What Is TeShuva? - STUMP THE RABBI (64)

0:35We are, Baruch Hashem, here in our last days of the year. Rosh Hashanah is just a couple of days from now or less. And, Baruch Hashem, we'll speak a few words of chizuk to... Get prepared for the big day. Hopefully, you also have some questions, whether they be about the holiday or about teshuva or anything else. Now is the time to ask. Please try to do whatever you can not to leave things to the last minute and send me text messages on Friday because, as some of you may know, I'm still a human being. still, and I have a family, and I also have stuff to do. So just like you have to prepare for your holiday, b'ezrat Hashem, I also have to, and it's very difficult to do it when you have three, four hundred questions, twenty minutes before the Chag starts.

1:46You know, I feel bad, so I try to answer the questions, but it's, you know, it's getting impossible. So don't depend on me 20 minutes before the Chag. If you have questions, things like that, ask now, ask tomorrow. Don't wait for Friday, because I can't promise you that I'll answer you. Anyway, b'ezrat Hashem, you know, we'll get to... get a little bit more chizuk. The Gemara says that there are certain things that always need chizuk. Certain things always need chizuk, including chizuk itself. You need to constantly get... A strengthened, regardless of where you're at, even if you're learning the Shas for your third or fourth time. Even if you're religious your entire life. Even if, you know, it doesn't make a difference. Everybody needs chizuk: both the student, the rabbi, and everybody else in between. Today's shiur was sponsored by a dear friend, Reuven Weinreb.

2:49May HaKadosh Baruch Hu bless him, give him Hatzlacha Rabbah, Chayim Arukim, Shlemim, Meleim Torah, Mitzvot, G'milut Chasadim, and also the Shiur Bifrat Hatzlacha Rabbah for Shaul ben Farzaneh, for Marsha bat Julie, and our dear daughter Ayla bat Marsha. Yitro ben Avraham, Talia bat Sarah, Oshri ben Doris, Gabi ben Doris, Elad ben Doris, David ben Esria, and also for Refuah Shlema, for Rabbi Efraim ben Shulamit, David ben Esria, Doris bat Jorah, Rabbanit Levana bat Sarah, Rabbanit Sarah bat Anat, Yitro ben Avraham, Talia bat Sarah, Jonas ben Sherry Haley, Yosef Yitzchak ben Baylor Rachel, Stefan ben Katarina, Michal bat Yael, Serach bat Batya, Batya bat Sara, Aurit bat Ilana, Esther bat Tzipora, Dvora bat Mercedes,

3:56and all of Am Yisrael, B'ezrat Hashem, will have Refuah Shlema, Refuat HaNefesh, Refuat HaGuf. I really want to give a special thank you for everyone's support over this last year. Baruch Hashem, we've reached milestones that even in my wildest dreams I wouldn't have thought we could achieve. Anyone who took the time to watch one of our minute-and-a-half, two-minute videos about some of the things that, uh, the B'ezrat Hashem team has achieved over the last year. To be honest with you, I watched it several times just because I'm so amazed, uh, simply if you just understand what it means. If you're just looking at numbers like I did for 16 years on Wall Street, then it won't really mean much to you. Oh, there's some numbers. Oh, there's 60 million. Oh, it's 5 million. There's 2 million. Numbers, numbers, doesn't mean much. But when you understand that there is... eternity behind it. There are neshamot behind it. There are families behind it. There are people just like you behind it, and they're changing their lives as a result. You get a little bit of pleasure behind Gan Eden, a little taste of Gan Eden. I'll give you an example: one of our dear students in Eretz Yisrael, she loves kiruv, loves kiruv.

5:19tries to donate whenever she can. She shares the lectures whenever she can, but she never really tasted the pleasure of kiruv until she saw it firsthand. Why does she see firsthand? She sees what we do, she sees the lectures, but one day she tells me that her son, I think he's nine years old, nine years old, cute kid, tzaddik. He has a friend that's a couple of years younger than him, completely secular. But I don't mean secular like his parents still go to Beit Knesset on the Chagim and maybe, you know, keep the fast. No, no, I'm talking about nothing. Zero. You know, a little kid with an earring already, you know, looks, you know, you wouldn't be able to tell that he's a Jew until he starts speaking Hebrew. Anyway, they befriend each other and this tzaddik says, "Come on, come to my house. What are you going to do in the house? Do you have a Game Boy? I don't know what that is; I don't have that. Do you have a PlayStation? I'm not really sure what that is, but that's not what I'm talking about. No, no, what do you have? I'll show you. Come, come." And he brings him to the house. What does he do? He opens the Chumash with him and says, "Okay, repeat after me."

6:41Hey, he goes over and starts teaching him Torah. This little kid starts repeating blessings all of a sudden. And the mom's watching the whole thing already for a few weeks. That first time. For a few weeks already. Every day he comes to his house and he's teaching him. Starts coming home for Shabbat. And he starts teaching him, teaching him Mussar, showing him the lecture. And she says, "I saw my son do Kiruv. Now I understand why you do it." Now, this little kid that never heard a blessing in his life—forget never said it, never heard a blessing in his life—is now doing blessings before he eats. And he gives Mussar, and he goes back and forth with him. The little kid says that's going to hit him. That's good when you understand that behind all of those numbers, there are countless people just like that little kid. There's a big version, there's a little version, there's a middle version. It means a lot, and Baruch Hashem for all of the supporters, all of the people that donate money, all the people that watch this shiur.

7:45all of the people that share, all of the people that care, care enough to help Am Yisrael, because as we all know, and we talk about week after week, the condition that we're in as a nation is not very good. Needless to say, the condition of the world is not very good. But the condition of our nation specifically is not very good, and really the only thing that you can compare it to is the situation that we were in pre-Holocaust. Monetarily, we were in great shape. Politically, we were in great shape. But when it came to our religiosity, when it came to our commitment to Hashem, even though we had big, big, giant tzaddikim in that generation, kedoshim, it wasn't enough. It wasn't enough, Rabotai HaKedoshim, and HaKadosh Baruch Hu brought the Holocaust. and took away six million neshamos, many of which are us, the people that are living in this generation, this last generation before Mashiach. The same exact thing happened several times in history. Before HaKadosh Baruch Hu destroyed the first and the second Beit HaMikdash, politically, we were in great shape. We were friends with the goyim, made a lot of money,

9:14many, many rich Jewish people, religiosity, nightmare. Idolatry became standard, unfortunately, like it is today. Different forms of idolatry, but idolatry nonetheless. Heresy became standard. Different types of heresy, but heresy nonetheless. And HaKadosh Baruch Hu, who gave us many signs and many indications and many warnings, said enough's enough, and He brought us the Holocaust. 2,500 years ago, 2,000 years ago, several times in between, and obviously the most recent one that everyone knows by the name Holocaust. So the question is, why would Hashem bring us a Holocaust if every year we're supposed to have Rosh Hashanah followed by Yom Kippur, and He's supposed to forgive all of our sins?

10:16I mean, technically, there should never be a Holocaust. Why? Because if it is, as many people say, you know, listen, on this day Hashem judges, Hashem forgives, we start anew. People walk around with white clothes like they're angels and doves. If you're Sephardic, it comes with a couple of kisses too. Good thing, no? So how come the Holocaust happened? How come Corona happened? Why is this happening? I mean, it's a big question. If HaKadosh Baruch Hu really forgives, how come it's happening? Now let it not enter your mind that I'm questioning Hashem. I'm questioning whether He forgives or not, because surely He does. The real question is, why did the Holocaust happen if we said I'm sorry? The short answer is, many of us don't say I'm sorry. Now, if somebody came up to you, whether you knew him or not, whether you liked him or not,

11:44decided to investigate your face with his hand and gave you a nice chop. Cut to the right, initially you'll be shocked. You'll ask him a few questions, maybe use some peculiar words while you're asking those questions, but if you're not a violent person, you're not going to hit him back. You'll say, "Oh, what's wrong with you? What are you doing?" "Oh, okay, okay." What do you mean, okay? Oh, my bad, my bad. What do you mean? Of course, it's bad. No, you mean, that's today's expression replacement for I'm sorry. Because we have a hard time saying I'm sorry, so we say bad. Like we're little children with limited vocabulary. My bad. We don't know how to speak. My bad. It's not even appropriate English. But it's my bad. And it's become standard language. Okay. Now, if he didn't say I'm sorry, if he didn't even say my bad, And he just came up to you and gave you a nice chap to the right, maybe a left one to follow just to make sure the two cheeks match. He doesn't want you looking silly with only one of them being red. And you said what you said, what's wrong with you or whatever other choice of words you have in your vocabulary, especially for a peculiar situation. And you said, what's wrong with you? And he says, nothing.

13:10Nothing wrong with that. See you later. How would you feel about that? Would you just walk away, talk to your wife, say, "Listen, honey, you're never going to believe what happened in shul today?" Or would you be more modern? with your reaction by showing him how his cheeks look in the mirror after you hit them right back. Most likely, you hit him back. Most likely, why? Not only did you hit me, not only did you violate my privacy, not only did you embarrass me, not only did you do things that completely demoralized me, but you weren't even apologetic about it, you weren't even remotely close to being remorseful in any way. In fact, you were so careless that your carelessness hurt me even more than the slap.

14:16The fact that I asked you, "What are you doing?" I wasn't really questioning whether what you were doing. I knew what you were doing. You were hitting my face. You were embarrassing me in public. I knew what you were doing. It was just an expression to say, "Hey, say I'm sorry." And not only did you not say, "I'm sorry," but you said, "What? What? Doesn't everybody just hate your face?" It looks like one of those faces that need to be hit. What? What's the problem? I'm just here to hit faces. That's all I came here for. That response made me much angrier than the hit itself. That's the mashal. What's the nimshal? That's why the Holocaust happens. That's why Corona happens. That's why a lot of tragedies happen, including the Beit HaMikdash, and anything that happened in between, and Hashem Yishmor V'Yatzil, anything that follows. We show up to Rosh Hashanah unapologetic. We show up to Rosh Hashanah more concerned about our outfit.

15:23to make sure that everyone sees us at our best. We spend 20 minutes doing our hair, a half-hour taking a shower, and another 45 minutes to an hour making sure that the suit fits just right. If it doesn't, I'm getting a different one and making sure that the colors of our socks and underwear are color-coded. And the watch is right outside of the jacket and the shirt, so everyone sees the bling right when you come in. Hey And the reality is, we spend so much time looking good, we forget why we're here. we forget why we came to shul, we forget why we pray, and we forget what’s the point. We think, "Okay, I'm gonna go see some people, do some prayers, and then eat like I've never eaten in my life. Then I pray again, say what's up to my friends that I haven't seen in several months at least, and then eat again." And you have to eat...

16:26You have to enjoy. It's not a day to fast, it's not a day to mourn, it's not a day to be sad, but there's a time and a place for everything. And one of the things we forget about is that it's also a time to say I'm sorry to Hashem. Now, when we show up to the Beit Knesset, or if we're going to pray at home, and our prayer is just like that guy that slapped you, unapologetic, not remorseful in any way, shape, or form, who says "That hurts me a lot more than the actual sin itself." Why? I gave you a chance to clean your bill, and instead of saying, "I'm just a little sorry," which really doesn't actually matter in all reality. But I was willing to accept that I'm sorry on this special day, and you didn't even say it, so I gave you two days. And you still didn't do it. It offended me even more. Why? You missed the whole point. Now, the Ramban, the Ramban, almost over 800 years ago, wrote a...

17:48countless things, but one of the things was a speech. A speech that he gave for Rosh Hashanah to a Kehillah that perhaps needed the message just as much as we do. And Here, he didn't waste any words. He didn't give any special stories but rather got to the point of what is Rosh Hashanah. Of course, you have the laws of Rosh Hashanah, which are different things that you're supposed to do during the day. You have to treat it like it's Shabbat, especially this year since it is actually on Shabbat. You have to make sure that on the second day this year, you hear the shofar. Usually, if it's not on Shabbat, you would hear the shofar twice. You have the festive meal you eat; you have to eat meat. Not necessarily to eat meat at every meal, but at least at the meal twice during the holiday.

19:04You have to make sure that you're not angry. You have to make sure that you spend your time wisely, which means don't waste your time taking naps and going to sleep like you typically do on Shabbat afternoon. do that on Rosh Hashanah. Why? Because anyone that sleeps on Rosh Hashanah—not counting the sleep at night that you need to sleep—but anyone that sleeps extra, like he wants to take, you know, a two-hour nap in the afternoon in between meals and prayers, it is said that if he sleeps on Rosh Hashanah, his mazal will also sleep that year too. His mazal will also sleep. His whole year is going to be on hold. Why? You're sleeping. You're taking a nap. Mazal is sleeping also whenever you need it. It's not a good idea to sleep during Rosh Hashanah. In fact, it should be a day that we pray as much as we can. We learn Torah as much as we can. And we have to make sure that we don't waste time. Sure, you could be with the family. You could learn. You could do a lot of wonderful things.

20:08There is a segula among the Chachamim that is specifically for the ladies, which is to read the book of Tehillim twice during Rosh Hashanah, once on each day. Depending on your speed of reading, it could take anywhere from two to four hours to read the whole book. It's 150 chapters or sections. So each day, 150. It's a segula. The... Gematria value, numerical value of the two Tehillim is, spells out the word Kapar, or Kapar, which means forgiveness. Hashem will forgive our sins. So that's a segula that Kaf, Peh, Resh. So Resh 200, Peh is 80, and Kaf is 20. that spells forgiveness. Again, if you're praying with all seriousness, surely this will be good for you. You're allowed to take a break to go to the bathroom if you need to or to munch on something, but don't say the words of Tehillim while you're eating.

