Parashat Naso - The key to Gan Eden's door - Rabbi Alon Anava

We are in the Parashat Naso. We still have the gap between us and the diaspora. Diaspora is in Bamidbar. We're in Parashat Naso. The longest Parashah in the Torah. Full of full of information. A lot a lot of important things. Birkat Kohanim, the priestly blessings, Sotah, Nazir, the presence of all the presidents and Matanot Nesi'im. A whole long Parashah. But tonight, today, we're going to focus on one very important detail. And a lot of people they want to know how to get into Gan Eden. Imagine now you would have the secret information, how to get into heaven, to Gan Eden. Everybody wants to know that. So, there is a tractate in the Talmud, specifically can be found in tractate Shabbat, page 31. And it says as follows, I'm sure you heard it not once and not twice. Most people heard it, but they don't know the source. And they don't know the whole thing. But I'm sure you heard it when a person goes up to Shamayim and they go to the Beit Din, to the court, the heavenly court, they're asking them questions. And the first question they ask the person, and I'm sure you're familiar, is have you did business honestly? Ooh, that's the first question they ask in Shamayim. If you did business honestly, Ayin Masakta BeYosher. This is I'm sure you uh many people heard the the Gemara. I don't think many people know the actual source. If you want to look, I actually recommend to go tractate Shabbat, page 31. Read the whole thing. The next question that they ask the person, the soul, that comes to shamayim is did you set time to learn Torah? Not how much time how much Torah I learned. Did you have a set time to learn Torah Torah? Kavata itim l'Torah. Even if it's once a week, one class, but it was set. And it doesn't matter if it's the World Cup, the I don't know what, you don't miss the class. This is the second question. The third question they ask is have you were you busy in the mitzvah of pru urvu, of being fruitful and to be multiple. This is pru urvu. Hema sachta bemitzvah priya u'reviya. That's question number three. Question question number four, hayim tzipita l'yeshua, have you expected the waited for the redemption? Have you lived every day waiting for Mashiach to come? The fifth question is hayim pilpalta bechochma, have you asked questions? To come to the class and to go like this, no offense to the ones, but but that's one thing. Have you asked questions? To come to the class is not a big deal. To nod, you know, I told you already the Chihuahua syndrome. Everybody nods. To nod is very nice. But you have to ask questions. This called lepalpel. But what about this? And how about that? And I'm not talking to disturb the class. That's not what I'm talking about. Talking about when I learned Torah, ooh, I had a notebook I used to write so many questions. Wow, who, what, when, what? This called lepalpel bechochma. Don't just say yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Ask questions. And the sixth question is hayim heventa davar mitach davar, have you understood something that you learned and you applied it? To go again the Chihuahua, this is not a big deal just to nod. Did you learn something and you went out of the door say, "That's it. I'm doing it." These are the six questions they ask. There's more questions, but these are the six first questions they ask to soul when they come to the heavenly courts. I don't know if you paid attention. Three questions are very general. The first one is if you did business honestly. This is the first question, but this is general question. The third second one is have you done the mix of approval? And the third one is if you waited for Messiah. These are three general questions. But 50% of the questions about Torah. Have you set a time to learn Torah? Have you asked a lot of questions to really understand the bottom of it? And have you applied what you learned in the Torah? So from 100% of questions, 50% is about the Torah. The other 50% is general questions. So we see that the questionnaire they give you before you go into Gan Eden is about Torah. How much Torah did you learn in this world? So we learn from that something very simple that it Kadosh Baruchu and the heavenly court cares how much Torah you know. How much Torah you learn. How much Torah you have with you. Not how much mitzvot, not how much good deeds you did. How much Torah you have. Now, you know, I'm sure you heard many times that there is a even a book with that question, The Secret of the Jewish Mind. I'm sure you heard many people ask, "Why what's so special about the Jews?" You know, in ratio, we have the most Nobel Prizes, the best startups, the best everything. What's going on with this Jewish mind? You know, they're now in Korea, they're in their curriculum, they're learning Talmud. They said, "Something's going on with this nation. They're so smart. Let's learn what they learn. So, what's the secret of the Jewish mind? Why are we so smart? Why what what's the I'm not saying it in a arrogant way, but the fact this is the fact. Something's going on. You know even even our enemies they they say that we're smart. Even our enemies call us the the nation of the book, Am HaSefer. We're learning all the time. You look at a Jew, Jew is with the head into the book. Why is that? Cuz we always learn. Our head is always in a book. Since the beginning of time, even I'm talking let's go even back to Avraham Avinu. Avraham Avinu learned Torah. Yaakov, Yitzchak were all learning Torah all day long. When Yaakov sent Yehuda to Mitzrayim, what do you think he went there to buy real estate? He went to establish Yeshivot. This is when Yaakov went to Mitzrayim. So, since the beginning of time we're learning and learning and learning and learning and learning. Now, the thing is that if you're looking at the the Torah everybody has to learn. This is not a choice. There's not age. From the moment you know how to say Torah Moshe Torah Tzeevah Lanu Moshe Morasha Kehilat Yaakov, that's it. Run. Start learning. From the age of two or three till the last breath of your life you're obligated in learning Torah. There's no time. Okay, from 20 to 30. So, we're constantly learning and learning and learning. Now, why is Judaism or the Torah make such a big deal out of out of learning Torah? What's the big deal? Don't why don't you make a big deal of acts of kindness, charity, and you know, love and respect, and what's the big deal davka with Torah? Davka with learning Torah? What why is that the highlight of the highlights? Now, not only that it's connected to our parashah, it's also connected to the fact that very soon in a few days is Shavuot. In Shavuot we're going to be learning Torah all night. So, we're going to be focusing on the parashah, but you can take from that a a very good message also for Shavuot. Now, what's going on in this parashah? Ooh, full of details, but the the the the the highlight in this parashah is that this parashah is taking the family of Kehat's, and Kehat, if you remember, is the middle child of the Shevet of Levi. And technically, he's the least important child of all the three, and the Torah is making him the greatest. If you remember last week in Parashat Parashat Bamidbar, we were learning that the Mishkan was in the middle. On the east side was the tent of Moshe and Aaron, and then three sides were the camps of the