Motivation Being Grateful: Say Thank You To HaShem

0:02I run to the life of Olam HaBa, and they run to Be'er Shachat. My whole purpose in life, my goal that I'm running after, the reason why I work, the reason why I learn Torah, the reason why I pray, is to run to build myself a big Olam HaBa, an eternal place of good. They're also running. They're running to a place called Be'er Shachat. What's that? It's one of the chambers in Gehinnom. When we finish learning Torah every single day, we are obligated to say to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, thank you, I'm not him. Thank you, I don't watch TikTok for a living or just for fun or for any reason whatsoever. Thank you, I don't surf the internet all day just to see what people liked on Facebook. Thank you, I don't even know what he commented on anything because I don't even have a profile.

1:03Thank you for not letting me know what's going on in the coffee shop next door because I didn't even know there was a coffee shop next door since I'm too busy learning Torah. Thank you, HaKadosh Baruch Hu, that I'm not one of those people. Even though I used to be, even though he used to be, and even though everybody used to be, thank you that today I learn Torah, and I'm not one of them. That's the first step of saying thank you to Hashem: when you learn Torah. Now, when a person is still in that world, still in the coffee shop world, still in the news world, still going and hanging out, it doesn't seem so bad. Like, what do you mean? Why are you thinking about not going to the coffee shop? Why are you thinking about not going clubbing? You know how much fun it was in the club last night? We hung out, we drank, this guy got drunk, and at four o'clock in the morning, we're still partying. Boom, boom, boom, big pop pop, the same music from the 1990s all of a sudden became popular again. The DJ is 59 years old. When I was a kid, And we were 16, 17, 18 years old and we saw 35-year-old people in the clubs, like why is this old man here?

2:05Why is this old person here? He's 35. Isn't he supposed to be like a grandfather by now? As 17-year-olds, we used to make fun of them. Why is this 35-year-old guy, 40-year-old guy with his grandmother or his wife, whatever. Why are these two people here in this club with us, 17-year-olds? Today, 45, 50-year-old grown men and women go to clubs with the 17-year-old kids. The most bizarre thing in the world is standard. And you see this old man. He's hanging out with all these kids that are literally his grandkids. Why? Because he's paying for everything. But the loserism, the meaninglessness, has become acceptable behavior in society. And while a person is immersed in that world, they have no idea that anything is wrong. Why? I'm having a good time. Just had three shots of tequila. I didn't even have to pay for it. The girl who's the waitress just winked at me. I think I'm going to get her number. Like, what's wrong with that? In his mind, like, why, why, why, why can't I watch sports? Why can't I have beers on a Tuesday afternoon? What is wrong with that?

3:25The guy that's learning Torah is thanking HaKadosh Baruch Hu that he read another line in the Gemara. Meanwhile, the guy that's in the club has no idea why he is happy. Why is this guy that's reading a book happy? I'm the one drinking, trying to numb my pain, and he's the one that's happy. Why? He's not only happy; he thanks HaKadosh Baruch Hu for being in the study hall. He thanks HaKadosh Baruch Hu and he says to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, "You haven't established my portion with idlers." Why? Because technically, our lives are the same. I rise early, and they rise early. We both wake up early in the morning. I wake up early in the morning to the words of Torah. Thank you, HaKadosh Baruch Hu. The minute that I wake up, I already know it's You. The minute I wake up, I already know I have a purpose, I have a plan. There's a reason why I'm in this world. He also wakes up in the morning. But he wakes up with idle words. What's idle words? Who won the game last night? What are we eating? What are we drinking?

4:44Few curse words. Why? Because he's late to everything. We both wake up early. I wake up early, he wakes up early. I wake up to the words of Torah, he wakes up to idle words. I toil and they toil. We both work hard. You can't say that only the religious people are working hard. You can't say just the secular people are working hard. We both work hard. He toils, I toil. What's the difference though? I toil and receive reward. They toil, and they don't receive reward. I toil, I learn Torah, I do mitzvot. Even the job that I have is going to lead to mitzvot, because I'll give some tzedakah, I'll do good deeds, and I'll conduct honest business, whatever it is. Everything that I toil in becomes a mitzvah. He also toils, he also works hard. But there are no mitzvot, why? There's no purpose. No, his purpose is to make money. Okay, make money for what? So you can buy stuff. Buy stuff for what?

5:45So you can do stuff. What are you gonna do with that stuff? Sins. There's no purpose. You bought a car, fine. I bought a car, fine. We both bought a car. Where are you going with your car? You paid the bill, I paid the bill. You may have a fancier car, I may have a fancier car. You get from point A to point B, I get from point A to point B. At the end of the day, it's the same level of enjoyment as far as the tool itself. What are you doing? What is the end objective of your car versus my car? My car goes to shul, my car goes to the beit midrash, my car goes to shiurim. Your car goes to pick up girls, boys, cats, dogs, this, that, sins, run away from the cops, run after the cops. So we have the same tool, but one is used for serving HaKadosh Baruch Hu, and the other one is serving lust. So he says, "I toil, and they toil. I receive reward, and they don't receive reward. I run, and they run." I mean, we're both chasing our tails trying to do something. We both are running. I run to the life of Olam HaBa...

