Rabbi Tomer Zino & Rabbi Maor Bendel | Emunah In Challenging Times | CHAZAQ

One of the main themes of Kanuka is that it's a rabbitic holiday. It's not a holiday from the Torah. Nowhere in the Torah does discuss in the hash about Hanuka. But people are very connected to Hanukkah. Especially you tell them you got to remember Hanukkah. We eat some foods to remember Hanukkah. Everybody's very mahm about that. already maybe a few weeks before they already start eating suani. But the says my hanuka asks what is the holiday of the says the rabbis taught that they conquered us and they kicked us out of our temple. They defiled it and then the makabes revolted and they won the war. They found the jug of oil lasted 8 days. But the commentary say what's the first words the sages said in the Garan. What is Hanuka? The essence of Hanuka. The rabbis taught that a person has to be able to not just sayas that we we know is divine and we know is powerful and we want to keep but even what the rabbis taught that sometimes is a different we have to fight we have to follow what the sages taught us. The paras the Ramban says is known to be the parasa of galut. The paras that talks us teaches us talks to us tells us how to deal with the goim during the galut represents the Jewish people and Isa represents the gim who are going to war against us. So what did yu do? Whatever he did we have to do also. That's how you prepare ourselves. So he prepared a gift. He prayed. He split up his family into different camps. But there's an interesting point in this para we can also learn. There's an interesting statement made by Yakov and made by Iss all these cattle and Yakov and are talking about their lives. is talking about how is their life going and you know says to him listen life's good he says yes I have everything I need I'm a happy person I have family I have money I have I have everything and what does answer says I have a lot so the commentaries say that means says I have a lot meaning I I have a lot more than everybody else. My happiness depends if I have more than everybody else or if I have stuff that nobody else has. Sometimes that we only feel special if maybe I have a car nobody has or I have a coat that nobody has or I have a house that's custom. It's very special. Nobody has that kind of house. I go to places, exotic places that nobody went to. I give other people the feeling of jealousy, a little bit of FOMO, they're missing out. That's a that is gives us. He says, I have a lot. I have more than everybody else. He says, but he doesn't think like that. He says, I have everything I need. I might not have outlandish things, but I have everything I need, my basic necessities. That's at the beginning of the par. You don't ask of what all I ask is clothes to wear bread to eat. As long as I have my basic necessities, I'm happy. Cuz what happens if you fall to the trap of the to always try to have rav I have what people don't have? Things will change. Look at seasons in fashion. Simply one day big chunky shoes are in fashion. The next day, everything has to be small and sleek. And then again, it goes back to the other way. And this was in fashion, now this is not in fashion. People used to like this, now they like that. And everything changes all the time. If you're always going to try to up one, go over one, be on top of the other person. I have something you don't, you'll never be happy. Person has to focus on himself and say, "Do I have coal? Do I have everything I need?" But of he says something very deep. He says, "What does it mean that Isab said yes?" Isab said, "I have my own rabbi. I have a rav also." Yakov said, "I follow Hashem." Says, "I also have a master. I also have a Rav who teaches me." But his rav teaches him completely different things. And says if you don't get in your life a proper mentor, a proper rabbi who answers your questions properly, who you don't feel thirsty and empty after you get an answer or you read a you read an explanation, you feel this rabbi really answer my question and I feel connected to now to my roots to my Judaism. He says if you don't have a rabbi like that, you're going to have a rabbi shalom from somewhere else. Today everybody's getting influenced. Today everybody has a role model whether you like it or not. Question is who's your role model? Is your role model your Rav in your community who uplifts you? He asks about you, hey I haven't seen you in a while. Is everything okay? Are you looking for shid? Did you did you put on today? Did you do you come to the class? Are you connected with young adults in your area? Do you come to our programming? If you're not connected to such a person and learning and growing, so you're going to be connected to somebody else. And who's that? Probably somebody from Instagram, probably somebody from social media, probably from somebody else that you bumped into in life. Because we're always learning. We're always getting influence. The question is from who? So if a person doesn't have a very powerful Torah source to get influence from like a very good mentor Rab or Rebbitson, so then very likely he's just going to say, you know what, the goim are more interesting. This guy online, I see his his his shorts, his videos. He's very charismatic. He's very influential. He looks successful. He looks happy. He looks like he knows what he's talking about. I I want to listen to what he says. I'll listen to this video and the next one and the next one and the next one. And I speak speak to a guy one time and I said, "Listen, who's your rabbi?" Oh, I don't really have a rabbi, Rabbi. You know, I I like I I got life advice from this guy. His name is uh his name is Tony Robbins. You see him? He's a great guy. He's very smart. He knows how to be successful in life. I said, "What does he talk about? Does he talk