Wasting Seed Part 2: The Correction And Rectification- Removing The Bad Luck (Mature Content)

0:00All right, so part two, part two of the topic on wasting seed. Today we're going to be focused more on the teshuvah part, and it's actually solely on the teshuvah part, the rectification part. So Someone has committed this sin, either currently or previously. By the way, the teshuvah is the same, whether married, single, young, or old. It's all in the same category. How are you going to go and achieve repentance, remove yourself from it? We spoke very heavily about how much bad mazal it creates. So what we want to know is how to remove that, how to get rid of that, and cleanse our soul. Before we actually get into the topic, I want to do a brief overview of what we spoke about last week on the severity of it. So we spoke about how, and there's a reason why, because this will also help you understand the part of the chuppah process. Every drop of semen that comes out, we said every ejaculation is like somewhere between 300 to 400 million sperm that comes out. So every single drop creates evil demons. So every time that someone wastes seed, you're talking about a half a billion demons running around trying to cause very many problems for you.

1:05The other thing that we spoke about is that it's considered like murder. Not only is it considered murder. Murdering somebody else is one thing—a big no-no, very bad. But this is murdering your own children. And the Zohar, we said also that there's no sin in the world which provokes the anger of Hashem as damaging the Brit, which is the sin of wasting seed. We also spoke about from the Gemara Niddah as well, that it brings a person to death, and it brings plague into the world. A person who is steeped in this sin will not be able to understand the secrets of Torah. It creates this impurity, which means you wouldn't be able to understand the depths of the Torah. It also brings a person to poverty. You lose a lot of money from this. And if you think about it that way, it actually speaks to a lot of people. Because if you think about it, every time you do that, you lose 10 grand or 20 grand. Whatever it is, imagine that consequence. And that is why it is also a good prevention to help somebody, which maybe we'll speak about also, is to give yourself a penalty. If, God forbid, you ever do fall into it, be like, okay, I'm giving X amount of money to tzedakah. And don't be like, you know, 35 cents. You know, make it something that's going to hurt. The other thing that it does is it makes someone liable to the death penalty. The Zohar says that all the troubles that befall a person are because of this sin. It also brings sadness and depression. For me? Thank you. It also brings sadness and depression to the person. Okay.

2:29No, just a cup. Thank you. Also, if someone is steeped in the sin, it is very difficult to find a wife. And even if he does find a wife, the marriage, the relationship is going to be a very shaky relationship. Okay, so one way to have good mazal in finding a wife and having a good relationship is staying away from this sin. Also, somebody who is shomer habrit—shomer habrit, again, is somebody who avoids wasting seed and avoids anything that is associated with this sin—merits to have holy children. Also, the evil eye has no control over these people, and this person is in a constant state of happiness. Nowadays, that's worth a lot. Well, it's always worth a lot, but nowadays, when everybody's so down, so depressed, so downtrodden, this is worth so much. So, avoid it. It is actually going to bring you to happiness. One of the worst sins in the Torah is this sin. In fact, the Zohar says this is the type of sin that you never leave Gehenna for. The Zohar also brings down three other things: a Chilul Hashem, somebody who desecrates a Shabbat, and somebody who wastes seed. These people, if they die without doing Teshuvah, are staying in hell forever. So this is not something that you should be like, "Oh, okay, you know, it's a bad sin, I know it's a big no-no, but whatever." And as many people do, and we'll soon speak about some personal cases that I dealt with, on how people just don't do Teshuvah, they keep on pushing it off. This is very, very serious, and it's not something that should be pushed off.

3:54Also, the name of the Satan and the name of his wife, the numerical value is 611. The numerical value of Brit is 612, which means that if you guard your Brit, you're not going to come into the hands of the Satan and his wife. And people misunderstand. Satan and his wife doesn't mean that Satan comes home after work, throws off his coat, and he's like, you know, "Wife, what's for dinner?" It's like, "Oh, we got some souls that I've captured." It's in reference to the work that they do. Okay, so that was more or less a recap. Now let's try to understand how you are supposed to go and fix it. I really should have mentioned this last week. The Chafetz Chaim's son said that his father spoke to him. The Chafetz Chaim spoke to his son about this at the age of 16. And he said that improper thoughts, which are usually where this sin stems from, are only found in a heart devoid of Torah. Somebody who is empty in here, all day he's doing nothing, not associating anything with Torah. So of course he's going to have to be filled up with something, and those somethings are usually improper thoughts.

4:55Chafetz Chaim also says that it's so important, so important—I believe we did speak about this last week—to avoid bad company. There are people that, you know, they talk disgustingly; they're just very, very dirty people in their mind and in their actions. You hang around these people, it becomes more acceptable. Did we speak about this last week? Anybody remember? We did? Okay, so we don't have to delve into it. But the main issue is that when you're hanging around these people, you get desensitized to the problem a bit. If everybody's speaking about how, oh, you know, wasting seed is so healthy nowadays, which is what science, shtuyot (nonsense), and nonsense that they say, it's going to be like, okay, so it's not such a big deal. When you start feeling that things are not a big deal, then you're more prone to sin. I'll give you an example that I don't know if I spoke about last week. There's, you know, somebody I know with no... He works in a company that is not a pure company. It's not a holy company. Not that they do very, very improper things in this realm in the company. So somebody who works in that type of company and they're surrounded by these people all the time, they get influenced by it that way. It's not taboo anymore. It's not so bad when you hear about it all the time. And that is how the generation, if you think about it, how the media worked and it destroyed our mentality on our purity.

6:10...is because you hear about all these crazy things that everybody... What do people speak about? People speak about all the stupid stuff that other people do. All the bad sins. Oh, you hear about this person, how he cheated on his wife, and this person, how she... You know, all the, like, really dirty laundry. That's what everyone wants to speak about. So we constantly hear about these things from outside sources. So it becomes normal. It becomes, okay, it's not so bad. You hear that this is not so bad. But if you realize the severity of it, which is really one of the reasons why we have these types of classes, to realize the severity of it, that you should realize that, no, it's not just, you know, a run-of-the-mill sin. It's a very, very serious sin. And that's why somebody needs to, it's imperative that they understand the seriousness of their sin. There are many people who say, "I don't want to learn about it, it depresses me." So what are you going to do? You're just going to keep on sinning? It's like somebody who has cancer, and he says, "Please, I don't want to go to chemo, it's not comfortable." I mean, not everything is comfortable in life. Sometimes you have to go through difficult things. Yes, granted, this is a very serious topic, and it's very hard. I'm not saying someone should dwell on it if it really depresses a person and they can't even, you know, then obviously, they have to speak to their local Orthodox rabbi. But people tend to refrain from certain things. It's scary. No, no, no. When are you speaking about love? You know, like, "Oh, yeah, speak about funny stories," and that's when I'm going to come. But when they speak about the heavy stuff, no, no, no, it's just the opposite. You have to be aware of the seriousness of the sin because that is the way that you're going to be able to do teshuvah.

7:30Also, you need to regret. Part of the process of teshuvah is regretting it. How can you regret something if you don't know it's bad? There are many people that don't even know the severity of it, so why would they be like, no, what do you mean? Science says it's okay. The doctor gave me a prescription that I should do it. They'll say like, and that's a joke, no. No doctors in their right mind should be doing that. The Steipler says, you know, that it is, you know, difficult, and when, just like you have struggles, and sometimes you fail, sometimes you win, when you fail, you feel really down. But when you win, when you overcome your desires, you should automatically put it up all that higher, you should, you know, bake in your victory, you know, like, not like rub it in other people's faces, but appreciate what you have accomplished. And the Steipler also says that success breeds success. So the more that you're able to overcome it, the easier it is going to be. I read somewhere that it was the first 40 days that are very difficult. After the 40 days, it’s going to become easier as it goes on. Rav Aharon Roth also says that, let’s say you’re overcome by this temptation. Like it’s very hard, you overcome it. And when I’m saying this temptation, I’m talking about

8:40all the vicinity, anything in the same zip code, guarding your eyes, looking at things that you're not supposed to, things of that nature. And you overcome it. So you're very, very tempted to do something, and you overcome it. At that point in time, right when you overcome it, you have a very, very big meritorious moment that you could pray for anything that you want, and the prayer is a very, very powerful prayer. So let's say you're walking in the street, and there's an immodest woman walking by, and you really want to look, but you hold yourself back. At that moment, ask. Just pray to God. Ask for anything. And why does it help? It helps twofold. Besides the fact that you have a prayer, now you're concentrating on something else, so you're not even thinking of looking at the girl, as opposed to just looking at the floor. One Mississippi, two Mississippi, three Mississippi. But if you start thinking about something else, then you're able to overcome the temptation much easier. But the evil inclination, one of its tactics is, it tries to make you give up. Be like, come on, you're a loser. You're not worth anything. You did this so many times, you're really actually going to try? What's the difference? Another time. One less, one more. What's the big deal? So this is the same concept as what people say, like, you know, what's the difference? I'm going to Gehinnom anyway, so I might as well just do anything. An idiotic concept. Think about it at a time when we had the, you know, when the Beit Din would give Malkot.

