The Way to Motivate People

All right, that's it. Good afternoon. I'm honored to be here tonight, I mean today.

Thank you.

And I would love to make this lecture, more of maybe questions and answers. I'm sure you have a lot of questions to ask today. I don't care about the topic, any topic you want to ask about, feel free to ask. I just understand you finished the whole Mesilas Yesharim, which is a great achievement. Every Jew has to read Mesilas Yesharim at least 100 times in his lifetime to be able to know it by heart. Because everything in life is in that book. The Ramchal, Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, at least 250 years ago, it wasn't just a rabbi. It was a rabbi that from age 18 already Hashem sent him an angel, a Maguid, to speak to him. It was so out of the ordinary that big holy rabbis in their 70s never had it. They looked at him so some kind of a strange phenomena. What, who are you? What are you telling us? An angel is speaking to you? You don't even have a beard. He didn't have a beard. He was very skinny. He was also a diamond maker. He used to make diamonds. So he wasn't the ordinary Chacham, but he was the greatest in the world. When the Gaon of Vilna saw the book, Misilat Yisroim, in handwriting, remember there was no printing like today. So they showed him a copy of his book. When he read the chapter, Midat HaChasidut, how he explained what does it mean to be a Hasid, he got up, he wore his Shabbos clothes, took his cane, and he said, "I will walk all the way from Vilna to meet this Chacham." "Where is he?" They told him, "In Padova, in Italy." "From Vilna to Italy, it may take you months to walk." You know? And they say to him, too late, he just passed 39, 39 years old. And he wrote more than 100 books. We only know a few of them. Most of them are gone. We have no idea where they're gone. Of course, when a Chacham writes a book and then it's gone from the world before it was published, it was the will of Hashem. Sometimes it can be too much to the level of the generation. Hashem has His calculation why the books were done, but the ones who remain are a path to life. I just finished recently to do a series, Way of Hashem, also by the Ramchal, which is very recommended. You should listen to it. Explains about the entire creation, the upper worlds, the angels, how does it work. How your life, it's actually a two-way highway. Whatever you do over here goes up there, being analyzed and returned right back to you. So basically, according to this series, if you listen to it, you will understand that basically everything that happens to us in our life, we cook 100% and then we have to eat it. It's 100% in our hands. Yeah, it's saying it in an easy way, you know. So in other words, you know King Solomon, I understand you're about to start Mishlei. Mishlei, it's Proverbs in English, right? So King Solomon wrote 3 books, but he didn't really write it himself. He just put the ground for it, the knowledge. He actually put the knowledge, and who really wrote it? King, it's Yahweh and his yeshiva. 500 years later. King Solomon was 3,000 years ago. And King Christiano is the, according to some opinions, the most righteous king in the history of the world, even greater than David HaMelech. It's a debate in the Gemara who was greater, King David or King Christiano? Because each one of them was unique in his own way. King David was a very holy tzaddik, and the Mashiach comes from him. He set the ground, the foundation for the First Temple. He had a lot of great achievements in his life. Just reading Tehillim, you understand the holiness of David HaMelech. It's beyond words. But King Chizkiyahu's achievement never ever achieved in history of the world. And in his days, Every boy in the Jewish nation was a Talmid Chacham. There was no Ameh Ha'aretzot. He didn't have ignorant people. He took a sword. He stuck it in the Beit Midrash, in the yeshiva, and he said, "Anyone who will not learn Torah will be stabbed to death." You know, people understand fear. Fear is a great motivational power. Even though everyone complain about fear, but no one can deny that fear is the best and fastest reaction in life. When something happen, right now it's the best month I had in 30 years. I'm speaking almost now 29 years. And this month, these 45 days was the best ever. Why? I don't have to do anything. People are begging me, help me to become religious. How do I start keeping Shabbat? It's turned around now. I used to beg people, now they beg me. Can I meet you? Can you show me how to do it? I have to make shiddukhim. Here speak to this student of mine, that one, this family, that one, all over. Why? Feel. They realize the world is in a fragile situation. Right now we're here, tomorrow we may not be here. So it's too late, people want to do teshuvah. When people are happy, they eat well, they travel, they have nothing to worry about, all they care about, especially women, is shopping and cosmetic and cooking for Shabbos. There's nothing else to worry about. Religion is important, but it's not top priority. When you don't know if tomorrow you'll be around, if your children will be around, it's a whole different way. And the Rambam writes in B'chotshuva chapter 10, ala chalif, first ala chalif chapter 10 in B'chotshuva, the Rambam writes that a person should not worship Hashem out of fear. Out of fear from losing his Olam Haba, his next world, out of fear of being punished in this world, losing all the promises that the Torah gave and the blessing, and he should not become righteous because of all the blessing or because he's afraid of all the curses that are in the Torah. This is not a superb way. It's not a great way. This way belongs 2, women, children, and ignorant men. There are 3 categories: women, children, and ignorant men. What's mutual to these 3 groups? Why the Rambam put them as those are the people that should follow Hashem with fear? Fear, that's productive for women, for children and for men that is not knowledgeable in Torah. Ameh aratzot, ignorant people. Why? Because they are not learning daily Torah all day. They never heard about Yogru, Baruch Hashem, amim yorot tagwider chachamim. I'm talking general women. Usually women, they're busy, children. In the old days, remember, when these things were written 2,000 years ago or 800 years ago, in the time of the Rambam, The life of a woman was a nightmare compared to today. Just try to imagine your day. You live in Flatbush, everything is pressing buttons, car, this, you restart the car from the house. It's a whole different lifestyle. Try to imagine your life living in a cabin from wood with no electric, no heat, the floor is sand, put some rug from wool from the sheep. Some beds, but the beds not like today, $2,000 mattress. So, you know, the straw that they feed the horses, those were the mattresses. This is where people were sleeping. You don't have water in the house and no bathroom. You have to go to the bathroom at 2 AM. You have to go, cover yourself with a blanket, some forest in between the trees, 2 AM, freezing wind, snakes, scorpion, foxes in the middle of the night, coyotes, and I have to go to the bathroom. And you know what, excuse my language, there's no tissues. Imagine life. There's no showers, there's no cosmetic like today, there is no hair salon, there is no one to do your nails. It's a whole different life. You have to raise 15 kids in this environment. You have to go bring water from the well. You have to do laundry with your hands. There is no dryer. You have to hang the laundry. Then you have to bring it. Sometimes it falls, it gets wet. You have to redo it. You have to go to the lake again to do it. You have to cook, but you don't have a $5,000 Viking oven, microwave. What do you cook? You have to bring pieces of wood, make a hole in the ground, throw it in, put some oil in it, light the fire 50 times until the fire starts, and then you have a big primitive bowl like this, you put it in, and some oil, and you begin to cook, and you have to wait for your husband to slaughter the goat, remove the skin, take off the head, clean all the inside, cut the meat. By the time you make your meal, you become 70 years old from the agony. This was life. So women obviously didn't have time to be Talmidei Chachamim, to come here, make notes, to press on a button, listen on YouTube. It was a different life. Women basically knew nothing. Most of them didn't even know how to read and write. Until, what's her name, Sarah Schneeril started Bete Yaakov, no women got any education in the world, Jews and non-Jews. Women did not go to school. You know, there is an halacha. If you want to marry a girl, check who her brothers are. You want to go on a shidduch, you're bachur yeshiva, 21, 22, they're offering you a girl now. You want to know if the girl is good? Check who her brothers are. If they are of Nei Torah, they go to good yeshiva, See them with the Gemara, black hats, watch their eyes, down phone. Ah, very impressive family. Grab her. But if they're Heifer brothers, no Torah, no nothing. All they care about is real estate, cars, vacation, this, the rest, like, you know, tons of gel, ponytail. I don't have to tell you what kind of guys we're talking about. Stay away from this girl. Is that fair? That's prejudicing. That's, excuse my language, it's totally evil. It's not fair. Today doesn't apply, don't worry. Why? Back then, the only way that the girl will be a kosher girl, if she has kosher brothers. Because they come home with the Gemara, they sit and learn. There's nothing else to do. There's no Xbox, There is no cars to drive around, no basketball court, no gym, none of this nonsense. So a guy comes home 5, 6, 10 PM, what is he gonna do? He sits home and learns what he learns with the rabbi in cheder. The girls are listening to Torah in the house. They learn halachot, they learn halachot in shulchan Shabbat. They teach them how to read, how to write. So by the time they come to age, back then it was 12, 13, today it's 20, 21, okay. By the time she's mature to get married, she already have enough knowledge to raise kids, to teach them Torah, to go with the homework with them, to do something. So if she has brothers that have no Torah, grab her because she's probably a very righteous girl. She had good teachers in the house. And if her brothers work in the field or shepherds, they don't learn, they themselves don't know how to read and write like many people used to be. What is she gonna be? She's gonna be a mother, she doesn't know anything, she can't read, she can't even read Tehillim, she can't daven. What kind of a girl you want? Today, Baruch Hashem, with the help of the shivas for girls and seminaries, some girls are much bigger talmidei chachamim than guys. Some girls go in the shidduch and they say to me, I'm sorry, this guy is an insult to my intelligence. Why? I know grava more than him. I mean, from what I learned, I know Tanakh, I know halachot. He doesn't know halachot. He doesn't know what to make bracha first, this, that. I see that he's amaretz. So what is he? He's in yeshiva for a few years. I'm sorry, Rabbi, but I promise you I know more Torah than him. A girl like this, if she has bad brothers, she has to suffer? No, she's great. Nothing to do with her brothers today. So here is an example of halacha used to be relevant, but now when girls go to school, they're not depend on their brothers. Therefore, you don't have to check who the brothers are. Of course, you prefer that the girls come from a good family, obviously. But she, her level of righteousness is not depending on the level of her brothers. So there's an argument now who was greater, King David or King Chizkiyahu. King Chizkiyahu stuck the sword in the Beit Hamikdash and said anyone who would not learn Torah will be stabbed to death. According to the Torah, if someone is amaritz, he doesn't want to learn Torah. Leave me alone, Abba, I don't like Torah, leave me alone, I don't want to learn. I want to work, take me to the business. Good sense, man. Someone like that deserve a death penalty? No, it doesn't. This according to the Torah. Time of Sanhedrin, someone refused to come to learn Torah. Okay, everyone knows he's ignorant, but there's no death penalty for someone like that. It's death penalty. Idol worship, idols, is death penalty. All kinds of sins in the Torah, unfortunately, murdering, it's death penalty. But not to be tamid racham, there's no death penalty. So how all of a sudden the king come and take a sword? Anyone who will not learn Torah, I'll chop his head off. What's going on here? The answer is the king is above the law. Just like here the president can go above the Congress or to veto something or anything like that. Or the president in Israel can pardon people in jail for life, he can release them. There has to be an authority that is above the court. Sanhedrin is a court of 71 chachamim. Sometimes some prophets were there, but the king is above them. The king can make a decree on his own now. He says, you know what, there are too many thieves. I don't like it. People starting to steal. We didn't have that before. So I'm announcing the next thief we'll catch, I'll chop his head off. People get scared. Nobody wants to die. The Torah doesn't say to kill thieves. They have to pay double. They stole a thousand, they have to pay two thousand and go home. It's an extreme difference between paying double to getting killed. But if I see now there are thousands of thieves in the last month in the land, it becomes a pandemic. I want to stop it. People are not afraid. What works? Only fear. So I announce anyone who will steal next time and we catch him, he'll be dead right away. That's it. He can do it. Same thing over here. King Chizkiyahu saw people are not serious in learning Torah. He decided I'll make sure every boy in a Jewish nation will be a talmid chacham. It's not going to be am yarat sotovim. So anyone who will be caught not learning Torah will be put to death. And everybody had to learn Torah. The Gemara says every 6-year-old boy was already at Talmid Chacham. 6 years old? I mean, yes, 6 years old in those days is not 6 years old of today. You see, your grandmothers in Syria, they got married 11, 12, 13. 16, 17 was already an old lady. It was a different world. Same thing in Iran, same thing in Lebanon, same thing in Iraq, same thing in Morocco, and even in Ashkenazi. This is the way it used to be. Today, a girl that gets married before 18, it would look very strange. Come on, she's a little baby. Ma, you rush her to get married. The idea is that people are not mature as they used to be. Also with the kids today. A kid, bar mitzvah today. Is ready to be a man? To be a tzadik? He may know Torah, he may know some Gemara, Mishnayot, but he's not mature. But a few generations ago, 13 was already a father, was already married, was expecting any minute a baby. People were much more mature because remember, they didn't have the nonsense of today in their life. They raised them different. They made them very mature. You go to Africa, they still in a very primitive world. Kids are 16 already like 40 here. Even in Israel, when guys go to the army, by the time they finish the army, 21, they are 10 times more mature than American kids here. You can see from the conversation. Why? Because they have no choice. They must become mature. Otherwise, you know, the country will not survive. So, about that, the Rambam writes in Chotei Shuva, chapter 10, first halacha, that women and children and men that is ignorant, meaning in Torah, the way to make them follow Hashem and to be righteous, it's with fear. If you do it, you'll get a reward. If you won't do it, you'll get a punishment. Right away everyone says, come on, but that's not a great way to serve Hashem. Everything is reward and punishment. What is this, a business? So the Rambam says that a person should not really serve his Father Hashem, worship Hashem, out of fear or because of the reward. Because he's afraid to lose his Olam Haba, or because he wants Olam Haba. Because he's afraid to get the curses of the Torah in his life, or because he wants to get the blessing of the Torah. This is a low level. That's the level of women, children, and Am Yaretzot. Why? Because they don't learn Torah. If they would learn Torah 10, 15 hours a day like Bachur HaYeshiva, they wouldn't need fear. They wouldn't need to calculate. They would already be in heaven in this world, going out of their mind from love to Hashem. Because the Torah is so sweet, it's so unbelievable, it makes the soul so happy. So when you're in the highest level of attachment to Hashem, you need to worry about what if I'll do this and that, Hashem is going to punish me? No, you're way above it. But people that don't learn Torah, what language they understand? You take a little child, if you're behaving good, I'll give you ice cream. He davened good. He said, if you give me ice cream, I daven good again. No, this time no ice cream. He doesn't want to daven. Why? That's the language he understands. 4 years old, 6 years old. So what do we learn from here? Today, today, take all the men in the world, anywhere you want, America, Israel, Europe, anywhere you want. If you take 1,000 men, religious men, religious men, I'm not talking about secular men. Put 1,000 men in a line. How many of them according to the Torah is considered to be a Chacham? Talmid Chacham. How many out of 1,000? If we lucky, one.