21:23But most, you know, something that you can do to make it even more valuable is don't speak mundane words while you're reading the Tehillim. If you can't, you have to say something, do it. But it's ideal if you could just sit there for a few hours, two, three hours, however long it takes you, without speaking mundane words. For some people, it's impossible, especially if you're a mother with kids. You know, unless you could pretty much put your kids in a coma for four hours, it's not happening, and I don't suggest you put them in comas or anything. Just do it at your own risk, I'm kidding. But the thing is, though, is that you have to try to do your best. For the guys, try to learn some Torah, try to pray. Most importantly, don't waste time, don't waste time and don't violate the chag. You know, unless you could pretty much put your kids in a coma for four hours, it's not happening, and I don't suggest you put them in comas or anything—just do it at your own risk, I'm kidding. But the thing is, though, that you have to try to do your best. For the guys, try to learn some Torah, try to pray. Most importantly, don't waste time, don't waste time, and don't violate the chag. The biggest thing is to do teshuva. To do teshuva. And the Ramban brings us here in his special discourse on Rosh Hashanah, a special lecture that he gave on Rosh Hashanah. And he says the following.

22:38the Rabbis also said: In the hereafter, the Holy One, Blessed be He, will bring a scroll of the Law and place it in His lap and say, "He who has been engaged in the study and observance of this Torah shall come forward and receive his reward." Thereupon, aware that they cannot claim any share of the reward, all of the nations of the world will gather and assemble in confusion and trepidation. The Holy One, Blessed be He, will say to them: "Do not come before Me in confusion." Why is the Ramban saying this to a bunch of Jewish people? Why is he telling us about how the nations that didn't learn Torah are going to come to Hashem? As it states, because it also pertains to us. Don't come to HaKadosh Baruch Hu on Rosh Hashanah confused. What am I supposed to do now?

23:38What do you do now? I don't have anything to do. I'm so bored. Don't do that. Why? Today is the day to do teshuva. You don't know what to do? Go pick up a Gemara, pick up a Chumash, pick up a Midrash, pick up Sefer Tehillim, start reading. Obviously, if it's not during prayer—if you're praying, pray. But don't come and walk around aimlessly like some zombie. What do you do now? Don't be so confused. The whole point of the day is to do teshuva. Why? The Ramban continues over 800 years ago to give us this point, so we hopefully get it through our skulls in our preparation. However, this is the explanation of the matter. On Rosh Hashanah, all that came into the world pass before Him. Pertaining to matters of this world, each one is judged to determine if he is worthy of being granted peace, riches, possessions, and honor, or whether he is to be sentenced to die during that year, or to suffer visitations of suffering, sorrow, and poverty. In short, the judgment of Rosh Hashanah

25:04concerns all matters that affect the human body and in this world, including life, children, and sustenance (parnassah). However, Rosh Hashanah does not embrace a judgment on matters of the soul, that is, whether the soul is worthy of Gan Eden, an enjoyment of eternal life and the world to come, or whether it is to be sentenced to Gehenom and destruction. It's very interesting that all of the giants in Torah mention Gehenom like it's common language. Yet people that write books today say Gehenom doesn't exist, or it's just a fairy tale, or it's just, I don't know, they maybe make fun of you for a little while and then you go to Gan Eden. Strange. What happened in the last 900 years? Someone showed me a book, a famous book... Just the other day, the guy writes in the book, "Life After Death." Everyone goes to Gan Eden, he writes. Just those wicked people, they feel shame. They're embarrassed that they didn't get to a high level of Gan Eden. I said, I don't need to read the rest of the book, but I can tell you, you're not allowed to read the rest of the book. Why? It's complete heresy. Once a person says such a thing, you cannot rely on anything else that he says. Now,

26:31The Ramban was very clear. No one disagrees with the Ramban. You cannot say, listen, I don't think the Ramban was right here. The Ramban tells us clearly the whole purpose of the day is to do teshuva, because this is the day that Hashem is going to decide whether you're going to have money in your pocket or not. This is the day that HaKadosh Baruch Hu is going to decide whether you're going to live or die. That's a big deal—live or die. A lot of people died this year. Every year a lot of people die, but this year, many died in unusual ways. Dying from Corona or something that the government says is Corona, even though it's a heart attack, is an unusual death. It's an unusual death that they found a poor woman in Eretz Yisrael. Okay, they found her dead on the floor with a three-year-old daughter just yesterday or the day before. For days she's been dead, with her three-year-old daughter next to her. That's an unusual death, but it was decided on Rosh Hashanah last year. It's unusual that they're constantly finding older people dead in their houses, in Israel and other places. It's completely crazy when it comes to this Corona scam.

27:46People forget that they even have a family. They don't call. They don't check. Neighbors don't check. Everybody cares about themselves. And the reality is people are literally dying in their houses because they don't have food. They don't have care. They don't have anything. And they find out eventually after a few days when the body is starting to already rot. Hashem Yishmor. That's an unusual death. And that was decided on Rosh Hashanah last year. It wasn't decided last week. It was decided last year on Rosh Hashanah. Which means that had those people known, had any of us known what this year would look like, last Rosh Hashanah, we wouldn't have left the shul. Had any of us known that this year was going to be a year that's going to scare the world to death in a way that we haven't seen in at least a hundred years since the Spanish flu killed tens of millions of people. This year, we didn't have as many deaths as the Spanish flu, but the fear that people have might as well be it. The economic damage that small businesses have had might as well be death for many of them. The amount of suicides as a result of hopelessness that we've had this year might as well be death. Why? Because we did not prepare enough last year. Had we known, we wouldn't have stopped praying, we wouldn't have stopped doing teshuvah. Had we known that a little virus that you can't even see and you're not even sure if it's real...

29:01might as well be death for many of them. The amount of suicides as a result of hopelessness that we've had this year might as well be death. Why? Because we did not prepare enough last year. Had we known, we wouldn't have stopped praying, we wouldn't have stopped doing teshuvah. Had we known that a little virus that you can't even see and you're not even sure if it's real had you known that such a thing was going to come to the world shortly after the year began and spread around the world and scare everybody in such a way that they had never even imagined they would live through such a thing, we simply would have started and never stopped doing teshuvah. On the good end, this coronavirus and the upheaval that's been happening over the last five or six months, which no one thought was going to last that long, has helped many people do teshuvah.

30:01has helped many people do teshuvah. But as the Klausenberger Rebbe said himself, people that heard us, "I was in the Holocaust. I was in the Holocaust. You took 10 kids, all 10 of his kids and his wife." And I saw, HaKadosh Baruch Hu, that even during that crisis, even during that trauma, even during that Gehenom in this world, there were still Reshaim inside the Holocaust, staying Reshaim, still going against You while they were being punished. Not doing Teshuvah, even at the gates of Gehenom, just like the Gemara says. mercy on us who gives us good and we will do good because obviously they're not doing it. Some of them, maybe if you do good, maybe something else will happen. Unfortunately, that doesn't always work. He gives us good, and sometimes we get worse. And who knows what works and what doesn't work? We don't need to give Him any guidance.

31:16But when we pray to Hashem for the nation of Israel, we pray to Hashem for our people, we always pray in their favor. When we speak to individuals, we have to rebuke and tell them to do teshuva. Why? That's what you're supposed to do. That's how it works. You never complain to Hashem about the nation of Israel, but you have to make sure to complain to Israel about Israel. Why? Because that's how you help them do teshuva. Had we known that this year would be this way, wouldn't have let ourselves leave the same as we entered. There was one time a story by Rav Galinsky where he says there was a king, a king that invited another king over to his castle. And surely when you invite

32:18another reputable person of status and so on, the first thing that you want to do is show them your glory. Show them your big castle and the jewels and the art and all of the wonderful things. And surely the guest, being great as he is, also wants to show something too. So, in this particular instance, Rav Galinsky says that the guest king said, "I have the best chef in the world, and I want to show Your Highness a dish that we like, and I want you to enjoy it." So... being great as he is, also wants to show something too. So, in this particular instance, Rav Galinsky says that the guest king said, "I have the best chef in the world, and I want to show Your Highness a dish that we like, and I want you to enjoy it." So... makes him something where the Jews from Tripoli, like myself, call zbana. None of you are going to know what that is, so I'm going to explain it to you simply. Rule number one: if you're not cooking it, don't be in the house while it's being cooked because the stench is horrific. Why? Because part of the food is the intestines of the animal.

33:44The intestines of the animal. And you put food in it and so on. But once it's finished, it's delicious. Now, I haven't had this in probably 20 or 30 years, but it's a delicious dish that people from the Middle East enjoy very much. So, he made him this dish, and the king had this food and said, "This is the best thing I've ever had." you have to tell my master chef exactly everything you do. If you're my good friend, please share with us the secret. He said, "Your Highness, I'm already ahead of you. I'm already having my chef sit down with your chef, telling him exactly, step-by-step, how many grains of salt even to put." He says, "Thank you, you are a true friend." So... Day part ways, the king goes back to where he came from. And the other king says to his chef, "Listen, you got the instructions?" The chef says, "Your Highness, got it." He said, "Okay, let's go." "Oh, now?" "Right now. Right now." "Okay, Your Highness." "No, it takes four hours." "Don't worry about it. Let it take four days. I want it right now."

35:11So, the chef comes and starts preparing a dish. He gets the best of the animals, the potatoes, the vegetables, everything. He makes the dish exactly as the instructions say. He brings it to the king. And everybody says it smells a little funny. It didn't smell like that before. He says, "Your Highness, I don't know, but it is what it is. I followed the instructions." Okay, hopefully it tastes better than it smells. The king cuts it open, takes the first bite, and almost as a reflex, spits out everything that was in his mouth on the chef. He said, "I'm going to kill you. You're trying to poison me." The chef responds, "No, no, Your Highness, no, no, no, please, please, don't. I did everything he said." The king asks, "Are you sure?" The chef promises, "I promise you." The king commands, "Go do it again." and now I'm going to have people watch you. So he goes back in the kitchen. Several more hours, and this time he's got people surrounding him. Like if he makes the wrong move, there's a nice sword coming right straight to his neck. So this guy's scared to death, but he's a master chef. So he does everything that it says to do. Put the dish, put that, take the intestine, ta-ta-ta. Makes the dish. Several hours pass.

36:39Brings it to the king. This time, we're not really sure if it smells or it's from the last one, because the last one was something to remember. The king cuts it open, takes a bite, and instantly spits it at the chef. He goes, "Now I'm definitely going to kill you." The chef responds, "Your highness, look, I have witnesses. They saw me follow everything." The witnesses say, "Your highness, we saw it. He followed everything." The king says, "If you followed everything, then we're going to war." Because that means that the king I thought was my friend made this. He gave his chef instructions to make fun of me. So he gets angry. He's raging. And he sends a message to the other king. He says, "I can't believe you did this to me, but I'm going to destroy your whole country over this dish." The other king says, "What is he talking about?" He brings in your chef and says, "What are you doing? What did you do?" The chef responds, "Your highness, I did exactly what I was told to do." The king replies, "Are you sure? I'm going to kill you!" The chef insists, "No, no, I'm sure, I did it correctly." The king then writes a letter back to the other king, stating, "Listen, my chef followed your chef's instructions precisely. Maybe your chef is incompetent or maybe you are for threatening me. But if you want to come here to visit us, we're ready. Both countries' armies are prepared."

38:04Boiling, they can't wait to fight each other over this dish. Moments before the king says, "Let's go to war," he thinks, "How could it be? If he's saying that the chef did the right thing, then something's wrong here. Because if he really meant to poison me, if he really meant to make fun of me, he would just say so. Why isn't he saying so?" The other king is thinking the same thing. He says, "I don't understand. Why does this guy want to go to war with me? We were friends. If he followed the instructions like my chef told him, then why would he be mad at me?" Both of them figure it out. So, you know what? They sent a letter to each other: "Before we go to war, let's just put both of the chefs in jail." and they have to. We're going to listen in. We're going to see what happens because if something doesn't come out of it, we're just going to kill both of them instead of going to war. So that's what they do. They take both chefs and throw them in jail. They said, "Listen, you two, you're not coming out until you tell us what happened." So the chef that gave the recipe says to the guy, "I know what you did because I did exactly what you said. You put the salt, I put the salt. You put the potato, I put the potato. You put the dish, I put the dish. Everything."

39:28You sure you did it? He goes, I did it twice. And even after, while the king was waiting, I did it a third time. Every time, same thing. He says, I can't believe it. I don't know what's wrong with you. He goes, I don't know what's wrong with you. What kind of food do you guys eat? So they're sitting. He says, listen, we have an hour. If we don't come up with something within an hour, they're going to kill both of us. You idiot. What did you make? What did you feed? He goes, you idiot. What did you feed my king? And they're both fighting each other, but they don't know what to do. Now you have 10 minutes left. sitting down, it's like, okay, so let's just say Kaddish on ourselves before we go. Before the moment's up, the chef that gave the menu thinks of something. He goes, let me ask you something. You use the intestines? He goes, yeah, obviously, that's the main dish. You cleaned them, right? He said, what? What do you mean clean them?

40:29do you mean, what do you mean, clean them? The intestines? The intestines that you put the food in—did you clean them before you put the food there? He says, no, you never said that. He goes, it's full of fecal matter! Of course, it's going to taste like that. You're supposed to clean it before you eat it. That's the mashal that Rav Galinsky told us many years ago. What's the nimshal? If you want to show up to Yom Kippur, if you want to show up to Rosh Hashanah, if you want to show up in front of HaKadosh Baruch Hu without cleaning up your sins, and you want to still be full of it, guess what? Your teshuva is not going to work. Your prayer is not going to work. Nothing is going to change. Before we go ask Hashem for all of the wonderful things that we want, we have to clean ourselves up. We cannot continue to be full of it.

41:37full of sins, full of tum'ah, full of garbage, full of filthy language, full of sinat chinam, full of jealousy, full of hatred, full of arrogance, full of all of the filth, all of the abominable acts that people do on a daily basis. You cannot continue that and then say, you know, I'm sorry. Can I have some money? By the way, all that stuff. Can I get married this year? She needs to be good-looking too. And rich maybe. I'm sorry, okay? Listen, now that we're finished with the whole sorry thing, I need a new job because this job only pays me a hundred thousand a year. It doesn't really work out with my millionaire plans. I need a job that pays me at least double this year. Can you do that for me? You said You have all the money, and we have no problem asking. We have no problem putting the different ingredients in the dish.

