritually strong, will actually survive this one. B'chavod, who wants to start with questions? Yeah, Joshua. he says there's a point where the wicked are going to bow to Hashem

59:27So the question is, are these wicked also going to be destroyed after they bow to Hashem or not? It's important to know that there are different levels of Resha'im. A Rasha, by definition, is anyone that goes against Hashem. Meaning that if somebody does something that's the opposite of what Hashem wants, instead of eating kosher, eats non-kosher. Not all the time, but one time. At that moment, he became a Rasha. After he said, "I'm sorry, I'm not going to do it again," he became a Tzadik again. But at that moment, he was a Rasha. Does that mean he's forever a Rasha? No. Does that mean he's the biggest Rasha in the world? No. But he is a Rasha at that point. So, different levels of Resha'im. And that's why the Gemara in Masechet Rosh Hashanah says that some Resha'im go to Gehinom for up to a year. Up to a year. Because there are different levels of Resha'im, sometimes it's a Rasha who gets one day in Gehinom, sometimes a day and a half, sometimes five days, sometimes six months, sometimes a year, and so on. Different levels of Resha'im, but these are not Resha'im Gemurim, which means completely wicked. These are Resha'im because they did make sins; they went against Hashem, which again makes them Resha'im. It doesn't make them Hitler, but it makes them Resha'im because they went against Hashem.

1:00:46Now, then there is a Rasha Gamur. A Rasha Gamur is someone who is completely wicked. Meaning, it's somebody who commits sins that are inexcusable and dies before he does Teshuva. Someone who wastes seed and does not do Teshuva is considered a Rasha Gamur. Someone that's a Mechalel Shabbat B'farhesya, publicly desecrates Shabbat, drives to shul on Shabbat, or works on Shabbat, does all types of things that are forbidden on Shabbat, and dies before he did Teshuva for it, is considered a Rasha Gamur. They're different people. The Gemara says those people go to Gehenom forever, until the neshama is destroyed. Now, of course, there's a middle ground. What's a middle ground? Someone that's not a little bit of a Rasha. Doesn't go to Gehenom for only a few days. He's a much bigger Rasha than that. But he's not quite a Rasha Gamur. He's not quite a person that goes to Gehenom forever. He goes to Gehenom for X amount of years. So, here we see that they're between one day or one hour to infinity. There's a lot of middle ground in between.

1:02:14So, some Reshaim, when they see that HaKadosh Baruch Hu is the one and only G-d, and that His Mashiach, Mashiach Tzidkeinu, is not their Yoshke, their avoda zara, their idol worship, it's not some rabbi that died 20-30 years ago, it's not some idol that people create in their mind, Mashiach is someone that Hashem chooses from the descendants of David. He is not going to be questioned whether he's Mashiach or not. It's not going to be that some people believe he's Mashiach and some people don't. Everyone will know he's Mashiach, including the Reshaim. This means that by definition, anytime somebody comes to the world and says, "I'm Mashiach," but they have people that go against them after they've already declared they're Mashiach, for sure they're not Mashiach. For sure, they're not Mashiach. Why? Everyone has to agree that they're Mashiach. This is the reason why the Chachamim stood fast against Bar Koziba. Bar Kochba was at some point called Bar Koziba. Even when Rabbi Akiva, the Gadol HaDor, says he's Mashiach because he had superhuman powers. He literally could kill thousands of men in an instant by himself.

1:03:37And when Rabbi Akiva saw this, he said, this is spiritual power. This is not human power. spiritual power. This is the power of Mashiach. So he thought he was Mashiach, but some of the Chachamim went against Rabbi Akiva and said, "No, Rabbi Akiva, you're going to die, and there's going to be grass growing very, very high above your grave, and he's still not going to be Mashiach. Meaning, you're going to live and see he's not going to be Mashiach. And then after you die, he's not going to be Mashiach. And many years after you die, he's still not going to be Mashiach, this guy." Why? Look, it has to have complete unity by the Chachamim that this person is Mashiach. Indisputable. Hence the reason why the Lubavitcher Rebbe is not Mashiach, or anybody else that people think is Mashiach. Unless all of the Chachamim say, "He's Mashiach," he's not Mashiach. Not Mashiach. So the wicked people will see the Mashiach, and will know he's the Mashiach. And some of them

1:04:39will still go against them despite knowing because they have some distorted belief in their head that they could kill Mashiach. And then, some people will do Teshuva right before it and bow to Hashem for being Reshaim, bow to Hashem for not being completely there, bow to Hashem for Being someone that did good, a lot of good, and more good than bad, but weren't completely righteous. So, all different levels of Reshaim. And there's going to be Reshaim from Am Yisrael, and there's going to be Reshaim from Umot HaOlam, the rest of the world. The ones that are wicked, but not completely wicked, among the nations, The Prophet says, they will come. After Mashiach comes, they'll be saved because they're not completely wicked. They're righteous people. They're considered righteous, but still, again, not perfect. And they're going to tell the Jewish people that wear tzitzit, "Our fathers and our forefathers lied to us and tried to steer us to idolatry. But we see that your God is the only God. Your Mashiach is the only Mashiach."

1:06:01Grab onto the corner of his tzitzit and say, "Please teach me Torah." How many? Ten people from each of the seventy nations for each corner of a tzitzit, meaning 700 per corner of a tzitzit, each Jew. That's where the tzitzit is. 2,800 non-Jews that are righteous will say, "Please be our Rabbi. We'll take care of all the things you need. Whatever money you need, whatever food you need, whatever stuff you need, we'll take care of it. Just teach us Torah." And if you wear more than one tzitzit, 2,800 times however many tzitziot you have. That's why some gedolim, some gedolim like Rav Kook, Rav Kook from Tveria, he probably wears something between at least 30 to 40 tzitziot. He's going to have an army. And some of them will wear many tzitziot. Not because of this only, but the point being is that it's a big deal. So there are going to be some righteous among the nations. They'll identify that they're not completely perfect, but nonetheless still considered righteous. And there are going to be some righteous among Am Yisrael. There's going to be many righteous among Am Yisrael.

1:07:20And they will benefit in a great way, but it's not only the complete tzaddikim. It's going to be people that did teshuva. They used to be complete resha'im, but have turned their life around and are now aspiring to become tzaddikim. That's why it says, "Uva leTzion Go'el leshaveh pesha beYa'akov." The Mashiach, the Goel, is going to come to save those that used to be poshim, used to be criminals. Meaning all of the baalei teshuva. Everyone that has done teshuva, that's who the Goel, that's who the Mashiach is going to save. Whether they were born religious or not is irrelevant. Did they use their life to do teshuva and get closer to Hashem? If they did, Mashiach will be a friend, a king, a savior. If they didn't, lost opportunity. Next question. Yes? So in Parashat Noach, it says Noach was 600 years old when the flood started, right? And it says after the flood he lived for 350 years, right? And then it says he died at 950 years old. So what about the year plus of the flood? It doesn't even count.