I was going to say it.

One. One out of 1,000. The Tosfot, the grandson of Rashi, almost 900 years ago, they write in the Gemara, they say 1,000 people going to the Beit Midrash, into the Yeshiva, One became a Talmid Chacham. This was almost 900 years ago. Don't get me wrong, according to Tosafot, a Talmid Chacham is beyond any understanding you have. There were many other Chachamim that every one of them will be the Chief Rabbi of the world today, but they're not considered Talmidei Chachamim. Talmid Chacham means that any question you ask him, In any topic, there are tens of thousands of topics, and each topic is extremely complicated. You can learn months to understand the whole sugya. Every question you ask, immediately he knows right away what to do, what not to do. Every halacha, every gemara, every Rashi, every Tosafot, every argument between the chachamim, he knows all the shitot in conversion, in Niddah, Sfaradim, Ashkenazim, Temanim, everything right away without telling, give me 3 days, I look in the books, maybe I'll find the answer. That's not a Talmid Chachamim. How many like this we have in the world? Yeah, Rav Ovadia Yosef, Rav Ben Zion Abusha'ul, Rav Ozner, Rav Chaim Kanievsky. Yeah, you can count on 2 or 5 hands how many like this we have in our generation. Those are considered Talmid Chachamim. Everyone else is considered Am Haaretz or partially Am Haaretz. But in comparison to the generation, they look like such big Chachamim, you know, Chacham, Chacham, Chacham. This Chacham couldn't serve tea in Yeshiva of the Rambam. To get to serve tea, you would have to pass some tests that will allow you to even enter the Yeshiva. You know, I want to tell something. The Gaon of Vilna, you heard about him? The Gaon of Vilna was not just a Chacham. It was beyond any understanding. He wrote the Torah in reverse. 304,805 letters in reverse. I cannot write my cell phone number in reverse. It's 10 digits. It would take me a minute to figure it out. The whole Torah in reverse. His brain was some kind of a mega computer. And he learned all his life nonstop. Maximum an hour and a half per 24 hours he was asleep. But not straight. Half an hour, half an hour, half an hour. That was his life. After 50 years he didn't see his sister. Finally she found him. 50 years! He didn't see his sister. Last time he saw her she was a little girl. And now she's an older lady. He got up for less than a minute. I'm so happy you're alive. How was your life? Everything good? I'm great. I wish you all the best. I bless you. We will meet in Olam HaBa. There's no time to waste. Goodbye. Imagine now you meet your sister, came from Syria after 50 years. Wow, what a party will be in a community. Ah, David Shihru and all the chazanim and all the chachamim come to give speeches. One a week of food. Ah, the whole community is, you know, rocking here. Ma, wow, we finally— my sister finally came after 50 years. They didn't have time. Right away, so they asked his student, Rav Chaim Yivologim, they asked him, Rabbi, your Rebbe, the Gaon Mizvina, if he lived in the time of the Gemara, in the time of the Tanaim, in the time of the Amoraim, Will he be considered as something special? Now remember, this is his Rabbi who he admired the most in the world. He said to them, absolutely not. He would not count at all as anything. Somebody like this with such a brain in the time of the Tanaim, Tzvi, Rabbi Akiva, Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, Rabbi Yochanan, he would not count as anything in their time. Maybe, maybe, few times he say maybe, maybe, maybe he would be able to get accepted to the yeshiva of the Ramban, which was 750 years ago, 500 years before the time of the Gaon of Vilna. Meaning even not, I can't even promise that the Ramban would accept him to Yeshiva. Gaon Mevilna. Now I promise you one thing, if you take all the rabbis in the world and put them on a scale on one side and you put the Gaon Mevilna on the other side, he's greater than all of them combined. And he maybe would not make it to the Yeshiva of the Ramban, so imagine who was the Ramban. And the Ramban would not make it to the Yeshiva of Rabbi Akiva. So imagine who was Rabbi Akiva. Do you get the understanding? Who are these names that you—

What does that mean for our future?

