Spiritual Honesty And Integrity

Good evening. This lecture will be the fourth in the year of El Noach BeYudi, and this book will be a reaction to the Mordechai Avonos, says Miriam Sarah. I also wanted to dedicate this lecture to those who went off the derech, that should have the merit to do teshuvah, and all the sick people and the unemployed people with the difficult situation. Also, leilui mishmar Avraham ben Adizoi, el simcha ben Yeshua, el nefuat alisa Malka bat Leah. Baruch Hashem, we got the good news of Jonathan Cohen. Finally, all the restriction on him was removed on last Shabbat. Shabbat Yimekor HaBracha. They finally would let him go to Israel. And interesting thing is The interesting thing is that I just found out that in 2011, Hussein Obama agreed to remove the restriction from Jonathan Pollack, but there was one very nice person who convinced him not to do so. Who was it? Joe Biden. Joe Biden. Here you go. Now you're beginning to understand what we're getting here. He was the one— meaning he's worse than Hussein Obama. So now we already know two things about the future president. One, that he's very pro-Iran. He does everything he can to help Iran. He is the one that convinced Obama to give Iran all the money, $150 billion, and to do the Iran deal. And he's about to do it again now. And the second thing is, he's not such a great supporter of Israel like other presidents were before. We are probably getting something similar to Jimmy Carter. Remember Jimmy Carter? That's what we're getting. Now, Hashem, we have to always remember, after all the frustration and disappointments that we keep getting every day, and every hour, I should say. That is all Hashem doing it to us. Remember this, that Hashem is doing it to us because we deserve it. The truth is that we deserve a lot worse, but Hashem with His mercy punishing us with a limited way. If we really get what we deserve, probably we would not be able to sit here and listen to even one minute of Torah. Because the situation spiritually by us is not getting any better. I just noticed something very scary. I've been speaking about it for years, but even I did not know how horrible is the damage that they do. What am I talking about? The Orthodox religious magazines. The damage that they did to Tens of thousands of guys and girls is beyond a spiritual Holocaust. Beyond. I started to realize that almost every Beit Yaakov girl is starting to talk recently more and more in a secular fashion. I want to go to Dubai. I want to go to the Bahamas. I deserve to go on vacation. This is girls who just graduated Beit Yaakov, the ultra-Orthodox yeshiva, speaking like goyot from Miami. The mentality who penetrated our community is becoming more and more goyish. Worse, every month becomes worse. I was thinking to myself, where these girls get this influence about going to an Arab country, be surrounded by Arabs over there? And going to see fancy schmancy buildings and lakes, whatever they have over there. How is it possible that girls who learn Torah nonstop for so many years, that that's their dream? To go to places like this? And just when I found out where they get all these ideas, from all these magazines, every page, Dubai, Dubai, kosher vacation, Florida, Bahamas. They destroyed our nation, this religious newspaper. Before you worry about Biden and Hussein Obama and Arafat, they are the killers. They made a spiritual Holocaust to the Jewish nation. All these ultra-Orthodox magazines, one is a bigger murderer than the other. Not to talk about secular. From secular we don't have any expectation. We know what's there. Every religious person will do everything he can not to bring it into his home. You know, even if you have a kid that is off the derech and he wants to bring those newspapers into the house, a normal parent will do everything they can to convince him to deal with his nonsense out of the house or in a basement, or don't bring it here next to your brothers and sisters. Because we understand that those secular newspapers is a poison shot directly into the heart. But the problem is that many religious people are very naive. They don't know that these religious newspapers, they are the ones who actually killed all our children. They are the ones. And you pay money for it to bring it into your house for Shabbat. That's what they do. Every page fancy-schmancy, all this materialism. They ruined our generation with this. Not to talk about all this kfirah that they have in the articles that they bring all kinds of fake clowns to speak about the horrible Livret Torah with their nonsense and kfirah and all kinds of shtruyot that they spread over there. All this, I don't know where they get all these clowns to speak there. But they are the number one pillar in the Jewish Orthodox community. In a normal time, in a time of Chazal, these people would not be able to walk on the street for the damage that they did to tens of thousands of teenagers. It's interesting because already 30 years ago, people like Rav Shach and Rav Menachem Avoshai, they already warned about the dangerous of all these things. Back then in the time of Rav Shach, the newspapers were extremely Orthodox and supervised. Like Hamodia was supervised by Rav Shach. They used to be picked, Gdolé Torah, that either, you know, if something goes wrong, they're never going to give you hashdacha. But what happened when the Gdolé Torah passed away? They lose their hashdacha. I don't know who is the mashgithumo over there. Wow, you know, I mean, I remember 20 years ago I went to one of the restaurants in Brooklyn. My friend was a mashgiach there, one of the famous restaurants. And I sat with the mashgiach at 12 o'clock at night, and he started to tell me about the horrible things that happens at nights there in the restaurant. Modesty issues. And he said that he begged the ashgacha of the restaurant to convince them that they should not allow the restaurant to stay open late because that's where all the tragedies begin to happen. 11, 12, 1 at night, they open. It's become like the bars of Manhattan. He told me, if you see what I see every day, and I eat my heart from what I see— it was Yerushalayim, and I don't think it's in America, but back then And he was telling me things from the community, community of Brooklyn, or things that are happening there. I tell you the truth, I could never believe what he was telling me. It's just not possible to believe such thing. Today, unfortunately, after 20 years, I see that he was right about everything he said. Back then, I thought to myself, maybe this guy like to exaggerate to make it look a lot worse than what it is. But unfortunately, now I see that everything was telling me actually happened back then. See the results of it today. So if you really want your children to be religious, lovers of Hashem, lovers of Torah, make sure they don't have access to any religious newspaper, and not to talk about internet. Religious news website. They are mass murderers, not just murderers. What they do over there, they murder rabbis every week over there. They take someone, murder him, publish articles about him, destroy these families. For years they've been doing it with their stupid articles in Lashon Hara. They don't know an alphabet of Lashon Hara. Where does it say in the Torah, you're allowed to publish the truth? About anyone who is Yerushalayim Shomer Shabbat. Where does it say such thing? Show me who allowed such a thing. You just found out your neighbor or his cousin did something horrible. You're allowed to go and tell people on the street? You're allowed to be Olech Rachin? It's so doreita. Who gave them permission to write rechilot every week? The newspaper is full of rechilot about people. Even when people make big party, you're not allowed to report it. The Gemara says if you say about someone that his house is full of steaks, good food, it's also Lashon Hara. Why? Because people will understand that this guy only cares about his money. Food, meaning, he's like hungry like a pig. That's what's on his mind, all these meals. You understand? Even from something that you try to compliment a person, some people understand it as a negative thing. So even when you compliment a person, usually how it goes, you give him 5, 6 compliments, there's always a 'but,' 'besides,' or 'but.' 'But only this and that, that's enough, that's it, that's enough.' You give him 500 compliments and in the end you tell them, 'Oh, he's a thief.' His life is over. Nobody wants to do business with him, nobody wants to marry his kids. One word. 'But you gave him a lot of compliments.' Who cares about the compliments? Nobody looks at the good things, everyone looks at the one bad thing you said, that's it. You understand? So that's the problem in Rabotai. The generation became a zoo. And as more and more influenced by the culture of the goyim and their horrible media, this is what's going on. A lot of these tragedies come to us because of the university education that a lot of Orthodox people got in America. Not 30 years. The poison of the university and the heresy went to every place. No matter what kind of university, they all have their Kefira, and it goes into the people that sits there, and that affects the Rash Kafah. You see, right away. You understand? And we are already living in a generation, we don't have any more leaders like Rav Avigdor Miller or other big dole Torah that were straight like a ruler. They never cared about politics or what the people would say. Where do you have leaders like this today? You know, I heard that they made a very big wedding, thousands of people in the Corona time now. They just made it, it came out of the news today, the biggest Chilul Hashem, biggest, such a huge Chilul Hashem. Not only that they go in, go crazy as it is from the situation, their situation, things that they see by Jewish people with their, anyway, their antisemitism, right? That's already existed before, it's nothing new. And they see that they cannot make weddings and they cannot go to restaurants and they cannot gather in the office more than few people and they want this restriction which it's extremely annoying to Jews and to non-Jews. So this going, trying to follow the rules, not to be in places together, not to be in restaurants. Every restaurant makes you free seats outside. All this restriction, and all of a sudden they turn on their television and they see 2, 3, 4,000 Hasidim dancing like nothing is happening. And I thinking Now who knows how many people got Corona there. They're not worried that some of them will die. Believe me, that's the last thing they worry about. They worry about how many of us will die because of them. When they walk around into our business, into our stores, into our neighborhoods, and some of them will have it, we're gonna die. And then people will wonder why we're gonna get another Holocaust because of this eventually, when they're gonna start with the riots again. that they wonder, why it happened to us? How many times I've said, when you have a lion in a cage with you, you don't want to attract his attention. Don't move, don't make noise, don't make sharp moves, don't get him angry, don't do anything that he will pay attention to you. Be on the corner and be as quiet as possible. It's time of judgment in the world. It's time of anger. There's craziness everywhere. You didn't see what happened in the riots? Where were you? You didn't see what they did? You don't see how cruel they are? Do you know what will happen if you fall in their hands? What's gonna happen in the communities in Queens, Brooklyn, in other places? You know what will happen? It can be a bloodshed. Who do you think is gonna protect you? Police themselves, they don't care anymore what's happening. It's total anarchy here. Totally. They are abused, the mayor destroyed them, cut their budget, nobody gives them respect, they are hated by all the liberal Democrats of New York State, and you expect them to come defend the Jews? People just live in illusion. Why bring the problem and hope that things will be good? That's smart? People have to keep low profile, low profile. You're a visitor here. What do you mean? I'm 5 generations here. I'm 200 years here. You're still a visitor here. The Torah says the Jews will always be isolated. Always. Am Levadad Ishkon u'vagoim lo yitkashav. There's 2 ways to explain it. That the Jews will be isolated from the goyim, or the other way around, that the goyim would would look at them down, meaning, you know, the worst possible way. One way or the other, one way or the other, like I said, when you have someone that you know is not crazy about you, let's not say hate you, but not crazy about you, not exactly his friend, you have to do everything you can not to eat not to ignite him. Once you ignite him, he will ignite his brother, which will ignite his cousin, which will ignite the neighbor. And before you