Who Is Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai

0:00Who is Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, also known as Rashbi? Everyone has heard his name in the Jewish world and even in the non-Jewish world. We just celebrated his Hilulah by lighting a fire, learning some Torah, and enjoying some food with a great group of people. But the question that we tried to answer is a question that many people perhaps never even asked. Why do we light the fire? Why is Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai so special and so unique that he gets the rest of Klal Yisrael to celebrate his Hilulah until this day, while his Rabbi, Rabbi Akiva, and even Moshe Rabbeinu don't? What's so special about Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai? What's so unique about him? What can we learn from him? What can we learn about him that can affect our lives today? This and much more was discussed tonight in a beautiful night with beautiful people in the most extraordinary Torah of all. Enjoy it, share it, and be holy. I'm glad to have everybody here and doing this Lag BaOmer at the house, Baruch Hashem.

1:24We had a good turnout last year, Baruch Hashem, as well this year. So, of course, the whole day, the reason why we're even all here on a Monday is because of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai. But the, oh, just before I forget, the shiur... It's not only for the honor of the Hilulah of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, but also it's going to be for the Refuah Shlema of Rabbanit Sarah Bat Anat, Rabbanit Ephraim Ben Shulamit, Rabbanit Levana Bat Sarah, Avi Mori David Ben Esriah, Imi Morati Doris Bat Joah, and Hatzlacha Rabba and Refuah Shlema to all of Am Yisrael, all the righteous Noahides, and all the righteous people that continue to watch our shiurim and help us spread the Torah around the world. So, while we were about, Baruch Hashem, enjoying the fire, I asked everybody a question. It's a very common question and has many answers. Why do we even light the fire? In fact, one of the biggest things that remains a puzzle in many people's perspective is, if Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai is the talmid of Rabbi Akiva, how come we don't do a Hilulah for Rabbi Akiva?

2:42Rabbi Akiva is the rabbi. And Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, as the Ramchal says, and many other chachamim as well, but he was the main one that brought this chidush in his sefer, Adir Bamarom, he says that Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai was his neshama, a nitzot of Moshe Rabbeinu. So if we're celebrating the Hilula of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, We should be celebrating the Hilula of Moshe Rabbeinu. We don't have a fire for Moshe Rabbeinu. So obviously, it's not less kavod or less extraordinary kedusha for Moshe Rabbeinu or Rabbi Akiva, but the question is, why did Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai get such kavod that until this day, whether you are religious or you are secular, Everybody celebrates Lag Ba'Omer. They have a fire. They go to a fire. They have a barbecue. You know, the Chatam Sofer, alav hashalom, said that, you know, for many, many years, the gravesite of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai in Meron was a place that everybody would go to, to this day, Baruch Hashem. Unfortunately, we had a big tragedy a few years ago, but...

4:10It was a lot of celebration over the years, but unfortunately for a period of time, there was a lot of pritzut at the gravesite on Lag Ba'Omer. People would go there and, you know, boys and girls would dance, or they'd slaughter animals, not in a kosher way. So the Chatam Sofer said that Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai is at the gravesite all year round, except on Lag Ba'Omer. Because of so many sins that were happening over there. Today, there's a lot of Kedusha over there. They've separated things. They've sanctified things. But many people don't really know the reason behind a lot of the things that we do in Judaism. And that's why when a missionary, whether a missionary from atheism or from Christianity, comes and asks the typical Jew questions, the average Jew doesn't really know the answers. And really one of the most lethal weapons of the Satan is ignorance. When a person doesn't know, he doesn't realize how much danger he's in, needless to say, his children or her children. the reason behind a lot of the things that we do in Judaism. That's why when a missionary, whether a missionary from atheism or from Christianity, comes and asks the typical Jew questions, the average Jew doesn't really know the answers. And really, one of the most lethal weapons of the Satan is ignorance. When a person doesn't know, he doesn't realize how much danger he's in, needless to say, his children or her children.

5:20So it's important for us to know all the small things and the big things. So the first question we have is why do we have a fire? Why do we have a fire? As a couple of you said, the Torah of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai was unique. When he came out of that cave, as the Gemara in Masechet Shabbat on page 33b says, that after a a foolish person, who happened to be a ger, apparently not a ger tzedek, decided to go and disclose the conversation of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and the Chachamim about the Romans to the Romans. And they, of course, put a warrant out for the arrest of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. They wanted to kill him, so he had to flee, he had to run away, and he took Elazar. Who is Elazar? His son. Why did he choose his son, his little son, to take with him? He says in multiple places in the Gemara how his merits and his son's merits are enough for the whole world. Meaning that he didn't find anybody else that he could study with, that he could rely on, that he could take with him on his journey. He took his son. Another reason why he took his son is because Nashim Da'atan Kalot, his wife,

6:50After all, she's a woman, and she could be convinced with threats much more than a man can. They're much more emotional. If they threaten her that if she doesn't tell them where her husband is, they'll kill her son, almost every woman will give in. As much as she loves her husband, she loves her kids even more sometimes. It's a reality that you have to deal with. So, Rabbi Shimon knew he had to take his son. He goes into the cave, he studies for 12 years. Chachamim teach that the amount of Torah that was in that cave was out of this world. All of the Avot came. Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov came to the cave, learned Torah with Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai. Eliyahu HaNavi came to the cave, learned Torah with Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai. Moshe Rabbeinu came to the cave, learned Torah with Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai. Menachem came to the cave, learned Torah with Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai. Unbelievable Torah. He came out of the cave, he and his son. The Gemara says in Masechet Shabbat, they saw the world, they saw people dealing with basic stuff. Not violating Shabbat, killing people, anything like that. But they simply saw people just, you know, working. He said, how could you work? How do you deal with this world and not go learn Torah? And the kedusha that Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai had

8:15was simply too much for this world to handle. When he would look at somebody, the person would go on fire. The house would go on fire, the building would go on fire. His son would look at somebody, and they would go on fire. A bat kol came out from Shamayim and said, "What, did you come to destroy My world? Go back into the cave." And they went back into the cave for another year to calm down a little bit. Rabbi Shimon and his son came out again. He was okay. He was able to handle things. Understand that not everybody is Rabbi Shimon. His son needed a little bit more time. So every time his son looked at somebody, they went on fire, and Rabbi Shimon would turn it off. That's what the Gemara says. So now, why did they get this? How did they get this? How do I get this fire? I have a few people I can look at and maybe put them on fire. Some people I mentioned in the lecture yesterday, some people are on the Jewish warning list. You know, I have a few people I can put on fire. Nobody can even say it's me because, you know, I'm looking at them. It's great. No, but seriously, how does somebody get such a kedusha? Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai was given a gift from HaKadosh Baruch Hu of the Torah HaSod, the secret parts of the Torah.

