Life Insurance

Good evening. This lecture will be L'Ilui Mishmat Shalom Ben Massoud and L'Ilui Mishmat Elimelech Ben Mordechai and L'Ilui Mishmat Shulamit Vatiyafa. Huh? So let me put it here. Thank you. So, we talk about beautiful things, but one of the things that I've seen today is that an Israeli husband and wife, they went to Turkey. Remember I've been saying, how can we go to a country that declared that they are our enemies? So they took a tour on a boat and they passed by the palace of the dictator Arduan and they took pictures like tourists do and they got arrested and they tried to pin on them that they are spies. So now 20 days in custody until their trial. If they will be convicted as spies, it's death penalty for taking a picture of his house. You understand what's happening here? I think that what the Turkish do is they're gonna try to blackmail Israel to get something for their return. Everybody already learned that the Jews are the biggest idiots. When it comes to prisoners, and they're willing to give 1,000 terrorists, mass murderers, for one Israeli lefty soldier. So let's take advantage of them. Same thing happened with that girl with Putin. They wanted to release that girl that had some grass in her suitcase. She was arrested in Russia. They gave the entire complex, it's called the Russian yard in Jerusalem, probably worth $100 million, they gave for her release, even though she was supposed to be released anyway. What did she do? Little girl. But they already found out, the whole world knows about it now. That's what happens when you negotiate with terrorists, when you let the bully bully you. He only gets hungrier. Today it's gonna be 100, tomorrow 3, the next day 1,000. It's never gonna end. Imagine a father and a mother going to Turkey. But I don't understand, people did not understand by now that Turkey is no different than Iran. You know, it's really no difference between Turkey and Iran. This is an enemy of Israel and there's another enemy. It's really no difference. So, today I saw something new today. A new style in a religious world. Religious! They still call themselves religious, these clowns. Guess what? You know how when you have a chuppah, people walk before the chatan and kallah? The brother, the sister, you know, sometimes they let kids come throw flowers. Everything they copy from the goyim. Now it's a new thing. I guess they got the idea from the goyim. I don't know where they got this idea from. Now they walk with the dog. With what? With the dog. The dog! He walks in with the dog. If you can have a dog, why can't you walk with the dog? I couldn't believe what's going on here. It's a new trend now. No trend. But maybe it's the way of Hashem to tell us, "Ne'adok hipne'akelev." We behave like dogs, we look like dogs. You might as well have a dog walk in the aisle before you get married. I don't know. So we read in the Parasha that You know, the story of Yaakov, that we pray at zeh, Yaakov leaves the town, and the Rashi writes over there that when a righteous person leaves the place, the glory of the place, the light of the place, right? Is going with him. He's leaving the place. It's like, not necessarily in city, sometimes a big tzaddik leaves the world. You feel the impact of his absence. Like Rav Ovadia Yosef, there will never be a replacement for him. What he has done in a lifetime, nobody can do, nobody will do probably ever again. At least by the sefaradi world. So to come and say, oh, you know what, he left, someone else will do the same thing, it's not necessarily possible always. And Hashem is promising Yaakov, I want you to go to Haran and you're going to prepare the future of the Jewish nation and I'm going to multiply your children and you will explode to all four directions. And you will have no boundaries, and I will walk with you, and I will guard you, and I will not leave you. Lo e'ezofcha. I will not leave you until I'm going to keep my promise to you. So the question is What is the promise that Hashem gave Yaakov? Is this an individual promise of God who loves a righteous person, or it's to all his children after him? When you come to a person and say, I want you to go and prepare the future of the Jewish nation, they're all gonna come from you, I will not leave you, I will multiply you, You will explode and expand to all four directions. I will not leave you until I will keep all my promises to you. It's kind of obvious that the promise is not just for him, it's also for his children until the end of days. Meaning, from here we learn the word "Hashgachap Ratit," that Hashem is with every Jew no matter where he is. Every second of his life is with you. Even though it looks like everything is dark and terrible, there's still a supervision of every second and everything that happens to us. Yaakov Avinu is passing by the Moriah Mountain and he did not think first to go and pray there, even though he knew that Avraham Avinu, his grandfather, took his father Yitzchak over there when he was 37 years old. To do the Akedah, to sacrifice him, right? You may think, let me go and see the place. No, my father almost was slaughtered there. And if that would be the case, then I would not come to the world. This place is a historical thing. He had to be a little sentimental. At first he didn't think. And from Shamayim, from heaven, they're not hinting to him or stalling him in any way. Why? Why didn't Hashem remind him? The rule is, "Beder Hashem Adam Rotzei Li Lechem Ol Ichim Oto." You choose your path. Whatever you want to do, I'm with you. But I'm not gonna make the decisions for you, and I will not choose for you. So, okay, so he ignores the place. He goes to the place of Haran. He passes Samaria, Judaea and Samaria. The valley of Beit She'an, goes all the way up to the north of Israel to the Golan Heights, and arrives to where? Where? From there to Iraq, Babylon. We're talking hundreds of hundreds of miles here, right? And he thought, wait a minute, He's now in Iraq already. And he said, wait a minute, I passed by the place of my fathers where they pray over there and I did not pray there. So how could I have done such thing? What happened? Hashem made him a miracle. He went back all the way. Since he decided I'm going back all the way to Jerusalem, to where is Moriah Mountain, where the Beit Hamikdash is. So from Iraq to walk there, even on a horse, on a donkey, you're talking over a week, right? And right away he got there before sunset. Today we don't have miracles like this, right? You don't have a miracle that they throw someone into the fire and he doesn't get burned like Avraham Avinu. You don't have miracles that they want to take your wife and everybody over there get leprosy. You don't have clear miracles to a regular righteous person like this, such a clear miracle interfering with the laws of nature. You know, you don't see it. There are a lot of miracles today, but they are hidden very well in nature. But to do such a thing, you have to work a week and you get them a few hours. It usually doesn't happen. So when you see that Hashem does such a miracle to you, then obviously He's very interested that you go there and daven, right? Very interested. So He's making you a miracle that you should go there. So then he goes and he has this famous dream. The dream. What is the dream? The dream is that he sees angels going up and down the ladder. Up and down. It's very interesting, it should have been down and up. First they ever comes down and then they go back up. What does it mean they go up first? The order is incorrect. The answer is there are two kinds of angels. There are angels that God created and they're in the upper world and they come down to the world on assignment, like to destroy Sodom or to tell Sarah that she's going to be pregnant. And there are angels that are created by men, by people. When you commit a good deed, a good Tzedakah, learning Torah, praying, tefillin, whatever you do, you create angels, trillions of angels from all the actual good deeds that a person creates. Those angels can go up and down to the world, but they started in this world because that's where they were created. The power of a Jew to create angels from his good deeds, or God forbid, negative angels, what we call Malach HaChabalah, that come and actually testify against him in a time to come. I was created in that day, at that time, from the sin of this individual. It's hard for us to understand the concept, but that's what's written in holy books. And Yaakov Avinu, Hashem comes to him in a dream and He promised him all these wonderful things and he Before he goes to sleep, he sees there are 10 rocks over there, 12, 12 rocks. And he's about to put his head on the rocks, and the Midrash is telling us something that sounds a little bit strange, that all the 12 rocks, they were fighting who should have the merit that the righteous man will put his head on that rock. Let me ask you a question. If you go to sleep in the desert in camping, how can you even sleep on the rock? I have a pillow that I bought from Costco. It looks very, very soft. Every morning I wake up with my neck hurt, you know, with this lousy made-in-China pillow. So imagine if I had to sleep on the rock. My ears will break. You turn around, you break your nose, you scratch your eyes. I mean, I don't know, sand goes into your ears. Who wants to sleep on a rock? So obviously he probably had a pillow or something that he put on that rock. Okay, no cushion. But then the question is, Hashem saw that every one of the rocks is anxious to to support the head of the righteous person. He made a miracle and all of them turned into one. But I don't understand, in the end you have 12 rocks that were attached to one and in the end he put his head on one of them. Even though they were connected, but in the end one of them got the weight of his head. The corner one didn't get anything. So what do we learn from here? That everything that is attached It's exactly like the center, the corner, doesn't matter. It's one piece and it's all equally holy. No problem whatsoever. Okay, very nice. What else? Why did he— why he collected the 12 locks to put hair around his head? Why the bad animals will not come and eat him up. That's the reason he wanted to put the rocks around. But we have a big problem here because how exactly the rocks will protect his life? They may protect his head, but if an animal come and eat him from the legs or from the stomach, he would still be dead, no? How is it gonna be that you put the rocks around your head and it's going to protect you from the bad animals? Right? Also, when Hashem told you to leave and go to Haran, you already know you have special protection. So why are you so worried about it? You have to put rocks around? What is really happening here? The answer When you have to do something in life and you want to rely on a miracle, let Hashem do the job for me, I should not bother, it's not gonna work. You have to do some effort. Here I'm making some efforts for security. I'm putting rocks, hopefully it will help. There's no guarantee the rocks will help. Anyway, it's all Hashem. But I'm doing something, I'm doing a little ishaklu. Then Yaakov Avinu wakes up and he's terrified. Why is he petrified? Why is he petrified? Because how did I dare to sleep in a place that is the gate to the upper world? The connection from this world to the upper world is that place. That's the gate to heaven. That's what the verse says. It's a verse in the Torah. א��ל ש��ר��ע��ה ה��ש����מ��י����, that's the gate from heaven. How did I dare to fall asleep in such a holy place? But remember, just a minute ago he got all the promises that I love you, I will protect you, you have nothing to worry about. He's ignoring completely all the promises. You have an insurance, you have a guarantee, you have a stamp from Hashem. Your future is secure. I worry about myself or my future. I'm worried how could I have done such a thing. That's all I'm worried about, not reward and not punishment. Meaning, how could I fall asleep in a shul? Ah, I come to the lecture after a whole day working very hard. The speaker is so boring. I'm trying to learn Torah and 10 minutes later I fall asleep. No. What do you expect? At least I try to come, no? The question is, no, how you can sleep in the house of God? How can you sleep there? Don't you know that HaShem is not allowed to sleep there, even to take a little nap? You're not allowed, not allowed to eat there, not allowed to sleep there. You have to go with the full respect over there. So, what's bothering him right now is, how could I have the nerve to fall asleep in the house of God? A few years ago I explained that the world has 3 different levels. Everywhere in the world is level 0. You walk in New York, you walk in Brooklyn, you walk in in Texas or in Japan or in China and Europe, everywhere you go, it's level 0. You walk in Tel Aviv, level 0. The whole world has a mark. What's the mark? 0. Okay. Then you have the upper world. What's the mark over there? 