realize, in a month you're gonna have thousands of crazy people out there, and who knows what's gonna be next. That's what people don't understand. Nobody wants to learn from history. Read the Tanakh, see how many times we've been in this movie already. Another pogrom, and another pogrom, and another attack, and another Kristallnacht. And another Holocaust and another destruction and another exile. Hundreds of times. Don't you get the point? What is this? Oh, we're powerful, we are educated, we are rich. I don't understand what's going on here. You know, this parasha is a perfect example of some of the things that are happening. We're gonna speak about some of the things. You know, every line in the Torah, it's a school for life. School for life. There are parts of the Torah that are more educational to us than other parts. Like when we read about the laws of sacrifices in the time of the Temple, it doesn't teach us that much about today's generation. But when we read about the story of Yaakov and Esav, how Yitzchak behaved to them, how Rivka What happened? How it reflects today, 3,400 years later in the world? How the Holocaust came to the world from Yaakov and Esav? How the beginning of the Holocaust was actually in this Parasha, Parasha Toldot. You begin to see the pattern on the world and how Hashem runs the world and all the cycles that keeps repeating. We're gonna see some of the things That will, B'ezrat Hashem, educate us in such a way that we'll be able to at least try to do the right thing. We have a story of Yitzchak Avinu. He sees that his wife is barren. Davening to Hashem because of the situation of his wife. So, the Gemara in Masechet Nedarim, page 40, the Gemara says, "Ma'aseh betalmidcha." Something happened with a student. He was a student of Rabbi Akiva. Rabbi Akiva had students, he was one of them. He became sick. Nobody came to visit him. He's sitting at home, laying in bed. Nobody comes to visit him. And Rabbi Akiva, the great Rabbi Akiva, the big rabbi, he came to visit him. He came, he gave him respect, he cleaned the place, the room where he was alone, gave him what he needs. Maybe probably he need water to replace things. The student told him, Rabbi Akiva, tell me, You revived me. I was already dead, meaning mentally, not just physically. You brought me back to life. Rabbi Akiva came out and said, everyone who does not visit the sick, he is like a murderer. Not less. Ke'ilu shofech dami. It counts like you actually killed him. When it's Corona pandemic, it's contagious. Okay, your life comes before his life. Nobody asks you to die for someone else, right? Okay, fine. But if it's nothing contagious, he's laying in bed, he's dying, whatever the case is, maybe had an accident, and you can actually go to him. Today, Baruch Hashem, we have these video calls. That's also bikuch oliv. You speak to him on a video, because remember, it's mentally brings him up. Oh, I'm far away, you're in Florida, I'm in New York, but we're thinking about you. 'He went and was davening for you.' Oh, that's very good. It's like the conversation face to face with HaShem. Back in time, they didn't have these options. You had to come physically. So Rabbi Shimon Sofer, he says like this. He is adding on the words of the Gemara. He says there's a secret here. What's the secret? It's not enough when you pray for the sick in the synagogue. If you are in a synagogue and you pray for the sick person, it's not as good as when you actually go to his room in hospital and pray, or in his house. What's the difference? Your mouth is different. Hashem can hear you here and He can hear you there. What difference does it make if I'm here praying for you or if I come all the way to where you are and I pray for you? The answer is, Rav Motai, listen carefully. Because when he's not here, you want to do Mishaberach for him, you want to recce for him, you have to say his name and his parents' name. Ploni ben Ploni, Reuven ben Shimon. What happened if his parents are wicked? They're not shomer Shabbat, they're liberal, lefty, anti-Torah, apikorosim, like so many other people out there. But the boy is righteous, but his parents are wicked. So you have to say, "Reuben, son of a big Rasha." Just when you mention the name of the Rasha, all the value of the prayer went down 99%. Because in Shamayim, they hate Reshaim. Not like here, politically correct fake Islam to kiss up to them. In Olam HaAemet, nobody can stand them. Even their own family cannot stand that. It's a very big embarrassment. If you come to Shamayim and you Rasha on a Hallel Shabbat, do all the horrible things that the Torah hates, even your own grandparents are very embarrassed that you came out of them. Very embarrassed. So, "Min olam ha'emet," as soon as you mention the name of Rasha, right away they said, "This is who you want to have Kiyuv? The son of this Rasha?" So when you come to pray by him, you don't have to mention his parents. How do we learn that? From Moshe Rabbeinu. When Moshe Rabbeinu prayed for Miriam, he did not have to say a name and not her parents' name. Why did he say, "Eil na refa nala," please cure her? What does it mean, her? She's here, she's right here. Cure her. You don't have to say names. Oh, Moshe had no problem to mention his parents. We learn from Moshe that when you together in the same place with someone that you're praying for, you don't have to mention his parents. You say, please cure him, please cure her, meaning they're right in front of us. But when you're not in front of them, you have to mention their parents because there's thousands of Reuven. Which Reuven you praying for, right? So you say, Reuven ben such and such. But if the parents are tzadikim, it's good to mention them. If you're talking from the son of the Baba Sali, fantastic to mention his name, or Avu Vadia, or Ben Yishraï, or any one of those. So it's very good to bring them up. But if you know the parents of this person are mechalel eish shabbat, better not to mention their name. That's why there's a big advantage of going to where the secret where the person is and pray for him while he's there. This we learned it from Moshe Rabbeinu, as it's written here, the father of Rivka was who? Big Rasha. Who is Rivka from? Where Rivka came from? Ha? The two are Rasha. And she has also a brother that is Rasha. That is Rachel and Rivka and Leah from there. So both of them Rasha'im. When you want to pray for Leah and Rachel, you don't want to mention their father, Lavan. When you pray for Rivka, even when you pray for Abraham, you don't want to mention Terach. However, Terach, unlike them, he did teshuvah before he died. So if you say Abraham ben Terach, it's not such a big deal. He made teshuvah after all. Okay? Tzadik, tzadik, but once you mention the name of a Rasha, it's already ruined the atmosphere, right? The way the Satan is using it. Hey, hey, look who is giving credit to this Rasha, is mentioning this Rasha, right? The way it ruins the atmosphere. So it says like this, "Le'nochach ishto." Why Yitzchak had to be next to Rivka every time he prayed for her? What does it mean, "when Isto is in front of him," when his wife is in front of him, and he doesn't have to mention the name of her father? Okay, so we learned something. Baruch Hashem. Vayater Elo Hashem. Hashem took his request. Rashi writes, "nikpatzar, venikpayes, venikpatalo," meaning, what does it mean, all these words? Rav Chaim Sonnenfeld, Zatzal, he said later in the Parasha, Asuk Lameh, we will learn, "Vayazed yaakov nazi." Yaakov made a lentil soup, right? Red lentil soup. And Esav came and said, "Aliteh limina adoma zeh." "Spill this red soup into my throat, directly." Rashi said that that day Avraham Avinu passed away. It was the— you know, Avraham just passed, he was 175. He should have lived to 180, but Hashem shortened his life by 5 years. He won't see Esav is going off the derech. Up to now, Esav was from the outside look tzaddik, he's pretending. But now that's it, he cannot hide anymore who he is. So Hashem did not want Avraham to be upset. He took 5 years of his life. Something here is a little bit difficult to understand. We're talking 5 years of life. If you ask now people what they would prefer, to die 5 years younger without knowing that the grandson is going off the derech, became some drug addict or something, or that they would rather live and live with the pain. Right? After all, we're talking about grandson, not son. Son is much harder. Son, the Gemara says, is someone who has a son that goes off the derech, a child. It's worse than Milchemet Gog u'Magog. The war of Gog u'Magog is the final war which basically destroyed the whole world. As Zechariah 14 described, that two-thirds of the people in the world would die. It would be a nightmare. What's gonna happen in the whole world? So you compare this to one kid went off the derech? It's not religious anymore. He took off his kippah and tzitzit and his mechanech shabbat. You compare this to almost the whole world is going on fire? The answer is, if you ask strangers, what's worse? That a Jewish kid who used to be a bachur yeshiva became some gangster on the street? Or 5 million people died and all the world is on fire? Everyone would say with all the pain to this bachur yeshiva, obviously the tragedy of the entire world is much worse, right? Millions of people dead. So we're not talking for us. Yes, for us Gog u'Magog is the worst thing that you can imagine. We're talking for the father of that boy. For the father of that boy, the pain of his son is worse than to see the entire world goes on fire. Mentally, it destroys him mentally, breaks his heart, is much more broken than any other tragedy. Why? Because remember the rule, when someone died is horrible pain. Someone buried this child, it's horrible pain. But someone that this child went off the derech, it's much, much worse Why? Because it's written, "If you take a Jew and you murder him, you murder him physically, horrible crime, death penalty, horrible crime." However, if you make him go off the derech, he was shomer shabbat, he was a chodesh shiva, and you took him out and made him like a goy, that's it, no more religion, no more nothing. That's a much bigger crime than actually murdering physically, right? So what do you see from here? Because when you murder the body, you took 34 years of his life. When you actually murder his soul, you took his share to the eternal world. He lost his share in the eternal world. So you're actually murdering for eternity, not for 34 years. When you kill someone, you move him from here to here. Sometimes you upgrade him. Still not allowed to murder him, but since you already chose to do it, for him it was an upgrade. He went express to heaven, especially if he died in Kiddush Hashem. If it's some Greeks or Romans or Arabs who killed him because he's a Jew and he did not want to bow down to their idol or anything like that, then it's a real upgrade. But still not allowed to murder, obviously. But If you take him to become a non-observant Jew, that's it, he lost his eternity. So the crime, the consequences of the crime is a billion times worse. I want to tell you, speaking about burying a son, that's one of the things that saves a person from a lot of, a lot of punishments in the next world. Someone that buries his own children, lo aleh, Baruch Hashem, the way of the world is that children bury their parents. That's the normal way. And here and there we find out about children who bury their own, their parents that bury their own children. Happens unfortunately. Accidents and now all kinds of things. So used to be a rabbi even in a yeshiva in Brooklyn. And his name was Rav Shmuel Birnbaum. And he had a son, Rabbi Ariel Lev Birnbaum. So, Birnbaum. So, his son died in his lifetime, and he made a eulogy for his own son. Everyone was crying, such a tragedy to a big rabbi like this. So in his eulogy, he said something that we should never ever forget. Listen to this. It says that when Avraham Avinu took Yitzchak to the Moriah mountain to do the Aqedah, to slaughter him, once he tied him, he told him, "Tie me hard, tie me tight that I won't move, that the slaughtering will be kosher." "Arash Lakem," sacrifice. And it's written that the angels, Hashem opened the heavens that the angels came all the way down to this world in a physical manner, and they saw that and they were crying. It was very touching to see our father slaughter his only son after he waited for him for 75 years. And they were crying, and their tears fell into his eyes, which later will make him blind. That's the reason for Yitzchak's blindness. Why do you need such a reason to explain how Yitzchak became blind? Why can't you just say old people become blind sometimes? You become 90, 100, 110, 120, 150, you may become blind. There's no such thing. If a person all of a sudden one day needs glasses, It's because he looked at something he was not supposed to look at. We were learning from the story with the Steigler, the holy Steigler, the father of Rav Chaim Kanievsky. The Steigler, one time he spoke in the yeshiva that if you watch your eyes, you will never have vision problems. One of the students asked him, "How someone like you watch his eyes?" absolutely complete God to your eyes, how all of a sudden you have glasses? You know, age 90-something. So he told him, I was walking the other day on the streets of Bnei Brak and I passed by some kiosk, you know, that they sell newspapers, and they put the newspapers in the front on the stand, and I turned my face And accidentally I stared for one second on the front cover of the lefty liberal wicked newspaper in Israel, Yedioth, mass murderer newspaper. 