Riding The Biggest Storm In History with Emunah - Mussar Pirkei Avot (61)

0:14Okay, you did good. Okay. Yeah, the Shema Shemna seven. It's a pleasure to be in Aventura at the Breslov Center again. Baruch Hashem, we have Chodesh Elul showing us that whether we like it or not, we're going to have to do Teshuvah. There's a lot of balagan all over the world and... You remember a few weeks ago, we talked about the situation where we had the moon situation with, what was it called, the eclipse on Rosh Chodesh Elul. According to Chazal, it is a reminder from Hashem that we're not doing as great as we think we're doing. Since then... There's been a wealth of negative news. What's happening in Houston, Hashem should help all of those suffering families that lost their homes, lost their businesses, and lost loved ones. People are starting to realize that Hashem is trying to wake us up.

1:36We have a situation where you have this hurricane Irma that is scaring the life out of many people here in Florida and different parts of the United States. People are panicking, becoming hysterical, and emptying shelves in all the different supermarkets of water and pretty much anything that they can get their hands on. And you know, we asked a good question. What's going to make people do teshuva first? Elul, which is a 40-day preparation before judgment day, before Hashem decides whether you live or die, rich or poor, kids or no kids, marriage or no marriage. Day that on Rosh Hashanah, Hashem decides everything for both the Jews and non-Jews. So Elul gives you 40 days of preparation for that day. We're already almost halfway through or more than halfway through. So the question is, is judgment day going to be the one that helps people do teshuva, or is Irma going to help people do teshuva? The hurricane...

3:05And it looks like Irma is doing a better job. It looks like Irma is causing more people to be scared because, for some reason, people separate the Creator from His creation. People are praying specifically for Irma to go away instead of praying for Hashem to stop it, as if it's a different entity. They give it a name. talk about it as if it has its own powers. This is very sad because the root of all our problems is that we don't really understand who and what Hashem is to such an extent that A person can live 70, 80, or even 100 years thinking themselves as religious, thinking themselves as connected to Hashem, all the while they are idol worshipping their whole life. People can live an entire life thinking that they are connected to God while they are idol worshipping. One of the main reasons is because we don't spend enough time...

4:23Investigating the truth, and we don't invest enough time looking for the truth and working on ourselves and being intellectually honest because people are dying for excuses, for shortcuts, so they can get out of it. Sometimes they make their rabbi a god and... They say, "No, Rabbi so-and-so said that if I do ABC, then I have Olam HaBa." Oh, Rabbi so-and-so, first of all, didn't say it, and if he said it, he's not a rabbi. He's an idol. Usually, they connect these idol-worshiping types of promises to holy rabbis and... Which is the first sign that it didn't happen. It's made up. But why do people do it? They do it because they want a shortcut. They want to do one thing that's a "get out of jail free" card. One thing so they can get to Olam HaBa. But this is being intellectually dishonest. And the reason why is because you know that in business, in family, in anything you have in life, it requires steps. It requires work to get to the promised land, to get to success.

5:45No one has a one-button turbocharge. You can't just press a button and then become successful in anything in life. Not in marriage, not in business, not in anything. So why do you think that you can do it with God? This is being intellectually dishonest. And people could do this their whole lives, fooling themselves that if they read Tehillim, a million times a week, they don't have to do anything else. What about keeping Shabbat? What about being modest? What about covering your hair? What about laying tefillin? What about learning Torah? What about giving tzedakah? What about doing chesed? What about the other mitzvot? One Tehillim, that's it. You just do Tehillim, nothing else. Or they pick like two, three convenient mitzvot and that's it. Figured that it said Hekki. No, this is my level. This is my level. Your level is this honesty. So, one of the things that is going to save us at the end of days that we find ourselves in is being intellectually honest, making sure that we're not just simply

7:01doing mitzvot that are convenient for us to do. We're doing things because Hashem said so, and sometimes what Hashem says is a little more difficult to do. Also, at some point, I'll show you that this emet is in the Torah. But first, I want to... the questions from you guys because I know you guys like the questions, and it also has to do with the shiur to show you that the Torah is endless. So let's take some questions, then we'll talk a little bit about how Irma is in the Torah, and continue with Pirkei Avot. So I think we have a kehillah in New York that set up a projector in their kehillah, and they're watching the shiur live. I'm not sure if everything worked out or not, but I think that from what they told me, everything is set up. They have a projector, and they're watching the shiur live, so we may get some online questions. If you see online questions, let me know. Okay, let's go. Start with some questions. Amos, you said you had some questions. Okay, next. Someone that actually is ready for a question. This would go to OUD. OUD. Meaning kosher dairy? Okay, what about it? Some people say it's not kosher.

8:26Why is it kosher? No, they're talking about Chalav Yisrael. They're not talking about OUD. Chalav Yisrael. What else is there? OUD? Conflicting stories as to what he said. Okay, we have hechsher organizations now. Orthodox Union is a reliable hechsher. And if they say that the dairy is kosher, it's kosher. What Rav Moshe Feinstein said is in regards to Chalav Yisrael, meaning whether you're obligated as a Jew to... drink chalav stam or not, or you could just drink the traditional kosher milk. The reason why is because we are always afraid to drink the milk of the goyim, because milk can come from multiple animals that are not kosher, like a camel and other animals that are not kosher. So that was always a fear. Now, Rav Moshe Feinstein said that the cost of getting milk from

9:33from a camel or other non-kosher animals is, number one, so expensive that it's prohibitive, making it not cost-effective even if someone wanted to do it. On top of that, the amount of regulation in the milk market in the milk industry in the United States is so restrictive that it's prohibited for anyone who is a rasha to, you know, make people drink non-kosher milk. So, therefore, you can rely on traditional kosher milk, and you don't have to drink Chalav Yisrael. Now, of course, if someone wants to add a stringency to his life and To get the blessing for adding the stringency to their life. This is a very good one to do because it's easy. It's easy to get Chalav Yisrael in America, in many places in America, and, you know, to be stringent on certain things is a good thing to do if you know for sure you can stand with it, right?

10:34You know you could stick to it. So if you could stick to it, do it because it's an easy stringency to do, and you have a special blessing from Shamayim for doing such a thing. If you can't do it, don't do it. Either way, if you drink kosher milk that's certified by the Orthodox Union or any of the other reputable kosher organizations, you're more than fine. You have nothing to worry about. Next, nations, okay. Okay, so the first one we answered already. Nations, idol-worshipping music, and culture in general. Oh, there was also a question that someone asked online I remember, and I didn't answer last week. Studying at home from books versus listening to a lecture. Nations, idol-worshipping music, and culture in general. Oh, there was also a question that someone asked online I remember, and I didn't answer last week: studying at home from books versus listening to a lecture.

11:54Which one is more important? Which one should you do? Lecture or books? I remember somebody asked this question three times last week, but somehow we missed it. So I told them that I'll remember it. So, Baruch Hashem, I remembered it. Fidel? Being involved? Yeah, I mean, you are in the environment, and then you find... So, associating with going into business for pleasure, associating with idol worshipers, and so on... Okay, I'll tell you guys a good story about my dentist. How about that? I'll tell you guys a good story; my dentist visit just happened a few days ago. I'll show you people that I'm not crazy. Next, you guys decide which one goes first. Okay, that's the question. Okay, dentist story. I'll prove to you guys that my fears are not insanity; it's true.

13:17You guys decide which one, or are you still arguing about who is going to ask the question? What am I going to talk about? Oh, weather. Okay, so we're going to talk about, what is it called? Irma? Irma. Irma, Irma, Irma, Irma. You guys are making it like I just did a Chilul Hashem. It's Irma. Okay, fine. It's okay. It's just a storm. You guys are getting angry at me. I called her the wrong name. Chas V'Shalom, I called Irma the wrong name. She'll get upset at me. She's gonna get upset at me, this Irma. You know, it's not real. I just said it. You guys didn't even listen. The first few minutes, it's you. I just told you, it's not real. It's just a name they made up. Irma. Irma got offended. Irma. Anyone online asking questions about women covering hair, one of my favorite topics. You know, what about it? Yes.

14:27The answer is yes, but cover it with either a hat or a scarf, not with a wig. Putting hair on top of hair is not considered halachically correct mainly because We talked about it in detail last week, but just to briefly go over it: Number one, hair over hair is not allowed. This is mainly because most women that use wigs are getting real hair, and the source of all real hair wigs, unless you specifically got it from a regular person, is from idol worship. They get it from temples in India, so that... connects the wig to idolatry, and idolatry is not allowed to benefit from in any way. The second thing is that there are modesty issues with it. It's virtually impossible to find a modest wig. The third thing is that the poskim who permitted hair, permitted the wigs, which is only a handful of poskim in the past. They only permitted wigs that don't look like real hair, and there is no such thing in today's world.

15:33Wigs look like real hair. That's the point of the wigs. If you ask the wig makers, "What's the point of the wig?" they would say, "For it to look natural, for it to look real." If you look at the advertising of all wigs, what's the number one thing they advertise? That they look like real hair. So it defeats the purpose. There's a video of Rav Kanievsky, shlita, where they show him a 15-year-old wig and they ask him, "Is this kosher?" and he says, "No, it looks like real hair." Anything that looks like real hair and cannot be a kosher wig, regardless of the length, regardless of the color, regardless of anything. So as far as head covering, women that are married—Jewish women that are married—must cover their hair. Women that are not married do not have to, but should cover their hair when they're praying. Non-Jewish women do not have to, but should cover their hair if they can. So, the obligation is mainly on Jewish women. Non-Jewish women that are... There are no excuses, and a woman worshipping Hashem should cover her hair at the very least when she's praying. If you look at our grandparents, for example, from the early 1900s and before, both Jews and non-Jews covered their hair.

16:46So, this non-covering of the hair is only something that started in the last generation or two. It's not something that's always been the case, unfortunately. We have gone down so much to the point where this generation calls underwear outerwear. So, you see a bunch of people that walk around with underwear outside, but they think it's outerwear. But if you ask our grandparents, "Did you wear those clothes?" They would say, "Yes, we wore them, but we just called it underwear and we put clothes on top of it." So people need to understand that you need to actually wear clothes. You need to be modest. If you're not modest, there's no possibility for you to be righteous. And this is not my opinion. This is Gemara. Gemara is the foundation of the Oral Torah. Gemara Masechet Sotah, page 2b, says that Rashi talks about zivug, talks about someone getting a mate, you know, finding a soulmate. He says a righteous person. will be connected to a modest woman. A wicked person to an immodest woman. So Rashi says, the commentary says, what does one thing have to do with the other? Why is a righteous person with a modest woman and a wicked person with an immodest woman? Shouldn't it be a righteous person with a righteous woman and a wicked person with a wicked woman? And Rashi explains: Yes.

18:09A righteous person is with a modest woman because if she's modest, there's a very good chance she's righteous. A wicked person is with an immodest woman because if she's immodest, it's impossible for her to be righteous. Meaning, if she's immodest, she's guaranteed to be wicked. So, the foundation of the mitzvot for women lies in modesty. That's why you see that even, for example, in the Torah, anytime they talk about the beauty of Sarah Imeinu, what do they talk about? They talk about her modesty. Even though she was as beautiful to the extent that we look like monkeys in comparison to her, according to the Torah, the Midrash talks about the beauty of Sarah Imeinu. It states that anyone after Sarah Imeinu — meaning the most beautiful person on earth today — looks more like a monkey with hair on his face than Sarah Imeinu. But what's discussed in the Torah about Sarah is her modesty, and modesty...

19:13modesty. So, the same goes with all of our Matriarchs and all of our forefathers. All of our, you know, Matriarchs and Patriarchs, all of them were modest. Even King Saul... King Saul... Saul he was known to be a very modest person, and because of his modesty, the Gemara Masechet Megillah says his merit of being modest as a man gave him the benefit and the merit to have Esther as one of his descendants. Esther, who saved all of Am Yisrael on Purim, and Descendant of Shaul HaMelech (King Saul). Why? Because he was modest, and she was modest. So modesty is critical in Judaism. Without modesty, unfortunately, no one can get to Gan Eden. Go ahead, next. As a non-Jew, a non-Jew has a judgment day. Yom Kippur is an appeal, so judgment day for everyone is Rosh Hashanah, and...

20:20Jews and non-Jews get judged on it, but the appeal is only available to the Jews. There's no Yom Kippur for non-Jews. Next. You're still deciding. Killing me. Menashe. What about Menashe? He knew a ton of Torah. So it says in the second part of the Torah that Avraham's father knew he was going to be a Rasha. more inclined, more inclined, more inclined to be a rasha, not guaranteed to be a rasha. And the proof of that is that he did teshuva at the end of his life. But he did, he did do teshuva. Why doesn't it count? There's a question of whether he has a lot of ba'al meaning whether he was able to remove all of the sin that he made because even though he did teshuva, he still left a lot of idol worship in the world. But his name is not mentioned, his teshuva is not mentioned until later on in the Tanach. And that's the proof that they used, that it's only mentioned later on because it took several generations, a few hundred years, for all the idol worship that he left to be removed from the world. And only when it was completely removed and...

21:42Was this Teshuva accepted now? This is also for anyone that sees some of these Rosh Hashanah shiurim. You're gonna see that Chazal says that Hashem Yitbarach opens the book of the living and the book of the dead. Book of the living and the book of the dead on Rosh Hashanah and judges everyone, so... Opening the book of the living, we understand. Why does He open the book of the living? Because we're alive. He sees what you have done. He did this, he did that. He judges your avonot based on what you did. He sees this one, He sees that one, He sees everybody that's alive. Fine. Someone is a sinner, He judges them as a sinner. Someone that's righteous, He judges them as a righteous person. Fine. Why does He open the book of the dead? The dead already? He says, what did he leave behind? He died, but his neshama continues. It's somewhere in Olam HaBa, either a place of pleasure or a place of eternal suffering. So that neshama

22:49left something behind. Did this person write a book? Because of this book, people are doing teshuvah. Every time somebody does teshuvah because of his book, his neshama gets to a better place. There's no end to the good that Hashem can give him. If this person left a book about idolatry, a book about believing in evolution, and people are leaving Judaism to go believe in some aliens or believe in some monkeys or believe in some nonsense, and This person's neshama gets to a worse place every year. So that's why the book of the living and the book of the dead is open, because the neshama, the soul, is eternal. It's either going to be eternally improving or eternally declining. If you leave righteous kids, okay, okay, there's actually a good story, a funny story, and... Guy says to his kids, he writes in the will: "The only thing I want you guys to do is because I was a multimillionaire. I want you guys to bury me with a long coat and five dollars in my pocket." So the kids showed this weird will and

24:12Rabbi says honestly, listen. He's been my student for many years. I don't know what's gotten into him. Let me go ask him. So he goes to the father and says, "All the years that I know you, I never understood what you're writing here. Why do you want to get buried with a coat?" He says, "And why do you want to get buried with five dollars in your pocket?" He says, "Well, I figured that one day there is going to be the resurrection of the dead and..." Like Hashem writes to the prophets, He says one day, I'm gonna bring back everyone after the Messianic days. One of the main things that is gonna happen is that Hashem is gonna resurrect the righteous dead. People that were righteous will come back to life and live the last thousand years of this world. So maybe it's gonna be a cold day. Maybe it's gonna be a cold day, so I want to be buried with a long coat and... Okay, fine, a long coat. Very weird—if Hashem could revive the dead, He could probably put clothes on him too, but fine, no problem. Let's put a coat on you, no problem. What's the five dollars for? He says, "Five dollars for coffee. I know my kids; they're so cheap that even though I'm giving them all the money, they won't give me five dollars to get a coffee."