50. There's one place in the world that has A mark of 25. Not 0 and not 50. What is it? The Moriah Mountain. The gate of heaven. This is where the temple was. That's where the Akedah was. That's what it means when Abraham said to Ishmael and to the other kid, to the servant, Ko? What is that ko? That does not have any meaning in Hebrew. Then chat ko? He should have said nel chat sham. We will go to there. Then chat ko? There's no meaning. Ko is numeric value 25. Chaf is 20, Ayin is 5. We are going to a special place. This mountain is different than the rest of the world. Everywhere else in the world, the holiness level is zero. This place is already one leg in this world and one leg in the upper world. And that's what the verse is saying. The ladder, the legs of the ladder is on the ground and the top of the ladder is in heaven. And the angels are going up and down. Meaning the middle of the ladder, which is the Moriah Mountain, is 25. That's when Hashem took Moshe Rabbeinu and wanted to show him the whole country. What did he say? He took him to Har Nevor. Har Nevor, meaning his Neshamah is already up in Shamayim, and he sees what's going to happen in Israel until the end of days. He see how the Arab took the government and how everybody became a lefty. And all the abomination parades, everything he saw until the end of days, until Mashiach. What does it mean, Har Nevuah? Har, Nun, Boh. Nun is 50. He already went one step above, 50. Nun, Boh. Meaning already Moshe is already in the upper world. Same thing when he went to Mount Sinai, his Neshamah went up to Shamayim. So this place called, this place, the Moai Mountain, is obviously a very special place. Yaakov Avinu was saying, like, how was I able to fall asleep in such a place? Yaakov woke up from his sleep and that's what he said. God is here and I did not know. Meaning, Rashi explains, if I knew, I would not dare to sleep in such a holy place. There was a Talmid Chacham learning Torah day and night with poverty. His house is empty, no food, no bread. His children are hungry all day. His heart hurts that his family is in such a poverty and, you know, and he thinks, I signed to my wife in a ketubah that I will take care of her and feed her and give her a place to live and all that with respect, with dignity. And look at me, I'm so poor. And what if my mind is insane? On the other hand, I cannot live without Torah. It's a big contradiction. I cannot live with this suffering, but I cannot live without learning Torah. So what am I gonna do? It's a catch-22 now. The Torah is the light of my life. One day without it, I'm finished. What is he going to do? So he's thinking. In Rosh Hashanah, Hashem writes the Parasha to to all people, include me. He has a problem to add a zero to it? He earned $10,000 this year for the whole family. Poverty. He has a problem to add another zero to the budget? No. So it's 100% in his hand, right? Can I lose my parnasah because I want to learn Torah? Doesn't make sense. Hashem doesn't give bad for good. So if I may have caused it by doing something wrong. Teshuvah, tefillah, tzadaka, ma'avirim et ro'atzarah, pudeh daleh rireh, daleh dereh. I'll do teshuvah and I pray and that's it. In Rosh Hashanah, he cries, he begs, screams. The whole 10 days of teshuvah, he arrived to Yom Kippur, he didn't sleep, was fasting. Rivers of tears. And in Tfilat Nihila, the last hour of Yom Kippur, he fell asleep. A little bit, you know, he was up all the entire Yom Kippur praying and fasting. When his eyes are closed, what did he see? The 6 non-veils that will come tomorrow in the lotto. 6 numbers. I have a student in Yerushalayim. His father was the shamash of Rabbi Ben Zion Abishaul. And after that, he was the shamash of Rabbi Benaiah HaShmueli, was his brother. And this friend of mine is a very nice guy. Rav Ovadia Yosef came to him in a dream and told him he has to buy a lotto card and he's gonna win. Imagine the excitement he had. But I told him, don't get too excited. He said, why? Rav Ovadia told me to buy lotto. Where? In New York. Meaning it fell on me, the mission. I have to go buy him tickets. So I told him, don't you know there are demons that come in a dream and they look exactly like any rabbi they want? It's called in Kabbalah, Shedim Yehudaim. Shedim Yehudaim. Why they call them Yehudaim? Jewish demons. I guess there's also Gentile demons if they identify them as Jews. Why? Because they look like someone famous, like a king, like a rabbi, like a prophet. They can come like a Baba Saleh, or like a Ben Shaya, or like a Ovadia, or like Eliyahu Hanavi, and play with your mind. You can say, I guess the Cohim is the same thing with Jay-Z. I saw Jay-Z, and this and that. I once talked to a Kohen. He said, "You're—" "Why are you lying? You didn't really see Jay-Z." "No, I swear to you, Jay-Z came to me and spoke to me." I said to him, "How did Jay-Z look?" He had long hair and this and the beard. I said to him, "Of course, that's the statue in Brazil. Someone made up an image to Jay-Z. Nobody ever saw him, it was 2,000 years ago." So someone decided that Jay-Z looked with long hair like a woman, even though it's baloney. Because no Talmid Yeshiva in the whole world, even today, can enter a Yeshiva with such hair. Even conservative, they won't accept it. You understand? If you come with such a hair. Needless to say, 2,000 years ago when the Rabbi is a Tana Mechayemetim, that if you're gonna show up with such hair, he's gonna throw you out of the window or better, would not even let you enter the building. So what is there? Obviously this is baloney. Some corrupted mind designed JC like a hippie. Maybe he was a rock and roll star, I don't know. So now all of them all of a sudden, this goyim come, JC came to me in a dream. Of course, the demon come and he pretend to be JC and how is he gonna be JC? Like the goyim understand how JC look. And how is he look? Like in Brazil, like this. Marching the whole world with his long hair. I wonder if his wig was human hair or not. Made in India or not. Plastic. Maybe synthetic. Anyway, you got the point. So I told my friend, "Adi, you know, it was really Rav Ovadia. Maybe a demon is playing with you." But I couldn't blame him for insisting that I should go and buy him the ticket because for the 1% chance that he was Rav Ovadia, you want to give it a chance. We will see about it. To be continued. So, a person after all this struggle, the last hour of Yom Kippur, fell asleep. And now what did he see? From Shamayim, they show him the number of the 6, the 6 numbers of the law. And what's a Yom Kippur? End of Yom Kippur. He hears a voice, "Go and eat with happiness and drink with a good heart your wine." Eat your bread with happiness and drink your wine with a good heart. Why? Because Hashem already accepted your good deeds. The next morning, he runs to the lottery place, fill up the form. Put the 6 numbers that he saw, right? And on Sukkot, he was just informed that his 6 numbers actually won the prize. He's already a millionaire. Now he can finally sit and learn Torah all his life. He won't have to break his heart every day when his children are hungry. He will finally be able to learn in a much higher quality because he won't have the stress involved. That's the greatest happiness he ever had on Sukkot, zman simchat emun. Double happiness here. Something inside me tells me that the lottery gave him some more happiness than the actual chatzukot. And then you laugh, right? So he's so happy, smiling, happy, you know, Baruch Hashem, and all. Is it possible to think that now after he got the millions and he had the dream in the middle of tefillat ne'ilah that the numbers of the lottery came to him and he really thought that it's from Shamayim, he actually got the numbers? And Hashem made him a rich guy. Imagine now when he got the millions, he sits now and cries. His wife says to him, Moshe, what happened? What happened, Moshe? I'm devastated. I'm devastated. What? These numbers came to me in the middle of tefillah. I had a little nap for 2 minutes because I didn't sleep all night. I was very tired from doing such great things and learning Torah and fasting. So a little bit, I dozed, you know, a little bit, and I got those numbers. And it happens in the middle of Pinat Neila, I'm so upset. So his wife said to him, hey, don't be a fool. If you didn't fall asleep for a minute, you wouldn't get the prize from Hashem. So why are you still worried? Nothing bad happened. So he would have to say, you know, you're right, Hashem put me to sleep because he wanted to give me the great news before Yom Kippur will end, in the most important hour of the year, it's Shabbat Nila. So how is it possible? That's more or less what happened to Yaakov Avinu, if you didn't get the point. He's now in the most important place in the world, in the middle of a prophecy that Hashem comes and bless him and say to him he's gonna be protected and wealthy and has a lot of children, and what is on his mind? Wow, how could I fall asleep over here? Especially Rabbi Tzadok, when the Tzadok Beit HaMikdash was there, fall asleep inside Beit HaMikdash or inside the synagogue. Okay, Yahweh broke the halacha. Over there, there was nothing, it was sin. So the only holiness in that place was from the time of the Akedah. But right now there's no holiness there. It happened before. But the future is that it's gonna be the house of God. The future, meaning the plan. So the question, I don't get it, something here doesn't add up. So what is he afraid of? There's no temple. If there was a temple or the temple was destroyed, but the holiness of the temple remained forever. Do you know there's something a little bit strange? If you go today to Mount Sinai, the place where Hashem came on the mountain himself, covered the mountain with a cloud and fire, and gave us the Torah on that mountain. If you walk today with your donkey and the donkey releases bathroom stuff over there, you did not break the law. You can walk there, you can sleep there, you can barbecue there, you can do whatever you want there, basically. But if you walk up there in the Moriah Mountain where the Arabs today play soccer there, unfortunately, it's one of the curses that that we got, that the servants of Avraham Avinu and the Sarah and all of that is playing today in our Temple. And they decide if we can go up or not, even though it's not supposed to go up because you can get a stroke already if you walk where Kodesh HaKodesh is. But the idea, Rabotai, that I'm talking to you about now is that Yaakov is in a place, there's no Mikdash yet, but today, if you walk today and you walk inside, you violate the holiness of Beit Hamikdash to the point that you can get a cut, a permanent cut for your soul in the afterlife, God forbid. You saw Karaitz, that's one of the 30 streaks 36 rules restriction in the Torah with a punishment of a cut for the soul. So the question is, I don't understand, what's greater? Where we got the Torah and Hashem came on the mountain and spoke to us and made the covenant with us, or an important synagogue that we built, the Temple of our head that was already destroyed? There's nothing there right now. Besides sand. So now you go to a Beit HaMikdash when it's only sand, it used to be Beit HaMikdash, you violate the holiness and you play with your life. You walk in Mount Sinai with your donkey and you do whatever you like over there, you did not break any rule. Where is the common sense here? At least it should have been equal. Here it's holy and here it's holy. Here you should not do bad things and here you should not do bad things. Why in Beit HaMikdash it's so important even though it's destroyed and in Mount Sinai it's like it never happened? The rock is there where Abraham was supposed to sacrifice. No. So what makes it more holy? No, one is permanent and one was permanent area of Hashem's— he was supposed to be, like the Beit Hamikdash was a permanent home for Hashem, but Mount Sinai was like a one-time thing. It wasn't like a permanent— But even a permanent house that was destroyed, what if there was a building there destroyed, they could have— In the future it's still going to be there. What's over there now? Ah, the Chachamim asked this question. I did not think about it on my own. The Chachamim asked this question. How can it be? And what's the answer? The answer is, in order for you to put holiness in a place for eternity, it must be through a lot of effort. If there was no effort, it's missing. The holiness cannot hold to the place. Only effort creates holiness. Years of learning Torah, you become holy. Years of davening and praying and crying and mikveh every day, you become holy. It doesn't happen overnight and not even a month or two or five. It's years to build it up little by little. Matan Torah, there was no effort. Everybody came there, stood, watched the show, and it's over. Nobody made any effort. Nobody had to walk. Nobody had to build. Beit HaMikdash was a lot of effort. Chopping trees, peeling them, slicing them, carrying them, bringing rocks, building. Melting gold. Thousands of people put their life into the building, preparing the whole thing.