It means for our future that—

Dangerous question.

Okay, it's a very good question what you asked. Your question was answered by the Ari HaKadosh. You heard about him?

I went to his synagogue, yeah.

Very good. So he lived 500 years ago, the Ari HaKadosh. And the Ari Hakadosh said to his student Rabbi Chaim Vital, which was Syrian and is buried in Syria, he told him that you should know that in this generation one little mitzvah counts like a huge mitzvah in the past generations.

Why?

Because Hashem knows the level of the people, the challenges. Today the world is so filthy. So much dirt is remaining. People are not raised. The mind of the people is totally corrupted. Almost no one knows the right Jewish Ashkafa. That's why I always say in my lectures, because I want to save people because they don't understand what Ashkafa means, that they must read all the books of Rabbi Victor Miller. Should be your life mission. If you read all the books of Rabbi Victor Miller, you're gonna come to the next world In the highest level.

He's our best friend.

With grace. Why? Because he was the most perfect in Ashkafa, in Jewish ideology, that we had in our generation. There are many huge Chachamim and holy and tzaddikim that are great in halacha and poskim, gedolim, but the treasure that Rav Avigdor Miller left in his lifetime about Jewish Ashkafa, questions and answers, how to review every subject in life: children, American government, Fourth of July, Thanksgiving, Israeli army, Israeli wicked government, gay parade, gay marriage, anything you can think of. There's not one topic he did not cut mamash through the chest and gave the answers to every dilemma and every doubt we had. Therefore, now you know everything. You have no excuses. He basically answered every— by the way, all the questions that were 30 years ago, relevant 100% today. It's unbelievable how you read in his questions and answers things that you wouldn't believe that 30 years ago even existed, but they actually existed. So we're lucky that we had the rabbi in our generation that answered all questions for us. And the good thing about him was that he was totally not politically correct. Everyone else is afraid to talk. Let's say in my community, I don't want to upset anyone. The rich people maybe will stop supporting the community. People get angry. I may get fired by the board. You know, there's a lot of calculations. Some of this calculation, unfortunately, there is really no way out of For instance, a rabbi can tell you, look, I can give mussar like you. You're not the rabbi of the shul. I'm gonna speak like you 2, 3, 4 times, and what do you think is gonna happen? The board is gonna fire me, and they'll bring some modern, you know, crooked one from the university, what I call the university rabbi. And what is he gonna turn the community to? A bunch of clowns. At least I prevent 20% from what they want to do. If they'll kick me out, that 20% will also go down the drain. That's 100%. It's a solid argument. But what is the solution? To bring outsiders to give speeches? Okay, you don't want to do the dirty job because you don't want your community to get upset. You don't want them to leave. You don't want fights between the modern and the more straight. Okay, I understand all this. Why don't you bring big figures to come and give a strong mussar at least once a week to wake up the people about modesty, about honesty in business, about Shabbat, about Torah, about how to raise children, about shalom bayit in a marriage, about Jewish Ashkafa? What's going on? I mean, you're afraid? Okay, bring someone else to do the job. So they get angry at that someone. But They're not going to come to you to complain. I have a friend, he was rabbi of a shul somewhere in New York. He told me, I want you to come give a speech about modesty to the girls. They come not modest to the shul, drives me crazy from what I see over there. I said to him, everything I know, you know double. So why don't you give this speech? So you know what would happen if I give such a speech? I won't be able to look at them after that. They'll get so angry, they look at it as a personal attack against them. They don't want to hear Musa. So I said, okay, so if I come, it will be the same reaction. He said, okay, they'll say you're crazy. They'll come to me the next day, how did you bring this lunatic? And I will say, I'm sorry, I don't know what he's going to talk about, but at least the message will pass for those who are searching for the truth. If 10% of them will change, I don't want to be guilty for that in the end. I come in front of Hashem and say, you were a rabbi of a community for 10 years and not one woman came out of the shul in your time and you did nothing about it. What's going on here? The rabbi of a community is responsible for how his— a shepherd is responsible for where his sheep goes. So, but you have to be very clever. Believe me, I understand the rabbis of every shul and Everywhere in America, everywhere in Israel, I understand the challenges they have to go through. They have people in the community that the boy has to go up to the Torah and he's not even Jewish because of all kinds of fake conversions, questionable conversion. Imagine the poor rabbi has to decide now what to do because the father donate money and you have to be grateful to the family, they contribute, and now his wife maybe is not Jewish. Baruch Hashem, but the Syrian, you don't have this problem. Because they don't accept converts. I don't know, 80, 90 years ago, the big rabbis of the Syrian decided, since there are too many conversions that are questionable, all kinds of non-Jewish girls want our boys because they nice and smart and handsome and rich, and we realize that that's not real, it's not for the sake of heaven, they made a decree: no conversion, no No one is allowed. That's it. You want, go somewhere else. Here, no conversion. You want to find a girl to convert, take her somewhere else, not in our communities, not in Mexico, not in America. They close the door. Why? The Torah say it's a big mitzvah to make converts. 36 times it appears in the Torah to respect them, not to deceive them, to accept them, to welcome them, to teach them. So many things in the Torah about this. The Gemara says, "One of the reasons Hashem scattered the Jews in all the nations is to show the world about God and Judaism, that many of these goyim would convert to Judaism." So you see that Hashem is happy that the goyim convert, but that's only if everything works perfectly. Once you begin to see that becomes maschara business, you don't know anymore who's Jewish and who's not. Forget about it. You have to make a fence. You don't accept. And that's what saved basically the community. Without that decree, probably wouldn't be the community today. It would be a whole mess. Some communities, you know, like for instance, people that came to Israel from certain countries, you don't know about any one of them if he's Jewish or not. They don't know. There's no way to know. Why? They got mixed. No one was keeping track and who's Jewish and who's not. They don't know anymore. Now imagine you're a rabbi of a shul, they bring you some boy, you have to give him Aliyah for the Torah, make him Bar Mitzvah, and there's 80% chance he's not even Jewish. And you have to be diplomatic. What are you going to tell the father? Your kid is a goy? It's very hard to be today, you know. Sometimes you have to go comfort the family of a big Rasha. That according to the Torah you're not allowed to see chiva on him. But you have to be the rabbi of the shul, you have to be politically correct. It's, believe me, it's an impossible mission. Impossible mission. But we try as much as we can. There's no chance to succeed 100%.

No chance.

Rabbi Victor Miller, he said the rabbis of Brooklyn loves me very much. Do you know why? He asked his kids. Someone like that should have a show of 50,000 people. That's a legend. No one in the world is so interesting like him. No one. But he had a very small show. And he made a joke about it. Sad joke. He said, "The rabbis of Brooklyn love me very much. Every time I give my weekly mussar speech, half of my congregation get up and leave." They move to other more modern places. Why? They don't want to hear the truth. They don't want to hear about modesty. They don't want to hear about Torah. They don't want to hear about donations. They don't want to hear about these things. They don't want. They want to live their way. When I come and just push it to their face, they can't handle the truth, so they run away. When you announce that a comedian will come to the community, how many people come? 1,000 people. Sushi, Chinese, panzers are waiting online to give checks. If you will announce that Rav Avigdor Miller, if he was alive, will come to the community, well, today, Baruch Hashem, maybe more, but back in his time, 35 people would show up. The biggest legend in the world, 30, 40 people. Some comedian, Amaretz, who doesn't even know how to read and write, A thousand people come, clap, share the videos. Why? People want to hear the truth? No, they want to hear jokes. They also want to hear how great they are. Everyone wants to hear how great he is, but what happens if he's not great? It's false compliments. Do you want to live in illusion or you want to know exactly where you stand in the eyes of Hashem? You know those who come and say Hashem loves you, 'Hashem loves all Jews, there's nothing to worry about. If you only know how much Hashem loves you.' What about this statement? What do you think about it? You buy it or no?

Yes. Yes.

You buy it? Yes. Everyone agree with that? Yeah.

Women have to a little.

Oh, oh, all of you can predict the Rambam. Who knows better, me, you, or the Rambam? The Rambam is the top authority in Jewish halacha. 90% of Shulchan Aruch is like the Rambam. So he doesn't love us? Of course not. Some he does, some he doesn't. Does he love me? Does Hashem love Bernie Sanders? No. I ask, does Hashem love all Jews? Does he love Bernie Sanders? Does he love Yair Lapid? He would love him. Does he love Avigdor Mil— Avigdor— what's his name, the Russian one, leader man? Does he love this kind of people wants to burn the Torah? If you give them a torch and tell them to burn the Torah for free, they'll do it with no hesitation. Does he love this kind of Jews? Does he love all the liberals who demonstrate right now for the Hamas in Tel Aviv?