1:08:37No, what the Torah is telling you is that it's adding, it's including that one year into the 350. Meaning, the moment that the flood started is, in essence, considered after the flood started. Meaning, the moment you arrived at the house, it's after you arrived at the house. So that one year is included in that 350. But the biggest thing that we actually learn from what you just said, in addition to that, is that look at Noach's life. He lived in the world for 950 years. All we know about him is the flood and a little bit of what happened after the flood. What about the first 600 years? How come nobody cares about that? How come Hashem doesn't mention anything about the first 600 years? I mean, that's a lot of time. I mean, imagine, you lived in the world 70, 80, 90, 100 years. And at the eulogy, they say, "Yeah, one time he went to a shiur Torah." What a life. is the flood and a little bit of what happened after the flood. What about the first 600 years? How come nobody cares about that? How come Hashem doesn't mention anything about the first 600 years? I mean, that's a lot of time. I mean, imagine, you lived in the world 70, 80, 90, 100 years. And at the eulogy, they say, "Yeah, one time he went to a shiur Torah." What a life.

1:09:48The end. That's all you remember of me? I went to a shiur Torah one time? But that's the lesson, Rabotai. What's the lesson? Hashem only mentions the stuff that counts permanently. Only the stuff that counts permanently. Your life—it doesn't matter that you went to the store. It doesn't matter that you got into an argument. It doesn't matter that you were frustrated and stressed out. It doesn't matter that you had a tough time. None of that stuff matters. What matters is the stuff that is going to make eternal decisions. The moment you have an opportunity to either sanctify Hashem's name or desecrate His name, that moment is going to count. The moment you had a difficulty, somebody gave you a test of a lifetime. I'm going to give you seven million dollars. For what? To do something against Hashem. That moment, that's going to count. That's what's going to count. That's what Hashem is going to count. Why? That's the rega shel emet. Parashat Yitro. The parasha where we receive the Torah. Why does it, what does it start with? It starts with Vayishma Yitro.

1:11:07and Yitro heard. Why does the parasha start with this? It is because Yitro heard about what Hashem did for Am Yisrael, and that was enough for him to abandon all of the idol worship that he had been doing for so many years, go and convert, and become part of Am Yisrael. Meaning, at the moment of truth that he had, he made the right decision, and for that decision Not only did he merit to have Parashat Matan Torah written after his name, not only is he mentioned in the Torah, not only did he benefit himself, but all of his kids, all of his kids had the opportunity. Many of them got to such a level they got to Ruach HaKodesh, Ruach HaKodesh. And he's literally one of the people that is one of the greatest people that ever lived. So great that his grandson, his grandson is going to introduce the Mashiach to us. Who's his grandson? Eliyahu HaNavi. Pinchas is Eliyahu. Pinchas was the grandson of Yitro.

1:12:29And Pinchas became Eliyahu HaNavi. And what does the prophet say? Hashem, then there will be that great day, the great day of Hashem, where Hashem is going to send Eliyahu HaNavi. Eliyahu HaNavi is going to come and tell us, "Ah, Mashiach is here." Who is your grandfather? Do you have any résumé? Yeah, my grandfather is Yitro. Enough said. Enough said. My grandfather is Yitro. At the moment of truth, Rabotai Ikarim, is what matters. There's a story that I heard from Rav Ephraim. I heard part of it from my mother, and then the other part from Rav Ephraim, because we have our grandfather, the common grandfather, Rav Ephraim and I, and Saba Ghibli. And Saba Ghibli was an ish tzadik tamim. a righteous person wasn't a talmid chacham but was shomer Shabbat, shomer mitzvot, but tzaddik, tzaddik. One time he took my mom, when she was a little girl, to the market with him. He used to sell watermelons, so watermelons...

1:13:49And he left her in a little basta, in a little place with all the watermelons. And he took a bunch of them on his carriage with the donkey. He said, okay, I'll see you a little later. Whoever comes, sell them a little watermelon. My mom’s a little girl. Sell them, give them the watermelon, give them each one, let’s say, one dollar, one shekel, whatever it was. So my mom, a little girl sitting over there, and there’s a bunch of competitors everywhere, putting ayin hara on it. Nobody comes. Every time somebody comes, they take the customers. Not a single sale. Saba Ghibli comes over there. My grandfather comes in the afternoon. Says, no, my binti, no, my dear daughter, how are you doing? She starts crying, Saba, I don't have anything, nothing. No sales. Saba, it's from Hashem, my daughter. Don't worry, don't worry. Don't worry. Everything is from Hashem. Parnassah is from Hashem. No, but they're all interrupting, they're interfering. Don't worry, they're not interfering. It's all from Hashem. From Hashem. From Hashem.

1:14:52Okay, I'll see you a little later. He loads up his carriage again. Loads up and leaves for a few hours. After a few hours, he comes back. "No, my daughter, how are you doing?" "No, Abba, still nothing." "Don't worry. Don't be sad. Everything is from Hashem. Everything is from Hashem." "But they're interrupting, these people." "Don't worry about them. If Hashem wants it, you will have it. She'tabach Shemo." Loads up the carriage again, comes back a few hours later. "Okay, Binti, it's time to go home." "Yeah, but Abba, I didn't make any sale the whole day." He says, "My Binti, I told you, everything is from Hashem. While all of these people are busy giving you Ayin Hara not to make any sale, I sold almost all of the watermelons in all of the hotels everywhere else. Everything is from Hashem. Did I tell you? Everything is from Hashem. Everything is from Hashem." Saba Ghibli was a tzaddik. When he was young, he was a gibor. He and his brothers, they were big. They made the stories be for his Elohim nishma. Ghibli ben Kamuna. He was in Libya in a place called Tripoli.