It's just a green away because the effort of being— well, maybe not the effort, but being a slave for many years and then leaving everything behind, walking in the desert for 4 years, everything Am Yisrael went through to reach, to get the Everything you say is true, but it's not relevant to the question.

We're talking about Mount Sinai, not the desert and not Egypt. We're talking the actual mountain. The mountain. The mountain, and they just arrived to the mountain. And the next thing, they watch a show there. What effort they put in the mountain? Zero effort. Nothing. But in Beit HaMikdash, it was built with people leaves and broken bones and broken everything. Once you put so much effort into the place, the holiness will remain forever. Why do you think the Arabs went there to build their own mosque there from all over the world? Why? Why do they go there? They have nothing to do with Jerusalem or Israel. They were in Mecca, Medina, all these places. They saw that the Jews in the Torah say that that's the gate to heaven. They had to build the mosque. Otherwise, they'll build the mosque somewhere else. And after, by the way, they worked very hard, the Arabs, to build the mosque. Because remember, the mountain was so high and the old Arabs could not climb such a high mountain to go to the mosque. So they had to raise to raise the entire area and they built 2 floors to bring everything up for the people to build their homes around the mosque that from their home it will be only few stairs and not 10 minutes climbing. Nobody would come. Why didn't they shave the mountain, which would be a lot easier to bring 1,000 Arabs? They shave the mountain and they take the sand down and finish. Why do you have to raise the whole city instead of just lowering the mountain? Where is the common sense? The answer is because we have a verse in Shir Hashirim, Song of Songs, that here is the wall is standing. The Western Wall, which is the side of the mountain. If they would shave the area, they would have to shave the mountain, the wall with it. Bring it down, and there would not be a Western Wall. But the Midrash Rama is that Hashem is protecting the wall. It will never collapse. That's one of the proofs that the Torah is divine, because there's no human being that can promise that the wall will never collapse, especially when the other three collapsed in hours, you know, twice. Once by the Babylonians and once by the Romans. And all of a sudden, twice, that wall remained. It's against logic. So what happened over here? The answer is that if the Arabs would lower the mountain, you would find the first mistake ever in the Torah. And obviously this can never happen. So Hashem gave them a brilliant idea. That they should work 100 times harder to raise the entire city of Jerusalem. And I'm a genius, you know. And if you don't know what I'm talking about, next time when you go there, go to the tunnel under the Western Wall, to the bottom floor, under where everyone walks, there is a tomb. And you will see the arches that they built and made another floor and they built arch and another arch and another arch and they put another wall, another floor and only then they built the rest of it. By the way, you should know, until recent, when we occupied the area back from the Jordanians, the Arabs lived one step from the wall. Meaning their neighborhood, the building, when they come out of the house, they facing the wall. You walk 3 steps and you touch the wall. So there was like a little street between the wall to their houses. It's all area where we pray there today and we do slichot, it was all the Arabs built their homes over there. No shame. No shame whatsoever. I don't even know if these Arabs that live there appreciate where they live, b'challah. I doubt it very much, though. So, Rabotai, the question is, if Hashem gave you guarantee, why do you so worry? Why so uptight? What's the problem? You have a personal guarantee from Hashem. Better than insurance, better than Hussein Obama. Better than anyone who will give you a promise. You have a solid promise. I'm with you. I'll never leave you. I'm guarding you. I will multiply you and I will give you everything you need. So why you have to make a vow now? If you give me something to wear and something to eat, everything you give me, I will give you 10% of it. I will give you my say. Meaning to the poor people, to Torah.

What's going on here? It seems to be related to respecting your parents. Also, then the minimum, minimum, correct me if I'm wrong, that you have to do is give them food, shelter, and something similar to that.

What is enough to do with this?

Well, in a way, your parents are also your creators. Respect them. You're doing this minimum for them. It seems to be that if you give me the minimum, you're asking Hashem?

No problem. He's asking really for the minimum, but Hashem already told him, I'm going to give you the maximum. Why do you have to beg now for the minimum after you already have a maximum, right? Someone gave you a million-dollar check and you beg him, if you give me $10,000 check, I promise to give you $1,000 myself. I give you a million. I just signed you up on a personal guarantee that you're getting from me a million. Why are you begging for $10,000 now? And you promise that you're going to give him a serf from the 10,000. I already told you, you're going to get a million. Why are you settling for a lot less? And plus, you're making promises, don't worry, I won't forget that you gave me the 10,000. Something here doesn't make sense. This is a divine Torah, Rabotai, you have to understand what's behind this because it applies to our life.

Bread and clothing, he said, right? Yeah, that's all.

That's the minimum? No, that's what he's asking for, bread and clothing. Hashem told him, I'm going to give you everything. Children, money, protection. Meaning, I will never leave you. If Hashem is with you, you're good. You don't have to worry about anything.

Because I want to serve you, I don't care about those things.