9:34And immediately when people hear secrets of the Torah, they immediately look for things to fly. You know, somebody to look at you, put you on fire, make you fly in the air. But the secret parts of the Torah are much more than just the different supernatural things. The secret parts of the Torah are to understand The deeper meaning of every single thing that we have in Judaism, whether it be the mitzvot, or the way we serve HaKadosh Baruch Hu, or the way that we fix ourselves, or fix our marriages, or the Kedusha between a man and his wife, contains endless amounts of secrets in the Torah, much more than the average person can even comprehend. But the point is that Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai was given this gift. And he was given this gift because he was willing to sacrifice his life much more than anybody else in his generation was willing to do. Now, to answer the first question of why do we have a fire, Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai knew that he had to get out of this cave at some point. He could not keep this Torah to himself. The Gemara in Masechet Chagigah says that if a person learns Torah, and doesn't share it, he is like a person who doesn't have a God. Because one of the purposes of the Torah is for you to learn the traits of Hashem, the middot of Hashem. Hashem, does He take anything from you? Do you give Hashem anything? Only the heretics think that you give Hashem something. Hashem takes nothing from us, He only gives. There's nothing for Him to take from us. The mitzvot are for us.

10:49and doesn't share it, he is like a person who doesn't have a God. Because one of the purposes of the Torah is for you to learn the traits of Hashem, the middot of Hashem. Hashem, does He take anything from you? Do you give Hashem anything? Only the heretics think that you give Hashem something. Hashem takes nothing from us; He only gives. There's nothing for Him to take from us. The mitzvot are for us. So us serving Hashem, us perfecting ourselves, us purifying ourselves. The Torah is in order to know who Hashem is, what Hashem is, how to do His mitzvot. That's for us again. Everything is for us. Our servitude of Hashem is for our benefit, not His. Only the heretics think that you serve Hashem because He needs you to serve Him. So, when HaKadosh Baruch Hu

11:49gave Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai the secrets of the hidden part of the Torah. He wanted Rabbi Shimon to spread this Torah. And a person that learns Torah and does not share it is a person that does not know that the minimum of minimum to know about Hashem is that He always gives. So if He always gives, at the very least you should give what He gave you. He gave you Torah; share it with other people. So Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai knew he had to leave the cave in order to do zikui harabim, to help people do teshuva and get closer to Hashem. But he knew that if it was just going to be speaking to people, it wouldn't be enough. Why? At some point, he was going to die. So he wrote down the Zohar. He started writing the Zohar. And Chachamim teach us that he was almost finished with the Zohar. But he was given the knowledge that it's time to leave. It's time to go. At the end of today, you have to get out. So Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai commanded the sun to stay in the sky.

13:11Stay in the sky until I finish. The Gemara says there are only four people for whom HaKadosh Baruch Hu let the sun stay in the sky. One of them is Yehoshua bin Nun. Another one is Nakdimon ben Gurion. Great people. HaKadosh Baruch Hu left the sun in the sky for them. Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai commanded the sun to stay in the sky. Why? I can't let the day be over because once it's over, I have to get out. But I'm not finished. So stay in the sky until I finish this last chidush and Zohar. Then you can go down. So he let the world benefit from extra light. We benefit from that light, that light of the Torah. And that's why we also light the medurah. We light the fire. He let the fire continue. We let the fire continue. So that's another reason why we have the fire. But to understand really why Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai was so special and unique that he was the one gifted this gift. I mean, certainly Rabbi Akiva had an endless amount of knowledge in Kedusha, as the Gemara says that he once saw a person running while he was carrying a huge amount of wood, enough for ten people. But he was running as if he was being chased by an army.

14:40To Rabbi Akiva, this was, you know, he saw him. He didn't think anything of it, just stopped the guy. The guy wouldn't stop, he commanded him to stop. He asked him, who are you? If you are somebody's slave, I'll buy you. I'll buy you from your owner. You don't have to work this hard. If you're poor, I'll give you money, I'm rich. Rabbi Akiva became wealthy in multiple different places. One of them was that his father-in-law, after he realized who Rabbi Akiva was, gave him half of his money. Kalba Savua was his name. Another one was, well, his second wife was the ex-wife of the Roman Caesar who converted. She converted to Judaism. She was very wealthy. Rabbi Akiva became very, very rich. He told the guy, "Listen, if it's money that you're chasing, I'll get you the money. You don't have to work this hard. What are you doing?" The guy says to him, "No, no, no. I'm not from this world. I don't even know how you can see me. I'm in Kaf HaKela, and I have to run."

15:40From all these mazikim, these destructive angels. Because if I don't work this hard, they'll beat me up even more. So obviously, Rabbi Akiva was Kodesh Kodashim. So the question we have to go back to again is, why did Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai get this? To know this answer, we really need to know a little bit more about what Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai taught and who he was. As we said, the Ramchal says in Sefer HaKitzon that Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai was the nitzotz, the spark of Moshe Rabbeinu. Now today, anybody that can speak a little bit, maybe even write a few books, everybody says, "Oh yeah, this is the next Rav Ovadia, this is the Mashiach, this is the next, I don't know, Gadol HaDor." You know, everybody is all of a sudden, it's Kadosh and Tahor. People have no concept of what Kadosh and Tahor is, but they say, "No, this guy, yeah, he's good on YouTube. This guy, yeah, he has a thousand people showed up to his lecture. He must be the Mashiach." People are delusional. Delusional.

17:02Rav Meir Eliyahu Shlita said something very funny. Real life story, but mamash, you see, when you're from my side of where things are, it drives you crazy. But I understand that unfortunately when people don't know, they don't know what they don't know. So he says, one of the things that drives him crazy is how delusional sometimes people are. How they make everybody into something that's much more than what they really are. And people that are really chachamim, really tzaddikim, they mistreat them. Ah, what's the big deal? As Gemara in Masechet Makkot says, you know, people stand up for the Torah. Woe to the people who don't stand up for a talmid chacham, who is a living sefer Torah. So, he says, one time he was invited to go give a lecture, and there was another guy that was speaking before him, that supposedly was a mekubal. He says, I don't know if he was a mekubal or not. All I know is I was sitting over there, he was supposed to go first, and then I was supposed to go after him. But he told me, listen, my stomach is not feeling good. So do me a favor, they're going to call me, you go speak first. I'll be back. Fine, no problem. So they call the guy to come speak. Missing in action. Nobody knows where he is.

18:27So they see Rav Mordechai Eliyahu there, and they say, "Oh, you go then." So he speaks for a little while, and then the guy comes back. And then they bring the guy, and he speaks. So as Rav Mordechai Eliyahu comes down, a few of the hosts of the people over there that know this rabbi, this mekubal. You see our rabbi? He's so mystical. He's so magical. He just disappears. You ever see? He always disappears. We don't know where he is. He just disappears all the time. It's amazing, right? I was like, what's amazing? The guy went to the bathroom. What's amazing? What's amazing? He disappears. But everybody wants to make, you know, everybody into something magical, mystical. Or another person told me the other day, oh, you know, this rabbi, such and such. Yeah, yeah. You know, he already knew the entire Shas by heart at 13 years old. Funny thing is, most people don't even know how to finish one daf in a masechet Shabbat. How to finish one daf in any masechet. No, no. This rabbi knew the whole Shas by heart already at age 13. How do you know? Why? Because they said it in the video? Did the rabbi ever say such a thing? No. The rabbi never said two words to say such a thing. Even somebody that would finish the Shas a thousand times would never tell you they finished the Shas a thousand times.