about Torah?" No, not really. He doesn't talk about Torah. He doesn't really tell you to do mitzvot. He just gives you like very good motivation. He tells you why it's important to be, you know, excited and motivated and and go be successful in life. I said, "Really? So, you're very connected to this guy." Yeah, he's amazing. I said, "Did you know that you have to learn Torah and you have to keep the misot and you could find all this wisdom that you find in the gim, you could find it in the Torah, too." He says, "Ah, rabbi, I don't see that so much. I don't really appreciate. I seem more or less like the rabbis made this stringency. The rabbis made that stringency, they blocked my life here, they blocked my life there. I don't know about that rabbi come to sh or doesn't really speak to me so much and and that's why a person has to make sure to connect to the right rabbi and to have a rabbi or rebbitson in his life because if not you're going to find someone else to be influenced by and maybe that influence won't be the best for you maybe that influence well you'll actually have to spend time later undoing all that influence that you got because it might not be Torah values and a person has to be scared Because the most precious thing that is the hardest thing to give to somebody is understanding. If a person lets his understanding be influenced by goim and he therefore he thinks like a it's very hard to change it. It's changeable but it's very hard to change it afterwards. But if a person is locked in tucked tucked in with the community and with the rav and with the mitzvah then understand he asks questions and he gets the right answers and he feels I understand what I'm doing. So then he gets the Torah wisdom the Torah understanding that will give him way more success and happiness in life than if he would have went online thinking social media has the answers for his problems. I'll give you a short story. Now we all know stories like this and our sometimes we doubt them but at the end of the day think about it. When a person passes away who do we call? We call the Rav. When somebody has a wedding they need to officiate they call the rabbi. When somebody has problems in parasa he doesn't know who to turn to. He calls the rabbi. when he needs a shid, when he needs to have children, when he needs a salvation, all of a sudden the rabbi is the right address. How come when you have questions about your day-to-day living and you have questions about how to deal with problems in life, how come we don't also go to the RA? So, that's something we have to ask ourselves. And this story exactly explains how we doubt, but really we shouldn't doubt. We should really have more not in the Torah just in their sages, the Torah sages. There's a story of this fat shalom where there was a young man, young Jewish man, he got conscripted to the army. They sent him a notice, a draft notice. And that time in Europe, almost everybody got draft notices. Some people got out of it, some people didn't. So you went in the line to get a bra from and the met to be able to get out of this draft to get out of the going to the army and that time to go to the army it doesn't meant you didn't keep Shabbat it meant you didn't keep kosher it meant almost getting lost spiritually so he goes the alliance gets in the line there's tons of people there's almost no time to speak to the rav my name is so and so I got drafted the army I don't know what to do he says the rabbi took out of his pocket a book that has the laws of brickmillah. He gave it to him. He says, "You read this inside and out. You're going to be fine." Next, he let him go. He goes to the Gabby. He says, "Excuse me, Mr. Gabby. I think the rabbi made a mistake. He gave me a little booklet, a pamphlet about the laws of Brit. I think he maybe heard that I'm having a son or something. He gave me the wrong advice. I'm going to the army. I need help." He says, "No, the rabbi knew exactly what he was saying. You can go now. everything's going to be okay. He's like, "This doesn't make any sense. How is this?" They just pushed him along and he had to move on. So, he goes to the army. He's sitting in the barracks. He says, "I don't know what to do. How am I going to get out of here? I'm going to have to sit here for years, 2, 3 years. Who knows how long I'm going to be here?" He starts opening the little pamphlet, the little booklet, the laws of Milah. He's reading it. He's reading it. He's reading it to the point where he's reading it like like it's like he knows it by heart already. and he I'm just having simple faith in the rabbi. It happens to be that he got a lot of medical training. He became a person who was a emergency responder in the army and he became very very trained in medicine. So eventually he almost halfway through his uh through his basic training few months in all of a sudden the leader of the whole unit over there comes in and he screams and he yells, "Is there someone Jewish here?" So everybody got scared. Everybody starts looking at him because he's the only Jew. So they said, "Are you Jewish?" They all point to him. He says, "Yes, I'm Jewish. I need you to come to my office right now. He brings him to this office. He says, "You're Jewish, huh?" He says, "Yeah." He says, "Oh, no. This He's thinking this this general of this of mine, he's probably some anti-semite. He probably wants to beat me up. He wants to put me down. He wants to do something to me." He says, "You're Shabbat." He's he's scared to say anything. He You keep He's like a mouse. Doesn't want to open his mouth. He takes out his revolver, puts it to his head. He says, "You keep Shabbat. You keep kash." He finally says, "You know what?" He thinks in this is a situation where you have to be willing to give up your life. He says, "Listen, he's going to kill me