So Yaakov Avinu Avotai, he has one other thing in mind. What's in mind? I may commit a sin and I will lose my merit to get what you promised me. If I'll do that, then I'm gonna have a big problem. That's the answer. But we have a problem with this answer. The problem with this answer is that when Hashem promised something bad meaning a warning or a curse or punishment, it doesn't have to happen. If a person will repent, the curse will go away, or the punishment will be canceled, or Hashem will reimburse the person for what he lost because he repents. But if Hashem promised something good, if Hashem promised something good, It must happen. Even if you became the most wicked person, what came out of Hashem's mouth as a blessing must happen. What came out of a good promise must happen. So if Hashem already said that I'm with you and I'm protecting you and I'm making a covenant with you, just like I made with your two fathers, that means it can never be dismissed. So why do you have to be worrying, maybe I commit a sin and I will lose my merit? So now I'm making a vow that if you still give me what I don't deserve to get, I will compensate you by giving my sin. But we have a problem. It's against the rules what Yaakov did. Why did he have to make a vow on something that can never happen? You understand the question or not? The answer is, Rabotai, Yaakov Avinu knew that Hashem promised him something and it must happen. And he knew that his future is guaranteed. But he also knew that the worst thing in life is to receive a free gift that you don't deserve to get. Get. That's the whole thing. So he's worried that maybe he will commit a sin. The sin will not make him not get what he's supposed to get. The sin will make him not worthy of getting what he gets. Lechem busha, lechem oni, lechazan senama de kisufa. You give someone a gift. Come, come, let me give you food because you're homeless, you don't have what to eat. You eat, but you are embarrassed that you have to ask people to feed you. But when you earn it, you enjoy it. When you get it for free, you don't enjoy it. The Nechamot say to Hashem, if I would lose the merit, if I would lose the merit, you probably want to give me a lot, but I don't want, I don't deserve it. Give me just what I need to live, that's it. That I can do teshuvah and fix my way. And from the little you give me, I'm gonna make sure to give my aser. Meaning, I know I don't deserve even that, but it will be worth it for you. Just like David HaMelech said to Hashem, We read it in Tehillim. It's every morning in the prayers. What does it mean? Ma betsa bet ami beridefiel shachat? What's the betsa? Betza. Ma betsa bet ami? What interest do you have in my blood? If you kill me, spill my blood, and I'm gonna be dead, what benefit What benefit you going to have by killing me? Ma betza bedami berideti el shachat? When I will go down to shachat, be'er shachat. What is it? One of the 7 places in hell. It's called shachat. What benefit you're going to get by pushing me down to hell where it's called Be'er Sheachat. Ayotcha afar, ayagida mitecha. What does it mean, ayotcha afar? Afar, it's sand. Sand on the ground. When you bury a person under the sand, can he praise Hashem once he's dead? Can he teach people the Torah of Hashem when he's under the ground? He has no interest in Him anymore. He cannot praise Hashem and he cannot teach his Torah. So David said to Hashem, if you're thinking about taking me away from the world and burying me in the ground and Chas V'Shalom, put my soul in the Shakhat, "Verideti in Shakhat," think about what you're going to lose. You're going to lose a person that prays to you nonstop. And everywhere he goes he only talks about your greatness. Who's gonna pay the price? Not just me. You lose. So don't do it for me, do it for you. That's what we read every morning. Thank you? No. "Ayadira mi techa," you can say your truth, your Torah, your instruction, you can tell it to the people, the saint. No, I'm gonna be sent. Saint cannot praise Hashem, saint cannot teach Torah. So it's worth it for you to keep me here that I continue to do what you love the most. Make people come closer to you. Even when I go to committees and meetings with kings, they all talk about everything kings talk about. And I'm the only one who gets on the stand and talks about you and your Torah. So I'm, as far as that, I'm very faithful. I fulfill my mission. If I commit other sins, for the time being, it's worth it for you to keep me around. Why? I'm still doing what you like the most. That's why I always tell people, when you support kiruv, or when you actually do kiruv yourself, you become worthy for Hashem to keep you around. That's what Rav Volbe, the big tzaddik, Rav Volbe, Rav Shlomo Volbe, the writer of Ale Shur and many other important books, that was one of the important rabbis of the generation. And he said that a person should act very cleverly by making as many people that it's possible depend, be dependent on him. If you feed 5 people, it's not just you that are going to suffer when you die. Those 5 people are going to have an impact on them. And if 1 or 2 of them are very important righteous people, not to hurt them, Hashem keeps you around for another 10, 20 years. That's your insurance. And if you support 50, your chances now to stay alive is much, much higher. And if you support the whole yeshiva, you give everyone monthly income, if one of them doesn't deserve to get the suffering that is about to get by you dying, just for him Hashem will keep you around. That's very similar to the question I ask you many years. What's better, to do life insurance or not to do? Should a man do life insurance or not? No. There are two sides to the coin. Every argument in the Gemara, it's an equal argument, meaning both rabbis are correct. That's why the Gemara brought it, to tell you that they both make sense. They all have a solid claim. But we have to rule like one of them, then we will know what to do. How are we going to be judged? Can't do whatever we like. He's right, he's right, let's do like him, let's do like him. So what do we do? We have to know what to do. This is one of them, this argument. If to do life insurance, there is a solid reason to do, there is a solid reason not to do. Let's see. If you do not do life insurance, you do not buy a policy, one day you die, your wife left with nothing. Your wife, your 7 children, no food on the table, no money to pay the mortgage, the lease. What are they gonna do? You're the one who used to go go to work and bring money every day. You die, what is she gonna do? Come to the rabbi of the community. Rabbi, help me out, I'm a widow, my husband died, we don't have anything. I don't know what to do, I have all these bills. And they're gonna start collecting money from the poor community. Give me $1,000, give me $2,000, give me $5,000. That's what happens thousands of times a year in the world. But if the husband made $2 or $3 million in life insurance, The wife is secure for the next 10, 20 years. She has enough to pay the bills, this, that. Maybe she can invest some, make some interest. She can survive. So, that's a very strong argument why you should buy life insurance. Very convincing. So, what's the alternative? What's the other argument? The other argument is that When you don't have life insurance and you're supposed to die when you are 50 years old, you commit sins, Hashem knows that you don't deserve to live, but you put food and bread and water on the table, you pay the children's shiur, you support the house, you run the house. So what happened now? If Hashem will take you They're all gonna suffer. So in order for them not to suffer, it's false to keep you around for another 20 years until the children will all grow up, get married, find their own jobs, then he will take you. You come to the court of heaven and you complain, why did I die 72? So young. He says, shame on you, you should have died when you were 50. You just got 22 more years thanks to your children and your righteous wife. Hashem did not want to starve them and ask them to go and beg for food. So for them he kept you here. So actually, if he would buy life insurance when he was 48, and age 50 he's supposed to die, there is nothing that holds Hashem from taking it because they are already secure. So what got him to die? The life insurance that he bought. Now, who can rule such a complicated question? No, who has the guts to rule halacha? What should we do? Should we get life insurance? Or actually, that's the reason why we shouldn't buy it. To do what now? Let's say I have the widow's gamble. Let's say I have the widow's gamble. She gets less money on the pension and the Social Security, and when you die, she gets the same exact amount of money. Same exact amount. But that's what I'm saying. That if there is no reason to keep you because no one is dependable on you, not your wife, not your children, not the Talbidei Yeshiva, not the cube of organization. No one is dependent on you. For what reason Hashem has to give you life for free if you're supposed to die because of your actions? Right now, if 50 people are dependable on you, Hashem is forced to keep you, and that's how the Satan rests his case. The Satan comes, he's a prosecutor. He should die, should die, he doesn't deserve to live. Look, he breaks Shabbat. Look, he He does this, he speaks lashon hara, he commits all kinds of issurim nida. Satan builds a strong case against you. The Satan, is it the Satan? Does he operate like the New York police or like the FBI? You know what's the difference between the police and the FBI? I'll help you out. When the police arrest you, That means someone pressed charges against you. Your ex-wife, your neighbor, partner, you beat up someone. He went to the police, complained about you. They come, they arrest you, and now they begin their investigation. They don't know anything about you yet until that claim. Now they're beginning to investigate. They go to the place, show me the camera, does anybody witness it? They know, they check the phones, They make an investigation and then they decide if to press charges against you or not. For now, they arrest you. Used to be you were released on a bail until the trial. Or now there's no bail. An hour later they let you go, but they fill up the paperwork, they take your fingerprints, they're ready for you in case you're gonna have to go to court. And by the way, in New York they found a very creative way, they give you 2 tickets to baseball if you show up to your trial. Because now there's no more bail. And you know, some amigos, they're not gonna show up. They forget that they have to go to court. So they say to him, amigos, you like baseball, right? If you show up to your trial, we're gonna give you a prize. Welcome to America. So, so if it was up to me, I would take one of the stars on the American flag and put a picture of a clown. The land of the clowns. Every politician here is dumber than the other. Not that in Israel is any better. Maybe we should take the Star of David out because the country has nothing to do with Judaism anymore, and in the middle put a big face of a clown. That's really what we should do. We leave it to Hashem and to Mashiach to do what's right. But in the meantime, do you understand the question or not? So now, the FBI, when they arrest you, that means they have everything they need already against you. They have patience. They can wait 2, 3, 7 years even. They follow you, they record you, they see who you are in touch with, they also begin to check them. So they don't just bring you down, they bring 50 people down. Through you, They're gonna go to everyone who is linked to you in any way. So when they already come and say to you, sir, you're under arrest, 99% your life is over. The investigation doesn't begin right now. They already have everything they need. If they don't have a strong case against you, they don't waste their time. They're not gonna arrest you. They only will arrest you when they know that there's no way you can escape them. The question with the Satan, when he present a case against you in Shamayim, in the court the court of heaven. He is the prosecutor. Does he already come with all the necessary evidence, everything, time recorded, with everything? Or he only makes a claim and it needs to be investigated? What do you think? He's got the goods. If he already presents his case, it's 100% accurate. He will not dare to lie in front of Hashem like the prosecutors here do. To promote their career. The Satan doesn't cross the red line. He knows