9:50So if somebody would go and be getting Malkot, let's say they did a sin and they have to get lashed. So if they committed the sin, they got lashed 39 times, whatever, how many times? Then they did the sin again. Do they have to get lashed again? Yeah, it doesn't matter. The same thing, every sin carries its own, it creates its own wealth of problems. It's not just like, you know, I'll give you an example of this with Shabbat. People think, okay, I broke Shabbat already, I'll start again next week, and that's it. They just stop keeping the entire Shabbat. No, no, no. Every sin is a sin in itself. So if you, God forbid, messed up in whatever sin, don't think, okay, whatever, it's done already, I'll worry about it next week. Who's a warrior? The second that you fall, you get right back up. Don't wait, don't wallow in your misery, just get back up as a warrior. The... And this is a part that I have to be very careful in how I present this. And this is a part that people, this is a reason why when people learn the Zohar and they don't know how to learn the Zohar, they fall into this problem. And the problem is like this. This part of regret can make a lot of sense if you look into the Zohar. What does the Zohar say? The Zohar says something very, very scary. It says, teshuvah will not help for the sin.

10:57They're like, no, sorry. Good luck, Charlie. You're done. There's nothing there to help with it. If you look at the Zohar like that, you'd be like, well, what's the point? How are you to understand the Zohar? And the problem is that people look at this and they say, you know what? And people told me this. They say, oh, I heard that you can't even do teshuvah for this. So you have to understand how to read the Zohar. You have to understand how to learn the Zohar. You look at all the righteous people in the centuries past that go and they speak about it and how they interpret it. And that's what we're going to try to explain in the next few minutes. The... The Zohar is, first of all, let's start with the Shelah. The Shelah, who lived about 500 years ago, said specifically, do not fall into despair because of the words of the Zohar. And he quotes his father and says like this: He says, the sin of the flood, one of the main reasons why, is because they wasted seed. And that is why they were decreed to be destroyed. Now, God told Noah, and He says, "Listen, build the ark. Take 120 years." Why does He want you to take 120 years? So people will be able to do teshuvah (repentance). So the question is, if teshuvah doesn't help, then what is the whole thing over here? What's the whole building of the ark? Just do it one, two, three. If teshuvah doesn't help, let them get destroyed. Rather, teshuvah does help. So how are we to understand...

12:07How are you to understand this Zohar? Rabbi Yaakov Emden says that there is no sin, no sin, every single sin, there's no sin that teshuvah cannot atone for. And he says, even if you do the three cardinal sins—you murder, commit adultery, serve avodah zarah (idolatry), say God's name in vain, or commit any one of the sins of karet—you can do teshuvah for them. But this sin you can't do teshuvah for? You can do teshuvah for every single sin. And the Chafetz Chaim's son also mentioned, said that his father used to always say that even the greatest sinners, the people that commit the greatest sins, can still do teshuvah. And he gives an example of Acher, which we're not going to get into. They asked Rav Chaim Kanievsky. Rav Chaim Kanievsky is the Gadol HaDor nowadays, the great Torah giant nowadays, in Bnei Brak. And they asked him, can you do teshuvah? Straightforward, can you do teshuvah for this sin? And he said, for sure teshuvah helps. So now let's try to understand what does it mean by the Zohar that says that you cannot, there's no teshuvah for this. So Rav Chaim Kanievsky says, And it brings down in the Shaar HaKedushah that all sins have repentance except for this one. What does that mean? Generally speaking, when you commit a sin and want to repent, you get assistance. It's not like you won't see things happening. But the second that you start, God will make it easier for you. He'll open up doors for it. For this sin, there's no assistance. That's what I mean. So what was the Zohar saying? The Zohar is saying how severe the sin is, that it is very, very difficult.

13:24Which makes a lot of sense, but when you hear the personal stories that I'm going to tell you a little bit later on, you'll understand what people have told me. It's something that is doable, but it's not easy. Somebody might think, okay, fine, I'm going to do this now and I'll do Teshuvah. No, no, no. To do Teshuvah on this, it's hard. It's difficult. And I'm not saying it's hard or difficult as opposed to anything else because all the Teshuvah process is more or less the same. The process that is difficult is actually difficult to overcome. And we can see it's something that is very difficult to overcome. The more that you fall into it, the more difficult it is to get out of it. And you look at how precious Teshuvah is to God. Let's say a man gets married. He gets married and he divorces his wife and he goes... I'm sorry, and she goes and she marries somebody else. And then let's say she divorces the second guy or she becomes widowed from the second guy. Can the first guy go and remarry his first wife? And the answer is no. The second that she's divorced and she marries somebody else, it's game over. There's nothing to talk about. She can never go back to the first husband. However, God, if let's say we're, you know, technically, like married to God, so to speak, in the Torah.

14:28technically, like married to God, so to speak, in the Torah. And we sort of divorce God. We go and do our sins. So you think, okay, that's it. You are with somebody else. You divorce God. You are with a different entity. How are you going to come back? No, no, teshuvah doesn't work that way. Teshuvah works that no matter how far you are, you can always come back to God, and God will always accept you. But of course, the teshuvah is a teshuvah. The Baal HaTanya says, He also explains the Zohar, and he says that, what does it mean that you cannot do repentance? The Baal HaTanya explains that this is not ordinary repentance. You have to do serious repentance. Regular repentance, which means you can repent from fear of punishment, is not good enough for this. Over here, you have to go for an even higher level, and that's repenting from the love of God, which is very difficult to achieve. But that is why he explains the Zohar. So now... The next point that I want to speak about is, do you have to afflict yourself? Do you have to cause yourself suffering? And if you're, you know, again, if people that delve into the Kabbalistic works, for this sin, we'll soon see, you know, I'll tell you right now, the Arizal says, the Arizal says, if let's say somebody sinned once for this sin, you know how many times he has to fast just to atone for it? Eighty-four times.

15:3584 times, do you understand how many? That's over three and a half months of fasting to atone for this. And what happens if you do it more than once? Let's say you did it multiple times. So then you have to do three cycles of 84. Think about what that number is. What is that, 252 days of fasting? So the question is, if you look at the Kabbalistic works, it says that what to atone for these things is like, wow, that is like a lot of stuff. So some people will be like, forget it. It's not going to happen. I'm not fasting for 252 days or 84 days or whatever it is. They cannot do it. So The question is, how are we to understand that? So Rav Moshe Feinstein said that there is, and especially this is the majority of the poskim nowadays, that if you ask them, they say, there's no afflicting of yourself nowadays. There's no, you know, rolling in snow. Only if you're at an extremely, extremely high level, then you don't need this class. You already know everything, so I don't even have to tell you what you would have to do, because then you would know. But, if let's say you're a regular person, like most of us, and you have this problem, do you have to afflict it? So this was brought to Rav Moshe Feinstein. And Rav Moshe Feinstein said, no, no, no. There's no afflicting, there's none of that. Rather,

16:47And he explains this as follows. He said, let's say somebody, you know, the way that teshuvah works is that there are leniencies in it. Why are there leniencies? Because Hashem wants you to do teshuvah. So He's not going to make it so far-fetched that it's impossible for you to do teshuvah. He wants you to do teshuvah and to come back. And I'll give you an example. Let's say somebody stole a beam. He stole a beam, and this is an example from Rabbi Moshe Feinstein. He built his entire structure, or he built the World Trade Center with that beam. Now, he feels bad and wants to return the beam. Does he have to go and take apart the entire structure to return the beam? Because if that would be the case, he would think, forget it, I'm not doing teshuvah; it's not worth losing a billion dollars to return that one beam. So, Chazal instituted, no, no, no, you don't have to go and return the actual physical All you have to do is give them monetary value towards that beam, and that counts enough. And that's why, you know, you have a lot of people nowadays, let's say they stole, insurance fraud on cell phones in the olden days and whatnot, I don't know how those things work. But in any way, let's say they did something like that. You cannot go and return that cell phone, but rather you return the monetary value or whatever it is that you have to do. And there are most of the poskim and rishonim and other proofs. He says that, let's say a man goes to a woman and he says, you're married to me on the condition that I'm a very righteous person, I'm a tzaddik. Is that guy married? He says, yeah, we have to worry that he's married. But what, let's say he's a rasha, let's say he's a wicked person.