because I'm a Jew. I have to I have to be be honest. I can't hide the fact that I'm a Jew. I have to die, live a Jew, and die a Jew." He says, "Yes." He starts screaming, "Yes, yes, I keep Shabbat. I keep Kash. Yes, I'm a Jew." He thinks he's going to die in that moment. The general puts away his gun. He says, "Very good." He gives him a hug and a kiss. He says, "I had a baby boy last week. I'm also Jewish." He says, "You're the only guy who knows medicine well here. I want you to do my son's brea." He says, "You're going to do my son's brema. Nobody's going to know about it. If they find out about it, I know who tell who told them. You're going to do it's going to be between me and you. and I don't want to see your face after that. You're going to get disappear from here. You're going to get kicked out of the army. So the guy's like, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure, sure. No problem. 100%." He goes and he brings the baby. He does the Brit just him and his this general's close secret family and he goes free. He runs back to Fatamemed and he's kissing the rabbi's hands and kissing the rabbi's hands and kissing the rabbi's hands. We think we know better. We think we know everything. That's the mentality of is says I have a lot. I know how to be successful. I know what to do. And then God will send us a situation where you don't know what to do. The Greeks will come into your life and breaks your temple quote quote unquote. And what do you need to do over there? Says the myan how do you get the salvation? You have to believe in the rabbis. You have to believe in the sages. You got to do what they say. Even though sometimes we don't understand them fully. For example, there's a everybody knows about called is right. Some people keep it, some people don't. A little bit of a debate. The idea is we're concerned that they're going to put non-coosher milk into the milk. So we have to have a Jew observing being masak that the Jew the kosher the milk is fully kosher and there was a Jew who lived in theam first time around 200 years ago and he didn't agree with this he's like what kind of is going to mix non-coosher milk into the into the milk this is bogus you know how many I can't have the the Starbucks cream in my coffee come on I need to have that it's good I don't like this. I think it's not for me. And his rabbi used to rebuke him. He tell him, "Listen, you got to keep Israel." He says, "Okay, Rabbi, I hear you, Rabbi. No problem. I'm going to work on it. Rabbi, one day, one day, Rabbi, one day." So, this he was a very shrewd businessman. And he used to make a lot of business meetings in a certain cafe. His tactic was this cafe was such good coffee. the person he did business with was such a good mood. He had always made good money because he brought him to this cafe. So years and years he's doing uh business in this cafe and his Rav one day tells him, "Listen, I hear you're doing very well in business. I hear you use this cafe. This cafe is he [clears throat] says, "Rabbi, no. I'm sorry. It's not." But listen, I heard there's some opinions. There's, you know, some some opinions to be lenient on. It's not really for me, Rabbi. [clears throat] He says, "Kaim, I think you're making a big mistake." He said, "Rabbi, we'll see." He goes and he's doing business there. And he's curious one day, you know, the rabbi's words were like sticking out like a thorn in his head. He goes to the owner. He says, "Listen, I'm so curious. I come here for years like a loyal customer. Your secret is safe with me. Tell me, how do you make this coffee taste so good?" He says, "You really want to know? Come, I'll show you. Come to the back. He brings him to the back. He says, "You see the alley? There's an alley behind my store. Across the alley, there's another store." He says, "That store is a butcher." He's like, "The butcher, whatever." Random. He says, "Every morning, I go to him. He gives [clears throat] me brains, he gives me intestines, he gives me fats, he melts it down, and I add this to my cream, and then we put it in the coffee. He makes it the most delicious, creamiest coffee there is in the market. He says, "What?" He says, "That's exactly what we do." He started crying. He went to the Rav. He said, "Rabbi, not just did I not keep Israel." He says, "I ate, I ate meat and milk and I add non-coosher milk in there also." He says, "Rabbi, how did you know? How did you know?" He says, "I don't have to know." know he says once the sages said it that's what we have to keep I don't have to know but it has so many applications the words of the sages are so far reaching if we believe the sages when a time of need why don't we believe the sages in a time of our desires why don't we believe them in situations where we think we know better but we have to know that they know better so much so that our sages say a person who learned Torah It's if a person learned a lot of Torah but he didn't learn under another rabbi he didn't do something called he didn't sit and study under the tutelage of other before him older than him today we ask rabbis do you have smika means ordination you have to be ordained by other rabbis to be a rabbi but a person says you know I read all of yak ysef I've read all the books there's Some people who like to study on their own. They like to study alone. But we have to time. We have all these websites. We could learn Torah. Some people they just listen to Torah any time. That's it. That's their rabbi. That's that's their way that they learn Torah. They don't they don't go to a lecture or don't have a relationship with a rabbi or they don't go to a group learning. Just online they learn. Let's say you'll do all your learning like that only like that. And you become very knowledgeable. You know a lot. But you didn't sit under the toutelage of