what's allowed, what's not allowed. So when he actually comes and nekatreg, that's the right word in English, nekatreg against you, accuse you, the details are accurate. So how will Hashem let let you get away with that. You have a lawyer. Who is your lawyer? Your defense, an angel that come and present your case. And he says what's right, right. You cannot argue with the details. It's not like here, everybody lies. Over there, it's all based on truth. It's true, it's true, it's true, it's true. But let's see why he did it. This part the Satan doesn't bring. And it begins to bring everything he can bring to protect you. Look where he grew up. Look what kind of school his parents sent him to. Look what kind of this and look what kind of that. And then he brings all the good things you did, you do. The Satan doesn't bring that. Look how much he donates and look how many people became religious thanks to him. And look how much he suffered, and look, and look, and look. And also, if you're gonna take him away from the world, this family will get hurt, and they are righteous, they don't deserve. So he brings such a good defense if you gave him enough material. If you have a lawyer that asks you for, show me what I can impress the judge with. I don't have anything. Don't you make donations to miserable people, orphans, the widows, Handicapped people? No, I never made a donation. You have any references, any friends that can say that you're a great guy? No, everyone hates me. Whatever the lawyer asks for you, I don't have, I don't have, I don't have. It comes to court, the prosecutor kill you on the stand, and the judge say, hey, what can you say, Mr. Defense? Nothing. Actually, a case like this happened once. The goyim used to make up stories about the Jews that they take a Christian child, slaughter him, and use his blood to make matzot. How dumb you could be, I don't know where they got this stupid story from, but it was not just once or twice, it was a common thing in different places and different cities. So they arrest one rabbi It was a big tzaddik. Watch his eyes, very straight, no kissing up, nothing. They bring him to arrest and who is gonna be the lawyer? Public defender. Who? A wicked Jew. Usually that's the case. Who's gonna come? Some wicked lawyer. Works for the city of New York or city of Moscow or whatever it was. So this secular Jew is showing up to the jail. "Hello Rabbi, my name is such and such and I'm your defense attorney." The Rabbi doesn't say a word, does not raise his face. "Rabbi, I—" "Maybe you don't hear well." "Hello, hello, hi, hey, somebody here? I'm here." He doesn't talk. Every day the lawyer comes, he gets paid by the city. He has a few minutes with his client. He walks into the cell. "Rabbi, will you agree to talk to me today?" He doesn't look at his face. Now this has been going on for 20 days already. Tomorrow is the trial. He doesn't have a defense letter, nothing, opening statement. Doesn't even know who he is, where he lives, nothing about him. It wasn't like today, everything computerized, you can check. So he said to him, Rabbi, tomorrow is your trial and it's a death penalty accusation. 20 days we burn because for whatever reason you hate me, you don't want to talk to me, and you don't want to even look at me. I'm the only chance you have to save your life. What exactly I did bad to you that you don't even want to look at me and you don't answer my question? At least just tell me why. You don't want to talk, don't talk. It's your life. But at least tell me why. He said to him, because you are wicked, I cannot look in your face. The Torah says I'm not allowed to look at the face of the wicked people. It will damage my soul. So that guy said to him, "I'm wicked? Why I'm wicked?" They always have this surprise on their face. "I'm wicked?" "No, no, you're righteous." Still all day, lashon hara all day, mechalen Shabbat, gay, all. "No, I'm wicked?" "No, you're the most righteous. You, Baba Sali next to you is a student." How they wonder when you tell them you're rasha. "I'm here rasha?" No, no, no, Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai comes to you for bracha every day. Ah, one singer once sang, the world is a stage and everyone is an actor. Everyone acts. So the lawyer begs the rabbi, Rabbi, please tell me, please, why you don't talk to me? You know me. So he told him, you're a mashar, I cannot look in your face. Why am I Rasha? You mechalen Shabbat, you went to university, you go to the court of the goyim, you don't care about the Torah, you Rasha? And you're not afraid that I'm not going to be able to defend you? My life is in the hands of Hashem. He goes the next day to the trial. They read all the accusations and the prosecutor is a bloodthirsty monster with such arrogance and evilness is trying to bury the rabbi as much as he can. And then the judge said to the defense, opening statement please, what do you have to say for the protection of your client? The lawyer said, Your Honor, I really don't have that much to say about him. As a matter of fact, I did not speak to speak one word with him about the case. For 20 days I show up every day and he refused to talk to me and to look at me. Yesterday finally he agreed to tell me why. I asked him why and he said that you are wicked and he told me why I'm wicked and he's 100% right. Everything he told me in my face, I call him to the door, it's true. I left the religion. I was in yeshiva when I was a kid. I went to law school. I became complete secular Jew. Now I want to ask you, Yoaner, his life is basically in my hand. If he has any chance to get saved, it's me. He does not want to look at my face because I'm wicked. Do you really think someone like this is going to capable of taking a Christian kid, kill him, take his blood and put it in a matzah and eat? What are we talking about? And that was the turning point in the trial and they let him go. So in the end, what really saved him is not looking at his own lawyer. Many times you count on your own lawyer to save your life. People sell everything they have to get a good lawyer. Sometimes the fact that you had a good lawyer actually was your destruction. What about the woman with the eggs? What about the story about the woman with the eggs? The woman with the eggs, it was very, very similar case that they say, go bring a woman, a Jewish woman from the street and buy a few eggs and tell her to make an omelette. They brought her, she opened the eggs, And she checked very carefully inside the eggs. The judge asked her, "What are you checking?" "I want to check if there's no little blood in the egg because we're not allowed to eat blood." So the lawyer said, "You see, Jews, a little blood of the chicken, they cannot eat. You want them to drink 5 liters of a human being?" Who made up such nonsense? That's also one case. There are cases like this. Some of those cases finish with death, believe it or not. They convicted some of the people. But in the end, rabotai, when a person go to court, if they convict him in something that he's innocent in, he's not guilty, and he dies, he didn't die for this. He died because Hashem wanted him to die. For whatever reasons. And if he leaves, sometimes he's guilty of the crime and they will not be able to convict him because of lack of evidence. But he's 100% guilty. But for the time being, Hashem wants him alive. He will take care of him when the time comes. Don't worry. Everything is recorded by Hashem. So, Rabotai, Rachel passed very young. Big tragedy in the life of Yaakov Avinu. The life of Yaakov was very miserable. He's a Talmid Yeshiva, he puts his life in the Torah. One time he gets the blessing of Esav. From this moment Esav wants to kill him. His mother sends him away, go to my family. Save your life. He doesn't see his family anymore. He runs away for years, many years. On the way, he learns 14 years in yeshiva without a bed, didn't sleep. In the end, he arrived to the house of Lavan, the big crook who took advantage of him 20 years. 20 years. And after that, He has kids with Leah. One of them was Dina. Dina gets raped. Then he has a son, Yosef. The brothers throw him to the pit, sell him to the Arabs. He will never ever see him again. Then his wife gives birth to Binyamin and she dies by giving birth. Look how many tragedies here. And now 17 years is without Yosef, crying every day, refusing refused to accept comfort. And then his children, Shimon and Levi, went and killed all the people of Shechem. So much stress, so much suffering here. And that's a person that you can count on one hand. Who are the most lovable people that ever lived on earth? He's one of the 5. Moshu, no question about it. If Hashem had to pick up the 5 most legendary righteous people ever lived, he's one of them. Moshe, Yim, Avraham, Yitzchak, maybe Yosef, David HaMelech. Those are the top, top tzadikim. Piskiyahu. How many had like this, that Hashem is in love with them. So Hashem is in love with Abraham and Abraham suffers a lot. Hashem is in love with Yitzchak, he suffers a lot. They go in every well he digs, they go in, block it, they kick him away, antisemitism. He has a son Esav fooling him all his life. But the suffering of Yitzchak compared to Abraham and Yaakov is not so much. Out of the 3 fathers, he suffered less. The one who suffered the most is Yaakov, and he's Bechira Avot. If you have to rate the fathers, Yaakov is the highest, and he suffered the most. And Abraham is next, and he suffered almost as much. And Yitzchak is next, and he suffered less. So meaning, the more Hashem loves you, the more you suffer. So I know what the Satan just told you. Whispered in your mouth. So who wants to be righteous? So let's be a lefty wicked, you know, become a senator, become a governor. Why do I need to be righteous if Hashem is gonna punch me day and night? The answer is, when you give a punch to a kid, do you love him or hate him? Love. If you know he's about to do something horrible or he just committed a sin or crime, You try to be aggressive with him and give him a punishment because you really care about him. If you don't care about him, let him do whatever he wants. What is it my business, right? Sometimes you see stepfathers that really love the son of their wife from first marriage, and they actually really care about them just like it's their own child. And they put him in a pesky shiva, and they get them to their And if they do something bad, they really get upset. But sometimes you find that husband is very selfish. He can care less about them. Talk to your ex. Don't get me involved with your children. I marry you, I didn't marry your children and your ex. They don't care. Obviously, it's very bad for the kids. They have a stepfather who cares and is strict with them, give them love in one hand and is strict with them on the other hand. At least it saved them from being criminals. The Gemara says always make sure that you marry a woman that she's a daughter of a Talmid Chacham, not the daughter of some criminal or gangster from the street or from a Mechanech Shabbat. Why? Who cares about her father? He lives in Israel and I live in New York. I will see him once a year. Big deal. What do I care? When would I see him? At weddings, maybe some bar mitzvah, twice a year. Big deal, who cares about him? No, no, no. Why? Because if you're going to die, who's gonna raise your children? The father of your wife. It's not gonna be father figure, the grandpa. If the grandpa is some gangster, walking with a gun here, You know, like some of the gangsters over here with all these tattoos. Your son from yeshiva, bachur, and the father that is a tamik racham, now is raised by this guy. He doesn't know any better. It's not his fault. What is he gonna teach the yeshiva boy? Come on, be a man. Stop all day with the books. Come, let me take you. I'll teach you how to shoot. They're gonna turn him into a sinner. Sometimes it's the other way around. The father is amarretz fool that doesn't know anything Torah, but at least he agreed to put his son in yeshiva. And now he dies, right? And the grandfather is a tamich hacham, so it actually worked good for the kid. At least now someone holy raised him. Sometimes it's the other way around. The father is good and the grandpa is horrible. That's a disaster for the king. So Yaakov Avinu suffered the most. The ones that Hashem loves the most, He does not neglect them. Wake up, check on them, attack them, shake them up, scream at them, take away things that belongs to them to shake them up. It's pure love. Don't look at that as, "Oh, you're intimidating