1:16:12And over there, the Arabs, the makhshimam, they used to kidnap Jewish girls. And Saba Ghibli would go dressed like an Arab, go into the Arab places, where pretty much if you're a Jew, you go into the Arab places, you're not coming back alive. But he and his brothers would go into the Arab places, start talking to them, befriend them, and before you know it, take the girls back and leave. bring all the girls back, save all the girls. But then there was the Holocaust. A lot of people don't know about the Holocaust that happened in the Middle East. The Axis powers were not just Germany; you had also Italy and Japan. Italy went into this area of the world, to Libya, and took over. turned many of the Jewish areas into ghettos, tortured people, leading just like the Nazi Germans, giving people a hundred grams of food, practically starving them and enslaving them to death. Every so often, there would be bombings, and countless people would die. Every day, Saba Ghibli

1:17:39would go into the places where there were the bombings, and he says there would be literally, people would die like sand. Like sand. Just like there's an unmeasurable amount of sand, that's how people were dying, every day. Body parts everywhere. Hashem Yishmor, Saba Ghibli would go into these places, Collect the people, the bodies. Go and bury them. Give them an honorable Jewish burial. At the end of the day, you would come home completely full of blood. Completely full of blood. Every day. Go and bury bodies. Not for money. They are your Jewish brothers. There was such poverty in those days that if you had an egg, you were considered rich. An egg to eat, you were rich already. The whole family would have to share one egg. There was a wealthy person who was also a Talmid Chacham. His name was Rav Nachum Nissim. And Rav Nachum Nissim

1:19:01Zatzal, he was a Talmid Chacham, and he heard about what my sabba was doing. And he came to him one day, and he was very rich. He says to him, "I have a business deal for you." "What's the deal?" He says, "How much do you want? Name any price you want for me to buy the mitzvah that you have." burying all these people. Now, in those days, getting money wasn't a matter of "Do I want to be rich? Do I want to do this?" No, no, it was a matter of life or death. Why? Because you didn't have food to eat. Today, people are complaining because they don't have the right cornflakes in the store that they like, because of the food shortage, because so many people are buying stuff and... We're talking about people who don't have food to eat. They would fast, not because it was Yom Kippur. There was simply no food for three, four, five days. So he came to them, and he said, any amount of money you want, name your price. My grandfather looked at him and said, what? How dare you ask me to take the mitzvah, to sell the mitzvah of burying my brothers and sisters?

1:20:23No price in the world can pay for such a thing. No price in the world. That's Emunah. That's Tzidkut. That's what it is. Why? That's the moment of truth. Now, my grandfather lived over 90 years. But I didn't tell you the whole 90 years. I told you a couple of stories. Why? That's the moment of truth. Those are the moments of truth that make a person what he is. What kind of stories will people tell about us in Shamayim? Because those are the stories that count, that are our moments of truth. Because everybody has different tests, different this, different that. What did you do when push came to shove and it came for the honor of Hashem? Because what ends up happening a lot of times is that when it comes to money, comes to possessions, it comes to material, we fight tooth and nail. Hey, why are you opening a store next to mine? What's going on with you? Or if, let's say, you go to the store and, let's say, you want to buy a couch or something and it's the last one.

1:21:44And you're there, you're waiting for the guy. And then the guy goes, "Oh, wow, I love this couch!" Hey, buddy, it's mine. The last one's mine. Relax. Don't start celebrating. It's the last one. What happened? Why do you have to take the last one? I was here first. So what? So what if you were here first? Maybe he likes it. Make him happy. He likes it. Maybe it matches his, I don't know, his bow tie or something. It matches his shoes and he wants his whole house to match. Make him happy. What do you care? No, no, it's mine. It's mine. Ah, it's mine. When it comes to material, when it comes to money, when it comes to possessions, everything is mine, mine, mine, mine, mine. But somebody tells you, listen, there's a mitzvah opportunity right now to donate to Be'ezrat Hashem. There's a mitzvah opportunity right now to help some woman pay rent. There's a mitzvah opportunity right now to be the chazan in the Bet Knesset. There's a mitzvah opportunity right now to do such and such. Oh, b'chavod, b'chavod, go, go, go, b'chavod, you can do it, go, go, go. It's a mitzvah opportunity, you should take it, man, you should take it.

1:22:53For money, it's mine. But a mitzvah, you can take it. You can take it. Go, you can do it. Take it. It's for you. I don't want to take your mitzvot. You take the mitzvot. Go ahead. Go ahead. We tell people to take the mitzvot. That's how fake we are. When it comes to Avodat Hashem, we give everybody else the responsibility. The Rabbi comes and says, listen, we need money to keep the doors open. No, guys, you're going to donate? What about you? Are you going to donate? No, you know I... What do you mean? What do you think, Hashem doesn't know what's in your bank? Who are you faking? You think Hashem doesn't know that you have $50,000, $100,000, $200,000, $500,000 in the bank? No, but it's in the IRA, and I don't want to take it out because then I'll have to pay taxes. Oh, so it's better that you don't pay taxes and the place gets shut down. That's better, right? It's better just as long as you don't pay taxes. Yeah, maybe somebody else can do it. Oh, how come you didn't say maybe somebody else can make the money too? When it came to the possessions, it was yours, yours, yours. But when it came to a mitzvah, why didn't somebody else do it? Why didn't somebody else do it?

1:24:01That's the moment of truth. Every one of us will have, have had, and will have again. Where Hashem is going to send us different tests, saying, okay, this is a hard mitzvah. Not an easy one. What are you going to do? What are you going to do about this mitzvah? And when a person makes a decision, that's the story that will be stamped for eternity about this person. They go up to Shamayim. They're not going to introduce him as, ah, this is Steve from Wilbrook. No. Oh, no, this is Joe from Jones Street. They're not going to introduce him like that. What do they say? This is Ghibli. He's the one that buried the dead. That's who we remember. Right? That's who he is. That's who he is. Next question.

1:25:03No? I don't understand. A whole week passes, you have zero questions. 500 questions I have a day. You guys have no questions? You know the entire Torah? Maybe you should come and teach. I could ask you guys questions. No, Yaakov? The dove got the olive branch, yes. So the dove got the olive branch. Where does the olive branch come from? No, who can give me an answer? You give me the question and the answer; you're ruining it for me. Midrash Me'am Loez says zeh machloket, was the flood a destruction of the entire world or just where people lived? And there is a doubt that it was most of the world, but not everything. And Eretz Yisrael was protected. Eretz Yisrael was protected. And that's where the olive tree was that the dove took the leaf from. And there's a sign that it did reach Eretz Yisrael but didn't destroy it. We have the Kineret, where to this day, the water is warm because the waters of the flood were boiling.

1:26:22The water of the flood was boiling and to this day the Kineret is still hot. Still hot water. But that's the answer. The answer is that it was from Eretz Yisrael and that wasn't touched. It was the only part of the world that, according to Chachamim, wasn't touched. No? The camera is still on, just so you know. No, because these questions usually only come after hours. When was Shabbat so important? And of course, a rabbi will know how important Shabbat is, and if they're kosher, and someone has been driving for, let's say, years, but they give them subliminal messages instead of giving them mussar. Are they still held responsible for them driving all these years, even though they're not the type of person who will just go ahead and tell them, "Well, stop driving," but... Is he a rabbi? Okay, so the question is, if somebody's driving on Shabbat on a regular basis for years, and someone is telling him subliminally not to drive on Shabbat, but not directly giving mussar, and the person is not hearing the message, he's continuing to drive. Is the person that sees him driving still responsible for his sins because the message was only subliminal? Or is he absolved of the sin because at least he tried giving him the message? Is that the question?