42:38We have no problem eating. HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, clean yourself up first. Don't come to me full of it, full of the tum'ah, full of the impurity. Have a game plan to fix yourself, because today is the day that Hashem decides whether we live or die, whether we get married or stay single, whether we have children or we stay without, Hashem Yishmor. Whether... have money or we don't. Everything is decided on this day. If you want to have a favorable judgment, you have to come clean. You have to come clean. This is also what the Mesilat Yesharim says lived a very short life but achieved more in that short life than most people do in an entire life, even if it was ten times longer. And he says, in his fifth chapter of his Mesilat Yesharim, all that is required from a person is to purify and cleanse himself and refrain from following in the footsteps of the masses who are immersed in vanities of the times.

44:01Simultaneously, he must direct himself towards the precincts of the Eternal and His dwelling places. As David HaMelech himself concludes in Tehillim 26:6, "I will wash my hands in purity, and then I will encircle Your altar, O Eternal." And if it turns out that he finds himself in the company of one who ridicules him, He should not let this bother him at all. This is why the first is to be proud of your Judaism and don't be discouraged by all of the naysayers that tell you you're too religious. You're a fanatic. Amen. Fanatic for Hashem? Amen. For some reason in this world, they say you're a Mets fan, you're a baseball fan, you're a football fan. Yeah, yeah, yeah, they're proud of it. What does fan mean? Fanatic. But if people say, yo, you're fanatic about this Judaism, people are embarrassed by it. To be fanatic about some stupid team, no, no problem, that's what you're proud of. But to be fanatic for Hashem, we're embarrassed of. First, the Torah says, not only be fanatic, be proud of it.

45:24Rabbi Chaim Moshe Luzzatto says, if somebody comes to you and says, listen, you're too much with this Tikkun HaBrit. You're too much with this Kiruv. You're too much with this prayer. You're too much with this learning. Come hang out with us. What are you, an old man? Starts making fun of you. The Ramchal says, don't let it bother you at all. On the contrary, he continues, he should ridicule and denigrate his scoffers. He should imagine that if he had the opportunity to make a lot of money, would he pass it up just to avoid the ridicule of his peers? How much more so then should he not be willing to lose his soul because of ridicule? In the same vein, the Chida, of blessed memory, cautioned us in Pirkei Avot, Chapter 5, Mishnah number 20, be bold as a leopard to do the will of your Father in Heaven. Ramchal gives us a practical explanation. He says that if somebody comes and makes fun of you, not only shouldn't it bother you; on the contrary, you should fight all of those people. Tell them, "You're making fun of me for serving Hashem?"

46:51You do realize that your life has no meaning whatsoever. The difference between you and the cow is zero. She eats, you eat. Actually, I think the cow has a better life than you. She doesn't have to pay a mortgage. You're never going to see a cow taking any pills for stress. You're never going to see the cow saying that she feels lonely, but you do. Yet, you live the same life. You eat, you procreate, you sleep. you're making fun of my life, where I'm trying to live an eternal life, where I worship the One and serve the One that created me, the One that gives me, for being grateful for it. And if at all one of these ridiculers comes to you and says to you, "Oh, you're too much, you're a fanatic." Think of what the Ramchal says. If somebody came to you and says, "Listen, why are you crazy? Why are you working, making all these millions? Enough! Go hang out. All day you're working, millions and millions and millions. No, come on, enough with the millions already. Go hang out. Go to the beach. Chill out a little bit. Be like us. Maybe have a beer on the street, like a bum."

48:07Would you take such a person seriously? Only if you're an idiot would you take such a person seriously. I can tell you on a personal note, when I first started my career on Wall Street, I was a young kid, I was 18 years old. And every day I worked as hard as I possibly could because that's one of the things that my father taught us, my mother taught us. If you want something, you have to work hard for it. So we already, all of us, started working very early. Started working when I was 10 years old. By the time I was 18, I went into Wall Street, and I wasn't making any money. Now, every day, especially as I was already in the business for a little longer—was in the business for a couple of years already—still not making any money. Working for other people, making them money, but not myself. I started getting other jobs just to make ends meet, and I would work two jobs. every day my day ended somewhere between 1:30 and 2:30 in the morning, but I don't mean it ended like I finally went to sleep at 1:30 or 2:30 in the morning. I mean I got home from work; I got off the bus at 1:30 or 2 o'clock in the morning.

49:25And every day, I'm in my little suit and my little briefcase, coming back from Manhattan, walking in the street from the bus stop, about a mile to my house, a mile and a half to my house, at one o'clock in the morning, 12 o'clock at night, two o'clock, all types of odd times, and going to work early, six o'clock in the morning, 5:45, get on the bus for an hour, hour and a half, depending on traffic, work the whole day, finish somewhere around midnight. Then get on the bus, another hour, hour and a half. By the time I got home, it was 1, 1:30 in the morning. And every single day, every single day, I would see the same losers hanging out outside, drinking 40s, smoking marijuana, and laughing at the world. Ha ha! ...and they're all having a good time, and they're seeing me as this poor schmo walking around with the briefcase like an old man. I'm walking to my little apartment that I'm renting for 700 bucks a month, and I can't wait to go home so I can rest for a few hours before going back again. Every day it's like, "Hey, now you finished work, what's up?" I said, "Yeah, I finished work..."

50:38Why don't you come hang out? Sorry, I don't have time. Why not? I got work. You just worked. Yeah, I got work again tomorrow. When are you going to hang out? Never. Why not? I don't have time. I don't have time to hang out. No, come on. We're having a good time. We're just talking about this and that. You remember this? What happened in high school? Yeah, no, not really. I don't really care, actually. I'm going to work. ...how much money you make? About a thousand bucks a month, maybe $1,500 for this particular job. The other jobs pay a little bit more. But what you're telling me is that you're working from six o'clock in the morning to two o'clock in the morning. Somehow, you sleep in between, and you're only making about a thousand dollars a month. See, give or take, on a good month, maybe about $1,800 if the boss pays... And they look at me. We're holding their 40s. The other guy's holding his marijuana or some other form of drugs. And everybody else is doing the same thing. And they all have a kick. They're having a laugh. And they're like, you're crazy. He goes, "You know the homeless guy makes more than you, right?" Let it be. Let it be. "You're going to come hang out?" "I'm not coming to hang out."

51:46every day will be the same thing, every day the same losers at different corners hanging out, drinking their 40s, smoking marijuana, and they're having the time of their life on my bill. As Hakadosh Baruch Hu would have it, a little time passed, and then we started printing money. And then we started making millions of dollars where there wasn't anybody in the tri-state area that didn't hear about us. People that I haven't spoken to in 20 years all of a sudden call me, "Hey, listen, do you have any job openings?" "What? How did you know I'm hiring?" "I don't know. Everybody comes to work for you. So I figured, can I work?" "What do you know about the business?" "Nothing. Do I have to know anything? I just want to be like you." No. Every day, new people, new people, new people. why, why, you're making fun of me just a little while ago, the guy with the briefcase at two o'clock in the morning. Oh yeah, no, he got lucky, he got lucky, he picked a good stock, he got lucky because he got a good time in the market, it went down. All nonsense, all nonsense. You don't get lucky and make a fortune.

52:57lucky here and there, but to me, to build a business, all of these people you see on TV building companies, they didn't get lucky. They put themselves in the right place at the right time and did what everybody else is not willing to do, and HaKadosh Baruch Hu decided to bless them. The guys that are drinking 40s, smoking marijuana, thinking they're cool, guess what happens to them? They stay losers forever. The Ramchal is teaching us something even more critical than what I'm trying to teach. The Ramchal is saying it's even more valuable when that work that you're doing at 2 o'clock in the morning is not just for this world. So, okay, you went to Wall Street, you made some money, you lost it. Bottom line is, even if you had it or you lost it, in reality, even if you died with a hundred billion dollars, what does it really mean in the real world? Nothing. You can't take it with you. You can't take it with you. And you stood up against all of the naysayers making fun of you for stuff that you can't even take with you to the real world. Needless to say, you should stand up for the truth and for something that's meaningful and priceless—millions of mitzvot every day that you can gather. Because those you can take with you.

54:21Those stay with you. Those are valuable. But rabotai, it all starts with us cleaning ourselves. Cleaning ourselves. Now, before we take questions, remember that cleaning ourselves means that we have to work on specific traits that we have weaknesses in. cleaning ourselves means that we have to do certain things that are sometimes difficult for us. And one of the things that Rabbeinu Yonah, over 800 years ago, says that a person needs to do in order to clean ourselves is what he says in Sha'arei Teshuvah, the third gate, section 35. He says, You shall continually give to him, and you must not feel bad when giving. A verse in Sefer Devarim, the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 15, verse 10. Rabbeinu Yonah says we have herein been admonished to distance ourselves from meanness of spirit, from being mean, but to be

55:43Magnanimous, similar to what the verse says in Proverbs 22:9, a magnanimous person is blessed. Magnanimous in Hebrew is "tov ayin," meaning somebody that sees you want to help people succeed. You see somebody succeed, chazak u'baruch, even if it's in your field, even if it's your competition. That guy just signed a deal and made five million dollars. Mazel tov to him. That guy just bought a house. Baruch Hashem. That guy just got married. Oh, he's the bachur shemor. Yeah, but you realize that somebody said no to you on a shidduch. So what? Let him succeed. Oh, he's got his third kid. You still haven't even had one. Baruch Hashem that he had. Yeah, you just know you just sold this company for half a billion dollars. You're still looking for work. Baruch Hashem. And you succeed. Oh, you know, you just gave a lecture and a thousand people showed up. You still have 25. Let him succeed. Hopefully, he helps them do teshuva. Somebody that wants other people to succeed, hey, listen, do me a favor. Listen, I heard you're really good at such and such. Can you give me a hand doing this thing? What? So you want me to help you compete with me? I guess more or less. Okay, no problem. What do you need?

57:01Do you need...? I don't know. I need to know how you actually build that thing that you sell for a thousand dollars. I want to sell it for two thousand dollars on my website because I have those kinds of clients that are willing to pay me two thousand dollars. Can you tell me how to do it? Sure, no problem. Here you go, I'll send you the email. You got it. Why would you do that? Because you have a tov ayin. You know that parnasah comes from shamayim. You want people to succeed. You want to help them. Hey, listen, Rabbi, I heard your shiur. I want to give a shiur to other people. Can you give me the sources you used for that shiur that took you about 9, 10, 15, 20 hours to get? Can you give it to me on a silver platter in two minutes? No problem. No problem. Don't be one of those people. Listen, I worked for it. You go work for it. Don't be one of those people. Don't be mean. How do people succeed? Rabbeinu Yonah says we are obligated to not be mean, to have a tov ayin. But he says, what's the cleanliness here? That's just something to do. What's the cleanliness here? He said it's not enough to merely open our hands and give. Rather, we must implant within our souls the trait of generosity. Therefore, the Torah rebukes us.

58:18By saying you must not feel bad when giving him. Subsequent to it saying, you shall continue to give. It's not just give, the Torah says, but don't feel bad because you gave. Because sometimes What ends up happening? Somebody says, hey, listen, Rabbi, I see you have a campaign for helping some poor people in Israel. Yeah, listen, I have ma'aser, I just made $10,000. Where do I send the check to? Oh, you send it over here. Oh, can I do it on the website? Okay, fine. Okay, send the check, $1,000. Okay. Okay, okay. And the guy after that says, I can't believe I just spent $1,000. I can't believe it. Hashem, why do I have to give this ma'aser? Rabbi, are you sure I have to give ma'aser? Because I'm not sure if I'm going to make the same money next month. Maybe I should wait to see what happens next month. He doesn't want to give. Inside him, he doesn't want to give. Rabbi, listen, you promised that, right? I didn't promise anything. No, no, but you said in the shiur that Hashem said He's going to pay me back, right? If I give money, He's going to give me back. You said that He's going to give me money back, right? Hashem said He'll give it back to you. I didn't promise anything. I'm just repeating what the Torah says.

59:31He's going to give it back though, right? Or it's on you? Hey, hold on a second. You go to Hashem, you have a problem with Him. Oh, so it's like that? So it's like I gotta, like, believe it and stuff? You can do whatever you want, buddy. You can do whatever you want. But Rabbeinu Yonah says you're already on the wrong boat. Meaning, even if you give with that type of mentality, it's not clean. It's still a mitzvah, but it's not clean. Why? You gave, but you feel bad for giving. It's like, "I can't believe I gotta give. You know what, I'll give because it says that I'm going to get it back." And the whole year you're counting the hours, right? Listen, Rabbi, you said they're going to give it back, right? No, I gave it already a month ago. I gave the tzedakah already a month ago. It's still not in my account, though. I'm still missing that thousand dollars. You sure it's going to give? Yeah, B'ezrat Hashem. Alright, two months later. Rabbi, listen, three months have passed. Hashem didn't send me any emails. Are you sure He's going to give? Listen, HaKadosh Baruch Hu wrote it. He's going to do it. I don't know how He's going to do it. He's going to do it.

1:00:43Nine months passed. Listen, Rabbi, I don't think you understood what the Torah says here. I don't know, I think maybe you got to go back to yeshiva, Rabbi. I don't know, I'm still missing. Let me ask you a question: how much money did you make this year? I don't know, $100,000? $200,000? $50,000? $60,000? So what makes you think that thousand dollars wasn't part of that? Wow, but that was my salary. I was supposed to make that. Who said you're supposed to make that? The company? Oh, so the company runs the world? company runs the world? Who said? How many people did they fire in your company this year? Oh, they fired a lot of people, 40, 50 people, and they didn't fire you? No, no, no, I still got my job. So in essence, you're saying that you actually got that hundred thousand, that fifty thousand, that two hundred thousand while the other people are collecting unemployment, three, four hundred bucks a week? Yeah. So, well, you're actually getting a lot more than a thousand dollars. Oh, I guess you could look at it that way. It's like Chamor. Chamor looks at it better than you. A donkey looks at it better than you. You're still complaining while other people don't have jobs. And you think that HaKadosh Baruch Hu didn't give you. Why? Because you want HaKadosh Baruch Hu to give you a wire transfer. Signed, Hashem. Like you want it to be obvious. Like you think Hashem works in the world like you do.