me. Why am I doing it? I enjoy to torture you? I'm sadistic? What? I'm sitting in Shamayim and enjoy to see how you suffer?" No. Don't you read in our Torah that it says, "When I punish someone, I suffer more than he suffer." He suffer and the father suffer more. Sometimes you go to the hospital, you see a kid, lo and behold, has cancer, and he runs in the hallway of the hospital playing with the ball, laughing, happy. And who's sitting on the bench and crying from morning to night? Father and the mother. He doesn't understand his situation. His father suffers more than him, or his mother. Same thing with Hashem. Sometimes the person is a He does not understand how critical his situation is, about to lose his eternity. But he's smiling and happy, "Wow, I just made a lot of money." You fool, that's a bad thing. You're 69, you make $10 million in one deal, that's a very bad sign for you. Because Hashem already gave up on you. He said, "Well, heaven I cannot take you to, and you have no share to the World to Come, but you did a lot of good things in your life." Here you go, from age 60 to 80, enjoy. I'll pay you for all the good you did, $10 million, success, people respect you, grandchildren coming to play hula, and then you have no shot in the world to come. But the fool is happy, wow, I made it finally, better late than never. And someone who became Baal Shem Tov and lost all his money, the Satan says, you fool, 'When you were a mechalel Shabbat, you were a millionaire, everyone bowed down to you. Now you became a tzaddik, look at you, you cannot pay your bills.' And he's thinking, 'Why did I even do such thing? Look what happened to me.' You fool, you should be happy because now if you would keep all the money you stole and all the money you made on Shabbat and none of it will go to waste and Hashem will not give you any punishments in this world, that means he did not He started to give you all kinds of punishment little by little, that means Hashem is cleaning you up. So, bottom line, everything is the opposite of what people think and do. The opposite. So, Rabotai, Yaakov Avinu, it's similar to a story like this. Listen carefully. Reuven hired a companion. Contractor to do a big job in construction, to building a huge building. How long the project would be? 7 years. Reuven said to the contractor, you know me, right? I have a good name, I have good credit. I'm not giving you any money upfront. When you finish the project, you work 7 years, you come to me with the bill "Okay, I'll pay you." The builder finished 7 years of work, he comes to Reuven, he gives him a check. How much? $7 million. He puts it in a bank, the check bounced. He calls the bank, "Sir, this account was closed already a year ago. I don't know who gave you a check from this account, but this account is no longer active." He runs quickly to Reuven. Reuven, you cheated me! I work for you like a slave for 7 years and now you give me a bounced check? Oh, wait, relax, relax. Why are you so nervous? Come, have some tea. Here, Persian tea. Would you like a sugar, sweet and low? Relax, don't worry. You want to get paid? Build for me another building. It's 7 more years. So build it and I'll pay you, but don't worry, for the second building I will give you the money up front. For the second building. And he said, "All right." "What about the first building?" "Come on, don't be greedy. Contribute." to the community. So for the second building, I'll pay you, don't worry. You finish the second building. Now he comes and says, oh, I have another third building for you. How long is it going to take? 6 more years to build this one. And this one, I'll pay you in the end of the project. Don't be greedy. The last one, I was nice with you, I paid you upfront. But I paid you 'Now I need you to work 6 more years and after that you'll get paid.' And he says, 'Yes, sir.' Someone like this, what would you say about it? Such a builder. What's wrong with him? What is going on here? That's Yaakov Avinu. That's Yaakov. I don't understand what is mitzvah to act foolish and let people take advantage of me? First of all, why would you come to Lavan and say, "I will work for your daughter 7 years"? A smart businessman waits to see what he's demanding. Imagine you walk into a store, you see some diamond, you're not an expert in diamond, you like it. "I'll give you $100,000 for for it. And the salesman is so happy, where did this fool come from? It's only worth $20. $100? Ah, you know what, you have to do a little better. $120, it's yours. If you will agree right away to $100, then the guy will realize something's fishy. How did he agree so quick? So you have to put the show. $100 is not enough. Can you do better? $120, I maybe, I ask the boss. I'll let you know. 120? Oh, you know what? Let's meet in the middle, 110. And you feel like you did such a great deal. Wow! In the end, it was only 20. After he left, all the salespeople, you know, where does this guy came from? Why would Yaakov come to Lavan and offer him 7 years of slavery for Rachel? Where will he find a better shiduch than you? For free, he will give her to you. Maybe a month, 2 months, 5 months somewhere, helping here and there. What would he prefer, that she marry one of the idol worshippers? And don't forget, you already have good experience with your family. Eliezer came and he gave your mother Rivka, he gave her a lot of jewelry and stuff and filled up your house with camels full of good wealth. So, Better to be married to someone like this. So what's going on here? Why do you think Yaakov Avinu was foolish? Chas v'shalom. Something that we understand he didn't understand? Every Indian merchant understands this. Bow down to the cow and a minute later make a sale. And he knows not to be foolish in business. Why would Yaakov Avinu sell himself like this? I'll be a slave for you for 20 years. For what? Later, it's very, very serious because in the end of the 20 years, all of a sudden, Yaakov Avinu become very sharp. He draw all kinds of things on the sticks. He fools him. Tens of thousands of sheep he took with him when Yaakov left. Miles. You cannot take control of them. That's how wealthy he gets. He said, take all of them now, but you don't tell me, oh, they were born before. Take everything now from this moment on. And he did what he did and tricked him and took from him everything. So what do we see over here? That all along, the entire 20 years, if Yaakov wanted to make him pay, he would know how to make him pay. He didn't bother with the money. Don't forget also when Yaakov Avinu showed up, when Yaakov Avinu showed up in the house of Lavan, how was he dressed for the first day he came to the family of his future wife? Who knows? What was he wearing? He was dressed like a goyish soldier, like Saddam Hussein. With his special uniform. Why Yaakov Avinu came dressed like an Israeli soldier? Imagine you want to marry a Hasidish girl, you come, you have a date in Mea Shearim, and they know you are from the royal family. Your father is the chief rabbi, his father was the chief rabbi, Abraham in Israel, and you show up with the Israeli army uniform. Tumesh ani. Hi, shalom. Ani Yaakov. You Yaakov? You may be Jacob, but you're not Yaakov. Maybe you Kobi. Kobi, get out of here. Why? Why do you dress like this? Get out of here, you tziony. That's what really happened here. Not that Lavan was such a chassi. If any, maybe he was very impressed that he came like a soldier. Because the Rosh Ha'im prefer a soldier than a Talmid Chacham, Talmid Yeshiva. Listen to what they say in Israel. All day they complain why Talmid Yeshiva don't go to the army. So for them, a soldier is higher than a Talmid Yeshiva. They don't understand the world too well. How did Yaakov show up dressed like a soldier? When he was on the way, he was a wealthy man, very wealthy, remember. You know, his father, Yitzchak, was very, very rich. His grandfather was rich. Yaakov was not poor. He had his parents' credit card. Everything is on the house. So why all of a sudden he came with a uniform? Elifas came to kill him. His father Yitzchak said, you have to go kill him. Why? Now it's the time. You have to do what your father say. But the problem is that Yaakov was his rebbe, was teaching him when he was a kid, teaching him Torah, teaching him the legacy of the family, of Yitzchak and Avraham. So now Elifas said to him, Rabbi, I want you to tell me what to do. You're my uncle and my rabbi, and my father commanded me to kill you. Who should I listen to? To my father or to my rabbi? So Yaakov could have told him, you have to listen to your rabbi and tell your father to go to hell, Rasha Merusha, Rasha Avu. He could have said that and Elifas would listen because it's his rabbi. But Yaakov wanted to go to be otsé according to kol hashitot. So Yaakov said to him, listen, take everything I have, leave me with nothing. If you make me so poor that I left with a pair of underwear, that's count like you killed me. Why? Because the Torah says, "Ani chashuv kemet." Especially if he was rich and became poor. That's like death sentence. So if you leave me with nothing, it counts like you killed me. If your father asks you, "Did you kill him?" Say yes. It's not a lie. "Ani chashuv kemet." Eliphas did what he told him and he left him. Now, now he's not modest, he's with underwear. What is he gonna do now? He has no valuable thing left. If you would leave him jacket or clothes or whatever, that means he did not clean him completely. So he went into the water to hide and to pray, "Me'ayim yavo ezri." In the water nobody sees that you're naked. All of a sudden he sees a soldier He's dead on the water, his body is floating, but they took off his clothes. He dressed like a soldier and showed up in the house of Lavan. As he showed up first to the well, who comes? Rachel. The first date between Yaakov and Rachel and the birth of the Jewish nation was in the most bizarre way. She comes with the sheep to the well and he dressed like a soldier. That was the first date. And then they have a big rock covering the well. Nobody can move it. All the shepherds, they said, we have to wait until other shepherds would come, 20 of us would move it. And Yaakov, shh, moved it in a second. That means Yaakov was very strong. Amazing. So one of the biggest mystery that I never found a good answer to. It's written that Yaakov fell in love with Rachel right away. Love from the first sight exists. We see it today. Some people fall in love when they meet each other for the first time. So that part I'm not surprised at. What comes next, I'm very surprised. Vayisha ke Yaakov lerachei. Yaakov was crying. Rashi says, why was he crying? Because he saw that she will die young in his holy vision. He had Ruach HaKodesh. He knew she's a shiduch. He knew that she's gonna die young. So he was crying when he met her, he already saw the end. The question is, how is it possible you just meet your date? Imagine you You have a date. You from yeshiva and she's from Beit Yaakov. And you come to the date and it's needless to say that she's Shomer Nigiah. What's the question? You're a Haredi and she's Haredi. You have to watch your eyes, you have to behave in a proper way. Imagine how you'll touch her hands. That will be the end of the date. She will get up, run quickly home, cry for a week. He touched my hands. Imagine if you kissed him. Come, come. He says, "Ma, you're my holy shiva? Rasha nerusha, shegetz!" Your name is finished. Even on the forehead. Even, you know what, I'll give you a discount. Even if you went like this to him. That's already— it's a dick like this. 14 years in yeshiva, shem vahaver. But he knew she was going to die young. He's the one who really should die. He knew she will die young and then what? She'll be buried on the side of the road. So what does it have to do with the kiss now? No, something Mike Kushevsky said. He said she will die young. But he's the one who caused that. Right. "Mishamayim mikalgel," that Yaakov said, "The one who stole your god to this stupid Lavan should die." And she was the one. One thing I never understood, how did Rachel steal the god of her father? First of all, why you touch it? You're allowed to touch an idol? If you want to destroy it, you're allowed to touch it. Destroy it and make sure to run to the mikveh after that. The question is, if she took it from her father, why didn't she bury it 100 yards away when they left? A mile away, she would say, hold on, make a hole in the ground, bury the stupid idol, cover it, and go. Why she need to sit on it? What for? Maybe she could get away with it.