Levites. Bnei Merari, Bnei Kehat, and Bnei Gershon, according to the each direction. And last week it's talking about taking the the family of Gershon. He is the firstborn, but in this week's parashah, it's taking the family of Kehat and says, "No, him you elevate. You make him the best of the best." Now, Gershon was the older brother, and I'm sure you know and saw it many times how the Torah is always giving power to the firstborn. The bechor, the bechor is the top of the top. Even in the inheritance, the bechor gets double. How many times you see how important the bechor The bechor means the firstborn. And here, we see that the Torah goes completely out of its nature, and it says, "No, no, no, Gershon, yeah, yeah, he's he's okay. Gershon is okay. Kehat, wow, Kehat." Naso et rosh bnei Kehat, elevate him. Naso means to elevate. Davka Kehat? He's the second one, and seemingly not so important. How come the Torah is now taking Kehat and making him the important one in the family. Why? You know why? Because Kehat was the Yeshiva bocher. He was the one who learned Torah. He was the one that sit and learn Torah. So, the Torah elevated Kehat. He's now the the best of the best. So, we come again to this question. What's so special about learning Torah? You know, when a father, an observant Jewish father, when he wants to show off, he will show off about the kid that knows the best in the Torah. Oh, he's number one in the Yeshiva. He's the best in his class. Oh, say, why don't you say something? Father or the mother, they get a lot of nachas when the kid is talking Torah. So, again, we find that the Torah is making a big deal out of the Torah. Why so so special the learning of the Torah? So, the parsha of Nasso is a continuation of Bamidbar. It's like as if one parsha. It's literally continuing. And it says, "Nasso et rosh bnei Gershon." You should elevate the head of the the family of Gershon. Last week we learned about Kehat. But nevertheless, what is was the job of Gershon? It's to carry the ark. Right? This is a pretty big job. To carry the ark. You know what it means to carry the to carry the ark? Now, if you remember, we spoke about it last week. There were 42 journeys. 42 times they had to take everything apart and then put it back again. And then go from one place to another, take it down, build it up, and everything would be done in hours. We spoke about it last week again. Now, 42 journeys, they had to carry the ark some way. Can you imagine how how to carry it all? They didn't have cranes and and forklifts and trucks and Nevertheless, 42 journeys and they have to carry the ark and the Mishkan and everything. Now, the entire management of the house of God, because at the time of the desert, what was the house of God? The Mishkan. The Mishkan is temporary, Mikdash is permanent, but for 40 years in the desert, plus also the period when they went into Eretz Israel, they didn't have the Mikdash yet. Okay, later on they built the Mishkan in Shiloh, but nevertheless, in the desert, they moved the gold all the time. But who was in charge of all the work of the Mishkan? That was depending on one tribe, and that was the tribe of Levi. This was the tribe that got assigned, you taking care, you are the VIP, you are the elite. What they call in Israel the Sayeret Matkal, or the in America they will call them the Navy SEALs, the top the commando. These are the special forces. You know what it means? They're taking care of the ark and the Mishkan. Ooh, big VIPs. Okay. Now, what's so special about this tribe? Why didn't Judah get it? Why didn't anybody else get it? Why does Levi? So, let's go back a few hundred years. Let's see when Levi was born. If you remember, Jacob goes down to Haran. I'm sure you remember the story. He marries Leah, then he marries Rachel, then with that he gets also Zilpah and Bilhah. And the first one who has kids is Leah. Right? I don't know if you noticed, but usually, if you have been to a bris not too long ago, you notice that when the mohel is doing the bris, he turns to the father and he asks the father, "What are you going to call him?" What are you going to name him? Moshe ben David. And the father says that. They don't go to the mother and behind the partition, "What are you going to call him?" But here in this parashah, we see the mothers are naming all the kids. Where's Jacob? Where's Jacob? Why were he wasn't there in the bris? So, we do know that he was very dedicated to his job. He didn't want to miss any time of hours. He didn't want to do gazelle even for Lavan. So, he was yeah, he was busy working. So, we see that the mothers named the child the children. Now, I don't know if you notice, Levi was the third one who was born. And it was Leah that it seemed that called him Levi. But, I don't know if you notice, it wasn't her that named him. First of all, why did she name him Levi? Every time one of the tribes was born, then there was an explanation why. What was the explanation about Levi? Hapa my Levi she alive. Now, my husband has to go with me. That was what was Leah said. Why? Cuz she said up until now, you know, he has four wives. Now that I have three kids, now he has to be with me. I have the most kids right now. Now, there's an interesting commentary by the Sforno that says that when she had two kids, she didn't say that. Why? Cuz on the right hand she was holding one baby, the left hand she was holding another baby. Now when there's the there's a third, okay, now I need you. I need you to come home and help me, you know, change the diapers and bathe the kid. Hapa my Levi she alive. Now, I have three kids, now Jacob is guaranteed to be with me. I'm sure you remember there was a little bit of between Rachel and Leah. And Leah wanted more attention. She knew that Jacob loves Rachel. But nevertheless, now she has three kids. Now, what does she says? Why did I call him Levi? Hapa, this time you love me, you will escort me, my husband with me, he will come with me. So, basically saying in other words, that Leah saying now he has to be with me. Now, if you notice, there's something very different going on here and most people don't even pay attention to that. Let's go back in time, go to parashat Vayetzei. This can be found in the book of Bereshit, chapter 29. And it says as follows, and now she has another another boy. This is referring to Leah, of course. But now she says, "This time, now my husband has to come with me." And then it says, "I have gave him I have gave birth to three boys." Therefore, he called him Levi. Wait a minute. Stop. Stop. Stop. Don't continue reading. Leah says, right? She says, and Leah's talking now is going and then it stops. Therefore, he called him Levi. Who's he? You just said she. Who's the he here? You said Jacob wasn't there. Jacob was in the field working. Who called him he? Hashem. Hashem called him Levi. Not Leah. In all the kids, it's the mothers who called give the names. With Levi, Hashem says, "Therefore, Levi." Why? Cuz it says, but she said. But after that, it says, "Who's the one?" That's the the says, "His name is going to be Levi." Why? He's going to be the leader of He's going to be the one who's escorting the entire nation. Whenever the nation will want to hear about the Torah, whenever the nation will want to be close to Hashem, who are they going to go to? These are going to be the ones who are going to be the connector