1:02:07Problem is, Rabotai, Hashem doesn't work that way. Hashem works in ways that He makes things look normal, look natural. He doesn't like to use miracles that are open miracles, because that takes away from our Olam Haba. But we ourselves can never get to a point where, when we're giving, we feel bad about giving, because the Torah tells us don't only give, but don't feel bad when giving. and Rabbeinu Yonah finalizes this particular point in the next section by saying, "You must not harden your heart nor close your hand to your destitute brother" (Deuteronomy 15:7). We have been rebuked to remove from our soul the quality of cruelty. to implant within it pleasant saplings, the faithful virtues of mercy and kindness, as the verse says, "walk in His ways." Since it is possible for one to not be tight-fisted, meaning cheap, and show grace to the poor, but without being merciful, the verse says, "the mercy of the wicked is cruelty."

1:03:14Therefore, the verse says you must not harden your heart. The punishment for acting cruelly is harsh and bitter, as we will explain in the Gate of Cruelty, a different section of the book that, unfortunately, we don't have a copy of anymore in the world, God willing. Furthermore, the Sages said, "He will grant you mercy, be merciful to you, and you... And have you multiply. Whoever is merciful to his fellow creatures will be treated mercifully by Hashem. And whoever is not merciful to his fellow creatures will not be treated mercifully by Hashem. In essence, it's not just "give but don't feel bad," but even more so, he says, "don't be cruel." How can someone who is giving money be cruel? By reminding the poor person that he's poor. Hey, listen. Did you get your wife? I gave you the money, right? You got the money I sent you. Yeah, I got the money. So, do you have food? Yeah, yeah. I said thank you, right? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, but also I'm the one who gave it to you, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, okay.

1:04:30Listen, your wife didn't look so good. I saw her in the store. Maybe you should get her something. She didn't smell so good. Did you get her something with that money I gave you? Do you have some money left? Hey, listen. Your kids, I don't know if they're getting the right education at that school you're sending them to. Maybe you could spend some of that money I gave you to get them a tutor or something. Or maybe a bath. Or maybe some food or something. What happens every day? People think that just because they gave you some tzedakah, they can give you some mussar too. They think they can give you some guidance, they can give you some management, they can start telling you how to run your life, and they remind you of all the things they did for you. The punishment for such a thing is a vicious punishment. Why? Because that is cruel. To remind somebody that you did a favor for them, to remind somebody that you gave to them, that you gave them, that in essence they owe you something, that you're in essence reminding them of their lowliness and your stature, is cruel. This is why the highest form of tzedakah, these levels of tzedakah, this giving to the person...

1:05:58Then there is giving without knowing who the person is. You give it to an organization, let's just call it B'ezrat Hashem for now, and B'ezrat Hashem gives it to somebody else who needs it. You don't know who that person is, nor do you care. All you know is that through B'ezrat Hashem, you helped somebody. That's a high level of tzedakah. What's even better is if that other person doesn't know who gave it to them. When the giver doesn't know who he's giving to, and the receiver doesn't know who is giving it to him, that's the highest form of tzedakah. Why? It eliminates all forms of cruelty. The receiver doesn't have to feel bad that this guy, every time he sees him in the street, he has to say thank you for the 50 millionth time for that $20 that he gave him, 30 years later. Listen, you remember that time I bought you a sandwich, right? Yeah, I remember. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. It was 1912, but yeah, I mean, I've eaten a lot of other meals since then, but thanks, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you very much. Thank you, thank you. If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't be alive today. Ah, that's what I wanted to hear. If it wasn't for me... Yeah, you always say Baruch Hashem. I know you give credit to Hashem. I agree, Hashem, yeah, yeah, but hey, no, no, no...

1:07:12do I have to say it every time? No, no, you're right, you're right, tzaddik. Yeah, oh, I like that you're singing songs for me now. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you have a note. People want you to say thank you forever. The punishment for such cruelty is horrendous. Horrendous. Why? Because we are supposed to be merciful people. We get a bunch of matanot chinam, a bunch of free presents from Hashem. Sometimes we don't even say thank you for them. Yet everything we give to other people, we want them to say thank you, thank you, thank you. One of the signs that you've cleaned that particular flaw... is if you not only stop looking for a thank you, but you've gotten to the point where you feel uncomfortable. Uncomfortable when the person thanks you. Why? What are you thanking me for? It's not my money. Hashem gave it to me to give it to you. What's the thank you for? Now it's good to say thank you. You still have to say thank you. And it's good to allow people to say thank you to you. If somebody wants to say thank you to you, sometimes they feel relieved by saying thank you to you.

1:08:35You know, somebody that receives feels bad about it, so at least they can say thank you to you, you know, maybe send you a nice voicemail, maybe send you a letter or something like that. It's nice, accept the thank you. But in reality, you're accepting it because, in essence, it's part of your chesed to them to allow them to say thank you. But if they don't say thank you, you don't feel bad at all. In fact, sometimes you prefer they don't say thank you at all. Why? You feel uncomfortable, like what are you thanking me for? Now, to get from looking for a thank you to being uncomfortable with a thank you, it's a far walk. But that's in essence what we really need to be. That's what we need to be. At the very least, don't be here looking for thank-yous. Why? Because it's cruel. It's cruel to remind people that they owe you things. These are a little bit of words of chizuk that I thought we needed to hear. Some things that we can take to this Rosh Hashanah a little bit different than last year's Rosh Hashanah. Now, you guys can ask as many questions as you want. For another hour. No, chas v'shalom.

1:09:50If I repeat that again? If I don't say Kabbalat Shabbat yet, maybe at some point I'll start saying it, am I allowed to learn in that time? Because it might be possibly disrespectful if they're singing Kabbalat Shabbat and I'm not learning. Did Shabbat start? Right, but I'm saying, okay, so, I mean, usually, the way people pray is, you know, the Mincha, they start Mincha. The question is, for the people online that can hear, can he learn during a time that other people are saying Kabbalat Shabbat because he hasn't accepted Shabbat yet? That's the question. Now the thing is that all depends on when that time period is because whether we accept Shabbat or we don't accept Shabbat, Shabbat starts at a specific time, right? So now some people pray Mincha early. They pray Mincha early in the day. So, in essence, they say Kabbalat Shabbat and then Ma'ariv or Arvit right pretty much as Shabbat enters, right at that moment.

1:10:53But most people, especially when you pray at shul, combine all three prayers, all three things. They do Mincha literally moments before, you know, a few, I don't know, 10-15 minutes before Shabbat begins. Right as Shabbat begins, they start already saying all of the Kabbalat Shabbat, and ideally get to L'chah Dodi, L'cha Dodi, right when Shabbat starts. The song L'cha Dodi, you're supposed to have, get already on the third section of L'cha Dodi, right when Shabbat starts. That's where Shabbat starts. That's ideally if you have perfect timing and so on. That's why, especially among the Ashkenazim, there's a very precise adherence to time. It's very admirable to be precise with time. It's a very, very good thing to do. And I see many times they are very careful with exactly when they start the prayers. Us, Sephardim, many times we're not really like that. You know, we say we're starting prayer at 5, and at 5:15, we're still like, oh, okay. You want to start now? You know, we're not exactly so precise all the time. Some of us are, but, you know, Ashkenazim, Baruch Hashem, are like soldiers. Five o'clock is five o'clock. They start right on time. It's very admirable. And many times, that's why they're able to do this. They are actually able to get to Lecha Dodi at exactly the specific time, and so on and so forth.

1:12:07So, if you're praying in that type of format, where everything is at a specific time, you don't have the kind of time or luxury of time, like you're saying, to study while everybody else is praying, because really, you have to follow the regimen in order to accept Shabbat at the time it comes in. Now, on the other hand, if you are praying Mincha early, Okay, you've prayed Mincha early already, and it's not yet time to accept Shabbat. You still have a window of 10 minutes or 15 minutes. I mean, other people could have accepted Shabbat, but Shabbat didn't officially start yet. You can accept Shabbat an hour early if you want, but if you didn't accept Shabbat yet because it officially hasn't started yet, and you have it in your mind that you're going to accept Shabbat at the moment it officially starts, you can, no problem, study Torah during that time. No problem. but again you have to be very careful with that because especially if you're getting into something extremely interesting and delicious in the Torah, you can forget yourself and continue studying Torah and forget to accept Shabbat

1:13:09to forget to do things, meaning you forget to do the holiday, you forget to do a lot of things. There's a time and a place to study, and there's a time and a place to do everything. Ideally, you should accept Shabbat with Tekiah at a specific time. If you're praying on your own, you have the luxury of time; you have the luxury to pray whenever you want—that's a different story. So, you have room to play with. But if you're with the Kehillah, you should do what the Kehillah does, unless, again, sometimes people pray fast. So sometimes you pray fast. Like I know I prayed, for example, with Rabbi Ephraim. Every time I go to—it's been a few years already—but when I go to Eretz Yisrael, God bless him, Rabbi Ephraim, he is something unique. He's something very, very unique. And his only desire that I know he has is to learn Torah. That's his desire. You know, other people have other desires. He has a desire to learn Torah. So, while everybody else is praying and so on, he completes his prayer immediately. Gemara, opened. Or any book that's next to him. It doesn't matter what it is. If he doesn't bring a Gemara with him,

1:14:10anything open like a machine. It's unbelievable. We have to prepare, put the coffee there, the seat there, make sure the air conditioner is the right temperature. As soon as everybody's finished and he's waiting, you know, everybody else is praying, they're praying and they're finishing, and he's got that extra three, four, five, six minutes. And then he does the first three with them, like everybody else, but again, unbelievable. Doesn't waste a second. And this is the way of the Gedolim. This is the way of the Gedolim. One time, I believe it was Rav Moshe Feinstein. Rav Moshe Feinstein said that every day he would take an elevator, and one day he was in the elevator, and he says, "Oh, guys, I wanted you to come with me to do a siyum with me." Oh, wow, this is... I mean, but the rabbi has done many siyumim. You mean you completed the Shas many times? No, no, this is a special Shas. What's so special about this Shas? This is the Shas that I completed on my elevator rides every day. I know I'm going to be in the elevator...

1:15:21for 20 seconds, 2 minutes, however long it is, every day. So instead of wasting time, I started learning the Shas just specifically on my elevator ride. And over a period of time, I completed the Shas this way too. And there's also another Shas that I completed while I was folding my tefillin. It's also just that they completed regularly many times, and that's how you become a gadol, that's how you become a kadosh, right? You don't waste time. So again, more direct answer to your question; I answered, but I think the bigger lesson is to make sure that, again, if we are in a makom, we're in a community, we have to have a minhagim. But if you're really precise with your time, you can do both. You can do both. If you pray a little faster than the kehillah perhaps, but still have kavanah, you could have a window of three, five, six, seven minutes, even within prayer, to study an extra page, two, paragraph, whatever it is. If you're a, you know, if people have certain things, for example, on, you know, Sephardim have this tradition where during the holidays, they sell the aliyot to the Torah.

1:16:29This, in some places, can take an hour, an hour and a half. We see the auction going on. Don't be one of those people that can't wait to hear what everybody else donated. Grab a book and learn! Grab a book and learn! Why? That's an hour, that's a half hour, that's an hour and a half that you can learn. My boy, go do it! Why? That's the whole point of the day. Don't just be one of those people who just say, "Okay, yeah, it's gonna be an hour and I'll go outside and smoke cigarettes." Take advantage of that time. If you take advantage of the big windows of time, you'll also eventually learn how to take advantage of the small windows of time and you'll be able to become something very, very special. But again, always remember that you have to be conscious of the time and not end up missing the tefillot. so it's admirable to, uh, to learn at every moment, but make sure that you're also learning at times that you're supposed to be learning. Don't only want to learn during those small five minutes of time, but then when you have five hours, all of a sudden you're busy.

1:17:31So, you have to be precise with your time on the big windows as well as the small windows. But in general, as long as you accept Shabbat exactly when it begins, you have no problem whatsoever to do whatever it is that you want to do before everybody else. Even if everybody else accepts Shabbat earlier, it's not a problem as long as, again, you don't make it obvious. You don't make it obvious. If the community has a tradition where everybody accepts, let's say, Shabbat an hour early, You know, you don't have to keep Shabbat an hour early. You don't have to, but don't—you know, it's not nice for you to violate it right in front of them. Why? Because it's not that it's a sin on your end; you're allowed to do whatever you want. But unfortunately, what ends up happening is that people who take on an extra stringency eventually become acclimated to it, and they start looking at everybody who's not taking on the stringency as a sinner. So, he's accepting Shabbat early, an hour...

1:18:31and but it's an hour early; it's not really Shabbat yet. But they're accepting an extra hour because they like Shabbat, right? But they see some people driving to the shul at a time when it's not Shabbat yet. It's only Shabbat for you because you accepted Shabbat early. But they start looking at everybody else as a loser. "Ah, look at this guy, look at this guy, he's driving, look at this guy!" Yeah, but it's not Shabbat yet. Listen, over here it's Shabbat, over here this guy's still driving. That's a bad thing. It's better off that you never take on that chumra. So, again, if you're not going to take on the stringency of your local shul or whatever it is, don't go against it publicly. But again, it's a, you know, a person needs to use their common sense and to know how to also be, you know, conscious of your surroundings. But in general, you know, you're trying to learn a little bit extra before Shabbat. Very admirable. Continue to do it and make sure you study as much as possible after Shabbat. Next question, yes, in the back. In the Book of Daniel, there is something about how he prays for forgiveness for his and his forefathers' sins, and I was wondering how and what, like, what does it mean to be able to pray for forgiveness for your forefathers' sins that already have passed? How does that work? It says that on the Day of Judgment, on Rosh Hashanah...

1:19:56the Book of the Living and the Book of the Dead are opened. The Book of the Living includes all of us who are living, and HaKadosh Baruch Hu reviews all of our actions from the past year and determines what He will give us in the coming year, the year that is beginning, just like we discussed until now. Based on how we acted over the last year, Hashem is going to decide what to give us—how much money He will give us, marriage, this, that, the other thing. But what about the Book of the Dead? They already died. Now, in Judaism, there really isn't such a thing as a death where a person ceases to exist, because the tzaddikim, they live for eternity. They live for eternity. And the resha'im also get punished for eternity. In essence, they're still there until they're completely destroyed, the resha'im. But the tzaddikim continue to live. And every year, Hashem opens the Book of the Dead and evaluates what their actions were when they were in this world, when they were living, and what they yielded today. the Book of the Dead and evaluates what their actions were when they were in this world, when they were living, and what they yielded today, meaning let's say, for example, someone wrote a book, a book of mussar to help people do teshuvah, to help people do good things. Now, after he dies, yes, he's in Gan Eden, but there are still more people learning the Ramchal's book every day. There are still more people learning the Rambam, Ramban every day. There are still more people learning by the rabbi still today. So what, do you think that's a waste?