67 years they murdering souls. And I looked at the front page, right away I turned my face. But I already knew that second the price I'm going to pay. The next day I could not read. The next day I came to learn, the next day, it was in the evening yesterday. In the morning I came, I can't read. I needed to go to make glasses. Some people, it would happen to them, they would say, well, I got old. Well, we all get old, so we need glasses. No, no, not everybody needs glasses. There were people 100 years old that didn't need glasses. I've seen some videos of the Golei Yisrael in their 90s and even past 100 reading small writing without reading glasses. I've seen Rav Steinemann in one of the videos sitting learning the Maran Yisroel when he's 100 years old. No reading glasses. Today people get reading glasses age 40 already. Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky doesn't have reading glasses. You understand? So what do you see? What you're looking at, you look at not modest things on the street, you hurt your vision. You hear things you're not supposed to hear, you hurt your ears. If not in this world, in the next reincarnation. If not in the next Gilgul, in the next world. But it's going to be consequences to it. So Rav Shmuel Birnbaum, he asked a question, he said, why did Hashem need to bring the angels all the way down to this world to see the Akedah? They could have seen it from there. Why do you need to open the heavens? The answer is what you see from there and what you see from here is Completely different, like two opposite. Let me explain. Rashi say when Hashem gave the Torah, he opened the seven heavens above us, Shivarei Kiim. And everybody saw there is one Hashem, everybody understood in that event that there's one God and giving us the Torah. Rabbi Yirmiyahu said a story about the Ramban. From him you will understand a lot about life. The Ramban lived 750 years ago and he was a big legendary Kabbalist. The Ramban, Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman. He was in Barcelona. Then he went to Israel. After he had a debate with some Christian priests and crushed them to pieces, they went crazy, the Christians in Spain over there. Remember, back then everybody was extremely Christian. It wasn't like today, most of them not religious. It was such a sword to their heart, to their ego, with their fake foolish religion that the rabbi made such fun of all of us with our foolish religions. They warned him, if you don't leave tonight, by tomorrow you'll be dead already. They're not gonna let you live. And he had to run away. He came to Yerushalayim. He had the shul of the Ramban there, Beit Knesset HaRamban, top. The Ramban had a student that was dying. He came to the the student and he said to him, look, you are going to a world that is all good. You're going to the upper world, don't panic. It was the righteous kid, righteous student. I have one request for you. I have some questions about the way Hashem runs the world that I don't understand. I would like you, when you come to Hashem, please, I'm gonna write to you, I'm gonna tell you all the questions. I'm gonna write to you now all the special names of the angels for protection. With these names, it's like a password. You're gonna go through all the heavens and reach all the way to the top heaven, which is the 7:1, that's where Kisei HaKavod is, all the way to the chair of Hashem. And once you go over there, please ask Hashem all my questions directly and come to me in a dream and tell me all the answers. I'm sending you on a mission. There are names, it's called amulet. Today you have to be very careful who you're getting an amulet from. Some people, fake Kabbalists, they can make you more damage than help you, especially if they're not holy and they're fakers and Hashem Yerachem, they have tumah. You have to be very careful. I have this from Rav Kaduri. Rav Kaduri was the chief of the Kabbalists. He wrote this amulet with the names of all these angels. That's very good for Shemira, for many things, but if you go to someone you don't know who he is, It's a big chance. You take a big chance. It may help you, it may destroy you, Hashem Shalom. Because you have to be careful because you're dealing with a very delicate, very high spiritual level of secrets here. So the Ramban wrote to him all these names. He gave him a note and he said, we're gonna bury you with this note. Close your hands. And he died like this. Once a person died with his hands closed, Can't open it, that's it. Can't open the fingers. The student died. After exactly 7 days, the Shiva finished, he came to the Ramban in a dream, to his rabbi. He said to him, Rabbi, I want you to know that I read just like you said. I went with your notes and the names that you wrote. Every place, they opened the doors for me. I went higher and higher and higher and higher until I reached the top. And that's over there. When I reached over there, I had all of a sudden no questions. All the questions were so obvious already that it was not a question anymore. There was nothing to ask. So the Ramban told him, that's exactly what I expected you to answer. When we are living here in this material world and Hashem is testing us, we have so many dilemmas, so many question marks. This is the purpose of this world, to test the person. You have faith or you don't have faith? You trust me or you don't? You have questions against what I bring to you, good or bad. You think the bad is bad, you think the good is good. You don't know anything from your life. The bad could have been good, the good could have been bad. You don't even know simple things. You want to understand how I do things in this world you can't understand. When you reach the world of the truth, you don't need to ask. Everything becomes crystal clear. So that's exactly what the Rashmon El Boren Boim say. He say the angels up there in Shamayim, when they saw Avraham take Yitzchak to the Aqedah, is tying him, is ready to slaughter him, they said, what's the big deal? Why he deserves such credit? Everyone would do this. Who would dare to go against Hashem's request? What's the— why you make such a big deal out of this, Hashem? What's so special about Avraham? Because over there it's olam haymei, there's no yetzer hara, no infatuations, nothing. Hashem say, yes, yes, from here it's all very clear, no question. I'm opening all the heavens, go all the way down. Go to the world of human beings, be in their shoes, and then you come back to me and tell me if it was a great thing or not. When they came to this world and they seen Avraham after 75 years he waited, and Avraham was teaching the goyim not to slaughter their own children and not to burn them for their idols, and Hashem doesn't love that you kill your own babies, and Hashem already promised him, you're gonna have a son that will inherit you, So after all of this, Hashem said to him, take Yitzchak, and he ride away early in the morning. He takes his donkey, he's preparing it, running to do it, and the angel told him, no, no, don't do it. You know, now we know you really fear, fearing God, you're a God-fearing individual. We know that you're righteous. No, let me do it, I came all the way. The angels, they couldn't believe it. It was very touching. They all started to cry. What an event! 75 years he waited for that son and look how he's waiting for him to give his life. So that's when they started to cry. Eventually those tears later on, the tears that went into the eyes of Yitzchak later made him Blind. Now he's blind. When you're blind, your Yetzer Hara goes away, most of it. Most of the things that we like is because the eyes see and then the heart desires, right? So, a person looks at a lot of fleshy things, fleshy, and it makes him jealous. I want this, I want the car like this, I want shiduch like this. You see a girl like this, oh, I wish I would have a shiduch like her. All of this starts in the eyes. However, when a person lives in the darkness, he can't see anything. He doesn't, even when he eats food, he doesn't enjoy the taste. When you don't see what you eat, you don't enjoy. Next time when you eat something, close your eyes for the entire meal and see how it reduces most of the pleasure. You know, I'll tell you a story. In the end of the Second World War, the Nazis in March '49, they already almost finished to murder all the Jews of Europe. And in the meantime, the Allies, United States, Russia, England, all these countries, were winning against the Nazis. Slowly, slowly, slowly, slowly, they actually beating them and pushing them back into Germany. So the Nazis in Bergen-Belsen, it was a camp that still had a lot of Jews there, but it had a section of Russian soldiers that they captured in a war. So there's Russian goyim soldiers And you have all the Jews over there in Bergen-Belsen. So the Nazis came to them, they were much losing, any day they're gonna lose, they're gonna have to run. So they say to them, we would like you to make good impression on the Russians and the Americans when they reach the camp. We want you to tell them how fair we were with you. So that's why we brought to you hard bread rolls, like challah rolls, hard from the bakery baskets. 5 years, 5 years they were starving over there. They looked like skeletons. There was not one normal meal there, ever. Like skeletons. 5 years. So they made them wait in line. And one of the Jews over there, this Jew is thinking, "Wow, there is only 7 rolls left. Will I get one or not?" He counts in front of him 6 people. "Yes, I will be the last one to get the last roll." "Wow, ishtabach Shemot, thank God." Everybody took a roll and he was the last one, they gave him a roll and that's it, the basket was empty. Then he saw another line and over there they also give rolls. Over here we all shaved, they don't recognize who we are. Why don't I go and take advantage, finally get another roll? Why only one? Finally they bought finally normal bread here. Let me stand again in line. He stood one more time, they gave him another roll. Now he has two warm rolls. What a dream. You know, over there when you don't eat for 5 years, it clogs your judgment and your thinking completely. One of the survivors said if someone would come and tell you, what would you prefer, a good meal now or to suffer one more week and next week to get out of the camp to freedom. You're free. You would say, give me one meal now. Because the torture was so bad that you could not imagine now another week going like this. Give me one meal now and keep me here forever. That's how bad it was. So now he has two holes. As soon as he walks with the two holes trying to find a place to eat it. Who came? The Russian, the Cossacks grabbed him by the neck. Hey, you Jew, come here! Punches to the face, kicking his tummy, kicking his ribs, his legs. Few Russians picking him up, stole the two rolls from his hand. And he fainted. Fainted. Before he fainted, he was looking up to the sky and said, "I don't understand, Hashem, what else do you want from me? 5 years I'm tortured here. Finally, they brought bread here, everyone got, and I finally had it in my hand, and now you don't let me eat it? What else do you want?" Good question or no? And he fainted. After a few hours, in the morning, he woke up all broken. He slowly gets up, he walks out of the room over there. He looks around, quiet. No cars, no Nazis, no nothing. What does he see? Everyone is dead. All the people of the camp were laying down dead. Apparently what they did to kill them fast, they put poison inside those bread rolls. They were all full of poison. Everybody died besides him. He's the only one that survived to tell that story. So why am I telling you this story now? When he was beaten up and they took away these two rolls, after he found how warm they are, Ah, it's like a treasure. What a mental crisis it would create to a person. Like you bring him all the way to the well and you don't let him drink. But did he ever, ever took into consideration that maybe what's happening right now will save him and he's gonna be able to get out of there and come to Israel and establish a new family and grandchildren