Why Should I Have EMUNAH In The Jewish SAGES?

1:03Now the Rambam writes, if you believe that HaKadosh Baruch Hu is going to forgive all of your sins on Yom Kippur, guess what? And you pray and you do all the things you need to do, you really say I'm sorry, and you believe that your sorry is going to work, you believe that your prayer is going to work, guess what? It's going to work. But if you just go to the Beit Knesset, and you hang out with the guys, and you pray here and there when you feel like it, and you can't wait till the fast is over, because you don't really believe this mumbo jumbo, but you're doing it because you've been doing it. Guess what? Your Yom Kippur is like a Tuesday afternoon in the middle of any week. It doesn't help you ascend, nothing. Why? You don't believe in it. In order for the bracha to work, you have to have emunah in it. When Moshe Rabbeinu told HaKadosh Baruch Hu, "They're not going to believe me," HaKadosh Baruch Hu didn't say, "Moshe, how dare you challenge me?" No, HaKadosh Baruch Hu said, "You're right, Moshe, you're right, they're not going to believe. And if they don't believe, even you, Moshe, are not going to be able to take them out of Mitzrayim. Even you, my messenger, it's not going to work." Why? They have to believe in the salvation. They have to believe in the bracha. They have to believe in it for it to work.

2:21If you don't have emunah in it, it's not going to work. Example number one. Example number two. I told you some time ago about Elisha HaNavi. Elisha HaNavi is the talmid of Eliyahu HaNavi. When Eliyahu HaNavi left this world without dying, through a special, extraordinary event where HaKadosh Baruch Hu lifted him from the world right in front of Elisha HaNavi, it was an incredible moment. Now, this event is documented in the Tanakh. Eliyahu was taken out of this world, but alive, with his clothes on. Elisha HaNavi subsequently became the gadol hador, the greatest prophet of that generation. Before Eliyahu's departure, Elisha asked him for a bracha. Eliyahu HaNavi asked, "What bracha do you want?" Elisha requested to have even more miracles and power than Eliyahu had. To this, Eliyahu responded with "Amen." Through a special, extraordinary event where HaKadosh Baruch Hu lifted him from the world right in front of Elisha HaNavi. It's in the Tanakh. Took him out of this world alive, with his clothes on. Elisha HaNavi became the Gadol HaDor, the greatest prophet of his time. Before Eliyahu Hanavi left, Elisha asked him for a bracha. Eliyahu Hanavi said, "What bracha do you want?" Elisha replied, "I want to have even more miracles, more power than what you did." Eliyahu Hanavi said, "Amen." Some of the miracles were even bigger than Eliyahu HaNavi. One time a woman came; she was praying, and she asked for a bracha from the Rav. So Eliyahu HaNavi says, what do you want me to pray for you? She says, don't pray for me. Pray for Klal Yisrael.

3:40What a tzaddeket. Who comes to the Kotel asking for blessings for somebody else? Who comes to the rabbi asking for blessings? No, don't give me any blessings. Give it to all of Klal Yisrael. When was the last time anybody here cried for Klal Yisrael? People cry about their own problems all day. No one cries for anybody else. The reality is this woman, a special woman, what she does is she comes to the Gadol HaDor, waits in line for five hours. What? Kvoda Rav, please, pray for Klal Yisrael, not for me. I don't need anything. I have everything I need. Elisha HaNavi was so impressed by this woman, he said to Geichazi, his gabbai, He tells him, you know, but Kvoda Rav, you know, this woman, she doesn't have any kids. She's barren. Elisha HaNavi says that this year she'll have a kid. Ten years she's barren. She can't have kids. She's like one of our matriarchs. The uterus is missing. Elisha HaNavi says she'll have a baby this year. She believes in Elisha HaNavi. That's why she came. She has a baby. And where's the problem? The problem is, shortly after the baby is born, he dies.

5:05The baby dies. Now everybody's crying, hysterical. The woman is not crying. She takes the baby. Everybody's in shock. What does she do? She runs to Elisha HaNavi. She runs with the baby to Elisha HaNavi. Where am I going to go? I'm going to go to Elisha HaNavi. He's the one who blessed me with the baby. I'm going to go to him. Hey, hey. Hey, you gave me a baby. What kind of baby did you give me? Half a baby? What's going on here? She comes to Elisha and asks, "What did you do here? Why did you give me a baby for it to die?" Elisha, the prophet, says to Gehazi, "Gehazi, go to this woman, take my staff, and touch the baby with the staff." And Gehazi was not taking the task seriously. So he's walking around with the staff. and he touches a dead dog, the dog comes back to life. Now, when he touches the baby, it doesn't work. So Elisha HaNavi finds this out; the woman comes to him with the baby. He goes, "Oh, okay," and he touches the baby, and the baby comes back to life. Resurrection of the dead. Now, why did this all work? Why did it all work? With a stick, there's a stick. If you touch a stick right now, is it going to be able to bring a dog back to life?