between the nation and to the Torah and to Hashem. The Rambam says that Levi the tribe Levi was always the great tribe of all the tribes in the nation of Israel. That was the the commentary of the Rambam. And interestingly, if you're looking if you remember when Yakov was about to die, he called everybody around the bed. And then he also told them exactly how to carry the coffin. You know that Levi didn't carry the coffin. Not only that, Yakov told everybody, "Please come and touch the bed." Besides Levi. Yakov told the Shevet Actually, his son Levi, "Don't touch the bed. Everybody else can touch the bed, but you don't touch the bed." So, we see many different places how the tribe of Levi was a little bit a little bit over everybody else. Another interesting point is at the time of Mitzrayim, even Paro didn't enslave the Shevet of Levi. You know, the entire Shevet was off duty. How do you think Aharon and Moshe were able to go in and out and in and out? They were part of Shevet Levi. Even Paro said, "No, this Shevet, leave them." Why? Because if Yosef respected them, he was afraid. Paro was afraid. He says, "No, this this Shevet this tribe, don't touch them." So, even Paro didn't touch them. Interestingly, now let's go further into the future. When they go into the land of Israel, everybody gets a piece of the land. And the entire Shevet Levi, they get nothing. You know what they had to do? Every family had to go to live in one city. They didn't get a place. They didn't get a nachala, a place in Eretz Israel. Why? The every family of the Shevet Levi had to go to a different city and live different different city. You know why? So, they can teach Torah in the city. They were the rabbis of the city. They were the one who come to teach. You go to this city, then there has to be a rabbi of the city. So, that was Shevet Levi. So, they didn't get any nachala. They didn't get any place in the land of Israel. So, how do they live? How do the Leviim and the Kohanim live? They got ma'aserot and terumot. The nation said, "Okay, we will support you." So, that's how they they were the spiritual leaders, and the nation says, "We'll pay the bill." It's almost like now you have a city, you have a Beit Din. How does the Rabbi get money? Well, the people give donations to the Beit Din, and the Rabbi has a maskoret, has a salary. Nevertheless, like I told you, Rambam said that not only that they were the best shevet, Rambam calls them cheil Hashem, the core of Hashem, the the special unit of the Kadosh Baruch Hu. Why? Because they teach Torah, and they learn Torah, and they teach it to the rest of the nation. Now, let's put all this information aside. Now, let's focus on what's going on in this week's parashah. In this week's parashah, they're getting another job. Not only to learn and to teach Torah, to take care of the Mishkan. To take care of everything. From A to Z, they took of everything all the all the jobs in the Mishkan, they had to take care of. Now, and this is their main focus. Learning Torah is one thing, but the main focus is to take care of the Mishkan. Now, if you split now the Kohanim that came out of Shevet Levi, well, the Kohanim, they had to operate the Mishkan. Slaughter the animals, check the animals, do all the korbanot. The Leviim, their whole entire shevet, the entire tribe was to assist the Kohanim. But, nevertheless, the Kohanim is from the same shevet. But, they they were operating the Mishkan, guarding the Mishkan, serving the Mishkan, and so forth. And even, you know, up until today, when you're looking at it, there's a certain importance to Shevet Levi. And we see it in many different places. Even though, according to halakha, we don't give ma'aserot to Levi to Leviim in our generation, only because we don't know who the Leviim are. And I can't give money to them if not because if it's the wrong if they're not a Levi, I can't give money to them. So we don't give ma'aser and trumah to Leviim. Although if you have fruits and vegetables that you give ma'aser from, you can give it to a Levi. It's actually better to give it to the Levi. But nevertheless, since it has to do with money, we're not allowed to give it directly to the Levi because we don't know who's a Levi. And I I think I mentioned that a few times that I have a friend who learned with me in Yeshiva and one time we're sitting in in a Beit Knesset and it's the time they pull the Torah out and the gabbai calls the kohen up to the Torah and then he says, "Levi, Levi, Levi, any Levi here?" So I'm looking at my friend. I'm like, "They they need a Levi. Why aren't you going up?" He said, "Oh, no, I'm not a Levi anymore." I mean, what do you mean you're not a Levi anymore? Would you quit? What do you mean you're not a Levi anymore? So he says, "No, a few months ago I when I got married, the rabbi wanted to see the ketubah, proof of Judaism. We went three generations back and we found out we're not even Leviim. So the whole time I thought I'm a Levi and I'm not really a Levi. Now that when we investigated a little bit, we found out." So there are many families that they think they're Leviim and they're not Leviim. Many families thinks they're Kohanim and they're not Kohanim. And sometimes it's the other way around. Some people don't even know. I told you already there's a certain individual who was he wanted to find out his lineage, his roots. He made made a whole research. Some guy from Texas. Not only that he tracked his lineage and he found out that he's Jewish, he found another 10 families that are Jewish because he went into files of the Nazis in Machshima. He's the one by the way who found all the documents and if you're aware, but the previous Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak was smuggled out of Europe. And they bribed some high-ranking SS officer. And this individual from Texas found all the documents how they how they who they bribed, how they got him out, the route how they got him out, and he was able to be smuggled out of Europe. He came to Eretz Yisrael and then to went to went to went to America. That's the previous Chabad rabbi. Nevertheless, this individual found his lineage and he found other another 10 families and he came and told them, "Listen, I found documents. You're all Jewish." And one of the families he found out, and this is a very big respectful family, he found out that they're Kohanim. They didn't even know. And he found all the lineage and they tra- were able to trace it. And suddenly, "What a minute. Suddenly, I'm a Kohen." So, Mashiach is going to come very soon. He's going to start pointing out. We're going to have some surprises. But nevertheless, now we don't give my soul to the Levi because we don't really know who the Levi. And it has to do with money. If you want to give fruit, fine. But money you're not allowed to give to the Levi. But nevertheless, we still see in our generation that the Leviim, they have a little bit of a what's called chashivut and importance. First of all, we call them up to the Torah. They always will go up to the Torah. If there's no Kohen in the room, even though you're allowed to skip to the Yisrael, but you still if there's a Levi, you give him the respect. More than that, he's if there's a Kohen in the house who's about to give a priestly blessing, the Levi will wash the Kohen's hands. I don't know if you ever saw it in a synagogue. More than that, a Levi doesn't do pidyon haben, doesn't do the giving of the first born. And many many other things. Anyways, to make a long story short, Shevet Levi is a very unique shevet. Shevet is a tribe. This is what Rambam says, cheil Hashem, the elite of the Kadosh Baruch Hu. And we want to now focus for a few moments about this work what they did in the Mishkan. First of all, just the honor thinking that the Kadosh Baruch Hu says, "I want you to deal with my Mishkan. That's already showing us one big thing. But nevertheless, in this week's parashah, not in this parashah, in this parashah we learn about it, but we learn how Shevet Levi suddenly get the news that they're going to be selected to take care of the Mishkan. Ooh, that wasn't This isn't didn't come in the work offer. They didn't know. Suddenly, Moshe Rabbenu says, "Listen, you are appointed. You're going to take care of the Mishkan." Okay. Now, Moshe Rabbenu calls the kids of Bnei Levi, as if remember the Shevet Levi, and he has three kids, Gershon, Kehat, and Merari, and they have kids. Moshe Rabbenu calls all the kids, and the sons of Gershon, the sons of Kehat, and the sons of Merari. And he tells them, "Listen, I have a surprise for you. You're going to be taking care of the Mishkan. Ooh, wow, what a kavod, what an honor. Okay. Now, who is usually the most important boy? The first born. The Bechor. Even if you remember, when Hakadosh Baruch Hu revealed himself to Moshe Rabbenu and told him, "Go to Mitzrayim and get the nation out." What did Moshe Rabbenu say? "Whoa, whoa, whoa. I'm not the Bechor. I have an older brother. Go to him." No, no, no. Hashem says, "No, I chose you." But right away, Moshe Rabbenu says, "Wait a minute, I can't go first. I have an older brother." So, you would think that the old the older one, the Bechor, he will be important. Moshe calls Kehat. He says, "You, you, come. Kehat, you You are the one I want to talk to. You are going to be the one who's taking care of the Mishkan, specifically of the Ark, of the Aron Kodesh, the Menorah, the the the big Menorah, and all the Mizbechot, all the altars." That's what Kehat gets. Now, you would think that Gershon, who's the older, he would get that. That seems to be the best of the best. Okay, Moshe Rabbenu says, "No, Kehat, that's Kehat's job. You carry the ark, the menorah, the lamp, and the mizbechot, all the altars. Gershon, he's the one who's carrying what's called the yeriot. Yeriot is all the curtains. The curtains were not like cheap curtains you buy in IKEA, by the way. These were, ooh, serious curtains from linen, wool, and colors, and dying. Ooh, it was a professional weavers. Just to like just imagine how these curtains looked. This was not some cheap fabric that you buy from a home center. This is something special. Anyways, Gershon was the family who would carry the curtains, the yeriot, and Merari was the one who carried the krashim and the amudim, the boards, the planks, and the pillars. That was the job of Merari. Okay. The Torah says, Naso et rosh benei Kehat, elevate the head of the sons of Kehat, cuz they're above everybody. Now, again, like I said before, the Torah, wait a minute. Why is the Torah not giving the Kehat is the number two? Why is it not giving it to Gershon? Doesn't make so much sense. Nevertheless, this is the only place that we find in this week's parashah, in Parashat Naso, that the Torah is pushing away the bechor. Anywhere you're going to look in the Torah, the Torah is always going to give important to the firstborn. This is the first and only time that you will find in the entire Torah that the Torah pushes the bechor, in our case it's Gershon. He said, "No, no, no. Kehat, let him be number two." He's number two in line, cuz it was Gershon, Kehat, and then Merari. Why is the Torah doing that? Now, anything that the that happens in the Torah, there's a reason for that. Now, you have to ask yourself, "Why is the Torah doing that?" Specifically in this case. So, there's a It's a idea taught in the Midrash, why the Torah did that to make a heart. It's quoting a verse from the book of Mishlei, Proverbs, specifically in chapter 3, verse 15, and it says there Yekara mit Yekara hi mipninim. It's more valuable than pearls. That's what it says in Mishlei. And the commentary in the Midrash says this little verse in Mishlei is talking about the sons of Kehat. That's who it's talking about. Why? They carried the ark. You know what it means to carry the ark? You know that now any person, you know, we don't know exactly where the ark is. There's a There's a argument. Some people say it's in the Vatican, that Titus took it. But the more reliable opinion says they weren't able to move it. It's buried underneath the the where Har Habayit is. Even if they would find it, they wouldn't be able to move it. So, yes, here no question that Titus took a lot of stuff in Bet Hamikdash, and it's probably in some basement in the Vatican. The menorah and many other things. The ark, nobody can move it. Even if you bring a crane, you're not going to be able to move the ark. And the ark was this big, by the way. Not very small. You had to have special powers in order to lift it up. How did they were able to lift it up? Nobody can move the ark. Very soon you're going to see the ark. Just imagine, very soon Mashiach is going to come. We're going to get everything back. Just imagine seeing the ark. Seeing Luchot Habrit. Can you imagine seeing such a thing? I I I don't know. I I It's hard to imagine. Nevertheless, the Midrash says that when Hamelech says mit Yekara mipninim, Yekara mipninim is referring to the sons of Kehat. They were carrying the ark. So, yes, the bechor This is what the Midrash says, the bechor is the most important one unless there's a talmid chacham in the family. The talmid chacham, the sage, the scholar, is going to push everybody else away. So, even if the scholar, the talmid chacham, is number two, number three, number seven in line, he will push the bechor. That's what the Midrash says. That's why Kehat was able to push Gershon away. Why? He was a talmid chacham. Stand and learn Torah. Now, the Midrash adds on that and it says, "Even a mamzer, a mamzer, how do you say that in English? In English, it doesn't sound so good. I know. I don't want to say that word. It doesn't sound so good, a mamzer, in English. But a mamzer is a person who came out of a relationship of a man or woman who are married to other people. That's a mamzer. That's a big problem. You can't even marry a mamzer. 10 generations. Nevertheless, uh this is a big problem in our generation even. Now, who would know who How do you know who's a mamzer? I told you already a couple times, and I know a few people get offended, but many people actually act upon it. And I told you, I don't know how it is in Europe or other places. I know in North America, most of the Jewish couples are not really married. And the reason why they're not really married because all it takes is one of the witnesses in the chuppah to be a a false witness, a disqualified witness, and the wedding is not a real wedding. And most of the chuppahs, that's how it is. Unless you're getting married by an Orthodox rabbi who's very particular, then if it's Reform or Conservative or civil or whatever, they don't care about the the witnesses. If one of the witnesses is pasul edut, is disqualified, there's no wedding. What's the result from that? That most of the couples in North America are not even married. And I you know, many people come and tell me we have problems in our marriage. The first thing I ask him, I say, "Are you married?" Of course. Look, I have a $40,000 ring. Well, the $40,000 is a nice ring, but did you get married? Of course we got married. So-and-so married us. Yeah, but married you're not married. Look at your ketubah. Look who the witnesses were. If the witness is not a kosher witness, you're not married. And needless to say what problems it's going to cause between the husband and wife when they're not physically married. They may be live with each other and they spend a quarter of a million dollars on a wedding, but they're not really married. And I have a whole wedding album of couples that got remarried cuz I told them, "Look, let's look at the ketubah. You're not married. Go and marry again. Don't have to make a wedding. Just go to the beit din, write a new ketubah, bring two kosher witnesses, and that's it." And you How do you say, renew your vows? You don't have to go to Vegas for that. Go to the beit din. But the fact is that the majority of couples in North America are not really married. And of course it's going to cause a lot of problems. Where did I see that the first time and it's connected to what I want to say? Why am I saying that? About 15 years ago, give or take, one of my wife's best friends got married. Okay, she invites us to the wedding. And then my wife comes and tell me, we were like very freshly observant. So my wife comes and asks me, "Am I allowed to say bracha from the seven brachot under the chuppah?" I'm like, "What?" She was like, "Well, well, my friend invited me to say one of the brachot under the chuppah." I I can't you can't say a bracha under the chuppah. I don't know what kind of wedding is that. And she's like, "Well, you know, it's you know, there's a woman rabbi." And I'm like, "Oh, okay." Okay. So, long story short, I told my wife, "Listen, why don't you talk to them and tell them, 'Listen, this is not the way to do it. You're getting your married, and you don't have to be not telling you to be observant, but do the wedding the right way." Anyways, uh we're going backwards and forth. At some point, I came to my rabbi and I told him, "What do you think I should do? This is the situation." He told me, "Mind your own business. Don't don't don't interfere here." So, he says, "That's what you're telling me? I would expect you to tell me, 'Yeah, go there, turn the tables upside down, go and tell them You're telling me not to say anything? I'm shocked." He says, "Listen, no doubt that if they go ahead with this wedding, besides spending a lot of money on a fancy wedding, they're not married. They're going to go home that night, they're going to have marital relations, and they're not even married. And needless to say, they're going to have kids, they're going to live their life happily ever after, and they're not married. That's it, end of story. Every time they're together, having marital relationships, that's a sin, a big sin." So, I told him, "So, how are you telling me not to get interfered? How not to maybe influence them or convince them?" He told me, "Listen, if they're not particular about how they're getting married, if God forbid, they get divorced, they're not going to be particular how they get divorced. So, now you're going to help them get married the right way. What happens if they get divorced in 10 years and you're not in the picture? So, you you think they're going to care about a get? They're not going to care about a get. They're just going to split. Now, what happens is they're really married, and they don't even have a get. So, they got divorced with a lawyer, not with a get. Now, each and every one of them goes and marries off a new person, has children with them, these children are illegitimate, cuz they're still married to each other. So, if they're not particular of how they're getting married, they're not going to be particular how they're getting divorced. Let them not be married, and if they get divorced, then it's not really a divorce cuz they weren't really married. You know many women we're trying to help them get out of an abusive marriage and the loophole is, let's see the ketubah. Maybe you're not even married to the person. There's one woman now we're trying to help her. The husband is extremely abusive and and and she needs a way out. And their way out is, let's find out if you had an unkosher wedding, you're not married to him. Take the girls and get away. You don't need a get. So, the problem is that this is going to cause a mamzer, mamzer. This is a serious thing in Am Yisrael. I don't know how to to to to to even have such a thing. The same midrash that says that Shevet Levi that the the sons of Kehat were elevated, why? Because he was a talmid chacham and he pushes away the bechor, the same midrash says that a mamzer who was a talmid chacham is more important to a kohen than is an am ha'aretz. Imagine a kohen. Here you have a mamzer, but a talmid chacham, he's a more powerful than the kohen than is an am ha'aretz. I've been in the the least of the least of the kohanim. Why? Because he's a talmid chacham. He still has Torah. And in this week's parashah, we see how the Torah is giving power to a person who has Torah. But in a very dominating way. Now, comes the big question. What is this? A person can be a mamzer, but a talmid chacham and you're giving him all the honor, the respect. The person has Torah and that's it, he's number one? Yeah, that's what the Torah says. So, why is there such a big deal about learning Torah? Why is the Torah or Hashem or Judaism is making such a big deal from learning Torah? Isn't it more important, like the first question they ask the soul "Asuk be yosher?" Isn't it better to be a mensch? To be honest? To be honest in business? Why making such a big deal of the Torah? Let's go to the three questions that, you know, being honest in business, expecting Messiah, doing poor people. That's pretty important. Why are you making a big deal of the Torah? So, the Gemara of the Talmud says a story, a very interesting story. If you remember, I gave some classes about the history of the Talmud, how it started in Babylon. If you remember, we learned about one of the Yeshivot that was in Bavel, Pumbedita. If you were here in the class, maybe you remember that. Okay, there was a Yeshiva in Pumbedita. This was in Bavel. Bavel is Iraq. And there was one rabbi there, he was known as Rav Yosef, if you ever heard of him. He was known as the walking Mount Sinai. He was one of the top Tannaim that ever existed. Literally knew the Torah inside out. Everybody went to him. He was the source of question. They called him Har Sinai Mehalekh, a walking Mount Sinai. He was greater than everybody. At the time, the great sage was Rava. He was 10 times greater than him. Everybody would go to Rav Yosef for questions. Okay. Chag Shavuot, the the holiday of Shavuot was his favorite, and he would go completely out of his kelim when Shavuot would come. The Talmud says at one one time before Shavuot, he got so excited, he instructed his students to make for him dish, a food, a veal, but not just a regular veal, a veal that from a calf that is number three in line. Not number one, not number two, third calf that comes out. And a whole explanation how the womb is already already adjusted after two calves. Whatever, all the This is was like the the the delicacy of having what's called a Glam Reshet. A gluttonous calf, a veal that was number three in line. And they tell him, that's what's on your mind on Hag Matan Torah, on Shavuot? That's what's on your mind, veal? Our great Rebbe? And he tells them, this holiday is what made me. I am me because of this night. Not me, I'm talking about Rebbe Yosef. He says, without this night of Shavuot, I would be like any other Yosef in the market. I would be like call Yosef Bashuk. But this night made me special. That's what the Talmud says. How do we explain the Talmud? We go to Rashi. What does Rashi say? Rashi says, she learned the Torah and it promoted me. I have learned Torah, and you know what it did to me? It elevated me. That's what Rashi says about about Rebbe Yosef, that he learned Torah and the Torah elevated him. That's the Torah. The Torah is a source of elevation. Nothing else would elevate you, only the Torah. What's so special about learning Torah? The Baal Hatanya explains in the book of Tanya that when you learn Torah, it penetrates in you. It's not like anything else. Torah is what's called in the Kabbalistic term, pnimiyut, it becomes part of me. Mitzvot is chitzoniyut, it's external. I can put tefillin on, it's outside, doesn't penetrate into my body. The Baal Hatanya explains it beautifully, it says the Torah penetrates inside of me, becomes part of me. And the only thing that is able to become part of me is the Torah. And that what it does, what would be the result? It will elevate me. The learning of the Torah changes me. Doesn't matter how many times I'm going to put feeling on. It's not going to change me. I'm doing a mitzvah, no doubt. But it doesn't change me. I can put feeling on 50 years. I can say the Amazon 50 years. Observe Shabbat all the It's amazing. But it's It's only It's external. It doesn't affect me. Torah when it affects me, makes me a different person. How many times you came into a Torah to a class and it changed you? You were able to apply something in your life cuz you learned something. Torah elevated you. You're a better person. You're not so angry. You're not so judgmental. You think different. You operate different. A mitzvah is great. It's not going to do that. Give to God like this all day long. It's not going to change you. Torah is able to elevate you. And when it elevates you, not only elevates you spiritually and in your in your place in in your in the world. It changes you completely. When you learn a lot of Torah, you're a different person. Why? The Torah is wisdom that becomes part of you. The The The Midrash says a story about that that there was once a sage who lived in Israel, but nevertheless, he wanted to go and learn a little bit of Torah. He decided to go to Babel. At the time, there was a center of Torah in Israel and there's a center of the Torah in Babel, Babylon. Okay, this sage wanted to go to Babel. Okay, you live in Israel, you're going to learn in Babel? That's what he wanted. Okay. He learned there for a couple months and then on the way back, he comes back and on the way back, he goes on a ship. And everybody on the ship were merchants because everybody used to go out out of the country. This person will deal with leather, this one with textile, this one with with a gold, whatever it is. Everybody was merchants. He sits on the on the boat and everybody's asking each other, "What do What do you do? What are you importing? What are you bringing?" This person says, "I bring a food. I bring gold." Whatever. Everybody asked him, "What are you a merchant for?" He says, "I bring Torah." Torah? What do you mean Torah? He says, "That's That's That's what I bring. I went to Babel. I brought Torah with me." Nonsense. We go out, we do business, we bring merchandise. Okay. They're all laughing at him. Why? Cuz they all came with their fortunes. You know, when I was younger than Now it's not like that, but when I was a teenager, everybody knew you want to make money, you go to America. People go to America, make money, come back. And you know, it worked. I went to America after the army, I made money. I didn't come back yet, but nevertheless, it was very easy to make money in America. You come back with a lot of money. So, same thing here. They went out to Babel, come back with a lot of money. So, everybody was laughing at him. They didn't come back with money, he came back with Torah. Okay. Three weeks into the journey, starts a storm in the ocean. They're on a boat, on a ship. What do you do when you're in a storm? Start throwing all the heavy things. Okay, let's start throwing all the metals. And then start throwing all the crates and all the boxes. And before you know it, they throw everything into the water. They have to save themselves. And to get to a point that even throw the food in. And what happens is, now they have nothing. No gold, no diamonds, no food, no nothing. And they're all sitting on the boat starving. Okay. They find a deserted island. They stop in the deserted island. They all get off to the island. They want to go and eat. Everybody goes to look for food. The the sage, the Jew that went to Babylon to learn Torah, he goes off the the boat. Where do Where does a Jew go? Goes to synagogue to pray Mincha. Okay. He goes into the synagogue and he comes in looking beautiful beard and all dressed all uh learned, okay? The rabbi tells him, "Oh, you look like a Talmud scholar. Maybe you teach us some Torah." No problem. Between Mincha and Arvit, he starts giving them a class. Oh, floors them. "Where did you come from?" And all they're all so excited. "Who are you? Where did you come from?" Unbelievable. They start giving him presents. He tells them, "Listen, I'm on a ship here. We lost all the food." They come out. They give food to everybody. They feed everybody from the boat. And everybody's satisfied and happy. Okay. Then they come to the all the merchants. They come to this Jew and they tell him, "What's going on with you? You know, we just lost all our fortune, and you were able to chick chuck get everything back." So, he answers them, "Your merchandise is outside. Can be gold, can be stones, can be even precious stones, can be whatever. My merchandise is inside. I carry it everywhere I go with me. Storm, no storm, throwing things in the water. My s'chora, you know, they say in the in the Yiddish action, my s'choireh, my s'chora sheli, my merchandise is inside. It doesn't get doesn't get lost. I carry it with me everywhere I go, like my iPhone. That's that's the idea of learning Torah, that the Torah not only elevates me above the ground, it's with me. Doesn't go anywhere. You take your Torah with you to the world to come. You don't take anything. You take mitzvot, yeah, but the Torah, that's what's carrying you. But in this world, it's the Torah. You know, there's a famous argument in the Talmud with a famous story with Rabbi Tarfon. I'm sure you remember that because we read that very short and not long ago in Pesach. There was a big argument, what is greater? Talmud Gadol or Ma'aseh Gadol? What is greater, the Talmud, the learning, or the action? And the concluding conclusion was the Talmud, the learning. You know why? Because the learning will make you do. Just doing is nice, but if you learn, it actually makes you do. And you know, there's a story, we're going to finish in a minute. There's a story in the Talmud, very important story. I highly recommend to to go and read it. It can be found in tractate Chagigah. All the way at the end of the tractate. And there was a story about a talmid chacham, a sage that sinned. I'm sure you heard the story about Acher, Elisha ben Avuya. Okay, was a great scholar, sinned towards the end of his life, switched. And there's a question there. What happens with a person like that? What happens with a person who was a great scholar, and then he sins? Does he go to Gehennom? Is he going to be burned in Gehennom? Okay. Same place, it's asking another question. What about an Am Ha'aretz, a person who did mitzvot, but doesn't know much? He did the mitzvot because they told him, "Do this, do this, do this." Now, that person sins towards his end of his life, goes off the derech, does he go to Gehennom? What would you happen with these two? The Talmud says, both these people will not go into Gehennom. The sage that has a lot of Torah that flipped and went against the Torah, and also the Am Ha'aretz, the person Am Ha'aretz means a person that follows the Torah, he does all the mitzvot, but he doesn't have any any wisdom, doesn't learn anything. The Talmud in tractate Chagigah says, both of them don't go into Gehennom. Why? The talmid chacham doesn't go into gehenom because his entire body is fire. You learn Torah, your whole body is fire. So, what's the whole point of gehenom? Gehenom is not a punishment. I mean, it is. I don't recommend to go there. Unless you're going on points from your credit card and I I don't recommend to go to gehenom, but really what is gehenom? Gehenom is a furnace. You know how if you have now a fork that's it's a what's called a basari, a fleishig, and you mix it with a meat with a with a dairy. Now it's becomes tareif. How do you fix it? You put it in boiling hot water or in fire. That's it. This is how you take the taste out. This is gehenom. Gehenom is fire to take the taste of the sin out of the neshama. So, why would the Talmud chacham not go to gehenom? His whole body is fire. You can clean fire with fire? That doesn't work. So, he can't go into gehenom. This is the Talmud chacham. That's why if you remember the story, Acher could not go into gehenom. He Now he wasn't in gehenom and he wasn't in Gan Eden. His soul was kind of like bouncing in between. If you remember, his student Rabbi Meir says, "When I die, I will go up to shamayim and I will make a an effort that he will go into gehenom. He will get cleansed and punished and at least he can go out and go into Gan Eden." But nevertheless, the Talmud chacham cannot go into gehenom cuz his entire body is fire. And fire cannot turn off fire. Fire cannot clean fire. The The am ha'aretz cannot go into gehenom cuz you know what the Talmud says? Even rasha'im shebeYisrael, even the wicked one in Israel mele'im mitzvot kerimon. They're full of mitzvot like a pomegranate. Even the rasha'im, the wicked ones. So, why can he go into gehenom? Because he has a lot of mitzvot. He can't go into gehenom. So, the difference is his body is full of mitzvot, but I mean, he is full of mitzvot, but his body is not full of mitzvot. That's the difference. The difference is the seeds and the pomegranates, you can split, you can separate the seeds from the pomegranates. I mean, the saying is that the ashamed Israel may lay in the mitzvot Kiriman. But nevertheless, the mitzvah is something external, and the Torah is something internal. And doesn't matter how many mitzvot you do, it doesn't affect you the same way how the Torah affects you. And the limut Torah, the learning of the Torah elevates the person. It elevates us to a place that it transforms me. And that's really the virtue. This is the advantage of the Torah. I'll tell you just one quick story before we end. About probably about 200 years ago, they there was the Rebbe from Belz. And he was a great, great, great tzaddik. And he was blind. And he had a yeshiva, and he would sit there, and people would would come, would want to meet him and shake his hand. And he would, you know, blind, and he would shake a person's hand, and usually would just say a blessing or something. Every now and then, he would ask the gabbai, "Who Who's this person?" And the person said, "It's so-and-so." "Okay." One time, the son of the Tzemach Tzedek, the Tzemach Tzedek is the grandson of the Baal Hatanya. His son, the last he had seven boys. The last of all, later on became the next the next rabbi. He once went there, and he was dressed like a merchant, not like a big rabbi. So, he goes to the Rebbe from Belz, and the Rebbe from Belz shakes his hands, and then he tells the gabbai, "Who Who's this guy?" So, he tells him, "A soikher." Uh merchant. So, he says, "This is not Stam a merchant." And he quotes the the famous song from Eishes Chayil that it's talking about the merchant going to to the ocean to get to bring back the the the whatever the products or whatever. So, the the Rebbe from Belz says, "This is not a regular. This is Sokher ba'Torah. This is a a great scholar in the Torah." When they ask him, "How do you know?" He says, "I I touched the body. Body's fire. Body's full of fire. It's not a regular body." But nevertheless, when we want to conclude that why the Torah gives so much to the point of learning Torah is because you can do be a good person. You can be an amazing person, charitable, and kind, and do a lot of mitzvahs, and a lot of acts of kindness. All great. It's all amazing. But it doesn't change you. The Torah, when you learn the Torah, the Torah becomes part of you. Not only that it elevates you spiritually, it totally changes you. A person that learns Torah, doesn't matter who, what, and what, he will change. He will become more refined, more elevated, more soft, more wise, and so forth. That's why the Torah and Judaism gives so much power to the ones who learn Torah. That's why this is the how we started the class. One of the keys to go into Gan Eden is learn Torah. And it's not the quantity, it's the quality. That's why the first question is, "Did you set time to learn?" I'm not telling you to learn 20 hours a day. Even if it's an hour a day, but that hour, doesn't matter what happened, it doesn't change. Whatever what comes in your way, this hour, I'm not moving. This is the importance of learning Torah. It's called Kriat Atid Latorah. Even if it's 20 minutes a week. So, the Torah comes and tells you the most powerful, the highest way what the Kadosh Bahu sees or what will change you or elevate you is sitting and learning the Torah. Like the Rebbi Tarpin says that the Torah will bring you to do the action. So, we want to conclude from that, especially a few days before Shavuot, is that the night of Shavuot we learn Torah all night and the whole Yom Shavuot was dedicated to learn Torah. Now is not the time, maybe another time we'll discuss it. If you notice that during Shavuot there's no Chol Hamoed. There's Chol Hamoed in Pesach and there's Chol Hamoed in Sukkot. How come we don't have a Chol Hamoed in Sukkot in Shavuot? You know what Chol Hamoed is really done for? To learn Torah. Chol Hamoed is a rabbinical It's not the right time. It's the Rabbanan. Why? The whole week, the whole year you're busy. Chol Hamoed sit and learn. So, wouldn't you make a Chol Hamoed on Shavuot? Well, that another time we'll talk about why Shavuot doesn't have a Chol Hamoed, but right now we're a few days before Shavuot. Here we celebrate one day, out of Israel we celebrate two days. This is the 24 hours to 48 hours that you sit and learn Torah. That you dedicate yourself to the Torah. It's the time when you can receive the Torah in such an internal way that what you want to apply from that is how am I setting myself a schedule throughout my busy day that I learn Torah. Once a day, twice a day, once a week, two hours a day. The Torah is the highest of all. Mipnei Nim Yekara, it's valuable more than pearls. So, we here see the Torah The Torah is pushing the Bechor in this week's parashah. Usually doesn't do that. It's pushing the firstborn. Why? Kehat learns Torah. In our generation you also see that. I told you that in the previous class. And when a person is a Talmud chacham and he has Torah, ooh, this is like you go against a Talmud chacham, that's like how do you say touching the soft part of the eye? That's in Hebrew they say it mabut ain o shel Hakadosh Baruch Hu. That's don't touch this. You hear me? The apple of the eye. Ooh, the talmidei chachamim the Kadosh Baruch Hu don't touch them. That's what we said. I told you before the class about the sheva the malchut the the connection. The Kadosh Baruch Hu is very sensitive with the talmidei chachamim. A person who has Torah with him, Kadosh Baruch Hu says don't don't go against that person. Don't don't stamp stamp the Torah. Don't go against the Torah. So what we want to learn from that is how lucky we are that we are the one who receiving the Torah. We're celebrating in a few days Chag Matan Torateinu, the holiday that we received the Torah. And we have to understand that we're lucky to receive the Torah. Now take this great merit and you see in your life how am I applying the right time to learn Torah. And every minute counts, every hour counts, and every moment that you learn Torah or every free moment that you have you know, for a man, every free moment that he has and he doesn't learn Torah, this is one of the worst sins that a person can do. It's called bitul Torah. If you're busy, you have to support your family and you have to work 12 hours a day, good, work. But you have a free moment, don't go like this on Facebook. That's not bitul Torah. For every one like that, oy oy oy, what person will have to pay for bitul Torah. Women are a little bit more exempt with with when it comes to Torah. But nevertheless, every free moment that you have, then you want to learn Torah. Exactly like the story I told you before we started the class with the lecture. I came out of the lecture, I had an hour to drive. I had an option of learning Torah or listening to music. And the question was, what do I do? I told you I went out of the lecture, 7-hour lecture, my mind was about to already explode. I go into the car just to relax a little bit. I open the windows, put some music on, and I'm, you know, I'm driving. I need I know it's it's something to relax. And after a couple of moments that I'm driving, I'm like, "What am I doing? The GPS says I have a whole hour now till I get home. What do I do? I have an option on one side to listen to music and relax. Or the other option is to switch the CD and put a CD of a Shiur Torah. Now, let's uh weigh the the results. If I listen for a whole hour for music, what would be the result? An ear ache. Right? And what would be the result of a whole hour of Torah? Netzach Netzachim. Eternal reward for 1 hour of listening Torah. So, we got to value what we have in our hand. Don't waste your time on nonsense. Not only that you want to apply that into your own life, but also you want to be attached to a Baal Torah. We spoke about the Pirkei Avot. People learn it in in the summer. It tells you also, "Aveh mit avek ragleihem shel talmidei chachamim." Throw yourself to the dust of the you know, the legs they do dust to the dust of the talmidei chachamim. You can you can't go wrong there. Attach yourself constantly to a person who learns Torah. You'll never go wrong there. A person who has bitul Torah or who cares about other things, that's I don't want to be part of this. So, we want to first of all understand the merit we have that we have access to the Torah. And then go and apply that. And with that, we have a key for eternal life, or a happy life in this world. And not only that, I don't looking necessarily the eternal life or how lucky I am. I'm looking how much it's changing me. And at the end of the day, now especially now at the time of Sefirat HaOmer, it's about change. How am I refining myself? How do you refine yourself? At the end of the day, go to all the courses, do all the tricks. The only way to refine yourself is in the Torah. Sit and learn Torah, that will refine you. Because when you put your heart in the Torah, this is not easy to learn Torah. Now it's easy because I'm feeding you. Open the book, start learning the argument now between two Tana'im. He said this, he said that. And going to the depths of everything, that's not easy. I told you already once that the person on Yom Rosh Hashanah, everything is decreed. How much money you're going to make, who's going to live, who's going to die, who's going to get married, who's going to have kids. Everything is decided on Rosh Hashanah. You know what else is decided on Rosh Hashanah? How much Yissurim you're going to have that year. How much hardship you're going to have to go through. 10 kilos of hardship, 20 kilos, 100 kilos. It's all dependent They already decided how much hardship you're going to have to go through. Now, you have a way to redeem it. If you toil in the Torah, then you're removing from the baggage of the Yissurim. Everybody has to go through Yissurim cuz that's part of the system. But if you put yourself, you know, it's not easy to learn 2 hours a day, 3 hours a day, 4 hours a day. Put your head in the book and to to understand, not just to read. Then you take You do that, you take off from the baggage of the hardship that you have to go through throughout the year. So I look at the Torah as my tool of my refinement. I look at myself with a very judging eye and I see my faults and I know I need to get rid of this. I need to get rid of that. I don't like this attribute in me. I'm talking about myself, not about other people. The only way to refine yourself is only the Torah. So you want to take all these beautiful aspects of the Torah and apply that. And we have to understand how lucky we have that we have to We have the Torah to learn. And Be'ezrat Hashem, in a few days we celebrate the holiday of receiving the Torah. So we should all be blessed with not only receiving the Torah in an external way, but rather that should we receive it in an internal way that should affect us. That not only we should grow up in the Torah, that should we should refine ourselves and become a much more elevated, refined individual. In the other sham, we should merit to receive the ultimate Torah with the coming of Messiah. And as it says, the Torah Hadasha may take it to say we're going to get an addition part of the Torah. In the other sham, we should merit to see it and to be part of it very soon. In the other sham with the coming of Messiah. Have a beautiful rest of the week and a hug some out if I don't see you.