1:21:05meaning, let's say, for example, someone wrote a book, a book of mussar to help people do teshuvah, to help people do good things. Now, after he dies, yes, he's in Gan Eden, but there are still more people learning the Ramchal's book every day. There are still more people learning the Rambam, Ramban every day. There are still more people learning by the rabbi still today. So what, do you think that's a waste? no, who says, look, there was a shiur in Florida a couple of days before, and a bunch of people online and in person learned a little bit of those books. What, do you think that's for free? Every single letter, every single word that was discussed and read from those books, however long it was, Guess what? It goes to their merit. On Rosh Hashanah, Hashem evaluates not just what we read, but what everybody else in the world has read, and has followed, and so on, and says, look, Rabbeinu Yonah, Chazak U'Baruch, you have a trillion more mitzvot.

1:22:11from the book that you wrote while you were alive. So the Gan Eden that you have, it's good, but it's not appropriate for you. Why? You have trillions more mitzvot. We have to get you to a better Gan Eden. The Gan Eden that you have right now is insignificant next to the Gan Eden that you have now after all of these mitzvot were done because of the book that you wrote 800 years ago. Listen, I know you're really in a high Gan Eden and you've got, but listen, this Gan Eden is not good enough for you. Why? Because there are more mitzvot that are being made right now. Thousands and thousands of people are now taking on teshuva, taking on Rosh Hashanah seriously because there was a shiur that mentioned you and what you wrote word for word, and people were motivated by it. So now we have to transfer you to a much better Gan Eden. And guess what? There is no end to the amount of reward that Hashem can give a person. No end. There is no top. Every year the tzaddikim get higher and higher. Unfortunately, as we always have to disclose the risk, the risk is that it also works that way for the resha'im.

1:23:25Someone that writes a book or makes a website or says Lashon Hara while he's alive and then he dies, and people read this book of heresy after he dies, on Rosh Hashanah people... have said his nonsense a million times during that year. People believed it a million times during that year. On Rosh Hashanah, Hashem opens the book, and He says Wicked son of the wicked. What do you think? You're finished with the punishment because you're in the fifth chamber? Because you're in the sixth chamber? Because you're in the seventh chamber? You think you're finished? Bubkes. Look how many more sins were made because of you, you rasha. Now on Rosh Hashanah, HaKadosh Baruch Hu decides to make his punishment even worse. To dig his hole even deeper. Why? Because more sins were made as a result of his actions.

1:24:28This is why there are certain sins that a person makes, that if he doesn't do teshuva to clean them up, there is no recovery. This is also one of the things that we learn about Menashe. Menashe, as you remember, I told you Menashe made every sin under the sun, but he did teshuva. But that teshuva is not mentioned during his life. It's only mentioned in the book of Divrei Hayamim. Why? Because his teshuva was not accepted in heaven as complete teshuva. He was actually punished in Shamayim until all of the idols that he placed in different places were destroyed from the world. Meaning, until the damage that he caused to the world stopped. Until then, he was punished. Now he's in Gan Eden, but he left some things behind. Even though he did teshuva, he didn't go and take back all of the pornography he left in the world. He didn't go and take back all of the filth and idolatry in the world. He left it there.

1:25:33This is one of the dangers that a person has when he makes sins that are public sins. He says a comment against the Torah. He writes a book against the Torah. He has a website against the Torah. Those things, it's almost impossible to remove them from the world. It's almost impossible to remove them from the world. One of the most famous ba'alei teshuva used to be a very famous movie producer. And Unfortunately, his movies in Israel were number one hits, but they were full of filth. Full of filth. The most disgusting things in the world, but all of the people from that generation grew up watching this stuff. It was funny, plus provocative, plus filthy, disgusting, and everything else made him a superhero in the secular world. One day, he woke up, And he realized that he has to do teshuva, and he did a miraculous teshuva, became a real serious tzaddik, but along the process, early in the process even, he realized there's no way for him to

1:26:45do complete teshuva so long as his tapes are still at people's houses and they're watching these movies. So what did he do? All of the millions that he made, all of the money that he made from this filth, he used every single penny to go and offer people to buy back the tapes from them. And he bought everything that he possibly could get his hands on from people that were willing to sell it to him. Why? To remove the filth from the world. Not many people can do such a thing. Nonetheless, I mean today, it's virtually impossible because of things being digital. But the point being is that he understood, he understood that to clean your past is difficult if you have certain things that are still out there. So that's why the Gemara says Hashem opens the book of the living and of the dead on Rosh Hashanah. So that also means, to answer the last part of your question, what about the merits of our forefathers and so on, is that if a person does good, he completes his teshuva, he fixes his brit, he fixes his neshamah, guess what?

1:28:02That tikkun that he does, if it's a serious teshuva, can fix, Chazal tell us, can even fix the pegam, the defect of even his father and his mother and his ancestors, all the way to the beginning. All the way to the beginning. Because that defect usually doesn't start with him. Usually, he learned that thing from his dad, from his grandfather, and so on and so forth. Now, him doing teshuva can actually fix and rectify the problem that his ancestors did. And that's why many people, especially those who are very spiritual and have merits, have dreams or all types of visions where their grandparents or parents come to them in dreams and ask them for mitzvot, ask them for help. Sometimes they come in the form of a homeless person or a person who is suffering because they're asking you to do mitzvot for them. Please, please, thank you, thank you, change, change, stock up, stock up. They're not asking you for money, obviously. They're not in the world of money. They're asking you to do mitzvot. Why? Because if you fix yourself, you can fix them. Your action fixes the root itself.

1:29:11your action fixes the root itself. And many, many times, there are people that I've spoken about countless times who have died, left the world, and come to others asking for help. After they receive this help, they are able to find peace. For example, we don't do this often, but it's something that is good to do. It's very common in Israel. I don't know how common it is in America. But when somebody passes, you have to read Kaddish for them for almost 11 months. Now, ideally, if a person, a son, reads Kaddish for the parent, as long as the son is a Shomer Shabbat, Shomer Mitzvot, and so on. But in addition to that, it's also good to have somebody righteous. Read Kaddish for this person that's important to you, whether it be a parent, a brother, or whoever it is. Sometimes, certain people ask us if we have somebody righteous, which, Baruch Hashem, we know many righteous people in Eretz Yisrael, and some even in America. However, we specifically use Eretz Yisrael, especially Avreichim who learn Torah all day. We tell them, "Please, here's the name of this person; say Kaddish for him every day."

1:30:32...and learn some Torah for his merit as well. And if you give shiurim, give shiurim as well for his sake. And the family gives him a little bit of money every single month. And this person learns Torah, says Kaddish for them every day for a year. And sometimes people like it so much, they ask to continue, read it permanently. I'll send you $400 or $500 a month, whatever it is, and you say Kaddish for my father, for my mother, for whoever it is, it's worth it. And you say, "Wow, that's a lot of money." Okay, so you do it. You do it then. You don't want somebody to do it? No problem. There's no obligation. You don't have to. If you think it's a lot of money, if you think it's not worth it, don't. You do it yourself. But to have a tzaddik read Kaddish for your father, for your mother, for somebody that's important to you, every single day, in the morning, in the afternoon, at night, in the shul, and so on and so forth, it's a very big responsibility, number one. Number two, there's a lot of reward for it, a lot of good for it. So, you know, some people think it's worth it, and some people perhaps maybe don't. I don't know, but everybody chooses their own. The point being is that a few people have asked this; we have people that do it for them, and it's a nice thing to do. But again, it's just one of those things where you have to understand and be clear about the fact that life doesn't end in this world.

1:31:51Your need for merits doesn't end with this world. If a person understands that life is eternal, and the need for merits continues, they'll do whatever they can to do as much as possible for the people that have passed on. Because those people can't earn mitzvot on their own. Everything that they're getting is for stuff that they've already done while they were alive. So you do something for them that they can't do for you. That's a very big thing, and that's also why people go and, for example, visit the graves of the tzaddikim. Why would people go there? Because if you go pray at the uh even though the Rambam was very much against going to the gravesites at all, to go to the gravesites of tzaddikim is, uh, some say, a good thing to do, but so long as you don't pray to the tzaddik and turn into an idol worshiper. Rather, you pray at the tzaddik's gravesite by showing him respect, but also read his works, learn his Torah—in essence, do him a favor.

1:32:55By you doing him a favor, by learning his Torah, by showing him respect, perhaps bringing other people to honor his gravesite and his life and his Torah teachings, and so on, this tzaddik, in essence, says, "Okay, you did something for me, I'll do something for you." I'll tell you a little story that I know firsthand. one particular person that I know, she is a very, very righteous woman—very righteous woman—and, you know, like an abnormal amount, really. I wish all of Am Yisrael would be like this. love for the tzaddikim that she has is truly unbelievable. Every time she hears a tzaddik's name, she doesn't even know who it is, or if she does, automatically tells her kids, "Okay, from now on, this is the tzaddik, this is his name," and so on. And the kids she has, they always talk about tzaddikim, "tzaddik this, tzaddik that," and so on. So anyway...

1:33:58One of our kids was suffering from nightmares. The little boy was suffering from nightmares. And, you know, there's not much you can do. So she prayed one day. She prayed. What are you going to do? Because the kid wakes up, you know, three-year-old kid, something like that, wakes up, you know, like crying hysterically, and to calm him down after that, it's tough. And there's nothing you can do. So one day, she's crying to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, "Please, Hashem, please, please, in the merit of the tzaddikim," and so on. The little boy wakes up in the morning, she tells me. She says, "Ima, yeah, I'm not going to have nightmares anymore." "Okay, that's good. You know why, Ima?" Why, why, why are you not going to have nightmares? Because last night I had a dream. A big tzaddik came. A big tzaddik! What's his name? I don't know, but he was big. He had long peyot and a beard and a kippah, and he said, "Don't worry, I took care of your nightmares. You're not going to have any more nightmares anymore." So, I'm not going to have any more nightmares. How many of us dream about tzaddikim coming to us saying, "You're not going to have nightmares"?

1:35:08Just don't even deal with my nightmares. Deal with my day. Just tell me I'm not going to have a tough day. What tzaddik is coming to us? Tell us I'm not going to have a tough day. This little kid had a dream. This little kid had a dream. A big tzaddik comes to him and says, "Son, don't worry about it. You're not going to have nightmares anymore." Why? Because his mother taught him to love tzaddikim. But they have merit, they have Torah, they have Sifrei Torah walking. This is what happens, Rabotai HaKedoshim. So the more we honor Torah, the more we sanctify Kadosh Baruch Hu's name, the more supernatural things happen. Those things that she did to teach our kids about these tzaddikim and who they are, and they have Torah and so on, obviously that has much merit. And this merit deserves something that's supernatural. Supernatural. Praiseworthy is the woman that fears Hashem, as the Eshet Chayil says, and you're going to sing it, b'ezrat Hashem, on Friday night. Next question, almost. Done. No, it's not time. It's not time. No question that America is under stress. You see this firsthand in retail. The yelling, the wasted food, the disrespect, they all seem normal after a while. Rabbi Alon Anava came to America, he talked about this, and

1:36:24noted that most people are under the influence of some chemical or another, whether coffee or cigarettes or medication. Most people need something. I think the source of all the stress is money and lack of money. My question to you is this: It's my understanding that a lot of people will perish before Mashiach. Do you think that of the remaining people, one will be looked at as king, one like King Solomon that the people truly respect, one that does good by the people and sees that everyone is Or do you think that the only way to enter the Messianic era is through Hashem's open miracles? So, the problems that are in the world today are, like you said, without question. The amount of corruption that's in the world is atrocious and it's continuing to increase, but unlike any other time in history, it's fulfilling the prophecy that So we see in Gemara Masechet Sotah where there's going to be chutzpah yisgei. There's going to be a generation of people that have no shame whatsoever.

1:37:33So we see in Gemara Masechet Sotah where there's going to be chutzpah yasgei. There's going to be a generation of people that have no shame whatsoever. Everybody has to stay home and quarantine, but yet the Speaker of the House in America, the lady over there, the shaitel-macher that she is, wicked garbage that she is, while she obligates her own city of San Francisco to shut down and to at the very least make less scenes, hopefully, she goes to a hair salon without a mask, without a care in the world. Everybody else shut down, the business cannot operate and... everybody has to stay home and quarantine, but yet the Speaker of the House in America, the lady over there, the shaitel-macher that she is, wicked garbage that she is, while she obligates her own city of San Francisco to shut down and, at the very least, make less scenes, hopefully, she goes to a hair salon without a mask, without a care in the world. Everybody else shut down, the business cannot operate and But she is allowed to operate, no problem. That's a form of corruption. It's a form of corruption, but now it's in the open. They've always done stuff like this. But now it's like in the open, and after they showed her on camera that she's doing this, she goes, "Ah, no, I was set up." It doesn't matter if you were set up or not set up. You did it.

1:38:45you did it, you don't even feel bad about it. Same thing is going on with all these coronavirus numbers. Everybody knows the coronavirus exists in the world, but at the same time, everyone who's paying attention knows the numbers are fake. numbers are fake. The amount of death, the amount of, uh, sick—all that stuff is fake because right now, because of the corruption, everyone is being diagnosed with corona. Even if a guy died from a heart attack—corona. If a guy died from a car accident—corona. If a guy died from a, uh, you know, a headache—corona. Everything is corona. Why? Because if he dies from a regular thing, the hospital gets eighteen thousand dollars. If he dies from corona, it's forty thousand dollars. That's a pretty big test for someone who's not living with God in his life. You know, you're talking about a $22,000 difference, a 140% difference, a big, big difference. So the point being is, there's a lot of corruption when it comes to that. Because people have no emunah, no faith in Hashem, so they feel like they have a need to be corrupt. They feel a need to cheat. They feel a need to beat the system.