17:40stole, insurance fraud on cell phones in the olden days and whatnot, I don't know how those things work. But anyway, let's say they did something like that. You cannot go and return that cell phone, but rather you return the monetary value or whatever it is that you have to do. And there are most of the poskim and rishonim and other proofs. He says that, let's say a man goes to a woman and he says, you're married to me on the condition that I'm a very righteous person, I'm a tzaddik. Is that guy married? He says, yeah, we have to worry that he's married. But what, let's say he's a rasha, let's say he's a wicked person. So the Chazal tells him, no, no, no, because you know why? Because maybe he had thoughts of repentance right before he said that. So he became a righteous person, and then he's considered as if he's married. But the question is, if he needs to go through suffering, if he has to go through all the fasts, then what is the thought going to help him? Rather, you have to wait about half a year or a year or whatever it is, let him go through all his fasts, and then he could say it. So, rather, we see over here that a person can do teshuvah even without these fasts. granted, if you're on a high enough level, and you have to speak to your rabbi that you're very close with who is well-versed in this, there are some Kabbalistic things that you do fast for certain things like this, and you are supposed to. But the majority of people, and especially if it's going to take away from your learning Torah, it's going to take away from your prayers. Nowadays, people fast, they're bed-bound.

18:56they're like, "Oh my gosh," you know, they're like fainting. You know, like, it's been like three hours since I had a sip of water, and you know, you can't do anything, let's say. On fast days, people just go to sleep. Even worse, they sit and watch movies all day, as if, you know, that's the point of the fast. But if it's going to take away from your learning Torah, it's going to take away from everything else, what do you gain? You lose more than you actually gain. So, Rabbi Chaim Volozhin actually went and showed his Rabbi, the Vilna Gaon. I was speaking about the Vilna Gaon earlier. He says, you know, about the Zohar that says how much suffering you have to do to atone for the sin. So the Gaon responded. He says, a person who toils in Torah study, who learns Torah, does not need to be concerned about this. And the Rabbi says that a person should not fast. Because what happens if you're fasting and you're learning? You're confused. Your mind is not working so well. Especially in our day and age. Your mind is not working so well. So... It's interfering with your praying, with your fasting, and you're learning with an unsettled mind, which means that you come to incorrect conclusions in the Gemara and Halacha, and everything that you do, you could come to a perverted logic.

20:03Furthermore, in order to understand Torah, to get the secrets of Torah, you have to learn Torah from joy. If you're sitting there learning like this, you're going to get a very, very low dose of Torah. But if you're learning with happiness and joy and excitement and you're all pumped for it, you're going to be able to learn so much more, so much faster, and you're able to acquire much more Torah knowledge. Now, if you're fasting, how are you supposed to get to that? The Rebbe says also there's... that if somebody goes and eats, and he finds something very delicious, and what he does is that he refrains from finishing it. So he eats the majority of his plate, but he refrains from finishing just a little bit, that is already considered a fast, as a taanit. So that's a good thing because you sort of hold yourself back, and it's sort of hurting you, and that is considered a fast. So now, if you're ever eating a good meal that your wife cooks for you, or your mother cooks for you, or most likely you're taking it out from takeout, you're going over there, and you just leave off a little bit, so you know, like, no, this is, you know, consider this a fast, and don't finish the entire portion. And all you have to do is just leave off a little bit. Rabbi Yisrael Salanter says that, how can we afflict ourselves? We can afflict ourselves in a different way. He says, by overcoming negative traits. This is also a true affliction. You know, if you have, let's say, you're an angry person.

21:13To overcome anger is very difficult, and it hurts. It's, you know, like, you want to get angry, you want to scream, you want to, and you can't, so you're afflicting yourself, and that also counts as affliction. Also, if somebody goes and insults you, makes fun of you in public, and you take this in silence, you don't respond back, that's also a kapara for this. Also, somebody should flee from honor, says Rav Yisrael Salanter. Run away from honor. Now, like, nowadays, people chase honor. You know, like, I'll give you a donation, but I want a brick or something with my name on it. I don't care where, I just have to have my name so I can go over there and be like, aha, I gave once $18. Because those are the people usually that want it. It's the people in the middle and the people that are giving a few zeros after the 18. The people that give the general middle amount, the 100, 180, they usually don't ask for that much. Interesting, but I may be wrong with those stats. Anyways, so... And most of all, most importantly of all, to toil. To toil in Torah study. This you get double. When you toil in Torah study, that also counts as suffering. And you're also able to go and repent, and it cleanses you from this particular sin.

22:20The disciples say that one hour of learning Torah is more precious to God than a thousand fasts. So, you have over here, imagine what it is, one hour of learning Torah. It's a shame some people only learn one hour a week, two hours a week, three hours a week. If you realize the value of this thing, it would be every single day, every single hour. But it says something very interesting. It says, let's say you do want to afflict yourself still. You want to know what's going to be more. Find something that you know really, really well, like you already know all the certain aspects of Torah. You're already well-versed in it. And learn it again. Because what happens is you'll be like, oh, you know, I know this thing. So you lack the enthusiasm. So you're doing this all for the sake of Heaven. So that brings you affliction, and this also removes the klipot. Think of it this way: when we speak about affliction and all these things, think of it like you have a shell bubble around you, klipot, right? And the more you sin, the thicker, the more impure, the more, you know, whatever it is, you can picture it as demons, whatever it is that you have, and every time you afflict yourself, You take a little needle and you pop another demon. Except that demons are not little; they're big and they're scary. So you take a sort of shotgun. Maybe that would be a better... Oh, bazooka. What is that called? The thing that you... Surface-to-air missile. I don't know. Whatever it is. A rocket launcher. And if you're playing one of these, I don't know. People who play games will probably know this better. I don't know. You have one of these serious guns. Every time you sweat for Torah and you do another mitzvah, you're like... You know? I'm mad!

23:43The demons are melting. No, but if you picture it—well, you shouldn't picture it because you probably have billions, you know, like, well, not you, but depending on the level of sin. But if you picture it, you'd be like, every time you're destroying another, not another one, it could come, you know, hundreds of thousands at a time. I don't know the, you know, the level of it. It really depends. The more intense that you're doing it, the more you're destroying it. So now, It depends. There are some of you here that are spacing out, so I don't know how much it's going to destroy. But some people here are really focused, even though, like, you know, maybe they're not interested in it so much for whatever reason. But if you push yourself more, the more you're destroying it. And every time you're doing that, every time you're learning, you're destroying another few hundred, a few thousand, who knows, hopefully a few hundred thousand, a few million of these mazikim, of these impurities, of these bad creations that are going against you. Rav Isser Zalman Meltzer Rav Isser Zalman Meltzer once saw that he had a very outstanding student who was depressed. He walked over and asked, "What's going on?" The student said he was depressed over the fact that he had sinned when he was younger, committing a particular sin. Now, he was engaged in fasting and other methods of atonement, which made it very difficult for him to concentrate on his learning. It brought him down. Rav Isser Zalman became very serious and said, "No, no, no, stop your fasting right now."

25:00He says, it's much better that you go learn. And what he told him to do is write Chidushei Torah, write novelties on Torah. And I have to be very careful, because there are some people that decide that this is Torah, and they just, you know, they have a camera, they go on YouTube or whatever it is, and be like, this is what the Torah says, it's okay to do this. That's not novelties. That's, you know, perversion. Novelties means that it comes from the source of the Torah, it's well-versed. And it doesn't have to be, you know, hypothetical. 4,000 sources, and you have, like, one paragraph or six pages of sources for that. It could be something simple. Something simple doesn't have to go, but Chidushei Torah is also a very big atonement for this sin. Tana Devei Eliyahu says like this: Suppose somebody who committed many sins, and death was decreed upon him, if he does the following things, he could even remove this. He engaged in teshuva. He did the basic teshuva things, which we're supposed to speak about as well. and he studied Torah, and he served Torah scholars, then even if a hundred decrees were decreed upon him, he would be able to remove all these decrees. What we see over here is that the majority of this is learning Torah. There's learning Torah, all different aspects of the Torah, and also something very interesting is to serve Torah scholars. So this could be, let's say, there are a lot of people in Israel, or even over here, that learn all day, and they don't have enough money, and you go and support them. That also counts as supporting Torah.

26:17so there was, I've spoken to people that committed this sin Very, very more significantly, which I'll just let your imaginations figure out what that is. One of the worst sins in the Torah, basically. And I've spoken to more than one on more than one occasion. And I go through the same, it's the same process. First of all, the teshuva. Every sin you have to do the same levels of teshuva. You have to regret it, you have to confess it, and obviously stop doing the sin. And besides that, what we spoke about is you have to increase in your learning of Torah. These things help cleanse anything that you messed up. But I would tell them, I think every single one of them, if I'm not mistaken, was not keeping Shabbat. Well, definitely a few of them that are popping into my mind. I don't know if every single one, but a large majority of them don't keep Shabbat. They do this and that. I'm like, listen, you're doing Shabbat. Granted, there's partial credit for Shabbat. You can do partial credit on Shabbat. But I'm saying you want to do real Shabbat. You want to do real teshuvah. This type of thing, you're not going to be like, okay, fine, I got a 65. I mean, so I have 65 million demons left over.