and grandchildren? Thanks to the moment that the Russians kicked him and beat him up, that was actually the greatest moment of his life. That's what sent him to freedom, those punches. Similar to what happened to the stikler. In Russia, they took everyone to the army, even religious Jews. You have no say. They took the stikler to the army. Shabbat came, he said to the general, "I'm sorry, tomorrow I can't practice, I can't touch the gun, I can't do anything." He said to him, "Over here I'm the god, not you. Not your god. Over here you listen to what I say." This is communists. They make fun at religion anyway. The sniper said, "I'm sorry, with all due respect to you, I have my god already." and he commanded me not to do anything on Shabbat, so I will not do anything on Shabbat. He said to him, I suggest you don't try me, because if you're not gonna do what I tell you to do, you will regret the moment you were born. The stipler said, you do whatever you want to me, there is no chance I'm gonna break Shabbat. He saw he's so devoted, so he said to him, you know what, you Jew, let me do, let me make a deal with you. You want to be able to have a day off when everybody else working? I'm willing to give you this day off in one condition, that you're gonna put your head down and every one of my soldiers with the rifles will come and hit you at the head. After all of them will do that, if you still stay alive, then we will allow you to keep Shabbat. You agree? He said, yes, I agree. So they all passed by. Boom! I don't have to tell you how cruel they are, especially when they see a Jew like this. Boom, boom, his head is all cuts. Full of blood. Later, many years later, the Stieikler said that the happiest moment of his life was that moment. That he felt finally that he reached some level in Avodat Hashem. Not when you sit in the air conditioning and enjoy a beautiful Gemara, or you eat shul and can shabbos, or you come to shul and you hear a wonderful Ashkenazi cantor sing singing opera, ah, ah, ah, and you enjoy, and everybody enjoy the aleh and reading the Torah. My, it's hard to be religious? People make it a lot harder than what it really is. Kosher food is a punishment? No, it's delicious, just as good. Getting dressed? You get dressed nicely. Why? What's the problem? Get married, have children, enjoy, make business, make money, live in a comfortable home. What's the suffering of being religious? Nothing. It's all in the head because people like to be free. Even if you tell people, I lock you in a fancy hotel, they'll still be upset. Why? For the lockdown. Not because they suffer in the hotel, but mentally, you locked me in, I'm not free. Why? I'm giving you a 10-star hotel. Serve your meals, you're locked in a room. No, no, no. Lockdown, everybody cries. Look, some people, they lock down in beautiful mansions in Long Island or in Beverly Hills. A lot of people would be very happy to be locked down in such a place, but they suffer. They don't enjoy the luxury over there because in their mind, I'm a prisoner here. That's what it is, Rabbi Tzvi. So the worst moments in life sometimes is actually the best moments in your life, and you're just only going to understand that later on. So the stalker is saying, I felt such satisfaction that I passed that test. Hashem kept me alive, and I was able now, from now on in the army, to keep, to be shomer shabbat. The only soldier probably in the history of the Russian army that had a dismissal for Shabbat. Don't have to do anything for this war. They kept their word at least, these monsters. Imagine they were telling, ah, I was just kidding with you. You understand? So we move on. We have something that we have to understand. It's a little bit Strange, you know, if you try to understand the Torah literally, you are totally ignorant. That's in the best case scenario, it could be worse. You don't ever try to understand the Torah literally. What you read, what you hear, what you think you understand, it's totally different than what you think. It's written in the Torah that Yitzchak Avinu said to Esav, go make me delicious food, matamin, as I love, and bring it to me that I should eat, that I should bless you before I die. This is the prophet, son of Abraham Avinu, Yitzchak. He was ready to die on the altar of Aqedat Yitzchak when he was 37 years old. We're not talking about somebody from the beach walking with his belly outside drinking beer. We're talking a holy person. I will show you dozens of bachorei shiva who the last thing they care about is food. They don't want to get up from the Gemara to go sit in the dining room. They eat a little bit bread with some olive oil and finish. Just not to waste time. They don't care. Sometimes delicious food, rice, schnitzel, chicken, you know, they serve food. Burger sometimes, hot dogs, whatever, they all. They don't want to waste time. They stay to learn. Why? Food is not a priority for them. They never care if the food is warm, if the food is hot, if it's cold, if it's spiced out. Nothing. They don't care. They just eat to survive. That's it. There are two ways to live your life. You live to eat or you eat to live. What the Torah wants you to to eat in order for you to live. You need to charge your batteries. You need to eat. So what do you eat? Who cares? The chicken is like this, it's like that. The fish is like this or like that. Who cares? I eat it, it makes me full for another 6, 7 hours. I'm happy. But some people, the only reason they live is for food. What do you need for dinner? They have private chef. In the house, private chef. What are you gonna cook for us, George? What are you in the mood for? Chinese? Or Italian? Or Persian? I actually learned something good, Georgian food, delicious. That's how they live. Why are you laughing? There are thousands of families here like this, around you. They have a private chef in the house. The rich and famous. Not everyone publish it. It's not something to brag about, but I know families that— I know a family that someone from Monsey used to cook for them and deliver the food daily to them, dinners. They didn't cook in their house. They cook in Monsey and deliver it to them every day, half an hour ride. Then they should have delicious Fresh dinner. Why? Because the wife is not going to cook, right? So therefore it was worth it for them, instead of to hire a chef, to order from a chef from a house that she will cook for every night. So in the afternoon they would send a request what tonight they're in the mood for. I'm not talking about this kind of people here. We're talking about Itzhak Avinu. But from the story, it sounds like he, Esau, I love you. Wow, your steaks are so delicious. You know how to make deer steaks. You hunt the deer, you slaughter him, you give me the meat, medium rare. Amazing. Make me a good steak, then I should give you a blessing before I die. No? You really think that's the way? That's what the Torah wants to tell about Yitzchak. If your father was a rabbi and he had a desire for food and he would care very much what you give him to eat, would you write it in his biography? You would hide it, no? You don't want the people to think, "Oh, what a lowlife, that's what he cares about," right? So why the Torah writes about Yitzchak such a thing? It's an embarrassment. Lashon hara. Lashon hara. That's what I'm explaining. If you try to understand the Torah literally, you always come to the wrong conclusion. Let's try to understand what's going on over here. How is it possible that Yitzchak loved Esav and Rivka loved Yaakov? If you are a rabbi and you have a son that is sitting all day learning and you have another son that is a hunter, Who you automatically appreciate more, the hunter or the one who sits and learns? You learn and he's learning. You admire him much more. How can you like the hunter coming with his ponytail and earring and his bow and arrow? Hi dad, what's up? You have a son in yeshiva all day with the Gemara until 11, 12 at night every day. So proud of him. Wow, Hashem gave me such a jewel. Then you have him, "Hi, what's up, Dad?" Comes with his jeans, with his holes. "Hey, what's up? What's for dinner?" You want to bury yourself if you have such a son. But according to the Torah, everything is the opposite here. All of a sudden, he needs hakel about the food. All of a sudden, he needs hakel, "My son, what's going on over here?" You ask yourself, "What's going on?" But before we explain that, we have another strange thing. Eisav comes from the field, he's hungry. Yaakov is cooking lentil soup. Why lentils? At funerals, they eat eggs and lentils because they're round. Why do you eat round things in a time of mourning? Because life is a circle. Ginkgul. It goes like one circle. You come to the world with nothing and you leave in the same way you left. Back to square one. That's what it's hinting. It's a custom. Don't worry if you didn't eat lentils when your father passed, you don't go to hell for that. It's just a custom. Minna, top. Rako is cooking lentil soup, delicious red beans, whatever it was. He shows up. Hey, mother, what's up? What are you cooking there? Oh, that looks good. Pour it to my throat. Why can't you bring a plate, give him a spoon? What's it? It's hot, pull it to my throat. And all of a sudden, Yaakov, the Talmid Sheva, became a sharp killer businessman. Took advantage of the opportunity. Hey, not so fast, bro. You wanna eat? Let's talk business first. No, what's business? Pay me $20 for the soup. No? It cost me money. Why? It cost me time. I went to the supermarket until I bought it, I cooked, whatever the case is. Yaakov all of a sudden talked big business. I want you to sell me the bechorah, your firstborn. Transfer me the rights, the deed. You're the firstborn. Esav said, Anyway, I'm going to die. Why do I need to be a bechor? What do you mean? What does it have to do with dying, not dying? Right now you're alive. Your father will die before you. You get double than your brother. You get bechorat plus an olam haba. So who cares if you die now, you die next year, you die in 20 years? What does it have to do now? Would you agree to give up your bechorat? Then later the Torah says, "Vayigdelu anarim," they grew up. Esav is a hunter, he's expert in the field, and Yaakov is "tam," naive, "tam," sitting in a tent and learning Torah. So we have to connect the dots here. So the Torah continues, and Rivka is listening to this Yitzchak talking to Esav and Esav is going to hunt and Rivka quickly convinces Yaakov, come put the custom, pretend that you're your brother, bring 2 goats, let me prepare them for your father that you should eat. No, but he went to get him deer. I'm gonna get him goat. He's gonna know it's not Esav. Don't worry, he cannot tell the difference between a deer and a goat. Do you think he cares about food? He just told him. Prepare me something like I like. That means he cares about the taste. But Rivka said, oh, anyway, he doesn't know the difference. It doesn't matter. Let me, I prepare it, don't worry. So then he's gonna say, well, maybe he's gonna find out that I'm not his son, he's gonna curse me. Don't worry, the curse is on me. She's speaking from a prophecy. Yaakov, no choice, he wears his clothes. He comes to Esav, he's very careful not to lie. Is it you? Me. He doesn't say me, Esav, your son. Me, period. Esav is playing tricks, you know. So Esav suspecting why Esav never said, "B'ezrat Hashem, your God showed me." the animal today I hunted quickly. He knows something is not right here. Anyway, Yitzchak now giving Yaakov a great blessing thinking he's blessing Esav. What's the blessing? The Re'echa is basically giving him control on the whole world. It was meant for Isa, but who took it? Yaakov. Who is Yaakov? The Jews. The blessing of the Jewish people started right here. You will control the whole world. Everything in the world will depend on your actions and decisions. Economy, armies, financial, stock markets, science, medicine, big companies. The Jews will control the world whether the goyim likes it or they hate it. That's a fact. It's written in a book that the goyim admit that is the book of God. So there's no argument here. There's only one condition we have to remember. When Esav came and he found out what happened, he started to scream and cry. He said, "Ani Esav Bechor Echa." What do you mean? You're not the Bechor, you sold the Bechorah. He said, "What do I care about the Bechorah?" He doesn't believe in the resurrection of the dead, he doesn't believe in life after death, nothing. How all of a sudden he became such a tzaddik? Amdabechor, why you give the blessing to him? Why do you care? The answer is, when Adam and Eve, the snake convinced Chava to eat from this, from the tree. She didn't want. Hashem warned them. He pushed her on the tree. You see, you touch the tree and nothing happened. Eat, enjoy. You know why God doesn't want you to eat? If you