19:49Needless to say, telling you he knows it by heart. Masechet Bava Metzia tells you that if you know, and somebody asks you if you know, it's better for you to say you don't know. Why? It's humility. But everybody likes to say, no, no, this rabbi, yeah, he already knew everything. He already knew everything when he was two. He was already born with Moshe Rabbeinu's right hand. All types of nonsense that people make up. Or better yet, When you ask him, "Oh, your rabbi said such and such, but where's the source for it?" "Oh, no, no. I asked him. He says there's no source needed. It's a known thing." He said, "Everything needs a source. That's how our Torah works. Everything needs a source." But unfortunately today, people don't know what they don't know. So the Ramchal didn't just say that Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai is the nitzotz of Moshe Rabbeinu. The Ramchal brings a verse in Tehillim, chapter 68, verse 19. It says, it says you, which is referring to Moshe Rabbeinu, you ascended to the heights. This is talking about Moshe Rabbeinu going to Har Sinai. It's the Gemara Masechet Shabbat.

21:08I believe it's page 87-88 in Masechet Shabbat. It talks about how Moshe Rabbeinu went up to Shamayim at Mount Sinai, and the Malachim were arguing with him: "You are a son of a woman, what is the Torah to you?" Moshe Rabbeinu was scared of them. Hashem said to Moshe Rabbeinu, "Answer them." Moshe said, "Yeah, but they're going to burn me; they're all fire!" Hashem says to Moshe, "Hold on to My throne and answer them. I'll protect you." So Moshe Rabbeinu, now knowing Hashem has his back, says, "Obviously, the Torah is for us. Do you keep Shabbat, Malachim? No. Do you eat kosher, Malachim? No. Do you have an obligation to get married? No. Kids? No. Obviously, the mitzvot are for the people. So the Torah is for us." The Malachim liked his answer so much that each one of them came to Moshe Rabbeinu and gave him a present. Give him a gift, including the Malach HaMavet. Give him a present. So, it says that you, Moshe Rabbeinu, ascended to the heights as David HaMelech. You captured the spoil. What's the spoil? The spoil is the Torah. Taking gifts. Who is he taking gifts from? From these Malachim, from these celestial beings. Taking gifts for man. Even

22:37In the midst of those who have been rebellious once. To dwell with Hashem. So David HaMelech says, you Moshe Rabbeinu went up to the heavens. You got the Torah for us. You even got gifts from these angels. Why? So we can all get closer to Hashem. Even if we are sinners. Even the wicked people can get closer to Hashem. Because of you. So the Ramchal says, Alita l'marom, shivita shevi, that you got spoiled, shevi. Shevi is the Rashei Teivot, the acronym for Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai. Meaning that one of the gifts that you got is the neshama of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai. Moshe Rabbeinu brought that down with him to this world.

23:38Also, the word Shevi is also the acronym for Yitzchak Ben Shlomo. Who is Yitzchak Ben Shlomo? The Arizal. The Arizal is the one who uncovered the secrets in the Torah of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai. It was available for many, many years, but people didn't understand it. Until the Arizal unfolded all the secrets. And then after him, you have Shevi, which is also the acronym for Shalom Ben Yitzchak. Who is Shalom Ben Yitzchak? Rabbi Shalom Ben Yitzchak is the Rashash. The Rashash was one of the great Mekubalim who lived after the Arizal. ...and unfolded many of the secrets of the Arizal into the world. This triangle of neshamot, Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, the Arizal, and the Rashash, are known as the triangle of neshamot that uncovered the mystical part of the Torah, the hidden part of the Torah, into the world. Now, they're the ones that brought the Kabbalah; they're the ones that...

25:04uncovered everything, but it all started with Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai. It's all based on the gift that Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai brought to the world. Now, the Gemara in Masechet Shabbat, page 138b, says a statement that in the future, the Torah will be forgotten. Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai responds to this statement, and he says, "Chas v'shalom," heaven forbid that the Torah will be forgotten, because it will be contrary to the Torah. As the verse in Deuteronomy 31:21, Sefer Devarim, Perek Lamed Aleph, Pasuk Chaf Aleph, says, "Ki lo tishakach mi pi zaro." says that, for it will not be forgotten from the mouth of the seed. Meaning, this is a promise from HaKadosh Baruch Hu that Am Yisrael will never forget the Torah completely. This is a statement that Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai brought. The first time you look at the statement, the second time you look at the statement, the fifth time you look at the statement, the tenth time you look at the statement, all you can see is, okay, so I get it, Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai

26:29reminded us of what HaKadosh Baruch Hu said, which is that Am Yisrael is not going to ever forget the Torah. But to show you a small, tiny microcosm of the genius of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai is that he doesn't just use this verse because this verse said what he wanted it to say, because there are other verses he can use. But rather because this verse has the Sofei Teivot of his name as well. Now, having a pasuk that has your name, Yochai, in it, also shows that, again, there are hidden treasures in every single word in the Torah. But when a chacham is able to unfold it, He shows you how much more there is for us to learn. Now, what did he really mean by this, though? Why do I need to know that the ending letter, the sofei tevot of each word in that verse spells out the name of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai? Why do I need to know this? How is this going to help me? What's the secret here? The secret behind the secret.

27:57What Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai is trying to teach us is that by unveiling the Torah and its secrets, he is assuring that HaKadosh Baruch Hu's word is stamped into stone. Meaning, HaKadosh Baruch Hu promised the Torah is never going to be forgotten. So how is bringing the secrets of the Torah going to assure that the Torah is not going to be forgotten? Because in order for us to know the Torah that Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai brought to the world, the mystical part of the Torah, the supernatural, the secret, the hidden, we have to delve into it much, much more than we ever did before. And therefore, a person that delves into the Torah and its secrets becomes more committed to the Torah. becomes more committed to the Torah. And that Torah becomes more committed to him in both his physical and spiritual memory. As the Tosafot says in Masechet Ketubot, page 104, in the name of Eliyahu HaNavi, that if a person wants to learn Torah,

29:18They can't just come to shiur once in a while, watch online once in a while, or even every day they watch shiurim and think they're going to become talmidei chachamim that way. You may know, perhaps, not to kill people. You may know, perhaps, a few things that are going to make your marriage better. You may know which parasha it is of the week. You may even know a few good stories to tell on Shabbat. But to acquire Torah and to be a talmid chacham, where somebody asks you a question and you not only know the answer, but you know the source of the answer, you know where to find the answer, even if you don't know the answer, you know where to find the answer, which part of the Shulchan Aruch, which part of the Gemara, which chachamim talked about it, which generation it's relevant to. That's not going to come from watching shiurim online or reading superficially a few books. It's not going to come that way. If a person wants to acquire Torah, it's a lot more than just reading books. It's a lot more than just watching shiurim. Eliyahu HaNavi says that until a person prays that he has the secrets of the Torah enter his stomach, his innards, he should pray that delicious food doesn't enter his stomach instead. What is Eliyahu HaNavi trying to tell us? Why is he rebuking us right now? We didn't even start yet.