That's the religious people with go with Ro.

Here is a perfect example. These idiots, these fools, weak traders. Don't make that mistake. Is a complete different thing. The rabbi from Satmer just spoke against them. In Aramic means the keepers of the land. These people, they hate the Zionist government. They hate communism. They hate what the wicked Israeli government from the time of Herzl— they were all wicked. They wanted Israel to be a state of goyim. They don't want Shabbat. They don't want yeshivot. They don't want synagogue. They don't want mikveh. They don't want kosher food. They want all Jews to be goyim. That was their dream. They're not hiding it. It's all over their books. As a result of that, the Satmar movement used to be at that time, Rav Yoel Misatmer, 78 years ago. He was very zealous to Hashem, very holy rabbi, stick to the truth, you know, like Pinchas in those days. This is the way it was, the first rabbi from Satmar. He fought them to the end. But what is the point was, he already saw how they taking millions of innocent, naive Jews and turning them into goyim in the way they think, in the way they behave, in the way they dress, in what they teach the kids in school. 100% goyim. Because he saw what, what Holocaust, spiritual Holocaust they're going to bring to the Jewish nation, he fought those Zionists to the maximum of his ability. Problem now is that we are already 3 generations later. It's a whole different world now. There is really no more Zionists. The Israeli government, all these Reshaim that hates the Torah, they are wicked, but they are not Zionists. They don't even know what Zionism means. None of them read one book about Zionism. They don't know about the plans of all these Zionists 100 years ago. They don't know what Zionism is. Ask every guy in Tel Aviv, every Rashah that hates the Torah, can you define Zionism? He has no idea what it is. He just hate religion. That's the way they raise him. So going back to— so what's Neturei Karta? Neturei Karta also hated, but they went one step further, which was a huge mistake. They lost everything. They say, since we hate the Zionists so much and they're so wicked and murder so many Jewish souls and turn them all to mechalelei Shabbat, We should support Iran, Hamas, Arafat, people that fight them and kill them.

How many of them are there?

A few hundred, I believe, in the whole world. A few hundred of them. So that's already stupid. It's one thing you hate the Rechaim that wants to promote Chilul HaShabbat and gay parades and all kinds of horrible education to the Jewish kids. Okay, you do not— you don't have to accept such behavior. But to go in Hagiran and to say Kaddish for Arafat and to stand in Manhattan with flags, show the world that you support Iran and support Hamas, you got to be out of your mind. So I want to tell you a secret that not that many people know. They get millions of dollars from them. It's not already— it's not only ideology. They hate Israel. They hate the Israeli army, they hate Zionism, but they get millions of dollars from Iran. When the Israelis went into the office of Yasser Arafat in Machshimo, they found tons of cancelled checks that he wrote to Neturei Karta. Thousands of dollars, lots of money, I don't know, tens of thousands. They show all the checks that he was giving them. So when you hate a state, And the enemy of that state give you millions of dollars to stand with their flags on the streets of Manhattan. Don't be surprised why they do it. But there are muktzah now everywhere. No shul let them in. They can't daven anywhere. If they come to Satmar, they throw them out. Anywhere in Antwerp, in here, everywhere I go, they don't let them in. That's it. They target them as, as traitors. So they have to They make their own Minyanim. One of them, they burned his house in Monsey like 15 years ago. A week later, the house was back there. Iran sent a million dollars, rebuilt him all the house. Yeah, they have nothing to be afraid of. They get a lot— you know what PR it is for Iran and for Hamas to show you that people that looks Hasidish are demonstrating for the Palestinians? I don't have to tell you the piarios. So, Rabotai, all of you contradicted the Rambam, but I'm sure you didn't understand my question. There are people that Hashem loves, Jews and non-Jews, and there are people that Hashem hates. And everyone who tells you otherwise is misleading you. It's written in the Torah so many places. For instance, you say, "Ashrei Yeshua B'techavenu Daven," What do you say? Shomer Hashem et kol Avav, vet kol Ereshayim yashmit. If Hashem loves them, why to destroy them? You say it 3 times a day, or 2 times a day, or 1 time a day, but you say it at least once a day, no? For years. What do you just announce? Hashem will keep and guard all His, and thank you, all His lovers, and will destroy all the wicked. Why? If Hashem loves every Jew, why should he destroy them? Why? Because they are wicked. We are not talking about tinok shenishba. You know this expression?

That's us.

That's us. Sorry, thank you for clarifying. We all have yeshiva education. To know tinok shenishba is someone that grew up one hand of the He's in, like, a goy. I don't know, in Siberia, in some kibbutz, in Minnesota, middle of nowhere. His parents did not put him in yeshiva. He doesn't even know anything about God, about Torah, about Shabbat. Some of them do not even— they were not even circumcised, some Russian Jews. They don't know anything from their life. People like these are not criminals. They're considered to be anusim. You can even count them as one of the 10 in a minyan. Even they are mechalel Shabbat, they eat pork, they eat cheeseburger, they eat onion kippur because they grew up like goyim and they have no idea, never heard in their life about Torah. If you need 10th person, you just tell them whenever you hear everyone say amen, answer amen. But for instance, the Prime Minister of Israel, you cannot count him in a minyan. If you have 9 people, you cannot take out the Torah. He eats Challah on Shabbat and he knows very well there is a God. He knows there is such a thing Torah and he knows there is such a thing Shabbat. He heard about it 50,000 times. But he choose to eat lobsters in London in front of the camera. That's Rasham and Rucham. That's not an innocent tinok shenishba. They know exactly. Rashi say there are 3 things that makes you not a tinok shenishba. One, You understand the world has a Creator. Every fool understands that. Do you know one person that will claim that this cup was made by itself? Find me that fool. Besides the professors in Harvard that say that the world was made from a random explosion, like they believe it. Of course, nobody believes this nonsense. But even that cup that costs 1 cent, everybody knows it was designed by someone. Look at the parallel lines. Something like this can never happen from a random explosion. Where the material came from? How did it know to shape up together in such a symmetric way? Come on, let's not be that stupid. So everyone knows the world has a Creator. They just don't know who He is, but there is a Creator. So step 1, everyone mark a check. Check. Second one, you need to hear at least once in your life there is such a claim that God gave the Torah Torah to the Jewish nation. That's it. One time. I don't know where you heard that, on the news, in a book, on a newspaper, your neighbor, your friend, your cousin. One time, you're a secular Jew, completely grew up not religious, but you heard about the claim that God gave a book to the Jewish nation. It's enough. Now you check the second box. And the third condition is that you heard that there is a special day in Judaism called Shabbat. You don't know what it is. You don't know the 39 restrictions of Shabbat. You don't know what Muktzeh is. You don't know why Hashem chose the 7th day. You don't know anything. But you know there is such a day, Shabbat, and some Jews follow that special day. That's all. Rashi, not me. As you say, if you know there is a Creator to the world, you know there is such a thing Torah, and you know there is such a thing Shabbat, you can never be tinok shenishma. Right there you have 99% of the secular people that they are not tinokot shenishmu. If you may say, but it's not fair, they're not like us, we got Jewish education, we went yeshiva, our grandparents were religious, we had some connection. They didn't have connection. So what? You have more than a million baalei teshuvah who didn't have any connection. You know how many people became religious in last 30 years and they grew up 100% like goyim in Tel Aviv, in Bat Yam, on the beach, you know, or in New York, anywhere. They didn't know anything from their life and became religious. Why? They came to check. You have common sense. You heard there is such a thing as God. You heard there is a special divine book and you heard there is such a special day, Shabbat, and you don't come to check? It's all on you. So, rabotai, don't be naive. Not everyone who doesn't know so much about Judaism is anus. Some people choose not to know. Do you know how many people told me, I ask him, you came one time, why you don't come anymore? I'm afraid I don't want to come. 2, 3 more times I come, you'll make me religious. I'm afraid. He doesn't want to come. Why? Because he already feels that soon he's going to feel so guilty he won't be able to break Shabbat. He's going to have to close his business. He's going to have to change his lifestyle. Or she heard about modesty. She's not interested to be modest. So she doesn't want to hear it again. Because Rabbi, every time I come, it's like you're putting a knife in my heart and turn it for an hour and a half. I don't sleep for a week after that. Why should I come? I'm not a masochist. But these people are, excuse my language, they are very foolish. Because when you're trying to run away from the reality, in the end, it's like someone who drinks a drink with poison and says, I don't believe in the poison. What do you mean you don't believe? It's poison. I'm telling you there's poison in the water. I don't accept it. I don't believe. You don't believe? I don't believe cigarettes kills. I don't believe. Okay, don't believe. You will lose 10 years of your life. You get the point? Now I want to ask you one question. I want to ask you one question. Before I read your question, Why King Chizkiyahu stuck the sword in the Beit Midrash, in the yeshiva, and not on the beach of Tel Aviv? He should have gone to where the wicked people are, not to where the righteous people are. If you want to now publish Torah and the importance of learning Torah, where do you go? You go to the middle of the yeshiva in Edil or in Lakewood or in Monsey? Or in Yerushalayim, or you go to Tel Aviv, to Haifa, to King's Highway, when the people walk in the street without kippah.