1:27:48Now this person that's giving him a subliminal message, is he a pantomime? Does he not talk? Or does he just have a hard time talking? Or does he just not want to talk? Is he a rabbi? Anybody. Okay, so you want a general answer. The general answer is this: You have to look at the Rambam, Hilchot Teshuvah, where he talks about rebuke. And the obligation to rebuke, he says, you have to rebuke him until he hits you. Which means, not that you're looking for people to slap you in the face, but rather, it's clarity that your rebuke needs to be clear—so clear that a person can get offended by it. can get offended by it because you're clearly telling them, "Listen, you shouldn't drive on Shabbat." He doesn't hear you. Next time you tell him, "Listen, driving on Shabbat is not allowed." He doesn't hear you. next time you tell him, "Listen, driving on Shabbat is not allowed, and you're going to get punished." He doesn't hear you. Next time, "Driving on Shabbat is not allowed. You're going to get punished. I'm just going to let you know, this is what's going to happen to you: Hashem is going to take you and put you in the seventh level of Gehinom, and there, He's going to burn you for eternity. Even on Shabbat, you're not going to have a break."

1:29:07doesn't get it. Next time, just to let you know what happens when you get burned: just imagine somebody taking a lighter and burning your skin, but you can't do anything about it. You start melting little by little. How do you feel about that? Well, it's going to be a lot worse on Shabbat. As it becomes clearer and clearer over time, eventually you're going to say either, "Get out of here with your craziness, you fanatic," or... One of the poskim wrote in a halacha book: How do you get a person to do teshuva? Do you tell him in a nice way? Or do you tell him in a rebuke? Or do you tell him about bad things? He says the way you're supposed to tell him is to say, "Listen, you know such and such, whose son died from cancer? Yes, because he's Mechalel Shabbat. Or you know such and such, who got into a car accident? Yes, because he's Mechalel Shabbat. Do you want all that to happen to you?" He says that's how you help people do teshuva. This is a posek. One of the greatest poskim in the last hundred years. Posek. Why? Sometimes people need a little bit of a subliminal message, but sometimes they need a patch in the face. They need it. Why? They're not getting the point. They're not getting the point.

1:30:26Why are you doing him a favor by doing all of this? Because it's better that he gets the patch in the face from you than from HaKadosh Baruch Hu. I lived to tell the story of getting a patch in the face from Hashem. When HaKadosh Baruch Hu gave me my patch, it hurt so much and I love Him for it. Because there was no other way to get me out of the Gehinnom that I was in. There was no other way. How do I know there's no other way? He did it. If He got involved in my life, Hashgacha Pratit made a young 26-year-old sicker than a dead person. Made a person that was a genius become the biggest retard in the world. Made all of the friends become enemies. Made every single person that was for, against. Everything turned upside down literally overnight. That's Hashgacha Pratit. What do you think, Hashgacha Pratit, Divine Providence, only happens when you have like a fairy tale good story? No, it's Hashgacha Pratit. And if He did it, that means there was no other choice.

1:31:35That was better than that one. And I thank him for it. The question is, do you want to thank Hashem for the same present? Suffering pain for 16, 17 years straight. Feel like you're getting burned alive. Have all types of tikkunim with your stomach. All wonderful things where your teeth fall out for no reason. You guys like that kind of stuff? Don't violate Shabbat. If you don't like it, don't violate Shabbat. Keep the mitzvot. Why? Don't put Hashem in a situation where He has no other choice but to be the one that rebukes you. He doesn't want to do it. So if the subliminal message doesn't happen from the pantomime, get louder. Find a way to speak. And if you don't have the power of speech, let me do it. How? Go to bezratashem.org. Copy the link. Then paste to his WhatsApp. Say, watch this. He'll get the point. He'll get the point. Why? No one wants to be rebuked by Hashem once they find out what that rebuke looks like. Get louder. Find a way to speak. And if you don't have the power of speech, let me do it. How? Go to bezratHashem.org. Copy the link. Then paste it to his WhatsApp. Say, "Watch this." He'll get the point. He'll get the point. Why? No one wants to be rebuked by Hashem once they find out what that rebuke looks like.

1:32:49So, we have an obligation to rebuke. He doesn't have to go to Gehinnom on day one. You have to tell him, "Listen, Masechet Gehinnom, it happens this way, it happens that way, your head's going to go here, your arm's going to go there." It doesn't have to start that way. You can just simply tell him, "Listen, maybe you don't know, but Hashem created the world." "Oh, no, no, I know." Hashem created the world and He has rules. Oh, I know, I know. The rules are inside the Torah. Oh, I know about that too. I believe in the Torah. Oh, good. Okay, let me show you something in the Torah. Look, Parashat Ki Tisa. It says someone who violates Shabbat, like what you're doing, driving on Shabbat, mot yumat. Hashem is going to kill you. Oh, He didn't kill me yet. Doesn't mean He's not going to kill you. He said He's going to kill you. He didn't say when He's going to kill you. He said He's going to kill you. Do you want Hashem to kill you? No? Keep Shabbat. You don't have to talk about Gehinnom. Listen, it's not allowed. And if you're doing it, Hashem is going to kill you. And the point, Rabotai, is you have to speak to people clearly. Because we live in a generation where people do not understand the message unless you speak clearly. I have countless people that have come to me thanking me

1:34:07for helping them do teshuva. And I said, oh, were you intermarried? He goes, no, no, no, absolutely not. I said, were you living outside of a Jewish community? He goes, no, no, Rabbi, you don't understand. I was born religious. I was born in a religious community. He says, why are you calling me? I said, because you helped me do teshuva. He said, I helped you? You say you were born religious? It's an oxymoron. He goes, no, no, no. I didn't understand the magnitude of going against Hashem until I watched Yerushalayim. I said, "What do you mean? But you went to yeshiva." He goes, "They don't teach you about punishment." I said, "But it's in the parasha, in the Chumash." He goes, "Yeah, it's almost like they skip over it. Or like, they make you think it's only relevant to the people in the story, not to us. Because it's 3,000 years ago. I never knew." I never knew that going against Hashem is dangerous. And until now, I was a robot when it came to mitzvot. I just did it because that's where I was born. You know, there are people in Africa who walk around in their underwear. And some people walk around with rings on their necks until their necks become like a giraffe. And some people have holes in their ears the size of their heads. For them, it's normal. You guys are laughing. It's normal for them. If they look at you, they're going to make fun of you. It's like, why are you wearing so many clothes?