She wanted to get away with it.

When finally Laban came, as a last, as a big mystery, Hashem needed to interfere with his free will because Laban was very angry. His sons were made him crazy. He took everything from us. But what kind of a fool you are? How do you let him steal our sisters and all the money? So you're furious, running after him. And Hashem comes and says, I'm warning you, don't dare to say one good word to him and one bad word to him. One bad word, don't dare to speak to that tzaddik. I understand why you're warning me. You is God and you're protecting him. But what is your problem if I speak nice to him? Why don't say anything good and don't say anything bad? Don't say anything bad, makes sense. Why don't say anything good? If a gangster is about to go and attack your cousin and you know this gangster and you come to him and say, dear brother, be careful, don't threaten my cousin, don't say anything bad to him and don't say anything good or do something good to him. So the criminal will not understand. Why not good? Make up your mind. You don't want me to hurt him, I understand. But why don't you want me to benefit him?

The same like the lawyer.

Can't even look at his face. The answer, exactly, the answer is we don't need your favors. I'm taking care of him. We don't want anything from you. Not blessing, not compliments, and definitely not money. Don't do anything. Why? Then you're gonna take the credit for it. That's how the wicked people are. They donate $18 and speak about it 3 years. And besides that, it's only talking. Because the Gemara already said, "Reshaim talks a lot, but even a little bit they don't do." "Tzadikim, they talk very little and they do a lot more." El Admo. I will help with such and such, and when it comes to the reality, he's double. Why? He doesn't want to get the credit, he doesn't want to tell the whole world that he's such a generous tzaddik. No. The opposite. He's hiding everything. You know, I once told you what's the difference between a tzaddik and a rasha. Tzaddik always busy hide the good that he does. Rasha always busy hiding the bad that he does. That's the main difference. Tzaddikim pretend they are nothing. Reshaim makes a lot of noise. A lot of noise. So, you know, Hashem is warning this fool, do not dare to talk to Yaakov. And when he finally found Yaakov, he did open his mouth. He didn't kill him, but he opened his mouth. How did you do such thing to me? Didn't let me kiss my grandchildren, like that's what he wanted. Wow. I would make you a party, a goodbye party. Where is my God? Yeah, come on, sir, what are you asking me for your God? I'm gonna follow your God? Did I ever worship your God 20 years I was in your house? What do you expect? You suspecting me for standing with stupid Buddha? And after that, he begin to check. "Let me, I have a warning, a search warrant." Search warrant. "Move away please." Checking. He's anxious to find his gun. Unbelievable. The real guy just warned you. First thing you should have said, "Thank you for taking my gun. I hope you put it in the garbage, in the toilet. I just realized it's all fake." Because the real God spoke to me and warned me. What do you see, Rabbi Taya? Very difficult to change bad habits. Very difficult. Some converts, they really became Jewish and religious, but they have still one problem. Every once in a while, you see that they are still having the ideology of the idol worshippers. JC, this is the way they think. Very difficult to change the way you are used to. So in the end, Rabotai, we left with a lot of mystery here. A lot of mystery. But one thing we do know, that after these 20 years that Yaakov was a servant in his house and he cheated him in every possible way, the Ari HaKadosh say that he cheated him 100 times and he described each time how it was. One time they gave a shiur and the soul of Lavan came to the shiur. It's 500 years ago. And when they taught the whole 100 times in Chililim, on one of the times Lavan was screaming, "No, no, this one is not true!" 99, it's all true. But that one, it wasn't like that. He's a shamane, so everybody knows because it's nothing. But it's very interesting how his name is Lavan HaArami. Lavan is Naval. Lamed, Bet, Nun. Naval. If you play with the order of the letters. Naval means a villain. HaArami, if you play with the order of the letters, is Ram Aramai. The cheater. Wilhelm de Chidam, that's his name. That's his name, what else do you want? We have 10 more minutes left. Let's see if there's anything else to add. How did Ari know the 100 ways of—? How did Ari HaKadosh know? Ari HaKadosh had Ruach HaKodesh almost all the time. He didn't only have Ruach HaKodesh, he had actual prophecy. Even though the Gemara said there's not going to be prophecies anymore, the Ari HaKadosh was able to look at a person he looked at a person's forehead and tell you all the reincarnations that he had. Who he was in his past life. He looked at rocks and he told you who is reincarnated in the rocks. He knew everything. His student Rabbi Chaim Vital was keep testing him. How is it possible? One time he walked with him in the forest and he looked at the rock and he told him, you know, in this rock there is someone who used to live used to live in a city and he was a shoched, slaughtering animals and used to sell non-kosher meat. And he went to that city and started to investigate if there was really a person by this name and he's shoched and they all told him yes. And in the end they caught him that he was selling non-kosher meat. So he actually checked on the things that he was telling him. One time he told him, go to a field in that area and you're gonna see a lot of cows and oxes over there. Take 10 people, say Kaddish, a few Mishnayot and Kaddish, and all of them will die. And who— they were all people reincarnated in the animals, and they went to do tikkun for them. The time arrived. So, it was not a regular person. If you look at his grave, on the tomb, at the to describe who he was, and you never had anyone like that in the last 2,000 years. Where is it there? In Sfat. In Sfat you had it. What is the significance of the 20 years? I mean, because 7 years from Korach and 7 years from Mendelssohn. What's the reason why it was 20 years he had to stay here? Why was it 20 years? I'm sure there's reasons for it. We have to check in the books why was it 20 years. 6 years for the sheep. Was it 6 years for the sheep? No, 6, we say altogether 7, 7 and 6. That was 20 years. One thing we have to know is that Yaakov asked Rachel, how is it possible that you cheated me? We actually agree on a password, meaning that since it's dark, there's no electric. After the wedding, we know that this guy is a crook and he's capable of everything. So we made actually an agreement that you will let me know if it's you or not. How did you give the password to your sister? Why did she do it? She didn't want to embarrass her, right? Question is— You know, if I ask you this, you answer me this, right? Of course. The question is, she did it, and when he asked her, how did you do such thing? How did you cheat me like this? What the Midrash says, what did she tell him? You cheated your brother. You, no, you did the same thing to your father. He asked you, are you a slave? You say yes, I'm a slave, you're a firstborn. So why are you complaining to me about something you yourself did? Something you didn't tell me. Well, you know, in the old days, a woman looked at her husband like a second God. Not like today, don't talk before I call 911 on you. It was a different world back then, you know. So, how would she dare to tell someone that she loves him and they're in love and Leah is suffering for each other, 7 years he worked for her. Now she's going to tell him you did the same thing?

Ah, Yanni, don't judge.