a rabbi and therefore he cannot ordain you because he doesn't know you and he didn't show you through his life experience of experiencing the learning with you. Like says he's not of but what do you mean he finished all the books? He you didn't learn by another great rabbi and he didn't speak to you and you didn't ask him questions and you didn't see him act as a rabbi live. You're not a rabbi. you're not at even if you finished all the books to show you that you have to be connected to a rabbi to really really get to the highest level of greatness of Torah to really get to the highest level of holiness and Torah and sometimes we have yet says listen it says the shears at 8 9:00 I don't really want to slept out of my house it's dark outside it's freezing cold I don't really want to go I just I could put a lecture on the on on the on the on the computer I could just listen to you know on my headphones and then what and like that you learn but what if you have a question but what if you have a problem in your life you don't know what's the right thing to do should I do this should I do that some people today will tell you ask chad GPT he'll give you good advice you can't ask chbt Torah questions questions it's not reliable many times I myself asked Chad GBT questions And I looked up the sources. They were bogus sources. I told him, I typed it to Chad GBT. I told him afterwards, "Your source is not a real source. Can you can you verify that?" He's like, "Oh yeah, you're right. I made a mistake." He He says up front, he says, "Ches up front, you're right. I lied. I made a mistake. I misqued." JBT the computer admits. So how can we doubt theim whose words time and time after again has proven valid no one ever found a mistake in the Torah and in the end you ask them for help when a time of need you should ask their help always I'll end with this there's a story with a family who couldn't have kids for a while and they had some kids but They wanted another child. So they went to one of theidic masters init and they asked him ra I need a I need something to do to be able to get that merit for to have that child. So he said listen I feel that the tikun for you and your family is you have to dance every Friday afternoon and every Friday night you have to make it very lively in your house with Shabbat songs. that's you're going to be your tikun. So he said, "Okay, wonderful. I can do that." His wife was not so into it. She's like, "What does that have to do with anything? That's such a random thing. I understand maybe take upon yourself this mitzvah, say to him, take upon yourself this stringency, but to dance and to sing Shabbat songs, what's the big deal?" But the husband was very into it. He's like, "This is great. This is this is exactly what I needed." So he does it and he does it and he does it and lo and behold he actually has a child afterwards and his wife said okay that's it good so we have the child but hashem finished he says no what do you mean we got to keep doing it the rabbi said not to stop the first week they had the baby at home mom is a little little cute little baby baby girl he goes and he says we put her to sleep Friday night already I want to bring her down we have to dance with her we danced the whole time to get her. We have to dance with her now. Friday night, we have to miss Shabbat shalom. The wife said, "What do you know? Leave her alone. Come on, enough. You and the rabbi and this." He said, "I have to." He goes, he brings the baby down, wakes the baby up. He's holding the baby, dancing with the baby. All of a sudden, we hear a huge boom. They run upstairs and they see that this new beautiful cabinet/chest that they set up for the baby fell over and crushed the whole crib. Destroyed the whole crib into pieces. And he said to her, "You see how we're think it's not a big deal what the rabbi said. It's not a big deal. Something that came from the sage's words, sage's mouth. We think like, oh, okay, come on. What does it have to do with anything? Come on." If he wouldn't have kept the words of the rabbi and kept that custom every single week, who knows? Who knows what had happened? So, I'm telling you, I saw in my life when I went to my rabb and I asked him, I had a very difficult choice to make to go to yeshiva to to go to college. And I asked my rabb rabbi, what's the right what's the real right thing to do? He says to for you, you have a lot of ability. You should stay in learning. you're going to be able to teach one day. I said, "Rabbi, I don't think so. I don't know. My family's not so into it. It's a little bit hard for me to I have this whole program. I have this whole path set up for me." He says, "I'm telling you, you're not going to regret it. You have to think about, not just maz." I said, "Rabbi, I hear you. I hear you. And I thought about it. I thought and I made a decision. I left. I deferred another year. And I deferred another year. And then I didn't go to college. I wanted to become a doctor. But what? My whole life changed but I had faith in my I did what they said. I'm seeing the dividends till this day all the in my life. I believe it stems from that nephesh that follow my when they give me proper advice. So I bless all of us. If you want to show Hashem you care, you want to show Hashem that you deserve, you can't just keep what the Torah says. You have to keep what the saying say. Hashem's Torah is only explained and expounded without the sages. We would never know what to do in the Torah. We wouldn't put fill in the right place. This is you would think to put it between your eyes. How do you know it has to be on the hairline? Only because of the sages. There's thousands of we wouldn't know how to do if it wasn't for the sages. And to show we care, show Hashem that we care. It reminds me of the story. There was back in