1:35:25Why is your neck so small? Why are your ears like that? They're going to make fun of you. Why? Because you're not normal to them. You're making fun of them, but to them, it's normal. To them, it's like, why are you wearing so many clothes? What's the matter with you? It's so hot. Why do you look like that? To them, it's normal. Sometimes a person can be born religious and to him, it's normal to pray like a robot. To him, it's normal to be in a sukkah even though sometimes he doesn't even believe in Hashem. I know somebody that was friends with a person; they used to study Gemara and smoke a cigarette on Shabbat. We read a story, the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, wrote a story he himself witnessed. There was a guy, there was a... Smoking a cigarette, lighting a fire on Shabbat, everything. Meaning, just by itself, studying the material does not make you religious. Without Yirat Shamayim, you're zero. Zero.

1:36:42And that's what people do not understand. And that's why when they watch the shiurim and they understand the magnitude of sin, they realize that not only is there something to be scared of, but it's good to be scared of Hashem. Why? It turns you from being a robot into a Jew. It turns you from being a robot into someone that has Yirat Hashem. Even if you're not Jewish, but all of a sudden you're afraid of Hashem, all of a sudden you have a real connection with Him. That's why it says, "The beginning of wisdom is fear of Hashem." So when people that have been frum their whole life call me, I get excited. Why? Because I know that they're also Ba'alei Teshuva. Because they didn't learn a lot of this stuff. So, a person needs to know that it's very, very critical to know about some of these things, so when the Yetzer Hara comes and attacks you, you have something to fight with. You have the fear of Hashem to use to fight against it. Next question. That's it, the rest of you guys, mutes? No? Okay, like Dara just mentioned, people cannot go about it, and we know that we need to have a place...

1:38:04Had it just to give you like please look for inspiration so that people pray so fast, and even though you're thinking fast, whatever language, you still have to have a certain level of kavannah. The chazan is praying for you, so how do you relate to the person you're keeping up with or even trying to follow and having that person pray for you and really... So you're in a kehillah where the people are praying too fast or perhaps they have no kavannah. I mean, to know whether people have kavannah or not is hard. to know unless they are clearly showing they have no kavannah by talking during the prayer, by not paying attention to the shliach tzibur, and so on. But if somebody simply prays fast, it doesn't necessarily mean that they have no kavannah. They could just be so used to the words that they could get to their kavannah instantly. i remember initially when i first started praying in shul, i thought that nobody had any kavannah because they prayed so much faster than me. i didn't know that over time, you start memorizing the prayer itself, and you yourself start praying much faster than you do initially because the words are much more fluid.

1:39:17So over time, you yourself are going to end up praying much faster because the words will become more fluid. You're going to remember a lot of stuff by heart. Plus, you're going to be able to get to the point of what you're trying to get to much faster. Plus, if you are learned and you study Torah a lot and you have Yirat Shamayim and you work on your Yirat Shamayim, you could also get to the Kavanah a little bit faster. So, the point being is that you know you could finish the Amidah in six minutes with full kavanah, with full kavod. Not six minutes if somebody finishes below six minutes unless they're a genius. It's very, very hard to measure such a thing, but six minutes usually is the minimum that I've heard of. Even about, yeah, six minutes. I believe that was the time that he would do it, and I don't think anybody in this generation would dare compare themselves to them. Of course, there are some people that pray much longer. I know I went to one kehillah one time where their Shacharit was like four hours.

1:40:19I wanted to kill them. I didn't know it was four hours. I wasn't planning on praying with them for four hours. But anyway, it was a very, very long prayer. Some people want to do it. No problem. You want to do it. That's not a problem. But I wasn't planning on praying for four hours. If you want to pray for four hours, it was my mistake though. I didn't ask them or anything. I just went in. Anyway, there are such places and there are such places. If you are one of the people that can influence the kehillah and you know that the Chazan has no kavannah, he's a jokester, you should replace him immediately. Because such a chazan is not a good chazan, because he's doing things for the sake of the tzibur. If it's one of the members of the ten people, that's the minyan, it's not as significant. It's only significant if it's the chazan. The cantor himself is somebody that has no kavannah, and you are a person of control, you're able to influence the Rabbi, or you are the Rabbi, You have to replace this chazan after maybe warning him a couple of times, once or twice. After that, you have to replace him. If you have no control, you could ask the Rabbi nicely to replace him. If he refuses, leave the shul. Go to a different shul. Why? To have a wicked chazan is like having no chazan. You might as well pray by yourself.

1:41:42Pray myself now if there's a lot of people. If he's not counted as number ten, if you have a bigger kehillah than ten people, and let's say there are, I don't know, 20, 30, 40, 50, 500 people in the kehillah, Baruch Hashem, then it doesn't matter what the chazan is doing. You're praying just for the minyan. It doesn't make a difference what the chazan is doing. Doesn't matter what the chazan is doing, you pray with the minyan. You have to be responsible to start Shema Yisrael. When they do Shema Yisrael, start around the same time that they do, and the Amidah, start around the same time they do. Everything else before and everything else after you can do at your own timing. Slow, fast, whatever you want. It doesn't matter what the chazan is doing. Doesn't matter. Now, it's only problematic to be in a place if the Baal Koreh, the Baal Koreh is the one that reads from the Torah scroll. If he's a rasha, if he's a rasha, you have to walk out. You can't be inside a place. One time, I was in a shul in Boca Raton—the mouth of the rat over there, that's what it means, Boca Raton. They had a Baal Koreh who was a Kohen married to a Goya. A Kohen married to a Goya.

1:42:59Now, when I found this out, I went to one of the clown rabbis over there, and I told him, maybe you don't know, but your Baal Koreh that's reading the Torah scroll every single Shabbat, he's not only married to a Goya, but he's a Kohen, meaning that even if she converted, he can't marry her. Because he's a Kohen. So there's no fixing this. And you're having him as the Baal Koreh. So the clown rabbi says to me, "Yeah, yeah, we know." I was shocked. My jaw almost hit the floor. I said, "You know? And you're having him there?" He goes, "Yeah, you know, he's been there for a while." I said, "What do you mean? It doesn't make a difference. Been there for a while. He's a criminal. He's a spiritual criminal. He's causing the entire kehillah to sin." Now I have to talk to Goldberg and see what he says and this and that. So, for a few weeks while we were waiting for them to talk to Goldberg, you know, the tzaddik, to see what he does. For a few weeks, I continued going there, but every time he would be the Baal Koreh, I would leave the shul.

1:44:08So I would pray with the minyan, but as soon as he became the Baal Koreh, as soon as he went up to the podium, I would, in protest, leave. A few people would follow, and a few people would ignore me. Some people didn't know what I was doing. The point is that you're not allowed to be in the same room as a person like this. A person that's like that is a criminal. Sometimes there are criminals like this. Sometimes it's less bad than this. But nonetheless, it all depends. It all depends. You have to evaluate it case by case. And again, it's always better to try to do something amicable. Bring this to the attention of the rabbi of the kehillah. See if the rabbi of the kehillah has an ounce of Yirat Shamayim. He will make a change of some kind. or help make the person change, whatever it is. It's not ideal to go fight right away. Everybody thinks that because they watch my shiurim, and they see the aftereffect. By the time I tell you guys about it, that's already after I've tried to solve the problem in an amicable way. When it's not solvable, that's when we go public about it. When there's no other choice, that's when we go public about it, because then we have to warn the public.