6:27Is the stick going to be able to bring a kid to life? Is the stick going to be able to do anything other than be a stick? No. The woman had emunah in the rabbi, in the prophet. Not in him specifically that he is God, Chas V'Shalom. She knew he was a messenger of HaKadosh Baruch Hu. His prayers had VIP treatment in Shamayim. When he says something, Hashem sees it as a message from Elisha HaNavi and answers, no matter what time it is. She had Emunah in the Rav, and it worked. Elisha HaNavi. said, "This stick has powers, this stick has powers." Why? Because they had Emunah in it. Example number two. Now, sometimes, I'm going to give you example number three, and then you can ask the questions. Sometimes, HaKadosh Baruch Hu wants to show Klal Yisrael some Mussar on how to behave.

7:37by sending us a righteous Goy. Now, even though we have mixed feelings, to say the least, about non-Jews, many of them hate us, but also many of them love us. And there is a klal in the Torah, that a guy that keeps the Noahide laws, because Hashem said it, goes to heaven. Now if he keeps the seven Noahide laws and all of the common-sense laws, like honoring your parents, being ethical, and so on, but just because he wants to be ethical, not because Hashem said it, the Rambam says he doesn't go to heaven. But if he keeps the same exact laws, keeps the Noahide laws, because he recognizes that they originate from Hashem, this changes his status completely, and he merits a place in Olam Haba. And all the common sense laws. Because Hashem said it, he or she goes to heaven permanently. Now, I'm going to give you an example of a woman who is not only in Olam Haba, but is in a very special place in Olam Haba. And she's not Jewish. Her name was Matronita. Page 50.

9:02says Rabbi Akiva once needed an enormous amount of money for his yeshiva. Rabbi Akiva's yeshiva had 24,000 students. When you need the payroll, it's not $500. It's not a $200,000 24-hour campaign. We're talking about millions of dollars. The Jews didn't have the money. So the rabbis told Rabbi Akiva, listen, there's this rich Gentile, this rich woman, but she's a righteous woman. Her name is Matronita. She lives on the coastline. She lives on the beach. It's a big, big, huge, gigantic house. She's very rich. Go to her. Maybe the bracha is going to come from her. She's going to be a righteous person. Maybe she's going to lend us the money. Rabbi Akiva goes to Matronita's house. They set it up. He says, "Listen, I need a hundred million dollars. I need a lot of money. Why? Because if I don't get this money, the government is going to shut us down. Everything's going to shut down. Hashem, everything collapses in a second." Rabbi Akiva needs millions of dollars.

10:18It says, I can borrow it from you. Borrow it from you. Not, don't give it to me. I have an obligation to give it back to you. I'll borrow it from you. I'll give it back to you. So Matronita, being a righteous Gentile, she says, okay, Rabbi Akiva, who's going to be the witness that is going to be the witness of our deal here, that you're going to return the money on the agreed upon time? Rabbi Akiva says, whoever you want. Is that what I want? Okay, I want the ocean to be one of the witnesses, and I want HaKadosh Baruch Hu to be another witness. That's who I want as a witness. Rabbi Akiva says, Amen. That's what you want as the witness? That's the witness. I'll give you the money, in X amount of time, I don't know, 90 days, a year, whatever it was, I'll give you the money on that day. She gives him the money, he takes care of business, and now comes the time to pay back. Rabbi Akiva has the money. But HaKadosh Baruch Hu wants to teach us a little bit of Mussar. You're going to learn from a righteous Gentile. What does He do? He makes Rabbi Akiva really sick, and Rabbi Akiva is bedridden. He can't leave the bed, but he has to pay the money. He can't pay the money because he can't leave, and he's stuck. Matronita expects that the day is almost over, but Rabbi Akiva is nowhere to be found.

11:46Matronita looks at Shamayim. She says, "HaKadosh Baruch Hu, You are the witness that I only lent him the money. You are the witness because I only lent the money because You're the witness, and the ocean is the witness. That's the only reason I lent the money, because I believe in You." She starts talking to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. In that moment, HaKadosh Baruch Hu... made the Caesar's daughter see. The Roman Caesar's daughter lost her mind; she decided to take all the treasure and just throw it out the window, right into the ocean. Then, who told the ocean, "Hey ocean, you're one of the witnesses, let's go make the ocean do whatever it needs to do, get this treasure to Matronita." Two seconds later, all of the treasure hits the door of the woman. There's a big knock on the door. What happened? She goes downstairs. She has a huge treasure outside. Why did this happen? Why did this happen? You could cry to Hashem 500 times, no treasure showing up in your house. Why? Because maybe you don't believe as much as Matronita. Now, a little time passed. Rabbi Akiva shows up with the money after he heals.