1:39:56So this is one of the prophecies that can happen at the end of days, that this type of shamelessness will grow to the highest level that it's ever been before Mashiach comes. Okay? Now, as far as the people that will survive this difficult time, you look at the Prophet Zechariah, chapter 14. It talks about the last war, which is called Gog u'Magog. It's also in Yechezkel, Ezekiel chapter 38. And it talks about Hashem's cleansing of the world by using this war and this last generation where the prophet says that two-thirds of the world, two-thirds of the world will be destroyed. Two-thirds of the population. So if let's say we're working off of the current, let's say, 8 billion people, 6 billion, gone. Something close to that, okay, so that's gone already. Now, the remaining two billion and change—Hashem says through the Prophet over there, and obviously to us, that Hashem will purify them like you purify gold and silver. Meaning that just because they survived the first big attack doesn't mean that they're scot-free.

1:41:22Doesn't mean they're scot-free. Meaning that those remaining, that remaining third still has to go through a purification system before and during. Meaning that each of us is going to have our own tests—our emunah tests, faith tests, our ethics tests, our everything tests, our Torah tests. Everybody's going to be tested to the highest limit you can possibly imagine. And trust me, Hashem knows that you're much stronger than you think you are. Meaning that whatever test you have right now, you think you can't take anymore? If Hashem is giving it to you, He knows you can take it. So everyone's going to be tested up to the moon. And those who pass the test, those will be the ones that will see Pnei Mashiach, will see the face of Mashiach. So, it is not by the miracle per se of Hashem simply deciding, "Look at this one, you know what? I'm just going to put a spiritual bubble around him and nothing's going to touch him just because I feel like it." No, it doesn't necessarily work that way. In the time of Mashiach, you have to have merit. How do you have this merit?

1:42:33by passing those tests and by fulfilling what the sages said, which is to employ yourself in Torah, like we talked about last night, and philanthropy, helping people do teshuvah, doing kindness, and so on. By overcoming your test, that's obviously needless to say, just because that's your own teshuvah. If you're not overcoming your own test, you haven't completed your teshuvah. Second token is obvious. How do you have the strength to overcome your test? By employing yourself in Torah. Because it's very difficult to have emunah and have faith in Hashem if you don't learn a little bit of Torah every day. It's very difficult. Truth be told, it's impossible. It's impossible to have faith in Hashem without learning Torah. Impossible. because you have to know: why should I have faith in Hashem when everything else is the opposite? At times, we see it in a Torah test of emunah that Israel has failed, and what was the damage as a result of it. For example,

1:43:52In the book of Judges, chapter 19, verse 30, there is a horrific act where a pilegesh ran away from her husband, who wasn't exactly a very nice person, and the tribe of Binyamin, who were a bunch of reshaim at the time, found her, and did their way with her in such a horrific and atrocious way it is recorded in the Tanakh. What they did to this woman, may you never know. May you never know such horrific things. Unfortunately, similar things have been reported in the media. just in the last few weeks. A young girl went to Eilat. A group of, I don't know, 16 or 20 guys decided that they're going to have fun by destroying this girl. And these stories continue. This story, there's nothing new under the sun. What happened in Eilat a few weeks ago, it's nothing new. It happened in the Tanakh also, to an even worse extent. This woman was raped

1:45:13tortured by these reshaim that would use her. After that, she got back to her house and her husband, who understood what happened, cut her into pieces and sent a little piece of her to the different tribes and little piece of her to different tribes and say, "Look what they did to her!" This was to get them angry because we want to go to war with these wicked people of Benjamin. Benjamin himself was one of the four people that never sinned, a big tzaddik, but it doesn't mean that all of his descendants are tzaddikim. This generation of the Benjamin tribe were reshaim, horrible people. So, he sent it to Yehuda, he sent it to Yosef, he sent it to all of the tribes—not obviously the patriarchs themselves, as they weren't alive at the time. So now, everybody got heated, everybody got angry, and decided the time had come to go to war with the tribe of Binyamin. And they went to war.

1:46:38They went to war with them with 400,000 soldiers. Am Yisrael went to war against one of the tribes with 400,000 soldiers. The Binyamin tribe had 26,000 soldiers. You would think logically, the war should be done in 15 minutes. And if they're good soldiers, a day. That's the way it's supposed to work, logically. 400,000. talking about a ratio of 16 to 1. So imagine, it doesn't matter how strong you are, it doesn't matter if you know taekwondo and jujitsu and maybe a little capoeira. Sixteen guys who don't even know how to fight jump you, you're getting beat up. All the stuff that you think, "No, no, it's Bruce Lee," yeah, it's in the movies. Sixteen guys jump you, you're finished. You're finished—sixteen guys with weapons! i have to say it here, it didn't work that way. You would think, "Wait a minute, 400,000 righteous people versus 26,000 wicked. That's even more of a reason why this fight should be finished in 15 minutes."

1:47:58Right, not only is it rationally 400,000 versus 26,000, but on top of it, the 26,000 don't have any good merits. They're ashamed, the wicked people. Look what they did to this girl. It didn't work out that way in the Book of Shoftim, chapter 20, verse 18. Am Yisrael goes to the Kohen Gadol, goes to the Urim and Tumim, talks to Hashem. Should we go to war? The Urim and Tumim says, you're going to win the war. Meaning, it's stamped from HaKadosh Baruch Hu, you're going to win the war. It didn't specify a time though. On the first day, the first day of the war, the Benjamin tribe kills 22,000 of Am Yisrael. A statistical impossibility. 22,000, meaning practically every soldier they have killed somebody, won a fight. They all ran away. Am Yisrael, 400,000, now 378,000 left, run away. They don't know what just happened to them. They're all demoralized. How did we not win this war in 15 minutes? What happened? On top of it, on top of it, we asked, "What's happening here?" They go back to the Urim and Tumim, and when we told him, he said, "You're going to win the war."

1:49:20Next day, the Benjamin tribe kills another 18,000 people. 40,000 people of Am Yisrael died by the Benjamin tribe. Am Yisrael starts crying, soldiers, huge, powerful soldiers start crying like little babies. What's happening here? If this continues within a week, everyone's gonna die. But we can't stop the war now. It's 26,000. If we lose this war overall, all of the nations are going to attack us and kill us anyway because they see how weak we are. They will think, "They can't even beat their own people!" What's happening here? Pinchas ben Elazar becomes the leader. Eliyahu HaNavi becomes the leader. He goes to the Urim and Tumim. The Urim and Tumim say... Tomorrow you're going to win the war, for the first time. This is the time. Tomorrow you're going to win the war. The next day, Am Yisrael kills 25,100 of the Benjamin tribe, leaving 900 left. Virtually destroyed all of them. There's still a little bit left; that's why they're still in the world, some of the Benjamin tribe. And we're only going to know who's who when Mashiach comes. So the question is, Rabotai HaYekarim,

1:50:4940,000 of Am Yisrael who were on the righteous side had to die before a single rasha died, before they won the war, defying all odds. Defying all odds and logic, but it doesn't defy the rules of the Torah. Rashi explains on the pasuk... that Am Yisrael was punished, was punished, and that's why they lost. Why were they punished? They were punished because they weren't zealous in the past sins that were being made, which was in chapter 17 of the book of Shoftim, when Am Yisrael, when they were worshipping idols. When people were worshipping idols, Am Yisrael wasn't zealous to go fight it. When people were recruiting Jews to Christianity, when people were getting people to become atheists, when people were teaching heresy, when people were saying that God needs us, when people were pro-homosexuality, Am Yisrael wasn't zealous. But only then did you become zealous once it hurt somebody that was your friend.

1:52:20your friend's girl got hurt, now all of a sudden you're a servant of Hashem. Now all of a sudden you're going to say, oh, all of a sudden you want to be the... How come you weren't zealous for Hashem when it came to idolatry? How come you weren't zealous for Hashem when it came to defend the Torah as a mitzvah? How come you weren't zealous? Because of that, when one woman gets killed, everybody fights. But when Hashem's name was being desecrated for years, No one did a thing to protect His name and His kavod. So HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, okay, you win in the end. But not before you learn this point. You learn this point that if you want to be saved, when you want to be saved, if you want that special protection, when you want that protection, You have to fight for the kavod of Hashem, not when you want to fight, but rather when you need to fight. How do you know when to fight? Anytime Hashem's name is being desecrated, that's your cue. That's your cue. You see a rabbi, or a speaker, or somebody desecrating Hashem's name, you stay quiet. Don't expect any special privileges from Hashem.

1:53:49You're defending the Reform mentality. You're defending the Christian missionary mentality. You're doing all of that. Don't expect HaKadosh Baruch Hu to be on your good side when you need Him to. Why? You didn't defend His honor. You didn't defend His name. but I was righteous overall. I kept Shabbat, I kept this. Yeah, you're good. I'm not gonna say that you're going to Gehinnom permanently, but as far as the special privileges, not so much. Why? Because you didn't do it, you didn't make it to the team. You didn't make it to the team. You aren't on the starting lineup. You were, you know, we kept you in camp, kept you on the roster somehow. Why? Fighting for the kavod of Hashem. most important thing in the world, and that's one of the things that people don't understand. They defend the wicked. So right now, because of that, many people are doing things that are much, much worse than the Am Yisrael was doing a couple thousand years ago.

1:55:06The Am Yisrael was simply not rebuking the people that were worshipping idols. Today, we have Jewish people not only not rebuking the people that are idol worshippers, but actually helping them. As I've told you many times, there's nothing more important than upholding the integrity of Torah values. There are countless Jewish organizations that dare to call themselves Orthodox, but yet they have organizations where they support Christians. The Jewish-Christian Association or the whatever Judeo-Christian Institute. All these organizations. I'm just making up these two names because I don't remember the names. But the point is, there are countless Jewish organizations that actually are all for the brotherhood. There are countless Jewish organizations that dare to call themselves Orthodox, yet they support Christians. The Jewish-Christian Association or the whatever Judeo-Christian Institute. All these organizations. I'm just making up these two names because I don't remember the actual names. But the point is, there are countless Jewish organizations that actually promote this so-called brotherhood. with the Christians. And they're going to say to you, "Yeah, we should be united. We should be friends. There's no need to be enemies. We don't believe what they believe. They don't believe what we believe. We can still be united." Who said you're allowed to do such a thing? Now, I'm not saying go fight them. I'm not even saying go insult them. Even the Likutei Maharan says it to be true. But to go befriend them? To go on and share financial resources with them?

1:56:29to go and invite them to Eretz Yisrael and give them an open-door policy? Who told you this is allowed? Who told you this is allowed? And what's happening is, Rabotai, the friendship, the so-called friendship between the mistaken Jews and the so-called Christian supporters of Israel are slowly but surely destroying Judaism as we see it inside Israel. As Rabbi Tovia Singer, shlita, recently released a video being on the ground there, saying that the Christian church is doing something unprecedented. In the past, it was well known that although there were many Christians and Christian churches inside Israel, it is illegal to be a missionary in Israel. Illegal. It's against the rules, it's against the constitution. So they still missionize, but quietly behind the scenes. Now, they have so many connections and so much money they're doing it in the open despite the fact that it's still against the law. But they feel perfectly comfortable to do it openly. No one can travel in and out of Israel except if you're a Christian missionary. A guy wants to go visit his parents? No, not allowed. It's coronavirus.

1:57:38have so many connections and so much money, they're doing it in the open despite the fact that it's still against the law. But they feel perfectly comfortable to do it openly. No one can travel in and out of Israel except if you're a Christian missionary. A guy wants to go visit his parents? No, not allowed. It's coronavirus. Woman wants to go back to her husband? No, no, not allowed. It's coronavirus. Kids want to go back home? No, no, coronavirus. Christian missionary? Baruch haba! Baruch haba! Why? Money talks. How is this whole thing? see, when the secular people, who many times are ignorant about the law, but sometimes are against the law, they're against the Torah. But when they see religious Jews, religious Jews being hypocrites, that makes them hate the Torah. Why?

1:58:48i'm a secular person. i don't keep this, i don't keep that. now I know that maybe I should, maybe I shouldn't. i choose not to, fine. but i still know that that religious guy, he says he does, he says he keeps the rules. so there is a certain expectation from him, from society, myself included, the secular person. when i see that so-called rabbi befriend the pope... write a tweet like Mirvis; he wrote that he admires the Pope. The rabbi, the head rabbi of the UK, writes a tweet saying he admires the leader of the idolatrous nation. Admires him. He admires the Pope. And he goes to churches as if it's allowed. He has gatherings with these people. No problem. And many, you think he's the only one? Countless other people. Countless other so-called Jews that call themselves religious. Many times modern Orthodox, who for all intents and purposes believe that they're perfectly religious, but modern. And they're befriending the Christian. The secular guy says, you know what?

2:00:05you're all full of it. It's all about money. Why? Because in the books that you told us about, who says that if somebody's an idol worshiper, you have to kill him? In the books that you told us about, the Rambam says that you're not even allowed to be within six feet of an idol worshiper. In the book that you told us about, you said that the Rambam paskens lehalacha, and most of the poskim throughout all of the generations pasken lehalacha, that they are idol worshippers. But yet, you call him your friend, and not only that, you share bank accounts with him. And not only that, you share his campaign for his pastor that's moving to Israel to raise money for him, to help them build another church in Eretz HaKodesh. So, how do you say all those things in the book? Act like you keep it, but violate it openly and with a smile. How? How do you do it? How do you do it that way? So, guess what? As a secular person, he says the whole thing is bogus.

2:01:07And on top of that, the Christian comes to collect the spoils. Because the secular person is ignorant. The little bit that he knows, he saw the religious guy violate anyway. So now he's completely distraught. So Mr. Christian missionary shows up. Don't you want God to love you? Oh, why don't you accept JC Penny? Why don't you accept Macy's also? We'll give you a card for each. Why don't you accept him? He loves you. He died on some cross like a dead animal. They hung him over there like a steak. That's going to help you somehow. You can continue being a thief because you believe that the shish kebab from 2,000 years ago is going to help your life. Why don't you do that? The guy that's so distraught and so annoyed by the religious people says, you know what? Look at this Christian guy. He's playing music in the middle of the street. He looks happy. His house is bigger than my building. He looks rich too. Why not? Because surely the religious Jew is a faker. He's a hypocrite. He's the one who gave him the money to buy the guitar. So why should I listen to him? And guess what?