What was it like back then?

No, but back then you didn't have people without kisuiyos or tzitzit. Everyone, you know, it was— everyone was religious. The idea was to make everyone talmid chacham, not just shomer Shabbat. So he saw there is a market and there are people who don't come to learn Torah. No idea. They don't come to the yeshiva. They open their booth in the morning. They have a booth in the market. All day until it gets dark. There was no electric. Around 6, 7 in the evening, they close the booth. That's why we light Hanukkah candles when it gets dark. Why? Because that's where everyone comes home. It's not like today. They have electric. You can open the store until midnight.

So why did you people who know yeshiva, why?

So why did he come to the yeshiva to stick the saw? Why didn't he go to those who don't come to yeshiva? He should have come to them.

Maybe because he wanted to show that Hashem gave him his kamat to do it?

The answer is, Rabotai, the answer is who you can give mussar to? Someone that does not appreciate the Torah, doesn't care about the Torah, does not evaluate the Torah, does not evaluate the chachamim, the rabbis, Or to someone that sits in a yeshiva, he knows Hashem, he knows the Chachamim, he knows the value of the Torah, but he is neglecting his mission. Who should you start with? Later you move to the rest of the nation, of course, but where do you start? When the general of the army has to rebuke the army, who does he start with? With all the generals. With the top pilots, with the people that the army needs the most, not with the driver and the person who sells wafers to the soldiers or the cook that makes omelets. How much you can make them greater? He's gonna make the omelet a little bit tastier, Baruch Hashem. You start with the heads, then you go to the next level and the next level. That's it. So let's see, would you have a question?

It's not a Torah question, it just tied into what you said before.

Ah, why can't the Israeli government say thank God? First of all, I have news for you. Recently they started to say thank God. Even Bibi.

In official speeches?

Even Bibi in interviews, in front of cameras, official, not official, doesn't matter. You see a phone in his face. People are filming and it goes right away viral on WhatsApp. He said, "We will win, B'ezrat Hashem, we will win." He's a believer, he knows there is a God. You know how many times people come to me, "I want you to speak to my cousin, to my friend." Who are they? He claims he's an atheist. Do you buy this scam? Do you think the world has one atheist? There's no atheist person in the world. Those people who come to me and say, "I'm an atheist," after a minute they ask me, "Where was God in the Holocaust?" Just a minute ago you said there's no God, and now you're asking where was he in the Holocaust? Okay, so now you have criticism against that God, but you acknowledge his existence. If you criticize someone, you acknowledge his power. If you didn't acknowledge he exists, who you criticizing? The air?

No, Rabbi, there's definitely heretics.

Heretics is one different thing. Heretics means I'm challenging the principles. I'm challenging the principles. But to say there is no Creator to the world, you don't have one person in the world who believes in it. If you don't trust me, go to Sloan-Kreidering for a visit. Take with you one religious man with a black hat and walk there in the hallway and see what happened. I did it. Every goy over there ran to me, Rabbi, Rabbi, can you come bless my father? Who are you? I'm Jewish. Yeah, I know. You're a man of God, come make a prayer for my father, for my mother. In the hospitals, everyone is very religious. Religious. Also, when you go to the war, one general now said 2 weeks ago, he said in speech, when we go to the war, we are all extremely religious. The question that I have for this general, with all due respect, you should have been much more religious when you come back from the war. Not just when you go to the war, but when he goes to the war is the fear. So I know, God, I need your help. I mean, I know, I know there's no guarantee I'll come back. So because I need your help and I know I'm worthless on my own and I need your help and supervision, so I'm religious right now. You know what it's like? One person had to have a meeting at 9 AM in Manhattan. He drives with his car, he looks for parking in the street. And it's already 10 to 9. And this is Chinese buyer or Japanese buyer, they're waiting already in the office, you know, they come on time. And this guy, "Wow, where can I find parking? No parking, no parking." "Wow, 5 minutes." "Hashem, let's make a deal. If you find me now parking that I'll make it to 9 o'clock meeting, I promise you I will put filling every day." A second later, someone pulls out. "It's okay, I managed." "It's okay, I managed." That's the story of the people. Before, when they need the help, they know how very much to promise, to make pledges. "I'll donate, I will sponsor, read for me, I'll do for me, I promise you if I win the case." One guy, was sued for $10 million by someone. He came to me, he said to me, listen, I want you to pray for me and make all your lectures for my success. I am going to appeal my case. I want you to know in advance, the chance to win an appeal in the United States, it's 2%. That means from every 50 cases, 1 wins the appeal, 49 it remains the same. Also in the appeal sometimes it can get worse. The other side can say he didn't get enough, we ask to add more to his punishment. So it's both ways. Sometimes dangerous to appeal. Ah, you appealing? We will show you. So he say to me, I promise you that if I will win the appeal, I'm planning to give $7 million to Tzedakah. Meaning I'm gonna keep free and give $7 million to Tzedakah. And you, with your wonderful work— and I met all his family religious, all his boys, the girls, everyone of them, and he acknowledged it. He said, my kids are crazy about you. You know how much they love you? Changed their entire life. I promise you that if I win the appeal, I'm going to give $7 million, and most of it will go to your kid of war. Not only I pray for him, I kill myself for this guy. I also took him to my rabbi in Israel, which is top, top, top, top in Kabbalah. What's his name?

He doesn't like to be famous.

He doesn't like to be famous and he doesn't want me to send him anyone. He doesn't want. I told him, listen, a lot of people, they need help. They will help you financially. They give nice generous donation, you know, American donations. Don't send me anyone. It distracts my mind from the Torah. I'd rather be poor and learn Torah all my life. So anyway, I took him to him. He gave him bracha and bracha works. I've seen people that have kids for 14 years. I forced him to accept them, 3 months later, pregnant. So because he's such a devoted person to Torah and Irat Shamayim, he was learning 12 years Rav Ben Zion Abba Sha'ul every day for hours. So what do you expect? You have the best teacher in the world, this is what you become. I took him to him, he gave him a great bracha and he said, I'm gonna dovin' for you every day. And he won the appeal. And how much he gave me? Not even one cent. Oh my gosh. Not even one cent. Did he give to others? I don't know. But to me, nothing. This is the nature of the people. You know how many thousands of times people told me, Rabbi, I wish I have money now. I'm working on some deal. If I will make it, I'm gonna give to anything you tell me. And as soon as they make it, they forget who I am. Why? When they promise, did they mean it or not? Yes, 100%. If you connect them to a lie detector, when you say, Rabbi, I'm working on a deal, it's a $5 million deal, I'm gonna give 10%, half a million dollars, I commit to your kiruv work. Once they come, they do the deal, They ignore, they're not even talking to you. They forgot like you even spoke. Why is it? When they actually made the promise, they 100% meant it. Because they didn't have Yetzer Hara. Because they didn't have the money. It's not actual. There was no existence. The real Jew wants to give to save souls. The real Jew wants to make people religious. Wants to make Hashem happy, wants to spread Torah everywhere. That's the real Jew. But the Satan is like a leech. No, why? Why you give? You can buy yourself another vacation home with this money. Why are you so naive? Why you give? Satan. But the Satan doesn't do it before the money comes to his hand. Only once it's become actual, the Satan jumps. And begin to drive him crazy. This is the way it is. Not that they cheated. No, they really meant it. That's why I always smile when they say, if I'm gonna make money, you just tell me where to send. I'm laughing. I've been in that movie for 30 years. You know, my uncle, alahu akbar, he was working in a company that sells refrigerators. Israeli company. It's called Amcor. Did you ever hear about it? Amcor. They're already no longer alive. Amcor, my uncle was working there about 30 or 40 years. Now just before he retired, he has 2 months for his retirement, He came to Rabbi Tzion Abba Sha'ul and he said to him, Rabbi, I'm getting retirement money in 2 months. The money that I'm going to get will be enough to buy an apartment in the city of Ramleh. Ramleh is not one of the greatest places, a lot of Arabs there. Jews and Arabs. It's not such a rich place, you know, an average. The money he is going to get, it's enough to buy a full apartment, no mortgage. But if I would like to buy an apartment in Jerusalem, it's exactly double on the price. So the money I'm going to get will be for half of the apartment. The rest I'm gonna have to take a mortgage. But I will be retired. I won't have any more salary. What should I do? Should I move to a very religious neighborhood in Jerusalem, the family of Bar Lechua, or I should buy an apartment in Ramleh with no mortgage? Rabbi Ben Zion said to him, come back to me when you have the money in your hand. My uncle almost dropped dead. What, you see I'm not getting the money? What, they're gonna trick me? Because they know that Rabbi Tzion Amoshol has Ruach HaKodesh. Ma, he got so nervous. I worked 40 years, this is the retirement of my life. Maybe they're not planning to give me the money. He got so nervous. No, no, relax, you'll get the money. So my uncle was a wise guy. So he said to him, if that's the case, What difference does it make if you give me an answer now or in 2 months from now? It's gonna be the same question and the same answer. Have an apartment in Jerusalem and commit to a mortgage with no income, or an apartment in Ramle without a mortgage? Yes or no? That's it.