27:32you know, like, no, this is not something you want to do partial credit on. You want to remove this completely. You don't want to—and what do you mean, you're like, you're doing—how do you consider yourself doing Shabbat when you don't keep Shabbat? So, again, there's partial credit, so you can do one without the other, but I'm saying, like, obviously, you know, do Shabbat, keep Shabbat, do all that. Without exaggeration, I am pretty confident to say about all of them that I don't think, and again, I'm not, and I really hope that I'm wrong, but from my interactions with them, I don't think that they're true about all of this sin. I really don't, and it boggles my mind because I'm like, when they come and tell me this thing, I said, you know, this is like one of the worst things that you did in the Torah. You're not leaving Gehenom if you don't do teshuva. I'm not like, well, you know, I'm not like "Coochie Coochie Coo," the guy. I'm not going to be like, you know, it's not so bad, I understand it's a very difficult thing. I'm like, no, you messed up and you're in a terrible position right now. You really got to fix yourself. And if you don't fix yourself, it's not going to end good for you. And they all say the same thing. No, no, no, I know, I appreciate it. I want you to say this thing. And I tell them what to do. And it's not that, it's not like, you know, I didn't say you have to fast 252 times. I didn't say like anything crazy. Basic stuff. Learn more Torah.

28:37All of them, without exception, stopped coming to classes. They even decreased their participation in all activities. Maybe it was because I spoke to them like that. I don't think so, but I don't know. Initially, it made it difficult. This is not difficult information. Maybe they got so frightened. Why? When an attack is coming, you know, in the middle of the night, you'll be like, well, maybe if I go back, it will go away. No, it's just, I mean, granted, yes, it is scary. This stuff is not light. It's really heavy stuff, and you have to be able to handle it. But at the same point in time, you don't want to, God forbid, someone goes to a doctor. Because he doesn't want to hurt his feelings and say, "Listen, you're all okay, don't worry about it." The other doctor says, "I reviewed this. This guy needs some serious medication." He's like, "Come on, you know, look what this guy's going through. He just got into a fender bender with his new car. All these things, you know." That doctor gets sued for malpractice.

29:55You can't, you know, just because it's difficult doesn't mean you can't know the information. And the basic stuff is not difficult. The basic stuff, teshuva, the three basic steps of teshuva, and learning, increasing in teshuva, is not difficult at all. It's not difficult at all. However, you still see people that fall on this thing; it's very difficult for them to do it. Just like, you know, just like we said until now. One of the main tikkunim, one of the main fixes, is learning Torah. Learning Torah is so important for this. The Avnei Nezer says that rectifying this damage is mainly by learning Torah. And what type of Torah? The more that you do in depth. Like, not like, you know, like, okay, let me read some stories. You know, just the opposite. The more depth that you go, because what happens, the... this sin is rooted in the thought process. So the thought gets impure. The Torah also counteracts this effect in the thought process. And this, you know, there are people that consider learning Torah, and again, this counts. So they come to that class a few times a week, once a week. They listen to that class every once in a while. You're not, you know, listening to that class, you know, you're leaning back over here, you know, you know, like this, you know, like, yeah, yeah, you know. You listen to the Rabbi speak.

31:06As he's like, you know, playing the games and things like that, and he's like, oh yeah, yeah, I learned, I learned. I'm talking about serious learning Torah. Learning Torah that you gotta sweat, your brain sweats from it. It's like difficult stuff, and you gotta go back and forth and concentrate. The more difficult it is, the greater tikkun that it has for it. And also, again, if you have, and this is such an important aspect, this is how I started since the beginning. When I started giving classes, even before, I don't even know if I've mentioned if I've ever said this, so I used to, let's say, listen to Torah classes. Even when I was, you know, in the beginning, when I was getting very, very involved in the whole learning thing, I would listen to Torah every free moment that I got. I'd be driving, listening to it. Walking, listening to it. It was like, I was going through so many Torah classes non-stop. And if I heard something I liked, I wrote it down. I wrote it down, and that's why you guys who see me in my house, you see how many loose leaves I have, full of all my notes from the years. This is also very important. You hear something, you write it down. You write it down, you save it, you put it out there. And even better if you could make some chiddushim, some novelties on it, based, of course, on the proper way of the Torah. But at least write it down. It solidifies it more. Also, it's a little bit more difficult. You've got to go slower. I have to be like, stop, pause, until you get it. So this is very, very important as well.

32:28The Baal HaNetivot cites the Tanya and he says that, before you did the sin, let's say you were learning one page of Torah a day. Now you increase it to two. So whatever you were doing until now, now that you did the sin, you've got to increase your learning, and it's not like, okay, for a month. No, you increase this forever. This is what you have to do anyway. I'm saying it's not like you don't have to do it anyway. And the Mishnah Berurah says as well, you also have to go and increase the learning of your Torah. Whatever you were doing, increase it more. Rabbi Yaakov Abuhatzeira writes in Ginzei HaMelech that... When you do this sin, you cause holy sparks to get snatched away by the other side. The Torah, when you're learning more in Torah, it produces new sparks. So it overcomes it measure for measure. Also, when one sins, he gets heated up with the passion of it. Torah, there's the fire of Torah. You get warmed. If you really get into the Torah, you're like, you know, it gets hot, it gets sweaty. You're going back and forth. It really warms you up. Also, the destruction of the Brit over here, the Gemara Brit, is referred to as a Brit. The Torah is also called a Brit. One Brit goes and atones for the other Brit. The Zohar says also that Bereshit stands for Brit Esh, a fire of, a Brit of fire. The intent is that the fire of Torah atones for the heat of the sin of wasting seed.

33:43The Steipler Gaon says that when one learns Torah, he should learn it with the intent to understand every minute detail of it. Now, there are some people, you know, even the learning of Halacha, yeah, I get the gist of it, yeah. Wake up, wash, alternating, whatever, right, left, left, right, I've got to hold it in this hand, put the socks on, which one was it again? Okay, whatever, we got the idea, but let's move on. No, no, no. When you learn something, get every single detail involved in it. And that's what I tell people when they call me up and ask me specifically about this sin. There's one thing that I tell them on this particular aspect: learn as much as you can on this topic. Because I think it's very difficult for you to stop this sin. So when you learn as much as you can on this topic, you realize the severity of it. Now, it's not enough just to learn it, I tell them. I say, write notes. And it's not enough just to write notes, like compile things. Listen to every single shiur you know on this. A lot of them are going to be repeat information. Compile it. Read every single sefer that you know about this. Write it up. Eventually, I usually tell them... Actually, we’ll also speak about helping others and how it could atone for this sin. The...

34:52The stipulation also goes that when you study, you should study with a study partner. Some people, they read by themselves, and that's it. And I tell this also. There are some people, let's say, who can't read Hebrew yet, or can't read it well. Even if you sit with two English books, and one guy reads it like it's third grade, and they said not to do this. Literally, word by word, it's still good. Because after the paragraph, you can discuss it. You can say, "Okay, what do you think it means over here?" And you can go on. What is even more important is that, let's say, you finish a chapter, you can review it by heart. And I'll give you an example. So when I was in yeshiva in Israel, the way that I would learn for a majority part of it would be to learn the Gemara. So we get a page of Gemara, we learn the Gemara. After we finish learning it, then we go to the next step, which is getting all the points by heart. Which is, this Rabbi says this, this question comes up like this, it brings up this proof over here, this proof over there, a page, right back to back, blah. And after you get that, then you test each other. And then you go over there and you go, so, yeah, granted, you're not gonna cover as much ground, thank you, regular, regular, regular, regular, regular, yeah, yeah, that way. Backwards is for people who have someone passed away. Thank you.

36:06The idea behind it is that you're able to actually get so much. When you're studying with somebody, even if you're learning whatever, anything that you're learning, in English and halakha, you finish a certain page, you test each other on it. It's not enough. How many people I know that they tell me, "Yeah, I learned it." Can you tell me one thing that you remember? No. Okay, the topic. Can you tell me what topic you were discussing? And you don't remember it, because when you're just going through something, you don't actually bring it. You remember bits and pieces, but if you have two people, and you're testing each other, you're going back and forth, you're going to get a much greater understanding of it. The author of Nefesh HaChaim says that one with pain is better than 100 without pain, which means there's value, the value of what is worth. So it's more difficult. The more difficult concepts that you use, is the heat not working? The heat is not working. Is that it? It shows one thing. You guys have to be fired up for the fire of Torah. Put it on max, maybe. Put it on the maximum heat. Rav Chaim Volozhin says like this, in Nefesh HaChaim, that there is no other cure to be saved from the Yetzer Hara other than Torah study. The...