30:43Eliyahu HaNavi says, unfortunately, many times people want to have their cake and eat it too. They want to learn Torah, but they want to do it at the comfort of whenever it's convenient, whenever they have a lot of energy, whenever they have a lot of time and nothing to do with it, whenever it's easy to learn and easy to understand, whenever it's not too long so it doesn't take up too much of their day. Whenever it tastes good and I like it, not only do I like the stories and I like this, but you know, it's not too complicated. Eliyahu HaNavi says, you want to complete Shas in one day, but you also want to sleep too. It won't work. If you want to acquire Torah, it's going to require a lot more than simply reading a few books and watching a few shiurim. Or reading a lot of books and watching many shiurim. Still not enough. The Chatam Sofer was a gifted child, and his parents gave him over to one of the giants of the generation, Rabbi Natan Adler.

32:09Rabbi Natan Adler was one of the special neshamot that the Rebbe MiLubavitch says was certainly one of the 36 neshamot. And Chachamim from his own generation said, it's been many generations since a special neshamah like Rabbi Natan Adler came to the world. The Chatam Sofer, as a little kid, was already a talmid. Once the Chatam Sofer became great, one of the Gedolei HaDor, one of the giants of all giants, there was a woman who did not want to listen to the rabbi. He said, no wigs. Even though he was Ashkenazi, no wigs. She put a wig on. He said, oh, you go against the Chachamim? He found out she went against the Chachamim? She died that week. She died that week. When they told the Chatam Sofer that she died, he said, make sure when you bring her body before you bury it, pass by my house. They brought the body, passed by his house, knocked on the door, brought the rabbi, the rabbi opened, unfolded the face, spit in her face, and covered it back.

33:34This is what you get for going against the Chachamim and breaking the fence. So Chatam Sofer became a giant among giants. But he wasn't a giant always. He was a little kid learning Torah. And he continued learning Torah with Rabbi Natan Adler. And the Klausenberger Rebbe, the Rebbe Mitzanz, says, It's no wonder that the Chatam Sofer became such a great tzaddik and chacham and gaon. It's no wonder, it's not a wonder. Why is it no wonder? Once you hear how the Chatam Sofer describes how he served his rabbi, clearly you can see why he became such a tzaddik and such a chacham, such a gadol. How did he serve his rabbi? Rav Ovadia in Sefer Anaf Etz Avot says, the Chatam Sofer would tell his students that the greatest time in his life was when he would serve his rabbi, Rabbi Natan Adler. He said, how do you serve a Kadosh Rav? He said, I served him exactly like a slave serves his master.

35:01He gives us an example. He says: "One time, we had to travel somewhere early in the morning, and the ground was snowy. It was a storm, not an easy time to travel, especially by horse and carriage. But of course, we had to go, and we had to be in a hurry because, before it got too difficult..." So we had to wash our hands on the way. So we stopped the carriage. But unfortunately, there was no water. So I went outside, took some snow in my hands, and warmed the snow up, handful after handful, until I filled up an entire pot. of water so my rabbi can do netilat yadayim and my hands were very, very cold and freezing, but I was so happy to have the opportunity to bring this water to my Rav and wash his hands.

36:18You go ask a person, "Listen, your rabbi needs a ride to the doctor. Needs a ride to the airport." "Okay, I'll call him an Uber. I'll call him an Uber." Ask if he's a good guy. Ask if he's a good guy. You ask the average person, "Listen, your rabbi needs you to help him with a few things." "No, he probably has somebody else. I'm busy." I'll donate more on Yom Kippur. The average person doesn't understand what that means. Chachamim teach us that in order to have the merit of having Torah, Hashem has to decide to give it to you. To do that requires a lot more than just simply reading some books that you like and watching some lectures that you like.

37:23The Gemara in Masechet Berachot has nine memorot, nine places where Rabbi Yochanan, the giant Amora, teaches in the name of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai is mentioned many, many times in the Talmud. More than a couple hundred times. Almost 200 times you can find him, just with the full name Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. But sometimes it says Rabbi Shimon. If you count that too, and every time it says Rabbi Shimon, it's also Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. Count that too, it's more than a few hundred times. So, to know a little bit about Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, we have to see what he teaches. What does he teach? The Gemara in Masechet Berachot, page 7b, says, Rabbi Yochanan said in the name of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai: A degenerate child in a person's home is a severe affliction. It's painful, much more than the future war of Gog and Magog.

38:50based on a verse that we learned from David the King in Psalm chapter 3, verse 1: "A song of David as he fled from Avshalom, his son." Immediately after that, it's written: David says to his degenerate son Avshalom, or about his son Avshalom, to Hashem, "Hashem, how many are my tormentors; many rise up against me." However, when it comes to the war of Gog and Magog... It says, "Why do people gather and the nations talk in vain?" So here, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai—we spoke a little bit more deeply about this specific ma'amar a few months ago—says, first and foremost, know this: having Torah in your house

39:51It's not just something that you do for yourself, so you can go to Heaven. Having Torah in your house is in order for you to avoid Gehenom. But not Gehenom that we made a whole movie about. Gehenom here. What Gehenom here? Gehenom here is life without Torah. For sure, your sons are going to be degenerates. Without Torah, absolutely, 100% certainty, your children will be degenerates. Why? What else are they going to learn? They go to a school today, if it's a public school, Hashem yirachem, already at the time of the Me'am Loez, he already wrote back then, that public schools, back then, 300 years ago, is avodah zarah. What would he say about today's public schools where they teach kids that nobody can decide your gender for you? You could decide to be an "it." You could decide that you are black even if you are whiter than my shirt. You could decide that you are a cat. You could decide to eat your pizza and somebody just eats you. There's one guy that decided

41:17that he is a baby even though he is 40 years old, weighs no less than 250-300 pounds, as ugly as our sins, but he walks around with a diaper and a little tank top like a baby and a binky, and he cries on the floor. That's him. And his wife actually has this on an interview. She says, "Yeah, that's who he really is. He's a baby." Like, this is what they teach in school today. You can be anything, including something that defies science, something that defies logic, something that defies nature, and defies everything that we know to be true. Now, if you say, "Yeah, okay, so I'll send my kids to a religious school. They'll go to yeshiva." Which yeshiva are they going to go to? Are they going to go to a yeshiva where they call themselves a yeshiva, but the boys and girls sit next to each other? Or will they go to the yeshiva where the kids are given so much freedom that they have enough time to smoke and sell marijuana in the schoolyard?

42:37Or it's the yeshiva where the rabbi himself is not really so sure why anybody is even here. He just wants to make a living. Now, this is not the yeshiva's fault. This is the parents' fault. Now, certainly, there are many good yeshivot. But the world is big. If a parent doesn't do enough sacrifice... for the Torah, who's to say he's going to pick the one that's a diamond in the rough? And even if you send the kids to the right yeshiva, if the kid comes back home and sees that his parents are more interested in money, in sports, in this world, in materialism, why should he be any different? Somebody said recently, "Of course, you could learn Torah, but you know, what are you really going to do with it? What are you going to be? What are you going to be? Meaning somebody that knows the Shas." I couldn't believe my ears.