She was supposed to marry him, she was supposed to be the second one to marry him, according to Rabbi Miller said in his book. She was supposed to be the second one because Leah was supposed to be the one to have the more children and get married first. But if Rachel would have gotten married first, Yaakov would have Leila was meant for Esav. The older to the older and the younger to the younger. But Leila was crying nonstop not to fall in the hand of Esav and Hashem had mercy on her and transferred her to Yaakov. So it's actually very interesting. In the end, Yaakov took everything from Esav. He took the bechorah. He took the blessing and he took his wife. Basically everything. That's the reason why he didn't want Leah. Because why? The Torah says, Leah, enea rakot. The Gemara says, why enea rakot? She cried for years with prayers to Hashem that she won't fall in the hands of the Rashat. That means she's a very righteous woman and she's also very pretty. So what's the problem? In the old days, it's not no problem to marry two sisters. It's before Matan Torah, and a man can have more than one wife. It was a common thing. So what's the problem? He should have said to Lavan, I'll marry both of your daughters. What is the problem? They didn't want to put more hatred in the mind of Esau. Now the one that was meant for me also took her to be the wife. But Hashem has his ways, and Hashem turned it around. But Rachel is an unbelievable story. She waited 7 years for the man of her life, to her shiduch, and in the end she just found out she's not going to get him. And she had to cooperate with the one that actually stealing her husband from her. How many people would agree to do such thing? How many people? It's similar to a story that happened once. A man said to his father, "Abba, don't bring your cell phone to the shiur of the Rebbe. He may ring and it's very loud. You can disturb the whole shiur. Leave it outside in the car." "No, no, don't tell me what to do." I'm bringing it in. So now they're sitting in the front rows and the phone rings. And the phone rings and the boy, the son, is going like this. Like he's looking for the phone. And everybody looks at him and gets angry. "Shut your phone already!" 2 minutes later, again. After everyone wanted to kill him, the end of the shiur, he came and the rabbi called him, said, "You and I know that the phone was not yours. The phone was your father's." Probably doesn't hear him. "And you were pretending that it's your phone. You wanted everyone to curse you instead of cursing him." your father. But I'm not so sure if what you did is mitzvah or an avera. Why would it be an avera? Chilul Hashem. But the boy would say, why? Chilul Hashem will be anyway, either by me or by my father, but the Chilul Hashem will happen. The phone keeps ringing in the class. Like I have in Brooklyn the same thing. If you know, every Tuesday automatically the phone from the same place is ringing and will ring again, will ring again. And that's not once or twice, it's been going on for years almost. That's a test for me. I know it's Hashem doing it to test me if I lose my temper or not. I always say it in the lectures, a smart man learns from other people's mistakes. So if someone's phone rings in the middle of a lecture, that's the time for you to put it on silent. Why are you waiting until it will happen to you? You have to learn from other people's mistakes. And just when I say it, 3 more times it will ring in the audience. Like I said, talking to the wall. "Bro, last year we had mosquito here. Every time we came here, we had the same mosquito." You remember that? Yes. The entire year the mosquito would come every Monday to the shiur and finish this tikkun, that's it. But one time he came to Brooklyn, you know? One time he showed up in Brooklyn. The mosquito, you remember that? They made an article about it in Israeli newspaper. In Israel, the mosquito that showed up to the rabbi's lecture. Some of you were witnesses, remember? You were coming the entire 2 hours next to my left eye, the entire 2 hours, tiny mosquito like this, for 2 hours and then leave. In GUR, for sure. For sure in GUR. Ah, yeah, yeah. There's a lot more to to say, but the time ran out. And, you know, I have a lot of emails from people because last week I said that I'm gonna make less lectures. So I got a lot of requests and complaints, whatever you want to call it. So the question is, why would I want to post less lectures online. Why? It's less hours of Torah, right? I'll tell you why. If I see that each lecture has 20,000 views, let's say, in my personal page. It has a lot more views in other pages, but only in the YouTube channel, 20,000 in average. And I see it went down to 10. Or to 12, whatever. So I see 2 lectures should have brought 40,000. Both of them combined bring 20, 24. Both of them combined. So meaning 2 lectures bring the same amount of view, almost, like 1 lecture. So we're not really lowering the hours of the Torah because less people will watch. So the question is, the people who do watch every lecture, they now complain, it's not fair to us, we don't miss a minute. Because of other people don't watch the first lecture, for them it doesn't make a difference, so it won't be a second lecture. But for us, we wait all week for the second lecture, between those two lectures every day we eat an hour, we finished all week like this, right? So it was like That's a very hard question now. So one person told me, he told me, you know, it's a— in the time of the Chafetz Chaim, he wanted to write a book and he said that if the book will save the life of one Jew, all the effort will be worth it. So I challenge this proof. It's not a good proof. Why? Who knows why it's not a good— it's not a good example. What the Chafetz Chaim said, it's true 100%, but it's not equal to our case. I'll tell you why. Chafetz Chaim writes a book. He works on a book one time in his life. I finished the work, the book is out. Obviously, the more people would read it, the better it is. But even if one Jew got saved, fine, it was worth it for me. But I don't have to put effort every day in it. To drive 2 hours to get there, 2 hours to come back, 3 hours to be in a place, it's a full-time job. Every lecture, from Monsey to Brooklyn, sometimes takes 3 hours to arrive. From Monsey to here, it's 2 hours to arrive in Rash Hour. It's very, very long. The traffic is endless. And at night they always have construction and the Palisades is closed and the bridge is closed and sometimes you get stuck 40 minutes standing. And then you have to wake up early in the morning. It ruins your entire day. It's not so simple. It's constant effort. It's not one time you write a book and you're done. Whatever happens, happens. You hope for the best. It's not the same, so it's not a good example. But I'm gonna tell you now why it's a good idea to lower the amount of lectures. Because anyway, on December 6th, I'm going to Israel. I'm having 2 weeks in Israel. Then I come back, I will arrive Monday, and on Thursday I fly to LA. We're gonna have a seminar there. This Shabbat we have a seminar Rabbi Zamir Cohen, Rabbi Pesach Krum, and myself. Pesach Krum and myself in Crown Plaza in Connecticut. I think they still have some rooms available. Anyone wants to join Shabbaton, a very inexpensive price, mamash for free. I don't know how they did it so low, mamash the cost of the hotel and the food. You know, so it's the number to call is 646-919— oh, I missed a digit— 254, and I don't know what's the last one. This weekend? This coming weekend, yes. This coming weekend. I'm gonna find you right away now the flyer because I want to announce it because I forgot to announce it last week. They asked me to announce it and I forgot. So, yeah, so they— I'm gonna give you now the telephone number to call. Here it is. So it's 646-919-2854. Call over there if you want to register. A couple, if I remember correctly, it's under $800 for couple for 2 nights. And all the meals and everything. It's gonna be a musician, it's very nice. Nice hotel also. So that's for this Shabbat. So now I'm gonna go to Israel on December 6th and be there for 2 weeks, come back here and 3 days later go to LA for a few days, come back from LA and go to Canada for almost a week to Montreal, come back from Montreal and go again to Israel. So that means in the next 2 months, actually between now and the end of February, I have about 4 or 5 trips, which altogether I will be more than a month out of New York. So what happens in these times that I'm not there? There's not gonna be lectures. So we take those lectures, like last night I was in Great Neck, I had a whole lecture there, I didn't proceed it. They will be posted on December 6th. This lecture tonight, I may not post that one, or tomorrow night, will post it on December 10th. So that means anyway there will be few weeks that there's no lecture. So then the one lecture that we put on hold, we'll put it back then so no one will lose from anything. You understand the calculation? And people will have one lecture of 3 hours per week. 3 hours they can end it. Apparently 6 hours is too much for them at all this time. In general, I see, I spoke to a few other people and they say that people learning less Torah. Why? Because I don't know, Corona problems, stress, unemployed, I don't know what. A lot of people are very stressful now. Instead of learning more Torah, they less they learn less Torah for whatever reason. Even though we're coming to an end and the Torah deGoral saying you need Torah and milk, and they're not going to have it, Hashem can regret it big time. So that's really the explanation for all these people. There's no need to send email. Thank you very much for all the compliments, but it's all calculated and B'ezrat Hashem it will work out. Yes. What about after, after the coronavirus?

Are you going to go back to normal?

Yeah, after the 3 weeks we'll go back to normal. One thing we should know, I can tell you already, that I'm going to be in the middle of January in Montreal. I'm going to have Shabbaton there and also plus 2 more lectures. And I'm going to go after that to Chicago. And then on Christmas I'm going to be in Los Angeles. We have a seminar over there also. Rabbi Zamir Cohen. Rabbi Fanger and myself. We will have a big event in Los Angeles. And this Shabbat, we have this Shabbaton. And also in Israel, I'm going to have a seminar with Rabbi Igal Cohen and Rav Zamir Cohen in Jerusalem. So we have a lot of Shabbatonim coming up, B'ezrat Hashem. Anyone wants to sponsor the trips, the Shabbatonim, the CDs, the tzitzios, the US visa we give, the books, is more than welcome to support. It's a big zechut. I already have 14 lectures scheduled and 2 big Shabbatonim in Israel besides radio shows and yeshiva lectures that I'm gonna give during the day. That's— we don't even count that. Just the nights, all 2 weeks is packed every night. B'ezrat Hashem. So it's a good thing, very productive. Plus, whatever we get after when we put it online, it's a big scoot. You can run a lot of, uh, squiot. Is CDs too popular or CDs— CDs are less popular than before because a lot of cars don't have CDs. That's why the USBs are doing much better. One way or the other, if you give a person a USB that has 2,000 hours, it's like giving him 50 CDs. More. 70 CDs. 30 hours on a CD. 2,000 hours on a USB equal to like 70 CDs in one shot. And it's much cheaper. 70 CDs would be $70. USB is a lot cheaper, so it's worth it. Everyone who wants to get more than 50 books or more than 50 USBs gets 50% off. So remember, it's a very good thing. You can give them the new book Divine information, you can get it for $10. You should know now, it's a big problem now. Why? Because it's not worth it anymore to import from China anything. Shipping became 17 times more expensive. 17 times more expensive. People that order from China, some of my students, one of them told me, two of them, one and another person told me similar story. He used to pay $1,000 per container. Now it went up to $17,000 per container and he cannot get it. Now people in China, they don't send anything. They tell you the government in China shut their electric, they work a day or two. I don't know what's going on behind the scenes. Something is happening. I don't know what Hashem is preparing for the world. But it's not worth it. Today I spoke to a friend of mine who used to import from Turkey, but because of what happened with the ports, he did not feel comfortable to go to Turkey anymore, so he moved everything to China, like, I don't know, 7 years ago. And now he told me this morning, I spoke to him, he's here now, he told me, I'm not gonna work with China anymore. That's it. Why? Because I moved to Bangladesh and to India. Other countries because it's not worth it. Because the Chinese worker now is making $1,000 a month and that makes everything very expensive. So now China is gonna have a huge financial crisis because they're not cheap anymore. Nobody's gonna buy everything in China. Everybody moved it to different countries. Try to feed 2 billion people when half of them are unemployed. Let's see what's going to happen in China. They already started. They already started in China, the, like, the real estate and stuff like that. Makes sense. An apartment in Guangzhou is $5 million when I was there. A little apartment, $5 million. I asked, how can it be? China here, it's booming now. Probably went down to a million. It makes sense. We do not know where we're going to be in 3 months from Now, Rabotai, it's really, really critical times. Really critical times. Now we have to put a lot of efforts into teshuvah, emunah, and charity, and chesed, kindness. If not, we will miss the train in the last second. After years of being religious, in the last second, it's like kicking the bucket. And all the water will spill. So make sure that you don't let the Satan break you a minute before the end of the game. Because that's the hardest pain, that you were 89 minutes in a game, you were perfect, and in the 90th minute you blew it all out. Twice as hard, you think? Go double as hard? Yeah, everybody has to put more efforts now. Don't be comfortably numb or miserably numb. There's no permission to be numb now and cold and— you gotta ignite the fire in you. More Torah, more lecture, more Avodat Hamidot, more charity, more hard work, more Tikun Hamidot. It's critical now. And let's run to Hashem, we want Miskrefein. Baruch Adonai Elohim, amen ve amen. Rabbi Chanan Yehuda Kashiom, Yeratzar Koshmakodesh Hakodesh Yisroel, Lev V'Chag, Ki Yobana El Torah Uitzvot, Shenei Ma'ar Adonai, Chavetz Chag.