37:16Who created the evil inclination? God. And God created an antidote to the evil inclination, and that is the Torah. Or HaChayim says that if people were to experience the true sweetness of Torah, they would run after it with everything. They wouldn't care about money. They wouldn't care about anything else. They would care only about Torah non-stop. It's a drug. You could get addicted to it. It's a good addiction. Try to get addicted to it. Go to your local dealer, your rabbi, and say, give me some Torah. Listen to this. The more you get addicted to it, the better it is. And you'll come back for more. And that's why we, you know, how do you do it? You give the first few things for free. And then eventually, you know, they come back. So, just tasters. Now, Torah is always given for free. Okay, the Steipler says that, you know, it's not enough, you know, that somebody goes and he studies, he did a sin and he studies one day, really hard, one day. No, no, no. This has to be day after day. It has to be consistent. It has to be continuous. The...

38:19Also, it's very, very important that besides for you, you should also help other Jews. And this is something that, I'm not sure if we spoke about it last week, where one of the tikkunim (rectifications) for it, in a general sense, is to help other people. in that same sin. So, there are some people, you know, that they'll, let's say, even just share it. And again, I said it last week, I'm not usually like, you know, what do those YouTubers say? Like and subscribe, pass it on, comment, share, whatever those things are. It's not something that I, I mean, of course, sharing Torah is always the best. Share my Torah, share anybody else's Torah, as long as it's real Torah, share it away. The most important thing. But this particular topic, it is very important for a number of reasons. Number one is, there's not a lot of people that speak about it. It really is not. There are not a lot. You go on Torah websites, and you search about this. You have a handful of speakers that speak about it. So you don't have a lot. So you share it so it gives the knowledge off to other people. But when you're helping somebody else in the same sin that you're struggling with, it is also a rectification for your sin as well.

39:20And this has to be, I don't know if I told you this once, but there was once a guy who committed a very, very serious sin—the same sin that we were speaking about earlier, which I'm sure you all know what I'm talking about. If not, then interesting for suspense. And he was told that what you have to do is go and prevent other people from committing this sin. So he would actually go and stop a class in the middle and be like, "Guys, I just want to let you know how severe this sin is." In front of everybody, he wouldn't usually say, "Oh, I committed this sin," but he would speak about how severe it is and how bad it is. He would actually speak about it in public to people. That's very, very important to do that as well. If all else fails, and you can't, one of the good things to do to prevent yourself from doing this type of sin is to think about the day of death. Yes, it's morbid. Yes, it's not fun. But it puts things into perspective. It really does. It puts things into perspective. And it'd be like, okay, you know, like, it's really, you know what is really unfortunate? That you have people that go to, you know, funerals, especially if it's younger people that pass away. And they're always like, oh, it's so sad. You know, what a shame. His life was gone.

40:31And how many people actually think, like, that could have been me? You know, like, how many people think, like, you know, like, where am I living my life? Like, what happens if that was you in that casket over there? Would you be satisfied with the way you lived your life? Are you going to feel comfortable going up into the next world and saying, "Yeah, I did a good job in here"? Or would you feel, "Oh, no, I messed up terribly." And like, "Oh, baby steps, Rabbi, baby steps. We got to do that." What happens if there's no more steps to take? That's it. There's only a certain amount of time that people have to live. Granted, yeah, you go slowly. But some people are taking baby steps their entire life. Their entire life. I've been telling you. I'm like, dude, you've been religious for like four years. Stop with the baby steps. Grow up and take some big steps. Go to yeshiva. Sit and learn Torah. What, are you going to sit over here learning once every month? It doesn't count. Yeah, so you're keeping Shabbat. Good job. You're doing what you're supposed to. You're keeping kosher. You're keeping Shabbat. Good job. But how are you going to learn Torah? You don't know anything. You don't know the basics. Where's the halacha? So this is something that if you think about it, if you think you have to meet with God and everything is going to be up, this is something that should put a little bit of fright into you. What is considered total repentance? Total repentance is, let's say, somebody made a sin. He passes the same place where he made the sin. The same temptation comes by. Everything reoccurs, and he overcomes it.

41:40That is known that he finished complete repentance. Now, it doesn't mean that you should visit the same websites and be like, "Oh, I'm just not going to click here." You should not put yourself in the same situation. But if you happen to be in that same situation, you know that by overcoming it, you made a rectification on that. The idea is that even though it's difficult, and even though it's very hard to do teshuva on this, when you start doing teshuva, you will get help from it. Especially, and again, the teshuva part, it's going to be very difficult. But if you're preventing yourself from doing more sins, then you're definitely going to get help with it. Also, Shabbat actually has a rectification for the sin. The numerical value of Shabbat and God's name, Yud Keh Vav Keh, is the same numerical value as K'riyah Satan, the ripping up of the Satan. The Shabbat also has great power for rectifying the sin. Let's speak a little bit about this. I was asked to speak about Rebbe Nachman of Breslov's Tikkun HaKlali. Anybody know what I'm talking about? The Tikkun HaKlali? So the Tikkun HaKlali. What's the Tikkun HaKlali? So, Rebbe Nachman of Breslov wrote that if somebody has a nocturnal emission, a wet dream, what he should do is the same day, he should say the following 10 chapters of Tehillim. And they are as follows: 16, 32, 41, 42, 59, 77, 90, 105, 137, and 150.

43:01150. Those are what he's supposed to do as a rectification, those 10 chapters of Tehillim. And you know why there are a lot of people that go to Uman for Rosh Hashanah? You know what, I don't know if you guys, I don't know how many here, understand Hebrew, but in Elul... we say, it stands, Elul is the month where we do repentance, it stands for, I am to my beloved and my beloved is to me. But people put a play on this, and Elul stands for, I am for Uman, and my wife is alone. That's what Elul stands for. Because people just leave their wives and they go to Uman. So, why do people go to Uman? Why do people just go and get up to go to Uman? Because Rebbe Nachman wrote, and he says, this is a pretty serious thing. That's why you have a lot of people that fly out over there. I don't know if this is true or not, but I've actually seen they're trying to think about removing the grave from there and bringing it to Israel. They didn't do it, no?

44:06No, no, no. As far as I know, they didn't. And that would have been all over the news. As far as I know. Unless it was done by the underground, you know, like... I don't think that he's not there. Oh, that part, I don't know. That part, as far as I know, he's there. I didn't hear about that. But they were considering, you know, moving that because you have everybody leaving, you know, to Uman instead of spending time with their family on Rosh Hashanah. Uman is in Ukraine. Yeah. So... I think there are other reasons why they go also. Very minority, and we're not going to speak about that. So... Very minority, I'm sorry, minority, I meant minority. Reb Nachman miBreslov says that, you know, it seems simple, say these ten chapters, but he says, in actuality, it's going to be very difficult. But he says, he says that, and by the way, the more intensely that you say these ten chapters, the more rectification that it will actually have on it. But he says the first thing that you have to do is go to the mikvah. First thing, the first thing is the mikvah. And it's very important to go to the mikvah the same day. If you had a nocturnal emission, the same day you go to the mikvah. You go to the mikvah and then you say these ten things. The Kav HaYashar in chapter 22 also says that generally, if somebody does a sin, he has this black fire that's on his face from the sin. And some really, really righteous people, especially in the yesteryears, they would be able to see what sins you did based on just looking at your face. The...

45:18When a person does repentance, the black fire goes away, except for this sin, for wasting seed. That doesn't go away until you go to the mikvah. That says the Kav HaYashar. And in general, I always push people; the mikvah is a very, very good thing to go to, especially before Shabbat and holidays. But let's say somebody goes and has this dream; you should for sure go to the mikvah, dip at least twice. It's good to dip at least twice. The first time you dip, concentrate on removing the impurity. Just think about that, removing the impurity. The second one is to draw in the holiness. On Shabbat, people do a third one to bring in the honor of Shabbat. And again, this is not a class about mikvah. I want to do that at one point in time, you know, the idea behind it, what you're supposed to do, how many times, what you're supposed to think about. There are many different, you know, you'll go to the mikvah, and everyone dips a different amount of times. This is based on a variety of different sources. For example, on Yom Kippur, some people do five dips based on what the Rama brings down in his Sefer. I think the Kaf HaChaim is based on that. There are some people... that before the Shalosh Regalim, especially what the Kav HaYashar brings down, they do the numerical value of Regel, which is a lot of times, and they base it off of God's name, and you break it off, and you think about specific letters of God's name. So, there are different amounts that you can do, but even one time is already good enough. But in general, if you're doing it for this, it's good to do at least twice, and then decide as many times as you want.