1:45:20Like people think that I went against Menis the Clown only after, you know, I felt like it. No, it was almost three years. Almost three years of research and following and checking and asking big rabbis in Yerushalayim and different places and making sure and this and that and getting permission and so on and so forth until you guys ever found out about it. Many times I spoke about him, but I never mentioned his name. Only until I got the permission from my Rav to do it. So a lot of times, that's what happens. But once somebody's on the list, that's it, finished. That means they're hopeless. They're hopeless. These people are hopeless. So, all these people I make fun of, it's because they're hopeless. the hopeless people. So that's, unfortunately, the case sometimes, but it's ideal not to move, not to get to that point, and try to solve things in an amicable way. Go to the Rabbi, tell him this is wrong, tell him this is right. Maybe he didn't notice, or you noticed, or you heard this. Maybe you could do something about it. Try to make peace in some way or another, not go in there attacking, because if you go in there attacking, even if you're right, no one's going to listen to you.

1:46:32And even if they listen to you, they'll hate you anyway. What's the point? What's the point? So you have to try to do things in an amicable way, but if you see that people have no Yirat Shamayim, and they don't want to change anyway, pick your stuff up and leave. Pick your stuff up and leave. Go find a different place. Unfortunately, this has to be. You cannot go to a place where there's Chilul Hashem. Can't. So you have to do the best you can to try to fix it. If it's not fixable, You got to move. Next question. If you have a business and you celebrate Shabbat, but your employees don't, are you still allowed to keep the business open? Ah, okay. So if I have a business that has to be open on Shabbat or is open on Shabbat, am I allowed to run this business if I'm not working? If I'm not working, but other people are working there. So it's a several-part question. First of all, if the person is a Jew, he has to keep Shabbat. A person who is a Jew has to keep Shabbat; there are no exceptions, unless his business involves a life risk. Meaning, unless he's some type of doctor who saves lives, a heart surgeon of some kind, or an ER type of doctor, then he's allowed to have certain equipment to alert him if he needs to go to work on Shabbat.

1:48:00But if a person has just a regular business like a laundromat, sells cars, or a mortgage company, or any other type of traditional business that is not involved in saving lives, he himself is forbidden from operating the business on Shabbat. He is forbidden from working on Shabbat, and he is also forbidden from allowing any Jewish employees to work for him on Shabbat. Now, is the business also forbidden from being open on Shabbat? Yes and no. Yes and no. If he is the only owner of the business, it's forbidden for him to have the business open on Shabbat. It's forbidden for him to benefit from the business on Shabbat. But if he has a partner, even if that partner is a partner that only owns the business on Shabbat, then it is possible, not by default, it is possible that he would be allowed to run the business on Shabbat if it's not known that a Jew owns this place. Meaning, if your place is called Cohen's and Company, you're not allowed to open the place on Shabbat. It doesn't matter if you have 80 partners.

1:49:06make a difference why it's known that Cohen is a Jewish name. Even though there are many people named Cohen that are not Jewish, by default people think that Cohen is Jewish. That's it. If your business is open, you have a serious problem. But if your, uh, business is called, I don't know, uh, Daffy Duck or something, and it's not known that you're, uh, you're a Jew and you have a partner That is a non-Jew, and he owns the business, and he's the one that's going to actually benefit from the business on Shabbat, not you. Meaning all the money goes to him, doesn't go to you. It's his partnership. He's allowed to run the business on Shabbat because some businesses, you're not allowed to close them. For example, if you work in a mall and you're just one of the stores, you're not allowed to close your store on Shabbat. Because that's their hot day. That's their big day. So if you close the store, you might lose business. The mall, if you have a store, will be part of your lease agreement that you have to run your business 365 days a year as long as it's not a national holiday. So you have to open your business on Shabbat even if you don't want to. In many malls, some owners give you the ability not to, but unfortunately, many will not care that you're Jewish. So you have to run your business. So what do you have to do in that case? You have to get yourself a non-Jewish partner that he will own the business on Shabbat and...

1:50:20Or if you have, let's say, dentistry. Dentistry sometimes is regular, sometimes it's emergency. But it's not enough for you to act like a regular doctor. Not enough to be a regular doctor that saves lives. So what do you do? You could have a partner that owns the business on Shabbat, and if there is an emergency, he will be the one who is contacted and will deal with the dentistry on Shabbat. So, there's different things. There's no one-size-fits-all rule that everyone is allowed to be open on Shabbat. And there's no one-size-fits-all rule that everyone's allowed to stay open on Shabbat. But there are certain things that are strict. You, yourself, as a Jew, are not allowed to work on Shabbat. you, yourself, as a Jew, are not allowed to own a business on Shabbat. Unless, again, like I said, it's a business that is unique. And even then, you have to be very, very careful to go to a serious Talmid Chacham that will understand your business.

1:51:21is an expert in Halacha and then tell you, and you're gonna tell all of the details. He's gonna ask you a bunch of questions. He's gonna review the Halacha, double-check with probably at least one or two other Chachamim, and then give you an actual psak, a ruling, of whether you can or you can't do this business on Shabbat or at all. That's, in essence, what these are—the complicated questions that you get on sometimes every day, sometimes every week, depending on the person, are much more precise questions. The questions that you guys usually ask are more general—general stuff. The more precise questions, like what he's asking, you need a posek to actually tell you exactly about that business. Because there's the general answer that I just gave you, but then there's the precise answer that will pertain to a specific business. And I've had this case a few times, like the examples I'm giving you, a dentist, but this dentist was unique. Why? He was a dentist for kids, which is less of a risk. Usually, if you have a dentistry problem and you're an adult, the Gemara says it could be Pikuach Nefesh—it could be a life risk. But if you're a child, you know, a four- or five-year-old child, it's very, very rare for a tooth to be Pikuach Nefesh.

1:52:41Honestly, I don't understand why parents even take their little five-year-old kids to dentists. Just pull the tooth out! It's not a permanent tooth to begin with. But whatever. I don't know, when I was a kid, we were five or six years old. There was no dentist. You pretty much just waited for the tooth to fall out. But I don't know, American parents are a little strange. They give a kid with fake teeth braces. Why? Why did you just spend five thousand dollars? The teeth are gonna fall out anyway. For what? I don't know, people are crazy. But the point is that I had a question from a guy that had dentistry. I had a question for a few businesses. Some yes, some no. And many, many other interesting things that you have to deal with. But these are more specific cases. You have to ask questions. I had a guy ask me about a specific industry that he was in, evaluating medical exams, which needed to be evaluated on Shabbat. Can he run the business? Can't he run the business? And so on and so forth. So, there are a lot of interesting questions, but those questions cannot be answered on the spot. You have to, number one, understand the business, and number two, you have to evaluate all aspects of the halacha pertaining to that business. Pertaining to that business. That's what you need a posek for. That's why we have Rabbi Fein, Baruch Hashem, and Rabbi Mizrahi from Yerushalayim, and other poskim that we deal with, but mainly...