the day how they find the katan. They used to go to the yeshiva. He used to go to the yeshiva. Ask the rabbi, "Rabbi, you have a good boy for my daughter." He says, "So he would pick one out." But this this this person, this father, he said, I want to pick it out myself. He comes to the rabbi and the yeshiva. He rabbi, if you don't mind, I'm going to ask a question. Whoever answers the question, he's going to become do he's going to become a hatan. This is the rabbi said, "No problem. Go ahead." He comes to the middle of the yeshiva. He slaps the beimma and everybody's listening to this father say this question. So he asks the question and this person tries, that person tries, that person, nobody gives the answer. So he says, "Okay, I guess this yeshiva doesn't have the lucky candidate." So he starts getting ready to leave. He gets, this is in the olden times, he gets on his horse and wagon, starts driving away. And you hear one young man yelling, "Stop! Stop! Hold on." So he stops his horse. He turns around. He says, "No, you have an answer." He's like, "No." So why'd you stop me? He says, "You asked such a good question. You're not going to leave us with the answer. Tell us the answer at least." He says, "You're going to be the hatan." He says, "Why?" But I didn't even get the answer. He says, "I wasn't really looking for a p person with the answer. I knew you weren't. You guys weren't going to get it. I just want to see who cares. I want to see who loves Torah. I want to see who loves Hashem." If you want to show Hashem you care, you want to show Hashem you love the Torah, you want to show Hashem that you're going to make the extra mile and Hashem will make the extra mile for you, make sure you have a rabbi in your life. Make sure you get Torah advice. Make sure you follow. If you love, you got to love everything the sages say. Amen. >> Thank you. Rabbi, next speaker driving all the way down from Brooklyn. Thank you, Rabbi. A new speaker speaking around the community with tremendous enthusiasm and passion. So, it's all standing. All right, my or down. >> I hold this thing. >> You going to hold it? >> No. as I've told. Thank you so much to the Ka. Thank you so much for Kazak. I just want to let you guys know that I know tonight is going to be a good night. You can ask me how I know and I'll tell you. Usually when I come before you, I can tell Hashem gives me a few signs. if it's going to be a good night or not. How do I know? I was driving over here and whenever something good is going to happen, he gets involved. So, I was driving over here, all of a sudden the GPS stops working. Now, I don't know if you guys ever drove from Brooklyn to Queens. One wrong turn, you're in uh who knows where. And my m I almost ended up in Laguadi area airport. I would have been in Dubai 20 minutes ago. My m telling me this exit that exit. I'm like, wait a minute. What's going on over here? The phone is glitching. Robbie's calling me. I'm like, you know, I'm going on a prayer. You're going to get me here. And lo and behold, I walked in my mind 2 minutes before they started. And so I have a feeling it'll be a good night. I wanted to talk about a topic. When Robbie sent me the flyer, a topic he was talking about. Now, anyone who knows me, they know that happens to be that I love to talk about amuna. But today I came to talk about something a little bit different and it will come back in. I wanted to focus in on a beautiful point that comes out of last week's para and this week's para. What happens in last week's para gets married to and has three children. First from the Hashem saw that hem heard brings down that Hashem sent down the Gabriel and he came with gifts of Kuna and therefore from the of gifts of carrying the gifts they called him and then on the fourth son she does something very interesting. She calls him and the says this time I'm gonna give thanks to Hashem and therefore I called his name Yuda. Comes the says she was the first person in the history of the whole entire world to tell Hashem thank you. Can you imagine that Adam is created? Adam gets a present. What's the present? He's going to edit. And then Hashem gives him a wife. Nothing better than the wife. The guy says, "Nothing better than the wife. Don't say thank you." No thank you. Ah comes no. You're the only one to survive. I'm wiping everybody out. You and your family get on. I'm saving you. No thank you. No problem. says the 10 test he passed them all not one time thank you nobody said thank you to hem comes says no the first person to say thank you to hem is now there's a puk what do you mean we see m whatever there's a few different answers public not public however we see that the first person to do such an act to give such a name that for the rest of the the world rest of the generations it's commemorated her thank you is commemorated through the name of a son and we are called what because our whole essence is our whole purpose is give thanks to Hashem and therefore it's a surprising how can I be the first person to say thank you to but you see the goes out of its way to praise her in the shame He's the one who says this and comes out and his commentary and he asked a question on that same look on top of the and again quotes and over there he says that no one in the world called hem adon lord until thenu came along and he called him adon adonai. first person. But over there, if you look at the it says from when God created when God created the world. But when it talks about it says when he created his world says why do you change the same one time you tell me that when God created his the world and on the other hand you tell me when a god created his world why you tell me his world why you changing the what's the discrepancy over here keep the same thing explains the banish something beautiful