No.

You know what he answered him? You'll never guess. You'll never guess. From here you understand what does it mean, a holy Chacham. He say to him, right now it's a hypothetical question. It's not reality yet. When you will have the money in your hand, it will become an actual question. Halachale maaseh. That's when Hashem will show me what to answer you. Right now it's a general question. It's not relevant. I cannot give you an answer for you. The answer for you will be this way, and for this guy, a different answer. So right now I can answer generally speaking what's better, but it doesn't mean that it's good for you. But when you come to me with the money, then I will see what Hashem shows me. Meaning, you see the riaduach Hakodesh. Otherwise he would answer him and finish. What was the answer in the end? What would you guess?

The one that was not the rent.

What should he do? Should he get an apartment in Yerushalayim and still have half of that mortgage? Or should he buy a full apartment in Ramla with no commitment, monthly commitment? What was the answer? of your rabbis. Baruch Hashem. The answer was an apartment in Yerushalayim. And that answer saved him because now all his family became so religious, tzadikim, what they would be in Ramle. You know the difference. You live in a very religious neighborhood, the quality of the children compared to a very modern place is there's nothing to complain. If you're still not convinced about what I just said, I will urge you to do an experiment. Go anywhere in the world, any city you want in the world where Jews live there. Ask the people over there, what are my options as far as davening in minyan, in shul? They will give you a few shuls. That synagogue, that synagogue, this one. Any synagogue they'll give you that it's not the yeshiva, go over there and see how people pray. And then go to the yeshiva of that town and see how people pray. Nothing to compare. It's like two different religions. Here, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, people with smartphones, short sleeves, that, nobody has hats. Right away they want to go already quickly, the chazan, it's like a Ferrari. Give us a time to breathe. We in a rush. Time is money. Come to the yeshiva, everyone with jackets, hats. Pilates, shmona, extra 10 minutes. Silence. No phone is ringing. No one touch a phone. Everyone stand in front of Hashem shaking with respect. What is the difference between those Jews to those Jews? The answer, the Torah. When you're inside Torah, you're in love with Hashem. You feel it. The obstacle between us and Hashem are removed temporarily, as long as we learn. As soon as you stop listening, you begin to fall down. What's the proof for that? We have guys in Monsey in yeshiva. 4 months they learn from morning to night. Monsey, clean place, clean environment, no internet, no people, no britzut of As soon as there is Benazmanim, they come back here to Queens Highway or to Main Street in Queens. A week later you find them in the street already a whole different person. One week? That's it, you drop 60% in your spiritual level, of course. A person is a product of his environment. You live with the righteous, you will be forced to be righteous. You live with the wicked, you will be wicked. He has no other options. And all of you read Tehillim daily, I'm sure. And what's the first verse in Tehillim? Ashrei Hasherei Yisrael. You know, when someone comes to write a book, and we will finish here and I'll give you more time for questions. When I come to write a book, I have to make sure that the first few pages of my book are killers. To attract the attention of the readers. If it will be boring, the first 3-4 pages will be boring, what people would do? Waste of time. But if I drop a bomb, they'll die. That's what they do in Hollywood, preview. They show you, I don't know, 2-3 minutes and everybody has to see it. But if the preview is so boring, that means there's nothing to watch. To Job. So David Hammelech wants to make a statement in the first verse of his book. That means that verse is extraordinary. It's extremely important. Why it's important? Because it tells you the story of life in one pasuk. David HaBen Choradi tells you, if you live with the clown, you're going to be a clown. You connect with the wicked, you're going to be wicked. A person has to know where to live, what shul to go to, what school to send his children to. You connect to positive people, to a kosher rabbi, to a strict hacham, it changes your entire life and future in olam haba. You go to a place of modern clowns, that's what you're gonna be. And nothing will help otherwise. Nothing. Why? Because a person is a product of his environment. You see the Hamas, look, every one of them is a Nazi, filthy murderer. How they became all like that? From age 3, that's all they tell the kids. You're Shaheed, you're gonna kill Jews. Just say it, your dream to kill Jews. You interview kids, 4, 5 years old. What's your dream? To kill Jews, to be a Shaheed. Do they have any other option? They don't know anything. That's what we live for. What is your entire life, Mr. Mustafa and Ahmed? I dream to kill Jews. That's it? You have nothing else in life? No, I just want to kill Jews and go to heaven for that. Go and try to convince him now that they brainwashed his stupid head and he's going to the worst place in hell. No, good luck with that. Same thing with your child. You brainwash your child. Sometimes people come to me with divorce cases. Men come to cry to me about their soon-to-be ex-wife. While they're in an ugly battle. And what do they do? They want to stop the financial support, child support. Why should I pay for the rent? Why should I pay for the mortgage? Let her go find a job. You know, they're all the same macho statement and usually stupid statement. So I say to them, it doesn't really matter. Let's say you're right. Let's say your wife is a witch. Let's say she's evil. Let's say she's ungrateful. That's everything you say, okay. I have one question to you. She's gonna have the kids, right? Not you. You can go and retaliate and torture her and punish her and try to educate her and make her feel that now she doesn't have what she had. And what do you think she's gonna do? She's gonna turn your kids to hate you, and at one point you'll be left alone in your life. Your kids won't want to look at you. She has the power to poison the kids against you, and that's worse than a billion dollars. You try to save $5,000, $10,000 a month, you fool. Do you know how much you will be willing to pay to reconnect with your kids? Everything you have for one hug from your son or your daughter. Your kids will hate you. Even if you're right, assuming you're right, you're 100% right, she's the bad one, she's evil, she's ungrateful, she's lazy, she's everything. Needless to say, when most of the cases is the other way around. It's people just don't appreciate what they have. But the idea is that, you know, in Israel once they had a commercial, bak vish alti et sodek ti echacham. On the highway, on the road, don't be right, be smart. You have the right to go first, but some crazy egomaniac is about to cut you off. Stop! Let him go first. If not, you'll be both dead. No, I have to go first. You go first and you'll be dead. But I had the right. Now you have to go to court, lawyers, lawsuits. Yes, you can be right and be dead. You can be right and lose your legs. You can be right and be in hospital 6 months or pay $1 million for lawyers. Why get yourself into such a situation? Any questions?

Oh, a lot. Please. So wait, Rabbi, I love what you said. One night you said, and it ties into this He said, pray for the chayalim that not only that they can have the strength to save their life, but pray that they keep Shabbat.

They do teshuvah, 100%.

Right, they do teshuvah. So it was a little bit like—

You know, in some of the synagogues they do mishaberach l'chayalim, right? Not every synagogue does it because some synagogues are very strict. They don't want to do anything for the Zionist state. They don't want anything to do with this authority of non-religious people. But I say you don't have to agree with their lifestyle. You don't have to support their sins, whatever they do, but you have to be grateful. Someone is risking your life for you to sleep at night, for your children to be able to go to school. No matter who they are, and you completely disagree with their ideology and their lifestyle, side, gratitude you must have. So now you have to bless them that they stay alive and they won't get injured, not just for them, for your own good, because if God forbid they all die, you'll be next. So, but we have a contradiction here. On one hand, we have to be very grateful. We cannot be ungrateful. Judaism is all about gratitude. On the other hand, we are not allowed to support any wicked activity, any. Not violating Shabbat, not eating not kosher, not soldiers female that dress not modest. We're not allowed to support it. By blessing and praying for them, it shows that we show support and we agree to their lifestyle. So what do we do? I found an easy way out. We are blessing you and we are starting by blessing you that you should become baalei teshuvah. And plus, Hashem will give you all the best in the world. I'm wishing you all the best, but I don't want you to be a millionaire that you use the money against Hashem. I don't want you to be healthy and beautiful that you use your beauty to commit sins against Hashem. For that, I don't sign. So I bless you to be beautiful and smart and strong and healthy. In order for you to be righteous. And if you be righteous, you won't even need my blessing. You have the blessing of Hashem. More questions?

Yeah, Mashiach questions.

So you, so you, when you pray with Bataillelim, you pray that it become Bala Hashem? You add one more sentence. That's it. Very easy. They will do full teshuvah.

They're all saying now that they're going to wear tefillin every day from now on.

You know what I just said 10 minutes ago? Yeah, exactly. Everyone wants tzitzit and tefillin. Of course.

We learned this morning about Mashiach, about Shabtai, and how it was all false and fake. So how do we know today who will be Mashiach?