25:28So the Rav says, "Oh, okay, okay, so you don't have to worry then." "What do you mean, I have to worry?" "You don't have to worry about resurrection of the dead because if you have kids like that, you're not gonna resurrect then." So, we're going to talk about a few things. We're going to talk about Irma. We're going to talk about Pirkei Avot. We're going to talk about Rabbi Yisrael Salanter. We're going to talk about the Chachamim that lived in this generation and previous generations. We're going to talk about Hashem Yitbarach. We're going to talk about all these questions. We're going to talk about a lot of things. I have no idea what yet, but according to these questions, we have to look at it. The dentist story, the dentist story, that story is a good story. Everyone gets judged. Everyone gets judged because even, even the, even the goyim have an olam haba... Even the goyim have an Olam Haba. For example, JC Penney, every year he gets deeper and deeper into the boiling feces that he's boiling in. Why? Because his foolishness continues to steer people away from Hashem and Torah worship. He continues even though...

26:48This wasn't necessarily his intention. The reality of it is that his actions led people to sin. It led people to leave Judaism and led people to go against Hashem, and because of that, he is in Gehinnom. He's in a part of Gehinnom, and he will never ever leave. Now, people think that I'm a little, I guess... extreme. Okay, extreme. That's a good word. I'm extreme about this whole idolatry situation. I'm extreme about this Christianity or anti-Christianity situation. They think that a lot of it is in my head, maybe because I'm a little familiar with conversion and the process and so on. And when the whole thing happened at Boca Raton Synagogue, where they wanted to bring one of the top Catholic missionaries in the world to come. Some people, not everybody, some, a few, a few people think that I was a little bit overboard and a little overboard when I made a big stink about it. I said, listen, he's Catholic. He's a missionary, but he's not coming to missionize. He's coming to teach us about, you know, motivation, your purpose of life, and all types of things. He's not missionizing. He's okay. He's a nice guy. Yeah, he wrote books. Yeah, he wrote books. He wrote one of the books called, I Know Jesus: The Myth. He wrote a book called, I Know Jesus, and... Little overboard when I made a big stink about it. I said, listen, he's Catholic. He's a missionary, but he's not coming to missionize. He's coming to teach us about, you know, motivation, your purpose in life, and all types of things. He's not missionizing. He's okay. He's a nice guy. Yeah, he wrote books. Yeah, he wrote books. He wrote one of the books called, I Know Jesus: The Myth. He wrote a book called, I Know Jesus and...

28:15So anyway, Hashem, they said I was overboard. No missionizing, it doesn't happen. Missionizing doesn't happen. So how about this: the Rambam says that he follows Gemara, and he says you must learn Torah to such an extent of being an expert in Torah. Where if there were ever a heretic, a min... would approach you, you'd be able to beat him in a debate. Not learn the Avodah Zarah, not learn the New Testament chas v'shalom, not learn Buddha, not learn Islam, not learn the studies of the world. Learn Torah, learn Torah, and become an expert in Torah with enough knowledge to beat any heretic in the world. Some people think beating heretics requires us to go learn the New Testament chas v'shalom. This is not it. I

29:16Being a heretic beating a heretic means you go learn about Islam or about Buddhism, all this garbage of the world. No, no, no. You do not need to learn any of that stuff. Only a few people in the world are even allowed to learn that stuff for the purpose of Kiddush Hashem, like for example, Rabbi Tovia Singer. she's here or rather Rabbi Yosef Mizrachi learned a little bit about it in order for public debates, in order to save Jewish souls. But for the rest of us, you don't go learn those works. You learn Torah and you beat them with Torah. You don't beat them with avodah zarah. So this is what the Gemara says, this is what the Rambam says, and Say you have to stay away from these heretics to such an extent that you're not allowed to stand within six feet of them. So people think I mentioned this, and they're like, "Yeah, yeah, that was two thousand years ago. You're old-fashioned. You're crazy. You're extreme. Such a thing doesn't exist anymore." So I'll tell you a real-life story. Last week I went to the dentist and

30:22I did some sins in my life apparently, so I have to go to the dentist. You make sins, you have to pay. So this dentist, I've already been working with him for a few months, and he did two root canals. So, apparently. Anyway, so I was supposed to finish one root canal, and one of the times that I went to him, he's a Christian guy, and we talk, we schmooze. He asked me about religion. He asked me what I do, what the power is, whatever. And me, I think that every soul is savable. Anyone that's seriously looking for the truth is savable. Anyone that's looking for excuses, there's nothing you can do to help them. And... Moshe Rabbeinu can calm down. It wouldn't help them. Hashem Yitbarach, you have a bat kol from Shamayim saying, "I am Hashem," they still believe in JC Penny. Why? They're looking for excuses. But sometimes you find people, Jews, non-Jews, they're looking for the truth. So I thought, this guy's asking some interesting questions. I said, listen, I'll give you some information. You can look at it and see what you say. If you have any more questions, let me know. So that was already, I don't know, a month ago or whenever that was.

31:36Last week I went to the dentist. I had a 10 o'clock in the morning appointment, and as soon as I arrived at the dentist, everyone that works there—I don't know, maybe half a dozen people—was in the lobby area. They looked at me like, "Oh, Rabbi Reuven, we're all waiting for you." What a surprise, wow, I'm looking at myself. Who is this Rabbi Reuven, and then I realize they're waiting for me. Why are you waiting for me? Oh, probably for me. I'm the first appointment of the day. I figured they want to start their day already, so they're waiting for me. But then I see this tall Jewish-looking guy. He says, "Oh, Rabbi, how are you? How are you doing?" And I'm like, "Oh?" Who is this guy? He looks like he just came out of some spa. He has a towel around his neck. He looks like he's well off. And he starts talking to me. He goes, "Oh, you're a rabbi? Are you Chabad?" "No." "Are you this? Are you that?" He asks me questions. I'm like, "Oh, is this 20 questions? Is this part of this root canal?" He's asking me questions, so I see the guy is interested in religion.

32:52He starts asking me questions, and he says, "Yes, I'm Catholic. I'm Catholic, but I'm very interested in, you know, this and this," and starts talking about religion. Within about 35-40 seconds, I realize the guy is trying to missionize. The guy is trying to start a debate with me at the dentist's office. The six, seven people at the dentist's office, they're all waiting for this debate. They're not waiting for my appointment. They're waiting to see what happens when the Christian Catholic missionary and the Jewish rabbi meet. What's gonna happen? So this guy starts debating me. He's not the dentist, just a customer. It's a customer, but apparently, he knew that I was coming. He was very excited for me to come, and at 10 o'clock in the morning, I'm having a 45-minute debate with this guy. Whatever I give him as proof, he says, "Yeah, yeah, but..." and something else. He never answers the question, but everybody else is being entertained by this. And at the end, to eliminate him completely, because it's very easy to destroy his religion since it's fake and...

34:15Tell him, "Well, the problem with your religion is that you only have one mitzvah. You only have one mitzvah. You say that the entire Torah is canceled. He says, 'No, we like the Torah. We appreciate the Torah. We believe in it.' So I'm like, 'No, you don't. You don't follow anything at all.' He goes, 'No, we follow the Torah.' I'm like, 'You know, you follow the Ten Commandments. You don't follow anything. You only have one mitzvah in your entire religion and...'" Because so everyone's paying attention now, 45 minutes. They're not even working. They're just paying attention to this debate. Like, what mitzvah is this? Giving 10%? Giving ma'aser? Giving money? That's the only mitzvah in your entire religion. The only thing you hold from the Torah of Am Yisrael that we got from Mount Sinai is giving money. Everything else you canceled out. He goes, no, we didn't cancel out. I'm like, yeah? What about the Ten Commandments? You keep Ten Commandments? He goes, yeah, we keep Ten Commandments. And I go, yeah? When do you keep Shabbat? It's the fourth commandment. What day? When do you keep Shabbat? So everybody's shocked. He's like, yeah, we keep Shabbat. We just changed the day. That ended the debate. I said, end the debate, you chutzpan? Who are you to change God's laws? Who are you? You just said the first three commandments are: I am God, took you out of Egypt, don't have idol worship, don't use My name in vain. The fourth commandment is...

35:39Shabbat. You just said you believe in God in three different ways, but then you change His laws. You don't believe in God; you believe in an idol. End of debate. No, this was before he did my teeth. Oh, yeah, after that, I changed my dentist. But anyway, the point I'm trying to make to you guys is that the dentist himself was not the missionary. The dentist himself was just a regular Christian guy, and he was just being entertained by this. The problem is that it was a very, very risky thing for someone to do with someone else—an irresponsible thing for someone to do with someone else's soul. Reason why is because what if I didn't know anything about anything? What if I was just a simple Jew that just knows a few things, and I'm like brand new? I'm brand new to Judaism, and all of a sudden, this dentist is trying to be entertained. He gives this professional, you know, this professional assassin, soul assassin, and...

36:45Debate with me and I don't know the answers. I could become an idol worshiper now. So, it's a very irresponsible thing to do. The point being here is Chazal said you must know enough Torah to debate a heretic because eventually, a heretic will come to you. And Hashem showed me how this came true. I had other discussions with other people, but apparently, Hashem wanted this to happen, and actually, this woke up this dentist's mind a little bit, and now he says, "You know what? I'm going to start looking at the stuff you sent me." mind a little bit, and now he says, "You know what? I'm going to start looking at the stuff you sent me." And also the other people in the office as well said that they're now more interested to see what's the real purpose of life. So apparently, they had some zechut (merit) to hear the truth and falsehood at the same time. But the point I'm trying to make to you guys is that I didn't need to know all of the falsehood in the New Testament for this debate. I didn't need to know that the New Testament has a mistake on every single page. As a matter of fact, I didn't even use it. I didn't use the New Testament as a source. Why? Because using it as a source is...

37:49gives it validity. The fact that the New Testament contradicts the Old Testament makes it very easy to win every debate. But you don't need to do that. All you need to know is Torah. You know Torah, you can win any debate. If you can't win a debate, that means you don't know Torah yet. You need to learn. So that's the story of the dentist. And that's the story of how Hashem shows us the Torah coming to life. The Torah comes to life and it's mamash, a life. Life. So all of these people that think I'm some fanatic and I think that there is missionary activity everywhere and the Catholics don't missionize and the Christians don't missionize and this and that, this is complete falsehood. This is happening everywhere, all over the United States, all over Europe, all over Asia, all over Israel, all over everywhere, Africa, everywhere in the world. This is happening. If a Jew does not protect his neshama by learning Torah, he's bound to fall. You had a question? Yes.

39:01No, you should run away. You should run away. If someone starts talking Christianity, you run away. That's the best thing to do. Yes, anyone that's a kofer, run away from it. But in general, if you can't run away, you have to know. Either way, you need to know enough to hold your own to defend the honor of Hashem and... Defend the honor of Hashem. You can't just run away your whole life. At some point, there's going to be a corner, and you can't get out of it. You have to be able to honor Hashem. So these kofrim are everywhere, especially since we live amongst goyim. I don't know if you guys have checked, but there are only about 7.6 billion goyim in the world. Only 7.6 billion. And somewhere in the range of about two to three million religious Jews out of the fifteen to twenty million Jews altogether. So you're surrounded by kofrim, whether you like it or not. America, Israel, anywhere you need to be ready. The only way to be ready is if you learn Torah. So now the Irma that's getting people to do teshuva, almost like Haman. Haman made people do teshuva, you know that, right? Haman made people do teshuva. Paro made people do teshuva.

40:20Why did Hashem not kill Pharaoh, aside from the fact that He removed his free will, is because Pharaoh made people do teshuva. The suffering that he put on Am Yisrael got people to do teshuva. Haman almost killed all of Am Yisrael, but because he got all of them so scared that they did teshuva, he got the benefit that some of his descendants became Talmidei Chachamim in Bnei Brak. They teach Torah, became big Rabbanim. Zerah Amalek became big Rabbanim, tzaddikim. Why? He got Am Yisrael to do teshuva. Now Irma, she doesn't have an olam haba. Irma is just a storm. It's a wind. But Irma is also in the Torah. Irma is also in the Torah. If you remember, a few weeks ago, we talked about Gematria. Gematria is the way that you actually... Use the letters of the Hebrew alphabet to figure out different secrets within the Torah by adding the numerical value of each letter. You see that there are different things that are connected. So the Mishnah says it's like a seasoning; it's a seasoning for wisdom.

41:36We see that there are different things in the Torah that are connected simply by seeing that their numerical value is coincidentally the same. That coincidence is obviously divinely orchestrated. So, Irma, Irma has a few places in the Torah. I'm only going to mention a few; there's, I don't know, probably 500 of them, but I'm going to mention three of them. Irma, Irma, the storm that some newscaster made up the name for, Hashem, when He created the world... He already knew this new newscaster was going to name the storm Irma. But it was written in the Torah. This is just to show you divine intellect. So Irma, the way you write Irma in Hebrew is Aleph, Yud, Resh, Mem, Hey. Aleph, Yud, Resh, Mem, Hey. Numerical value: 256.

42:37Numerical value: 256. Aleph: 1, Yud: 10, Resh: 200, Mem: 40, Hey: 5; total: 256. So, if we go with the math, it fits. Okay, first, in the book of Amos, chapter 9, verse 8, it says... the book of Amos, chapter 9, verse 8, it says It says: "Behold, the eyes of the Lord Hashem are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from upon the face of the earth. But I will not totally destroy the house of Yaakov," says Hashem. Hashem is telling the prophet Amos...

44:03almost tell the people that the sinners, I'm gonna destroy them. The goyim, the idol worshippers, I'm gonna destroy them. The people that are wicked, I'm gonna destroy them. But even sometimes you can have wicked people that are Jews. One thing I made as a promise to Avraham, Yitzhak, and Yaakov is that even when I destroy Wicked Jews and non-Jews with the Jews. I promise it's not gonna be all of them; I'm always gonna keep them. But with the non-Jews, I don't have that promise. I don't have that deal. So from the words "Adonai Elohim bamamlacha hachata'ah," specifically those four words that say "Lord Hashem upon the sinful Kingdom," Those four words in Hebrew, about half a dozen words in English, have a total value of 256. Irma. So here, Hashem is telling us He's sending Irma to the goyim; He's not sending it to hurt the Jews.

45:28wants to go in to do teshuva also. Next. Book of Daniel. Chapter 2. Verse 47. Anah malka le'Daniel ve'amar min k'shot di Elahchon hu Elaha alain u'Marei malchin u'galei razin. So here it says, the king exclaimed to Daniel and said, "In truth, I know that your God is the God over all gods, Lord of kings, and the revealer of secrets, since you were able to reveal this secret." So Nebuchadnezzar was the king of the world at the time and Wicked person, but he had some dreams, and Hashem gave him a prophecy of what's going to happen at the end of days. And no one was able to translate this prophecy except Daniel. So Nebuchadnezzar says, "I know that your God is the God of all gods. I know your God is Emet because you're the only one that was able to translate the dream; you're the only one that knew what was going on, and I didn't even tell you anything."