he explains that when Leah did this whole dua, when she did this, thank you to Hashem such a public level that not only is it stepping away from the heretics of the world who want to say that the world is created of nature. And by the way, if you take the word and the word elohim, they actually have the same that Hashem is hidden. But some of the heretics, people who are uh what we call them naturist, they say everything is by nature. Coincidence. Yeah. Coincidence. Yeah. I got into Wow. One second away from hitting my car and I got the Oh, coincidence. Yeah, coincidence. Explain to me how I got it tonight. Coincidence. Not coincidence. I didn't know what exit to get off of. [laughter] It was like a two lanes split. You got to go to the right. I actually I actually got off the wrong exit and then I actually reversed back to get down on the highway. I had to reverse back cuz if not over there I'm in a loop loop. I don't know where it's going. GPS GPS is not working. There's a loop over here. I'm like wait a minute. Am I going straight or is there a loop? I'm out. Okay. Have two kids over here. I don't know where to go. Yeah, I'm in reverse. I'm going reverse. I'm going to go straight. This way is a this way. Straight. We're going straight. And then the GPS is still not refreshing. I still don't know where I'm going. Yeah. And Robbie's calling me. How far are you? I'm like, honestly, I have no idea. [laughter] It says 4 minutes, but it thinks I'm in Brooklyn. I don't know. The GPS is telling me I'm in. I don't know where I am. My almost gave us Miami tonight. says the that when Hashem the reason why over there says is that when a person appreciates it and he has granted to what Hashem gives him he is fulfilling the purpose of creation. How do you know? One of the prophets he stood the whole entire Torah in one foot. What is that? It's a righteous person lives through his faith that that the whole stand in one basis which is that that when you have faith and trust in hem everything stands on that says the banish when a person praises hem when it says thank you to hem it shows that he's a person who has and when he has he's fulfilling the creation of the world because he's doing what the Torah requires from him the whole Torah stands on this leg different place I'm going to step off tangent come back he says that you have to love your fellow Jew that's the everyone knows this one time came he doesn't teach me to dua while I'm on one leg so the rabbi is like no what are you going to do I'm going to teach you dua one gives you the foundation of dua on one leg. Hel takes a stick. No, get out of here. Get out of here. Swats away like a fly. Go back to he get out of here. Comes to Hel tells him whatever you hate don't do to your fellow. Comes the clear and says wait a minute didn't you just tell me that the whole Torah stands on one leg and I say and then at the other side you're telling me that the whole Torah stands on which one is it? There's a clear two answers. The first answer is when you look at the ten commandments, you have and you have between you and between you and your friend. That's a clear between you and the stands on between you and your fellow it stands on they have to love your fellow Jew. The second answer I find more to be more astonishing. He says what's the end of the verse that the only way you can really love anybody is to understand that Hashem is the creator of the whole entire world and therefore everything even that one stands on that everything in the world stands in you can achieve everything with and that's why what happens where does he go where does he go he's leaving 20 years by this house of this wicked person 20 years trying to kill him. People don't know Rashi brings down that all four of them were his daughters. They all were daughters and why did he send all of them? Secret say agents mad. He was trying to get him from the inside out. He finally gets away from and he goes, "You know what? I have to pass by my brother's land in the field of By the way, you guys want to know how old how how a wicked person holds a grudge?" Toad doesn't allow you hold a grudge. You can't take revenge and you can't hold a grudge. If you want to see his how much of a wicked person he is, where does he live? Where does he live? In a place called in a field called What's to remind him that while his whole entire life he's going through town and he's thinking, "Oh, what's the name of this town? Oh, my brother put on the coat and he pretend that he was me." Okay, good. What else is a cult? Oh, I saw the FROM THE RED LE ALL LIFE IS thinking about him. 20 years does not have his mind off of his brother. He cannot wait to get him. Jacobu sends messengers angels to go to his brother doesn't look I want to make peace with brothers at the end of the day I have to pass through your land I want you to know I'm coming back let's make peace between the two of us and then come back and I tell yaku your brother's not only coming to meet you he's coming with 400 people says the midrash 400 generals of armies Oh, every one OF THEM IS A GENERAL AND THE HORSE OF THE CHARIOT with the spears says, "Okay, what's going on over here?" He does three things. He does. Yeah. He prays to Hashem. He sends him presents and he prepares for war. Very nice. What is he saying? What's the first thing he opens with? Comes to Hashem and says like this. The first thing he opens it I find to be astonishing. He says like this. He says I have been diminished by all of the kindness and all the truths that you have done for your servant for me. Meaning I'm coming to pray to you Hashem. Before I pray to you, I want you to understand that I don't even have the right to pray to you because what can I ask? I came over here to Lavan's house with a stick. You know how I how do you know tells us is