What Is The Reward For Honoring HaShem?

1:13And Hashem's honor will increase nonetheless because they're worried about Hashem's honor and not their own honor. This means that sometimes, to honor Hashem, you have to embarrass yourself a little bit. You embarrass yourself, not because you want to pretend like you're some tzaddik or tzaddeket. You embarrass yourself for the sake of Hashem. How? You go and you protest for the sake of Hashem. You go and you talk about things that are uncomfortable for the sake of Hashem. You go and do things for the sake of Hashem. Why? Because the name of Hashem is everything. Without Hashem, we're nothing. And you're going to fight for the sake of Hashem. Even if that means they're going to insult you, call you 500 times a day, call you names, make fun of you, write articles about you, and they're going to kick you out, and they're going to kick you in, and do all types of things, you don't care. It's all about Hashem, Hashem, Hashem. That's all you care about. Anyone that cares about Kavod Shamayim more than his own Kavod, the reward is that his Kavod will increase, and Kavod Shamayim will increase. But on the other hand, anyone that only cares about his kavod or her kavod, how so? Ah, listen, as long as they pay me, I'll do it. Ah, as long as they say chazak u’baruch, I'll do it. Ah, as long as they recognize me, I'll do it. But what about Hashem? Eh, no, Hashem understands, I need to do it. Ah, so your kavod is more important than Hashem's kavod.

2:34The punishment will also be in this world and the next. How? Your kavod will disintegrate, and Hashem's kavod will increase anyway. Meaning there's nothing you can do to lower Hashem's kavod. Hashem's kavod will always increase. But your kavod, because you didn't care about Hashem's kavod, will decrease. Eliyahu HaNavi gives two examples. Two examples that, when I first heard them, I was shocked. I hope you experience the same effect. He gives two examples of what he just said, one on each side. These are real stories. Next time you see Eliyahu HaNavi, you could ask him if it was real. Eliyahu HaNavi says there was a person at a shul with his son, and while they were praying Hallel, his son was speaking foolishly against Hashem. People rebuked the father, saying, "Say something to your kid." The father said, "No, no, come on, come on, leave him alone. He's just a kid." And this continued for eight days in a row during Sukkot. Every day, they're saying Hallel, and the kid, you know, the Hallel is glorifying Hashem, glorifying Hashem, the highest glorification of His name. That's what Hallel is.

4:00And a kid, every time they're saying, Hashem is amazing, he said, "Eh, not so amazing." They say, "Hashem is the best," he responds, "Eh, not the best." He thinks it's cute and funny. People tell him, "No, come on, tell your son something." He responds, "No, no, come on, he's just a kid, leave him alone, leave him alone." This behavior continued for eight days in a row. Eliyahu HaNavi himself says, the year was not complete. Before that man died, his wife died, that son died, his grandkids died, a total of 15 people in his family died, leaving only two people that survived, one rasha and one disabled. In the same year. Why? Didn't respect HaKadosh Baruch Hu's name. Didn't respect God's book, whose name. Well, I just didn't rebuke my son. Okay, you just rebuke your son. No problem. Fifteen people died. No, you shouldn't say that. I didn't say that. Hashem said that. I'm just reading. Go on, read it. Go on, give me the chapter. On the other hand, a person in the shul, Hashem says, they got to a section of the prayer,

5:19It says, Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh. And this person was quiet the whole time. No one knows who he is. Quiet, didn't say a thing. They got to the section of Kadosh, Kadosh. He started yelling, Kadosh, Kadosh, like screaming. Whoa, whoa, what happened to you? I didn't even know you were here the whole time. You're screaming. Relax, buddy, relax. Relax, we have to say Kadosh. Take it easy. We're here. We're here, not on the mountain. Take a chill pill with your religiosity. The poor guy says to them, "I don't know how to read, I don't know how to write, I don't know how to learn, and I don't know how to pray. All I know how to do is say 'Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh,' and you're going to take that away from me?" Eliyahu HaNavi says it wasn't a year before this person was asked to move to Yerushalayim. In Yerushalayim, they made him the manhig, the leader over there. He had married a good woman, had amazing kids, all became talmidei chachamim. Why? He said, "Kadosh, Kadosh." So while sometimes we think,

6:43Sometimes we think that HaKadosh Baruch Hu doesn't need us to honor Him. Apparently, we're wrong. Now you see, many times when a person fights for the honor of Hashem, people will go against them. Insulting Hashem is not as common. Corrected Text: This also tells us a little bit about the status of where we are as a society. But it's important for us to know that if you want to fight for the sake of Hashem's honor every day, you have to learn Torah. Because you have to know what you're fighting for and why you're fighting. You have to fall in love with HaKadosh Baruch Hu. You cannot fall in love with HaKadosh Baruch Hu without learning His Torah. Because when a person simply thinks of Torah without learning Torah, he will always arrive at the wrong conclusion. We're very excited to offer you the new B'ezrat Hashem app 3.0. It's a newer, faster app, full of Torah, lots of Kedusha, by the shiurim that we do, myself, Rabbi Ephraim, and Rabbi Chaim.

8:09where you'll have also newer features where you'll be able to use the app while you're running 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 kehillah (community) 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. Kol tuv u'v'racha b'hatzlacha.