First of all, now no one is Mashiach. No mistakes. When Mashiach comes, first he will have to be a big Hakham, and he will have to be from the family of David HaNevi'im, and it won't be from today to tomorrow. There will be a period of time that we will see that he is the Mashiach. Now the Rambam brings 6 conditions what the Mashiach will do in the world. Nobody in history fulfilled those 6 conditions. No one. One of the conditions is that he will be alive, that he will come to Israel, that he will gather all the Jews from all exiles to Israel, that he will build the Beit HaMikdash, that he will take revenge against all the antisemite enemies of Israel. Do you know any rabbi in history that did that, or prophet? No one did it. No one gathered all the Jews into Israel. You know, so any claim that he's Messiah, he's Messiah, usually it's all false. But if you see someone that have a divine power, such an effect on the world, gathering all the Jews to come to Israel, starting— you know what it means? One thing I promise you, if there is anything for sure, is that I'm not the Messiah. Messiah also have to be in the family of David HaMelech. For instance, if it's a Cohen or Levi, He cannot be Mashiach. Oh, Rabbi Cohen, you are going to be the Mashiach. I can't. I'm not from the family of David HaMelech. I'm the family of Moshe and Aaron. Do you understand? So some people, you know already, they can't be Mashiach. But one thing we do know, that once someone will become Mashiach, it will be very obvious because you can see someone with a divine effect. Hashem is Mamashem. Making him act. It's like Ruach Hashem goes into him. One of the things that you should know, that once a person dies, you know for sure he wasn't a Mashiach. Maybe he had a potential to be, because we see in the Gemara that Bar Kokhba, even Rabbi Akiva thought he's a Mashiach. Such a soldier, such a warrior.

But then he came back.

And then when he died, immediately Rabbi Akiva said that he was mistaken. And that's when they changed his name from Bar Kokhba to Bar Koziva. Koziva comes from the word kazav. Kazav in Arabic, kadab, a liar, a deceiver. But it also comes from the word achzava, disappointment. Meaning you disappointed us. We will show you the Mashiach, and in the end you were another wicked person.

Aren't we not supposed to give names Nicknames?

Oh, look at you. No.

Yeah, according to the Torah.

No, that's not a nickname. That's just the title of what happened once he died. Died. That's it. I mean, you, you, in the end, you deceived us. By the way, you know, the Torah gives a lot of nicknames to a lot of wicked people. The Torah speaks very negative against wicked people against Pharaoh, against other Rosh Ha'im. Torah, the Tanakh, the prophets, they spoke against Yehovah, against many other Rosh Ha'im. It's written clearly. Even King Solomon, King Solomon that built the Beit HaMikdash, it's written in the end of his life, vay'as arabe ne'Hashem. He in the end did bad things in the eyes of Hashem. Why? The women turned his heart away from Hashem. Why did you have to write such a comment on such a holy person? Nobody had to know about it. Shove it under the rug. Be politically correct. Why? Because Hashem is real. It's true. It's not fake. Fake Torah. You know, in Islam, will you ever see a word against Muhammad? You find one religious Muslim that will dare to say one bad word against Muhammad? Never. Why? Because it's all fake. It's nothing divine there. You find any religious Christian that will say one word against JCPenney? One word in any book? Never. Our Torah, Avraham Avinu, Yitzchak Lashon Hara, Yaakov Lashon Hara, Dina Lashon Hara, Yosef Lashon Hara, David HaMelech Lashon Hara, Shlomo Lashon Hara. Every holy person in history, the Torah is full of Lashon Hara about them. Everything negative they did, the Torah right away highlights. David HaMelech and Bathsheba. Why do you have to tell us such a story? It's an embarrassing thing. And the Talmud criticized unbelievably. Why? Because that's a real religion. There's no lies. It's 100% what happened.

If holy people were so imperfect, what should we say about us?

Oh, so that's in relation to what she asked before. The Ari HaKadosh told his student Rabbi Chaim Vital, we are in a much lower level. So that's why when we do something positive now, count like a lot more in past generations. So because we live in such a world and because we live in such a generation, Hashem judge us in relation to the rest of the world, to the way the world is. That's why Noah, they said Noah was a tzaddik in his days. Everyone was rasha compared to them was a big tzaddik. But compared to Abraham, he wouldn't be anything special. Also, when Elisha came to the woman to stay in the attic, she was the star of the place, a real rabbi's son, and everyone admired her. But when he came, people saw compared to him she's nothing. So she said to him, why did you come here? To show God all my sins? What do you mean? He didn't see your sins before? Until I was alone here, I was the most righteous in town. My sins were nothing compared to my spiritual level. But when you came, the real man of God, I look like a monkey compared to you. So you see, there is such a thing to compare between two people. In comparison to this tzaddik, I'm a rasha. But in comparison to Bernie Sanders, I'm kedolah dor. It depends who you— same thing, someone come to you, excuse me, Mr. Mr. Cohen, are you a wealthy man? No. The next day, Mr. Cohen, are you a wealthy man? Very. Make up your mind. What, you won the lottery overnight? No, I have the same amount of money I had yesterday. So why yesterday you say you poor and today you say you rich? He said, because I compare myself yesterday to Mayor Bloomberg that have $30 billion. I only have $10 million. I'm a beggar compared to him, homeless. What's $10 million and $30 billion? Now I compare myself to an Avrech Kolev who makes $1,000 a month and have zero balance in all his accounts, if he has more than one account. Compared to him, I'm a millionaire. Compared to Trump, I'm nothing. Compared— it all depends who you compare yourself to. Are you a Chacham? Compared to who? Compared to, you know, a beginner that came to yeshiva? Yes. Compared to Chacham Ovadia? I'm nothing. Do you understand? Every definition is subject to an argument. Are you healthy? Yes or no? Depends who you're comparing me to. There's always much more healthy people. Are you handsome? Depends compared to whom? Are you pretty? Depends. If you compare me to Sarai Menuh, I'm a monkey. If you compare me to other pretty women, I'm very pretty. Do you get the point or not? The Gemara said that all women look like monkeys compared to Chava. Hashem designed her beauty manually. It wasn't an act of nature. No, Chava Imenuh. Hashem gave Adam HaRishon a wife. What do you expect the wife to to look like. Can you imagine higher, beautiful?

No.

If Hashem designed, Hashem is the artist. Perfect. It means that any beauty we saw in our life, imagine a lot higher than that because it's the hand of Hashem. He doesn't do 90% job. Hashem comes to do something, and that's what the Gemara talks about, about some women Sarah, when they went to Mitzrayim, the Egyptian fainted. Immediately they grabbed her to take her to the king. I want to tell you, you know, the women in those days, they were so modest. It wasn't easy to acknowledge their beauty. A woman dressed with tent, she covers from head to toe, everything is covered. There was no makeup like today, not all these artificial official things. So it's much harder to acknowledge it. You know, when Rivka, she was also very pretty, and she came to see Yitzchak, she asked, who is this man? He said, this is Adoni, meaning the son of my master. He's also my master. And yes, I'll say it's my master. What did she do? She had a scarf. Immediately she covered her face. You're going on a date, why are you covering your face? You want to impress your future husband with your beauty. Modesty was such a natural thing that if a woman comes to see a man, immediately she covers her beauty. Not like today. Ahmed, Mustafa, José, amigos, I'm here in the supermarket. 20 minutes she dress up because she goes to to buy few potatoes. And then when her husband come home from the job, like schmatte, oh, you look like you had a rough day. Recently you have rough days for years already. Ah, come on, you already know me, Moshe. I have to impress you with my beauty? The answer is yes. And I will finish with a short story from the Gemara. Choni HaMe'agel, you heard about him? No. He was talking to Hashem and immediately rain began. He had a grandson that had the same gift. His name was Abba Chilkiah. He is buried in Chatzorah Gililit in the Galilee in Israel. Abba Chilkiah, he was the holiest man perhaps in the whole world and he was walking in the field Like an Arab. He has a horse. He's working in the field, cutting weeds. The rabbis from the Bedouin came to beg him to talk to Hashem because they need rain. Months there was no rain. People are starving. There's no water. He didn't answer. They waited. When he finished the work, he said, "Hi, how are you?" "Why you didn't answer us when we say hello?" He said, "Because I'm working by the hour." If I start having a conversation with you, I'm stealing from my boss. This is how holy he was. Okay, let's go to my house and see what you need. They're walking to the house and his wife came out all dressed up. Megundere for him. Hi, my husband. She dressed up for him. On a weekday. Not that they have a wedding soon in charretzion. On the weekday. He comes from work. He was working in the field. She's all dressed up. The two chachamim, they're wondering what's happening here. So now they have to walk up the stairs. So he made his wife go first. He walked behind her and they walked behind him. Now they sat down in the house and they started to ask questions. First question: Why didn't you say hello? I didn't want to steal from my boss. Second question: Why your wife came out all dressed up? Up for you? What's the occasion? He said, she wants to be pretty and attractive for me. They asked him why? That's not— why? It's a regular day. Because if she doesn't, I will have to look at other pretty women. She's saving me from sinning. This is the holiest person in the world. Of 2,000 years ago, not of today, multiply it by a million. He said that if my wife would not look, put up together for me every day, eventually I would look for it somewhere else. He said to the Torah Chamin, this is people that in the highest Torah level you can ever imagine. And then they asked him, don't you know, Rabbi, that a man should not walk behind a woman's back? Even if it's his wife on the street, if your wife walk on the street and you park the car and you walk behind her, no. It's not allowed. Why? She's my wife, I can look at my wife. You're allowed to look at your wife, but other people doesn't know that she's your wife. It's Hilul Hashem. Walk next to her. And if it's not your wife, needless to say, you don't walk behind a woman in the street. So he say to him, Rabbi, everybody knows that that you don't walk behind a woman. Now she's climbing the stairs and you walk behind her. So he answered to them, so what do you prefer? That you walk behind her? That I go first and she walk behind me and both of you would walk behind her? Meaning he's telling the two representatives of the bedding, they have to be the greatest representative of the court. If I would let you walk behind my wife, I know you're going to look at her. And who knows what you're going to think about it. So if 2,000 years ago that's what the Gemara teaches you, imagine today when man is in a much lower level, when modesty is in the bottom of the bottom. So that's why women have to do everything they can to be pretty only to their husband, not to the amigos in the supermarket. Not from, I don't know, in the office. You know, there's one guy, he became balshuvah in Israel, and there is a woman, chilonit, in the office. She comes totally nakamas, everything open, much low life, no class. And he said to her, listen, I'm a religious man, I sit in front of you all day in the office, why don't you give a little respect, put a jacket, something? Ma, fiyadatit! Why are you forcing me to be like you? Religious? You live your life and I live my life. Don't tell me how to dress. He comes to the rabbi, he says, Rabbi, I have a very good job, chaval, became a baal teshuvah, but every day I'm sinning. Every time I pick up my eyes, I have to look at her. So should I quit? I support my family, my kids go to yeshiva. Should I quit and find a job that I may not even make half of what I make? Or should I continue to fight with myself in the office? The rabbi said to you, let me give you an advice. Tomorrow, on your way to work, take the suit that you don't use anymore, the worst one, that is ready to go to the garbage. Stop by the gas station, take some gasoline, pour all over your jacket. Soak the jacket with gasoline. You know, it evaporates quickly, so you won't get wet, but it will stink the entire office. As soon as you walk in, she's going to smell the gasoline. "Oh, what's this?" Tell her, "This is my new perfume from now on. That's how I come every day to office." She says, "No, you can't do it to me. I can't breathe. What's going on?" Live and let live. Don't tell me what perfume to put. No respect. You don't give me respect, I don't give you respect. By tomorrow she'll come as a rebbitzen. Don't worry, Moshe, from now on I'll be rabbanit. That's called betachbulot teras el chamil chaman. When you go to war, you have to be clever, not just strong. Clever.