eat, you will be like him, like another god. You will know everything. Big temptation. So she ate. She saw she's not dead. Right away she ran to give Adam. Why? Eat, the Gemara says, eat that if I die, you also die. Because I don't want to die and leave you here to take another girl. That's what the Gemara said, but it doesn't make sense. Because she already ate from the tree and she didn't die. And the snake convinced her, "You're not gonna die, Hashem will take you. You're not going to die." But all of a sudden she worried that she will die and Adam will stay alive. Meaning, I don't mind to die so much as long as you die with me. Number 1. Number 2, what happened that before she didn't believe and she ate from, now all of a sudden she's worried about dying? The answer is, applies to each one of us, that's human nature. When the desire is in front of you and you're on fire for it, your brain is frozen. You don't think it's unhealthy, it's a lot of sugar, I'm diabetic, they're gonna chop my legs off, I'm gonna become blind, anyway already I have symptoms, the more I gain weight the more I'm gonna die faster, I'm gonna get a heart attack. You know all of it is a fact. Right now, only now, only now, as soon as you eat and satisfy your desire, You're rational again. The freeze is released and you begin to think again logically. That's what human being is all about. "En Adam choteh, elayim ichneset vo'hu ach'tu del maraseh." Why a person who makes a sin? The Torah told you the consequences of your sins. You're gonna pay a very heavy price for this one minute desire. For this 1-minute pleasure. You just ate pork, 2 minutes you enjoy, and you're going to suffer 39 times in a week. So, shiva teyshama koth. Who wants to get 39 times for 1 or 2 minutes pleasure? I can't help it, I have to do it. Look at my saliva, it's dripping. So, The question we have to ask, it's written that Yitzchak got very scared when Esav showed up. Rashi says he saw hell is opening for him. Hell opened up. When Yaakov came in, he smelled heaven. When Esav came in and he realized what happened now, the question is how Rivka dared to do such a trick. Yitzchak is the boss, no? He is the prophet and he wants to give the blessing to Esav, the bechor, and to give Yaakov a different blessing maybe. But you come and switch? But you're tricking him? You're tricking your husband? Rivka said, anyway everything will fall in the hands of Esav and his children. The question is how will they get it? She was a prophet. The prophecy shows the Jews will control the world only when they are fully righteous and satisfying Hashem with their actions. When Esav came, Yitzchak gave him a blessing. Once the Jewish nation comes down in a spiritual level and for Kim Hall, they release the leash of Hashem from them, like just like a dog that his master is putting him on a leash and the dog has to go where the master wants him to go. What happens if the dog rips the leash? That's it, he's free. He has no more master. That's Same story with the Jewish people. When they're all fully righteous and religious, nobody can touch them. As soon as they betrayed Hashem, pogrom, Holocaust, destruction of First Temple, destruction of Second Temple, antisemitism, exiles, Spain, Portugal, Arabs, fights, Intifadas, fear, no peace, no rest. Everything they gain, they go in, come and steal it. And make very high taxes. Pay attention, check in America, check the 7 most expensive neighborhoods for taxes, for real estate taxes in America, all Jewish neighborhoods. All Jewish land. Jews pay the highest real estate tax on their homes. You wanna know where? Beverly Hills, very high taxes. Monsey, very high taxes. Great Neck, very high taxes. Deal, New Jersey, very high taxes. Everywhere around is half. Same thing Monsey, around half. Great Neck, around half. Where the Jews are, higher taxes. Why? Hashem does it. Don't complain about the authority, don't complain about the— it's all from Hashem. Where do we learn it from? From this parasha. Then when I explained, Rivka says in the prophecy, anyway, what we gain, the goyim will steal from us. The question is, I rather it come first to us and then go to them. Then it goes directly to them. Why? There's a big difference. The Gemara said everything they go in steal from the Jews such as property, taxes, money, all kinds of tax in the time of war, count like charity to the Jewish people. You give money to the yeshiva. You give money to Oakland County or to Nassau County, it counts for you like tzedakah. Why? They robbed me, I have no say. Don't worry. Because of that, the Gemara says it counts like tzedakah. That's what Rivka said. Rivka said, Yitzchak wants to give it directly to Eisav. I know it's inevitable, Esav will have it. But Esav, I rather Esav has it when the Jewish people do not go according to Hashem's plan, that the goyim has permission to come and take everything away. At least we get something out of it. It can save us from death, it can save us from— because it counts like charity. When they take your money, it counts like they executed you. Ani chashuv kamehet. We have to ask a question. It's written on the Ari Hakadosh 500 years ago that he looked at the forehead of every Jew and he knew everything about him. His reincarnations, what kind of a person he is. You don't have to go that far. The Steigler, the father of Rav Chaim Kanievsky, had Ruach HaKodesh. People were shaking when they walked into his room. Even people who did not put black hats during the week, when they came to see the Stifler, everybody put their black hat down to cover the forehead. Because he saw on your face exactly who you are. He's not a fool, you can't fool him with your nice beard. He already know. One person told me that he went with one of his assistants. This story was told to me 25 years ago. He said, "You're not gonna believe what happened. I went to the Stiepler with another student of mine. When we walked in, as soon as the Stiepler saw him, he started to scream, 'Froze my blood! Get him out of here! Out! Out!'" Like this. And I asked him, "What happened, Fudala?" He started to say what he does, these not modest things. He never dreamed that that was the case. Later he came, he said, "What happened? Why he got so angry at you? He said that you're doing things that are not modest." And he confessed. In a moment of— he got broken, he got shocked. The Stifler, they gave him a list of 37 soldiers fighting in a Habar Sinith. There's a place in Egypt called the Chinese Farm. I guess it's a big farm there. The Israelis, the soldiers were ambushed by Egyptian soldiers and they all— they may be moments before they're all gonna be butchered to death. They came quickly to the Stagel with the list of all the soldiers and they asked him to bless all of them. And he started to bless the first. As he came to the seventh one, he crossed his name with a pen. He read a few more, crossed their name. Read a few more, few of them he already crossed their names. They told him, "What happened, Rabbi? Why are you making lines on them? They already passed. We were sitting in the back and they were fighting in Egypt." He already saw what's happening and Ruach HaKodesh like a prophet. So I want to ask you, if the stripler 30, 40 years ago was like this and the Ari HaKadosh 500 years ago was like this, that they can smell a wicked person right away by looking at him, Yitzchak Avinu is 1,000 times higher in his level from them. He did not know who Esav is living in his house. For so many years? Come on. Every one of us know every one of our children who is real Ben Torah and who is a faker. Who loves Torah and who loves sports. Who loves Torah and who loves food. Which girl is modest, which girl we're gonna have problem with when she grow up. You can see it right away, not a fool. Maybe he thought that was true. I don't know exactly where it serves. But let me teach you now a trick about chinuch. I learned it from him. What is it like? I'll tell you a story, you get the point. It's Rabbi Yirachmiel Kram, I hosted him in one of my lectures in Brooklyn a year ago, if you remember. Interesting speaker. He told that story. He said the mashgiach of the yeshiva asked one of the boys in yeshiva, "Where were you yesterday? I didn't see you learning." "I was sick," he said. "I went to kupat cholin. I went to the doctor." What time? The mashgiach asked. He said, "5 PM." The mashgiach said, "Oh, b'ezrat Hashem, you should never fool Hashem." "But please, next time, if you don't mind, let me know ahead of time that I should not be worried about you." The mashgiach left the room and all the boys were hysterically laughing. Why? Every fool knows that the kupat cholim is closed by 5. Those are 3, 4, 5. Definitely by 5 they close in Israel. And what do you think, the Mashgiach didn't know that? He was already in his 90s. He doesn't know Kupat Cholim? He's been there a few times in his life. And the truth is Rav Kranz said the Mashgiach knew very well the Kupat Cholim was closed yesterday at 5. But the Mashgiach said, it's very good that he lies to me. It's very good that this boy lied to me. Why? Because if he would tell me, "I'm not in the mood to learn, leave me alone. When I come, I learn. When I want to learn, I learn. When I don't want to learn, I don't want to learn. Don't pressure me. I want to play, I went to a movie." Imagine he would answer something like this. As long as he lied to the Mashgiach, that means he has fear and shame for me. When he does something wrong, he's embarrassed, so he lies. That means he's 50% connected yet. Still connected. When the moment he comes and takes off his yarmulke and tzitzit and walks around with his earring and walks with his girlfriend on the street and goes to the theater and listens in front of you to all this dirty music that he's listening when he hides, Then you know you lost him for good. Now you only need a miracle. So as long as the Mashgiach say later, as long as he tried to find excuses, that means at least in my eye he's trying to look good. There is still hope even though we all know what he does behind the scene, but he has a red line. That he does not cross in public. So what do we see? That means that he still cares not to show on the outside how he really is. And that's what Esav was. He comes to Yitzchak, "Abba, how do you make Maser from the salt?" Salt comes from the water, you don't need Maser, it doesn't grow on the ground. You don't need Maser in salt. It's a shayla of Amaretz. Doesn't matter. Amaretz that try to be tzaddik, right? Amaretz. Sometimes people ask questions, I don't know if it's a joke or serious. I get it every day. I read it few times to understand, maybe I'm missing something here. Like simple question. Are you allowed to do on Shabbat such and such? "Are you really serious? You're asking such a question?" But you see how they care about little things. Okay, very good. So Yitzchak goes along with his tricks. He pretends he's a tzaddik, good, good. That's why he wants to keep him close. Fai push him out, throw him out. Say, "Yana, get out of here." Avraham threw Ishmael out. See what happened to him. Ishmael went, married all these people. People in the desert. He said, I keep him around here. I watch him. As long as he's next to me, he's gonna stay at least one leg into the religion. Maybe one day he will have awakening. So, it says to him, oh, great Esav, great question. Don't worry, son, you don't have to do master on the 'But I appreciate you asking, Baruch Hashem. It's very good that you care.' That's how he talks to him. Why? This is the kind of kid you have. You have to talk to him like this. Now, who— Yitzchak shows more love to Esav. Rivka, it's hard for her. She can't show love to Esav. She shows love to Yaakov. Why? Think about it. What's the difference between Yitzchak and Rivka? Oh, the question is where they grew up. Yitzchak grew up in the house of the biggest tzaddik in the world, Avraham Avinu. Love Torah, love Hashem, hospitality, holiness, emunah. So it's nothing special for him. I grew up like this. I grew up in such an environment. So yeah, my son, Baruch Hashem, is like this. My father was also like this. It's nothing out of the ordinary. She grew up in a house of wicked idol worshipers. She never saw someone sit and learn Torah, leave the world, all what the world has to offer, sits in a tent all day and learn Torah. For her, it's incredible. It's a miracle. She cannot understand. How can it be that I got so lucky to have such a son when I come from such such a horrible family. Everyone appreciates what's strange for him, meaning, I didn't grow up like this, that's why I'm so excited, we never had this. If you take a rich kid who grew up in a mansion, when he sees other rich people, is there anything special for him? Who are they compared to us? Take a poor person, bring him to a house of rich people, Walks around, touch everything, check, ask