1:54:05If I'm first, then we double check what some others do. Next question. We're almost done. Maybe one question, two questions at most. Good question, by the way. How can we start preparing for Rosh Hashanah coming up? Rosh Hashanah is coming up? I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. Joking. Lighten up, Yehoshua. Lighten up. You're too religious for me. So... How do we prepare for Rosh Hashanah? What's Rosh Hashanah? Rosh Hashanah, the Gemara says, is Yom HaDin. Yom HaDin means the judgment in Shamayim for all of creation. All of creation, the Jews and the non-Jews. Everyone gets judged on that day. Now, imagine a person has a case. He gets the papers, some

1:55:06a person shows up at his house, smashes on his door at 7 o'clock in the morning or some ungodly hour. He opens the door, still with crust in his eyes. "You've been served!" Right? Takes a picture of him, gives him a pile of papers. Lawsuit. Woke up in the morning that way. Now, Automatically, he doesn't even know who's suing him, he's already scared to death. As soon as he sees who's suing him, he's even more scared. It could be the IRS, it could be a different form of government, it could be a boss, a customer, whoever's suing you, never fun. Even if you're right. Even if you're innocent. Needless to say, if you're being accused of a very serious crime. Now, even if he's innocent, even if he has all the evidence in the world, he's scared to death. From that moment until a minute after the trial is completed. Because even during the trial, he's scared. Why? He doesn't know if he's going to win or not. Yeah, but I was right. It doesn't make a difference. People think that just because you're right, you win. It's complete nonsense. I'll give you an example. I had one time... these three guys that used to be my friends, and I gave them jobs, and they all made some money. After I got sick, they decided to become criminals and steal stuff from me. Baruch Hashem, we went to a lawsuit, and during that lawsuit, they admitted that everything I'm saying is true. They admitted they stole, they admitted they did wrong.

1:56:28These three guys that used to be my friends, and I gave them jobs, and they all made some money. After I got sick, they decided to become criminals and steal stuff from me. Baruch Hashem, we went to a lawsuit, and during that lawsuit, they admitted that everything I'm saying is true. They admitted they stole; they admitted they did wrong. Outcome of the trial? You know Reuven? You owe them money. What? They stole from me. Did you hear what they said? I have a recording. You owe them money. Why? We can't really explain it. You owe them money. They didn't even ask for the money you're giving them. They said I'm right. That's the way it works. Another time. Lawsuit with a company I used to work for. They didn't show up. By default, you should know, if you don't show up to court, you lose. They didn't show up to court. They didn't show up to this arbitration hearing. They called in, last minute. Oh, we couldn't make it. How come I couldn't call in and say I can't make it? Couldn't make it. But we have somebody over there that's going to sit there. He's not going to say a certain thing. He's going to sit there and you can just talk to him.

1:57:58didn't represent themselves. Nothing proved the case they're wrong. I'll come, you owe the money. Why can't I explain it to you? I told you everything that went wrong, like it was Hashem specifically went inside my life and made everything not make sense. Nothing made sense. If you ever fight with somebody and he doesn't show up, it's the greatest thing in the world. Why? He can't even defend himself. If he doesn't defend himself and you still lose, you feel like the biggest loser in the world. Especially when you're right. He did it for me. He did me a big favor. Why? Nothing worked. So, people think that just because they're right, they're going to win. It doesn't make any difference. When it comes to lawsuits, everybody's scared. Everybody. Everybody. Sometimes even when you win, you lose, and sometimes when you lose, you win, and so on and so forth. The point is, you're scared to death, but it's usually based a lot on money. You lose some money, make some money, who cares? What if your life's on the line? Your life's on the line! They tell you, "Listen, if you lose, you're gonna go to jail for X amount of years." Or they give you, chas v'shalom, a death penalty or something. You'd be scared to death, right?

1:59:16How long are you going to be scared? The whole time from the minute you found out about the lawsuit until the second you have the verdict. We have a lawsuit. When did it start? Rosh Hashanah. When is the lawsuit? Rosh Hashanah. One-year lawsuit. What happens on Rosh Hashanah is decided. What? Everything is decided. whether you're going to have money or not, whether you're going to get married or not, whether you're going to have kids or not, whether you're going to live or die or not. Everything is decided. Gemara HaMasechet Beitzah page 16a and Gemara HaMasechet Rosh Hashanah page 16b. It says everything is decided from Rosh Hashanah until Rosh Hashanah. Lawsuit. Coming up, everything's on the line. Not just money. Your life too. If you're going to be scared of a loss of money or anything else from flesh and blood, needless to say, you should be scared of a loss from Ribono Shel Olam, of much more than that.

2:00:31What do you do when you're scared of lawsuits in this world? You prepare. You prepare your case. You work on it. You make sure you have all of the tools to show up to the court prepared. So you give yourself the best possible chance. You have all the evidence. You have all the files. Look, he lied here. He cheated here. He took this. He took that. You show them all the evidence to prove your case. At the very least, that's your hishtadlut. Needless to say, same thing with shamayim. You have a lawsuit coming up in a couple of months. That means you have to already start getting prepared now. You do teshuva every day now. You fix yourself already now. So when you show up to the law, you say, Hashem, I know I wasn't perfect, but see, I gave tzedakah here, and it was to the right place this time, and it wasn't to the wrong place, and I went to the shiur every week, and I was nice to my wife, and I was good to my husband, and I did this for my kids, and so on and so forth. And you have a bunch of different things that you did good that you can show up to Shamayim with on Yom HaDin.

2:01:33When you show up like that, you show up prepared, HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, "Good, innocent. Get paid $200, pass, go." That's what we want. That's what we want, Rabotai. We want to be able to pass, go. that's what's coming up, so you already have to start preparing for it now by doing teshuvah, by learning more Torah. Whatever you're learning up till today, increase it starting now. If you're learning five minutes a day, learn 10 minutes. If you're learning one hour a day, learn two hours or an hour and a half. If you're learning two hours, learn two and a half hours, three hours, four hours, five hours—as much as possible. Whatever tzedakah you’re giving, give more. If you're not giving ma'aser... You're crazy, but you should start giving Maaser. Why? It's the only protection for your money. Maaser is what protects people's money. To give a tithe, to give 10% of your income, to publicize Torah, that's what protects your money. Right now you need more protection for money than anything else. You need it even more than parnassah. Why? Because right now there's going to be a lot of losers, as far as business is concerned. There's a lot of stuff that's going to happen in the economy that people don't expect.