43:57Yes, that's the point. Yes, yes. That's what you're supposed to do. Yeah, go learn. Maybe you're not going to be a gadol, but at the very least, be a talmid chacham, be somebody who knows some Torah. But for some reason or another, there's a certain segment of our own people that have simply given up on this generation. They intentionally want to keep people stupid, spiritually stupid. Do you know how many young kids I meet that have gone to yeshiva, have gone through the system their whole life, they've never been in a secular house in their life, didn't have the childhood that I had, didn't have to work when they were 10, 11 years old just to make ends meet to help their parents, didn't have to work three jobs while they were in high school, didn't have to do any of that stuff? They went to yeshiva; parents paid a thousand dollars or more a month in tuition. Some of them even advanced and went to kollel for a few years before they found themselves. You meet these guys, what are you learning? Oh no, once in a while I go to the yeshiva. Wait, wait, hold on a second. What do you mean once in a while? You went to yeshiva your whole life. How do you not learn? Continue. Because now I'm busy with some stuff. I got work now. Okay, but why are you not learning anymore? You went to school for 20 years. That's it? All the learning stays in school? Or better yet,

45:20What are you learning? Yeah, we're learning a little bit of Bava Metzia, a little bit of Bava Batra, a little bit of Masechet Avot. They say, whoa, hold on a second. You're either the biggest genius of the generation, or you have no idea what you're talking about. Why? Who learns three Masechtot at a time? Before Masechet Shabbat, somebody came to Rabbi HaKadosh, asked him a question. One of the Talmidim rebuked him. He says, how are you asking Rabbi HaKadosh, Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, who wrote the Mishnah, how are you asking him a question if you know he's learning a different Masechet right now? You're asking about a different Masechet. From there, Chachamim say, who's learning multiple Masechtot? Why? Unless you are able to really chew them up and really understand multiple Masechtot, one Masechet at a time. But today it's standard. It's standard in yeshivot, especially the Ba'alei Teshuvah yeshivot, or the yeshivot that, in so many words, are run in the same way as this system that wants to stupefy the generation where they simply skip. Throughout the Masechet, no one ever finishes anything. Oh, we'll start off on Masechet Bava Metzia. Okay, the guy starts reading. No, no, no, we're not starting from the beginning. Why not? Why, Mister Shiur? No, no, we're going to start on Daf Tetvav, Amud Alef. That's 15 pages.

46:43What happened to the first 15 pages? No, no, that's where we're going to start. The next day, okay, we're going to start at Daf Lamed. Wait, we didn't do 15 pages yesterday. Why are we going to page 30? No, we're going to study a little bit over there. And they just skip around everywhere. Nobody knows anything. You ask the kids, what do you know? What did you learn? They don't know anything. They don't know anything. So, the truth is... This is not the yeshiva's fault alone. It's the parents' fault. Why? Because if the father was a chassid, the kid would have something to look up to at least. When he comes home from school, he sees his father learning. He says, okay, you know what? That's what we do in this family. We learn. He's not looking for the next basketball tournament. He's not looking for some piano lessons. He's not looking to become a stamp collector. He knows that to be a Jew, you have to learn. So, the reality here is that Rabbi Yochanan is teaching in the name of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai. Everyone is scared of having a bad child because a bad child is even worse than the damage that's going to happen from the war of Gog and Magog. But at the same time, people don't understand that they're creating a bad child by not having...

48:13The Torah of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, the Torah of Rabbi Yochanan, the Torah of Rabbi Akiva, the Torah of Moshe Rabbeinu—all of these should be in your house, studied from beginning to end. You want to work? Work. But where's the Torah? You want to make money? Make money. But when is the Torah? Make a billion dollars. I don't care. Go. Enjoy the world. Enjoy whatever you have to do. But when are you going to learn though? When are you going to learn? So, the first thing we learn from Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai is Torah. is going to save you from Gehinom in this world. Because without it, you're leaving your children in the Satan's hands. They have no hope. You have teachers teaching them that they could be a different gender and even a different species. In fact, if I decide right now If I decide right now that from now on, you guys are gonna call me Pablo Escobar and I'm really a Chinese person from the middle of China, there's nothing you guys can do. That's who I'm gonna be from now on. Why? Because society says that you can simply decide. And no one can decide for you who you are. But what about my birth certificate? What about my passport? What about, I don't know, common sense? No, no, no, that doesn't matter anymore.

49:35This is what they teach in school. You can be whatever you want to be. This type of education is education from the Satan to make people so stupid that they do not even know how to come back home. Unfortunately, that type of stupidity is infiltrating the Jewish community also, as places like Yeshiva University are now starting to become more tolerant of some of this stuff. Some communities in the UK, New York, Florida, and other places are becoming more tolerant of this. It's not as bad as it is in the world at large, but just give it some time. Anyone who does not have Torah as the number one priority in their life and in their household, it's only a matter of time before one of their kids shows up and says, "From now on, I'm an alien." Don't tell them differently. Next, Rabbi Yochanan says in the name of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, it's permissible to contend with the wicked, to fight against the wicked people in this world. As it says, also in Tehillim,

51:05David HaMelech teaches us, I'm sorry, in Mishlei, that those who forsake the Torah praise the wicked, and those who adhere to the Torah contend with them. Meaning, Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai says, you may like the Torah, you may like to watch shiurei Torah, you may like sometimes when we talk against wicked people, but if you don't learn Torah yourself, and make it a priority in your life, guess what? All you're doing is giving power to the resha'im. You're giving power to the resha'im. Why? Because those who are able to learn and don't learn are forsaking the Torah. And therefore, it's only a matter of time before they start agreeing with and even praising the wicked. And those that follow the Torah, not only do they have the ability to understand what the fight is all about, but they even have the ability to fight against the wicked themselves. Why does Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai want to fight? The Torah itself is called Sefer Milḥamot.

52:29Torah says it's also called the "Book of Wars." What wars? Wars for the sake of Hashem. Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai was somebody you simply couldn't mess with. The Chachamim themselves were scared of him. There was one time that they had to go to the Roman Caesar and convince him to cancel a decree. And they said, Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, he's an expert in miracles. He goes, yeah, but he can't go by himself. He has to go with somebody. Nobody else wants to go. All of a sudden, the son of Rabbi Yosef says, I'll go. Oh, why did you say that? Why did you say that? Now he can't say he can't go. Well, what's the problem? Why can't he go? Because Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai is going. What do you mean why it's not going? Why didn't you take anybody else? Raise his hand. Why? Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai is a tzaddik. He goes, that's the problem. He's fire. If you even say one wrong thing, you're gonna die on the spot. Some mefarshim say, the kid never came back. At some point he said something, simple. Turned into a heap of bones. Bundle of bones. Some say, no, no, he came back, it's just that it was a little tense.

53:58After Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai came out of the cave, one day he sees this wicked convert that got him into trouble. The Gemara says in Masechet Shabbat, Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai looks at him and says, "Ah, you're still alive?" On the spot, he turned into bones. He didn't take a knife, chop him up, make nothing. Just looked at him. Wow, he's still alive. That's a surprise. Died on the spot, turned into bones. Fire from heaven burned him to nothing. In the song, Bar Yochai, b'ezrat Hashem, we're going to translate the book that Rabbi Chaim wrote a couple of years ago about commentary on that song. It's a song that was written by a Mekubal, one of the biggest Mekubalim. It has a lot of secrets in it. One of the verses in there says how Bar Yochai went to war with wicked people. Even though a lot of wicked people celebrate Bar Yochai, Bar Yochai, Bar Yochai, they don't realize if Bar Yochai was here right now with them, he'd burn all of them. Because of anybody going against Hashem. Now, he loved Am Yisrael and he did whatever he could to get Am Yisrael to sanctify themselves. But people that simply chose to ignore that and just go against Hashem, his neshama couldn't tolerate it.