2:02:30Countless Jews fall to the Christian church on a regular basis because of this hypocrisy. Countless. And this is why HaKadosh Baruch Hu says that He punishes the hypocrites. We read about it yesterday. Yesterday in the shiur. He punishes the hypocrites. Why? A hypocrite doesn't have to be non-religious. In fact, the hypocrite is often religious. The Gemara Masechet Shabbat says that HaKadosh Baruch Hu punished the religious Jews before He punished the secular. Why? He says, it's your fault they stayed secular. And that's what happens. And that, Rabotai, is one of the tests that we have right now to see who's really clean. To see who's really clean. To finalize this point, I'll tell you this. I learned this from my Rav, but I also heard this from Rav Ades.

2:03:30This is one of the gedolim of this generation. Anyone who doesn't know that name, anytime you view anything from the Kotel and you see somebody crying hysterically, it's Rav Ades. He comes from a whole lineage of tzaddikim for many, many hundreds of years. At first glance, he looks homeless, but he's a sefer Torah walking. Rav Ades. He wrote a kuntres, or a book of some kind, and he sent it to the Pope. After the Pope received it, apparently there was some type of communication, and he told Rav Ades that he can't sleep since he read this book. Shortly later, the Pope resigned for the first time in history. This was in 2013. For the first time in history, the Pope resigned. He didn't tell him the reason, "I'm going to convert to Judaism" or anything. Some say he ended up converting, but long story short, he's out of the picture. Out of the picture. And Rav Ades said, and I heard this myself, he says, if you want miracles to happen in your life, fight against Christianity. All of these missionaries, all of this...

2:04:57Missionizing of Jews. You want miracles in your life? That's what you have to do. Why? Because that's the source of the impurity of the world. I'm not saying go physically kill people. That's not Am Yisrael. We're not Nazis. I'm talking about you have to do whatever you can to support the anti-missionary efforts that few in the world are doing. Some that we do here at Be'ezrat Hashem. Rabbi Yaron Reuven has made probably close to 40 different shiurim against these missionaries in Israel and in Hebrew. I've made a few on a regular basis. We try to talk about it and try to help people get out of the church. And many, many, Baruch Hashem, Christians and Catholics have left Christianity and become either righteous Noahides or righteous Jews. As a result of our teachings, there's also the teachings of Rav Tovia Singer. If you watch his lectures, you should donate to him also. He's good, a tzaddik, a talmid chacham, but also has a unique focus to fight against the missionaries. Same thing with Jews for Judaism. Jews for Judaism, they teach many other subjects, but again, their main focus is to fight against the missionaries.

2:06:04And there are only a few organizations that deal with this. And to support it, to help it, it's a mitzvah. But Chabad says this is something special. Why? Because this is a source of tumah. Because this, at least, can be the tikkun of all of those confused rabbis and Jews that call themselves religious but are actually supporting the church. by inviting them to the shul like Ephraim does in Boca Raton, or his friend does in New York, or other people do in Atlanta, already it's become l'chatchila. It's become normal to invite priests and pastors to synagogues today. The most bizarre thing in history is happening. Why? Because we forgot what the Torah says. not saying go and openly beat them up, fight them, any of that stuff. You have no right to do it, and no, no, no, no whatsoever. I'm not even saying to openly insult them or anything like that. Don't be like one of these fools that starts making silly, uh, uh, posters on his, uh, on his, uh, Facebook or social media, uh, you know, publicly insulting the Christians.

2:07:24What I am saying is that to fight Christianity, to fight the missionizing, is by educating people about the truth. Educating people about the truth. How do you educate people about the truth? Use what you already know worked. Don't become an anti-missionary yourself. You have Torah to learn. You have Torah to learn. Until you complete the entire Shulchan Aruch, the entire Gemara, the entire Chumash, the entire Tanakh, all of the things that you require, don't deal with this yourself. Don't say, oh no, tomorrow I'm going to become a speaker. I'm going to go learn about... No, don't do any of that stuff. There are things that already work. known to work, Rav Mizrahi, God bless him, has a lecture that has helped countless people get out of Christianity. Rabbi Tovia Singer has countless lectures and debates that have helped many people leave Christianity. Rabbi Skobac and his other colleagues at Jews for Judaism have countless lectures that have already defeated the church countless times. I have a few that have helped many people leave the church. That's it. Share and support that.

2:08:32Share and support that. Don't become a superhero and say, "Oh, you know what, I'm going to learn everything about the church, I'm going to learn everything about the..." Don't do that. Why? Because you have obligations. Your obligation is to become a tzaddik, to become a tzaddeket, learn the things that we need to learn. There are already experts who are much better than you could ever be at doing it. you to catch up to where they are, it's going to take you a long time. It's going to take you 10, 20 years to catch up to, hopefully, where they are right now. Why? Why reinvent the wheel? Support something that already works and focus on what you need to do. Focus on what you need to do. Why? Because, unfortunately, there are many people that are not only not supporting it, but they're actually supporting the opposite side. And this is why the Christians are running wild right now, recruiting Jews to their idolatry on a regular basis. This is one of the things we have to fight. We have to do a lot of things to at least wake people up and let them know that Christianity is not only forbidden for the Jew, but it's also forbidden for the non-Jew. It's considered idolatry.

2:09:42If someone wants to be righteous, they have to follow the Torah. If they're following the Torah as a Gentile, no problem. They can still go to heaven by following the rules for the Gentiles in the Torah, which are the seven Noahide laws and the ethical rules, such as honoring your parents and being honest in business, and so on. If they're following the Torah as a Jew, then they have to follow all of the mitzvot, all of the halachot, to the best of their abilities. Needless to say, both Jews and Gentiles have to learn Mussar in order to perfect their character traits, become better quality human beings, and also become more kind and helpful for society, to bring more good to the world. But the key is to know that you have a mission in the world. First priority, help yourself. Save yourself. Do teshuva yourself. Second, help the world around you. So, that's why I say, don't go start, you know, thinking that you're going to become an expert in Christianity by reading all of Rabbi Tovia Singer's books, and Rabbi Daniel Asor's books, and all these books. No. Don't waste a minute doing it. There are already people who are experts in it, who are doing it, and you can simply support them to do it on a bigger scale, on a massive scale, and by the grace of Hashem, they'll succeed.

2:10:59know many times people want to reinvent the wheel themselves and it's a complete waste of time, a complete waste of time. Oh Rabbi, listen, can I just start a new YouTube channel with your clips on there? Why? I have a channel already. I have four channels, eight channels, or something like that. Why is another channel needed? No, no, because I'll cut the clips so I can share it. So why don't you share the channel that we already have? No, because maybe it's going to be like my channel. Yeah, but you're why why do you want to have your own channel? If it's purely about sharing Torah, why don't you share something that already exists? No, no, but you know, it's mine, it's this, that. Oh, okay, so it's all about kavod, it's all about honor, respect, and things like that. It's better you don't even do it. Number one, I don't really like it. I don't really like it. Number two, it's not going to succeed anyway. You know why? Because you're not doing it for the right reason. How do you expect... you're doing it to get honor. You're doing it to get subscribers. You're doing it to get likes. You're not doing it to help people do teshuva. If you were doing it to help people do teshuva, you would support something that's already working. And anytime you see people do it, they do it for the wrong reason. There are some people that keep doing it for the right reason, and they do succeed, and they do help people.

2:12:08But many times, people do it for the wrong reason. And that's the thing. Same thing with Christianity, same thing with anything else. Don't try to reinvent the wheel. There are already things that work; support the things that work. Rabbi Tovia Singer has been doing it for at least two or three decades, if not longer. Rabbi Skobac and Jews for Judaism also for many years. Rabbi Reuven has been dealing with anti-missionaries for some time. Rabbi Mizrachi as well. But the point is, there's already enough that's working. Support what's working. you focus on your own. This will help us, hopefully, wake up many of the sleeping religious people among us to stop having an open-door policy to the church because it's literally killing us—it's killing us at the root. One or two more questions and we'll finish for the year. And he finally woke up. I know after the shiur, it's 78 questions, but you're not getting it. I told you, ask in the beginning of the shiur. No? Why can't you push him as the big brother? Like, give him a nice elbow. No, no, no, come on. Yes.

2:13:28how can you transfer that into when it's still going on? How can you transfer that into people who are still doing it? In essence, what the question is, how could Hashem turn a page? Page 86 says that there are, in essence, two levels of teshuva. In essence, there's obviously sub-levels, but two levels of teshuva. There's teshuva... from fear of Hashem, and there's teshuva from love. If somebody does teshuva where they repent for their sins because they're afraid that Hashem will punish them, whether it be in this world or the next. They’re afraid that Hashem will take away their money, take away people they love, and so on and so forth, put them in Gehenom. The Gemara says that all of their sins that they've already made turn from purposeful sins to accidental sins, meaning that the punishment is much, much less severe, a world of difference, a world of difference.

2:14:35to give you an example of what a world of difference looks like to some extent, if somebody violated Shabbat at the time of the Beit HaMikdash, okay, if he, let's say, drove a car to shul—death penalty, death penalty. But if he forgot it was Shabbat, forgot it was Shabbat, and he drove the car because he forgot, not because he knew, he forgot it was a mistake. He thought it was Friday; he thought it was Tuesday. He drank too much last night, so he forgot. That's an accidental sin. What's the difference? Death penalty. It's the worst. What is accidental? He did the same exact act. Drove, drove. Same exact act. He drove here, drove here. But here, he knew it was Shabbat and violated it anyway. Here, he didn't know it was Shabbat. Mistake. What's the punishment? Bring a nice cow, sacrifice it, and you'll cry a little bit because, in reality, it was supposed to be you being slaughtered instead of the cow. That's it. You go back home. That's what a world of difference looks like in this world. So in essence, when the Gemara says that all of those purposeful sins that were supposed to be a death penalty turn into accidental sins, you understand now better how much lesser the punishment is. So that's already a big deal.

2:15:53Now, the Gemara continues and says that if somebody does teshuva out of love for Hashem, then all of their sins, purposeful sins, turn into mitzvot. Meaning, the guy worshipped an idol; now Hashem turns that into a mitzvah. Instead of the death penalty, he now gets rewarded for it. That's how powerful teshuva out of love is. as far as Hashem doesn't change the act. A person committed idolatry, a person committed murder. Hashem is not going to bring that person back to life because you did teshuva. Hashem is not going to make that, you know, that reading of the New Testament a permissible thing because you decided to do it. He doesn't change the act itself; He changes the the outcome of the act, meaning what you're supposed to get—the cause and the effect. The effect of it is that a person was supposed to get shot in the face in Gehinnom for his idolatry. Now Hashem says, "No, not only is he not going to get hurt, not only is he not going to get punished, but instead, I am going to give him a reward." Why? Because now he's turned his entire life...

2:17:08and he loves me, and he's doing teshuvah from loving me, and therefore I give him a reward for it. He turned everything else. So, in essence, this is a supernatural act because it doesn't make any sense whatsoever. But in all reality, teshuvah in general doesn't make any rational sense. All of those people who are very typically really wicked call themselves Rational Jews because they try to rationalize the Torah. But the Torah, the last thing it is, is rational. It's not rational. There are many rational things in it, but it's not a rational thing. It's not rational that Hashem would start the world with two people and expect it to grow to billions. It's not rational just because He said, "Pru u'Rvu." It's not rational that Hashem would split the ocean for a small group of people, even though there are many, many more around the world. Just choose them. It's not rational for Hashem to obligate you to put on tefillin six days a week, or if you don't want to put on tefillin at all, okay, then I'll just put you in Gehinom permanently. That's what the Gemara Masechet Rosh Hashanah says on page 17a. It says, who goes to Gehinom permanently? It says people that make sins with their body. With their body.

2:18:24Obviously, sins with their body, we're thinking, oh, wasting seed. Yeah, that's an obvious one. But the Gemara says, what's not an obvious sin with the body? Someone who does not put on their tefillin. Doesn't want to put on tefillin. Oh, doesn't want to put on tefillin. He goes to Gehinom permanently. Where? Seventh level. Doesn't get out. For tefillin. For tefillin, Rabotai. Why? Sin with the body. Does that make any sense? No. Doesn't make any sense at all. Why? Because we are lowly nothings. Who says that Hashem has to explain Himself to us? Who? Who told you that you deserve an explanation? Makes sense, doesn't make sense. For what? What am I getting? So wait, if I don't put on this black box around my arm, I go and get punished permanently. But if I put it on, this little box, with some straps on it, with a little tie thing, that could cost thousands of dollars. If I put it on, I get rewarded permanently? Does that make any sense? That Hashem cares if I put a piece of leather on my arm? That makes sense to you? No, nothing about it makes sense. Who says it has to make sense to you? But that's HaKadosh Baruch Hu's rules.

2:19:37So that's the thing a person needs to know. It's very critical for a person to know it's not about things being rational or not rational. It's not about that. It's about Hashem's rules in the world. So now, teshuva is not a rational thing. Why is it not a rational thing? Because, in essence, what is teshuva? Teshuva is Hashem telling you, yes, you are a criminal, I witnessed it, the heaven and the earth witnessed it, there are other people that witnessed it, but if you say I'm sorry, if it’s like just I'm sorry, I'll let you go. If it's I'm sorry, and now I love You too, not only that, I'll reward you for it. What is that like? Imagine, you just said, had a Ponzi scheme, robbed the bank, a billion dollars. You took from other people's pockets and life savings and put it in your pocket. The SEC and FBI catch you, you’re under arrest, they bring you in, and you have the right to remain silent, but they prefer that you talk so you can perjure yourself.

2:20:52And you go to jail. They put you in a cage like a dog. You show up in front of the trial. Lots of people there. The judge looks like he just came out of some horror film. And then he smiles at you. He says, "You know you're guilty, right?" "Yes, Your Honor." "So you're admitting you stole a billion dollars?" "Yes, Your Honor." "Wow. So you're admitting that this money came from hardworking people?" "Yes, Your Honor. I know." Should you admit? Yeah, yeah, admit. Are you sorry for it? To be honest with you, you're honest? Yes, I'm sorry. All of a sudden, the judge starts dancing on the stage. He goes, "Look at him. Look at you. Look at you. You know what? You're sorry, right?" "Yeah, I'm sorry." Tell me you love me. I love you. How about this: Just because of everything you just said, not only are you free to go, I'm going to let you keep the billion dollars you stole. And just to make you feel really good, so it's not a scam, I'm going to give you another billion dollars. How about that? I love you too, by the way. Does that make any sense to you? Does that make any sense to you?