Clever.

You use the right tactics, you know, what to do, what not to do. Same thing in life. How are you going to win the Satan, the Yetzer Hara? You have to be extremely clever. More questions?

I have a question about the Segulah.

Yes.

You know when they tell us to either read these 3 chapters and somebody will get pregnant, or read this book and somebody will get married. You're like 13, 13 times.

Gulot helps a little bit. It's not the main thing. It's not the main thing in Torah. The main thing in Torah is to be righteous, to daven to Hashem, to count on Hashem, to cry to Hashem, to beg Hashem, to have confidence in Hashem. That's 99.9%, and this gulot is 0.1%. You understand the comparison? So you ask me, I don't do any gulot.

What would you say?

If you ask me, I don't do any school. And when people send me videos of school to publish on my WhatsApp groups, I hardly ever publish. I don't waste because people can accept X amount of videos. You can't send every hour a video. They're gonna go out, get out of the group. So I try to send 2, 3 videos in 24 hours. I'm not gonna waste the opportunity by giving some school up. No. Things that are solid and primary, I will publish. Things that is secondary, not as important, I won't waste time on. But it cannot hurt.

What about Zera Shimshon?

Zera Shimshon is a very holy book. There's a lot of kabbalistic gulot. Like I said, this gulot is extra, it's good, it can help more. But first, let's be fully righteous. Yeah, because you know what happened when the Assegula doesn't work? What happened to people? No, they're starting to question the Torah.

But when you say be, uh, cry to Hashem, but you have to be b'simcha, I mean, like, no contradiction.

You have to be b'simcha that you're Jewish. You have to be b'simcha that you connect to Hashem. But, you know, you follow the Torah, and for everything else you have. At the same time, we have to be sad that so many of our nation is lost, and look at the situation we're in, and whatever we need improvement for. It can— many things in the Torah you have to do with mixed feelings. I give you an example. Someone's father died and left him $10 million, and that boy until now was in a frech kollel. Father gave him 2,000 emet and he lives. Father just died and now he became a very rich man. Which bracha should he make? Baruch Dayan haemet, or Sheheyanu v'kiyimanu v'giyanu lasmanaseh? The answer, both. Sheheyanu, it's for a big happy thing. Baruch Dayan haemet is for tragedy. How can he say two opposite things No contradiction. I'm happy for the $10 million. I'm sad that my father died. At the same time, I'm happy to be a Jew, to be ben Torah, to be connected to Hashem, to see all the dirt and the nonsense of the world that I'm not a part of it. I'm sad that I'm not enough hacham and this and that, whatever I need, you know, to improve. No contradiction. You can be besimcha and at the same time with disappointment, I wish I could do better, I should do better. It's no contradiction.

What about if you're very righteous, always praying, always studying Torah, but you don't, but a person doesn't see the hand of Hashem in their life?

You see, if a person learns a lot of Torah and learns a lot of with Musar and Ashkafa book, it's impossible not to see the hand of Hashem. Because remember, the Ashkafa book and the Musar book educate you to pay attention to every tiny detail. I give you an example. I, 20 years ago, used to daven in a place called Vishnitz in Monstee. They have every 15 minutes minyan. Now, Baruch Hashem, they built a shul 10 years ago next to my home. I walk out, I walk into the shul. Before the shul was there, I had to drive there, find parking, big headache. It's a lot of people there, thousands coming, and they have a lot of classes like Agnei Osef, similar, even bigger. Okay, so what happened? I sit over there and my friend sit next to me with his son. Son was probably 11 years old, 10 years old. He said to me, do you have $5 to lend me? I'm checking my pocket, I have $100. I said, I don't have $5, but I can give you $100. He said, okay, I'll give you change. I want to buy a cake for my son. He wants to buy cake from the cafeteria. He came back after 2 minutes. He gives me $95. I said, I owe you $5. Weeks I didn't see him. I don't see him every day. Forgot about it completely. Now, after maybe 2, 3 months, the guy from the yeshiva said to me, by any chance you go to Costco? I say, yes, today I'm going to Costco. Can I come with you? I have to buy stuff for yeshiva, paper plates, cups. I say, yeah, you can come with me. It was around 3-something. I said to him, listen, sunset is around 4:35. Let's go to Vishnitz, daven mincha like this. We don't have to worry because it's a goyish area. There's no minyan over there. Finish with mincha and then we go. We come to Vishnitz. There was, it was early. It was an hour before sunset, so it wasn't packed. You have to look for minyan. Finally, we found minyan. We finished mincha. We're about to go out to the parking. I see a box of books. Lots of used books. People sometimes come to sell. They write on every book the price. They put a pushka box, tzedakah box next to it. Nobody is a thief there, so no one will steal it. And they leave it all day. They come at night to collect. I saw a book that I wanted to get. It was hard to get, of Rav Shimshon Pinchas, about education of kids, $5. It's written, nice, amazing book. I say, I don't have now $5. The mini, the smallest bill I had is $20. This is 20 years ago. $20 back then was like $50 today. I say, well, I'm gonna put $20 in the box. There's no change. I asked the Hasidim there, do you know who owns the box? No, he's gonna come tonight. I asked the guy, Aaron, you have maybe $5 to lend me? He said no. Standing over there, I say, no, I have no choice. I'm gonna have to put $20, 4 times more. Just when I'm thinking to put the $20 in the box, that guy showed up with $5 in his hand. Where are you? I'm looking for you for 3 months. I owe you $5, remember? I take the $5, I put it in the box, and you see the perfect timing. I have to be blind not to see how Hashem runs the world. What are the odds? He showed up with $5 in his hand, he saw me from far, he prepared $5, he comes, he doesn't know that I'm in a need for $5 now. He sees me holding a book, standing by the bank, he hands me the $5, exactly what I need. I can tell you thousands of stories like that. Story like this. You can read about some of them in my book.

If you didn't read my book yet, I have in my car.

I can give you some books. Yeah, I have books in the car.

Preparation for Eternal Life.

I sign copies. Any more questions before we finish?

When are you coming back?

Whenever you invite me.

Did you ever give a 1-hour class? This is the first time.

I actually do. Sometimes they limit you on the time. You can speak only an hour.

It was such a treat. It was so nice. Thank you.

Thank you very much.