55:29And because his neshama was at such a high level, his holiness was at such a high level, HaKadosh Baruch Hu simply would not allow the world to continue with this in play. He would simply, literally, just make people disappear. Even the movies couldn't imagine things like this. Now, the Gemara continues and says, Rabbi Yochanan says in the name of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, anyone who assigns a set place to pray, his enemies will fall under him. As it says, this is in the book of Shmuel,

56:34I shall yet appoint a place for My people, for Yisrael. So, Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai says, you have another teaching here. He says, okay, you should have your place in your Beit Knesset where you pray every day. Why? If you have a set place that you pray every day, it gives you certain protection, not just protection where your prayers are protected. your prayers are protected. But even your enemies that are praying against you, praying to defeat you, Hashem will make sure that they're defeated. But sometimes people take this to an extreme. And when they go to shul and they see somebody sitting in their chair, they lose their minds. Huh? Huh?

57:34What do you do with my chair? Don't you know I've been here for 10 years? Don't you know I've been here for 50 years? Don't you know I was born with this chair? How could you take my chair? What do you do with my chair? Go find a different chair. And they make a big issue, forgetting about the fact that they're embarrassing this person in public. Okay, you see someone sitting in a chair that you always sit in? No problem. Go sit in a different chair. Why? You're not allowed to murder people in public. Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai told you, yes, pray in the same place, but not if it's at the cost of other people's lives, where you're embarrassing people on a daily basis, every time somebody sits in your chair. Rabbi Yochanan teaches further in the name of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai: attending to those who study Torah is greater than studying Torah unto them. As it says, he also brings a verse from the book of Melachim (Kings), chapter 3, verse 11. Melachim Bet (Kings II). It says here, "Elisha, the son of Shaphat, who poured water on the hands of Eliyahu." This is describing the connection between Elisha HaNavi (the prophet) and his teacher Eliyahu HaNavi (the prophet).

59:00And it doesn't say that Elisha HaNavi was the talmid of Eliyahu HaNavi, or that he studied under him, but rather it says that this is Elisha who washed the hands of Eliyahu HaNavi. Meaning that the gedulah of Elisha HaNavi resurrected the dead, even after he died. There was a war one time, and one of the people that died in the war They wanted to get rid of the body. They threw him in some hole. They didn't know that Elisha HaNavi was buried there. As soon as his body touched where Elisha HaNavi was, he came back to life. Meaning Elisha HaNavi's kedushah was so extraordinary. This is in the Tanakh. This is not even a Midrash. This is Tanakh. This is a literal story in the Tanakh. The kedushah of Elisha HaNavi was so extraordinary that even after he died, he was able to resurrect the dead.

1:00:01But yet he's not known as Elisha HaNavi, a Kadosh, or this. He was the student of Eliyahu. No, no, no. It's Elisha who washed the hands of Eliyahu HaNavi. Why? Says Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, why do you think Elisha HaNavi became Elisha HaNavi? It wasn't because he was a good student, or because he had a good memory, or because he gave a lot of tzedakah. No, no, no. It's because he was willing to sacrifice his life for his rabbi. He was willing to serve his rabbi. He was willing to do anything for his rabbi, even something that you would look at as small as washing his hands. Just like the Chatam Sofer washed Rabbi Natan Adler's hands with the snow, freezing his own hands until he could fill an entire bowl of water. Do you know how much snow you have to literally melt in order to fill up one of these netilat yadayim cups? I don't know if anybody today could possibly do it physically without simply just getting frostbite. But here you see, that question is not even in their mind. Why? What do you mean? My rabbi needs water. What's the question? Yeah, but is there a risk? It's cold. Maybe he could wait. It's not even a question. Says the Rebbe MiTzanz, that's why the Chatam Sofer became the Chatam Sofer.

1:01:26Says Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, that's why Elisha HaNavi became Elisha HaNavi. That's why Elisha HaNavi became Elisha HaNavi. In fact, it also says this about Yehoshua bin Nun. Yehoshua bin Nun, he was second in command after Moshe Rabbeinu. But the Abarbanel and the Gaon of Vilna comment, and they say that Yehoshua bin Nun is not known as the successor behind Moshe Rabbeinu. Not known as the student of Moshe Rabbeinu even though he was next to him like a shadow, waiting for him at the bottom of the mountain for 40 days and 40 nights. Hashem brought the man to Yehoshua bin Nun at the mountain, at the bottom of the mountain. But he's not known as Moshe Rabbeinu's student. He's not known as Moshe Rabbeinu's successor. What is he known as? He was his attendant. He was his helper. His assistant. Today, people are so focused on titles.

1:02:35that sometimes a person is not even willing to accept a job, even if the salary is exactly what he wants or more, even if the office is exactly what he wants and more, but if they don't give him the title that he wants, he's not accepting this offer. It's unacceptable that they would only call him Vice President. It's unacceptable that I am just a manager. I have to be more. I have to be Executive Vice President. I have to be the executive of the executive of the executive branch's Vice President to the point where they already think that I'm the President. You realize it's just words on a business card, right? No, no, no. It's much more than that. People, they won't do business with me if I'm just a Vice President. They won't do business. They won't buy anything from me if I'm just a manager. I have to be the CEO. Yeah, but you just came here. people are delirious with titles. The guy thinks that he is much more than what he is, not realizing that the greatest people that ever lived became what they were because they knew

1:03:51where they stood next to their master. Says Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, this is what we learn about shimush. Now, Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai literally has endless ma'amarot, endless teachings in the Gemara, in many, many different places But we're not going to have a very long shiur. I'm going to give you a couple more points and send you guys on your way. But I want to make sure that we give the honor to Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, at least that we can, to understand what type of kedushah was in this world, and is still in this world for anybody that's willing to learn. In the Sefer Doresh Tov by Rabbi Ephraim, our own very dear Rabbi Ephraim Kahlon. He writes all types of books. He wrote a book against the missionaries. He wrote a book to expose the different heretical things that are inside Christianity. He wrote a book for people that want to give shiurim. He wrote a responsa that was admired and praised by Gedolei HaDor.

1:05:19He wrote books for young people and older people. Baruch Hashem, all types of books. But you're never going to see Rabbi Ephraim call himself what people call themselves—mekubal, kadosh—all this nonsense that people think. In fact, some people say, "Oh yeah, he's the biggest rabbi in the world." Why? Look how many subscribers he has. To be a big rabbi today, you need subscribers. Apparently, if you have a lot of subscribers or if you have a lot of people come to you, you're a big rabbi. You ask, "What is your rabbi? What does he learn?" "Oh no, he knows the whole Torah." Okay, great, he knows the whole Torah, but what does he learn every day? Does he learn a lot? Does he write books? "No, you know, once in a while he writes, you know, one of those, you know, like family-friendly books that take about 15 minutes to write or if you use ChatGPT it takes you 30 seconds." What does he learn? What do you learn? Okay, you know what? Let's forget about your rabbi. What do you learn? You're the student. You're the byproduct. What do you learn? Oh yeah, I watch a shiur once or twice a week. Okay, great. The shiur is great. Fantastic. What else? What do you learn though? No, that's what I learn. What do you mean? Where's the Gemara? Where's the Shulchan Aruch? Where's the Chumash? What about? No, no. That stuff, you know. I didn't get there yet. Wait, so he's your rabbi for 5, 10, 15 years and you're still stuck on one or two shiurim a week?