2:22:13It doesn't make any sense. But that's how much HaKadosh Baruch Hu loves you when you do teshuva. That's how much HaKadosh Baruch Hu loves you when you do teshuva. You admitted your crime. You said, "I'm sorry." And on top of it, you say, "I love you." HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, "How about this: You keep the spoils of your theft, and I'm going to give you more." Why? Because you did the right thing. But if you continue ignoring Hashem's message, continue ignoring Hashem's irrational opportunity to give you a reward to no end, Hashem says, listen, not only did you go against Me, you continue going against Me after I offered you a reward just to stop. Surely, you have so much tum'ah on your neshama that the only way to remove it is by Gehenom. only way to remove it is by Gehenom because every single time a person makes a sin, he creates a klipah (shell) around his neshama, a very, very thin shell around his neshama, and he can only break it if he does teshuvah. In his famous sefer

2:23:35that he speaks to different Dibbukim and Ruchot. He writes that one time he spoke to the Neshama of Shabtai Tzvi, Shem Resha'im Yirkav. Shabtai Tzvi was one of the most horrific false messiahs that existed a few hundred years ago. Until this day, there are followers of Shabtai Tzvi. Even though he eventually converted to Islam, he was a miracle worker from all types of Tumah that he was involved in and had many followers until this day. The point being is that Shabtai Tzvi one time came as a dibbuk. into a person's, uh, body and spoke to him and told him a little bit about the suffering that he's enduring in, uh, Kaf HaKela. He told him, "I'm gonna help you," and he replied, "You can't help me because the klippa that I have is now two feet thick."

2:24:41Two feet thick of sins, the klippa around his neshama. To fix that, you need a miracle. The Ben Ish Chai came to Rav Fetaya and told him, "Don't mess with it. Don't mess with it. You can't fix it. And even if you try to fix it, it'll cause you a lot of damage." Rav Yehuda Fetaya was at a very high level himself and decided to continue doing it. As a result of trying to help, trying to help the Shabtai Tzvi, both of his sons died. both of his sons died dealing with this stuff. It is not a picnic. The point being is, how do you get two feet thick of sins? This rasha used to take a piece of pork, make a blessing, and say, "Blessed is the one who permits the forbidden." As a rabbi, he permits the forbidden, takes a married woman, makes a bracha, blesses the One that permits the forbidden, because he says he's the Mashiach, so he can permit the forbidden, and go with a married woman, and all of his followers will do it. All of his sin under the sun. Rasha Merusha. They ask him, how come you converted to Islam then? He goes, I have to go into the depth of the Tumah to break it in order to come back.

2:26:02nor to save them. All types of craziness. People that have Tumah around them, there's no end to it. There's no end to the stupidity. But only if you have chochmah in you can you see that this is craziness. But the people that don't have chochmah in them, they follow it and they fall too. They follow it too. And even people that do have chochmah in them, if they're not objective in their understanding of certain things, they can easily fall into it too. point being is that teshuva itself is an irrational thing, and Hashem allows us to do it, gives us the merit to do it, and when we do, we get rewarded for it. So it's not that He changes the past—that's already done—but rather changes the outcome from it as a result of the things that you're doing, and He gives you different opportunities to fix the things that you've done in the past. For example, if a person has had certain sins in the past, Hashem will restructure the world in order for you to be able to fix it. So, for example, if you had an abortion in the past, okay, now you can't bring that baby back—you already murdered somebody. So how does Hashem do it? Number one, you have a child that already is a part of a tikkun; that's already a big deal. Number two, Hashem will send you somebody

2:27:18that wants to have an abortion. All of a sudden, he wants to be her friend. All of a sudden, she wants to be her friend, and they want to have an abortion. So what does Hashem do? He sends you the customer. So what? You convince them not to do it. Or He sends you an email from a company that helps people who want to have abortions. Hidabroot has a whole part of the organization where they help women with money and so on who want to have abortions. We do it also on a smaller scale, of course, because we're not as big as Hidabroot. Also, many women want to have abortions. Number one, by educating them. Educating them that it's not just a piece of meat. It's a real human being. number two, sometimes even money if they need money. If that's the reason, it's the craziest thing in the world, but sometimes people want to commit murder because of money. So we help them. The point being is this: each one of those things, the person that donated that few hundred dollars or that few thousand dollars to help that woman not have an abortion, guess what? That's a tikkun for them. That's a tikkun for them. And it's different things. Why does Hashem send this opportunity? Because He wants her to do teshuvah. So now He is going to give her a way to do it.

2:28:28Same thing for idolatry. Someone that is committed to idolatry, Hashem is going to help them do teshuvah for it. One thing to do teshuvah for idolatry is Shabbat. Keep Shabbat. Help people keep Shabbat. You help people keep Shabbat, it fixes idolatry. Now the thing is, also fight against idolatry, and other things. Tikkun HaBrit. Someone that was promiscuous in their past, either with themselves or with other people, clearly we've talked about it many times, Tikkun HaBrit. sponsoring those CDs, sharing those lectures, hosting events that have to do with Tikkun HaBrit, that fixes promiscuity, immorality, and things of that nature. So when a person wants to do teshuvah out of love, Hashem gives them the opportunities to fix those outcomes. Yeah, you can't bring back that person that you killed, that little baby that you killed because you couldn't see it. You can't fix that, but Hashem is going to give you the opportunity to fix it. And what ends up happening is that Hashem takes the neshama that was supposed to come and puts it in the one that is going to come. Why?

2:29:41with something, something too much for him, Hashem runs the world, Hashem runs the world. And many, many stories, especially among Chassidut, stories of the Baal Shem Tov or the Maggid of Mezritch or Rabbi Zusha and so on, and many of them discuss different things in regards to reincarnations and things of that nature. All of that have to do with tikkunim, people doing teshuva or Hashem doing different things in order to rectify different neshamos because Hashem doesn't want to destroy a neshama. He doesn't want to punish somebody permanently. Meaning, by the time He punishes somebody permanently, it's because He has no other option, because He's given him all the other choices. This is why one time Rabbi Frand told me that he was invited to a funeral to say something about a young man who was a criminal and got murdered.

2:30:41Now, while he was driving there, somebody was driving him there, one of the family members, and they were talking, they were close and so on, and he said to him, the truth is, Rabbi Frand tells him this, I can't believe he said this, but he said it. He said, listen, you and I both know that the best thing that ever happened to this kid is that Hashem took him young. The guy almost got into a car accident when he heard this because they were on their way to the funeral. It's not like this is already in the past. It's the yahrzeit a year, two, three, four years later. The guy just died. Rabbi Ephraim says the truth as the truth is. But don't try this at home. He says to him, listen, I'm not going to tell this to the rest of the family. Don't worry. But between you and me, we both know the best thing that Hashem did for him is that He took him now. So the guy says, how? How? He says, what does this guy do? He was a criminal. We both know he was a criminal. Everybody knows he was a criminal. The whole city knew he was a criminal. On top of it, he violated every Shabbat. Every Shabbat you violate, it's isur karet. Hashem says, I'm going to kill you. Not only in this world, in the next world. On top of that, he was a womanizer.

2:31:51Married women, single women. Every single time he touches one of those women, it's nidda, it's karet. Every single day of his life he was making sins of karet. Karet, karet, karet, karet. Constantly. You know how many death penalties he was going to get? The longer he was going to live, the more karet he was going to make. Punishment would be different. Hashem apparently has merit, Rabbi Fein says. Rabbi Fein says, apparently he has some merit from maybe his grandfather or something that Hashem had mercy on him to take him young before he pretty much completely destroys himself. He took him while he was still young. Before he was, I think he was a kid, maybe like 17 years old or something like that. Young kid, already a full-blown criminal. Hashem did him a favor. Hashem did him a favor. Now, again, like I said, coming from all the frum, he can do this. You, don't try this at home. Even me, don't try this at home. Why? It's not an easy thing to explain to people, but nonetheless... this is very, very, uh, common language among the tzaddikim where they understand that this life is not it. It's not the end; it's not the beginning. It's very hard to explain this to most people because most people are very emotional, very emotional about this. And they don't, when you're emotional, as we've learned from the Chazon Ish, it's impossible for you to be, you know, intellectual.

2:33:11And that's the problem. But when a person understands that there's reincarnation, that there is no such thing as a new baby, this baby has already been here for, you know, 3,000 years, at least from the time of Mount Sinai, so you're all old. I'm not the only one old here. The point being that when a person understands these things, he understands that Hashem runs the world in a precise way; nothing happens for no reason. gives us a bigger responsibility then. And the reason why is because if it means that this is not my first try in this world, that I've been here already, at least for over 3,000 years, and this is also at the same time, according to our sages, the generation of Mashiach, that means that Hashem has given me many, many tries. Apparently, I have not completed my tikkun yet. Therefore, I keep coming back. But this is the last chance because I cannot rely on being reincarnated again. The world is coming to an end. Mashiach is coming. Whether it's next week, next year, or 20 years from now, no one knows. And anyone who tells you he knows is a liar. But everyone knows that we are in that time. We are in that time.

2:34:37This is our last chance. Even the Steipler Gaon, Rav Kanievsky's father, when he was alive, already said 40 years ago, no one can rely on reincarnations anymore. Why? Pretty much everybody's had enough chances. So, in essence, this means that Hashem's mercy on one hand is scary because this is my last chance. He's had so much mercy on me, but He's given me this last chance. So, on one hand, it's scary. On the other hand, it's invigorating. Why? Because if I actually do this right, if you do this right, all of the sins you've ever made from your first gilgul can turn into mitzvot. not just talking about the zillions of sins a person can make by the time he's 20 years old. We're talking about a person that does it right, that serious teshuva, gets close to Hashem, follows the Torah. Everything he knows, he does. Everything she knows, she does. Doesn't care about society and what they think and what this. No liberalism, no nothing, just Hashem. A person that does that...

2:35:49literally can get themselves to a point to fix not just their own life, but fix the source all the way from the beginning. All the way from the beginning. Fix all of the losses that ever happened and turn them into wins. So, on one hand, the mercy is scary because this is my last chance. On the other hand, what an opportunity. Let us all take this opportunity that HaKadosh Baruch Hu has given us. By taking it, by starting now. Starting now, this Rosh Hashanah, take on teshuva. Take on teshuva seriously, and fulfill what the Chachamim have told us time and time again about teshuva, but also remember, it's not a day to be sad, it's not a day to cry, it's not a day to fast. The Navi Nechemiah in chapter eight, verse number nine, it says, "Today is a sacred day to Hashem, your God. Do not mourn and do not weep, for all of the people were weeping as they heard the words of the Torah." He said to the people, "Go, eat rich foods and drink sweet beverages, and send portions to those who have nothing prepared, for today is sacred to our Lord."

2:37:16Do not be sad. The enjoyment of Hashem is your strength. So Rosh Hashanah is what he's talking about. We have to be happy. Don't be sad because it's your last chance. Don't be sad that you've already messed up a million times like me. Don't be sad about that. Be happy. Be happy that you have a chance to actually turn your life around. to such an extent that you could change every single sin ever made into a mitzvah. It doesn't make any sense. Perfect! Now you understand. If it made sense to you, that means you didn't understand anything I said. The fact that it doesn't make any sense to you—perfect! That means you understand, because it doesn't make any sense that Hashem is going to make every single sin into a mitzvah. It doesn't make any sense, but that's how much He loves you. And if you fail, there's still a lot of mercy. We take this chizuk to take advantage. Take it as an inspiration to take advantage of Hashem's mercy on us. Start teshuva immediately. If it's generosity, now is the time to be generous. If it's to be gracious and helpful to your wife, to your husband, to your kids, to your neighbor, to other fellow Jews, other fellow humans, now is the time to do it.

2:38:39it's time to be zealous for Hashem. Now is the time to do all of those different things. Make a plan and start as soon as possible. Don't wait for us; start already now. Start a game plan now, and b'ezrat Hashem, each and every single one of us will enjoy the chag, enjoy the holiday, but also even enjoy our teshuva. Because now that we have a game plan of what to do, we have something to look forward to in this coming year, because at least we know if we change... The world around us can also change. Baruch Adonai le'olam. Amen ve'amen. Baruch Hashem, we've completed another year, b'ezrat Hashem. Rabbi Ephraim and I are very proud to announce some major milestones that we've achieved, b'ezrat Hashem, and with your help, our dear partners. Over 60 million minutes of our Torah have been watched over the last year. That's a million hours of Torah to help people do teshuva and get closer to Hashem. Over 300,000 CDs have been distributed around the world for free. We've also made over a thousand lectures between the two of us, as well as with Rav Chaim being added to the roster. Over 60,000 regular viewers are watching our Torah right now across the board.

2:39:52Over 200,000 answers regarding halacha, family, shalom bayit, and different topics are being given to people on a regular basis. Over 10,000 people have been helped, whether it's through food or different financial issues. 1,000 families of Torah scholars are being helped by Irgun Be'ezrat Hashem. We've published and distributed over 5,000 halachic books, kuntresim, newsletters, and mussar books around the world. We are also currently helping over 130 families complete their conversion to Orthodox Judaism. Our TV channel continues to grow, our YouTube channel, our Facebook pages, our WhatsApp pages—everything continues to grow, Baruch Hashem. Thanks to Hashem, and thanks to our dear partners. B'ezrat Hashem, much more next year.

2:40:55where you'll also have newer features allowing you to use the app while using other applications on your phone. You'll be able to share the lectures directly from the app. You'll be able to donate online and support our kiruv and our Torah work that we're doing. And the most exciting feature is that you'll be able to actually ask questions directly on the app and get answers from the rabbis directly from the app. This is something unprecedented and Baruch Hashem, we will be able to offer it. Thank you again for all of your support. Check it out. Make sure you have the kosher Torah that will re-energize your neshama each and every single day.