questions. Why? Special swing. Beth HaMikdash, a person come, give donation or sacrifice and repent. If there's no Beth HaMikdash, comes the goy, grab what the Jews own by force and "nichshav la'em tz'daka." And where is the source? Isaiah 60. "Yishaya samich venoksaich." Tzedakah, no guess. Someone bites from what you have. Bites, take off, steal. It will come to you, tzedakah. The goyim come and bite from what we have? Don't eat your heart. It is your mind that comes back and gives tzedakah. Police tax, fire tax, library. In Monsey, it's the worst feeling. Why? In other places, most Jews, they send their children to public school, unfortunately. So they pay school tax, the money goes to the public school that serves their own children. And in Monsey, nobody sends his kids to public school. Thousands of kids, not one of them go to public school. So we pay for the public school which none of us use. And it's very high taxes, we $15,000, $16,000 go just for the school. And we never use it. We never use it. Also the library. How many Hasidim goes to the library to read about Shakespeare? Who cares about it? You know how much they take? Close to $1,000 a year for this library. Every family pays $1,000 and nobody ever go into the— the mother goes, but other people, they pay so much for the library. Now the poor people that use the library a lot, they don't pay so much for the library because they live in very small, simple houses out of Mondsee. Which the taxes there is a fare or a quota. So they pay 100, 200 to the library and they use all the books. The one that never use the books pay all the bills. That's taxes. That's why it counts like tzedakah. Don't worry, I will count it for you like you give charity. Is it not all tzedakah equal? Huh? Not all tzedakah is equal. Of course not all tzedakah is equal. You compare giving to Finkelstein Library than to to give to kosher yeshiva? Come on. But better than nothing, no? The Gemara says if a Jew lost his wallet, let's say there's $200 there, and after he lost it, he said, I hope that one talmid yeshiva will find it and use the money for good things, right? For Shabbat, for food for his children. And a real Jew found it and used it, the money, and it counts for him as a tzedakah. Why? He never wanted to give Tzedakah. It was forced on him. So we see that by Tzedakah, there is an aspect of what in the end came out of your money. You had intention, you didn't have intention, very important. When you give with intention, your reward is a lot greater. But in the end, if your money was used to something positive, you got something out of it. So if you lost money, pray. They said that Rav Zusha had two gloves. He was sitting on the train and he took one, his hand out of the train and one of the gloves fell. I read it about Rav Zusha. So the glove fell. So either he took the other glove and he threw it outside. So his assistant asked him, where did it go? You already lost one glove, why are you throwing the other one? He said, look, what will I do with one glove? I'm not gonna walk in the street with one glove. So since one already fell on the train track, that means the second one became also worthless. So the person that will find it at least will have two gloves. That's called rachavayim. Some people, tsareyayim. They rather the gloves will be burned and no one will enjoy from it. This is the process that if Hashem decreed on me the damage, at least let's benefit someone from it. Okay, very good thinking. Time is running out, so "Vare'ak asher tarid"— when you take away the weight of the Torah and the mitzvot from your neck, right? You will also get rid of the control. When the Jews will get rid of the weight of the Torah and the mitzvot from their neck, you will also get rid of their control over you. That's it. So the interest of the goyim that the Jews will be wicked. The more wicked the Jews will be, the better it is for them. Why? Because everything the Jews have, they take. Right? That's what's going on here. The Torah said. I once had a person with his wife. I wanted to invite him. He used to come to my lectures. To give to Israelis in a real estate. I used to give them lectures like 24 years ago. And this guy started to become closer and closer with his wife. And I wanted to invite them for Shabbat. They didn't have kids yet. They were married maybe a year, not even. But he had very long ponytail. And we lived in a neighborhood of extreme Hasidic, all the kids, long peyot. I already know if this guy would show up in my neighborhood with his ponytail, all the Yiddish kids would run, "Shake it, go, you screaming, what are you doing here?" Especially if he comes with a kippah, they will be very confused. So I asked him, "How about you take a haircut before you come? Get rid of this foolish ponytail. So he said to me, oh, it took me years to grow the hair. It took me years. I said, okay, but what do you need that? Don't worry, you look good without it. You're already married. What do you need it for? No, no, I like it. But don't worry, I'm gonna come with a hat and I will push it under the hat and no one will see it. I said, what, the whole Shabbat you'll be with the hat? Yes. Okay. He came with a hat, you know, like the limousine driver. I was holding my laugh when I saw it. The entire Shabbat, we have other guests, beautiful atmosphere. Motzei Shabbat came. They're getting ready to leave back to Queens. So I say to him, you don't expect me to let you leave my house We're disappointed. I gotta give you a haircut. Come. He said, no, no, no, no, no, I don't touch the hair. He took me in. No matter what I say to him, it's bad luck for men to have long hair. It brings judgment to his life. No, no, no. So I have nothing to lose. He's already one step out of the house. I told him, let's ask Hashem what he thinks. She said, "What do you mean?" I said, "We open the Chumash and we'll see what's gonna happen." She said to me, "Ma, you can do such a thing?" I said, "Yeah, we'll make a special prayer. Hashem, if we have the zechut, Hashem will give us an answer, but what comes out on the right side, you must do." His wife, "Yeah, yeah, let's see, let's see." They get curious. I said, "Dear God, show me if you want me to get rid of this ponytail. Show me." I said, "Open!" Open the Chumash, verse 1, right? This pasuk, when you remove it from the back of your neck, tzavar, right? Right after that, he said, "You should leave." I said to him, "I don't think in the whole Tanakh you have a pasuk that speak about something at the back of the neck like your stupid ponytail. He was shocked. I said, cut, cut. He said, no, no, no, don't worry, I promise you tomorrow I go to the barber, I cut it. So remember, give me your answer. Yes. The next day called me up, don't worry, you can relax, I got rid of the ponytail. So he got rid of the ponytail, chas v'shalom, he became religious, 2 or 3 weeks ago, if you remember, there was a girl came to speak to me after the lecture, 20 years old, 19 years old. I speak to her, "B'ezrat Hashem, soon I'm getting married, I came for you to give me bracha, to ask a few questions. Where are you from?" "My name is such and such." I said, "Oh, very interesting." "You know my parents!" Who is her parents? Life choices that you make in life have long-term consequences. Such a sweet girl, she listens to the lecture, she became balachuvah, she's getting married to a bachur that listens to me 24/6. She told me, my future husband got me to listen to your lecture. It makes me very strong. We're getting married, you're gonna keep everything. And when she told me she's the daughter of this couple, I had a flashback how that woman bought 6 chapels. We opened the Chumash, Hashem already saw that moment. You understand? So this is it, Rabotai. You make the right choices, you won't regret. Now I want to ask you a question. Are you allowed to trick a person to steal a mitzvah from him? Somebody knocks on the door. You and your friend sitting in the living room and you see from the glass of the door that is some Hasidish man standing by the door. You already know, is he collecting for yeshiva or something? They come usually in the evening. So now there is a mitzvah to run, give tzedakah. So the person, your friend wants to go to the door, he's gonna get the mitzvah. You tell him, no, no, go see over there something right now. You run quickly and you do the mitzvah. This is not such a good example because both of you are here to give tzedakah. But what happens when one of you can only do the mitzvah? It's either you or him. Can you trick him and steal the mitzvah from him or no? If he was on the way to do it and you call him, "Moshe, Moshe, come one second. I'm going to— wait, wait, come in." When he comes, wait him one second, you run, you do the mitzvah, you come back. "Hey, it's not fair. I was about to do it." The question is, is it allowed or no? Let's see, let's see. We learn everything from the Torah. The Sha'aret Shuvah, Siman Taf Beibet, he writes, Yisod Gadol, big foundation. Although you're not allowed to cheat your friend, meaning to fool your friend, to take what's his, you're not allowed to deceive him. This is things that has financial values. Things that either it's cash or worth cash. You're not allowed to trick him, to take from him, to make him a damage, to fool him when it comes to money. But with mitzvot, you are allowed. Kol hakodem zocher. First serve. For instance, somebody slaughtered a chicken now. Shochet, there is sand right there. Two people standing and watching how the poor chicken is struggling for his life. Your friend is saying, where is the shovel? What does he want? He wants to get some sand and cover their blood. It's a mitzvah to cover the blood. You don't, you're not so spoiled. You take it with your hands, you make the bracha, and you cover the sand. By the time he went to the garage to bring the shovel, he came back. What, where is the You see the blood? I covered it already. Eh, it's not fair! Why? You stole it from me! I told you I'm going to bring the Shabbat. Until you bring the Shabbat, the Mashiach came twice already. Ah, yeah, but it's right in front of me. You want me to wait for you? Did you do something wrong? No. But what happened if your friend prepared a bucket of sand? And he also owned the chicken. And he slaughtered the chicken. And he's about to take the sand and cover, and you stole it from his hand and did it. Now he already had position on the mitzvah, and you actually stole it from him while he was doing it, second before. And he takes you to Beit Din, to Din Torah. You have to pay him 10 zehubim, 10 coins of gold. It's a lot of money. For the mitzvah. You have to pay him for stealing the mitzvah from him. Some mitzvah that is in the healthcare, everyone can come and do, it's not your mitzvah. You see a blind person waiting in the intersection for someone to help him to cross the street. That's chesed or avodah. You and your friends walking and you both saw him. Your friend said, "Oh, I'm gonna go and help the poor man to cross the street." And you gave a big sprint and you grabbed his hand. "Let me help you, grandpa." "What did you do? I told you that I'm going to move." "I'm sorry, until you move, I wanted to mix one for myself." Of course, it doesn't look good. Again, I give you an example. If there would be a diamond ring on the floor, 10 carats, and your friend said, "Ooh, I think there's a big diamond ring over there," you would run, jump with your suit on the mud. "Don't move. Hey, put it down." It was mine! Boom! Punches! Your best friend! Ah, 10-carat diamond. Don't ever talk to me. Don't come to me. I don't want to hear from you. Okay, it's worth it to get rid of you for $1 million. But when it comes to the mitzvot, yeah, no, why me? No, you're so expensive, you go. People are very generous, why? Because they don't evaluate the value of the mitzvot. They don't evaluate. If they evaluate the real value of a mitzvah, the endless reward, they would grab each other's hair. It's written in the time of Beit Hamikdash, the kohanim, when they go on the harab, they push each other. Sometimes a person would fall and die because they were pushing each other to do the mitzvah first. It's not like the other person loses. Like, he walked into the mitzvah, so he gets a reward too. That's a good point. A person that wants to do mitzvah, it's written, "Ma'al le'ani alav ki'ilu asa." Ki'ilu. I give him reward like he actually did it. The question is, is it really full reward like he actually did it? Maybe yes. But reality, who did it? Someone else did it. Okay. So there has to be some difference. That someone actually physically did it or So, that goes back to the Tzva'at Ha'adon. But you know what? You ask, how do you learn that you're allowed to fool a person with words, deceive him in order for you to get the Mitzvah and not him? How do you know? Yaakov. I'll give you an