46:39But mikvah is very important, and it's good if you can, to go at least once a week, if you're able to. And again, mikvah should not be your socializing place. You have people, you know, like, "So, how's it going?" Yeah, you know, and they sit over there and talk. You go in, you do your thing, and you go out. And it's not, and people say, "Oh, it's dirty." There are plenty of very, very clean mikvahs now, you know, around the areas. They do a really, really good job in it. Rav Shlomo Kluger. says that every Rosh Chodesh is a special atonement for this sin as well. So, let's do a quick recap before we go. So far, we spoke really about one main thing. It's Torah, right? Torah is what we spoke about so far. The more that you increase in Torah, the more that you learn in Torah, the more atonement, the more fixing that you have, the more the sort of shotgun shots that you can go and fire at those demons and the evil things that were created. We say on Rosh Chodesh, what does that mean? Translation: "Rosh Chodeshim, to your people, you gave a time of atonement for all their offspring." The word "L'chol Toldotam" is specifically referenced to wasting seed. "L'chol Toldotam" is like to the offspring. What offspring are we talking about over here? The offspring that resulted from the sin of wasting seed.

47:49The Chasam Sofer brings down also that the tears of emotions when you're doing a mitzvah also atone for this sin, as well as tears of teshuva. Tears of teshuva also atone for it. The Chasam Sofer explains that this sin usually stems from looking at inappropriate things, which then leads to that. So, same place, a tear for a tear. And he says specifically also, a tear is warm, the you know, wasting seed, it's a warm liquid, it's a drop for a drop, it atones for it as well. Also, when you're crying out for teshuvah, you're doing repentance and you're crying out, if you're actually able to bring yourself to tears, it is a great atonement for this sin. Other things, it's also saying the Haggadah. We say on Passover, also, because it's very related on Pesach, there was a lot of, you know, one of the things that we're fixing when we were in Egypt was this type of sin as well. If you look at the Reishit Chochmah, it brings this down. The... The Arizal says also that when you sweat, when you sweat while doing a mitzvah, it also provides atonement for this. Now think about it, what we're saying is that anything that you do that is uncomfortable, if you do it for the sake of a mitzvah, it brings atonement. So imagine you're sitting here right now. It's a little bit cold or in summer sometimes it's a little bit hot. The more difficult it is in that aspect, the more reward you are getting for it.

49:01Not that you should put yourself and be like, "Okay, I'm going to a sauna. I'm going to go learn. I'm going to sweat fully clothed." Not that you should put yourself. But if it already happens to be in that situation, know that you're destroying a lot more with that. And it works in two ways. You're destroying all the bad things that you created, all the bad luck and everything that's going on. And at the same point in time, you're growing so much spiritually. It's like a nuclear bomb. It goes all over. It destroys everything. And it raises you in the same aspect. The Sefer HaPela'ah says... On the verse, which literal translation is "those who sow with tears will reap with songs," what does that mean? Those who sin by wasting seed can find their atonement with tears. They'll cut away the klipot (shells) of impurity. So, with doing tears and doing joy of mitzvah, you're able to cut away this impurity. There's also something called the Shovavim. I don't know if you guys are familiar with that. The parshiyot from Shemot to Mishpatim are very particular to this sin. And if you go to certain places, there's even one over here. I know a Kabbalist that does it, that they have every Sunday, they have a tikkun specifically for this during the six weeks.

50:06And they do, you go over there, instead of fasting, or if you can fast, they give charity, you know, they have a whole thing, and you say certain tikkunim, it's very Kabbalistic, run by, you know, a big Kabbalist person, so if anybody wants, during that time, I can direct you to that, where, you know, where it's located and how to get to it. During Elul? What? During Elul? No, it's Shovavim. It's from Parashat Shemot to Mishpatim. Okay, that's what you're asking. Okay, I didn't... It's... What is it? Like in a few weeks, maybe it starts. It's, you know... So... It's right now we're in the middle of Bereishit. When we start Shemot. As a, you know... I don't have the exact dates off the top of my head. There's a picture like... No, no, more, more, more. You got... That's what? That's Shovavim? That's Shovavim, yeah. The... So... The stronger that someone has a temptation for it, and then he's able to overcome it, the greater the tikkun is. So you see over here, every little thing that you overcome can already erase your... you know, think about it like this. When somebody...

51:07This is an easy example for, let's say, women who don't dress modestly. So when they dress modestly, and let's say it's very hot, so they're suffering, they're sweating. That suffering, that sweating is overcoming it. Anything that you do for God, and it's very difficult, can come and cleanse you of the suffering that you needed to get through. Another thing that also does atonement is charity. Charity also, and it's a great rectification if people, let's say, don't want to fast. So what people, what you could do... You know, 84 fasts is a significant number of fasts. You know, 252 fasts is very significant. You know, how are you going to do that? So a way out is you could give charity instead of fasting. What does that mean? Like, how much charity are you going to give? The amount of charity that you usually use on food per day, that goes for one day of charity. Use $10, $15, you times that by whatever, $252, however much you want to do it, and you can do a payment plan, whatever it is. Put it towards charity, and this doesn't go off ma'aser. This doesn't go off the ten percent. This is a separate thing; you're doing a rectification for that, it also does that. And specifically, if you give charity secretly, which is always better, it's a tikkun for nocturnal emissions as well.

52:10The Arizal says that when we pray Shemoneh Esrei, and we say "Teka B'Shofar," which is about gathering all the dispersed of Israel, we should also be thinking about gathering all the wasted seed, all the dispersed souls, bringing them back. Another important thing is the bedtime Shema. This is really, really important, yet for some reason, people don't do it. Or at least some people don't do it. I can't say everybody. Hopefully, the majority of people do recite it, but based on the people who speak to me, I know some do not. So I feel like I had to explain that in depth. Okay, but anyways, saying the bedtime Shema is also very, very important. And this is brought down by the Ben Ish Chai, the Kitvei HaAri, the Kav HaYashar, and the Abir Yaakov. They all emphasize the importance of saying Kriyat Shema before you go to bed. It's a great correction for this sin. Also, it's very important to pray. Not only pray about the past, but also pray to help you that you won't sin in the future. It's a very difficult thing. Don't think that you can do it yourself. You have to have God's help in it. You have to pray. You have to get whatever you can. And in fact, there is an obligation. The Sefer Chareidim brings down that a person is obligated to pray that God would save him from these types of sins. And we're going to finish in a few minutes. It's getting late.

53:12The Steipler says that even if, let's say, you pray— I pray, I always pray— I pray for this thing and it doesn't help. Even if you pray a hundred times and you're still not able to overcome it, it doesn't matter. Keep on praying. Keep on praying because some prayers, the way it works, some prayers are answered immediately. Some prayers are not answered. But ultimately, you'll eventually be answered. So you have to keep on praying. And it can be a short prayer. Walking in the street, "God, please protect me from this thing." Every single little prayer counts. And every single little prayer has a very strong meaning. Power to it. Another thing is to say the first four chapters of Tehillim. A lot of people say it right before they go to bed. The first four chapters. The first four chapters contain 310 letters, which is the numerical value of Keri. This is one of the reasons they also say it. Another thing is to love giving charity and Gemilut Chassadim. I specified the love. And also the Ahavat Tzedaka is the numerical value 612. Gemilut Chassadim, doing kindness, is the numerical value of 612. Brit is the numerical value of 612. It shows that one corrects the other. This is from Sefer Ginzei HaMelech. There are also...

54:13Rabbi Yaakov Abuchatzera says, you know when they open the ark, you say a certain prayer? That also is very important to protect against this sin. Also, one of the secrets behind it is that it contains exactly 130 words, comparable to the number of years that Adam was separated from his wife and this sin happened. Other things that we're going to go also through is a person should always pursue peace. Always go after Shalom. Also, rectification for this sin is very important. Avoid speaking Lashon Hara. Make sure you speak very cleanly. Always talk about good things. Stay away from lies and falsehood. You're not allowed to lie. People don't think about it, saying, "Okay, whatever, there's no problem with lying." It's not going to... You know, they call, and people train their kids. Kids, you know, answer, be like, you know, "Hi, is your daddy home?" And daddy's like, "No, it's home, not home." I'll be like, so what you're telling the kid is like, "No, you know, lie right in front of me. I'll train you to lie." Which is, you know, a very big, you know, problem. Reb Nachman of Breslov says the main service of God has to start with fear of punishment. Everyone thinks about, "Oh, it's all about love, it's all this." No, you have to start with fear of punishment. It's very important. The Torah has both fear and love, and you have to serve God for both of those aspects.