46:58It's not like I gave you hints and you figured it out. You knew things even though I tried steering you the wrong way, meaning that the information you received had to come from God. Your God is the God of all gods. It's the real God; everything else is nonsense. So, in this verse, where it says, "Your God is the God of all gods," the numerical value, yuma, is 256. Meaning this Yuma: It's coming from God. Which God? The God of all gods, Shem Yitbarach. 256 might as well say the word numerical value. Next, last but not least, the Book of Psalms, King David, Chapter 143, Verse 10. King David says to Hashem Yitbarach, "Teach me to do Your will, for You are my God. May Your good spirit guide me over level ground." Ruach Tovah means good spirit, but it also means good wind, good storm.

48:27Miracle value 256 Yuma. So there's also something good that could come out of Yuma. On one hand, we learn from the first one. Where is it coming from? It's coming from God, which God? The only God that's real. At the end of it... We know that the second thing is we learn that it's here to punish some people. Unfortunately, some people are going against Hashem. This is just a reality of life. You go against Hashem, and Hashem has to get you to pay the bill at some point. It's just a reality of life. You can't continue going against Hashem forever, thinking you're just going to coast forever. You're going to live until 120, you're going to be a multi-millionaire, and then you're going to go to Olam HaBa and enjoy Gan Eden. It's not going to happen. First and foremost, it comes from Hashem. Second of all, punishment also comes from Hashem. Last but not least, if you're a good Jew, if you're a good Gentile, don't worry. It's a good win for you. Why? You won't be affected; you're fine. That's emet in the Torah. Next, good enough, emet. Don't worry about emet. If you're worried about emet, it's because you have a mum in your kesher between you and Hashem. It's not because of emet.

49:44How do I find out about your mum? The secret is, the secret is, the secret is... This Mishnah answers your question. This Mishnah already knew your question before you knew it. What does the Mishnah say? This Mishnah 4-6 says the following translation The son of Rabbi Yochanan ben Broka. Who is Rabbi Yochanan ben Broka? Last week's Rabbi. Remember? Last week's Mishnah, it's Rabbi Yochanan ben Broka. Why do we learn from Rabbi Yochanan ben Broka? Anyone who sins in private, the punishment is to expose him. Hashem shows his sin in public.

51:09And Chilul Hashem, whether it's an intentional sin or unintentional sin, in Shamayim it's judged as intentional. You can't joke around with Chilul Hashem. Anyone that didn't see that shiur we did in Miami last week, you must watch this shiur. It's number 60. Number 60, Mishnah Avot, number 60. Oh, here we go. So that's Rabbi Yochanan ben Beroka. His son comes to us right after him. Some say that these two Mishnayot are connected, but we're reading them separately as it is in the book. And Rabbi Yochanan has a son. His name is Rabbi Yishmael. And Rabbi Yishmael says whoever studies Torah in order to teach is given the means to study and to teach. Whoever studies Torah in order to teach it one day, They're going to help them in Shamayim to study and to teach. Simple enough. And whoever studies Torah in order to practice is given the means to study and to teach, to observe, and to practice. So the first immediate question is, what's the difference between the two?

52:24It says, whoever is here to study and teach, they're going to help them study and teach. The other one says, whoever is here to practice, they're going to help them study, teach, practice, and observe. What's the difference? What, you're telling me that the first guy is studying to teach, but he's not going to do? If he's studying to teach and he's not going to do, why are they even helping him at all? So, Rabbeinu Yonah explains that's not what they're saying. What are they saying here? What is this Mishnah? First of all, the pshat, basic meaning of this Mishnah, means the first guy is studying Torah, studying it just to enjoy it himself without delving into things because he's not really going to teach the public, go travel, sacrifice his time, sacrifice his time with his family, sacrifice his own learning. He's not going to do any of that. He's going to teach whoever's next to him—his wife's next to him, he's going to teach her; his kids, the next day, he'll teach them. If they're not next to him, he's not teaching anybody. He's teaching himself, meaning he's selfish with his Torah.

53:33But it's okay. You are here in the world to learn Torah. In the book of Iyov, it says, "A person was brought to the world to be amal." What's amal? Work hard. So Chazal says, what do you mean work hard? Work hard with your mouth. What's work hard with your mouth? Learn Torah. That's what you came to the world to do. If you're learning Torah, and you're going to teach whoever's next to you—your family, your friends, whoever it is—it's still a mitzvah. Though Hashem, and they're going to help you achieve that goal, as limited as it may be, they're still going to help you. In Shamayim, Hashem Yitbarach says you're doing what you came to the world to do, which is teaching Torah. Because one of the worst things... that a person can do is learn Torah and not teach. Keep it to himself. Why? In Gemara Masechet Avodah Zarah, page 17b, they say that a person who learns Torah

54:47Without ever having an intention to teach anyone, just learning for himself. He's not gonna write any books, he's not gonna give any shiurim. People ask him questions, he sends them away: "Go to this rabbi, go somewhere else. I don't bother with my learning. I'm learning, you go learn yourself. You have your books, you have your this, you have your that. I'm learning, leave me alone." He came and he's learning Torah. He wants to be a big talmid chacham. He wants to learn Torah day and night, learns 50 hours a day. Such a person is like a person who has no God. Wait a minute. You just told me Rabbi Eliezer ben Hurkanos said in the Gemara, you came to the world to learn Torah. So how could it be this guy is learning Torah day and night and you tell me he doesn't have a God? He says because you learn Torah in order to fulfill it. I You don't learn Torah just for the intellectual aspect of it. Someone that just uses Torah for intellectual stimulation, the Gemara says it was better off he didn't come to the world. Rather, he should have died in his mother's uterus. Such a person. Why? The Torah is supposed to teach you the Middot, the character traits of Hashem Yitbarach. The number one most obvious character trait that Hashem Yitbarach has is that He gives. He's gracious. So how could you learn Torah

56:11And not learn the first thing you need to learn about God: that He gives. You have the potion of life. The Torah says Torah is a potion to life. How can you have the potion to life and not share it? What kind of person are you? That means you are very cheap, very stingy. And the Gemara says, Hashem hates stingy people—stingy people with their Torah, stingy people with their money, stingy people with their time. He hates them. Why does He hate them? They're the opposite of Him. They're the opposite of Hashem. He says so. Someone that has Torah, learns Torah, but has no intention whatsoever to ever teach it, to ever advertise it, to ever help anybody else with it, has no God. Meaning, he's learning Torah for himself. He's a selfish person. His Torah does not offer him any protection whatsoever. Why? Because he's not learning it to do it. He's learning it to just keep it for himself and So now, this person is not such a person. This person will be here. He's learning Torah. He's not going to travel to Arizona, to Australia, to Israel, to Wisconsin, to California—all these different places—to go teach. The way he's just going to teach whoever's next to him. He says, okay, he's still doing okay, and for him, we're going to give him Siyata Dishmaya where he's going to reach the goals that he set for himself. He didn't exactly set himself big goals and...

57:41He set himself basic goals. Learn. Whatever you learn, teach whoever's next to you. He goes to a shul to write his Beit Knesset. Beit Knesset has 12 people. Whoever wants to stay after tefillah to learn, 3, 4, 5 guys, he's going to teach them. He says, we're going to help them. Teach them. That's it. No more, no less. Why? He aimed low. We're going to help him with what he wants. He wants this, that's what we're going to give him. Fine? The second person is doing something different. The second person is not learning purely for himself. He's learning for the sake of others. He's learning so he can teach others so they can do teshuva. So they can go, wake up out of their slumber, wake up out of their idolatry, wake up out of their foolishness, wake up out of their falsehood, and come back to the truth, the single truth that exists in this world. Wake up and do teshuva.

58:55Your secular lifestyle, leave your J.C. Penney, leave your Islam, leave your stupidity, leave your falsehood, leave your money, leave everything. Come back to God. Anything that gets in the way between you and God you must leave. If it's money, let money go. If it's a woman, let the woman go. If it's a man, let the man go. Whatever is getting in the way of you and Hashem, you must let it go. You must let it go. Doesn't mean that every single person that happens to be married to a person that's not on the same level of belief as them has to get a divorce tomorrow, chas v'shalom. The point here is that you are supposed to bring whoever's next to you with you. Don't be selfish and just go by yourself because that's like the first guy. Be like the second person, help people come back to HaShem. So the second person here, he says I... His learning is not only for his own sake. If his learning is for other people's sake, if he's spending his extra time learning for other people, he's not learning for himself. Let's say, for example, he wants to learn Gemara all day and all night, but he knows that he needs to learn about Mussar or about certain Mishnayot or certain Halachot or certain things that are relevant to a certain type of students, and...

1:00:23doesn't really want to learn this part. He wants to learn something else. He's more passionate about something else, but you learn for them. We're gonna help you succeed there. Why? Because you are emulating God; you're being gracious. So, the Chafetz Chaim would constantly talk about kiruv, and one of the greatest examples... as he says, we always talk about Moshe Rabbeinu, Moshe Rabbeinu, Moshe Rabbeinu. But just to give you an understanding of the selflessness of Moshe Rabbeinu, he begged Hashem to come into Eretz Yisrael, but Hashem said no. Hashem says no, no. But he knew he's not going to Eretz Yisrael. He knew. But still, he decided that he is going to determine the three cities of refuge. It was supposed to be that Shem said to make six cities of refuge where someone who killed somebody else accidentally can hide in one of those six cities. Three can be determined while you're here; three can be determined once you enter Israel. So Moshe Rabbeinu knew that he couldn't fulfill the entire mitzvah, and... determine the three cities of refuge. It was supposed to be that Hashem said to make six cities of refuge where someone who killed somebody else accidentally can hide in one of those six cities. Three can be determined while you're here; three can be determined once you enter Israel. So Moshe Rabbeinu knew that he couldn't fulfill the entire mitzvah and

1:01:48Can't reveal the entire mitzvah. The Hatam Sofer says, look at the Torah. He still determined three; he still decided three, meaning he was so excited about the mitzvot of Hashem that he said even to do half of a mitzvah is good enough. Why? It's going to help the others. It's going to help the others. He wasn't a selfish person. The problem with helping others That it takes away a big portion of your life, a big portion of your time. This is why the biggest zechut goes to the wives of the people that teach Torah and get Am Yisrael to come back to Hashem. And the reason why is because they have to pretty much live without a husband. The kids have to live pretty much without a father. You ask any big mekarev in kiruv and... Tom, what do you feel is the biggest sacrifice you have to make in order to do what you are doing? So, tell your family what you mean. You have kids, you have five kids, you have eight kids, you have this, you have that, you have a wife. What do you mean by sacrificing family? Because, yeah, I have them. I just don't see them. Why? Because when you're actually effective at helping people come back to Hashem, the lecture is the least of what you do. Coming here and giving you a lecture is the smallest part of the job. I

1:03:10Travel takes me, let's say, an hour to get here and an hour to get home. We do a lecture for two to three hours and have questions for another hour. So, figure the whole process is seven hours, let's say. This is the least of it. This is the least of the day. Why? Because there are 24 hours in a day. So, this lecture today is seven hours, let's say, of my time. The other 10 to 12 hours are helping the neshamot that heard the lecture. What do you do now? Okay. I heard it. I believe it. I agree with it. Now what? My husband is beating me up. My kids are rotten. My boss is stealing from me. What happens now? All the questions of "Okay, now I know, now I heard, what do I do now?" And all the real work happens after the lecture—hundreds of text messages, emails... Types of phone calls, the real work happens after the lecture. That's the part no one sees. That's the part that most people don't understand when they want to criticize a public speaker. Like, people love to criticize Rabbi Mizrachi. They have no idea how much he has sacrificed for Am Yisrael.

1:04:32They make up all types of excuses, this, that, the other thing. They have no idea how much he sacrificed. I have a little bit of an idea because I work with him on a regular basis. And also, I do the same thing, just for less time. They have no idea, no idea how much you have to sacrifice just to survive, survive with all the headaches, with all the balagan, with all the doubts, with all the different tests that you get. You think what, you just show up to a lecture and... Everything's okay. The car works. The gas is in. The people wait for you. Everyone loves everything you say. The computers work. The phone works, everything. Everyone's like, oh, they give you a hug, they kiss your hand. If you understood the amount of kapparot (atonements) a person has to go through for one day, one day! I'm not talking about the whole week, or a whole life, just the day of the lecture. The day of the lecture, you'd be scared.

1:05:33People always want me to talk about Gehinom and punishment, this and that. The reality of it is, dealing with the amount of stress and headaches just to survive one day would scare you enough. You want to talk about Gehinom? Why? Just a couple of other notes: just to be righteous, just to get up in the morning, and to come back to Hashem. Imagine what it is to be wicked in front of Hashem. So, the Chatam Sofer was found by one of his students one time. And his student saw it. He said the story that he saw his rabbi cry. So, the Chatam Sofer, zekher tzaddik livracha, cried. He said, Kvod HaRav, why are you crying?

1:06:35He said, "I'm crying because I haven't spent time with my children, especially my son Shimon. I haven't spent time with him to the extent that I don't even know where he stands with his recent studies, all the Torah he's studying. I don't know where he stands—if he knows it, if he doesn't know it, if he's serious. I don't know where he's standing. I haven't spent time with my children, my own children. And I'm crying to Hashem to please, please help him." Because I don't have my own time anymore. My time does not belong to me anymore. He says, yes, Kvodo HaRav, you taught us this in Tehillim. Tehillim, David HaMelech says, in Tehillim 37:26, King David says, all the days he graciously lends and his children are a blessing. King David is not referring to a man who lends money. It says all the days he graciously lends. He's not lending money. What is he lending? He's lending his Torah knowledge. He's lending his Torah knowledge to the people who do not have it. Because he's lending his Torah knowledge all day and all night, and his time no longer belongs to him, Hashem says one of the blessings you get in this world is your kids will be blessed.

1:08:00You have no worries. So sometimes the teacher needs to be reminded by the student. So now, this Mishnah here is telling us something specific, though. This Mishnah is telling us that there's a difference between the two people. The first guy learns, he's gonna teach, he's gonna be on Torah Anytime... He's gonna be on Torah Anytime and that anytime he's gonna have his own channel, his own website. Call it Emunah Center, call it Bupkis Center, call it whatever you want, but he's not going to dig deep down into the truth. In reality, his Torah shiurim are going to be entertainment and... Nothing else. People are attending shiurim for 20 years. No one does Teshuva. You ever see any of those rabbis? They exist. Few. I coined a new name for them: this is the generation of the "Care Bear Rabbis." Why? They teach five years, ten years, twenty years, thirty years, forty years, a million years. No one does anything. Everyone stays exactly the same. They just get old.