1:06:47And you think that this is a good byproduct? Rabbi Efraim, the learning that I saw, I've been learning with them already, Baruch Hashem, for over a decade. But the learning that you see face to face is very different because you see the whole day. And one of the most amazing things that I saw face to face each time is that he kept getting greater and bigger and doing things that are unimaginable. each time is that he kept getting greater and bigger and doing things that are unimaginable. When I tell people, yeah, listen, my rabbi, he finished the Shas four times before he was 20. Like, nah, come on, really? How do you know? The truth is, how do you know? Well, there's a couple of ways. One, every time he finishes the Shas, he has a big party. So whoever attended all the parties knows. Number two, if you look at the average person today, you tell them, listen,

1:07:48Do Daf Yomi. It's very good. Every seven years, you'll finish the Shas. Some people jump into that. Baruch Hashem. It's good. Every seven years, you have a bunch of people finishing the Shas. Fantastic thing. They tell him, "Listen, Rav Chaim Kanievsky completed the Shas Bavli and the Shas Yerushalmi every year, and many, many others for him." How? Seven dapim per day. "Oh no, that's impossible." Why do you say it's impossible? Why? Why? Because you never did it, it's impossible. So why? Because as long as only the biggest rabbi in the world did it, that means that you have no obligation on yourself. So each time a person hears about these big things that the big rabbis did, automatically they say, "Oh no, it's impossible. They're the biggest rabbis in the world." You don't need to be the biggest rabbi in the world in order to do big things. You simply need to want it. The last time we went to Eretz Yisrael, we signed up almost 70 or 80 people to complete the Shas in one year. That means seven pages per day. Seven dapim per day. Baruch Hashem, out of the 80 or so that signed up, we still have about 60 something left that are in it, and Baruch Hashem are scheduled to finish. None of them have ever completed the Shas in one year. We have other students that completed the Shas in one year in previous years, much less, but this was the biggest sign-up.

1:09:14Now this year, I don't find, Baruch Hashem, he finished the Shas many times, but he says, listen, I can't just tell people to finish the Shas in one year and not do it myself. Not that he hasn't done it, but I have to do it also. The problem is, he tells me, I don't have time. I don't have time. Between this learning that I have to do on Sunday, where I have the learning with you, and I have the learning on my own, and I have to do the shiur, and I have to do the other shiur, I don't have time. He says, ah, I got it. What I'll do, instead of learning the seven dapim per day, I don't have time for seven dapim per day. So what I'll do is just learn 50 dapim every Friday afternoon. And that's what he does. Every Friday afternoon, when some of us are still sleeping, by then he's already halfway there to completing 50 dapim in the Gemara.

1:10:18This is not because of, oh, his supernatural powers. It's because somebody dedicated themselves day and night and is willing to die for it. And after a period of time, HaKadosh Baruch Hu gives a person more and more powers than they know what to do with. So, when I see people and I tell them, "Listen, what are you learning?" It doesn't do anything for me, what you're learning. I'm just trying to see how healthy or sick you are. When somebody tells me, "Listen, I'm really having a tough time learning." What, so you're only learning two hours a day, three hours a day? "No, no, more like a half hour a week." How are you not in the ICU unit? So when I see that my Rav can complete 50 dapim on a Friday afternoon, and I witnessed it with my own eyes—50 dapim in one, literally in an afternoon. It's the whole afternoon, but it's the afternoon nonetheless. I say to myself, when are you gonna give me the ability to even do some part of that? And if we don't cry for ourselves, then who's gonna cry for us?

1:11:41So when we say, yeah, Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai was great, he was amazing, and Rabbi Ovadia was great, he was amazing, and this one was great, was amazing, and this rabbi, no, great. What about you? All of them are great, good. What does that do for you? How are you going to acquire the spark from them in order to make you great? Yeah, but I work. What, you think they didn't work? If you see their schedule, it makes your schedule look like you're a kindergarten child. If you see how busy they are, and how much they achieve, and how much they work, and how hard they... It makes you look like you're on vacation. So Rabbi Ephraim writes that Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai says in the Gemara Masechet Niddah, Daf Yud Zayin Amud Aleph (17a), that there are certain things that a person does that puts his life at risk. Certainly, ignoring the Torah, mistreating the Torah, mistreating Chachamim, all that stuff is obvious. But he says even certain things that a person would never even pay attention to, such as eating an onion or a garlic that was already cut open

1:13:10and left overnight. You took an onion, you cut it in half, you left it in the fridge by itself, Rabbi Shalom Aleichem says, don't eat it. Why? It's not good for your neshama. He says, water or any type of liquid that was left open overnight, you see your favorite drink waiting for you on the counter, waiting for you in the fridge. But you left it open. The average person says, ah, no, what's the big deal? Unless it's Coca-Cola or something, and you still like the little bubbles. You don't have any bubbles anymore. People complain, oh, it's flat. I never understood what that meant when I came here to America. What does it mean? It's flat. Overnight, you see your favorite drink waiting for you on the counter, waiting for you in the fridge. But you left it open. The average person says, ah, no, what's the big deal? Unless it's Coca-Cola or something and you still like the little bubbles. You don't have any bubbles anymore. People complain, oh, it's flat. I never understood what that meant when I came here to America. What does it mean? It's flat. I didn't understand what it was until I said, "Oh, I drank it." He's like, "Why are you drinking it? It's flat." I'm like, "No, it tastes fine." "No, it's flat." I'm like, "No, no, it tastes fine." I didn't understand what they were talking about. He's like, "No, the gas is gone." I'm like, "Who cares? It's the same taste. Gas, no gas. Why do I have to jump because of the gas?" People, you know, people are a little fanatic with the taste buds. Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai says, "It's not about taste buds. You left some drink open overnight, don't drink it."

1:14:38Now, some people are saying, "Ah, it's too much, come on. What? It's based on if a snake is gonna, you know, put some venom in it. Where are you gonna see some snakes? Where are you gonna see snakes? Are snakes anywhere?" By the way, there was a snake here. There was a snake here. But don't worry. Sonny saw it. He was here for a weekend one time. We're here sitting on Shabbat. And all of a sudden, we see this anaconda. I mean, it really wasn't that big. But it was this giant snake. In my eyes, it was like a giant. It was like this anaconda from a movie going across my backyard. Now, one day, if that wasn't entertaining enough, we go outside to take the, I don't know, my kids out, or I went to take out the garbage, I don't know, whatever it was. All of a sudden, you know, my kids are playing outside. All of a sudden, I see my kid, my daughter, run like she just saw, like, I don't know, some Malach HaMavet or something. And she's screaming, snake, snake, snake. Poor kid was traumatized. I'm looking for this thing everywhere, not that I know what to do with it.