55:20Also, it's very important to be humble. You have to be humble in general, but this also serves as an atonement for these things. It's notable to mention that it is very important to distance yourself from lightheadedness. When you're lightheaded, you're only one step away from committing another sin. Another thing that people do is to be a sandak. A sandak is the one who holds the child during a brit milah. That's why some people actually pay for this honor. There are some people that, you know, they'll pay like five grand, two grand, three grand, just to be the sandak for the brit. Also, to do matzot on Erev Pesach, to bake matzot, because when you bake matzot, you sweat. And that also helps, you know, break all these evil things that were created. The other thing is also to distance yourself from anger and worry. Very, very important. as well as obviously removing yourself from evil thoughts. If somebody has an evil thought, you should know, evil thoughts don't, you know, you don't have the free will to, you know, it comes in, you have no free will and it's already inside you. Where does the free will start? Once the evil thought is already inside there, how are you going to deal with that? How are you going to go and get rid of it? So,

56:25The, um, that's where you're supposed to, and it's also, you know, interesting. Don't think, like, people usually think about what their mind is usually occupied with. If somebody is very obsessed with work or school, they will always think about that. Somebody who is very obsessed with law will always think about that. Somebody who is always obsessed with other things is always going to think about that. He's not going to be like, "Well, you know, it just popped into my head. It's not my fault." No, it's your fault. You just spent, like, six hours watching so much inappropriate content. Of course, it's going to pop into your head. What do you think you're going to start thinking about? The theory of relativity? Like, what's going to pop into your head? So, the... And it's a problem because the sin starts with a thought. It starts with a thought. It really does. And so you have to go, and you have to control that. And of course, you have to control your eyes. This is a lecture in itself, but one notable thing for protection is tzitzit. Very, very important. You put on tzitzit, it protects you from this thing. Skip a few things, it's getting late. Skip, skip, skip. Very important, and this is easier said than done, get married. Like literally, guys, whoever's single, just get married, okay? All right, we're good? Okay, move on? I know it's easier said than done, but of course, there are some people who really try to get married and can't, for whatever reason, they can't find the right one. So find out why. Why is it that you haven't found the right one? Are you too picky? This is, again, a whole thing in itself, and I don't want to dwell too much on it, but, is this mine? Oh, it is mine.

57:54How do I put it on vibrate? Okay, so it is very important to, because when you get married, and again, don't think that because you're going to get married, you're not going to have a problem. If you've been doing this problem when you're single, guaranteed it's going to continue happening when you're married. Don't think, okay, once I get married, it's going to stop. What makes you think it's going to stop? You know, you'll eventually, you know, after maybe in the beginning, it will slow down a little bit. But, you know, you're used to it already. It's a very hard thing to do. But a person needs to get married because it will be able to slow it down. Some people say, "I don't want to get married. I need to work. I need to make a business. I need to da-da-da-da-da-da." Those are irrelevant and not good excuses. You have to go. And if it's time for you to get married, you have to go and you have to get married. Unless, again, you have some people that are sitting and learning in yeshiva all day. So, okay, for those people, you know, that's fine. But if you're in the real world, you need to get married. Also, very important, keep busy. Don't be one of those people that, you know, what are you doing? Chilling. That should never be, like, you should never be, like, you know, yeah, I'm just hanging out. I'm like, why are you doing nothing? That's not, like, no, I need to relax. From what? You don't work. You don't do anything. There are people that I know, they don't do anything, and they relax. What are you relaxing from? From life? I'm tired, man.

58:59Tired from what? They didn't do anything. You get up, you look around, you get tired. Yeah, that's right, tired. You move your head, you know, take a drive to Starbucks, you know, get your Frappuccino, Appuccino, and all those types of things, and then you go, you know, exhausted. You have to sleep for 16 hours, of course, because the weed is very tiring. You know, people waste their lives, and all they do, they just hang around, they do nothing. So, it's very important to keep busy. The Torah says you have to keep busy. The busier you are, the less chance you have for sin. Obviously, make fences. If you know... ...you know, you have certain problems with this, get rid of the internet. I don't know, most people are like, what do you actually need the internet for? Or get internet filters, thank you. And something very, very important, this is extremely important, push off the sin. Let's say you get a crazy temptation, and you can't hold yourself back. Say, all right, in five minutes. And then when five minutes comes, you'll be like, oh, let me just run around the corner. Convince yourself that you're not saying no. You're saying not right now. Now, obviously, the goal is to say no, no, no, until eventually the temptation goes away. But we're using the same tactic that the evil inclination uses. Think about this. You're about to wake up in the morning. You look outside, and there's snow falling down. You're in your warm covers, and it's still dark. And you're like, okay, five more minutes.

1:00:15And you snooze for five more minutes. And what happens then? You'll be like, okay, five more minutes. And then what happens then? Five more minutes. And then what happens after that? It's five hours later. You know, like in whatever. Or like two hours later. But how does the yetzer hara get you? Five more minutes. Five more minutes. So you play the same tactic on him. He's playing this on you. You play it back on him. Say, yeah, yeah, five more minutes. Give me five more minutes. So you keep on pushing it off. Eventually, you'll be able to do it. I'll tell this also to people. Let's say they want to guard their eyes. Two blocks out of your house, don't do it. Or whatever it is. You know, like you're going from here. You're walking five blocks. You tell them, say, for the next three blocks, I'm not looking at anything. The last two blocks, okay, fine, I won't be as careful. I mean, not that it's right, but I'm saying, once you get out over there, you'll be able to overcome it. As opposed to, like, somebody saying, okay, I'll never be able to do it. You know how they say, one day at a time, right? What is it, what is it, drug addicts? I don't know. I think, like, one day at a time, right? So think about it also. It's also an addiction, unfortunately. One day at a time. You do it one day at a time. I tell this also a lot to people. Seven days you can do? If you say no, then you have more than just that problem. But seven days, usually you can do. A week you can't? You know, keep your hands above your belt. You're supposed to do that anyway. But, you know, seven days you can do it? So you say seven days. Seven days you can do it. And once you get to seven days, you can then do another day, another three days. And you mark yourself off. Not that you'll be like, okay, after the day you get a nice cherry and give yourself a prize.

1:01:29Which you could, as long as the prize is not the big sin. But I'm saying, when you push yourself off, it makes it easier. It really does. It's like the addict that hasn't had his hit in the first seven days. He'll be like, you know what? Well, it's a little bit different because of the withdrawal symptoms. Which, there's no withdrawal symptoms over here. You don't start shaking, losing hair, or going through convulsions. You'll be okay. As long as, again, you're careful. You watch your eyes. You'll be fine. but push off the sin. Push it off. And the more you push it off, the easier it is. I want to finish off with one thing. You've got to be careful where your hands go. How many people have told me, "I was in the area already, so we just did the sin." I'm like, That is very sad. That is like, you know, I had a scratch, so one thing led to another. I'm like, how does one thing lead to another? That's like saying, like, I was in the bank already, and one thing led to another, so I robbed it. Like, what? Like, what does one thing have to do with another? But it's very important. You're supposed to keep your hands above your belt. There's no reason why you need to go down there. You're actually not supposed to. You're not supposed to touch it. The...

1:02:39about to say something, but better not to. Okay. You know, and actually, that was not true. I want this to be the last thing I would say about guarding your speech. It is very, very important. This is very, very much correlated with guarding your mouth. Guarding your mouth is very much, it's your mouth, your hands, and your eyes are all related to the brit as well. Somebody who has a decree of 70 years that was decreed that everything is going to go awesome for this person, but he, you know, He spoke in obscene language. A dirty mouth could get that 70-year decree ripped up. A new decree, just for talking inappropriately. And we know that one thing leads to another. The Gemara in Shabbat says a few other things about this. The Gemara in Shabbat, on page 33, mentions that he dies with his life shortened, and Gehenom (hell) is deepened for him. You don't want to go to hell as it is, and you definitely don't want them to do construction because you're coming in. Like, "Oh, who is that? Okay, I just got the crew inside over here." And... They say a joke, you know, that they're all the... I can't say it. Okay, I can't say the joke. It's not nice. Say it, say it, say it. It's all the contractors. You know where they are. So, because they're saying a joke about building a bridge from, you know, heaven to hell. It just started from one location. It didn't say, you know, you'll meet two both ways. But, you know, there are many righteous contractors. Why do they say that? It's because the contractor tells you, you know, like, when it's going to be done? In three months. How much is it going to cost me? Ten grand. So what do you know automatically? You double everything he says. Six months, twenty grand. And there's your price.