1:09:22drove to Shabbat, drove on Shabbat to the Beit Knesset 25 years ago. He's still driving 25 years later. Nothing changed. There's one rabbi who calls himself a rabbi. He has a semicha and everything. Semicha in Hebrew is also a cover blanket. So, I think he has a blanket, not the teudah. But whatever, let's say he has a semicha. He has students for 15 years. 15 years he's teaching the same group of Israeli guys. 15 years, they're all still driving to this day to his Beit Knesset on Shabbat. Such an extent that he made up a new law. He says no. No, I heard it. I heard it from the head rabbi of Israel that you're allowed to drive on Shabbat. Now he's created a new law. Why did he create a new law? Because after 15 years he realized this she taught that he's using this Care Bear sheet of not telling people the truth doesn't work. So what happens? I can't tell them now after 15 years. I like them. They're my friends now, so I can't start rebuking my friends. So what is he doing? He invents a new law. He invents a new law so he doesn't have to feel bad about himself. So he continues to teach them every day. They come to shiurim. Every week they come to shiurim. They still drive on Shabbat, and they're going to continue driving on Shabbat until somebody else tells them the truth and they actually take it. One time, somebody did tell them the truth.

1:10:48Some people wanted to change. What did he tell them? Don't listen. Don't listen to him. He doesn't know what he's talking about. What does a "Care Bear Rabbi" get? A "Care Bear Rabbi," it says in the Gemara, Gemara Masechet Shabbat, Gemara Masechet Avodah Zarah, Gemara Masechet Sanhedrin, and several other places, also Gemara Masechet Rosh Hashanah. Someone who had knowledge of a sin that someone else was committing in their immediate life—his wife, husband, kids, friend, neighbor, student, part of a community, part of a shul, someone you were connected to—if you were a simple person and you did not tell them the truth...

1:11:50Let's say they drive on Shabbat. They smoke cigarettes on Shabbat. They violate Shabbat. You didn't tell him the truth in Shamayim. They get corrected. They get judged as an idol worshiper and lose their Olam HaBa. But so do you. Why? You are both considered Mechalel Shabbat. You both can say, but the guy kept Shabbat himself. Doesn't matter. In Shamayim, you're considered Mechalel Shabbat. Why? It was within your power to tell him the truth. If you told him the truth and he still didn't listen, that's a different story. But if you didn't tell him, you're judged for his sin. This we learn from Rabbi Elazar ben Azaria. They say Rabbi Elazar ben Azaria, one of the giants of all generations. They said if you put all of the Chachamim, all of the Chachamim in one hand, and Rabbi Elazar ben Azaria in the other hand, Rabbi Elazar ben Azaria is bigger than all of them. Rabbi Elazar ben Azaria, they said, he made a big sin because of his cow. The Gemara in Masechet Shabbat says because of his cow, he made a big sin. Cow, what do you mean big cow?

1:12:55He had one cow. He goes, no, it's one cow. You know how rich he was. Remember I told you how rich he was. He was a billionaire. He would give his ma'aser. His ma'aser was 120,000 cows a year. Ma'aser, that was his 10%. That was his income. His income, 10% of his income, he'd give 120,000 cows. So he said, why, what's this one cow? Well, he had one cow. He had millions of cows. Yes, he got judged for the one cow. Why the one cow? He goes, because it really wasn't his cow. It really wasn't his cow. It was his neighbor's cow. His neighbor had a cow, a woman, a nice woman, a nice lady, covered her hair and everything. She covered her hair, was modest, a nice lady. But she didn't know all the halachot of Shabbat, she didn't know all the halachot of Shabbat. So the cow, she left some of the things on top of the cow, so the cow was carrying on Shabbat. And just like you're not allowed to carry on Shabbat, unless there's an eruv, your animal is also not allowed to carry. Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah saw that her cow was violating Shabbat. He didn't say anything. Why? He felt bad. It's a woman, miskena, nice lady, sweet lady.

1:14:06What am I going to tell her? Somebody else tell her. Rabbi Elazar, you considered you Mechalel Shabbat one time. Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah Mechalel Shabbat. Say it's your cow. Why it's your cow? It's not my cow, it's her cow. No, you knew. It's your cow now. So Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah, when he heard this from the Chachamim, the rest of his life he spent doing teshuva for this one sin. Of his life for one sin he made teshuva for the rest of his life. He fasted many times. He would be in distress. He didn't eat everything for one sin. What if it wasn't even his cow? They said, "No, no, it's his cow." Why is it his cow? He saw the sin and didn't say anything. It's his cow. You saw someone drive on Shabbat—your friend, your buddy, your neighbor, someone in your kehillah—and you said nothing. It's your cow. It's your sin. Khalifah Homer, needless to say, the rabbi that's teaching people but not teaching them the truth. He's teaching them nice things. He's teaching them the nice stories. The Care Bear went from the sky with a little flying car, and he said, "What are you teaching them?" Now here's a proof. You could test whether your rabbi is a Care Bear rabbi. It's a test. Test. Test.

1:15:23You can test it this week. This week. Test it. I test it. Parashat Shavua. Parashat Shavua. Parashat Ki Tavo. Parashat Ki Tavo. Parashat Ki Tavo. Parashat Ki Tavo. Scariest parasha in the entire Torah. Scariest parasha in the entire Torah. I connected this parasha. not because I like to be scary, but because I saw many of the promises that Hashem says, when you don't listen to Him, come true in my life. I did a shiur a couple of years ago, number 45, shiur Torah number 45. It talks about my own personal experience, and I go through this parasha. I think it's the first time I shared my personal story. And I go through pasuk after pasuk, showing how I went through many of the things it says in this parasha. So parashat Ki Tavo, there's two parashot in the Torah that talk about an extraordinary amount of curses and punishment that Hashem Yitbarach promises for not listening to Him. The first one is parashat Bechukotai.

1:16:48laws in English and the other one is Ki Tavo. The first one is Bechukotai, which we read a few months ago. There, Hashem Yitbarach lists 49 curses for violating His word, treating Him like you treat your friends with casualness, not taking Him seriously. There are five levels of punishment and 49 different curses. ending with Hashem getting to a point of such starvation that Am Yisrael would have to eat their children. This is in Parashat Bechukotai. Parashat Ki Tavo is Moshe Rabbeinu. Moshe Rabbeinu, in the book of Devarim, chapters 26, 27, 28, gives 98 curses—98, double the amount of what Hashem said. So Chazal says this is the difference between the mercy of man versus the mercy of Hashem because as much as Moshe Rabbeinu, Moshe Rabbeinu Kodesh Kodeshim, prophet of all prophets, giant of all giants... gives 98 curses—98, double the amount of what Hashem said. So Chazal says this is the difference between the mercy of man versus the mercy of Hashem because as much as Moshe Rabbeinu, Moshe Rabbeinu, Kodesh Kodashim, prophet of all prophets, giant of all giants

1:18:10The biggest chacham in history, the biggest tzaddik in history, eved Hashem, servant of Hashem, had no personal wants, desires, nothing. He canceled his life, canceled his marriage for Hashem. Hashem gives him a description, Moshe Avdi, Moses my servant. No one else is described to such a level as Moses. Why? Moses, the top of the top, at the same time known as the humblest of all men. So, while being the giant of all giants, he still knew where he stood. He knew that he was a giant. He knew that he spoke to God face-to-face. He had to write it. He knew he was the prophet of all prophets. He had to write it in the Torah. He knew he was the biggest chacham. He wrote it in the Torah. He knew no one is ever going to be like Moshe Rabbeinu. He wrote it in the Torah.

1:19:11but still he knew where it came from and remained the humblest man of all time. He loved Am Yisrael, loved them; he sacrificed his life day after day for them. But yet, here he gives them 98 curses, double the amount from Hashem, instead of mentioning once about the worst punishment of getting such starvation. eating the children, he mentions it no less than three times. He gives detailed, horrible, horrifying details, which Chazal say all came true. All of them came true during the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash. All of them came true several times throughout history, and in last year's Tisha B'Av, we showed how it actually came true even during the Holocaust. Now, in this parasha, in the beginning, he talks about some blessings. Seven times he says, "fulfill my mitzvot."

1:20:27Hashem says, "Today, God your Lord commands you to obey all these rules and laws. You must carefully keep them with all your heart and with all your soul, not some of the rules, all the rules." The very next verse says... Says here, today, you have pledged, tells all of Am Yisrael, today is the day you've pledged. What do you mean you pledged? You pledged allegiance to God, making Him your God and promising to walk in His path, to keep all His decrees, not just whatever you feel like, all of them. Tzitzit, tefillin, Shabbat, taharat hamishpacha, modesty, everything. Not just what you feel like. No, I'm hot. I don't want to wear tzitzit. No, no, my head is hot. I don't want to cover my head. No, no, my feet are hot. I want to walk, you know, with no shoes. No, no, no, my brain is full. I don't want to learn limud Torah. I remember I was a kid. I used to work out. And...

1:21:54Every time you see these people start coming to the gym and tell me, "Yeah, I want to start working out. I'm gonna start doing this, start doing that, but I don't want to be too big. I don't want to get too big." And I look at them, and the guys that are worried about being too big are usually like 30 pounds, like tiny little scrawny little kids. It's like, "I don't want to be too big." I'm like, "First, you have to become like a healthy human being and worry about being big first." worry about being big first. That's a myth. They worry about being big. What are you worried about? Do you know how long it takes to become big and muscular? Do you think you can go to the gym for a week and become Hercules? So it's like this in Torah. Somebody starts keeping Shabbat and says, "I don't want to become too much, too religious." What too religious? You just kept one Shabbat and... Even if you think you kept Shabbat, if you're not studying from the books of Torah, you're not learning all that. So you didn't even keep Shabbat a hundred percent. You likely violated it at least five or six times. Why? Because if you don't know all the Halachot, you're definitely violating Shabbat. One example we talked about is that on Shabbat, you can't use a dishwasher. So what do you do? You wash dishes. Most people wash dishes on Shabbat.

1:23:12Washing dishes is one of the most common ways people violate Shabbat every week. Why do you use a sponge like you use during the regular week? The sponge for the regular week—they have one for dairy, they have one for meat—they figure this is kosher, this is kosher. I'm continuing the same thing. No, my friend. You're making a mistake. Why? The sponge you have for the regular week could retain water. Once you squeeze that sponge, you are violating Shabbat. And... The sponge that you use for Shabbat cannot be a sponge at all. It has to be a net. It cannot retain water at all. If it retains water, you're violating Shabbat. So, if you didn't learn a lot about Shabbat, someone who just started keeping Shabbat should not be overly stringent. Just learn the basics. Second time, it says you made a promise to Hashem to walk in His path, to keep all of His decrees, His commandments, His laws, and to obey His voice. Emulate His ways. What does it mean to go in His ways? Be merciful, be graceful, be righteous, be holy. Be

1:24:41major middot that Hashem yitbarach has. Without learning Torah and knowing how to do these four things, there's no way that you are holy. There's no way that you're righteous. There's no way that you're gracious, and there's no way that you're merciful. How do we know? Because someone can consider themselves merciful because they like pets. They like pets, they're merciful on pets. They see a stray dog, they save the stray dog, and This is very nice because both are saving the stray dog. But you have to be more merciful to human beings. If all your extra money is going to save dogs while there are homeless people around you, people that don't have food for Kiddush, people that can't afford to send their kids to yeshiva, and you're worried about the dogs, the cats, and the bunnies, you're not merciful. You are actually no different than the Nazis. The Nazis, by the way, so you know, the Nazis are...

1:25:41Treated their pets, especially dogs, with the utmost respect. They loved their dogs. But while they were sending all the human beings to the gas chambers, they would tell them thank you every time they went into a gas chamber. They would tell the guy, "Thank you for going in." They had manners, but it's fake manners. It's not real manners. Why? All the mercy they had went to the wrong place. It went to the dogs. I am not saying you should kill dogs. You're not allowed to. You also have to have mercy for dogs, but it does not supersede humans. If you don't learn Torah, you're not going to do it. People think they're gracious and They give, they give, they give. What do they give? They give money to the zoo? They give money to the Red Cross. They give money to all types of tzedakot. When there are Jews who don't even know Shema Yisrael. There are millions of Jews who do not know Shema Yisrael, and you think that you're doing okay by donating money to the biblical zoo?

1:26:57There's a Zoo of Noach in Israel. Some rich couple donated $400,000, which is a fortune in Israel. It's like, I don't know, five million dollars in America. $400,000 for what? To build a gate for the new elephant in the Biblical Zoo of Noach in Israel. Elohim is not to raise the soul of someone that died. The gate for the elephant is, they think in their little tiny brain, that this is somehow going to help some neshama in Shamayim. That neshama is cursing them out right now. This is what you did? You know how many souls you can save to come back to Hashem to do teshuva with $400,000? You spent it on an elephant and... Elephant. Even the elephant was saying, "What are you doing? Go help, give out some CDs." This is the craziness that we live in today. So, if you're gracious without Torah, you're not gracious at all. You're gracious in the wrong places. Righteous? Impossible to be righteous without learning Torah. Why? You need to know the instructions of how to be righteous. I...

1:28:15holy. Hashem says you must be holy because I am holy. How can you be holy if you can't watch your eyes? How can you be holy if you're not watching your brit? How? I'm going to give you a chiddush I had last night thanks to you. In your merit, I had a chiddush. In this parasha, it talks about it. Parashat Ki Tavo, chapter 28, verses 49 and 50, says: "Hashem will bring upon you a nation from afar, from the end of the earth. It will swoop down like an eagle. This will be a nation whose language you do not understand, an arrogant nation which has no respect for the old and no mercy for the young." And Midrash Eicha is... It talks about how this nation, this pasuk, this verse was a prophecy of the evil Roman Empire that was represented similarly to how the Nazis were represented by the eagle. It's in the verse. They're going to swoop down like an eagle. So you have here the eagle. On top of it, they were a very arrogant nation. They spoke a different language. And actually, if you look at history,

1:29:38Before the Roman Empire, yimach shemam v'zichram, decided to attack Israel, they were nowhere to be found in the history books. No one cared about the Roman Empire. No one cared about the Greek Empire. No one cared about the Turkish Empire. No one cared about any empire until they decided to attack Am Yisrael. Of the empires, all of the civilizations, all of them only became known once they decided to go against Am Yisrael. This is a historical fact. This is not my opinion; it's a historical fact. Why did Hashem create the enemy for us? Because the enemy is also a tool to wake us up and So here in this verse, he says this enemy, it's a prophecy of the Roman Empire. It's a prophecy also of the Nazis. They spoke a language he never heard of before and so on.

1:30:43Arrogant nation has no respect for the old, no respect for the young. There are many, many stories of how the Romans went to specific towns full of little kids, little Jewish kids, and just started stabbing them with their own pens just to kill them. Eventually, they got impatient because they were not dying fast enough, so they started wrapping them in Sifrei Torah and burning them. The viciousness of these people was unprecedented. The Nazis of seventy years ago were no different. To be continued. Let's continue the hiddush. So now, the very next part after this, where Hashem says He's going to create a specific enemy and

1:31:44As a punishment Hashem, He also says, starts talking about Moshe Rabbeinu starts talking about how the worst level of all the punishments. What's the worst level of all the punishments? Hashem says the nation will get to such starvation. They start eating their own children. He says you will then eat the fruit of your womb and When your enemies besiege you and provoke you to desperation, you will eat the flesh of your sons and daughters. In case you didn't understand the first time, He said it again, which God has granted you. Then later on, He says, the most tender-hearted and dainty among you, the ones that look like well-mannered tzadikim, nice, everything was great, and... begrudged their brother, their beloved wife, and their surviving children, not giving them the flesh of their children, which he's eating. Meaning, even though you're eating the kids, you’re not going to share it with everybody. You're going to fight over the meat. And then it ends. It says the most pampered and delicate woman, the one that no one thinks she could kill a fly...

