Rabbi Maor Bendel - How to Bring Bracha into Your Life

We didn't see each other last week. It's like a bow mayor. First time you guys see me with a haircut in probably like what? 40 days? A year and a half man? Huh? So uh Baruch Hashem we had our uh like a bow mayor, we had our bonfires where we went. So on and so forth. And I just wanted to focus in on a point because we didn't talk about it really last week. Cuz you weren't here. Parashat talks about a very nice a very important concept and I think everyone knows this concept, but I don't think anybody knows the reason why it's a so. Right? Everyone knows you're not allowed to lend a Jew money with interest. Everybody knows. There's almost no one in the world that doesn't know this. You have guys who work in the cash lending businesses and they you wake them up in the middle of the night and they know this. Other stuff they don't know, yeah, but this they know. But nobody knows why. Right? When I say nobody knows it, yeah, most people don't know. And tonight I wanted to really ask the question. What's the problem? Why does the Torah tell us that a person is not allowed to take interest from another Jew? What would be the issue? What would be the prohibition? So you would think, like most people, that it's because God wants you to help people and that's the way you ultimately help them. That's the reason Alshich says. One pasuk earlier, right, one verse earlier from when the Torah tells you not to lend a Jew money with with with interest, it says that if your brother should stumble and he should put his hand with you, you have to help him. He gives you a pasuk from the Torah, you have a mitzvah to help your fellow. So the Alshich says, "Oh, you think that you're going to help him. Don't think that helping him helping him by lending him, you're going to do it with interest and end up doing a mitzvah by avera, doing a mitzvah with a sin cuz you're not allowed to lend him money with interest." So the Alshich says it's about helping. But really the clear cut, I don't know if anyone heard this clear cut. The clear cut has a a beautiful beautiful beautiful understanding of why a person is not allowed to lend to another Jew with interest. It is the whole reason a person is not allowed to Jew without interest is something phenomenal, he says. He says, "If you lend a Jew with interest." Now back in the day when you would lend, you would take collateral. You guys know what collateral is? If you don't pay me, give me your house. Give me the deed to your house. So I know that if you don't have any collateral. So the clear cut says if you lend a person with interest, ultimately what's going to happen? He says, "Every businessman in the world, his eyes are where?" To Hashem. When you have a business, I was actually sitting in a car with someone like I think a week and a half ago. I had a shul on a Sunday night. They called me to come and I came and I gave a class. And on the way back, someone who was driving me, they told me, "Look, I never understood how much Hashem is involved in business when I used to work in a salary job." Because at the end of the month, you know, I knew. He says, "I only realized how much Hashem got involved when I opened up my own business." When I opened up my own business, I realized how much Hashem is with me every single month. I started to see it. And the clear cut says, "Every businessman in the world, his eyes are looking up to shamayim." His eyes are constantly looking up to Hashem and saying, "Where's my Okay, Hashem, take care of it. Help me." And therefore his emunah, his bitachon is only in Hashem. Says the clear cut that when a Jew lends to another Jew money with interest, his income is set. He knows that he's going to get this amount of money from the every from the Jew every single month. And therefore, it's going to cause his heart to stumble away from the faith of God and start believing in his income. So everyone asks the question, "What about a goy?" Huh? So if I lend money to a non-Jew also, if I have interest, I have a set income, no? Says the clear cut, "No. Why? Because I say en emunah begoyim. There's no trustworthiness in a non-Jew." Even if he gives you collateral, he'll do all types of funny roundabout ways for you to lose the collateral. He'll do all funny types of things for you to lose the deal. So even then you have to have your eyes. So one guy told me, "Rabbi, what about real estate? How does it work in real estate? Huh? You buy a property, you have a rental income, it's set. You know how much money is coming in every single month, right?" He says, "Well, Rabbi, if I own real estate, then I also have the same problem." I told him it's not true. He says, "Why?" I said, "You ever been to Welcome to New York City?" You know what it is like in New York City? If you have a tenant who doesn't pay you, he can stay up to 2 years without paying you. If he has a good lawyer, 2 years they won't pay you a dollar. 2 years. Won't pay you a dollar. So even when it comes to rental properties, you have capital expenditures, you have so many different things that can make it, you can have a market crashes, you have so many different things that even still your eyes need to be closed all. So then a guy says, "Oh, wait a minute. Sometimes you lend to Jews and they don't pay you back." I said, "Stop me with your hazal teach. Every single Jew in the world has the status of kosher." And every single Jew in his heart, if anyone lo aleinu ever got to a point in their life where they lent money from somebody, they know how that that dwells in them, right? A Jew when he owes somebody money, it's constantly on his mind. He wants to pay it back. A some people they do the lending businesses, they see the papers of people, they see that a can have 17 different people he owes money to and he continues to look for loans. They're like, "Yeah, yeah, no way, I'm looking for another one." A Jew like, "Yeah, maybe one, maybe worst case scenario two." It's very difficult for them to get to a place because they don't want to pay it back. Right? Their ta'avah is to want to pay it back. So the clear cut because your income is set, you will ultimately take your heart away from Hashem. So the clear cut, the whole issur of lending the ribbis, the whole issur of lending with interest is what? Is because ultimately at the end of the day your heart is going to end up leaving Hashem. And that's an issur gamur. That's one of the worst things a person can have is when his heart leaves Hashem. When he places the faith in ending with a he says that's one of the worst things. And the clear cut takes it even a step further. The pasuk says that when you lend to your fellow, he actually lives among you so he lives with you. Right? V'chai imach. And you with you. What does he mean lives with you? Says the clear cut, when you lend on the person, yeah, without interest, you help him, it also is a good luck to extend your life. But the clear cut says further, when you lend to a person with rebate, with interest, says the clear cut, not only are you going to lose all your money, yeah, not only going to lose all your money, you're also going to leave this world early. That's the clear cut. Also going to leave this world early, God forbid. And unfortunately, we see people that this happened to. So last week last Shabbat, I usually last week I give a class on the upcoming week and then whatever. It's not usually the class I give during the week. So I said this concept. So one guy at the end of the class, he came up and he said to me, you know what? I know somebody that 40 years ago used to lend to people with interest. He was He had a million dollars 40 years ago. He said, you know how much money a million dollars 40 years ago was? I said, no, I don't know. But today I checked. Cuz I wanted to know cuz he made it seem like it was something crazy. So I checked it was only 3 million, but but but if you would have invested it into real estate, it would have been 10 plus. If you would have invested it into real estate, it would have been 10 plus million today. So you can imagine, a guy who had 40 years ago a million dollars, which you can see it is a lot of money then. Today, if you own a shack, you have you have a millionaire, yeah? Cuz today everything costs crazy. Yeah, but again, back in the day you could buy a property for nothing. So a guy with a million dollars could have bought bunches of property and he could have been today worth 10, 15, even more. And today, homeless. He used to lend to people with the with interest, homeless. So they took everything away from him. This is exactly what the clear cut says. That when a person lends on a person with rebate, ultimately, he'll lose all of his money. You want to know why? Cuz the first principle we said. That when a person takes his faith off of God and puts it into something else, he says, there's no problem. Yeah, I have faith in him. He got to leave you in his sense. He's going to pay you back? You got it. Go with him. But when you eat when your faith is with me, everything's for the best. And I think that's what the clear cut is going to tell us that a person in life needs to understand his eyes always need to be towards Hashem. When it comes to business, when it comes to life, when it comes to everything you have in life, your eyes need to be completely to Hashem. There was a story of Hakmei Aleppo, Syrian Rabbis. One of them, his name was Hakham Avraham Hayyim Adas. And he was a huge Hakham, big learning guy, big Rabbi in his town at the time. And unfortunately, you know, he wasn't the wealthiest guy. And he used to rent his apartment, and his landlord, the guy who used to rent to him, wasn't like the most God-fearing Jew in the world. So when he heard that a Rabbi is renting from him, he said, "Look, I don't care. Rabbi, garbage man, what does it make a difference? Rent is due on the 1st of the month." And there was one month that the Rabbi was a little tight. The guy told him, "Look, I don't know what to tell you. If you don't pay by the end of the month, I don't got to tell you or else." And I don't need to explain what or else means. And then, those times like Florida, if you don't pay, the sheriff comes knocking at your door. 30 days you're out. Can't can't stay. So he comes to his wife. And this is right before the sub winter time. And he tells his wife, "I've been saving up all summer, two gold coins. Two gold coins in order, that was the rent, two gold coins. I've been saving up this money to buy you a jacket for the winter. And now we're one day away from when the rent is due. And I don't know what to do. If I'm going to use this money to go and pay the rent, I'm not going to have money to buy you a jacket." So she says, "You know what? Hashem will be with us." At the same time he's talking to his wife, there's another Rabbi across town on a boat coming into the city. His name is Avnissim Nahum. Yeah? He was a Mekubal and a big Rabbi. He's on a boat. And all of a sudden, the boat they hit they get hit with a storm. Crazy weather, storm, this, that. So the Rabbi is like, "Okay." Everyone runs away. Avnissim gets up. He starts praying to everyone who saw him said it looked like he was closing a deal. Yeah, he was doing a mazal tov. Okay, mazal tov. Closing a deal. Praying like he's closing a deal. They get off the boat. Weather comes down. They get off the boat. He gets into a taxi. At midnight, he tells the guy, "Take me to this address." He says, "Uh Rabbi, it's midnight." You go in the morning. If you want to go to Rabbi Avram The guy's other guy Rabbi's house. Go in the morning. Why do I have to go now? No, I have to go now. Take me there now. He goes to his house. He comes knocking on his door. Rabbi Avram opens the door. He sees Avenisum outside. "What are you doing over here?" He says, "I came to give you this." And he puts two gold coins on the table. Two gold coins on the table. He says, "And what is this?" He says, "I was at sea and we got hit with severe weather and everyone was afraid. So, I started praying to Hashem told me It's written in the Torah that it's said in Judaism that charity saves from death. Hashem told me that someone Rabbi Avram needs money. So, right away I took it upon myself to give you the money. And then the storm subsided and I came straight to give it to you." And then in a joking way, he kind of laughed and told him, "The next time cuz Avenisum was very wealthy, philanthropist, but also a learning guy, he said, "Next time if you need me, don't put me in second. Don't put me in danger. Don't bring a storm on me. Just give me a call. I'll come. I'll give you the money. You don't have to wait for all the In a joking way. But, the reality is if you think about the story in the deeper sense of the story, you'll realize the underlying principle is that God can give you everything whenever he wants. That Hashem can open up for you any channel. We spoke about in the past this idea of a pipeline. Some people in the world they think, "Oh, I believe in this deal. I have these in the pipeline. I have these deals in the pipeline." It's very common terminology today. Especially guys who work in sales. They say, "Oh, I have this deal in the pipeline. I have this deal in the pipeline." I told you guys that I had one guy called me. Three months he wasn't able to pay his rent. He got to the point where he had to go into his savings. And he tells me, I asked him, I said, "What's going on? It's 3 months I have these gigantic deals, three deals. Each one of them is an elephant. If one of the deals are going to close, all my financial troubles going away. I'm going to be able to cover Not Not next 3 months, the next 7 months I'm going to be able to cover. One deal. And I have three of them. And 3 months I'm going to cave. 3 months every time the paper come in, the paper come out. No no no no no. Yeah, this problem, that problem. Not going through." I tell him, "So what's the issue? Do you have faith in God?" He goes, "Yeah, I have faith in the system that it's going to close these deals." I tell him, "You don't have faith in God, you have faith in these deals. And that's why they're not closing. Cuz if a person believes in Hashem, then there is no pipeline. There's no deals that have been in the pipeline. Hashem can give you a deal right now that it came in this morning and it'll close this evening and you just made a crazy amount of money, right? It's possible. So what does it make a difference what it was 3 months ago, 4 months ago? The problem is is where we place our faith. We place our faith somewhere else. We put our heart somewhere else. We allow ourselves to believe in things. People think of I want financial security, right? Financial security is I have X amount of dollars in the bank account. But I have faith in God. No, you don't have faith in God, you have faith in the money in your bank. Real faith is when you have a situation in your life where you don't know how you're going to make it to the end of the month. Where you don't know how you're going to close the month and you're calm. I was talking to someone today. I said, "Women and men have a little little bit different demeanor in this concept. Men and men women are really different in that sense. A woman, she has something to do in a week, it's due today. A man something's due in a week, okay, I'll deal with it in a in a week. I have a week to get there. You know, and that's how they look at life, by the way. A woman, when they have responsibilities, they don't look at one responsibility at a time. They look at all of them at once. I have to cook, I have to wash the dishes, I have to clean the kitchen. So everything is once. And then the mental strain is much more because of not the activity, but the mental strain. And I think a lot of times when you're married, you have this problem of not understanding the concept of mental strain. Cuz for a man, if he had to do the same thing a woman did, let's say for example now the man had to wash the dishes, and put the kids to bed, and do the laundry. Let's say. So, what would he do? He'd come home, put a load in the laundry, okay, set it and forget it. I put it in, I see hour time, okay, an hour I'm free. He doesn't think about the laundry anymore, it's over now. He goes upstairs, he washes the dishes, okay, puts that aside, he goes to shower the kids, he gets them ready. Oh, being here downstairs annoys me, me, me. The laundry machine is ready, throws it into the dryer, the kids are already sleeping, an hour later he comes with a hamper, and he's done. He says, "This is all the stress?" Cuz in his mind he said, "One and done, one and done, one and done, one and done. I'm good. Only 2 hours I finished everything, I put the kids to bed, I showered them." And the wife in the same 2 hours very stressful for her. Why? Because of the mental strain. But at the same side of the token, a man can be with the kids in the morning and get them dressed to leave the house, just to put on their jackets and their shoes. And for him, it's the most mentally straining thing in the world. For a woman, it's easy. My boy, yeah. She calls her son, "Hello, Yacov." He doesn't answer. But the woman doesn't say, you know, she's warming it. Okay, I'll ask him again. But for the man, one time he tells his son, "Hello, Yacov, come here, put on your jacket." HE DOESN'T LISTEN. "HELLO!" RIGHT AWAY HE GETS UPSET. SO, for him it's mentally straining. "Why you not listening to me? Hello, what do you want from me? Hello, you know." And then they start getting into fights, he's running away, he's trying to grab him, he's giving a kick, he's throwing him on the floor, he's throwing something at him. So, the wife getting the kids ready, for her, my boy, yeah. Same activity, different mental strain. So, when you judge another person's life, you can't. Because the mental strain it takes on them is not the same mental strain it has on you. And so too it is with money. That the man has the ability to un- see things later on. It's okay, I'm not dealing with it today. I have a week. Where the woman wants to know that if it's due in a week, I want it to be able to pay today. Now, of course, there's always you tell me that there's always people who come out of the concept, but the reality is that most women you'll see that they when they have something due in a week, they want to already have it done today. They want to already get it paid today. While men, I'll pay it. And then it's due on the 15th, so what? I'll give it to them on the 18th. That's That's how they think, but a woman cannot do that. If it's overdue for her, she's not sleeping at night. I I I I want to He's sleeping like a baby. So, we see in this concept it's also a little bit different between the man and the woman how they look at them on the video call. But where is then when I video call judge for women a week earlier and when is the judge for a man 3 days after? Cuz that's exactly when he gets stressed out. Okay, now it's already the 18th. So, he he starts when he's not paying the lashes cuz if not they're going to start giving penalties in your name. That's when he starts to get worried. So, that's when it's judged. When you don't know where it's going to come from and at that moment you have the the Yeshua come. But it also depends on what and then says the clear cut that's the whole reason why you can't lend to Jew. Because ultimately they what ends up happening is it takes you your heart away from Hashem. Which is the worst thing that possibly can ever happen. There's a midrash in Shir Hashirim Rabbah. I have to bring you guys back to Lag BaOmer. We talked about Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. I'm sure many of you heard this midrash. It's a famous midrash, but I think it's a very important parable what the midrash brings down. The midrash says that the husband and wife who couldn't have children they come to Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. Now, you can imagine that there's a certain cloud the Gemara says if a woman can't have children 10 years they have to get divorced. That's what the Gemara says. Now, they come to see Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, they can't have children. So, they come to the Rabbi say, "What are we going to do? We have to get divorced." So, the Rabbi tells them, "Look, the same way you guys came into this marriage celebrating, you're also going to go out of this marriage celebrating. You did a big party to get a thing, now you're going to do a big party to get divorced. You ever heard such a thing? Uh everyone is invited. Save the date. Ismail and Fatima's divorce party. Yeah, and they save the date. the mail. RSVP. Everyone needs to come. They got a DJ. They got the whole nine yards. Ken? Of course kosher wedding, mechitza, don't worry. Ishmael also he keeps kosher wedding. Exactly like that. Ken? So now they do everything the right way. Divorce. They come the night they getting divorce now. And the husband, you know, it's a party. He starts drinking. And drinking. And he tells the wife, "Look, tomorrow that's it. We're getting divorced. He's like, "Whatever is in our house, cuz they did the party in the house. Take whatever you want. Last thing you can have. Take whatever is the most valuable thing for you in the whole entire house, you can take one thing." One thing, the most valuable thing. Whatever it is in the whole entire house, you can take. And then he continues to drink and he fell asleep. As soon as he fell asleep, the wife tells her uh her helper guy, "Do me a favor. Pick him up from the bed. Pick him up in the bed and bring it over to my father's house." She picks him up in the bed and brings over to He wakes up in the morning. What does he Where is he? He's in his father-in-law's house. He looks at his wife. He's like, "What am I doing over here?" She goes, "You said take the most valuable thing. So I did. And that's you." Says the Midrash Shir Hashirim Rabbah, sometimes in life a person will find himself in a situation where he can't have kids. He can't have fruits. There's no fruits. There's labor. There's no success to what he's doing. He's not seeing success from his actions. He's not seeing the fruits. He's not seeing the children. He's not seeing Children are totza'ot. Are outcomes of something. I'm not seeing the children of my actions. I'm not seeing the fruits of my action. And time and time and time again. But says the Midrash when a person has this yetzer in him that he understands that the most valuable thing in the whole entire world is the Kadosh Baruch Hu, I want to tell you what happened in the story. The husband and wife the next morning go to that Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and say, "What am I going to do? She took me." "I told her take the most valuable She took me." He gave them a blessing and nine months later she had a baby. So too in life when a person shows the Kadosh Baruch Hu that I want you 100%. You're the most valuable thing to me. Hashem says, "Okay, this person is consistent." And guess what? Now boom, the yeshua comes. But it's only when you allow yourself to say, "Okay, you know what? I'm not placing my value on anything else." Cuz you can imagine if she puts the value on anything else, she would have been stuck without a husband, without children, without nothing. When she realizes that the most valuable thing in the world is the kosher law. As the mayor tells us, that is the issue. That is the most valuable thing and it's not the money. And the clear issue of the money loan He says the the issue of money which means increase is for the lender because he thinks he's increasing something, but it's the money loan, it's an imagination. There's no real increase of anything. Our sages teach us that a person who was put by money loan, he eats bread and and water. He's by the money loan. Praise worthy in this world. Why? You ever seen a person who only eats bread and water and is happy? You ever seen such a thing? You know, I had a a boiler burst in my house on Shabbat. Don't ask, long story, okay? On Shabbat, the water burst. It's the maximum amount. I get a knock on the door. They tell me, "Oh, the boiler burst." I said, "Okay, what are we going to do?" I come downstairs. Long story. Not so simple. But I'll tell you in short, I couldn't figure it out. I went upstairs, opened up a book, and started learning for an hour. There's gushing water downstairs in the basement. I said, "I could give me the answer." I went downstairs and I figured it out. After I learned for an hour, okay, I see my Okay, boom boom boom, everything was good. Okay. I was able to stop the the water. Now, the guy who comes to change the boiler he tells me that his mother was a one of I don't know how many children, six, seven children. And when before she passed away, she inherited inherited her father's property in Jerusalem worth today $16 million. And somebody approached her to take the property and make it into a yeshiva. Okay, take the property and make it a yeshiva. And she agreed to give it to him on condition that forever he was at a yeshiva. And as soon as he was at a yeshiva, it returns back to her family. And the guy agreed and they signed. And now that the property till today is a yeshiva. The guy told me, "You know, I you when I asked my mother he said when I he said this. I heard it from him first clearly shown. So when I asked my mother this question I said, "Ima, but you don't have any money." She didn't have she was poor. He said, "Dying because it's enough for me that I have bread and water to drink. I have bread, I have water, I have water to sleep, I have whatever. So what do I need more than that? At the day the sun is my the best thing my wife my my mother ever did was give over that building. Cuz something I can ever do they can do. Cuz I as a son can pray for my mom as long as I'm alive. I can raise her soul so long as I'm living but once I leave this world I can no longer do that. But guess what? That building does it forever. So you see when it comes to things like this money is not something important and of course is ultimately in charge of everything you have in your life. And I said the story over in the past just and I'll say it again because it's a story that I've heard clearly shown from the woman herself. There was a woman I know she lived in Israel. Her daughter Alenu she got a growth in her brain. Alenu. And they had to remove it but the procedure was so precise and detailed that if the person would mess up she would be completely paralyzed for the rest of her life. Where the growth was it was right next to a certain part of her brain it was in her brain. That if they would cut too much cut too little she would become permanently disabled for the rest of her life. She had to fly to LA for a specialist. She flies to LA no money. Okay she's a widow. She doesn't have any her husband passed away a few years earlier. She has no money. She has nowhere to stay. She goes to LA because she wants to save her daughter and she said we'll figure it out when we get there. She gets off the plane. She doesn't speak a lick of English. Not one word in English. Okay? You can imagine right now getting on a plane with your daughter now you not her speak a lick of English and you have nowhere to stay. You land in LAX. You land in LA airport whatever LAX stands for yeah? Los Los I don't know what X stands for. Okay? Exotics What's the What's the X in there? Okay? You land in the LA airport. And you see the guy with a keeper. She walks up to him. Excuse me, I'm uh here this is some story. Oh, you want to stay? No problem. He takes her to some guy's house in the This guy is known Apparently, he has like in the back of his house a guest house. And he gives to people whenever they come whenever he wants. And she happened to see the guy who happened to know this guy happened to be Yeah. I love it People say, "Oh, it happened to be happened to be." Yeah. God is he working it out that the guy is going to be there in that moment. She's going to see him. He's going to say, "Oh, go over there." She goes over there. Boom, she's staying over there in the house. Good. So, now we have where to stay, right? What about money to eat? What about money for the surgery? What about money for any other expenses? Where is it from? Hm? What is she doing? No English or nothing. She's not going out doing fundraisers, GoFundMe, GoFundHer, GoFundHim. No. No fundraisers. She opens up a book of Tehillim. In the house. It's a true story. Opens up a book of Tehillim. She sits down. I'm reading. This is Thursday. She's reading Tehillim. Next morning she wakes up. She prays Shacharit. Back to the Tehillim. A few hours before Shabbat she gets a knock on the door. She opens the door. Envelope sitting over there with exactly the money she needed for that week. Wow. And she She's there for 3 months. She only had one week payment. Next week, Tehillim. Knock on the door. 3 months every Friday envelope by the door waiting for her. This was already 3 years ago. Till today we don't know who put that envelope there. Till today we have no idea where this envelope came from. She will tell you, "I have no idea." She knows, but we don't know. But now we know. God when he wants to give you he'll bring it to your door. He doesn't need much from you. It all depends on your level of faith. Some guy told me this week, "Rabbi, in my faith I learned, but there's different levels in my faith." There's the ultimate of emunah and bitachon, which is like the highest level of emunah and bitachon. If anyone ever learned this sefer of emunah and bitachon, and there's like the base of Levi, and then there's like, you know, more light stuff. It's like, "I'm not so, you know, the older style." The older style is basically it's a high highest level of emunah and bitachon, which is basically zero hishtadlus. You don't need to do anything. Hashem will give you everything. Now, that's a very, very high level. You have to be able to get to that place where you have 100% emunah and bitachon. Impossible, very difficult to get there, but you have to have it. I told you guys a story that one time I heard over from, uh, I think it was Rabbi Simcha Zaki. Yeah? He said over a nice story that he There was a rabbi in Eretz Yisrael he heard a story over from his son. Yeah, he heard the story over from his son. There was a rabbi in Eretz Yisrael, his name was Rabbi Akiva, I forgot his name. Big tzaddik. He had this emunah and bitachon. 100% emunah and bitachon, he didn't do any hishtadlus. He says over a story his son told him, "Is this true?" He came to me as his son and so told him, "Yeah, it's true. I'll tell you a story that happened." So, what happened? One day my mom used to always, uh, my dad used to like to go pray mincha and maariv by the kotel. So, he'd always tell my mom, and they were living in a poor family, "The money is over here?" He said, "Yeah." So, one day an avreich came knocking at the door and said, "Rabbi, I need to ask you a question." It was close to mincha and maariv time. He says, "Okay, no problem. Just come with me for, uh, mincha and maariv. We'll go to the kotel." He asked his wife, "Is there a car? Is there money on the shulchan?" Yeah. "How much is on the table?" 10 shekel. Now, I'm going to need just a cab just to get from the rabbi's house to the kotel is 20 shekel. So, the avreich who's sitting with the rabbi thinks to himself in his mind, maybe he's waiting for me to give the other 10. So, he goes, "Uh, Rabbi, I forgot my wallet at home. I don't have the the the No, no, it's get" He calls a cab. Now, the guy is thinking to himself, "What a bushada the guy is." We're going to get there, he's going to ask for 20, he's only going to have 10. He's sitting over there embarrassed. They start driving to the kotel, and the rabbi is relaxed, talking to him, and they're going to be preparing for mincha and maariv. Halfway through the trip he gets, uh, on the walkie-talkie. "Hello, no, no, no. Can you pick up another person on the way?" So, the guy turns around to the rabbi and the guy says, "Look, I have one more guy on the way. You guys mind if I pick him up? We'll split the fare. You pay 10, he pays 10." On the way. So they pay 10 and 10. He gets wow, Yeshua, but how are we going to get back home now? You don't have any money. You don't get home. As soon as they get out of the cab, a guy walks up, "Rabbi, Rabbi, I have a question for you." He says, "I can't answer now. I have to go pay my car with it." So the guy tells the rabbi, "It's okay if I drive you home and on the way home you ask the rabbi the question, answer me?" You would leave your house with $10 if you needed 20? Anybody over here would leave the house with $10 if you needed 20? Anyone walk onto a bus with a dollar 25? How much is it today? 375 on the day. How much is it on the bus today? $3? You would walk on the bus with a dollar 50? Not like the Some people walk into the back. They don't care about nobody. They just walk into the back door. I'm not talking about the okay? Am I talking about Israel, okay? Am I talking about those guys? I'm talking about a guy right now. You know, he walks up to the conductor of the bus. He's walking to the driver. He's like, he says, "$3." He's like, "I only got a dollar 50." He's like, "Do we need payment plans?" He's like, "What?" He says, "We don't do payment plans. Do you have anything to help you? Do you have Apple Pay? Do you have something?" He's like, "No, I got a dollar 50." You would leave your house with a dollar 50? You would leave your house with less than what you need? Oh, we do it. He doesn't even look. So yes, it's such a level of getting to a person doesn't even think about it. And you can get to that level. You know, I know people in the world don't even look at their bank account. They don't even know how much money they have. They have no idea. What about the bills? I don't know. What do you need to look for? It's not my job. I'm not paying the bills. Huh? Anybody over here ever looks at their boss's bank account? Maybe if you have the access, yeah? Anyone over here ever looks at their parents' bank account? Not necessarily, you know? You don't When you were a kid, when you were 7 years old, you ever took your mom's Let me see your change. You said, "No, you didn't do do." It's none of your business. I'm living my life. Mommy, let me get a 20. I'm going to buy some snacks. This is what I need to do. I need to check my bank account. I doesn't know what he has. He has everything. Doesn't even look. Doesn't even know what's going on. Doesn't know what's flying. And it works out. It's just a all of a sudden now and if you look in the thing, you will find like the most craziest transactions. One day before it's due, all of a sudden deposit for 2700. Where did this come from? Who is this dance guy? I don't know. Never met him. That's doesn't even know. And there's people And the kosher food could give you everything. But your eyes need to be completely on him. You need to understand that everything that's going on is a clear cut. The biggest issue that most of us know of lending a Jew in interest is not what you think. It's not an issue because you think, oh, I'm lending another Jew and I'm hurting him. It's not only that. It's a clear cut, it's even bigger than that. It's because the worst part about it is it ends up causing you to take your heart off of the kosher food. The worst part about it is it ends up having you to put your faith in your faith in something else other than God. That's the worst part about it. That's the issue of shabbos. That's a 100% issue. To put your faith in anything else is a 100% issue because it's a clear cut very very clearly. And a person needs to understand that my income, my livelihood, my life is in the kosher food's hands. You know, one guy came to me. Now I'm just sharing you now my personal conversations now, yeah. I'm saying one guy came to me now and he says to me, "Rabbi, I upgraded." What does that mean, upgraded? He said, "Well, I haven't seen you in the shul in a while." So I said, "Rabbi, I already leveled up." I said, "What? What does that mean, I leveled up?" I said, "I'm trying to figure out what does that mean, I leveled up." You know, Rabbi, you know me. I don't need the shul anymore. Now I got this, I got that. I thought, "Oh, you don't need the shul anymore, no?" No, Rabbi. When did we have this conversation? As he's calling me about all the problems he's going through. I said, "You you you don't need the shield?" I said, "You sure you don't need the shield? Cuz you got to need the shield." I told him, "It doesn't matter what level you're on." And some people think that they they make this misconception. They think that if all if I'm ready, no, doesn't make a difference what level you are on spiritually. You could be ready in the system for 25 years. You know in college as a rabbinic as rabbis guys who go to college halacha beyond to what you say clean they were everything about Teshuvah everything in deep deep depth every week once a week the rabbi gives him a schmooze on what? Not on the halacha. Only mussar. You sit down how to be a good husband and how to be a man how to be a human being hello I don't know what a man is hello rabbi I heard this class of last night huh? Why? Why do I need to hear it again? Why do I need to hear it from a rabbi? And this is how it is every Shiva every college every place in the world because not sure the thing is upgrading from Bitachon. A person needs to have and I told them it's not you know what it's like? When you come here once a week you know I've been going to the friendship many times it's like your phone has no battery and you're charging it. You come over here you get a charge you go you're not for a week but you have to come back and charge again if you don't then your phone will just be dead it'll be running on empty. And some people live their life on empty. And they have no faith in God whatsoever. You know why? Cuz they never got a recharge. They never came yeah rabbi I know I know I know. Rabbi I know all these stories I know all these stories yeah we all know all these stories habibi. I heard the stories I know cuz I'm saying them over obviously I heard them before I said them over now. I had to read it I had to hear it before I told you now. How am I telling you stuff? No. It's not about what you don't know what you do know. I tell them I didn't come to teach you anything new I came to teach you something you already know. Because the things you know the most are the things you overlook. I would have to know and say you want to know how to solve this problem. Anyone of you have a house with stairs? Anyone of you here have steps in their house? Yeah? Who could tell me how many steps they have in their house? Every single day, multiple times a day, you walk up and down those stairs. Every day. And nobody knows the exact number of stairs. Maybe seven, maybe eight, maybe nine, maybe Habibi, every single day. Every day you walk down these same flight of stairs. I have been giving a class about it and till today I don't know how many stairs I have in my house. I think it's six. Like that. I don't know. And I tell you the truth, it happened to me one time I gave a class there was a guy over there that was a little bit oddball. He actually happened to know. But besides for the fact, most people will go through their life and the things that are most obvious to them they'll overlook it every single day. Every single day they pass over it again and again and again and completely allow themselves to look over it. And completely allow themselves to forget it. It's not teaching you something you know, it's reminding you what you're allowing yourself to forget. Because there's a responsibility to it. There's weight to it. But you live a whole completely different life when you do that. And a person understands that Hashem is in charge of everything, then he lives a different realm. He lives a different life. And one of the things Hashem expects us to do is when a friend does come to you for help, is not to think about what Rashi says is that first of all that he he brings over there nation of the deed that he teaches that there's two loving. He brings the material that in both of them you have two issues of the right. Every time you have to do the deed, you don't only have one issue of the right, you have two. Two. Together in one. Every time. And it has to say that you should fear your God in the book because your mind will be on the money. His mind will be on the money and therefore it needs to remind you that you should fear Hashem. You should fear Hashem. Why? Because your mind will allow you to give yourself all types of And since Rashi over there says something very interesting that you might tell yourself, "Well, you know what? I'll do a combinah with a yeah? He's asking for money. I'm not allowed to lend you money because I'm a Jew or Jew. Hello, Frankie, come in for a second." Frankie, do me a favor. Take this money, lend it to him, and you know, do a little something on top, and then we'll figure it out after, me and you. Says Muncie, "Can't do that." Can't do that. We're looking for loopholes. Because the highest level is to help. And to help is cuz what a person thinks about giving money now, right? If I If someone comes to you and I'm actually like this, right? Cuz the Torah obligates you, right? But Torah tiftach et yadecha. Torah obligates you to open your hand to your friend if he needs you. If somebody comes right now and asks you for a loan, a personal loan, and you have the money, you're obligated to give it to him. You know that? If you have $5,000 sitting in your savings account, and a guy comes to you right now and tells you, "I only need a $5,000 loan," you have to give it to him. Torah obligates you. But I'm like, "All right, I don't know, look, you know how much I can generate in 5,000? I don't know, my money is 3 years out of time. You know how much I can make? I put it in this market, put it in that market, S&P, 9 years security, every year every year. I'm ready to be in the money." His mind is thinking about the opportunity cost, okay? You ever heard of that, opportunity cost? Okay, I don't want to go in. Okay? Opportunity cost. How about What about the When you have an opportunity to help another Jew, you have to go out of your way to help. There was once a guy, the Chofetz Chaim, came to Vienna in 1923. And you can imagine when the Chofetz Chaim was a big prominent rabbi until today, of course. When he came to town, everyone wanted to have a meeting with the rabbi. He's very old in his old life. Everyone wanted to come and meet him. He was staying by some other rabbi's house, and everyone was trying to wait. No, the rabbi's old, he needs his time. But there was one guy, big philanthropist Jew, lots of money, a lot of good deeds in the community. He said, "Rabbi, I have to come sit down with you." And they agreed to let him come in because he did a lot for help with the community so on and so forth. And he came and sat down with the rabbi. The rabbi was in the middle of a meal. And he didn't pray for the Amazon yet. So, the Ashkenazim, also the Sephardim, but mostly the Ashkenazim, they have a like an inyan, especially the sheet, to sing Mizmor L'David, Mizmor for Rabbi, Trying to tell you to sing it. The Hafetz Chaim gets to the point Looks at the guy and says, "I don't understand this pasuk." "Surely goodness and kindness shall follow me for all the days of my life." You know what "yirdefuni" means in Hebrew? To chase, to pursue. You know what "pursue" means? Like a debt collector. Someone harassing you. Like, "Yirdefuni, hello. Relax." Says David Hamelech that goodness and charity should run after me and haggle me and harass me and wake me up in the middle of the night and call my phone from different 15 different numbers and block not block and uncall and star 67 and everything you possibly imagine to harass me to do charity. Says the Hafetz Chaim, "What's going on over here?" Says the guy, "I'll tell you. You would have thought that when life gives you an opportunity to help another person and it's causing you pain and anguish or it's causing you trouble, yeah? Or it's causing you an buying or this or that, you think that the right move is to run away from it. To run away from the charity, from the goodness. How are you doing with other people? Says David Hamelech, "Ach v'chesed yirdefuni kol yemei chayai." That it should run after me, should pursue me even when it's difficult for me. The guy got up and said, "Rabbi, thank you so much." and left. So, the other rabbi was walking with guy, and he says, "Oh, you didn't ask the Rabbi any questions. You didn't ask him any questions. You had a question, you didn't ask him any questions." He says, "No, that he answered my question." What was the question? "I have two businesses that are very successful. I opened up two non-for-profit organizations, and they're going amazing. My wife told me that I'm spending so much time in the non-for-profits that it's taking a toll on my business. So, I came to the Rabbi to ask him if I should stop doing non-for-profits to continue to run my business." And the Abraham the Rabbi answered me. The Rabbi didn't even have to hear his question. He says, "Mizmor l'David." And the guy went home. The guy went home. It's interesting, right? Cuz I told one guy, actually, a few weeks ago, I said to him, "If you ever have a trial with emunah and bitachon, and you feel like you're a little bit down in faith, this Mizmor l'David, just saying it is a segulah to awaken faith in your heart. You know that? Mizmor l'David Adonai ro'i lo echsar." Just those few words. When you contemplate on those words, "Mizmor l'David Adonai ro'i lo echsar." If Hashem is my shepherd, I'm not missing anything. Right? "Kosi revaya." You know what that word means in English? Who can tell me what "Kosi revaya" means in English? A cup overflows. That's right. My cup overfloweth. You know what that means? My cup overfloweth. You know what that means? You know, when a person has water, like Rabbi they brought me the water, okay? If How many ounces do you think this guy is there? Somebody can tell me how many ounces? 8, 7, 17, 27, I don't know. It's probably 10, okay? And let's say that you have 14. You know what I mean? It looks like maybe 8, right? 8 to 10 oz, right? If Binyamin over here wants to pour me 24 oz, he can. Impossible, okay? That's a saying in French, okay? Impossible. Impossible, okay? That's a saying in French, okay? Okay? You guys didn't know I was multilingual, okay? How much can he pour me over here? 10? When a person First of all, I would talk about it in the past, but the point of the matter is is that my cup overfloweth means this will be enough. I could probably drink this, and I could be enough, no? My cup overfloweth means that my is constantly has more than what I need. If I need 10, Hashem is constantly giving me more and more and more. How does a person get that? After the 20 qualities of mercy. When he allows goodness and kindness to chase after him, to pursue him. It's not easy to help other people. You know, I talked about it last week. Someone told me, "Look, Rabbi, they don't understand that when someone needs help, so Rabbi, nobody wants You know, who's bothering the Rabbi at 7:00 in the morning? I said, "You'd be surprised. When someone has trouble, they'll bother even at 4:00 in the morning. If someone has something that he wants to deal with, even if you call him at 2:00 in the morning, he'll be answering He'll be happy to talk to you. Some people in the world are willing to talk whenever." And sometimes they have problems, they'll call you whenever, also. And it's not easy. You know what it's like to be in bed at 1:00 in the morning and get a phone call? You sit over there, you're like, "Okay, and I can answer the phone." One time you ignore. Second time, okay, maybe there's an emergency. Third time, okay, I have to answer the phone now. You answer the phone, your wife is kicking you in the head. Hello. What? Business hours, business hours, okay? Business hours. What do you want me to do? What can I do? What can I do? That's what I asked for, no? You didn't hear me singing it on Shabbat? I asked for this. I asked for help. Cuz when you help, Hashem helps. Therefore, he says, "When you lend without money, without tributes, without interest, Hashem not only lets him live through you, he lets you live through him. Also, your life is extended through him." But the other way is also true. That if God forbid you cause him to lose his life with the interest that you give him, that they say it's like a like a snake bite. Interest that you charge another Jew is like a snake bite. You know why? Cuz you don't feel it. It's like a bite of a snake that bites you in your in your ankle. Until the venom travels until it travels all the way to your head and your head becomes inflamed. You don't know, you don't feel it. You get a little sting. But when it's right after No one tells you right away, "I'll give me I'll give you 100, give me 120." No. "I'll give you 100, pay me 1,100 every month." Okay, that sounds reasonable, you know. That sounds reasonable. He doesn't know. He's waiting for the venom. Slowly, slowly, slowly until the guy whoop until it reaches his head and now there's no more there's no more where to even That's exactly what it is. This is the way you took his life is the way also take away ours. Hashem should help. That's the way you have to live life. A person has to understand that he has to have complete and utter faith in Hashem at all times. And when he does that, that's when he reaches the highest levels in life. That's when he gets to the highest level because he knows that every decision I make is not based on myself. It's not based on what I think is good or not good. Helping other people is always good. And more so than that, even if right now my money, quote unquote, is losing its opportunity cost, it's the best thing you can do. I know a guy I wish I'm going to finish. He himself has a gmach by himself. A gmach, which is like How do we say gmach in English? I don't know. Huh? You guys know what a gmach in English is? I don't know what it is in English. A gmach and I'm not going to A Jewish bank, okay? A gmach is basically a place you can go and if you need money, you go over there and they'll give you the money. He has a gmach only for people who are learning Hashem. And he himself is the only person who puts the money over there. And over there in that account, there's a few hundreds of thousands of dollars that he himself put over there, okay? The gmach is on all sides of the coin. The guy is a multi multi multi-millionaire. But he wasn't always a multi-millionaire. When you asked him, "How did you come from humble beginnings to become a multi-millionaire?" He says, "The more you give, the more Hashem gives you." And he says, "The one two things I'm proud of in my life." I spoke to him. I'm very close to him. There's two things I'm proud of in my life. He says, "First thing's first, here's how much I give to my wife. Second thing's second, here's how much I give to the community." Cuz when you give, Hashem will give. When you open your hand, Hashem opens his hand to you. you can only do that when you think about oh eh opportunity and opportunity. Someone needed your help, you give it. That's not easy. It's not easy to give somebody, you know, you have $10,000 in savings. You want to save it for a day you need it, whatever it is. And now a person comes and needs it and you help him. You're giving him life. I was okay in my life to give a few loans out to certain people and you can see that you make the better down. You know what it is for a person to come to you and doesn't know how he's finishing the month, how he's closing his credit card bill, how he's paying his children's tuition. And you one day one bank wire and the person is breathing again. He's back to life. There's no bigger matter than another in the whole entire world. There's no amount of interest or rebate that anyone in the world can give you on your money that would repay you for what you did for this person. So everyone should be running to do it. The problem is that we don't understand this concept. So the clear cut when a person understands completely, his eyes need to be honest with Hashem, that's when he reaches the biggest places. And the reason why you don't learn to do it interest is because all this is me lending causing your heart to stray from Hashem, which is the biggest issue you could possibly have. The biggest worst thing you could possibly do is cause your heart to go away from Hashem. You want to succeed in life? You want to have success in your life? I'm giving you guys a promise. Not just myself to Hashem should do the share. No worry, don't just give myself. It's not enough. It's not enough. You want to have real success in life? You want to have bitachon. Nasata venatata be emunah. It's the first question they're going to ask you after 120. Nasata venatata be emunah. And then kivita lemi Torah, then tzifita leYeshua, asakta bifirya verivya. Then they ask you all other questions. But the first question they ask you was Nasata venatata be emunah. Were you honest in your business dealings? And it doesn't say were you honest. What does it say? Nasata venatata. Did you and did you give with faith? First question. Did you have faith? If you don't pass this first question, guess what? You can't get to the second question. Okay, go back. There is no continuation after that. You don't get to the second question if you were in the faith. You don't have faith. There is no faith. For a person who doesn't deal with life and honesty and faith. The first question they ask you. I'm sorry, but you don't believe me. Open up yourself. The second question is faith. Did you give with faith? If you didn't have faith, how can you get to the second question? So, you can't. The first principle thing is telling you you have to have faith. And specifically where? In your business dealings. Cuz that's when the test comes up. That's when the test comes up. Cuz you can now you can cheat, you can steal. I could have told you I think I saw today in the faith. He writes that it's a bigger incentive to be rich than it is to be poor. That he brings a person in the He says that he says that that he says that the one thing he asked him two things he asked him, right? Second thing he asked him is don't make me a rich person. Don't give me the test of being rich. Right? Cuz I don't want to be cuz you know how difficult it is? He says you know how many a person can be being rich? At least if you're poor, what could you do? You know? Maybe make a false swear and maybe steal. But if you're rich, whoa, the sky's the limit. And therefore he says maybe it's better to be. But I'm not saying each one of us will be rich and then with the test. But we have to understand the only way you could do it is by having the faith. And if you don't have the faith, then what do we do with it? And the way you have the faith is first of all by training and how you train is by being put in test. And second of all, coming to the weekly for the for the recharges. If you're not coming, if you're not recharging your faith, then guess what? Eventually your battery will die and that's when mistakes happen. So, you got to keep on coming, keep on hearing, keep on hearing. And some people say, "Rabbi, I have lost all of my faith. Tell us something else." I say, "No." Every week you're going me want faith. Even if I tell you something along the way, I'm going to tell you I'm going to be the home. Anyways, you want to know why? Cuz you all need it. We all need that recharge. Yes, you're supposed to be a good Jew. Yes, you have to be a good friend. Yes, you have to be a good son. Yes, we have all like that I'm going to come blue and say I got. And all of these things, the underlying principle is always going to be the home. And a person needs to instill this in himself. And if he does that, real talent to help to be good for everybody. Without the question, give us back. Give them life. And so on and so forth. Amen.