as soon as Yakov runs away, he sends his son to kill Yakov. He says, "Go kill him." He catches up. Happens to be Yakov was his teacher. He what am I going to do? Conflict over here. I have to kill you on the one hand. I have to honor my father and my mother or my father. And on the other hand, I don't want to kill you my teacher. him take all my money says a person loses his money he's like he's dead take all my money goes to that's why he cried he didn't have anything to give it says Rashi he goes to the van's house with nothing and he comes up with everything what can I ask how can I even open my mouth I came down to the van's house with a stick and I'm coming back up with two camps full of animals full of family of people how could even ask. So, thank you so much, Hashem. And then, by the way, if you don't mind, by the way, now that I thanked you, now maybe I can ask for something. But first things first, I need to thank you. Thank you for everything you did for me. And now save me from my brother. That as soon as he prayed, the says not only him, he told all of his children to pray. As soon as he prayed immediately inim they accepted his why immediately why you want a secret you want to have a secret answered they get accepted first things first you say thank you Hashem before you come in with all your complaints and all your screaming and all your comp whatever you want no problem but first things first thank you Hashem for everything you gave me right what does say who can precede me and I'll pay Hashem says, "You want to pay me back?" Yeah. Uhhuh. Hashem, look, I put him as on the door. Hashem said, "Who gave you the house?" Hashem, I drove to the sh. Who gave you the car? Hashem, I put on who woke you up this morning. Hashem, I washed my eyes. Who gave you the eyes to see? You can never be mimi. You can never give me back before I give to you. And therefore you start everything with thank you. And what's the first thing you say in the morning and for the girl? Yeah. Every single morning you start with the first one to come out of your mouth is thank you. This is the whole purpose of creation is to say thank you to Hashem. When you think you creating the world and anyone who's been to my classes in the past they know I'm a big believer and I believe it is what it is say. Hashem creates relationships. Every person you meet, Hashem put in your life. This time you came here tonight and you met me. Not no reason. I would have been in 20 minutes ago. Huh? No reason. [laughter] and a guy walks up to my in the middle of me learning with him. He tells him, "You're not going to believe the story that I heard and this and that." I said, "Okay, what's the story?" Touch saying a story. I tell him, "Where do you get the story from?" He tells me, "I have a suffering in my house." I said, "Thank you." And I was redeemed. I tell him, I tell him, "Can you get me this?" He tells me, "Yeah, give it to me today." I tell him, "I just prepared my own sh and Hashem gives me a book with the exact title of my sh." This wasn't really in there yesterday. You know, it wasn't me. We were sitting down together preparing this book together. [laughter] We didn't write this book together. And I come and I see this and I'm going to tell you the truth. It's a big I said, "Okay, what story am I going to tell?" I told my wife, I said, "Look, open up a page. Whatever page you open is the story I'm telling tonight. So if you don't like the story, take it up with her. Now I'll tell you the truth. What's the story over here? He says a beautiful story. But I think it's more so about the point that comes out of the story. He brings in a few stories, but I'll tell you the story that my wife opened up. And then we understand from over here that he brings down. He said over here one time there was a woman who came to him. She couldn't have children. And for many many years she couldn't have children. her and her husband and she tried everything possibly imagine she went to the mikvah 9 months pregnancy everything possibly imagine every possibly imagine money prayers nothing worked she came to the rabbi she said rabbi what should I do he does the first thing first you do stop praying stop praying rabbi everything's good stop praying she showed me one place in kaz stop praying I never once saw in my life. Stop praying telling, you know, but that's 515 times, you know. Okay, maybe we maybe they got there really stop praying. Okay, what should I do, Rabbi? What am I going to do? Cuz first thing first, you have to tell Baku, thank you. Thank you for what? They don't have children. You have to tell Baku thank you. And not only tell them thank you, you have to tell them thank you for all your friends who also have children. The ones that you look at them for the last 10 years and you saw and it hurts you. Say thank you that Hashem gave it to them. And then I want you to tell them Hashem thank you that Hashem didn't give you a child to this point. And then everything Hashem Hashem did was exactly that Hashem purposely didn't give it to you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you because been praying. I'm he tells every that you did up until today that there was no thank you in it. It's it's not going to help. I don't want to say what he says over here. It's not going to help. It's not going to help because if there's no thank you behind won't listen to it. Thank you for everything you have. Even for the things that seem bad in those moments are the biggest thank you. In those moments are the biggest thank you. The biggest thank you. I heard and he says a beautiful story. He says uh there was a guy working for a factory and he broke a million dollar equipment. You can imagine working over there for a few years and he breaks an equipment that worth a million dollars. Huh? You showing up