1:33:03She secretly eats the afterbirth that comes out from between her legs and the infant she has borne. If you understand what's going on here, this by itself should make you do full teshuva. You become Moshe Rabbeinu, Sarah Imenu, Avraham Avinu, and Yitzchak all together. Just understand what's happening here. But this is right after He says He's going to create an enemy for you. Not following what he says. What's the chidush? This is all pshat. This is not my translation. This is pshat. This is basic. You read the parasha. This is what it reads. There's no two ways, one way to translate it. What's the chidush? You're connecting the enemy Roman Empire to punishments on children, a shemira for them. If you look at history...

1:34:04You see that the Roman Empire had an emperor by the name of Trajan. T-R-A-J-A-N. Trajan had a kid. And the day he had a kid was Tisha B'Av, which happened to be a day that Am Yisrael mourns. We mourn. Already since Moshe Rabbeinu we've been mourning Tisha B'Av. So this baby died on Hanukkah, which is a day we celebrate. One of these evil Romans came to Trajan’s wife and said, "Look, these Jews mourn on the day your son was born and they celebrate on the day your son died." She took this as a personal offense. She told Trajan. The Emperor sent his soldiers, and we had problems. Hashem created an enemy from nothing. We're not celebrating because of her; we're not mourning because of her. But Hashem created an enemy because we did something wrong, and his name was Trajan. So far, so good. It's 2,000 years ago. So far, so good. B'ezrat Hashem, you understand the full kiddush Trajan.

1:35:33spelled T-r-a-j-a-n. If you take out the second "a," the way you draw an "a"—I want to draw it, but I didn't have a chance and enough time—you take out the "a." The way you draw it in English, you turn it upside down; it looks like a circle with a line. Reminds you of seed, the way seed looks like sperm under a microscope—circle and a line. When someone wastes seed, what do they have left? Nothing. So, you remove that line. What does it become? A zero, an O. You put that O back in Trajan, now you have Trojan, the number one condom company in the world. the number one facilitator of wasting seed in the world. What's Trojan's logo? A Roman helmet. A Roman helmet. That's the logo of Trojan, the condom company.

1:36:52You think this is a coincidence? That they connected the parasha, they connected the verse that talks about Hashem creating an enemy with punishment on kids? No, my friends. You waste seed, that's what the Gemara says is the punishment. That's what the Gemara says is the punishment. You want to waste seed? You want to kill children that you haven't seen? Well, you'll kill children that you will see. Who? You're gonna do it. With your own action. So now, you have another understanding of how Hashem connects everything. Everything is in the Torah. Everything and anything that's any good in the world must have a source in the Torah. Must. It's a company that makes condoms, or it's a company that makes drinks, or it's a company that makes Coca-Cola. Or it's a company, or it's a business, or it's a person, or it's a master. Whatever it is, everything and anything that's of any value or significance must have a source in the Torah. Must. Even a saying.

1:38:10Now, here you have a very, very scary parasha where what I just said is only a small part of it. What I just said is only a small part of this parasha. Small, tiny. The amount of curses that's talked about in this parasha, Baruch Hashem, I studied it last night. It's very scary. Couldn't sleep. Could not sleep. If you understand what it says here, you could not sleep. One of the scariest things that I saw in this parasha was that Hashem said that one of the curses, Chapter 28, Verse 32: "Your sons and your daughters will be given to a foreign nation." You will see it happening with your own eyes and will long for them all day long, but you will be powerless to help them. So the basic pshat is that parents will see their kids taken away by a different nation. Targum Yonatan says no. No, we're not talking about kidnapping the kids. This is somewhere else in the parasha.

1:39:28What is it? What does it mean? Targum Yonatan says, no, this is the punishment. The curse here is the parents seeing their kid become chiloni, become secular. That's actually one of the curses in the Torah. Becoming secular is one of the curses in the Torah. Different part of the curses. This is not the specific one. So here, See that to be secular is not exactly a blessing like the secular people think. Why is it not a blessing? Because when you're secular, when you're atheist, when you believe in a limited God, then in essence you could live 70, 80, 90, or 120 years before you find out you lived a purposeless life and... You lived a whole life with no point. Why? The end is miserable. You worked your whole life to make money. So all the money you made, you leave behind. You can't take it with you. You worked your whole life to raise kids. As soon as they got married, they stopped calling you. You worked your whole life to be married. You were married six times.

1:40:56You worked your whole life to be successful. You didn't reach it. And even if you did, you realize it's not as meaningful as you thought before you became successful. Do you think Steve Jobs cared about his $7 billion he had in the bank when he couldn't find a liver to replace the liver that was full of cancer? No. You know why he didn't care about his job anymore? Because he was dying. And the $7 billion he had couldn't buy a new liver. Couldn't buy a new liver. She could live a full life thinking you're going in the right direction before you realize, "Wow, this whole time I thought I was going in the right direction, and I only realize it's the wrong one after it's too late. I can't fix it anymore."

1:41:57In this parasha, it says many, many scary, scary things. But we're not gonna go over all of them. I think we already went over enough. The point I'm trying to make is that there's no way to minimize the scariness. The horror that's written in this week's parasha—no way to make anything positive, to visualize this in a positive way—is being intellectually dishonest. Why? Because the overwhelming majority of the parasha is curses. The overwhelming majority of the parasha is Hashem saying, "You don't do it, I will punish you." Why? That's the deal. Everyone that goes to work knows if you work hard, you get paid. If you don't work hard, you get fired. If you run a business, you know you need to have employees to delegate tasks to. Why? Because they need to do things for you. You can't do everything yourself. But in order for them to work for you, they must have rules. If they follow the rules, they get a promotion. If they follow the rules, they keep their job. If they don't follow the rules, they get fired. You get married, you need to have rules. You do this, she does this. She does this, you do this.

1:43:25If she does something that's against the marriage, you're not going to stay. If you do something against the marriage, she's not going to stay. Marriage must have rules. Child-rearing must have rules. School must have rules. Traffic has rules. You don't want to follow the traffic rules? It doesn't matter whether you want to or not. You don't follow them, you get fined. You can go to jail. Whether you like the government or not is irrelevant. You still have to pay taxes. There are rules for making money. There are rules for how to spend your money. You can't just buy whatever you want. You can't just finish your day and decide to go buy crack. I'm sorry, even though it's your money, you can't do it. It's illegal. There are rules for how you can use your money. There are rules for how you can use your time. You can't use your time selling drugs. You can't; it's illegal. Even though it's your time, it's really not. So the government that you're under also has rules. The marriage you're in or will be in has rules. The job, the company you're in has rules. Everything has rules. You follow, good. You don't follow, penalty. So what makes you think God doesn't have rules? Who told you God doesn't have rules? Why does everyone else have rules except the King of all Kings?

1:44:52Only one that shall have rules is the King of all Kings. Yet, He's the only one no one wants to listen to. What makes you think He doesn't have rules? The point I'm trying to make is this parasha is the wake-up call. It's always read two weeks before Rosh Hashanah, before Judgment Day. There are two reasons for that and So, we get all the curses behind us and start off the year fresh with blessings. The second reason is it's your last chance to do teshuva. So, Hashem is reminding you of the punishment. Hashem is reminding you of the consequences of not listening to Him, not listening to His rules and... The consequences of not following through, and he mentions it 13 times in this parasha. 13 times it says, 13 verses it says, "Follow my commandments." 13 times. One time would have been enough. He says it 13 times. Why 13 times? The drash of the day: A man is obligated to start following mitzvot at age 13. Everything is connected.

1:46:10Everything is from Hashem Yitbarach. So, how do you know if your rabbi is a "Care Bear" rabbi or a real rabbi? A real rabbi will tell you about these rules. A real rabbi will tell you about the consequences of not following the rules. A real rabbi will not look for a way out with some fancy-schmancy stories that make you feel better about yourself so you can stay the same and... A real rabbi will follow what God said and say, "Hey, by the way, guys, this is very scary. This is very scary if we don't follow Him. We have a bill to pay and I don't have the money. All of the things I said to you today, I didn't know before today. This is what this Mishnah says. This is what this Mishnah says: if you go out there and..." with an intention to teach, to learn, to do, to fulfill the ultimate purpose of the world, the ultimate purpose of why Hashem Yitbarach created you, He'll give you siyata dishmaya. He'll give you knowledge that you don't have. He'll give you chiddushim that don't exist. He'll give you knowledge that people who have learned ten times more than you did not attain.

1:47:40Why? Because you're doing it for Am Yisrael, you're not doing it for yourself. There's no other benefit. There are headaches. No benefit. Headaches, sleepless nights, less time with family. But then you get the benefits. What are the benefits? Amazing stories. I'm going to tell you a few amazing stories that keep me going. Recent stories, life, old stories you already heard. Baruch Hashem, there are new stories every day. Every day, there's new stories. Once in a while, there's a story that stands out. So, one guy sends me an email. Nathaniel. Nathaniel says, "Hi Rabbi, is there a chance that you can make the Shabbat video with Hebrew subtitles? You know, the movie we made?"

1:48:41Shabbat, 17 minutes, very popular, Baruch Hashem. He's asking if it's in English and says, can we make it with Hebrew subtitles? I'm on a group chat full of different types of Jewish backgrounds and don't really know exactly who keeps Shabbat, but there are for sure people on that chat that don't know any of this. I would want to reach out to them because they wouldn't see it anywhere else. Those 17 minutes you're not going to find what it says there anywhere else according to Nathanael. No pressure. I appreciate it, Rabbi. You helped a couple of my friends start keeping Shabbat after they watched it. I Already, we know a couple means two, maybe more. All I know is that Nathanael just told me there are two new Jews in Am Yisrael. Why? Because they kept Shabbat. The Gemara says, the Shulchan Aruch says, the Zohar says, all of Chazal say: someone that's a Jew who doesn't keep Shabbat is considered 100% an idol worshiper. According to Nathanael, Baruch Hashem, we have at least two new Jews.

1:49:50removed their idolatry, removed their suspension, their Judaism that was on suspension, removed that suspension. They became a part of Am Yisrael for what? A 17-minute video. But then there's another story. 20, almost 30 years ago, we came to America and Kids, you know we had friends that would come to the house. One of the guys, his name was Leor. Leor, a nice guy, friends older than me, so his friends. He was always nice to me. He was more friends and, you know, hung out more with my older brothers and kept in touch with the family here and there, but I haven't talked to him in many years. A week ago, I... Leor sends me a text on Facebook with a picture of a communication that he had with somebody else by the name of Martin. Martin is a Marine. He's in the Marines, he's in battle, he's in the middle of nowhere somewhere trying to protect the country he lives in.

1:51:18He's a Jew, and Martin is in touch with Leor because they used to work together. He used to work for Leor, and he mentions—Martin mentions me to him. He says, "This rabbi is changing my life." And Leor says, "I know him. He comes from a great family." That tag gives me all these wonderful compliments, and Martin says the following: I can't believe you know him. He's changing my life. I don't know what he does personally, whether he's dedicated to what he's doing here or does other things. But you know that Rambam says that the duty of every Jew is to help those that need help and feed those who are hungry and provide water to those who are thirsty and shelter to those who are naked. This is the devotion that our text demands. I like Rabbi Reuven because he's truly a scholar. He is a subject matter expert, and he breaks it down unfiltered like a reality show. God bless his work. I'll be honored to meet him; his speeches are outstanding. I'm not reading this for you guys to hear compliments about me. I'm reading this for an actual purpose. I

1:52:45you see how God puts people together. You have no idea how this rabbi made me feel better. I was depressed; I felt depressed, and he just validated every single thing that I ever thought. He later on here says want to write him a letter, and he's nervous to write me a letter. Eventually, he did. He says, "I want to write him how he inspired me, a complete stranger, just the Marine living far, far away. Yet, he is closer to me than the rabbi down the block. So, this Marine that's protecting his country, protecting his people..." into a depression. I don't blame him; if I was in the middle of some desert fighting people that are willing to die, I would be depressed in two seconds. But somehow, in the middle of the desert, somehow in the middle of nowhere, he found God. He found out that God is serious. He found out that God wants something more from him, and he found out that this God expects him to do things.

1:54:08Once he realized that this God expects him to do things, he started understanding the reasons for some of his problems, the reasons for some of his depressions, and that actually got him out of depression. That got him more fit to protect his people, more fit to protect his own life, his own soldiers that are right next to him. And he's the baal siman, the master of the sign. Somehow, it had something to do with it. This is what this Mishnah is about. You teach people to get them to reality, not to some falsehood, care-bear world where everyone's tzaddik, everyone is righteous, everyone is wonderful, everyone is great. That's nonsense. That is not reality. That is not reality. The Gemara says, In order for someone to attain Olam HaBa, you must know it requires an extraordinary amount of mesirat nefesh. No mesirat nefesh, no self-sacrifice, no Olam HaBa. There's no other way. You cannot attain Gan Eden because you think you're a nice person. When you're surrounded by nations that are idol worshipping,

1:55:36Torah tells us that you cannot do anything that the goyim are doing. If you came from one of those nations and now you became a Jew, part of you becoming a Jew is to separate yourself from idolatry. Part of you becoming a Jew is to adopt Jewish customs. Doesn't mean you have to avoid all previous customs. You only have to avoid all customs that are specifically connected to idol worship, specifically against the Torah, whether it be music, dancing, or anything else in particular. When you live among a nation of 400 million goyim, this becomes difficult both in personal life and in business life. Well, that's part of being chosen. Can't say I'm a diamond that's flawless, a hundred carats, D color, and price yourself like a cubic zirconium. Can't be. You want to be chosen? Act like it. You can't hang out with people that are not chosen. You can do business, but business is where it ends.

1:56:59Doesn't mean you're allowed to go to their restaurants. You don't need to do business in a restaurant. You could do it in an office. There's such a thing. You cannot go to a non-kosher restaurant thinking that it's okay because it's business. It's not okay. Why? It's chilul Hashem. You wear your kippah, or if someone knows you're Jewish, they see you in a restaurant. They don't know you're not eating. They think you're eating. Ah, look, this is another fake Jew, and... He wears his kippah, she wears her kisui rosh, but if she's in a non-kosher restaurant, like the rest of us see, it's all fake. That, my friends, is chilul Hashem. We learned about it last week in shiur number 60. Chilul Hashem, accidental or on purpose, either way, in Shamayim we are judged unfavorably. Intentional chilul Hashem is the biggest sin in the Torah. Why? You want to do business? Who gave you business? Who gave you money? So, using the business and the money he gave you against him? And then people wonder why we get punished. So, associating with idol worshippers, again, you have to keep it to a limit. If it's business and you're only talking business, it's one thing. If they start talking to you about their idolatry, run. Run.

1:58:26The last thing is in regard to studying. Someone asked this question about studying Torah. We said that in order for a person to do full teshuva, they must study Torah. So the question is, what's more important, to study Gemara at home, you're a new baal teshuva, you started doing teshuva, you're a new convert... You know, five years, ten years—that's still new, by the way. New doesn't mean six months. New is still five, ten years. You're still new. And you want to study at home, you want to study some sefer at home, or you want to go to a shiur. What do you do? That depends. What’s the shiur? It's a Kiruv rabbi. You're not allowed to attend even when you're not studying. Why? Because the Kiruv rabbi is also Amalek. In last week's parasha, at the end of the parasha, Hashem said—He commanded us as a commandment that will last until Mashiach. He says you must destroy the memory of Amalek. You must destroy the memory of Amalek. Why did He say you must destroy Amalek? Why did He say?