13:02About the money, because here's your money. She says, "No, no, Rabbi. Your Father in Heaven already paid for you. Your Father in Heaven already paid for you." It made me so happy. She says, "It made me so happy. Keep everything that you brought for yourself and take some more. Hey, take whatever you want. Go take some more." That's why the Gemara says Rabbi Akiva became the richest man in the world from three different ways. This was one of them. Why did HaKadosh Baruch Hu make all of this happen, Rabotai? Because this righteous gentile woman had emunah that if HaKadosh Baruch Hu is the witness, then HaKadosh Baruch Hu is indeed the witness. If this is a bracha, then this is a bracha. She didn't believe in herself like most people do. Oh no, I have a lot of self-confidence. That's a problem. You should have confidence in Hashem, not yourself. What are you? You have stomach aches. What confidence do you have?

14:02Human beings are the most fragile creation. There is a fine saying: just look at the human being and how lowly it is. A human being eats something two days old and gets sick for three days, while a cat can eat something a month old and be fine. The cat is outside, making a salad out of it. A human being goes outside in the winter for a few days and won't survive without a shemirah. The cat and the dog can live winter after winter for 20 years, no jacket, nothing. What confidence in yourself? Confidence in HaKadosh Baruch Hu. Confidence in the berakhah that you say. And you can even learn this from a righteous gentile, the Gemara says. Now, what do you guys think? Do you think Matronita is in Gan Eden or Gehenom? I don't know. My name is not mentioned in the Gemara, but Matronita is. My name is not mentioned in the Gemara about giving big tzedakah and having emunah in Hashem, but Matronita is. Halavai Aleinu to be there.

15:04Do you understand what the power of emunah is? The power of real emunah. Many people come to rabbis thinking that the rabbi is a magician, forgetting how to apply the right thing. And they think that the rabbi is the one who's going to make something happen. And they make a mistake. They make a mistake. They pray to the rabbis, whether those rabbis have passed away or are still alive. You always have to pray to Hashem. But there is a concept that's very critical in Judaism called Emunat Chachamim. Meaning you have to have faith in the Rabbis, faith in the Chachamim, that when they pray for you, HaKadosh Baruch Hu will answer their prayers. Not that they are powerful or they are doing any magic or anything supernatural, but rather that their prayers are going to be accepted by Hashem. Two couples come to Rav Ovadia. Both cried for the same problem. Both of them hadn't had children in a very long time. Rav Avya says, B'ezrat Hashem, you'll have a baby this year. A year passes, and both couples return. One is happy, one is sad. True story. One has a baby and says, Kevod HaRav, we just had a baby, and wanted the Rav to see the baby. We also want to invite you to the Brit Milah.

16:31Second friend comes and says, "For the love, I'm really upset. How come you only blessed my friend?" "No, I blessed you too. I didn't just bless your friend; I blessed you too." "Hey, I got sold out here. Where I got nothing, they got a baby. I got bupkis." "No, no, no, you got a blessing." "Because how come it didn't work? Let me ask you a question. What did you do right after I gave you a blessing? What did you go do?" He said, to tell you the truth, after you told me that my wife is going to give birth, we went to the doctor, and we asked the doctor, "What do you think of this rabbi? He said we can have a baby." And the doctor said, "I don't know. Maybe it's going to be a miracle. I don't know. I don't believe in stuff like that. Scientifically, your wife having a baby seems unlikely." The doctor even joked that a doorknob might have a baby before my wife. So then we got really obsessive and went to another rabbi. He said, "B'ezrat Hashem (With God's help), it will happen." He said, "Okay, let's bring your friend." He continues, "What did you do after I gave you a blessing that you're going to have a baby?" She replied, "Oh, because the rabbi was so happy, we went to the store. We started buying; we bought the carriage that day. We started looking at clothes. It's going to be a boy or it's going to be a girl; we didn't know. So we figured, you know, we'll buy neutral colors, like light blue. You know, we started buying stuff for the baby." "Why? Because, why did you buy stuff? You didn't have the baby yet." She responded, "No, but the rabbi said I'm going to have a baby. The rabbi said I'm going to have a baby, so I'm going to have a baby." He concluded, "Do you see the difference here?"

17:57When I gave her a blessing, she said amen. She believed that my blessing from HaKadosh Baruch Hu was going to come true. You went for a second opinion, third opinion, fourth opinion, meaning you didn't believe, you didn't have emunah in the blessing of the rabbi. How do you expect it to work? How do you expect it to work? Now, this rabbi, Just to show you how extraordinary it is to have Emunah and what a rabbi says, what a Talmid Chacham says, or even what a simpleton like myself says. Somebody came to me one time; five years they're married, no kids, nothing. The doctor says, yeah, the doorknob, maybe they're going to have twins before you. They come to me, I tell them, listen, B'ezrat Hashem, you do one, two, three; B'ezrat Hashem, you're going to have a baby. If I'm something special, nine months later they have a baby. Now, what does that make me? A big tummy for carrying a baby? No, I said something. I prayed, talked about it, and did what I was supposed to. They believed that the berachah (blessing) was going to work, and guess what? It worked.

19:04And this happens many, many times when people have emunat chachamim. But if you don't have emunat chachamim, nothing is going to work, including your learning of Torah.

20:05Sure, please provide the text you need help with, and I'll take care of the corrections.