1:15:38But I'm looking, where is it? I called the guy. He says, by the time he goes, it's gone. It's gone, of course. You're not going to see it. So anyway, who heard my prayers one day, most likely heard my wife's prayers. So one day, you know, we went out somewhere, and we took the kids out. They did a little siyum or something. So anytime my kids finish a book, we usually do something for them. We take them for ice cream or go buy them some toys to celebrate the Torah. It's very important for a household. One of the things I learned from my friend, every time you or the kids complete a book of substance, not like a three-page book, you know, a book of substance, we call it a masechet. When they complete an entire series of books or a big book, buy them a present, have a party, do something. Why? To celebrate the Torah. Whether it's you or them. Why? So everybody's excited about Torah. So one day we took them out, and it was at night, like a Motzei Shabbat or something like that. We went to, I think, I don't know, one of these, Duane Reade, other way, Walgreens or something, to go buy them some toys. When we come back, We call it a masechta. When they complete an entire series of books or a big book, buy them a present, have a party, do something. Why? To celebrate the Torah. Whether it's you or them. Why? So everybody's excited about Torah. So one day we took them out, and it was at night, like a Motzei Shabbat or something like that. We went to, I think, I don't know, one of these, Duane Reade, or Walgreens or something, to go buy them some toys. When we come back,

1:16:45I see there's something weird on the street, but it's night. You can barely see anything. They're too cheap over here to buy any real lights. Anyway, I go back inside. The next morning, I need to go somewhere, and I see there's the same exact thing on the street. So I get closer to it. What is it? A snake. He's still on the street. I ran him over the night before. Or somebody ran him over, but he's right near my driveway. It says, Rabbi Shimon, that there are certain things that a person should not do because they're putting their life in danger. One of them is to not drink something that was left open. Some people think this is extreme. Why? Because the Gemara says, maybe a snake is going to, you know, drink from that water or that milk or something, and then, you know, it could poison it. So people say, it's like, ah, come on, no snakes. There's no snakes. I live on the 39th floor in New York. No snakes here. Rav Chaim Kanievsky, alav ha-shalom, was even more stringent about this.

1:18:02He says, if you walk away from anything, any water, any liquid, you walk away from it. Not just during the night—at any time you walk away from it, and it's away from your eyes, now you cannot drink it. In his house, you cannot drink it. One time, there was a very, very difficult economy over there. It was very difficult to get milk, but the rabbanit got some milk. She was cooking the milk, boiling the milk. Somebody rang the door. She went to the door, and she came back to the pot, and she realized, oh, the rabbi said, her husband. said that you can't walk away from it. But wait a minute, I've spilled this whole milk. It's impossible to get, it's so expensive. But the rabbi said, what do I do, what do I do? I have to listen to the rabbi. She takes the pot full of milk, she pours it into the sink, and a snake comes out of the pot. A little snake. Went inside the pot, snuck through the window, went into the pot, apparently drowned in literally no time at all. Drowned inside. Why did HaKadosh Baruch Hu do this? To show you, Chachamim don't say something for no reason. Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai says, be careful with these things, including eggs. Eggs also, if you cut them open and leave them overnight, don't eat them.

1:19:27Why did he care about all this? When he's telling about things, about angels, and he's learning, and all supernatural stuff, now he's telling about little food? Yeah, because if you don't care about the small things, you're not going to care about the big things. If you don't care about the small things, you think it's a big deal. You don't believe that leaving an onion cut overnight and then eating it, if you don't believe that's dangerous for you, spiritually... then everything else that Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai can teach you is not relevant to you. Why? If you don't believe the small stuff, why are you going to believe the big stuff? And why do you even think it's small stuff? And that's the difference. Where Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai says that as the Gemara in Masechet Chagigah, at the end of the Masechet, That Talmidei Chachamim, kol gufam esh. It's one of the things that Rabbi Fein brings in his Derash Tov, page 65 on Lag BaOmer. Talmidei Chachamim, they're all fire. They're all fire. And when a person thinks about Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, he can understand why fire.

1:20:44But to finalize it all, we're going to bring something from the Zohar that could show you how a person could be, theoretically speaking, a Shomer Mitzvot person, keeps Torah, keeps mitzvot, but he lights fire on Shabbat. Without even realizing it. The Zohar HaKadosh in Parashat Tazria talks about How dangerous anger is. And it says that anger, when somebody gets angry on Shabbat, it's like they are lighting the fire of Gehinom. You get angry on Shabbat, the food is not hot enough, somebody is late to eat, somebody is not paying attention to your Divrei Torah, you express anger,

1:21:45Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai says in the Zohar HaKadosh, you just lit fire on Shabbat. And even further, if that's not enough, he says, at that moment, whatever you were doing at that time, whatever you were holding, whatever you were reading, becomes property of the Satan. And no blessing can come upon that thing. And as an angel... That comes, an angel of the Satan comes and says out loud, that perhaps you can't hear it, but HaKadosh Baruch Hu can hear it and all the angels can hear it. This is the sacrifice that this so-and-so person offered to our side of the Satan. What you were eating, what you were drinking, what you were reading, whatever you were doing while you were getting angry, just became a korban for the Satan. And an angel announces this, this just became the sacrifice of the korban. What's putting it on fire? The anger.

1:22:55And then another voice comes out, says Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, woe to the person who strayed and followed a false god in his rage. He has worshipped a foreign god. And then a second voice comes out, the voice of HaKadosh Baruch Hu, says woe to them, they have strayed from Me. Why? You lost your temper on Shabbat. If you believe the Torah of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai is holy, then the big and the small are the same. But if you think that only the big stuff that makes things fly in the air is good, then this stuff is not relevant to you. Why is it? Ah, come on. No, he's extreme. He's fanatic. Everybody gets angry. Everybody gets angry. No, come on. Why? It's really become a sacrifice for the Satan? Okay, so you're a heretic, and Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai is Torah.

1:23:59And that's the difference. Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai was willing to sacrifice everything and anything that he had for the sake of even the smallest thing. Whether it's to serve as rabbi or to serve as creator, to him, there was no difference. Whether it was to learn the basics of halachot or learn the secrets about fruits and vegetables that you leave overnight. Or the secrets of what these voices are that I'm now finally hearing of these angels when somebody got angry. Oh, that's this guy. Oh, he just made a sacrifice to this and that. Oh, that's what's happening. Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai looked at every aspect of the Torah and said, "This is a big deal." Yehi ratzon that we too... we'll take the Torah and make each and every part of it a big deal. Every single part of it, part of our life, every single part of it, part of our purpose. And make sure that our houses, our families, our friends, our communities, and even our enemies at least have an opportunity to learn this Torah, to live this Torah, and to at the very least see how important we think it is. Perhaps that's going to be enough of an influence to make them want to be one of the talmidim of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai.

1:25:20to make them want to be one of the talmidim of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai. Thank you very much for learning with me. Hashem bless each and every single one of you. The zechut of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, b'ezrat Hashem, will go for all of your merits, for all of your lives, to give you parnasah tova, briyut, hatzlacha, all of the blessings of the Torah, b'ezrat Hashem, to each and every single one of you. Thank you.