example. Let's say a rabbi calls you up and you're a rich man. We want to build a mikveh in our yeshiva. We need $50,000. I want you to speak to your rich friend. You have a friend that is 10 times wealthier than you. I want you to speak to your rich friend. He once told me that he wants to build a mikveh for the memory of his mother. So now are we ready? Ask him if he can come tomorrow to the yeshiva and talk to the the rabbi for the design of the mikveh and you went, you didn't tell your friend, you went, how much you need? He said 50, here is the 50. I want to get the mitzvah. You did something wrong or no? Based on that, no. Not only that, if your friend will ask you, what did the rabbi want from you? Did he ask about me, something about the mikveh? No, no, he was talking about something else. Something else. Then you run quickly and do it. And Rabbi signed him that the mikveh is my mitzvah. The question is, I know it doesn't look good, but the positive thing is you show Hashem how anxious you are to steal every possible mitzvah. But we need a source. You have to agree that for something so fragile, you need a source. Where is the source? Let me give it to you. The source is that we had the story in Megillat Ruth. Boaz was the head of the Sanhedrin. And he said, "Behon kenotcha sade miadnom miyume et rutha moavia." We have Ruth and Orpah. They are the daughters-in-law of Naomi. Naomi is married to Elimelech. He was a tzaddik, a mitracham, but he left Israel. He decided to come to Las Vegas to sell cosmetics in the malls. Meaning, there's no parnassah in Israel. He went overseas to do some business. His sons, Machlon and Kilion, or any married to goyot, Ruth and Orpah. That's what happened. You come to America, your children are not getting the proper education, don't be surprised. So they married the goyot, Hashem killed both of them. So now is Naomi and Ruth and Orpah, they're going now to Israel. And she said to them, go back to your country. No, no, Ruth said, I'm going with you. Orpah went back. Orpah went back. That night she did some acts of prostitution and she conceived and her son was Goliath. What's it called? Goliath Ha'Plishti. Ruth stuck to Naomi. Best friends. Madrinho and doutrino. Now they came, at that time you have Boaz the tzaddik, he's the head of the Sanhedrin. So now Boaz said there is goel, goel, a relative of the family that has the right to marry her before anyone else. So Boaz wants her for himself, so he's going to trick him. The biggest chacham in the world, he's coming to deceive a person that he should steal the mitzvah from him. Why? Because he seen, Ruach HaKodesh, that from this woman the Messiah would come. David Amalek came from Ruth and the Messiah come from David. Who doesn't want the Messiah to come from his children? What am I gonna give him now? So what he came to him? He said, "When you go and buy the field from Naomi and from Ruth Amoavia," he highlight Ruth de Goya, Moabia, meaning it looks bad, like he said Ruth the Palestinian. Why do I get scared? Why the chief rabbi telling me this Ruth de Goya? Look how he gets angry when he says de Goya, gets nervous. He saw in his holy vision and that from her the kingdom of David will come. That's why he said, "Amo Avia, kedesh yema'en, uveikacheahu." He wanted to scare him that he said, "I'm giving up my right." Right away jumped and married her. Boaz said to the go'el, "Root shizmo Avia," and made him scared to marry her. Why? There is a pasuk in the Torah, lo yavo Ammoni o Moavi bekal Hashem. Hashem say Moavi and Ammoni, those two nations, they can never convert. Why? Because they are ungrateful. They did not give you bread and water when you pass through their land when you came out of Egypt, even though your grandfather Abraham saved their grandfather Lot. And they did not appreciate it. People that have no gratitude, I do not want them in my nation because Judaism is all about gratitude. So they are not welcome. When he heard Moravia, they got very scared. Oh, Hashem hates the Moravian. I'm not gonna marry Moravia. Soon as he gave up, the boy was like, imagine what he thought. Rabbi, you tricked me. You told me yesterday, Shizmo Aviach, I understood that it's not good. And now you want to marry her? Yes, I wanted the Mitzvah for myself. I want David HaMelech to be my grandson, not your grandson. I want Mashiach to come from me. So for me, we learned that it's allowed. Mamshi Chashar Et Shuvah continued to lie. And this is the same story with Yaakov Avinu. Yaakov So that Esav is wicked. If he's gonna get the bechorah, right? What is he gonna do? It's gonna create problems. Better the bechorah will come to someone who sits and learns Torah. I wanna tell you something. Everybody knew that Yaakov is meant for Rachel and Esav is meant for Leah. Right? No, Esav for Leah, Yaakov for Rachel. Leah was crying nonstop that she doesn't want to fall in the hands of this Rashach, right? That's what it's written in the Torah, meaning her eyelashes fell off from crying so much until Hashem said, no more. So in the end, if I had time— I don't have time, maybe tomorrow I will finish it— you see how everything falls into place. So now we have The prayers of Yitzchak and not the prayers of Rivka. We have a question to ask. Rivka, she prayed for her condition. She is now barren. It's a sickness. She cannot have children. We learned that if a sick person prays for himself and somebody else prays for him, his prayers can help himself himself more than strangers, more than even his mother. We learned it from Ishmael. Hagar was praying for Ishmael. Ishmael was praying for himself not to die. And the Torah says, "Vayishma Hashem lekol anar." So Chazal say that the prayer of a sick person on himself is more able to save your life than someone else praying for you. Why? Someone else, as much as he loves you, as much as He loves you and cares about you, He doesn't have the broken heart that you have when you're sick fighting for your life. And the broken heart of a sick person is a huge advantage. As it's written, "Lev nishbam venit ke Elokim lo tifzei." A broken heart works. With tears, it's a magic, it's a wonder. So over here it's a little bit strange. Rivka crying to have children, she doesn't want to be barren. Yitzchak is praying for her and Hashem accept the prayers of Yitzchak. Why? Why not the prayers of Rivka? The Gemara say, "Vay'etar lo rashi reit lo velola to him and not to her." Why? "Es sanu ve'raiches." that his father or mother is wicked is not as a prayer of a righteous son of righteous. Yitzchak is righteous and his father is righteous. She is righteous but her father is wicked. Righteous son of righteous is greater than righteous son of wicked. And right away we have the question to ask, didn't the Gemara say, In a place that a Baal Teshuvah, even righteous from birth, cannot reach. Someone who was in the mud, in the garbage, and was able to come out of there and give up all the desire and become righteous after he was full of sins is much greater than someone who was all his life righteous. That's true. No question about that. Here we're not talking about just the righteousness of Yitzchak or Rivka. We're talking about where they grew up. Where they grew up. What does it mean where they grew up? When you grow up in a house that your father is a very big rabbi, genius, Talmid Chacham, all the eyes of eyes of all the people in the world are aimed to you. Will you reach the level of your great father or not? It builds mountain of pressure on the children. That's why I've seen an advice that if you are a figure, a famous person, and very charismatic and influential such as big rabbi or prime minister or famous person or very rich father in business, very good and recommended to send your son, your sons away from home for a period of time to learn and stay in a dorm far away that they can develop their own personality on their own and not be under your shadow. Why? Because the pressure may break them. And they say, "The mission is impossible. I can't reach, can't reach the level of my father. No matter how much I'm gonna learn, I don't reach 10% of him. I might as well just give up. Anyway, I'm a loser." That's how it is. And we see a lot of children, they're not reaching the level of their father. The Gemara have an expression for it. The Gemara, kol le, Chometz ben Yayim, vinegar, son of wine. Son of wine. Wine can be very expensive. The older it is, the more superb it is. It's not mevushal, and it can be $1,000 a bottle. It reminds me that yesterday I said, let me drink a little bit dry wine, a little bit. I opened the wines. You know, people come for Shabbat, they bring wines. Usually a bottle of wine is how much? $15, $20. Usually you go to the kosher store, most of them is Mevushal. Nothing fancy. This bottle, I don't know about wines, thousands of names. I see a bottle and I look at it. See, nothing is Mevushal. Rameloni, no one is I can open it. I pour myself a glass. As soon as I drink from it, and I'm nothing, no expert in wine. Some people, they taste the wine, they'll tell you right away what kind of grapes. I've seen a guy, I was in Herzliya, Tituach, for Shabbat. In the table there was a guy, Baal Teshuvah, that was some kind of diplomat in Germany. He spoke in the United Nations, somebody really big shot. So I come to the table, he came. Why he came? Because he likes my lectures, so he came. He's a single guy, he sits over there and we talk. You know how you meet people on Shabbat? What's his job? Until he became a Baal Teshuvah, he was a world expert for tasting wine. Every wine he tastes, he will tell you from where it came and what's the vatir and Unbelievable. Now he can't do it anymore because all these wines in the show, it's non kosher. So he gave up the job. Baruch Hashem, he became tzaddik. But he brought like 5 or 6 bottles of wine and he gave us a speech on each bottle. These grapes came from Georgia, a place in Georgia that has the best grapes in the world. You do it, you do it like this, you put in a barrel like this. Oh, it's all encyclopedia. You have to be an expert in wines, it's not so simple. Me, I'm a totally ignorant in wine. What do I know? So I see a bottle, I pour myself, I drink. But even someone like me, this wine tastes something special in it. I said, let me check the name. I go give the father— I wanted to pull my hair off. It's expensive, buddy. How much it cost? $160. Wow. You better give it to someone who appreciate wine. For me, it's the same thing like drinking a $10, $15. You give it a gift to someone who knows about wine. Wow, we look at the bottle, what a great bottle. Special. I said I just burned with my hands 160. Why? Because I don't know wines. That's stupidity. Next time you check before you open. Why do you know? By looking at the bottle, you don't know necessarily if it's expensive or not. So over here we have now the player of Tzadik ben Tzadik and Tzadik ben Rashah. And Hashem listened to his prayer. Vayehetarlo. But we have to ask a question from the Gemara. The Gemara says in Masechet Ketuvot, page 67, the Gemara says there was a big rabbi, his name was Mar Ukva. Him and his wife used to to give things to the poor people. And they will knock on the door, throw the money inside, and run. They don't want him to know that the money comes from them. Not like today, a person takes money from his friend and he comes pretending he gave the money. Back in time, people gave the money and say someone else gave the money. Why? They don't want honor for the Mitzvah. So, one time the poor person was dying out of curiosity. You know, people are curious. He waited for them all day. Soon as he heard the knocking, boom! He opened the door, but they already were running and he chased them now. He only sees their back, he doesn't see who it is. They run in the streets of the city. They were there and they saw a place, he grabbed them inside. They walked inside, they didn't realize they actually walked into a big oven, oven room. Once they were bringing bread over there, they put it over there and the whole room is oven. Underneath is fire, under the ground, it's wood ground and there's fire underneath. So their legs are burning. So they're jumping now. The poor man is looking for them outside, they can't go out. So she said to him, put your legs on mine if you're burning. So he got his legs on hers and she was not screaming. She was able to take the heat. So he said, how can it be that she suffered the heat less than me? That means she's more righteous than me. I learned Torah all day in yeshiva and she's in the house cooking food. I give food and she's already greater than me? What's your secret? So his wife told him, I'll tell you what's the difference. You give cash to the poor. I give them ready food to eat. But they take your cash, they have to go to the market to buy food, to cut it, to clean it, to cook it. 2 or 3 hours until they have