What Is The Best Motivation?

0:03Next, why is it that there is so much emphasis on Yirat Hashem, the fear of Hashem, from Gehinom? Well, the reason why is because fear is the number one motivation for why people make decisions in the world. That's how Hashem created us. Psychologically speaking, you know, I took some psychology classes when I was still in school years ago. And The number one motivator of why everything in the world operates is fear. Animals have certain instincts. Those instincts are fear-based. They kill in order to eat. Why do they kill in order to eat? It's not because they're necessarily hungry. They don't necessarily go and chase food because they're hungry. Many times, they eat before they're hungry because of the fear of dying. And needless to say, humans work certain jobs, live in certain neighborhoods, make certain friends, get married, and do all the things that they do because they're afraid of not having what they need. They work because they're afraid of poverty.

1:06They eat certain foods because they're afraid of sickness. They contain themselves and avoid speeding in traffic because they're afraid of dying, getting into an accident, or even receiving a ticket from the police. People behave a certain way and not necessarily the way they want to because they're afraid of becoming outcasts. And so on. So fear is very much the number one motivation for why people do what they do. And this is the same thing that Hashem tells us to do in accordance with serving Him. At Mount Sinai, Hashem scared the life out of us, literally. And Moshe said, He's testing you in order to make sure, and He's scaring you to ensure that you don't sin. Meaning that if we know that there's going to be a consequence that's very, very dear to our sins, then we're simply going to think twice before we do it, just like if somebody went into a restaurant and that restaurant had all types of wonderful food on the menu without a price. A foolish person would think, "Oh, if there's no price, it must be free," and he tells the guy, "Oh, listen, give me everything that's on the menu."

2:18The waiter says, "Sir, do you realize that this is going to cost you five thousand dollars?" "Five thousand dollars? What are you talking about? It's not five thousand dollars; it's free." "Sir, you have to turn around the menu, and you'll see the price on the other side." Once he turns around the menu and sees that the cheapest dish on the menu is $500, all of a sudden, he loses his appetite. Needless to say, he's not going to order everything. So once a person knows the price of something, it makes them make a more educated guess, or educated decision, I should say. So the same thing here, when a person knows that there are very severe consequences for our sins, such as Gehinnom or Kaf HaKela or Chibut HaKever, or all of them, then that person is gonna make their decision process... Perhaps more in line with what the Torah says, rather than following his desires. He may desire to be with this woman who is someone else's wife. Once he realizes that if he does this, he's going to go to Gehenom for a very long time, and they're going to perform all types of surgeries on his male member.

3:31without anesthesia, and they're going to hang him by that male member, and he's going to be tortured in a fire that's unlike any other fire that exists in this world, as there are multiple types of fires that are in Gehinom that are unlike anything that exists in this world. As the Gemara tells us in Masechet Chagigah, so there is green fire, there's blue fire, there's red fire, there's a fire that Each fire eats and drinks. There is a fire that is a divine fire, as mentioned by the Nevi'im, all types of interesting fires. All of those fires are going to be used on this particular person at different times. Additionally, he is also going to experience a Gehenom shel Kor, a cold type of Gehenom. So again, once a person knows that he is going to be punished for this, it becomes clear... inexplicable amount of time just for this five-minute act. If that much, if he's smart, he's simply not going to do it. He's not going to do it. Why? Because he knows it's not worth it. That five minutes of pleasure is not worth five million years of punishment. It's simply not. So if a person thought it's free, he could do whatever he wants, then he's going to be with everybody's wife.

4:50So that's the thing. That's why it's critical for a person to know about the reward and punishment.