to work the next day. Anybody over here showing up to work after they break equipment worth a million dollars? I'm out. I haven't seen him in a week. Dubai took the wrong exit by Queens. [laughter] I love that. Okay. And by Guy leaves, but what am I going to do? He goes to the competitor and starts working with the competitor. The boss calls him. He tells him, he wants you to know something. If you would have came to me and apologized for the machinery, I would have forgave you. He's like, but now that you go to work with a competitor, I'll never be able to forgive you. that when a person comes to Hashem, you can do certain sins. You can fall. You no one is perfect. It's part of our reality. We're not perfect. But when you go to my competitor, that's when I have a hard time forgiving you. Who's Hashem's competitor? Hopelessness, giving up, depression, all these things. Hashem cannot beat a person. Why? Because is something that's so fundamental to Judaism. It's the leg that everything stands on. If a person doesn't understand and if he wants to get out, the first things first, he need to say thank you. And statistically proven, by the way, that when a person lives his life saying thank you, his life becomes better. He starts to actually be happier through his day-to-day process because he starts to see the things that this whole time he's been missing. We overlook so much things in life we have to be thankful for. There's a mash, a parable. The kid comes to his grandfather, tells him, "Saba, I'm struggling." He says, "How can I help you?" He said, "I don't know. I don't find happiness in anything." He says, "I'm going to have a magic book." Magic book. He said, "What type of magic book?" We're giving out magic books. Okay. What's this magic book? Every day you're going to write in three things you think of for that day. And within 30 days, going to save your life. Three things. 30. Okay, whatever. Okay, Sabah, I'll try it. Yah. I'm coming with a magic book. And every day, first day opens a book and says, "What am I going to write? What am I going to write? I'm thankful that uh there's heat in the house. Okay, that's one. I'm thankful I didn't get off on the wrong exit. I made it here tonight. That's another one. Call me the first day very hard for him. Second day, third day, fourth day. And by already a week in, he starts seeing himself in a different demeanor. He's already a more happy person. He's already looking at life differently. At the end of the 30 days, he comes back to Saba, I don't need the book anymore. I don't need the magic of the book. I understood the point. And if every single day of my life, I'm thankful and I'm saying to myself, thank you. Not what do you say? What are you supposed to have in mind when we say, "Huh? We're thankful for you." For what? Thankful for you. For what? For what? Specify. Why you thankful to him? And especially in the things that seem bad. Cuz at time when things seem the worst, Hashem is much praying for you. THE MOST BEAUTIFUL THING. We just don't see it. We don't see it sometimes. Look at the difference between and I'll show you right now. Look at this beautiful thing. Maybe you didn't notice him. The and finally meet up and comes to Yakov and he tells him, "I have plenty." And tells him back what says I have plenty. But on the same side of the token tells him I have everything. You know the difference between and is a person who says I have a lot but I want more. He has a hund has 400 generals at his command. He he lives in a whole town that's under his name. It's all under him. All of Rome, all of Athens, all of it under him. I have a lot, but I don't have enough. He doesn't even have seven yet. What does he have? A few children, a few stocks, cheap, cattle, I have everything. Sadik is a person who says, "I have everything. Whatever Hashem gave me, I have everything. And even if sometimes I don't understand, yes, I want more and so on and so forth, but I have to be thankful for everything I have because Hashem gave me the best thing for me." And we're not understanding that is the one who created the world and he knows exactly what the best thing for you is. Sometimes in life we look outside and we see other people. There's a saying in English, the grass is always green on other side. Well, I've been to other side. It's not greener. You know why? I almost got off the wrong egg in the queens. [laughter] That's the other side. Huh? People think that. They look around. I'm going tell you. Listen, I'm going to finish. I want to guys keep you up because we can go online for this. But I tell you mash this I'm going to finish. This is a mash of a guy who his whole life he looked around. He looked at his friend more rich than him, more handsome than him, this one, that one. Everyone has something to compare to. One day he's walking in the street lenu. He gets hit by a car. Now he goes up to Shamine and now he's sitting in front of the heavenly court and they tell him, "Look, you know, you could have did much better." And he tells him, "Look, you would have gave me a better package. You would have gave me a better life. I would [snorts] have did much better." Yeah, no problem. We're going to make a one time special offer. Yeah. We have a deal this weekend only. [laughter] This weekend only just for you. Friday. White Fridays. We have a deal just for you. We spoke to the big boss upstairs. He agreed that we're going to give you one time life opportunity. You're going to be able to go pick your own package. Pick your own package. Okay, great. Where do I go? See the elevator over there? Take the elevator. Go down to floor 26. Take a right. Take a left. Take another right. Take another left. You're going to get to the door over there. Knock on the door. Tell them we sent you. Goes, "Okay." He goes down. 26. Right. Left. