Are We Better Off Today Than Past Generation - Jewish HaShkafa (117)

are we better off today than our ancestors were if the imagination is what's controlling your mindset then certainly you're going to conclude that yes right now you're watching me from a different part of the world and learning as we speak on the other hand the wise among us are going to be more patient before they conclude because they know that there's a lot more behind this question many different types of cultures among jewelry are continuously arguing and debating and competing with each other some of those competitions are healthy but some are unhealthy competing with whose food is better Traditions are better forgetting what gave you the tradition in the first place and in fact why your form of jewry in Libya and Yemen in Syria in Iran in Russia or Poland why even went on the map in the first place and last but not least when the competition is done in the right way it's certainly healthy as it breeds more wisdom when it's competed in the wrong fashion it's one of the tools of AD and tonight you're going to see a real life example of how this is utilized in both Fashions and how it could help our communities but also help our people in general enjoy share and be holy we are back here on our new week Sunday night Jewish ashfa series andem we have another extraordinary installment really building up on what we started last week in this new chapter uh tonight uh shu is uh kindly sponsored by the descendants of uh the the Kish the caric carit family uh and may bless them with uh also the she will be for the [Music] forar S Leana aavid and all of is all the righteous noahides that continue to support all the amazing work by the organization uh just as a reminder for you guys we have this new campaign uh for uh this uh extraordinarily uh Monumental event uh that we have uh coming up in just the next couple of months uh which is also being combined with our annual campaign for the uh special prayers that uh some of you have us pray for you during the Judgment Day of rosashana or yum Kip uh so uh this year if you go to the uh uh BH uh um RH or uh the BH YK websites which are the campaign websites you'll be led to the new campaign website which is actually BH Shas bhas.org uh bhas.org this is the uh campaign poster or at least one of them which is uh this year as a bonus for everybody and really for cl uh we're uh having our annual event uh be something that has really never been done before not just by our organization by simply by anybody uh by having our dear T from uh you know from Isel uh both young and old uh that have completed the uh talmud bavi in a single year or the younger ones have completed the entire sh mot in a single year these younger kids are uh you know 13 and younger uh and then also we have some like our own very dear Rim that has completed many other things along with the talm also the talmi and many other things as well was just completed a few days ago so uh when you're contributing to this uh campaign to get you know either become a uh small part of it or bigger part of it you're uh also going to be a partner in this extraordinary uh this Merit of uh being part of this all of these cim now for those of you that want us to uh to pray for you during the holidays this is the regular campaign that we have each year uh where uh you know each person that uh donates whether it's the uh uh first level or the second level uh they um you know depending on the level of sponsor sponsorship you're also going to get a um a video uh with myself and rer fr uh you know blessing you at uh anything that's particularly that you want aside from the usual of getting more parasa and more uh uh good health and anything else if there's something specific obviously let us know I see that some of you that have been with us already in the past have already signed up many of you are uh you know still haven't soem we have a lot more to go because this year you know the uh the big thing about all of these campaigns is that we're utilizing These funds to not only publicize more Torah more books more amazing things like the organization always does but also to feed more poor Jews in is during this holiday so the more we get ahead of time uh the easier it's going to be for us to uh to help Jewish families before the holidays and as you all know the holidays are uh you know very uh expensive for everybody uh to uh you know pay for food for you know for for different things that are necessary so the more we get ahead of time the easier it's going to be for us to commit to uh to help more families but either way theem we will do everything possible uh you know regardless of what help we get but bem we'll get more so with that being said I know that um some people are uh looking for a special handholding uh in these uh types of campaigns they want to talk about it they want to discuss it uh they want to be convinced or sold uh that uh that why they should do this uh this is obviously not our way uh and uh it's simply not something that we have the ability to do or interest to do but I can assure you you that all of the people that have uh done uh this with us have signed up for these campaigns have certainly uh benefited from them and I'll give you some uh real life examples that I just found out about in the last 24 hours you all ask uh all of you ask for uh for miracles and for stories and we will get some today so with that being said we are uh going to uh continue this new chapter chapter five of the K where uh which is titled in Hebrew which is in essence the imagination and the intellect or the rationale or you could also say it as the non-logical thinking and the intellect and Kish has told us this say about these two parts of of of Mankind's thinking uh whether Jew or Gentile is irrelevant uh two parts of the thinking that are in essence going to dictate how your life both in this world and Eternity is going to go where a person is going to have the natural inclination as he said to Bow his head uh you know to wealth to power to the wealthy people to Beauty to loveliness to fine buildings and Royal palaces because that's motivated by his imagination by his non-logical thinking because his non-logical thinking his imagination is thinking about oh look at that guy he has a lot of money maybe he can help me maybe he can save me maybe he could donate to me maybe uh he's going to give me a job and the imagination lets people think a lot of things whereas the rationale the uh the the intellect is the adversary of the imagination because the the uh uh the rationale the intellect of a person wants to know the bottom line wants to know the numbers wants to know the proofs wants to know whether this is the right decision or the long decision based on a track record of some kind and this is a constant battle that a person is going to have unless they have adapted a d t the the opinion of the T the knowledge of the Torah now the imagination is very useful and necessary in order for a person to succeed but it's also at the same time as we spoke about last week is one of the prim primary drivers to a destructive life where a person that lead lets his uh imagination rule his life could uh literally bring himself or herself to depression without anybody else motivating them simply by looking at the uh their neighbors uh things or looking at their uh their brother and sister stuff or looking at anybody else's things and what whatever they have when a person focuses on what other people have have they forget about the good that they have they forget to appreciate what they have they start becoming jealous oh look at her she just got married I'm not married oh look at him he just bought a new car I don't have a new car and you start thinking about what everybody else has forgetting about the fact that you too have many good things even if you don't have what these people have that you're looking at you certainly have things that are uh very good whether you have good health you have a uh you know a good job you have a good spouse you have a uh you know good kids but unfortunately when a person allows their eyes to uh to travel far and to go into other people's places and other people's things they could literally become depressed you know she's upset about her marriage why is she upset about her marriage because she saw how her friend's husband bought her a uh a gift and she was so jealous of the gift that she's now upset at her husband she didn't actually consider the fact that maybe her friend is more well off or perhaps that uh it was uh some type of an anniversary or Reason to buy her a gift or perhaps because the husband is trying to convince the wife to not divorce him because he just committed adultery she's not considering those things she's just thinking about the end product she got a gift and now she's upset at her husband that he didn't get her a gift forgetting that it's not our anniversary and needless to say her husband is loyal to her he didn't cheat on her so she's much more fortunate than her friend that just got a gift and if she would actually ask her friend would you prefer a gift or a husband that's uh loyal to you only a psychopath would uh would say that they would prefer the gift so when a person allows their eyes to travel and look at other people's things many time they can get to a point of depression and sadness that's unwarranted that really has no reason whatsoever to exist it's a self-inflicted wound and for things like this a is not going to help you because he's not the one that caused it you're bringing it on yourself and this is one of the things we learned from the BET from a couple hundred years ago in our [Music] Series where a person is concerned con ered about things just simply out of their imagination they're concerned that maybe I'm not going to have money but you have money now yeah but maybe I won't have it in the future or maybe I'm not going to find a house do you need a house right now no but I'm going to need it in six months okay so worry about it in six months no but maybe I need to worry about it now and what ends up happening to people is that they start developing this self-inflicted wound this anxiety that that is actually punishable with the anxiety itself happening and that's what says the BET says the measure for measure punishment for a person worrying about things they don't need to worry about is the actual thing they're worried about you're worried about not having money Hashem says oh so you're thinking that I fed you today but for some reason I'm gonna starve you tomorrow you're forgetting about the fact that you didn't ask for me to feed you today and I still gave it to you you didn't ask for me to give you air to breathe today but I still gave it to you you didn't ask for anything but I still gave it to you but yet you don't trust me what's the punishment now you're not going to have this is not a Vengeance Shalom a punishment where hashm is taking Vengeance against his own kids but rather it's a lesson a lesson for us to learn that the there's nothing else but him the only thing that a person needs to worry about is their relationship with a and when a person worries about their relationship with of how they can serve him better and how they can do better literally they can see Miracles happening just like the one I that I just witnessed recently literally something unbelievable there was a person that I mentioned to you guys uh recently uh that I didn't mention his name I forgot his name at the time but uh now I know his name his name is Alon p and this uh this guy was was uh born normal and uh had a car accident uh some uh 13 14 years ago that uh caused a major damage and within six months he lost the ability to move every part of his body except his head that's the only thing that moves and it's not even his whole head it's it's his mouth it's his nose but the rest of his body his arms his legs and even his breathing has to be assisted and you see this guy and if you see him from afar before you start hearing him talk you're thinking oh poor guy what a you know what a Miskin what a horrible situation this guy just uh you know lost his life until you hear him talk once you hear him talk you hear a person that has extraordinary in hasem that actually did Chua after the accident and is cleaving to Hashem day and night learning to non-stop in his little room that he had in the hospital for 13 years straight not leaving the room much has a tube in his neck can't move his hands can't move his uh his legs but he's learning to he's learning he's reading books and he's developed such connection with that he says many times and I heard it at least a few times from him that if you would give him an opportunity to exchange a life with someone that has everything has money has beautiful looks has a perfectly healthy body he wouldn't exchange with him he wouldn't exchange with him he says do not look at me like I'm a poor situation I'm a I am perfectly happy nobody's happier than me in the world and when he was interviewed a few years ago one of the people asked him do you have any aspirations he said absolutely I have aspirations I have many goals I have a goal to get married I have a goal to move out of this uh Hospital have my house build a home you know and and and the interview was taken back even though he was the interview was religious what do you mean get out of this hospital this little room and get married like he's confused yes he says and I know it's going to happen he goes what if it doesn't happen he says to him what if it doesn't happen and then Alon says to him it will happen and not two weeks ago not two weeks ago heem left the hospital still in the bed still can't move left the hospital to go get married now they're building him a home he's going to live with his wife and many more miracles why because he believes in a and nothing else hence the reason when people say yeah what if I believe in hasem will he help me well that depends do you only believe in Hashem because you have no other option or do you believe in hasem regardless of what's going on and this is one of the most profound ideas that we learned from the bet that many times people literally get to a point where they're hopeless cuz everything else they try they try to make money here they try to make money there they try to get married here they try to make money there get married there nothing worked then they say listen AEM will you help me and they're surprised that he doesn't help them sometimes why did you come to me last why didn't you come to me first and this is one of the most important things that if a person utilizes their imagination in a positive way where they're imagining all the blessings that aadh has already given them how much he has transformed the world just for your sake you have food to eat do you understand how much a had to do in order for you to eat there had to be somebody that just decided one day that he's going to go into a business of farming and then it wasn't enough for him to just do local farming he wanted to do National farming so you had to hire people and he had to find those people and those people had to go to work every day and they had to plant these different seeds and bring all these crops out and then obviously do all of the different things they need to do in order to bring these crops and turn them into something that you can actually eat the whole Manufacturing process is extraordinary one of the main things that you will benefit from learning the laws of Shabbat when you go into it deeply is actually by learning about all of these different things that you have to do in order to actually be a successful Farmer and the Beautiful Thing here is that this is a teaching you the the the miraculous nature that he's created through the laws now you're learning the laws but you're also learning the miraculous nature of the creation and all of this that had to happen in order for this plant to turn into a piece of bread and now this bread has to be wrapped it has to be preserved and also it has to be shipped and it has to be shipped to different wholesalers and those wholesalers have to bring it to different supermarkets and those supermarkets have to decide to build one local to you so you can buy this piece of bread that has the kosher symbol on it because if it doesn't have a kosher symbol on it you don't know what's in it and even when it does have a kosher symbol on it you have to make sure that it's not dairy bread because if you're going to eat a meat sandwich with dairy bread you have a very serious problem with AEM but a made sure that there is a k organizations that are going to make should to analyze the manufacturing process and let you know if this bread has dairy in it or not and then put a little symbol on it and somebody had to invent this ink and this computer program and this processing center that is going to make these wrappers easily add the Kut symbol and put it on that bread but any time it's missing the Kash organizations immediately send out emails to different people and notify the public that there's a mistake in the Kut this one is kosher but it doesn't say the symbol this one says a symbol but it's not really kosher and there are many employees behind that whole process that seems easy to you because it's just a simple email or or some type of text message or maybe even you saw it on the internet but aadh worried about that for you and then of course if we go into the meat process somebody had to decide that they're going to grow cows or sheep or chickens or any other type of kosher meat and not have a non- kosher meat like many others even though it looks more profitable because you could sell a lot more and he has to have rabis supervise every single every Slaughter and analyze everything and make sure whether it's KHAK or it's glut or it's it's not he has to analyze everything and all of this has to go through a whole process a manufacturing process a capitalistic process but most importantly a process that has divine intervention at every single step monitoring every single step to make sure that what you need is available to you when you need it so after prepared that sandwich from Al from A to Z for you you're worried about what you're going to eat for dinner you're worried about what you're going to eat tomorrow and needless to say you're worried about what you're going to eat in six months from now isn't that lack of gratitude and many times when people have no you see that they have many many other defects in their relationship with the B with the creator of the world so the imagination can be utilized for good where a person could learn how to appreciate His blessings a person could learn how to appreciate her blessings and not have any time to waste looking at other people's blessings and know that whatever you need you have and if you don't have it that means you don't need it but on the other hand if a person allows their imagination to be utilized in a inappropri way they can get to a point where like some person that contacted me a few times actually I've had people contact me where they tell me that they their imagination has led them to forbidden places they now have attraction to the same gender they have attraction to people that are married even though they're themselves are not the person they're married to and it was multiple times that I've told men that they're not allowed to go to the mikve because of how awful how awful the place their imagination has gotten to where instead of going to a place of Purity to purify yourself it becomes a place of sin and you are now forbidden from going there why because you've allowed your imagination to go into a forbidden place this is why I always tell people that have the desire to be holy don't get used to looking at yourself don't look at yourself at all literally the basic minimum especially men men have become accustomed to looking at themselves and looking at their bodies this is not abnormal it's normal but it's not good don't look at your breit don't look at your body there's no need if it was if if you feel it it's there if something's wrong you'll feel that there's something wrong because the more you look at your body the more you become accustomed to your body the more comfortable you are with your body and then it leads to wasting seed promiscuity and all types of horrible things which also include pride and arrogance this is one of the downsides of people that spend a lot of time working out in gyms although working out in the gym is good it's healthy for people that have the time to do it and the ability to do it and interest to do it but if you're going to spend the entire time that you're working out looking at yourself in the mirror the gym has become a tool of of arrogance for you it's no longer healthy for your n it may be healthy for your body but not your nsh why looking at yourself is unhealthy so the imagination could lead you to appreciate the Creator but it could also lead you to destroy your relationship with the Creator the same exact tool can be used for good and for bad now K continues here and he tells us how the imagination likes the future and doesn't like the present and this is part of the war between the imagination and the intellect and he says as follows it's the nature of man to love competition if there are two people one competes with the other if there are two communities to ad do one Community competes with the other or if earlier Generations compete with later generations this too is alluring producing a clash that is pleasurable to follow now the earlier Generations claim we are cleverer than you the generations are deteriorating with the flow of time the heart of the earlier Generations was wide open like the entrance of a palace and the Heart of the later generations is like the eye of a needle to which the later generations re respond to it saying but the earlier Generations were idlers they had no contact with other nations and the people in the various parts of the world did not know each other all their food was natural and they dressed in sheep skin they fought their Wars with swords and Spears and bows and arrows and catapults but we the the you know the more recent Generations later generations we have put down railroad tracks all over the world we've created a Telegraph telephone radio we made all of mankind into one family where all Scholars of the world can confer together as if this world is one big city we have even made towers that fly through the air and we are lighter in Flight than Eagles we have also built many factories that produce various Goods such as our forefathers never imagined we have also invented weapons World destroying bonds that can kill thousands and tens of thousands it's below our dignity to compete with the earlier Generations that lacked all of these things would a giant want to compete with a dwarf up to here is what we're going to discuss today the ultimate battle between us here today and the previous generation because the imagination that loves the future hates the past the intellect on the other hand analyzes things for what they are which we'll get into in the next section but what is all of this battle about are we really better off than the previous generations now of course somebody that has learned some T can easily say yes we're better off but do you know why is that even an appropriate question to ask that whether we're better off in the past or not should we be asking something else so first and foremost the K starts off by letting us know that thinking about this is very normal because it's part of the nature of man that loves competition people love to compete one person competes with the other one brother competes with his other brother or your sister who has the better drawing who has better answers in the test who has a nicer bike who has a nicer car who has a nicer House people compete constantly who could get from here to there faster and the competition is part of Mankind's mentality in fact it's necessary if it's utilized the right way thear says that competition between two is good because it creates greater wisdom but competition between two regular people is unhealthy because it creates jealousy Now Sports in general would not exist if it was not for competition that's the whole point of them one person wants to beat the other person one team wants to beat the other person the other team and there was one time a guy that came toad Shad was an extraordinary literally went all over the world just to help Jewish people get closer to in his unique and extraordinary style of speaking and teaching aradon was an ashkanazi Jew that loved all Jews whether they were did not make a difference and one time a Jew came to him and told him Rabbi listen I keep Shabbat keep K I come to the Sho but I have a problem that I can't come to the the next sh because I also love soccer love s in Hebrew and there's a game between two Champion teams and I can't miss the game I have to I have to watch the gameon in his cleverness he says to him what's what is this sucker me this shocked how does the rabbi not know what kadel is he says to him you know the old man oh so maybe in his time there wasn't any sucker he says to him well you know it's two teams each one has 11 players and there is one ball two Nets and each team tries to get the ball in the net of the uh the goal of the uh opposing team so says to him oh so why are they fighting why why why all this fighting and this arguing just be nice to each other and take turns tell the blue team to go they could kick for a little while put the goal in the net as much as they want and then once they finish after a few minutes give it to the red team and they let them kick the ball in as many many times as they want be nice to each other why are they arguing for is it not a better solution and the man laughs he goes no no Rabbi it doesn't work that way it doesn't work that way you can't just give the the team the ball he goes why not why they're not nice people cuz no no they're great it's just that that's the there's a there's a guy one of the 11 people he's called the goalie and he is there and he is going to try to stop the ball says that okay easy solution tell him don't come play if you're going to do that you're ruining the game we're trying to be friends get out of the way you're ruining the game for us goes no Rabbi that's not the point no no no it's not that he's ruining the game that's the whole objective of the game he's trying to stop the ball and so is the rest of his team because if they just let each other score all the time there's no point the whole challenge of the game is who can score more while stopping the other guy says says your ears should hear what your mouth is saying if you're saying that the whole objective of the game is to score when there is a Defender when there's someone going in trying to stop you that's the whole point of the game or else there's no point there's why would you be the champion why would you be the winner if there's no one getting in the way the same thing applies to your Torah it's easy for you like you said to keep Shabbat it's easy for you to eat kosher it's easy for you to put on a it's easy for you but it's not easy for you to come to the sh it's not easy for you to honor your parents it's not easy for you to givea it's not easy for you to do a lot of other things but that's the point that's why K does it people ask me all the time why did hasm create us with such a desire to go and make sense that's the point khabibi that's the point if you didn't have a desire to do the wrong thing why should he reward you why should he reward you if you're like a robot and you're doing everything perfectly why should he put you in ganeden the point is that you have a desire to do the wrong thing but you choose to do the right thing because that's the will of hem and that's what the says in the name ofel he says a Jew should never say that pig is disgusting and it's and it's I would never eat it because it doesn't taste good and shotes is not fun to wear no don't say that because you don't know that unless you ate it but either way way it could be that pig is delicious it could be that wearing Shotz is fun it's great it looks good but what can I do that my father in Heaven says that I'm not allowed that's why I don't eat pig that's why I don't wear shotes it's not because pig is not delicious it's not because not wearing chatz is not good no it's because my Father in Heaven says I'm not allowed that's why I don't do it we don't fulfill the mitv because they're fun and we don't not sin because it's not fun no no no it's because said so and unlike some of the Heretics that make it seem as if needs you and needs your like I recently unfortunately heard more from this aicos man has freed me from nearly 10 years ago that apparently we missed where he says that God is upset at himself he's not going to punish anyone for making any sins because it's his fault he's upset at himself he's angry at itself literally the stupidity that comes out of his mouth just gets worse and worse each time each time you hear it but unfortunately there are many many victims many victims in the Jewish world and the non-jewish world to this heretical thought process why because they allow their imagin ination to control their life they're thinking listen I want good so why should I punish anybody I should just forgive everyone and therefore God will forgive everyone and the fact that I sinned it's his fault so he knows it's his fault so that's why he gave me the evil inclination I didn't give it to myself so therefore because I sinned it's his fault he's going to punish himself he's of himself literally the stupidity that comes out of these people I'm not sure if they need to be in gam or in like a new section where it's like mental cases but this is what's coming out this is the type of tum that is being fed to the public and unfortunately many people are eating it why are they eating it because they themselves are living in a world of imagination this in the early Generations it said is realistic for most people is only for not anymore today CH doesn't exist the only cha there is is CH which means the Chua is I just want him back that's not y because we know you have to know that abish is not angry at you he's angry at himself it means he blames himself for creating this mess for creating the for creating the a that Mees believe himself does look like a there's no question that the aish that blames himself and that's why he's asking us to come and be forgiven we're not even asking him to forgive us he's asking us to come y so that he can forgive us why because it's his fault so it says in the 100 different times we refer to the which means he tolerates our sins that's the simple meaning the deeper meaning is he carries the sin it's his fault so why does he forgive us because he's Le because he takes the away how could he not so now the Kish is telling us it's important for you to know that competition is part of your mentality it's a necessary part of your mentality but you need to know how to use it but sometimes people don't know how to use it like the examples we said in other examples where he's mentioning that there could be two adult two Jewish communities that are competing with each other why would two Jewish communities compete with each other this is unfortunately part of the world that we see on a daily basis where you see theim competing with Asim one will tell the other oh we have better traditions we have better better food we have better prayer we have better this we have better that the other one says yeah we're more organized we're this we're more uh whatever or you even have it within each other safaris there's different type of safari Jews just like there's different type of eseni Jews there's Safari Jews from Tripoli from Libya like where my ancestors are from there's certainly a huge Community from Morocco from Syria from egyp Egypt from Lebanon from Yemen and many times you see ignorant people don't even know how to keep Shabbat and many times not even keep Shabbat but they love the Traditions they love the Traditions say oh I'm a Jew from tripo we have the best food and of course the Moroccan says Ah no come on yeah you're the best food until you get to Moroccan house what are you talking about no we have better food our food is redder more spicier more this more that no come on we have the best we have we have we have this and each one is arguing like as if they're fighting over the Ten Commandments they're fighting over the Ten Commandments like if you say one thing about the other one's food that's not as good all the the the generation has gone to a point where literally their jewelry has become Foods who has better Kus who has better uh uh uh uh different types of uh uh dishes that they have on Shabbat and it's as if they think that Judaism is a restaurant of some kind and unfortunately there's nothing further from the truth there's nothing further from the truth next we also see that the earlier Generations compete with the later generations earlier Generations are competing with the later generations and he says this too is alluring and produces a clash that is pleasurable to follow why is it pleasurable to follow on one end it's pleasurable where it's foolish but it's pleasurable for people that are on different sides where the ones that are of the older generation they're very confident in their ways and their Traditions so much so that they frown upon the current generation they always mention oh we are cleverer than you the generations deteriorate as it's already known each generation is worse than the next we're much smarter than what you guys are the hearts of the early Generations that were full ofik our hearts were connected to a like a entrance to a palace you see poor Jews despite the poverty and Desperation and everything else they end abandon their faith this generation if they don't get their paycheck on time they become atheists if they don't get married exactly on a day and the time that they want they already be go to a different religion look what happened over here you didn't see our us do that it's not 100% true because unfortunately we had the Spanish Inquisition we had damages in the past but needless to say we have obviously a lot more secular Jews today than any other time in history but that doesn't mean that it's a new thing people for some reason think that the Jewish people only started becoming M now it's not true if you read a little history Jewish history you see that it's not a new thing and it's not even new over the last couple hundred years anyone that pays attention to the stories of what happened before the BET mikdash whether it's the influence of the Roman Romans or the Greeks what did you think that those Jews that became became Greeks you think they continued keeping Shabbat you think they continued giving m to the Tora you think they continued eating kosher no they intermarried they became lgbtq they did all types of other ugly things and the same thing happened throughout all of the generations the reason why we exist today obviously is because of the religious Jews that continued cleaving to Hashem but secular people or people that have abandoned their faith has always been part of the uh part of the calculation so the people of the past generation marck the current Generation by saying the hearts of our Our Generation were like a entrance to a palace whereas yours this generation it's like an opening of an needle night tiny there a few of you that are decent L learn a little bit but very few but then he says the later generations meaning the more recent they find this absurd what are you talking about earlier Generations were idlers they didn't do anything they had no contact with the other nations and the people in the various parts of the world they didn't even know about each other why because this guy lived in Morocco he didn't even know about anybody who lived in Tripoli in fact there is a truth to that where many times especially this was a uh a thing that came to light after modern day Israel enabled many Jews from all over the world to come to the land of Israel and many ashkenazim didn't even realize that sapharic jewry was still in existence and even more so when they saw extraordinary like Rya they didn't know what to do with it because they couldn't believe that the Safari world has such great and it took them time to adapt and some unfortunately still haven't adapted until this day and are still unfortunately very uh racist against their own Brothers why because he came from Poland he came from Russia he came from somewhere in Europe and the other one the other came from somewhere in Egypt or Tripoli or somewhere else in sapharic jewelry and unfortunately there's a lot of animosity still to this day in between it's improved in the last 50 years it used to be much much worse but nonetheless it still exists it still exists I remember one of the most horrifying stories that I ever heard was that when rabim was still young younger and he was going to Yesa and now he had to go to yes and he was already known as an extraordinary and uh he wanted to go to the best Yesa and the best Yesa at the time was asazi is the test that he took perfected it it was the best of the best top of the class but then the guy that was running the administration told them uh I'm sorry we can't accept you but but I got the best grade out of everybody yeah but uh we have to maintain a ratio and unless you can bring two ashkanazi Jews friends that you have to attend we can't allow you to come in now of course young kid this was devastating you're not going to let me in not because of my grades not because of anything else other than the fact that I'm spadi now of course this was all from shamay he ended up going to different Yesa which over there he excelled and grew in ways that certainly he wouldn't have been able to do elsewhere but this is not 500 years ago this is 20 years ago or less and this still happens to the this day and unfortunately many times what ends up happening is that young talented Safari ended up end up becoming more asazi why because they want to go into the B and the B is sometimes an asazi that's won't let them if they're too Safari and this is even worse for girls they won't let her in because she comes from a safari house because they have to maintain the ashkanazi quota and if they do let her in as I know firsthand experience from the raban r fr's wife as well as from different students that we have if they finally let her in if she's Safari she also gets a certain amount of abuse for being Safari you say wait a minute but shouldn't somebody complain to who who are you going to complain to if you complain they throw you out okay you don't like it go somewhere else and unfortunately this happens and it's not all yes and it's not all seminaries but it does exist just like horrible things like pedophilia exist and rape exist and theft exists and and all types of crimes exist this exists too and don't worry eventually will pray each one of these people that does these types of things but at the very least a person needs to understand that all of this all of this stems from a bad place a misuse of competition a misuse of competition instead of using competition to become better to do better to help better you use competition to look down at everybody as you're lifting yourself up while stepping on them and one of the things that the mishna says someone that takes pleasure in his brother's downfall loses his you're not allowed to make fun of your brother because he fell there's no permission oh look he got sick because he's a a sinner no no no you don't say stuff like that you can say these types of sins lead to sickness because that's what the gar says these types of actions lead to death because that's what the gar says but after it already happened go and try to help this person if you can help them do Chua help them get closer to give them some don't take pleasure that they fell down and now they have become a uh the nothing that they didn't realize they were always remember the goal of rebuke is to help people not to look down at them when we say that so and so is a rash that's because his actions are that if he does chuva if she does chuva they're now a sadik you have to love them no less than you love the biggest sadik in the world and the only reason why you have the permission to call them is because the Torah calls them but you don't hate them personally you hate their deeds if they change their deeds you have to love them you have to help them you have to support them and in fact even before they change the Deeds if you could actually help them do Chua that's what we do every single day but many times people think it's a competition between the ones that did Chua versus the ones that didn't the ones that know versus the ones that don't no no there's no competition here if you're competing thinking that you're better than people that are not doing as well you haven't done Chua yourself you have to watch and read thean where he specifically talks about this issue of arrogance that comes from people that are going in the right path thinking that everybody else is a loser because they're doing better not because they're not doing well and it's a important for a person to know that competition is necessary for you to advance in the world but the biggest competition should be within yourself compete against yourself your former self always better yourself be better don't look at who's running next to you look at yourself what did you do yesterday can you do better today how much did you learned yesterday can you learn more today how much did you learn last year can you learn more this year have you Sanctified yourself since last r or you the same person that you were last year if you're the if you arrived at Ros last year the same way that you are right now you have failed miserably at growth you don't have time to compete with anybody else you're not even competing with yourself the right way a person has to know that they have to constantly Elevate themselves and compete with themselves don't make yourself feel better because you're surrounded by people that are not keeping anything at all that's not going to help you in the bed of sh because he doesn't know how to read that doesn't make you a better reader because he doesn't givea at all that doesn't mean that your $100 that you gavea is generous it all is depending on where you are and how much you can do and that's what AOS is going to analyze but the younger generation is too enamor with the future the Innovations he's going to say something like the earlier Generations were idlers in comparison to US they had no contact with anybody else in the world they didn't know that the safaris existed the ashkanazi existed the different nations existed as if Columbus discovered the world we didn't even know that America was there even though there was people there already just because you didn't know doesn't mean that no one else knew and of course this type of past versus present type of competition is full of imagination the past is going to tell you that we had better lives there was less divorce we had more more life was difficult but we endured the president's going to tell you life has become easier because of our intellect all you need is two fingers you can run the world two fingers yeah says one finger to press the button for whatever you want on some computer you can make transactions with the bank you could buy things sell things one finger the other finger is I don't know maybe pick your nose your ear that's what the other finger is for because you're still human as funny as it is that's in essence what people think they don't need much they could do everything with just a single finger and two just to have fun the old generation from their perspective is they everything took a long time if they had to make a transaction the says how does somebody make a transaction he has a donkey and he wants to sell his dkey because he wants to buy a cow so it's a barter system so he has to bring his donkey to the guy that has the cow or vice versa he goes he brings his donkey gets there eventually after walking a few miles now there's a transaction he pulls the cow the other guy pulls the donkey they made a transaction now the says what happened if while he was going there the cow gave birth the little CF does it belong to the guy that just made a transaction because he already told them listen I want to buy it I'm going to bring the donkey on Tuesday put it on the side for me or listen until you pull the donkey transaction is not finished simple answer is the ladder meaning so long as the guy that wants to buy the cow did not pull it did not do what's called and uh take it in his hand the cow is not his even if he says reserve it for me I want it until he actually takes it there's no transaction meaning that whatever that cow uh uh you know whatever birth she has belongs to the guy that owned her until that time but today guy doesn't need to do all that if he wants to not just buy a cow he wants to to buy an entire farm full of cows he wants to buy a thousand cows all he needs to do he can go on the internet you can call a broker listen there is a farm over there I heard about it the guy is posting it on some website that he has a th000 cows for $5,000 a cow tell them I want to buy all of them I'll pay him $4500 yeah here's the wire instructions here's the money put in an escrow until the guy agrees he signs here finished literally he can do the whole transaction in five minutes unless he's going to involve lawyers which are going to extend it by at least three months because they have to get paid because if it wasn't for the lawyers it would be finished in five minutes but there's no money to be made if you only do for five minutes like a normal person so the lawyers have to pretend like you have to protect yourself from doing something that takes minutes needless to say this whole transaction he doesn't have to go anywhere he doesn't even have to leave his house press a couple of buttons transactions finished so the new generation says look at that you're not telling isn't that much better the other guy in the old generation had to walk for three days just to bring his donkey to the guy that has the cow and then finally he takes the cow and he has to walk three days back today all you got to do is press a button press one button I bought a thousand cows is surely it shows that were're better that's what the person will think the old generation they may not even have known anybody that had that many cows unless he was local to them says their food was natural they were dressed in sheep skin in the old generation today we have all types of food you go to a grocery store for the first time you get confused 20 different cereals 15 different types of salts a 100 different sugars why do I need to so many different types of sugars why so many cereals that's because everybody's in this business and somebody every Hashem gives money to everybody enough to make all these different products I have a student that came immigrated from a different country to the states and apparently from where he came from you know they had like the old style very very simple small Stars maybe one or two different types of cereals one type of salt one type of sugar you know one of two types of everything small little mom and pop Shore he came to the states walked into a Walmart almost had a heart attack wo is 85 different things of everything if you want to get a plate you have to go on an entire aisle not to find a plate just to Simply go through the different variations of plates there's plastic plate and there's metal plate and there's glass plate and there's blue and there's green and there's purple and there's this and there's all types of plates and then after you get the plates okay so let me get some uh paper towels you go to the next aisle and there's 100 different of paper towels there's ones that are 10 ft and 12 feet and 30 feet and the ones that are double threaded and triple and and single and this one that price and they single single packages and then multi- packages and family packages and gandom packages and all types of packages he doesn't know what to do he's like wait do I need to get a shopping cart or a tractor trailer he just came there to get a plate maybe a piece of cheese he left with 500 worth of stuff why so much variation I can't miss out so of course the mind of today thinks surely that variation is better at least that's what they would think in the old generation they wore sheep skin today you want to get clothes there's literally no end to the clothes all types of strange Idol worshipping names different names of of Gucci and Armani and Zara and dar and whoever and DK Y and some other flamer over there lgbtq all types of names each one sold at top prices for absolutely no reason whatsoever before they go into the discount store and sold for $5 and people pay for it in fact the more expensive the more people want it why competition competition in fact that's one of the things that is the product of competition is a lack of rationale a lack of rationale says in Ecclesiastes chapter 4 verse number four says and I saw that all labor and all skillful enterpr prize spring from man's rivalry with his neighbor competition this too is futility and vexation of the spirit here schl who was extraordinarily wealthy so wealthy that he paid me for the wood that he gave him to help him build the bet mikdash he paid him by giving him a city of gold not a pillar of gold not a a a tractor carrying gold not a truck full of gold no no no a City of Gold Everything was gold for what for pieces of wood that's how much gold schl had and he says he saw all the labor all the skillful Enterprise everything that people do they keep innovating they keep building they keep doing he build a house with a villa on Story 5,000 square ft the next door neighbor has to outdo him what does he do two stories 5,000 sare feet for each floor before you know it another person moves into the house destroys the house that he has there and builds a palace three stories 20,000 Square F feet and as a house competition a house competition who has the bigger house the more Innovative house where they have now already for some years where they have a what's called a smart house where the smart house is has all this technology built into it where you walk into the house the house already knows what temperature you want to a conditioner it already knows at what time you make coffee and all types of other things you know turn turn off the lights turn on the lights make sure that uh the uh everything works in accordance to the owner that programmed it they even have different AI uh built into it that's learning people's behavior over a period of a month or two in order to make the house in so you know SM SM now although this convenience is interesting it's important for a person to know the laws that are involved in actually having a smart house because there are certain problems with it and there are certainly certain benefits from it that you have to know can't just build a smart house without knowing to but needless to say the new generation thinks oh it's well if it's doing it by itself then surely it's allowed no not necessarily and schl says where where do this all this desire to make smart houses and smart cars and different phones and new models every year with phones and bigger houses and all where does all Innovation come from he says all of this comes from man's rivalry with his neighbor all of it comes from competition and he concludes says the LA that even though most people are basic sincere people decent people they're impelled by their competition their greed and their jealousy and therefore these factors themselves turn them into something that they're not supposed to be the I Ezra says that the spirit of man's rivalry with his neighbor is simply that everyone has this mentality that they have to out do their neighbor they have to have a better house better clothing better children better food better wisdom better reputation constantly competing instead of competing with themselves competing with what tah requires you to do they're competing with people and lastly the shim say says that because the drive of competition of such is not healthy and because people will end up outdoing themselves often to their detriment only in order to satisfy their competitiveness and find themselves enslaved to their own passions so here already 3,000 years ago scho already wrote about society today as there's nothing new Under the Sun he's building a bigger house not because he needs a bigger house in fact as he got richer he needed a smaller house because his kids got older and they left the house so when he didn't have much money and all the kids were living home cuz they were still young he needed a bigger house but he couldn't afford it now that he's made some more money but it took time his kids already got married left the house all 10 of them are out of the house but now he can afford a house that can afford 100 that could you know fit kids but what is he going to do with it what is he going to do with this house and many times people end up buying more doing more more consuming more not because of their needs but rather because of their desire to do better than someone else even if that someone else is an imaginary friend they get a bigger house not because they need a bigger house but because they want to have the best house they get a newer car not because their old car doesn't work but because they want to make sure that they still look fresh next to the competition whoever that may be and if somebody got the same car oh that's like uh you might as well kill them they get depressed I know somebody overall good person but when it comes to cars literally a sick person sick sick like if if there was an institution that helps people that have an obsession with cars I would send them there I'd even pay for it he gets a car whatever model I don't know whatever truck or SUV or whatever car he has in some color that he likes and he's as happy as can be even though he already had a car and it wasn't really old maybe a year old he want a new car fine no problem gets a new car he gets the newest shade of white not really sure what that means but the newest shade of white somehow white changed over the years newest shade of white this is unique this is a newest model this is this this is that a broke maal not a month passes by what happened to your newest shade of white car oh no it's piece of garbage why it didn't drive no no it drove it drove what the computer system and the car didn't work no no no it worked it worked it worked piece of garbage though what it slow no it was fast it was fast so what makes it a piece of garbage what's wrong with it ah listen the guy sold it to me he said this is a unique limited edition that's why it's so expensive no so what happened he lied to me why what already a month later I saw some guy in the highway has the same thing I saw somebody in the highway has the same thing as this guy as I have n it's piece of garbage wait because you found that somebody else has the same car it becomes a garbage that that's your garbage give me all your garbage yeah I like garbage like that from sick people no I turned it in I I I I got exchange for something else what' you you get something else no I got the newest edition the newest newest newest edition it's a different newest shade of white okay where is it this car you have right now is a blue card that's a simple car for 200 bucks a month no no no I have this one for the next six months until the newest newest newest one comes in six months from now wait so you're telling me that because you saw somebody have the same car on the highway you're willing to drive a car that's literally not even the M of the car that you have for six months just to get a car in hopes that nobody else has this other car and you know how many people like this there is do you know how many people like this there is there's this thing that the people of the West admire and even actually uh needless to say people in Israel admire about Saudi Arabia and Dubai what do they admire about them that over there their police officers the police car is a Lamborghini you know $200,000 car quar million dollar car so when a policeman in America or in Israel you know bumps his car ruins his car it's like ah no come on what do you have now you ruined this car big deal you know what they have in Dubai you know what they have in Saudi Arabia police over there is driving Lamborghinis not like you guys what are you driving a Ford ah it's nothing it's garbage why is it garbage because it's not a quarter million dollar car it's garbage does it go from point A to point B that's competition unhealthy competition unhealthy competition that has gone to such an extreme that in a place like Saudi Arabia where literally there are people that don't have food to eat but yet the government the rulership over there wants to image the image to look good so they give $250,000 cars to their police officers if they simply took all those cars and gave them normal cars and use that extra money to feed people things would be much better but of course come competition would not allow that and many times the wealthier somebody is the more insane they become when it comes to this competition they want to buy a plane but as long as no one else has it I saw a video young man apparently comes from a family of very wealthy people obnoxious disgusting Behavior I highly doubt this kid even knows what m is but when he was buying this plane in this one minute video the main thing that he asked the plane broker is to make sure that not many people have this plane he says listen I have to entertain my clients and I want to make sure that I don't run into anybody else that has this plane and I'm thinking to myself this is literally Insanity when you're flying in the air there's no traffic where you see somebody else's plane say hey what you have a g700 ah my plane is garbage I'm going to crash it on purpose no you just fly to wherever you're going in fact when you're down there no one pays attention to it and whoever it does is usually the pilot but the sickness has gone to such a level that he's only once a plane that no one else is going to have they only want a watch that no one else has they only want a car that no one else has because that makes them feel special this is exactly what schl is talking about the imagination of a person taking over the natural inclination of competition and magnifying it in a horrible fashion to the point where the person becomes a slave to their passions to their desires and even to other people's desires meaning that they will literally be willing to buy a house or a plane or a car that they don't even want just for the sake of beating somebody else in a competition you ask him listen why don't you help a bunch of poor people no no no I don't have time for that but if it's to buy a million doll watch or a million doll house or whatever is just to tell people that you have this thing that you don't even want no problem this is why the says that the people that will get punished the most when mhia comes will be the rich people that did not use their money in order to publicize to and instead used it for all types of horrible things who were stingy so here we see a couple of things of how competition that could help you be more productive be more righteous be better servant of hem yet the same competition utilized for for a horrible reason and most likely in most people that's what it's used for meaning in more cases than not the competition is used this way why because more people are using their imagination to control their life than they are using their intellect and the recent Generations will think of their Innovations as better they're looking at the past as if ancient history wearing sheep skin they fought their Wars with swords and Spears bows and arrows and catapults but we in this generation we've railroad tracks all over the world have telegraphs telephones radio needless to say by now over the last 50 years since this was written computers iPhones server systems cloud and so on Amazon eBay if it's still in business you know all these different AI these are Innovations surely that makes us better they think we have made all of mankind into one family how well all the scholars of the world can confer together as if the world is one big city you have today computers and phones that enable a person to communicate with whoever he wants to communicate with without having to travel on a boat for three months or even on a train for several months or even on a plane simply press a button and the meeting begin I remember one of the least favorite things that I had in the world of business was meetings and I would avoid them at all costs and many times clients would want to meet and I simply would not want to meet them and they asked me why don't you you know we we have a account we're making money together I said if there's anything wrong and I have some type of obligation to meet no problem but if there's no reason to meet just to have food and everything I'm busy I don't like you know there's no point of meeting but some times they would show up in town and tell me listen let's go and I would try to keep it as short as possible why because these meetings would take up the whole day and I know that this was the opposite of what people usually do people usually want meetings they want to go to golf courts together they want to meet and eat and greet and all that stuff I I like to be productive I don't find these meetings to be productive and nothing has changed over the last 20 years people like to meet people like to meet and more or less there was never really a reason for me to meet with anybody but sometimes I would if either there was no other way where something had to happen through a meeting or simply because I actually wanted to meet for whatever reason or another but generally speaking this was very rare I had one client I must have done with him at least $2 $300 million worth of business never met the guy don't even know what what he looks like don't know what he looks like never met him we talked on the phone a bunch of times but meeting in person never why there was never a need he was busy I was busy you need something pick up the phone today many people want to meet me I try to tell them listen I'm sorry I don't I don't do meetings if I have an event usually I designate that night for the public and I wait you know until people want to talk to me about something and usually this takes a lot of energy and a lot of time but since I'm already out I do it many times people show up oh listen I'm in town I just came to Florida I want to meet with you I'm sorry I can't meet oh well can we meet tomorrow no I'm sorry tomorrow not either why can you meet never why there's no need there's no need if there's something just send me a message it's no offense to you it's just that there's so many other things I can do with that time that it just doesn't make sense because it's never five minutes even though say people always oh no no five minutes five minutes I'm coming and that's it it's never five minutes five minutes add a zero or two zeros to it literally it could turn into hours of meetings sometimes I would have to tell people listen I have to go you have to leave I have to go I have stuff to do I have appointments I have you know oh but I thought you don't do meetings I don't it's on the phone or it's on the computer why because again you want to meet now you're a nice person I like you I want to I want to talk to you no problem talking to you but the meeting is a problem why because okay to get to the meeting 25 to 30 minutes to get back from the meeting 25 to 30 minutes that's already an hour you sit down you want to eat at another hour that's two hours of time who has that kind of time who has two hours just to burn you know how much I can do in two hours this year there two hours you know how much it's going to help people this two hours how many people will transform their lives in this two hours are you telling me that the meeting is worth 10 20 30,000 people listening to Torah that's what it's worth this two hours who can tell me that that's worth two hours who and you could do that you say yeah but you don't do shim all the time you do other things exactly they're more or less equivalent whether it's a book or it's another project or it's another film or it's dealing with employees or it's a million and a half different things and that's the thing but many times people don't value their time very much so they just go with the flow they go with the flow oh yeah I have a meeting today when I don't know it's around 3 o' okay what what do you do before and after no it's tough you know what they do nothing nothing they do nothing the whole day is surround is is revolved around that meeting they might as well just say it's a 24-hour meeting because before the meeting they're preparing for the meeting what they're going to wear what they going to eat maybe an exchange pair of clothes just in case they some sauce falls on their on their shirt what they're going to say what they're going to think how they going to get there which Highway they're going to take which this which that finally they meet the guy's running late the waiter dropped the plate this that all these different things happen and then after the meeting there they're stressed out what did he say what did she say what are they going to do are they going to do where they going to do it how who what when 5 hours of wasted energy on their mind thinking about what happened in this meeting why you want to do it good you don't want to do it move on we could have solved this whole problem in a 5 10 20 half hour phone call why do you need all day socialize listen you need socializing by all means go socialize but if I have time for socializing I have a few cute little kids in my house that always want to socialize with me I have my wife that wants to socialize with me but that's again a preference some people love this stuff they love networking they want to go into the insurance business or into the Investments business or into Consulting business all types of businesses where literally the entire business is one meeting after another they hire somebody that their job is to make phone calls to different types of prospects just to create meetings and the better the assistant the more meetings they plan per day on Monday you have an appointment from 9:00 to 10: 11: to 12 12: to to to 1 one to two do you have 87 meetings from here to there okay fine what about Tuesday Tuesday I haven't worked on yet but you should have about 75 meetings and every day they have a certain amount of meetings and that's their job and again perfectly fine if that's what you want in your life but again the people that live through this imagination they're not necessarily going to do all of these meetings and all of these different things for the same reason as people of intellect sometimes they'll actually go to a meeting just for the sake of saying they went to a meeting meaning they will go to a meeting with their friends where where there's really nothing exchanged nothing happening There's No Business other than eating and paying the waiter nothing has actually changed but they called a meeting they called a meeting what' you do today oh I had a meeting with who hey somebody call my colleagues my colleagues who your colleagues you know the guy that sits down the hall the other guy that's in that and this is how a lot of people waste corporate money waste their lives waste their potential but today back to our issue at hand there has never been a time where it's easier to meet with whoever you want without actually meeting them face to face and even if you want to meet them face to face it's relatively easy easier than it was in the past but today you could just simply make a phone call and even see the person so the current generation will tell you look this is a major advantage that is a testament to our Advanced society today versus the past it's as if the world is one big city and we have made towers that fly through the air obviously it's referring to planes big planes jumbo Jets you could fit 700 people more who are lighter than Eagles why there why are these Plains lighter than Eagles because an eagle gets tired at some point he has to land some Mountain you can't just fly from coast to coast but the plane he can fly for 20 hours straight some of these planes could literally fly for 20 hours straight halfway across the world direct flight doesn't get tired just make sure it has enough fuel so this the current generation says surely this is something you didn't have the capability of doing we've also built many factories that produce various Goods such as our forefathers never imagined in the old days you wanted some cheese you have to go to the farm outside get to your cow milk the cow get some of that milk I go through the process of making some of it cheese you wanted some butter same process same same cow just different process you wanted some bread go make some plant wait to the season and then get your stuff make the bread today we're factories factories meaning you you build a factory follow a simple system that many give credit to Henry Ford for creating this whole line system and you have this system one after another one piece after another instead of having one piece of cheese you have 5,000 slices a minute you want to have instead of one bar of butter you have 10,000 bars of butter instead of having one shoe 10,000 shoes these factories these factories can do things that our forefathers never imagined them at least that's what the current generation thinks we've invented weapons World destroying bombs that can kill thousands and tens of thousands the atomic bomb was one of the greatest inventions and worst inventions all at the same time before the atomic bomb War more or less didn't necessarily scare the whole world because in order to conquer the whole world was a process even people that conquered bar you know big uh parts of the world whether was net or it was a uh um Napoleon or Alexander the Great some of the big dictators of the past it was a process it was a process but today if any psychopath decides that he wants to go on a world conquering Mission if he cares less about survival of the world or even himself oh it takes us a few buttons why because of these bombs that were created now of course Hashem runs the world but the point is is that these World destroying bombs were created over the last 100 years but really the two main scientists one of them being Oppenheimer who was really a on one end a genius on another end was people disliked him and thought that he was good for nothing but he didn't just go and innovate and eventually come up with the whole atomic bomb he was also competing against somebody that learned in the same places as him at the same time as him that was doing the same exact thing for Nazi Germany meaning on two different parts of the world enemies enemy Nation s are trying to develop this world destroying bomb at the same time by two people that studied side by side with each other or even colleagues at some point so now the bombs that were created obviously destroyed a lot and they've innovated them even further since then where If there really does become a a atomic war it certainly would be the end this is one of the things that people always scared of but at the same token this atomic bomb is one of the things that aadh has utilized in order to keep the enemies of Israel at Bay and not attack them at full force whenever they feel like it whenever their terrorist nature decides to because Israel the country has several atomic bombs and they enemies know that if they go full force like they tried to do in the past Israel is not going to hold back from actually using one of these weapons or at least theoretically they wouldn't the point being is that there's again the same weapon could be used for horrible things like destroying you know major countries and and and and more but it could also be used as a defense mechanism but this was not something that you had in the past but you did have other things in the past what did you have in the past the brings a beautiful insight about one part of the prayers that we have in our morning bless in our morning prayer part of the prayer and also we do in as well part of the prayer is reading a number 67 which the cabalist Masters say this mis this T number 67 has extraordinary skot and the says in number 22 that he found the writings by the the anyone who doesn't know was not only an extraordinary but he was a world traveler he well literally all over the world and he had very beautiful fancy clothes literally one of a kind because he had to present the Jews of Israel as he was collecting stock around the world and he had a certain unique image that made every Community love him and and literally beg him to stay but he had a certain attitude about himself and a certain Persona that was unbelievable that he one of the things actually he writes as a side note before we get to the story is mentioned by in his third volume he mentions in page uh 15 when it comes to the T the honor of Tor unfortunately the honor of Torah has deteriorated in recent years and one of the places that it's deteriorated the most is in the from communities while they learn tah the honor of tah has gone down how so because there are unfortunately many from Jews and you know communities that are have a lot of tah but not necessarily a lot of money different people come into those communities with money and uh push their weight and the humble give these people that are not really very uh big but they have a lot of money and in essence they say it's a like Whoever has the hundred has the opinion and the guy that has the money in essence treats himself as if he's a genius this actually happened today or not today in the last couple of days with his complete ignoramus came to our is and every time he comes to that Community I never met him myself and I can't wait till I do but apparently every time he comes usually he has a Entourage of a few religious people that uh you know uh walk wherever he walks as if they're the Shadow and giving him all types of Honor because they're waiting for some charity and uh he pushes his weight everywhere and so on and uh anyway he comes to our K to a synagogue in Israel and uh he picks up the recent book that R frim uh published and he comes up to R and he says what what is this you're going against the entire generation with such a book so says how so how am I going against the entire generation he says what is this rebuke gam Dean this doesn't belong in this generation this generation is only love everything love this doesn't belong in this generation looks at this guy you know and the rest of the people unfortunately this this guy's aan he did it even in the middle of the street you know everybody's quiet they don't want to you know say anything because this rich guy obviously doesn't care he says listen it says in our Torah that it will never change if you actually open the book and read it you'll see that I didn't say anything for my opinion in the book everything has a source every single thing every single word every single uh line has a source from a Torah and that tah will never change he just walked away from this guy as if he was Zero because he is a zero but unfortunately they don't treat him like a zero they treat him like he is the genius people were scared to say anything and this is not a uh rare thing in fact wrote about this nearly 15 years ago or 10 years ago and he writes that the guy that has the money thinks of himself as a genius whereas the guy that actually knows Torah turns into like a uh you know a Shepherd or a uh someone that uh holds the horse like nothing and the already wrote about this couple hundred years ago in a and he says due to our many sins they allowed people to are that are Torah Scholars to benefit from the public by collecting takaka but what happened is as a result of this collecting staka what people don't know how to honor the T at the same time the some of the wealthy and even not necessarily so wealthy have started to desecrate the Torah and its Scholars as a result of it where in the previous generations even the kohanim that were supposed to get their uh the gifts of K were known as they would not go and uh take it from people if it came it came they wouldn't go and chase after it some people the collecting staka have lost all shame and they go and they do all types of things just for the sake of you know getting money from people things that are not necessarily don't necessarily look good and this turns into and it leads to the people that are giving the money to disrespect the toah and ultimately they lose faith in the in general and their mouth and their disrespect grows as a result of it and further he says here he brings that uh razar says to what is a what does a look like in front of a ignorant person in the beginning he looks to him like a tool of gold but after he starts pitching him get for money or start he starts talking to him like a regular person he looks to him like a tool of silver after he gets some money from him he looks like him like he's a piece of clay and there's no way of fixing it and Rashi says over there that's because the way he's doing it the way he's he's collecting Saka and so on is not in the way that he's uh supposed to and that that way that's how he lost his value and the renui that the r fry brings over here he says that the raban the the have become hated in the eyes of people because of how they behave when it comes to this money meaning that it's perfectly fine to collect Saka from people because you're doing them a favor when you donate to for example you're doing yourself a favor because a would give to us with or without you with all do respect and gratitude to all of those that give and have given and will give when you give to the organization or you give to me personally or any of the other rabbis you're doing yourself a favor it's not the opposite now when the forgets that or at the very least he treats the donor as if the donor is saving him as if life wouldn't you know continue without his help as if we can't do this without you even if the donor gives that transaction more times than not as the says as the says as the Mar says in the name of and many other places even if he gives you he loses respect not just for that but for in general for in general so this is one of the things that's very very important for people to know that certainly when you are you need you have some type of campaign you want to build the Yesa you want to feed the poor whatever it is certainly you need to tell people because it's for their Merit you want to help them you want to get them to be partners in this thing this is what who was a multi-billionaire himself he would still himself get staka from his rich friends in order to give the merits not because he needed their money and the to itself talks abouta and how important it is it's get save a person's life save his marriage save a lot of things give merits of going TOA uh RAB AKA says Howa saves people from G all types of things there's a lot of merits to it so certainly it's important to help people givea but never lose the truth and make people think that they are your saving uh uh Grace of some kind they are your no no no they're doing good thank you very much for for making the the choice of of contributing but don't go further than that and make people believe as if uh they're the only way that this could have happened because what ends up happening is that people lose respect for the tah that way and many times what ends up happening is that they start justifying their sins as a result of their charitable giving where I actually know this one guy who's I've spoken to you guys about him before he's a big rash complete doesn't keep anything but every betet that he goes to here in Florida they give him alot they give him respect why he buy he donates a fortune every synagogue they have the uh the uh different uh auctions he always buys the most expensive Aliyah he doesn't even go up himself many times he just buys oh yeah the RAB by his 15,000 he throws money around like it's nothing but he drives to on he doesn't keep anything why because unfortunately he saw that the rabbis simply you can buy many of them and this is a very very terrible thing it's a disservice to the tah needless to say it's a disservice to the guy himself but one of the things that the tat tells us is that every single thing that we do we have to always make sure to look at the past look at the look at what they did and then know which direction is really the right direction because even though Innovation and the future and and uh and uh peace and friendliness sounds good it could very well be a product of the imagination now going back to our issue at hand that we mentioned with in the first place where the says that this Psalm number 67 in our prayers of and also has extraordinary powers and although we don't have bombs like atomic bombs we don't need them why because a person can have the tools of the Torah that are from ancient history do a lot more for him than anything else for example this T is a special T that you probably saw it in your life where it's shaped like a manur probably saw it on the wall in a synagogue maybe online it's like this and this is part of our prayer every day and the said it's very good for a Jew to read this from this shape at least once a day because it could bring him a lot of protection how much protection DAV Hades and he received this T but before him mosu got it at Mount Si showed this T in the shape of a manur at Mount he said use this t as a tool for protection against all evil D had years later the samees same message in thees to use this T and David would have this T this Psalm number 67 engraved on his shield you know many people think that you know had a shield in the shape of Aid that's actually debatable but what we don't what we do know for sure is that on the inside of his shield he had this t engraved in the inside of his shield in the shape of a manora and therefore he was able to look at the name of a even during battle and therefore each time he would shoot an arrow he would kill 900 people with one Arrow he was still upset because he knew that if he was a perfect sadik he would kill a thousand with a single Arrow the point is none of us are going out there in the field shooting anybody with arrows but if David our great forefather the forefather of the mashiah if he could kill 900 enemies with a single Arrow because he had such cleaving to a by looking at his name even during battle needless to say this could be good for us so it's good for a person to look at it to do it at least once a day during prayer is usually the easiest time to do it if you could do it from a clu uh you know that's uh that's it's even better the says but the point is is that while the newer generation will think that the bombs and the guns and all that other stuff is better the truth is is that many times it's really only a product of the imagination because the past may not have had the same Innovation it certainly did have an extraordinary wealth now we're going to elaborate on this battle between the past and the present in the next segment because that's where it goes into but I'm going to give you something that is the culmination of this sh that is going to give us a lot of food for thought because where does this all go to how does this all apply now the kot that we mentioned in the beginning that fight with each other whether it's the ashkenazim versus theim or within theim to each other the Libyan Jews fighting with the Moroccan Jews who has better food or against the amonites or the ammonites against the other types of Jews all fighting against each other usually these fights are not fights between but rather between ignorant people he thinks that the kumus of his tradition is the best he thinks that the you know this such and such dish is the best according to his tradition and they literally treat this as if it's like the 13 principles of Faith or maybe even the Ten Commandments but the truth is if you look at the history of the Libyan Jews Egyptian Jews yemenite Jews Syrian Jews different types of ashkanazi Jews what put them on the map was it their food was it the chant was it the kilta fish was it the ofla what was it it wasn't the food everybody likes good food but that's not what put my forefathers on the map everybody likes good food but that's not what put the ashkanazi Jews on the map what put them on the map like like like the like the like the Ben these extraordinary that's what put Jews on the map and when we think that our color our food our superficial things are what makes us special or better then unfortunately we are acquiring a horrible trait from adom because what does adom do I heard to sing once say this and he says that one of the ways that the Christian missionaries fool millions of people is by taking advantage of people's weaknesses and there are two major weaknesses and this is the trait of asav asav on one end takes advantage of people's weaknesses and tells them they can't do you can't do you're a sinner you're a loser you need somebody to save you you can't save yourself you already sinned you already made a mistake you can't help yourself he pretty much convinces people that you're a loser and you're never going to change but that's not the way that who created you in fact created you to change to improve and he gave you the tools to do it and therefore asav comes with another tool to those people that think they can change and think that they could do better what did he tell them you're better than everybody else why do you need a middleman to talk to like some Rabbi or some Sage you can talk to God directly everybody's a prophet so asav goes to both extremes he goes to the people that are degenerate drug addicts losers and he tells them you're never going to be able to get out of it you made a mistake live with that mistake you need somebody to to help you and he goes to the Arrogant obnoxious disgusting people that think they're better than everybody else and he says to them you are better than everybody else you're right you're right you're better than everybody else so why do you need anyone to help you talk to God you can talk to God directly this is something that you can see in society today most recently it's notable in these people that are called Hebrew Israelites formerly known as Black Hebrew Israelites but since they've decided to have some other people of darker colors whether it be the Mexicans Filipinos or or uh or Haitians or pretty much anybody else that's willing to give them money and attention they decide to join them too just as long as they're not white unless you have a lot of money then you could be white also because we pretend like you're black or your mother is black or your ancestor is black you just have a shade of white and these arrogant disgusting ignorant people are portraying the midot of as in plain sight but of course the average person doesn't even know that because the average person is the victim of this it's either people that are down and out losers drug addicts people that are sinners and they need somebody to save them Empower them so what do they say listen it's not your fault that you sinned it's not your fault that you're down and out it's not your fault that you live in such a place the white man the white man that pretends to be a Jew he stole your identity what yeah he stole your identity and then they go to the arrogant people the ones that think that they're better than everybody else you're right you are better than everybody else do you know why because you're black wait but how does that exactly make you better than everybody else again you're black and therefore you're better at what you're smarter not necessar necessarily there are certainly some people smarter than you even if you don't know who they are there's always somebody smarter than you and needless to say if you go into the Jewish World of sages of great throughout all of the generations that if you combine all of your wisdom it wouldn't be equal to a fingernail of theirs you're better looking well that depends who's looking at you if it's your wife looking at you you're 100% right you are but if it's his wife she won't even look at you so you're not better looking to her so you're richer possibly but surely there's somebody that's richer than you you're a better speaker it depends do you speak all languages because some people speak in different languages and therefore they're better speaker than you in that language or to that crowd so how are you better how does being black make you better but that's the thing when people allow their imagination to run their life they don't give any thought to things they don't give any thought to things they simply follow the imagination and these so-called Hebrew Israelites Wicked and cursed people are the embodiment of a do himself because that's exactly what they want they want to pretend like they are victims while being in power at the same time they're victims because somehow their identity was stolen but they're in power because some delusional ideology that they create of how they somehow they know the real Hebrew language even though we've been speaking Hebrew since day one they know the Torah even though they just recently discovered that what it even says or at least parts of it and this is something that is growing in society because other people that are either losers that want to be empowered without doing anything for it or arrogant obnoxious people that want friends to justify their arrogance are simply growing because the less we learn tah the more will empower the enemy because he needs to use them to wake up us up this is important for every single person to know because if you want to know which side you're on you always have to look at the past you can't look at the present if the leadership that you have is celebrating your loneliness or your arrogance two things that are considered abominable in the eyes of a if your leadership and your teachings and your ways are in so many words empowering you for being a loser without you trying and in so many words tells you that you don't have to do anything in order to serve hem You're simply the best just because it's you that's not God that's not Torah that's adom if it tells you that you don't have to do anything because somebody died for you and therefore you could do whatever you want that's not to that's idol worship if anybody tells you you could just sit and relax act like as if you're a king and the world will serve you you don't need to serve anything else not even the King of Kings you're sadly mistaken you're on the wrong path of ad on the other hand if it tells you that you are the master you are better than everybody else you don't need tradition you don't need the Sages you don't need anything you could talk directly to God and you can in so many words become a prophet according to yourself you're also going in a path of AD that's the path of yeshu himself where's the right path in the middle the path that tells us you've made mistakes you made sins that makes you normal but it doesn't make it okay what can you do do Chua repent stop making the sin say I'm sorry for making the sin fix whatever you can if it's fixable if you stole give it back if you said something bad apologize whatever it is that you can do to fix it and commit to never doing it again by learning more to and learning how to not do this improve yourself don't stay where you are and if the path tells you that I've already done a lot I completed the sh in one year I did this and I did that no no no do you know how much you don't know do you know how much more you have to learn there are literally millions of books millions of books in the tah millions of books that are part of our oral Torah whether it's the SCH or it's the or it's the or the or the or the oh there endless amount of books okay so you finished a few you know a few things guess what you're still a long way from where the sages were just a few years ago needless to say a 100 years ago needless to say times a million 500 years ago and in order for you to go in the right path you need to what the path looks like you can't just create a path of your own you have to know where the path looks like and that requires our tradition that requires seeing where your Rabbi was and his Rabbi was and his rabbi's Rabbi was and so on and so forth all the way to the prophets all the way to mosenu and don't come and tell me listen somebody stole my identity somebody stole this somebody stole that and I'm now I'm there's nothing like that Judaism has always been here it will always be here no one stole it no one can steal it anyone that wants to be Jewish is welcome to practice it welcome to follow it but there is a tradition there is a law and that law does not depend on your color you could be black blue green burgundy Asian Moroccan uh American whatever can you want you could be even a can of tuna but if you want to be a Jew you have to be a k of tah that follows the that means if you weren't born of a Jewish mother that means you have to convert to Judaism if you want to be a Jew you can't just decide you're a Jew because your color is a certain color it means nothing in jman it means nothing your color literally means zero the same as the food the same as the all of the superficial things that people argue about even people that were born Jewish where their grandparents were literally the biggest tadim if they didn't follow in the footsteps of the sages if they didn't follow the Torah they lost everything Theus the P the FF and the color of your skin is not going to bring you into ganeden is not going to make you a servant of hem you know what's going to make you a servant of hem look into the Torah and fulfill all of it and if somebody tells you you can't do it that's only because they're following says to it's in your mouth it's in your heart to do it which means created you with the ability to follow the tah to speak the tah to such an extent that that's what you were created for meaning that out of all the things that you do good you could be good at building houses you could be good at accounting you could be good at investment you could be good at climbing you could be good at a a lot of things but guess what you're the best at at following the Tor you just don't know it yet because you haven't done it once you follow the Torah you'll see that you're better at the tah than you are at anything else even if you're an expert in other things but if you put the same effort into the Tor as you do in anything else you will see how the verse comes to life where you are better at this than anything else out there so on one end we see that the future the Innovations can be used for good where you have digital media allowing us to learn Torah with people around the world but at the same token these Innovations are used by the wicked people to spread heresy to spread idol worship to spread hatred on one end the Innovation is important for us because it gives us the ambition to keep doing more things to make Torah more accessible to people to let more people know of the truth on the other end this very same Innovation could make people proud and arrogant and think that the tradition is no longer relevant because somehow the iPhone made you a better person or even smarter therefore we have to also look at the tradition itself what has worked and what has failed throughout history and one that knows their history is bound to succeed whereas one that doesn't is bound to repeat the mistakes it may be as will that each and every single one of us follows the Torah exactly as our forefathers have and utilizes the innovations that we have today to publish it even further thank you for learning with me maym bless each and every single one of you and we will see each other again later this week e [Music] is for [Music] n [Music]