a meal. I already give them the food ready. When they come, you're hungry? Here's chicken, here is rice. They don't have to do anything. They eat right away, ready. So because my mitzvah is more perfect than you, you only give cash. What did I ever do with the cash? I have to go shopping. There's a lot of work. That's why my chesed is higher than yours. So That's one example of how the merit of a woman is higher than a man. The Gemara in Masechet Taanit, page 23, the Gemara says that there was no rain in the time of Abba Chilkiah. Abba Chilkiah was a grandson of Choni Amargel. Remember a few times I told the story about him that he came home and his wife was coming out dressed up with makeup for him, and the rabbi asked him, why your wife coming out like this so dressed for for you? And he said, because she doesn't want me to look at other women. Remember this? This is the same one, tzaddik. This family, when they prayed for rain, the rain begins. Grandfather Choni Amargue, Rabbi Chinkiya, they have this. So they ask him all the time, pray for rain, pray for rain. Him and his wife, when the people from the Bedouin came to ask him for rain, him and his wife went up to the attic and they prayed. And the rain came from her side, not from his side. The clouds. He was praying on one side and she was praying on the other side. And the clouds started to come from her side. The rabbi is asking him, why the clouds came from your wife's and not from you? You're the one who brings the rain. So he says, because when the poor person comes, she gives him right away the bread ready. When they come to me, I only give them money and have to go and find a bread or bake a bread. She benefits the poor better than me. Meaning, we learn from this Gemara, the Gemara wants to teach one concept here. When you do charity, do it in the best possible way that a person will not have to go and work very hard to get it. Right? So based on that, who is the bigger Baal Chesed, Rivka or Yitzchak? Rivka. So Hashem should have listened to her prayers, not to me. Some people, they think that there's no problem of going to all kinds of babos. You know what a baba is? Kabbalist. I wish they were Kabbalists. They pretend that they are Kabbalists. Fake babot. Do this, do that, pray God, wait, let me see what I see. Oh yeah, all done. Take mint leaves, put under your yarmulke when you sleep. Get up in the morning, go to the dirt, take water. They make up all kinds of things. A person goes home, I went to this big tzaddik, you have to see his eyes, wow, it's beard, looks like an angel. So there was one like this in the grave of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai. 20 years he sits there, beard, turban, white kilt. People by mistake thought maybe it's Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai came out of his grave. For 20 years people come to him, he has a big basket, put 100, 200 shekels. He gives brachot to people and to the man he say, did you put tefillin today? Make sure you put every day tefillin and Shabbat you have to keep and my bracha will give you a big miracle. B'ezrat Hashem, in 9 months you will have to twins. Yes, yes, but 20 years we don't have kids. Don't worry, my word, 9 months you have twins, but one condition, you must put tefillin and you keep Shabbat. Very good, looks like a very good rabbi. He gives some mussar. After 20 years they found out he's an Arab. I don't have to tell you the shock that people got. But one person came to him and said to him, I don't understand, you were telling people put tefillin, keep Shabbat, mamash, but you're rabbi. So he said to them, what do you expect me to say, you fool, go to the mosque? They think I'm a Kabbalist, I have to tell them keep Shabbat, put tefillin. I wonder how many people started to keep Shabbat thanks to him. To this faker? That's a good question. Will he get a reward for it? Let's see, 50 people became Shabbat thanks to this other. Will he get the rewards for it or not? Huh? I tell you what, Og was hoping that Avraham got to save Lot and will die, that all Og meant for good or for bad? For bad. He wanted Avraham to get killed. But Avraham saved Lot and there was a good thing next to it. He was the messenger. And it's written that Avraham was afraid, that Noah and the tzadikim, they were afraid of the merit of Og. They came to the place, they said, Og lives there, he is a tzchut. Why is he? He was the one who sent Avraham to save Lot. They say, "V'lo, keshvos chut." He is married. What married? He wanted Abraham to die. So from here you see that even if you mean bad, but some big mitzvah came out of you, some kind of merit you get. Needless to say, when you have good intention and you do it for the sake of heaven, there's nothing to talk about. So, mamash, the last thing and we finish here. Rivka was barren for 20 years. Some people say, I'm gonna go to this Baba. How do I know if he's real or not? I have no idea. How should I know? How should I know? He looks holy. Do I know if he's real or not? Maybe he's not even shomer Shabbat. What do I have to lose besides some money? If he's real, I get $500, maybe something big will happen. If not, kaparatavo not. I lost $500. Especially if he's rich, ah, doesn't care. That's a very big mistake. A common and very big mistake. Blessings from this kind of people can make a huge damage to you. How come? We learned it from Rivka. Rivka was damaged because she got a blessing from her father and her brother, Betuel and Lavan. They told her, you should multiply to be tens of thousands of children. Tens of thousands of children. Big lunch, Lavan and Betuel. Yisroel gave her a blessing to idol worshippers. Hashem on purpose made her barren for 20 years. Why? That no one in the world would say, thanks to the idols, she got a child or many kids. So Hashem actually made it worse for her. Same thing when you go to a fake Baba, that Hashem hates him so much for tricking and deceiving people. So if you will get what he blessed you for, people will give credit to who? To someone Hashem cannot stand. So not only you're not gonna get what Hashem wanted to give you because you went to that faker, what was coming for you, you lost. You got it? So what's the solution? Don't go to anyone you don't know 100%. Don't go. Count on Hashem. Why do you need middlemen? Why do you need middlemen? I don't understand. Hashem is everywhere. You can talk to Him no matter where you are. Anyway, if you go to a middleman, he's begging Hashem to help you. Beg Hashem. Shame yourself. Especially if your heart is broken, it's gonna be even better, with tears. With tears, especially if you give a lot of tzedakah. I told over the years to a bunch of couples that couldn't have kids, I said to them simple common sense. Everything Hashem does is midah ke'neged midah, measure for measure. For good and for bad. You hurt someone in one way, someone will hurt you in the same way one day. You help someone in one way, someone will help you in one way. The Gemara say there was a person called Nehunya Chofek Shikhin. He used to dig holes in the ground, deep holes, that water comes out, you know, water from the ground, fill it up with water for the people who come to Jerusalem, that they will have water. They need to wash themselves, they need their animals to drink. It's water in the ground. So he used to work voluntarily to make a lot of wells in Yerushalayim that the people that come Well, I have water because if you won't do it, nobody wants to come to the Beit Hamikdash in the holidays, in the festivals. So voluntarily he goes and digs and he covers it, and when they come, they have water ready. It wasn't like today, faucet, press a button. It was a different world. One time he was learning in yeshiva, somebody ran quickly to him, Rabbi, Rabbi, your daughter fell into a pit. She's very deep in the ground. So he said to him, relax, relax, soon she's gonna come up. No, Rabbi, she's deep in the ground, we have to somehow save her, we have to go down. An hour later he asked him, did she get up already? No, not yet. Continue to learn. Another hour, did she get up? No. Third, did she get up yet? She got up. How did that nervous? Your daughter is maybe is dying down there. Maybe the snakes, who knows? Why you're not nervous? So I say to them, any other way I would be very nervous. But when you told me that she fall into a deep hole in the ground, a pit, I knew that nothing will happen to her. It's impossible. Why? Because it cannot be that in what I do all my life is digging holes for people that they should come to the Beit HaMikdash, that in one of these holes that I dug for the sake of the Beit HaMikdash, that one of my children will die there. That's the opposite of measure for measure. Hashem does not pay bad for something good you do. If He gives you bad, it's for something bad you did in the same field. So since I gave my life to make those holes for the sake of heaven, there's no way Hashem is gonna use what I did good to kill one of my kids there. If you tell me she went on the street and a snake bit her or a horse hit her or she fell from a building, yes, I would run quickly to see what I can do. Once you told me she fell in one of these pits, I got very relaxed. They lived the Torah, lived it. It was so obvious for them. They, oh, maybe, wow, how do we know? Who told you? Who do you think you are? What are you speaking in the name of Hashem? No, we only say what's written. But nobody is a muna, almost nobody. So what happened? If If somebody goes and counts on someone that Hashem cannot stand, Hashem has a problem. I can't give it to you because people would run and give credit to this Rasha, and that's not what I want. So because of that, because of that, is that not only you didn't get it, you actually lost what you're supposed to Why? Everything Hashem does is measure for measure. So when couples come to me that cannot have kids, I told them, let's think. What do you need from Hashem? You want children. So you have to do something that Hashem will pay you measure for measure. So what's the options? Hashem has many children that are lost. No Shabbat, not tefillin, on the streets. All kinds of drug addicts, all kinds of apikorsim, infidels, horrible. And if you invest your money in Hashem's children to bring them back, to make them balay teshuvah, Hashem will say to the Satan that objects, he doesn't want you to have kids, keeps objecting. Hashem will say to the Satan, what's your objection? He takes care of my lost children, bring them back to me. They are reborn. I have to give him children. Measure for measure. And Baruch Hashem, in almost all cases it worked. People that could not have kids for years, they try 4 years, 7 years, 11 years. Boom! All of a sudden twins. All of a sudden a child. Why is it? You care about my children, I care about your children. When I told Rav Shmuel Vosner Halevi, one of the Toleador who passed few years ago, and he said, someone, it's written in a Gemara, Masechet Megillah, page 24, someone who makes his tefillin round Someone makes his tefillin round instead of square. I want to make it nicer. Let's make it round. What do you mean? The Torah says it has to be four sides. Shin on one side, shin on the other. No, I want to do it my way. Someone that makes his tefillin round is dangerous for him. Why dangerous? Say he has no mitzvah. He definitely doesn't have mitzvah tefillin, but why dangerous? Why? What's the reason? The Or Zarua, one of the dolehrishonim, he says when a person used the names of Kodesh, holy names such as written in the Torah and in tefillin, not for for the sake of mitzvah, for personal use, not for what Hashem say to do, he puts himself in danger. Put himself in danger. Because round filling is no mitzvah, the names of Hashem and all the holy names that he written inside, not only does not help, become poison for you, very dangerous for your life. In the old days, people wanted to write all kinds of names in the back of the mezuzah. The Rambam writes very much against it, against these ignorant people who want to add names because they want the mezuzah to keep them. Then would the mezuzah watch the safety of the house? Yes. But when you put mezuzah, oy vey, if you think I put mezuzah to keep my house safe, to save us from fire and tragedies, God forbid. Why do you put mezuzah? Because Hashem said so. That's it. Because Hashem said it. I have to do it because it's a mitzvah from the Torah. Because it's Mitzvah from the Torah. B'ezrat Hashem, it's enough for today. Tomorrow I have a lot more interesting stuff to talk about. We talk about why Yaakov and Esav was fighting inside the womb, and then the story with the whales, the antisemitism, the roots of the first time antisemitism in the world, and the consequences of it. Rabbi and Antoninus, and a lot of interesting things coming up tomorrow. Baruch Adonai, Olam. Amen, amen. Rabbi Chanan, Yehuda Trishem.