1:04:00But no, there are many honest contractors out there, but it's just a joke. They got a bad rap. Somebody who speaks in foul language is constantly judged in Heaven. His prayers are not answered. Who wants to be like that? Be like, no, thank you. You know, it comes into Heaven. It's like deflected. You have like Shaquille O'Neal standing over there and like, you know, whatever, like think of it like a big demon, right? So you have that over there. A prayer comes up, and he's like, bam, deflected. Another prayer comes up, and like, bam, deflected. Because, you know, you don't watch where you talk. The things that come out of your mouth go back and forth into it. You mean like cursing or? Everything. Everything bad. Yeah, cursing. You know what it says about cursing? The Kabbalah says this. In the third chapter, somebody who curses frequently, he should know he comes from the Erev Rav. Can't hold himself back. Someone who curses non-stop, he comes from the Erev Rav. There are some people, it's because they're... Erev Rav. Not good. Just not good. I gave a class on Mashiach and Erev Rav. Look at that. But these things are extremely, extremely important for it. The...

1:05:03This, by the way, this teshuvah process, and maybe we'll do a little bit of a recap. This teshuvah process, you know, people under bar mitzvah, under 13 years old, also have to do teshuvah for this thing. It's also considered a sin. Er and Onan, they died, they were under bar mitzvah, they were still young. They still get punished for this sin. You still have to do teshuvah for this particular sin. Married people, same teshuvah they have to do. These are some things that they have to take care of and they have to do. These sins, I can't emphasize enough how great it is. And there's a reason why the majority of the time that we spoke about today was speaking about learning Torah. That is what you had a question about, right? Okay, let me ask you a question before I do the quick recap. So you say some of your sins don't count before the morning. This counts then? This counts. Yeah, this you get. It's not that it doesn't count. It's that before 20 years, you don't get liable to punishment from the hands of Heaven. From Heaven. No, no. First of all, these things are still going to manifest themselves in bad things that happen to you over here. This is 13. Even before this sin, even before 13, it's already a problem. If somebody has done this sin, whatever, I don't know. Nowadays, the world is perverted. People start messing up their lives really young.

1:06:17So, this is something from which you have to do repentance. Don't think that, okay, it was my bar mitzvah, I don't have to. This is something that is very, very serious. It has to be taken with its severity. The repentance is of utmost importance. So again, as a recap, you have to do the three basic things of teshuva. Stop doing it. That's number one. You've got to stop doing it. Number two is regretting it. You have to regret it. Don't be like, "Oh, I remember those good old days." And number three is confessing to God. And above that, you have to increase in your learning Torah. And it's not like each one you have to speak on your own individual level. You want to get rid of this. And if you want to get rid of this, the more that you learn Torah, the more you do it. And it should be something that is difficult. Not that you're sitting with your recliner up there and you're learning and you're reading some nice things and nice stories. You sit and you sweat. Now, usually, you don't sweat from learning for 15 minutes. We're talking about serious things. You're talking about very, very serious things. And it bothers me so much that there are so many people that do that. And the teshuva is right out there. Granted, okay, so you have to learn a little bit more, but it's there. Don't waste the opportunity. Take the opportunity. It's in front of you right now. You're still young. You have the ability to do it. Learn. Increase in your learning. That's the main thing. We were focusing the majority of the class today on the learning Torah. We did other things in charity and fasting and all the other aspects of it, which are all extremely important. But the main thing, the main thing, and I sourced almost everything over here on that topic.

1:07:39is you have to increase your learning, even if it makes it difficult. Another very important thing I want to mention is tears. The more you can cry to God, the better. The tears and the sweat you put into your efforts are essential; it's a drop for a drop—each tear and effort is a rectification. You want to get rid of the negative things created. The Zohar teaches us that everything bad that happens to you is because of this. You have a way, a chemo-free way, to get rid of this spiritual "cancer." A chemo-free way to erase it. Don't sleep, don't space out, don't push it off. Don't push it off and say, yeah, I'll take care of it later. You start from now, from whenever you're here or you're listening to this class online. The second that you hear this, you increase in your Torah learning. If you learned for an hour, now you should learn for two. And by the way, this doesn't necessarily only mean that when you're sitting at your house. So many people have to commute to work, whether it be by train, car, or walking. You have to commute. Almost everybody has this devil machine called a cell phone. Everybody has the ability to go. You can download apps like TorahAnytime.com, anything that is Torah-related. You're walking, put on headphones. You can even get the wireless ones now if you're cool, and you have Apple, and you think you're cool that you have these little hanging things that are over there. I don't even know how they stay. But it's so convenient. And most people, they listen to stuff anyways. What do they listen to?

1:08:50I'm like, how much time can you listen to the same song? You're there anyways, learn. Learn. You're driving, learn. You're walking, learn. You're taking the train, learn. The more that you learn, the better off you are. I can't emphasize this enough. And you have to build yourself. Build yourself a criteria. Be like, okay, I'm going to increase it. Not like, okay, fine, yeah, I'll learn more. And then it comes a week later, be like, how much more did you learn? I don't know. a minute and a half maybe, when I thought about it. You have to do every single day, increase it, increase it, increase it. If you're learning, and if you haven't been learning every single day, then now is the time to start. You really, you want to get this cleansed. And B'ezrat Hashem, hopefully with all this, you know, all this learning, all these tikkunim, may we all have a complete tikkun on this. We won't have to go through any suffering, any of that, and especially any of the bad luck, and we all have parnassah, and revach, and marriage, and everything that the Torah blesses us with. Chazak u'baruch. Any questions? Any questions? I have a question. May Mashiach come in peace in our time. Amen. Which chapters of Tehillim did you say you have? Chapters of Tehillim. Let me tell you which those are. I was going to, I really should, and I could send it out, I could put it out in a text also. Let me find it. Here we go. Okay, so you have 16. You ready? Chapters 16, 32, 41,

1:10:15Chapters 42, 59, 77, 90, 105, 137, and 150. 101? No, 105. You got all 10? Okay, and the... The more you do it, the better, and the more intention you have, the better off you are. Nobody who really understands the power of being a Sandak would sell it to you. Like, if you offered me money to be the Sandak for my kids, I wouldn't accept it. Family, yeah, if they need the money, then you can do it. There are people that do it. Yeah. What do you mean? Depends. If they don't know anything, you can buy it for cheap. No, I'm kidding. There are some people that pay five grand for this stuff. When you do Brit Milah? When you do Brit Milah, the Sandak, the guy who stands over there. I know. What are you saying? The guy who holds the baby? I don't have five thousand. But some people say, listen, I'll give you 200 bucks, 300 bucks. You'll let me do it?

1:11:20You feel like you're gypping them? If they don't have anybody anyways, say you'll sponsor the whole Brit Milah. No, it depends where you go. Not everybody. I don't know. Where are you doing Brit Milah? Yeah. Same idea, you're staying in there. The question is, your question is really more difficult to answer because the question is, what happens afterwards? Is Gehinnom going to be removed? Is that what you're going for? Yes. No. He brings about the 24 things that make a person lose a share in the world to come. So it's not one of them, but it is a part. The Zohar says that specifically, you never leave Gehinnom. So what exactly that means in reference to a share in the world to come is really a question in itself on Gehinnom, what happens to Gehinnom when Moshiach comes. There are different aspects of it.

1:12:29which is more complex than just answering like this. But it's something that I do want to speak about. I do want to do a topic on Gehinnom. I figure maybe I should need to take a break from the scary stuff a little bit, give it a little breather, and then go do a topic on Gehinnom. There's one right over here. Yeah, it's a really nice one. You know, Landau's on Avenue L is also really nice. This one's very nice over here. Yeah, Landau's downstairs. Yeah. There's a lot of, there's a lot, nowadays, like, every, you live in Brooklyn, you'll get some mikvahs all over the place. Some of them are nicer than others. No, bon appétit. Bon appétit. Any other questions? Yeah, I have one. Go ahead. So you say when they do brit milah, when you hold the baby, is that before they cut the foreskin or after? You're holding it, the sandak holds it throughout the entire process.

1:13:30That's not the one that carries it, just the one that sits down and holds it. Yeah, just the one that sits down is the sandak. It is. The better one, by the way, and it's free, is the increase in learning Torah. It's a better tikkun. It's not. Try it. Try it. Make it difficult learning Torah. You're supposed to make it difficult. It's supposed to... Yeah, it's supposed to be... It's supposed to be very, yeah. You had a question? That's what you should do. Oh, so this is a good thing I do. What about fasting? The rabbis did say fasting. If you're on a very, very high level and it doesn't affect your learning of Torah, like the way they used to, the real thing that you should do is fasting, is doing a tikkun through fasting. Nowadays, being that we're weak, we're going to lose more than we gain. We can't focus on Torah, we can't do this. I would fast. But if you're not going to be able to learn it, you're going to decrease your Torah, you're going to decrease your learning of Tefillah, then it's not... Is snow really that bad? Will it decrease your learning? Snow is not that bad. Yeah, that's... Speak to your own Kabbalistic rabbi if you want to do Gilgul Sheleg. Do we have a minyan? Do we want to do a... Okay, let me close this.