7:00And they run to Be'er Shachat. My whole purpose in life, my goal that I'm running after, the reason why I work, the reason why I read Torah, the reason why I pray, the reason why this, the reason why that, is to run to build myself a big, eternal place of good. They're also running, but they're running to a place called Be'er Shachat. What's that? It's one of the chambers in Gehenom. When you read this Gemara a few times, you begin to understand it. You start realizing, "Thank you very much for putting me in a situation where I could actually run in the right direction." Run in the direction of acquiring Olam Haba, attaining heaven, attaining goodness. But I'm not talking about the goodness after this world; I'm talking about the goodness in this world. A person wakes up without HaKadosh Baruch Hu, what's the point?

8:01A person goes on with their day without HaKadosh Baruch Hu, what's the point? What is the life of a person without HaKadosh Baruch Hu? We've all lived it at some point or another. You wake up, wash your face, shower, whatever it is that you do, eat. You eat, I eat. One does a blessing, one doesn't do a blessing. The one that does a blessing, the eating becomes a mitzvah. The one that doesn't do a blessing, the eating becomes a sin they get punished for. Hashem is going to have to punish them specifically just for that act. Every single bite, they get a special punishment for. He ate a bagel, he ate a bagel. One got a reward, special place in heaven, another room. The other one got a special place in Gehinnom. Same exact act. One goes to work, the other one goes to work. One reads, the other one reads. Everybody does the same exact thing, but one earns reward, the other one earns sins and punishment. So then you say, okay, but maybe at least the secular person or the less religious person or the really, really modern kind of religious person that's not really religious, but they look religious, at least they're enjoying this world. And you can lie to yourself all your life thinking that.

9:23until you see what their life is like. If they don't have Torah every single day in their life, you see what their life is. Hey, what's up? What's going on? How are you doing? Good, good. I just made a deal. I bought X, Y, Z. Oh, okay. What else? Nothing. Anything else going on? No. How's the family? Good. How's this? Good. End of conversation. There's nothing else to say. Okay, next time you call them. Hey, what's going on? How are you doing? How did you want to say hello? Oh, no, no, it's bad times right now. Why? Family's bad? No, no, they're fine, they're fine. What's wrong? I can't unload the goods that I have. Oh, anything else going on? No, nothing. Okay. See you later. Third conversation. Hey, how are you doing? Oh, good, good. I just finished selling all the stuff that I had. How's everybody else? Yeah, they're still fine. Nothing has changed with them. Nothing has changed with anything. The only thing that has changed is what they're buying, selling, or they can't sell. That's it. There's no substance whatsoever to their life, and when a person that learns Torah hears this, they literally start crying, miskin, poor person, you have no reason to exist. You're an Amazon store with legs. There's no reason for you to exist. If you existed or you didn't exist, if they called you eBay or Amazon or Pikachu, no one would ever know, nothing happened.

10:44There's nothing going on. You ask him, "What's going on?" Nothing. What has changed? Nothing. How long has elapsed from the last nothing to this nothing? Years and years. I have people that I know from 20 years ago. I could continue the conversation from where we left off. Why? Nothing has changed. Nothing has changed. It's the same exact person; the life is exactly the same. Sometimes the car changes, sometimes it doesn't change. Sometimes the shoes change, sometimes they don't. But generally speaking, in here, in here where the neshama is, there's nothing—silence like a cemetery. Nothing. They murder their neshama. Now, you go to any Beit Midrash that has real talmidim... Ask anybody, "How are you doing?" and you're going to have a conversation from here until next year about the different thoughts, ideas, experiences, and appreciations, and all types of things that just happened that day.

12:02They live, they live. Their life is life. The other one might as well be death. So when you see the life of someone that does not have a Kadosh Baruch Hu, you are literally seeing a living Amazon store, nothing changed. One day he works for this company, the other day he works for that company. Changed the logo, you could already fast forward five years. Oh, I haven't heard from someone from so-and-so in five years. Okay, just nothing has changed. Probably just the logo changed on his Facebook page. Nothing changed. Oh, I haven't talked to her in 10 years. Yeah, probably nothing changed. Maybe the logo changed. The relationship status changed maybe. I'd say nothing changed. The life is the same. No new ideas, no innovations, no development of any kind. And it's very sad because there's so much to live for. The guy that's learning Torah is thanking HaKadosh Baruch Hu, "Thank You, HaKadosh Baruch Hu, that I read another line in the Gemara. Thank You, HaKadosh Baruch Hu." And the guy that's in the club has no idea. Why is he happy? Why is this guy that's reading a book happy? I'm the one drinking, trying to numb my pain, and he's the one that's happy.