Chofetz Chaim: Why Do You Ask If I Believe In God? (A BeEzrat HaShem Inc. Film)

0:25Having confidence in that is a fundamental possession to have in order to even have a chance of ever acquiring it. Now, who knows better than about the human mind and its flaws, in his sefer called Shem Olam, in Chelek Aleph, Perek Gimel, 1-3. He says, if you ask a person, do you believe that Hashem is overseeing this lowly world? Surely the person will respond, of course. You ask a person, I think Hashem is running the world. If that person is not an atheist or some type of mental case, they'll tell you, sure, of course. the human mind and its flaws, in his sefer called Shem Olam, in Chelek Aleph, Perek Gimel, 1-3. He says, if you ask a person, do you believe that Hashem is overseeing this lowly world? Surely the person will respond, of course. You ask a person, do you think Hashem is running the world? If that person is not an atheist or some type of mental case, they'll tell you, sure, of course. So, what in the world? The world didn't come by itself. The planet didn't just appear. Even if you want to believe that somehow a rock turns into all life forms, once and never again, still, where did the first rock come from? And if the first rock came from God, why are you limiting this God then? If He can create this one rock that can turn into human life, then, therefore, He can also do anything else, which means that He doesn't need the rock to turn into human life. He can simply just make humans and just make everything.

1:33Once you understand that there has to be a God, there has to be a Creator, why limit it? So you ask a person who is religious, do you believe that God is overseeing everything? He'll tell you, sure, of course, amen, of course. Waiting on a kofer to look at you funny, you might ask, why are you asking such a silly question? Of course, I believe God exists. I wouldn't be a Jew otherwise. The Chafetz Chaim continues, surely he'll respond, of course, but if we investigate further, ...will see that it's just the mouth speaking, but it's not really the same in his inner heart. Because if we really believed that Hashem is monitoring everything, that Hashem is watching everything, that Hashem created everything, if we really believed that, there would never be theft. There would never be one Jew hurting another, one person hurting another. Because we know that Hashem is watching us right before you take that dollar, that million dollars, or whatever it is, from someplace that doesn't belong to you. If you really believe that HaKadosh Baruch Hu is watching, you'd never take a single penny that's not yours.

2:44You'd never take a single penny that's not yours. Better yet, you'd never offend a single person. The second before, you're about to just destroy this person that's in front of you because they did whatever they did to you. The second before, you're about to curse this person out. The second before, you're about to insult your own wife, your own husband, your own child. You realize that HaKadosh Baruch Hu is next to you. Hold on a second. I'm about to do this to his daughter, to his son. The second you understand that the King of Kings, the One who controls whether you live or die, the One who controls whether you have money or not, the One who controls whether you're gonna breathe one more second, the second you realize He's there watching, everything changes. Everybody has a lot of confidence. in their future, but very few understand the reality. My dear father, God bless him, told me a story that, mamash, it broke my heart, but taught me a lot of mussar. Just a few weeks ago, he says there was a nice guy. He used to have lunch with him every single day. For 20 years, they were friends. For 20 years, they knew each other well. They worked together, and, baruch Hashem, they had lunch together. They chit-chat every day. He says, you know, that day, my mom,

4:02...decided to make them sandwiches for my father to bring to the office instead of ordering food. She made them sandwiches, and they're going to have lunch together anyway. So, she made both of them sandwiches. Baruch Hashem, my mom has a big heart. When she makes a sandwich, it's enough for two. She gives them two sandwiches for two people. Yishtabach Shemo, her sandwiches are the best sandwiches in the world. Now... She takes the sandwiches. They sit down. They have their typical lunch, Baruch Hashem. They talk, they chit-chat. But it's a big sandwich, so I say, "You know what? I'm going to finish the second half later. Okay, I'll see you later." My father is in his office. His friend David leaves. He says, I'll see you later. We'll eat together later. We'll finish the sandwich together later. So he goes about his business, and my father goes to his business, and he does whatever he does. A few hours pass, and he calls. No answer. Calls again. No answer. Okay, maybe he's busy. Calls again. No answer. He goes downstairs. He says, "Hey, listen, did you guys see David?" "Oh, you didn't know?" No, no, what do you mean I didn't know? What happened? He just died. What? What do you mean he just died? He just died. He had a heart attack and he died in the middle of 47th Street. If that doesn't shock you,

5:15You have to check your pulse. A person has confidence that he's going to be here in 20 years, and therefore he prepares his 401(k) savings, his retirement plan, his stock accounts, his vacation house, his savings plan, his shoes, his clothes, his dreams, and his aspirations. The reality is, he has no idea whether he's going to survive the next few hours to finish a sandwich. A sandwich. How about time? Satan is fooling all of us to think big. Why? When you think big about everything else, you forget the reality that's small and right in front of you. Therefore, it tells us, if we knew who He is, if we really believed in Him, we would never steal, and we would never hurt each other. We would know that HaKadosh Baruch Hu is watching every single thing that we're doing, and we'd never perform a single mitzvah casually or with any lackings in any mitzvah whatsoever. Our great sins have brought us to a point where we don't even delve into this matter, saying we believe even though we don't.

6:43This, Rabotai, is the Chafetz Chaim going inside your mind and telling you what you really think. You can tell yourself whatever you want. The Chazon Ish went into your mind. The Chafetz Chaim went into your mind and tells you, okay, I removed the Yetzer Hara for you. This is what the truth looks like. You think you believe. In reality, you have work to do.