2:02:48So it's important for people to know that you need as much protection for your money as possible. People that don't give ma'aser are going to regret the day they were born. Why? Because you don't have any protection over the money and that means that you could lose all of it. Even if you're a good person and you did good things. Being a good person and doing good things doesn't protect your money. That doesn't give protection. The Gaon MiVilna says you want to protect your money, you give ma'aser. A group of rich people came to Rav Steinman, alav ha-shalom, after a major financial crisis, and complained to him that they lost a lot of money. So Rav Steinman said to them, "How many people here can swear, put their hand up and swear, that they gave ma'aser to the tzedakah? Every time they made $10,000, they gave $1,000 to publicize Torah." to do kiruv, to help with talmidei chachamim. Every time, $10,000, they gave $1,000. $100,000, they gave $10,000. $1,000,000, they gave $100,000. $10,000,000, they gave $1,000,000. How many people? Quiet. Nobody answers. Nobody raised their hand. At the end of the room, a hand goes up. One guy goes up. He says, Rabbi, I did. And you lost money?

2:04:12He says, "Well, it wasn't, I felt bad to say it because all my friends here lost money, but I actually didn't lose a penny. See, the Torah promises, Torah delivers. That's the proof right there in front of you guys. Thirty of you lost money. He's the only one that didn't lose money. You think it's a coincidence? You didn't give ma'aser, he did. People need to give ma'aser. You don't give ma'aser, you're making a mistake." Very big mistake. Lots of people did a lot of good things. Gave a lot of tzedakah, but didn't give ma'aser, lost. Gemara Masechet Ta'anit has a very rich person by the name of Nakdimon Ben Gurion, who used to be one of the three richest people in the land, and was also one of the financiers of the country. Meaning, when everybody was broke, because we were surrounded by the enemy, weren't able to make money, weren't able to eat, and so on, he had enough money to give everybody money. One day, the Gemara says, he lost all of his money to the extent where his daughter was looking for food inside the waste of the donkeys. She was looking for some grains. That's how poor he was. What happened? Who are you? She says, I'm the daughter. He says, but how could it be? Your father's very rich. She said, he used to be rich. Lost everything.

2:05:37Your father-in-law is also rich. He says he lost his money also because he was invested with my father. And the Gemara says, how come he lost everything? Because he gave, but not enough. He gave a lot of money, gave millions, but it wasn't enough. Why? He didn't have protection for his money. He didn't have protection for his money. So, a person needs to look at Maaser not only as an investment in their Olam HaBa. but even more so to look at it as insurance. People spend a fortune buying insurance. I know; I used to have an insurance company, an insurance agency. People want to pay you whatever you want just to insure their risk. I have a house. I want to insure it in case it gets burned. How much is it going to cost me? How much is your house? If your house is half a million dollars, it's going to cost you X amount. If your house is a million dollars, it's going to cost you Y amount. What's the replacement value? Tell the guy, "Listen, it's going to cost you $3,000 to $5,000 a year to insure your house." In reality, that person never wants to get the claim. He doesn't want to call you and say, "Listen, my house got burned."

2:06:51Which means that, in essence, he is hoping that every year he's going to waste $3,000 to $5,000, waste it and never get the money back. Because they don't want their house to burn down. But just in case it does, he's willing to pay the premium to make sure that in case it does happen, he has the risk protected. And people are willing. There's an entire multi-billion dollar industry—it's the biggest industry in the world, insurance—that insures people's assets, insures houses, insures businesses. There are even people that I know who insure body parts. An athlete would insure his legs. The rest of his body, not so much. But his legs, he would insure. Why? Because his legs were his most valuable asset. If he got injured, he would no longer be able to be an athlete, no longer be able to collect five, $10 million a year. His whole career goes into the garbage. So he had insurance. And if he got injured, he would get paid. And a few athletes got paid. They go to Lloyd's of London Insurance. That's where they take such a risk to insure people's body parts. And they get insured.

2:08:02There's some celebrity where a woman insured a certain body part of hers because she knew that it was the one that got her a lot of her celebrity. A lot of her celebrity. It's also going to get a lot of Gehinnom too, yishtabach Shemo. But the point being is that people are willing to pay a huge amount of money to insure their risk. Here, HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, You don't have to worry about the premium going up or going down. You don't have to worry about insurance agencies. All you gotta worry about is give ma'aser. When you give ma'aser, you are insuring your assets. And on top of it, you're investing in something that will help you eternally. Because all the money you invest in stocks and bonds in this world and houses, you can only benefit in this world. But the ma'aser is what you can build yourself for the next world. A person who understands this does it. And a person that really, really has serious emunah, or at least wants to build emunah, does what the Gaon of Vilna does. What the Gaon of Vilna does, he says he has to give chomesh. What's chomesh? 20%. He says anyone that gives chomesh, gives 20%, is guaranteed to become rich during his life. During his life. That's what the Gaon of Vilna writes.

2:09:25Someone who gives 10% is guaranteed to have protection of his assets. Someone who gives 20% is guaranteed to become rich during his life. And I've seen this, and it works. The point being, Abutai, is that it's not easy. You have a test. It's easy when all you're making is 500 bucks a week and you give 50 bucks. It's easy to give $50. You make $5,000 a week and your ma'aser is $500, a little more difficult. What happens when your ma'aser or your chomesh is $5,000, $10,000 a month? A little more difficult. What happens when it's $50,000 a month? In reality, it shouldn't be that way. Why? Because if your chomesh or your ma'aser is increasing, that means you're making more money, you fool. But that part makes you forget. He makes you forget that part. You're complaining that you're giving $50,000 ma'aser, but you're not saying thank you to Hashem that you made $500,000. That's why it's $50,000. You forgot. You forgot that part. That's why you have to learn mussar, do mitzvot, and understand that your ma'aser is simply an insurance policy and an investment at the same time.

2:10:40But the investment, that's guaranteed to pay off. People will listen, people will do. Most importantly, people will stop becoming so addicted to money that they're going to sell God for it by doing all types of unethical things, all types of things that are forbidden. It's chaval. It's really, really chaval. It's really sad that a lot of people are doing it. Hopefully, they hear this shiur and change their mind. do things better. Uh, if anybody is concerned that I was talking about him, I wasn't talking about anybody specific throughout the shiur. I get a lot of questions from a lot of people. Uh, it's not anyone particular. What we talked about today was a compilation of a bunch of different people with a bunch of different problems. And b'ezrat Hashem, hopefully the shiur answers all of them. Amen.