1:59:53Memory of Amalek, because Amalek—the memory of Amalek is beyond Amalek. It's more than just the people; it's an idea. Amalek—the people, we don't know them. We don't know who they are anymore. We know it's the Nazis, but the Nazis are 70 years ago. We know it's the Romans, but the Romans are 2,000 years ago. We know it's a bunch of them, but we don't know for sure. If we knew for sure who is Amalek, we would have to kill them, but we don't know anymore. But the memory of Amalek, we know. Why? It's anti-Torah. It's anti-Torah. Finish this point and I'll answer your question. It's anti-Torah. It's things that are not necessarily people saying that there is no God. That's not necessarily just anti-Torah. That's stupidity. Anti-Torah means saying things that are just nonsense. Saying that if your wife doesn't feel like going to the mikveh, you could still be with her. Like some idiot said, who calls himself a rabbi. Saying that if your wife wants to go to the beach with a bunch of other naked people, you should take her. It's a mitzvah. Even if it's on Shabbat, like the same idiot said. Or telling people you're all tzaddikim because you're Jewish. You're all great and Hashem loves you because you love the Rebbe. Or because you go to Uman. Or because you read Tehillim 500 times a day. That does not make you righteous, my friends.

2:01:20What makes you righteous is following the law. There's a law; follow it. Part of that law is fixing your middot, fixing your character traits. The Gaon of Vilna gave a letter. He wrote his wife and children when he went to Israel. I know, his day is not like today. You go on a plane, and a few hours later, you're somewhere else. In those days, you may not survive the travel. He wrote them a letter with instructions on what to do. It's an amazing letter; you should read it at least once a week. It's four or five pages long. If you don't have it, I'll send it to you. You can get it online for free, in English or Hebrew, whatever you prefer. He gave it a title called the "Gaon miVilna Kodesh Kodeshim." Right to his wife, he says Musar. My dear wife, if the children curse and cannot control their mouths, hit them. Hit them. Hit the kids. This is the mussar you're teaching? I need you to tell me to hit the kids. That's what you're teaching?

2:02:43Every mother knows if the kid acts up, you slap them, at least in the previous generation. Today, they give a reward. In the previous generation, when I was growing up, if we did something, a shoe would follow you wherever you were. If you mouthed off to Ima, if you mouthed off to Abba, a shoe would follow you around the corner, pop right ahead. Why? Don't mouth off to Ima and Abba, don't mouth off to Grandma. Don't think who you are, you little five-year-old peon. You have to... behave. You can't curse, you can't scream, you can't act like a zoo animal. Today, what do the kids do? Beat up the parents? In the previous generation, I’m a little older than most of you, and in that generation, we still got a shoe. Today, you get a reward. So the Gaon MiVilna says to his wife, "If they can't watch their mouth, hit them." What you have to write that she doesn't need you to remind her of it. At the end of the letter, he says some people, if you teach them some Mussar, they listen. It touches their neshama. You teach them, you remind them what their neshama already knows. You remind them, like the Ramchal says in the beginning of the introduction letter of...

2:04:12To his famous book, Mesilat Yesharim (Path of the Just). He says, "I'm reminding you of things you already know. It's all Chidushim, by the way. We don't know anything. But in this generation, maybe they know. We know nothing." He says, "I'm reminding you of things you already know. It's all chiddushim, by the way. We don't know anything. But in this generation, maybe they know. We know nothing." He says, "I'm reminding you of things you know. Some people, you tell them mussar, you tell them how to behave, you're reminding them of something they already know. They do teshuva, 'Oh, I didn't know I shouldn't be angry. I didn't know I shouldn't yell. I didn't know I shouldn't be stingy. I didn't know that I should do all these things.' You remind them, they come to a shiur, they hear it, no problem. He says, but some people have made so many sins and…" The klipah has become a stone around their heart. Their heart has become uncircumcised, like a stone, and the only way you can get the water out of the stone is by hitting it. This is why I told you to hit the kids, because if they're cursing, that means their hearts are made of stone.

2:05:23Hashem brought in Parashat Ki Tavo the same thing He wrote in Parashat Bechukotai, but doubled it up. He doubled the nevu'ah. Why? If you didn't get it by the first parasha when there were 49 crazy, insane curses that should scare any human being to be the biggest tzaddik in history, you didn't get it in Parashat Bechukotai. You are a stone. I must hit you harder. The Care Bear Rabbi is not telling you these things. You're not allowed to go. But if you have a rabbi or someone trying to be, telling you what Hashem said, it's much more important than you studying by yourself. It doesn't matter if you're studying Zohar by yourself. It doesn't matter if you're studying Gemara by yourself. It doesn't matter if you're studying anything by yourself. Why? Because it is you who gets fire. At this, you get woken up. Whereas in your personal study, maybe you have the TV in the background. Maybe you have a little Bamba in the background. Maybe you're going to fall asleep. Maybe you're going to relax. Maybe you're on the couch. Maybe you have a conversation on the side and...

2:06:46Maybe you're going to smoke a few cigarettes. It's comfortable. It's home. It's okay. No fire. No fire. You're by yourself with one book. You have one book. Whatever book it is. By yourself. You're not doing teshuvah by yourself, my friend. You can't do teshuvah by yourself. Why? Because this Mishnah says you can't. There's no siyata diShmaya for you being by yourself. You want to do teshuvah, you come to a shiur Torah. Any questions? Yeah. You said that we don't know who Amalek is. Yes. Many times I heard, and it's certainly a sense that I get from all that they're doing, that Haman, his name, even sounds like Amalek.

2:07:52Right, but we don't know. But what I'm trying to ask is, you know, terrible, terrible things, I'm following the news, have been happening in Syria, and now they're coming closer to the rule of Eretz Yisrael, and obviously this Putin, this successor to the Eastern Roman Empire, we cannot depend on anything he says, and now It says, Prophet Yirmiyahu: someone that trusts in man gets a special curse from Shamayim. Why do you get a special curse? Why trust Trump? Why do you trust Putin? Why do you trust Netanyahu? Don't trust people. No, I'm not saying you personally; I'm saying in general, anyone that trusts any of these government officials, any man on earth, anyone... gets a special curse from Shamayim. Why? Because you are only allowed to trust Hashem Yitbarach. All of these things that people are worried about, whether it's Irma or it's Putin, whether it's Korea or it's Trump, whether it's Iran or it's anything else. Anytime you spend any worry on these people, you have the right amount of worry, but you're worried about the wrong thing and

2:09:16You have the right amount you should be worried. All of you should be worried. Judgment Day is in two weeks. All of you should be worried. I am worried. I was so worried last night I couldn't sleep. I am not joking, not exaggerating. I slept for an hour last night. I could not sleep. I was reading this parasha. I could not sleep. I continued reading more and more. I couldn't sleep. Why? I said this parasha happened. I This parasha continues to happen. If you read this parasha and you could sleep, you, my friend, are of stone—not the hardest though. You might say you are a stone. You read this parasha, you understand what it says? You can't sleep. Everything is happening. Everything happened. Everything is probably going to happen again soon. If you can sleep at night with no worry, you have to get hit a few times. I got hit a few times, almost a decade full of hits and... Decade full of hits, I know this is real. So worried, all of you should be worried. I am worried.

2:10:18Everyone watching should be worried. Judgment Day is in two weeks. Hashem is showing you He's close. He's not showing you He's close and happy. He's just showing you He's close. You've got Irma, you've got Houston, you've got Amalek, you've got Iran, you've got Trump, you've got all the problems in the world somehow culminating right now. Everything is happening. Everyone wants to go to war. The world is about to explode. Why wouldn't you be worried? The problem is that... We have the right amount of worry, but we're worried about the wrong thing. Worried you should be, but the only thing you should be worried about is your connection and righteousness with Hashem. If you're righteous and doing what it says in the Torah... To worry about it doesn't matter if you live in America or you live on top of the Kotel HaMaaravi, the Western Wall. It doesn't matter if you live in Iran or...

2:11:20You live in Afghanistan or you live somewhere in the middle of a battle with Martin. That's a tzaddik, that's doing to rise as we speak, or you live anywhere else. Why? If you have a real connection with Hashem, that's full of mitzvot, full of doing what He says, He'll protect you. Where did He say this? In this week's parasha. In this week's parasha, He says your enemies—you have nothing to worry about. I'll beat all of them. I'll beat all of them. But if you're not righteous with Hashem, you have a lot of worries. Why? He says you're not righteous with Hashem. It doesn't matter where you are. If there's no enemy there, I'll bring the enemy to you. Sometimes the enemy is Amalek. Sometimes it's a president. Sometimes it's a wind. Sometimes it's a partner. Sometimes it's a teacher. Sometimes it's an IRS auditor. I'll make the enemy for you if you're not righteous. So yes, we have to be worried, but not about Iran, not about Amalek, not about Trump, not about America, not about the Palestinian terrorists, and not about the Israelis that support them. Don't worry about any of it. Wasting any time on the news is a waste of time. Why? It leads you to worry about the wrong thing and...

2:12:45It's like someone knows they have a cold. I say, "Okay, here are antibiotics. You have a cold, a bad cold. Here are antibiotics." "No, no, no. I'm taking something natural." "Okay, take something natural. You want to take something natural? Take something natural." Two weeks later, they're still sick. They're even sicker. They're even sicker. Two weeks later, I say, "Okay, the natural is not working, my friend. Your way is not working. If it would have worked, if it's a real antibiotic, so you know." It has to work within 48 hours. If your antibiotic does not work within 48 hours in real life, I'm not talking about figuratively speaking, a real antibiotic does not affect your body within 48 hours, it's the wrong antibiotic. Doctors prescribe antibiotics based on trial and error. They give it to you hoping it works out. They don't actually know if it's going to work out. They think this is going to work for certain things that are related to this, but not always, not for everyone. And sometimes you're allergic to a specific antibiotic. The point being, sometimes people want to do natural. You want to do natural? Go ahead, do natural. But if it's not working after two weeks, it's not going to work after three weeks either. So I come to you, I say, here's antibiotics. You say, no, no, I'm doing natural. Two weeks later, you're sicker. I say, here's an antibiotic. No, I'm still doing natural. You're not doing natural. You're doing craziness.

2:14:00craziness. You've been doing it wrong for two weeks. You've been doing it wrong for 60 years. You've been doing it wrong for 70 years. You're watching the news, nothing changed. All you find out about in the news is who's dead, who's dying, who's probably going to die, who's broke, who lost all the money, who will lose money—all the pressing news. And it leads you to worry about things you have no control over anyway. And all that worry is supposed to be spent on inner reflection and... What am I doing to make myself better? What am I doing to do teshuva, to make my connection with the God above better? And that's why anyone that wants to do full teshuva during this Elul, this is a perfect time. Remove yourself from all this news. Remove yourself from all this stuff that gets you worried, gets you all worked up. These pages, all this stuff, and I say it not because I think everyone should be ignorant, I say it because people get overly passionate about these topics of politics, of all these different things. It's even debates—people like to have religious debates. They join Christian versus Jewish debates or Muslim versus Jewish debates. This is a complete waste of time. This is Satan.

2:15:23This, at best, is Amalek. At worst, it's Satan himself. Amalek is going to create doubts. What doubts? All of a sudden, we're worried about Iran, or we're worried about North Korea, or we're worried about Irma, or worried about whether JC Penney is real. We're worried about all these things. We're worried about the wrong thing. It's Satan himself. We fall for it. We get addicted all day. We're watching the news all day. We're listening to debates between Jews and Christians all day. We're doing everything except what we're supposed to do. So it's either Amalek or it's Satan. Neither one is good. All you need to spend your time with is HaShem Yitbarach, other than your basic minimal requirements. You need to work? Work. You need to eat? Eat. You need to go to the bathroom? Go to the bathroom. Anything extra and... Connect to God. That's the only thing that's going to save you. It's the only thing that's going to save you. Nothing else is going to help you. Nothing. All the worry in the world... It's not going to change anything. People have debates about the stupidity of who's the president, who will be the president, who should be running the house, and synagogues. I've seen this in synagogues, and I look at these people. It's like they're so serious about this debate of what Trump should do, what he shouldn't do, what he had to do, and what he can do. Or people like to debate about whether his daughter's conversion to Judaism is authentic.

2:16:46If it's not authentic, what she's wearing, what she's not wearing, look, she's modest, look, she's not modest. Is the sun really going to be like all this stuff? Who cares about what? Why do you care? Do you think they're having a debate about you? Do you think they're sitting in the White House or in one of his giant buildings that he owns thinking about, "Oh, you know, George, yeah, he lives in Boca Raton?" No, they don't care about you. Why are you talking about them so much? Who cares? Who cares? Why? The lowest form of conversation, the lowest form of conversation, is talking about other people. It's a waste of life. Connect to God; He's waiting for you. Three thousand three hundred years He's been waiting for you to talk to Him. We want to talk about, you want to talk about? Donald Trump and whether he's wearing a wig or not. Who cares if he's wearing a wig or not? Let him wear a wig; leave the guy alone. Who cares? Who cares about all these things? Who cares? Why are you wasting any time? Do you know how many times people sent me messages just today about Yom Ha'atzmaut? I haven't opened one of them. I just see the title of the message: "Yom Ha'atzmaut Message." So, I'm worried about Yom Ha'atzmaut? What about God? What state do you have with God? Trust God. You have to do basic things, basic things—nothing that's going to drive you crazy and...

2:18:15If you live, obviously you live on top of the water. The thing is supposed to come on the water. It's not exactly an ideal place to stay. You're not allowed to be swimming in the middle of the ocean right next to you. You might expect protection. On the same token, on the same token, you don't need to go drive to Kentucky right now. To Canada and put all the kids on the roof and the neighbors and everybody in the trunk, and you're all driving. Yeah, we're, you know, like there's a camera in the back. You don't need to do that. Relax. Hashem is here. The same One that's controlling the wind is the same One that will protect whoever deserves protection. And you're the crazy one. They told me today in what is it? Shuarim and sunrise? It's not necessarily that nothing is going to happen. The point is that if we deserve something bad, there's nothing we can do about it. If we deserve good, there's nothing we can do about that either. We could ruin good, but we can't ruin bad.

2:19:31Unfortunately, the world is disconnected. The world is disconnected from real Mussar. The world is disconnected from real Mussar. There's only a handful of people out there teaching real Mussar in the English language. Baruch Hashem, we have the zechut to be one of them. You have Rabbi Zitron, you have Rabbi Mizrachi, you have Rabbi Alon Anava. There's a couple of other ones that I forget to mention. But in general, Wallerstein is good, also Rabbi Wallerstein, Rabbi Ades. There's a few, there's really a handful of people that teach real Mussar in the English language. The rest of it is Kiruv rabbis. With all due respect to all the Torah that they know, no one does teshuva. No one does teshuva. Twenty years they're teaching, not one person did anything. Nothing. You've got a giant Dayan right next door to me where I live. Giant. He knows Torah better than I can dream of. Not one person does teshuva. Why? Look at his Beit Knesset. There's more Christians moving into the community than there are Jews. Well, you want to bring Christian missionaries, that's what's going to happen.

2:20:33They figure out this is a good Christian ground. So the thing is, people don't get it. You can't help people do teshuva without Mussar. There's no other way; it just doesn't work. The way you enlighten is by getting people to come to the shiur. The only way—call it whatever you want—you have to, you have to get the only thing that could get the stone and... The only thing that can get the stone to not remain a stone is two things: either getting hit by the words or getting hit by a stick. It's better to get hit by words because the words, they just attend, they enjoy maybe once in a while. I say a joke every four months; they enjoy. That's better because they listen to hear the truth. They do teshuva when it's a stick; it's from Him, and it hurts. I've experienced it. So, that's it. They don't want to do it. One way or another, everyone's going to have an opportunity to do teshuva. Some people get hit nonstop. No, no, no. It's not nonstop. Trust me, it gets worse. It gets worse.

2:21:39No, no, no, I'm telling you. Okay, no, no, everybody will do teshuva at some point. Everyone will do teshuva. Unfortunately, it won't help them because it's too late, but everyone gets to that point. Don't worry. Actually, in this parasha, it says at the end, at the end of all the hitting and how much Hashem punishes, it's so scary. He says in the morning you're gonna wish it's night, meaning there's so much pain and... Can't wait for it to be over, for it to be night, and when it gets to the night, you're gonna miss the morning. Meaning, the pain that you thought you had and you're waiting for it to be better, the later pain is so much worse that you forgot how bad it was. It just continues getting worse. Trust me, all the people getting hit, they lose a little money, they get divorced, a few kids get this, a few kids, nothing, nothing. Hashem wants to give pain. Don't worry, everyone does teshuva, my dear friend. Fidel says at the hospice center that he volunteers in, everyone's righteous. At the hospice center, everyone's righteous. Even the atheist believes in God. That's because they know they're about to meet the Maker. They deny it their whole life, but everyone knows it. Everyone knows the truth. They just decide to be fools.

2:23:02Well, you have to measure where you're at and you have to measure what you're doing to do your best. So there is a basic foundation of mitzvot. Shabbat, kashrut, family purity, learning Torah every day, and so on. There's a basic foundation of mitzvot. If you're doing the basics, you're doing the basics. Then, through your learning, and Hashem knows that you're trying to continuously improve, Hashem will give you ideas, will give you special assistance for different things to add. a merit of doing mitzvot, the reward for a mitzvah we learned in last week's parasha, is another mitzvah. One of the explanations of that is because you're doing teshuva, Hashem is going to help you improve your teshuva by giving you the ideas of what's the next thing to work on. But that's if you're being intellectually honest with yourself. If you're lying, nothing will help you, and

2:24:12You're lying. You're only going to find new excuses for why you're allowed to violate every single thing in the Torah. So, when someone is intellectually honest, they're going to make sure that they are doing things constantly to improve themselves. I have some people that, b'ezrat Hashem, when they listen to what we said, mamash miracles happened. There's one guy, he was married five years. No chuppah, no kiddushin, no nothing, no taharat mishpacha, nothing. No kosher, no Shabbat, nothing, completely nothing. He came to us a few years ago. Within the first shiur he realized, "I'm on the wrong track." By the third shiur he believed in God. By the third shiur he believed in God, like believed, okay, I'm taking on some mitzvot, start keeping Shabbat. Five years they're married, no kids. Why no kids? The doctor says we can't have kids. That's what the doctor says—they can't have kids. So little by little, they do teshuvah, and little by little, they come to shiur Torah. They get better, they get better, they get better. One day, I found out they never had chuppah and kiddushin.

2:25:28I said, "You know, it's very important for you to have chuppah and kiddushin because even though technically you're married and you're acting like husband and wife and you call yourself husband and wife, according to the laws of Hashem, you have to have chuppah and kiddushin." "Oh, what's the big deal? Hashem already knows." "Yes, Hashem already knows, but He still has laws. Do chuppah. We'll arrange it, whatever we have to do, we'll arrange it." Long story short, he listened. Listened. The wife listened. He listened. Five years, five years they're married. No kids. Doctor says can't have kids. Nine months later, after chuppah and kiddushin, where's the baby girl? It's the Bracha of Hashem. It's the Bracha of Hashem. You do the will of Hashem, everything is possible. Everything is possible. The doctor is human and... God's not you. Do what He says, Hashem will change nature for you. These types of miracles, I see them mamesh daily, daily. I see it. Students that follow the things we say. It's not me saying it. It's Hashem saying it. The problem is no one else wants to say it. Very few people want to say it. The reason why is because when you do what I do, you get $20 tzedakah. We tell people that it's a tzadikim, you get $20,000.

2:26:49If I charged for my lectures, I'd have no lectures. No one would pay me to come. Why? Who in their right mind would pay somebody to rebuke them? Who in their right mind would pay somebody to tell them they're wrong? Who in their right mind would pay somebody unless they're already righteous and don't really need rebuke? Like the Vilna Gaon. The Vilna Gaon paid somebody to rebuke him. The truth is, he didn't need rebuke. Why? He was a tzadik. In our generation, we don't have that. Who in their right mind will pay somebody to rebuke them? No one. So if I actually charged for my lectures, I'd have no lectures. But the guy that tells everyone they're tzadikim, 5,000, 10,000, 20,000, 30,000, 50,000—whatever you want, pick a price, we'll pay it. Why? He told us we're tzadikim. Who's not gonna pay for compliments? Who's not gonna pay to hear from somebody with a kippah that they're good, they're perfect, they're great? That's a tzadik. And Moshe Rabbeinu, this is also in the Torah, by the way. Moshe Rabbeinu, Moshe Rabbeinu, the rebuker of all rebukers. And it mamash said, maybe la

2:28:10Hashem cried when Moshe Rabbeinu died. Why? He says, "Who's gonna rebuke My people like Moshe Rabbeinu?" But Moshe Rabbeinu says about himself, "Hashem, this nation didn't even pay for my donkey that I used to go to Egypt to save them like You told me to do. Even for my donkey, they didn't pay," meaning everything I did was for free. I... didn't even pay for gas money. They didn't pay. Why? Who in their right minds is going to pay somebody to rebuke them? But Hashem pays. How? This business is good. Okay, so the halacha is that you're supposed to tell somebody. Let's say, for example, if you see somebody violating Shabbat, you have to tell them. If they continue, you have to continue trying to tell them up to the point where they're about to beat you up. You have to tell them until the point where they're about to beat you up, meaning that's in essence symbolizing that you are exerting full effort and...

2:29:26To try to tell them the truth once it gets to a point where they're threatening to beat you up, at that point you stop. You don't have to tell them anymore. Now someone's gonna say, "Okay, great, that just ruined all of my relationships. All of my relations that I have—all my friends, all my family—don't want to beat me up. No one wants to listen." The beauty is that when you really try, Hashem will give you help, and some people will listen. But even more than that, you should know that There's a very big reward for rebuking people. There's a very big reward. What's the reward? If you see somebody violating Shabbat, for example, one of the foundational covenants between Am Yisrael and Hashem, and you see somebody violating Shabbat on a regular basis, and you rebuke them, you tell them the truth not to embarrass them, but for the purpose of helping them. Obviously, you have to know how to do it, when, who, when you're, you know, you have to follow certain things. If you follow everything and... They still don't want to listen. You have a very big reward in Shamayim. What's that reward? You have their Olam Haba. Now in the Mishnah in Sanhedrin, it says, "Kol Yisrael yesh lahem chelek le'Olam Haba"—all of Israel have a share in the world to come. But then the next ten dappim say, "And these are the ones that do not have a share in the world to come." And...

2:30:47the question is what happens to this share? The first verse says everyone has a share in the world to come. The next ten pages say, "These are the following who don't have a share in the world to come," and so on and so forth. So what happens to this share? It just disappears? It goes into the air? Maybe they give it to the Care Bears, maybe they feed it to their Irma? What happens to it? It says it goes to the ones who rebuke them. The ones that told them to do teshuva and they didn't do it—they get a bigger piece. They get their Olam HaBa. So yes, they had a piece of Olam HaBa, but they can't use it, so it has to go somewhere. Where does it go? To the one guy that told them to do teshuva. They didn't do teshuva? Okay, he gets it. So you actually have a benefit either way—you win. You're not supposed to do it for the purpose of getting their Olam HaBa; you're supposed to do it for the purpose of getting them to do teshuva, because then you get a bigger piece of Olam HaBa anyway, and... You get three hundred and ten worlds for every Jew you help him do teshuva. Three hundred and ten worlds for every Jew that does teshuva. You get three hundred and ten new worlds. Worlds—not condominium worlds—three hundred and ten. So you give one guy a CD, it costs you a dollar, or you got it for free from the lecture. He does teshuva because of the CD, you have three hundred and ten worlds. Who's better than you? He doesn't want to listen. He doesn't want to do it either way. You win. You got it all over.

2:32:16It's not to be mean. This is the reality. It's a real why—the zechut (merit) has to go somewhere. The zechut has to go somewhere. It's a delicious sandwich. Somebody has to eat it. He doesn't want to eat it. Okay, I'm gonna eat it. Next. Oh. He's different. It's not you didn't necessarily help them do teshuvah—you helped them get married. There's a different reward for that. Teshuvah is specifically getting somebody to go from, in essence, you're taking them from Gehinom to Gan Eden and B'ezrat Hashem, b'ezrat Hashem you keep helping Am Yisrael get closer to Hashem. There's an endless amount of reward we can't even imagine for helping with shidduchim. Obviously, you're a partner with Hashem. Hashem says that there are three things that He is responsible for. So when you're a part of shidduchim, it is Hashem's responsibility, and... That's what he does. So in essence, when someone is a shadchan, they actually make righteous shidduchim with righteous people together. They're becoming partners with Hashem. There's no better partner than Hashem. I just want to go back to the earlier thing about that. Not that we know who it is, but since we see a reference to Rome. Yes.

2:33:42And obviously, there's references to, and it's fairly obvious that the Iranians and Hezbollah are opposing us, as well as the Bnei Yishmael. Perhaps someone that was. I'm talking about the majority, the rest of them. All right, so? Is it possible that this predicted reconciliation that's supposed to be between Yitzchak and Yishmael will come about through this? Or is it possible also that Hashem, I mean, they also have the Eid al-Adha similar to our recitation. Is it possible that they are being tested and that they must The same book of Daniel that we read before that talked about Irma also talked about Yishmael too, and he talked about Esav. And he talked about Gog and Magog, and he talked about the end of times. That was the prophecy of Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar was told by the prophet Daniel that he will be the most powerful king until the Mashiach comes.

2:35:07There are many prophecies about what's going to happen in the days of Mashiach. One of them is the war of Gog uMagog, where Yishmael, which in essence is Islam, and Esav, which is all of Christianity and Catholicism, which in essence means 98% of the world, or the majority of the world, are going to go head-to-head. They're gonna fight each other. It's going to be a nuclear war. It's going to be a horrible war. The Prophet Zechariah describes this war, in essence, how you would describe a nuclear war. He says the eyes are going to melt like liquid out of the face of a person, the skin will melt, and so on. It's a nuclear war, in essence, and... I believe it was the Arizal who said that this war will last nine minutes, which in the days of the Arizal wouldn't have been possible. So today we know it's possible. In essence, they're describing a nuclear war and a bigger craziness than any war we have experienced, other than the war between Amalek and Am Yisrael in the desert.

2:36:19Midrash Ma'am Lo'ez talks about the war between Amalek, the nation of Amalek, and Am Yisrael, and it says this is the biggest war in history, even bigger than what Gog and Magog is going to be. And the reason why is because it was a spiritual war. Amalek had different sorcerers who knew who’s destined to die and who’s not and So they only sent the soldiers that they knew could not die according to their knowledge. Joshua had to keep everyone alive. But the problem is that the Sun had to be up. That's how they would stay alive and... So in essence, Joshua had to pray to Hashem for a miracle to keep the sun up. So one of the miracles that happened during this war is that Hashem kept the sun in the sky specifically for Joshua for an extra amount of time. Anyway, this was a very big war with a lot of spiritual powers, beyond the scope of the conversation we have today. The point being is that the Gog u'Magog is first going to start between these two major powers, between Yishmael and Esav. After...

2:37:37fight, beat each other up. Eventually, they're gonna stop and say, "You know what? This whole war is about Jerusalem. Don't decide that it's all about Jerusalem. Whose fault is it? This is the Jews' fault." So they both gather together and go fight against Am Yisrael. They conquer Eretz Yisrael, and in essence, one of the major prophecies says in the Gemara, in the Zohar, and also in the Tanach itself... That they're gonna conquer Eretz Yisrael for nine months. They're gonna take over it for nine months. This is in the Gemara Masechet Sanhedrin, and then Mashiach comes, and you know, there's a lot of other things that follow. The point being is that there's no peace. There's no peace with Yishmael. There's no peace with Esav. There's no peace. there's war. The only thing that brings peace is Mashiach. Mashiach will come and bring peace by first beating everybody up. First, he's gonna destroy all the wicked. Two-thirds of the world will die initially. The last third will be tested the same way that you test gold. My family is in the gold business, and you know, sometimes people try to sell fake gold. You know, they bring you something that looks like gold

2:38:58But it's fake, but it looks like real gold. So how do you do it? You put acid on it. You put acid on the gold or certain chemicals on the gold that tell you whether it's fake or not. If it's fake, you see it's fake right away. If not, so Hashem says to the Prophet, "I'm gonna test the last third, the last remaining third, both of the goyim and whatever is left of the righteous Jews. I'm gonna test them like you test gold." It's not gonna be easy to stay religious. You can have a bunch of missionaries coming after you. You can have a bunch of Islamic people coming after you. You have the Satan coming after you. Amalek coming after you. The yetzer hara coming after you. The different doubts in your mind coming after you. Money problems coming after you. Health issues coming after you. Everything is gonna tell you to go left and... We have to stay right. You have to stay with Hashem. Stay close. This is why I remind you over and over again: stay away from all things that are against Hashem. All things that are not what He wants you to do. Because all of those things are just going to get you away from the right direction. So, in essence, there's no peace. Yishmael, Esav, all of them—some will survive, some won't. Most will not survive.

2:40:07Most of the world will not survive. This is not because we wish them bad. This is simply because they're wicked. They're going against Hashem. The few that are righteous will survive, and that goes for the Jews as well. If you're wicked, you have a problem. Fix it before it's too late. Right, so the Midrash explains that when Hashem told Avraham Avinu, your children are going to be like the stars or the grains of the sand. But then later on in the book of Devarim, it says that Hashem didn't pick us because we are a nation of large numbers. It says that, as a matter of fact, it's the opposite. We're small numbers. So how could it be? It contradicts each other. So here's when you need to understand what Hashem said to Avraham Avinu.

2:41:08Hashem said to Avraham Avinu, your descendants are going to be like the stars or the grains of sand. What does it mean, "stars or grains of sand"? It means that when they are righteous with Hashem, when they listen to Hashem, when they do what Hashem says—as it says in this parasha 13 times, 13 times it says to listen to Hashem—they are going to be like the stars above the world, above nature. Nothing in the world can take them over. Why the stars? Superstars above nature, above Mazal, above everything. They have nothing to worry about because they are like the stars when they are righteous with Hashem. When they are not righteous with Hashem, they are like the sand. What is the sand? It's even below Amalek. It's even below the goyim. Why? Because when they are wicked, when they are not righteous with Hashem, they don't have the same din. The green, when the goyim go against Hashem, Hashem gives them an endless amount of time to live their whole life as idol worshipers. They have a predestined amount of time to live in the world. They die righteous, they die righteous; today wicked, today wicked. The Jews, on the other hand, Hashem goes out of His way and changes nature to punish them and...

2:42:26Just to reward them, He goes above nature to reward them, but He also goes above nature to punish them. Why? You're not like everyone else. You don't have the option of being like everyone else. Being chosen is not just a privilege; it's a responsibility. So Hashem told Avraham Avinu, when your children are good, they're superstars. When they're not, they have a lot of problems. A lot of problems. Next question. What happens to the soul of the dead that we pray for? So we did—if he does—is today a dear new friend, Adam. Oh, Hashem, he's starting to do teshuvah. Someone sent him my shiur, and he's starting to watch shiurei Torah. This is already the beginning of teshuvah. Unfortunately, what led him to start watching is that his father died.

2:43:27He asked a friend to ask me about Kaddish. Should he do Kaddish? Should he not do Kaddish? You know, the tradition in Judaism is to say Kaddish when someone dies. The reason why is because when someone says Kaddish, it elevates the soul of the person who died, and Because what Kaddish is, is a way to sanctify Hashem's name, to glorify it. You know, giving better and better descriptions of Hashem, glorifying His name, one description after another, after another, after another. Each word is another positive compliment you're giving to Hashem. Not that He needs our compliment, but in essence, this is what we're doing when we say Kaddish. So, when we say Kaddish, it elevates the soul. Rabbi Yehuda Fatiyah, zecher tzadik livracha. He had a book where he wrote about conversations that he had with souls that had passed on. They would come to him in dreams and different events, and he wrote many times that these souls would come to him, begging him to find somebody to say Kaddish for them so it could help them get out of Gehinom, so it could help them get to a better place in Gehinom, so it could help them even get into Gan Eden.

2:44:46So, you know, people would come and he would say, "Listen, please get me somebody to say Kaddish. My sons don't know anything. I can't get out of Gehinom until someone says Kaddish. I can't get into Gan Eden until someone says Kaddish. Please find me somebody." So he writes this in his book. Now, the problem is that sometimes you have people dying, and the person that's saying Kaddish is a ba'al mum. person that's saying Kaddish on them is someone with a deformity. Now, I don't mean a physical deformity; I mean a spiritual deformity. Now, if someone wants to praise Hashem, glorify Hashem, at the very least, you have to be a friend of Hashem, you have to be a lover of Hashem. Now, when someone is an immodest person, even as a man, and When someone constantly curses, when someone constantly says Lashon Hara, when someone violates Shabbat on a regular basis, when someone is constantly going against Hashem and is in essence a secular person, them saying Kaddish is not only not honoring Hashem; if anything, it's hurting the neshama that they're saying Kaddish on.

2:46:12turning it, why? Because it's reminding Hashem that you're connected to them. And there's actually a debate whether you're even allowed to say "Amen" to their Kaddish if they're violators of Shabbat. Why? Because they're considered idol worshipers. You can't say "Amen" to a prayer of an idol worshiper. So if that person is a Shabbat violator, Shabbat desecrator, or goes with a married woman, or does one of these sins. That's a sugya of it and... Is putting their Judaism on suspension, then them saying Kaddish is not helping the soul at all; it hurts the soul. Or at the very least, it stays the same. On the other hand, if that person is now doing teshuva, they're starting to keep Shabbat, they're starting to learn Torah, they're starting to try, they're doing something. They don't have to necessarily be Avraham Avinu to say Kaddish. If you're at least trying to be better, then your Kaddish is elevating the soul and could potentially bring somebody mamash from Gehinom to Gan Eden.

2:47:14You could literally take somebody out of Gehinom with enough mitzvot and enough merits. So, it's not simply by just saying Kaddish; you have to do a lot more than that. You have to do mitzvot in their honor, you have to help other people do teshuva in their honor. You know, and that's also one of the things that a lot of people ask me about in regards to certain sins that are almost impossible to fix. So, for example, the one sin we talk about often is wasting seed. How do you fix wasting seed? Once it's wasted, it's wasted. You can't get it back. Someone that wasted seed, he wasted, killed, he's considered a murderer in Shamayim. So how do you un-murder? You can't bring those neshamot back. The way it is, is that there's a few things that a person that wasted seed must do. Number one, they must give tzedakah for each time they've wasted seed, the equivalent of 84 fasts. Which means you have to give a lot of tzedakah for the rest of your life. That's one. Two, you have to learn a lot of serious Torah. Serious Torah means a combination of Mussar and Gemara.

2:48:29The type of Torah that gets you to change. Not the type of Torah that gets you to feel good. The type of Torah that, you know, pinches your heart a little bit. Makes you realize you're not exactly Moshe Rabbeinu. So you have to learn difficult Torah. Last but not least, even if you do both of those things, it's still not enough. Why? Because you show up to Shamayim, you're still missing stuff. It's like someone who violated Shabbat for 30 years, and then they did Teshuvah. They arrived at Shamayim and said, great, you did Teshuvah, you kept Shabbat for 90 years. You died at 120, but for the first 30 years, you violated Shabbat. We're not going to judge you for the whole 30 years because you were young in the beginning. We're going to judge you only for the years from age 20 to 30, which means you're missing 10 years of Shabbat. So even though you were a tzaddik for 90 years, you're still missing... Ten years of Shabbat. You can't just say it's okay. It's not okay. So how do you fix ten years of missing Shabbat? The same way that you fix ten years of wasting seed, the same way that you fix ten years of all other sins. How? You get other people to do teshuva.

2:49:39You get other people to stop wasting seed. Each time you get somebody else to stop wasting seed, it's like you stop wasting seed again. Each time you get somebody to keep Shabbat, it's like you kept Shabbat. So now, if you have, let's say, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 50 people that you help do teshuva every Shabbat, you keep keeping 50 Shabbats. So, you have it in your mind with a surplus of extra Shabbats. You get rewarded for the extra Shabbats. That's why, for example, when people mention the tzaddikim and... They say, "Ze'chut, the ze'chut of a bein adam l'chaveiro, the ze'chut of Rabbi Akiva, the ze'chut of Abaye and Rava." What does it mean, "ze'chut"? They have extra; they have a surplus of mitzvot. They have a surplus of mitzvot. You want to arrive to Olam HaBa with a surplus. So, every time you help somebody do teshuva, you... Let's say, for example, they keep Shabbat because you gave them a CD, you brought them to a lecture—whatever you did to influence them to get there—even if you just ignited it, the first thing you got them to do, you have a full share of all of their mitzvot after that. Every Shabbat counts like you kept two Shabbatot. So now they're going to keep Shabbat for 50 years. Now, instead of you missing 10 years of Shabbat, you have a surplus of 40. And...

2:50:51Since you don't know who's going to end up keeping Shabbat and for how long, and because you are smart and want as much surplus of mitzvot as you want money in this world, what do you do? You try to get everyone to do teshuva—everyone you possibly can: strangers, friends, family, everyone. In general, the most difficult candidates to help do teshuva are immediate friends and family. In general, it's the most difficult, and in general, it's not recommended that you spend all your resources on friends and family. Get somebody else to do it. Why? Because your friends and family will not listen to you. They will always view you as the previous you, before teshuva. It's the reality. Every rabbi involved with kiruv will tell you this, whether it be me, Rabbi Mizrachi, or Rabbi Alon. You ask all of us, same thing. same thing. The most difficult people to help do teshuva are family. So, how do you get your family to do teshuva? Obviously, you tell them if you can, you invite them if you can, you teach them if you can, but don't bet the farm on it. How do you get them to do teshuva? You get somebody else to do it. Give them a CD, get somebody else to do it. That's what's going to help. That's step number one. Step number two, show Hashem that you really need His help.

2:52:18You deserve His help. So how do you show Hashem that you really need His help and you deserve His help? By showing Him that you care about His children. You get His other children that are not related to you and not connected to you to do teshuva. Hashem says, "Oh Look at that. You care about My kids. You brought 5, 10, 15, 50 of them back home. Okay, I need you to be happy. How are you going to be happy if your entire family and friends and neighborhood aren't good? No, that's not so happy. So, you know what? I love you so much, and because you brought 50 of My kids back, I'll bring 50 of your family members back. How? I'll send somebody else to them that's going to influence them, that they will listen to. So that's what happens. That's how you get siyata dishmaya. People spend all of their resources trying to help their family do teshuvah. I saw this many times. It's not the right move. They're not going to listen to you. They're never going to see you as you are today. They're always going to use the excuse that you used to be like them. So what makes you better? So what, you changed? So what, it's been five years? So what, it's been fifteen years? So what?

2:53:26It was you who did it when you were ready. I'll do it when I'm ready. You did well when you were ready; I'll do it when I'm ready. Everyone has a Satan inside them. I know this; I deal with this every day. So, how do you do it? You get someone to do it for you. You arrange a shiur Torah. You build it up, you get food because people come for food. They don't come for shiur Torah. You get sushi, you get pastrami, you get pizza, you get the whole restaurant, whatever. Get food, get a bunch of people, spend some money, stop being cheap, get some money together, cook. The shiurim we have at Adi's house are full of food, full of passion, full of amazement. People do teshuva in every shiur. Why? They come, they listen, they do teshuva. Reality, but you have sometimes, I had you at people's houses where they put, there's like three miserable candies in the middle. Hopefully, somebody takes them because they've been here since the house was built in the 1920s. There's nothing there, and people barely want to come. People leave in the middle, they walk around, they're talking on the phone, no one's serious. You gotta build it up. Get the bachurim to sponsor something, spend a few dollars to advertise.

2:54:45Build it up. Get a lecture, get a hundred, two hundred, five hundred people to show up, just like they'll show up for some gory motivational speaker. Get them to show up to our guys, who can actually motivate them to do something about their real future. Build it up, get the family to show up. Why? It's easy to get them to show up, and They see you're putting so much effort and money into it. It's easy to get them to show up after they see the whole neighborhood is going. How could I not go? It's my own brother that's doing it. It's my own son that's doing it. It's my own husband that's doing it. How could I not go if the whole neighborhood is going? You put them in a situation where they're uncomfortable not to go. Once they go, once they go, if you made the right choice of who the speaker was, you didn't bring a care bear and... Every person that does teshuvah, that goes to your account. That's how you get your family to do teshuvah. You want to try a different strategy? Good luck. You could try; you could break your head with other strategies. I just know they don't work, but if you want to try, try. You want people to do teshuvah, you have to start getting ready to work. It's not easy. It's not easy. It's not easy to get people to do teshuvah. In essence, you have to understand what this business is, what this mission is telling you. To sum it all up…

2:56:03I'll answer more questions if you want, but to sum it all up. What's happening here? Hashem says one guy studies to teach the ones around him. I'll help him at the level he set for himself. His goals are low. I'll help him where he was. The other guy is trying to get high, trying to get to the highest level, trying to get to the highest level of Olam HaBa. The highest level of Olam HaBa is someone that gets people to do teshuvah. Higher than the biggest tzadik in the world is someone who gets people to do teshuvah. He gets the highest level of Olam HaBa. He wants to get there. Hashem says, "Just for him wanting to get there, trying to get there is enough of a reason for Me to help him. He doesn't know anything. I'll give him the knowledge. He doesn't have the strength. I'll give him the strength." He doesn't have anything. I'll give it to him. He'll have the money. I'll give it to him. Why? He wants it just for him wanting it. Why? Why? Why? Because it's not something normal to want. Why is it not normal to want this? Why is it not normal to want people to do teshuvah? It sounds like a good thing. Why would I not want people to do teshuvah? Why would somebody not want people to do teshuvah? The reason is you're only gonna know once you start...

2:57:24I could tell you what happens, but you're only gonna know once you get involved. Anyone that's on the team of Hashem, it's on our team of Hashem, knows what I'm about to say. Anyone that's not on the team of Hashem doesn't know. Why? Once you actually actively go try to help people do teshuvah, you officially make yourself enemy number one of the Satan. Now, zeh l'umat zeh bara Elokim. Hashem created everything measure for measure, one next to the other. And just like He created a kisei hakavod for Himself, the Throne of Glory for Himself, He created one for the Satan. So, in essence, the Satan sits there. Now, for most things, the Satan has employees. employees to go bother you, his employees to go get you to look at girls, his employees to go get you to gamble. He has employees to go get you to do stupid things. Once in a while, he gets up. When does he get up? When you start stealing his employees. You start stealing his employees, he gets off the chair. You have stopped; you become enemy number one of the Satan, and

2:58:42You start getting special tikkunim. Why? Because getting people to do teshuva is not small business. In essence, what you're doing is going inside Gehinnom and taking people out and putting them in Gan Eden. That's what Rabbi Nachman of Breslov meant. That's what Rebbi Meir Baal Haness meant. That's what all the tzaddikim meant. They said, "I'll take people out of Gehinnom." That's what they meant. You go into Gehinnom, into the fire, you take the neshamah, and you put it in Gan Eden. That's like stealing an employee from the Satan. He's not happy about that. He tries to do whatever he can to stop you. "Who are you to take people out of my kingdom? Who are you?" So not everyone has the zechut to do it. It's not easy. You want to do it. It's a big merit for it. It's a big reward for it, but it's not easy. You can have special zechut to do it. Now, the Rambam says if someone lives in a bad neighborhood, they must move. If the neighborhood is bad, full of secular people, full of Amalek, full of...

3:00:08kofrim, you must move. If you can't find a neighborhood that is full of tzaddikim, you have to find something. If there's no such neighborhood, no place with righteous people, everyone's wicked, there's no such thing as righteous people anymore, you are the last righteous person on earth, or perhaps you can't afford to go anywhere else, and Rambam makes a law, says you must move to the desert or a cave. But then, in chapter six, the first halacha of the Hilchot De'ot, the Rambam first says that you have to move.

3:01:09you don't have to move. If you do, you don't have to move if you're a person that teaches Torah. In fact, it's common for a person that gets people to do teshuvah to live in terrible places, surrounded by not the greatest of people. Why? How could—what are you above the law? Everyone else has to move to the desert except you? He says, yes. He says because when you're really doing kiruv, that means you're doing the ultimate chesed. You're doing the ultimate giving, and when you're so busy with giving, you have no time to receive the kefirah and the sins from them. The influence from them is not going to affect you. You have no time for it. No time to listen to Amalek. You have no time to listen about JC Penney. You have no time to listen about Iran. You have no time to listen about Trump. You don't have any time for any of that stuff. Why? Because you are too busy helping people do teshuva. That's why you don't need to move. You don't need to move. But if you're not one of those kiruv people, most of the desert... So your benefits, your pluses and minuses...

3:02:31it's not easy, it's not easy, but when you do kiruv, you have a special miracle. You have a special, special deal. Any more questions online?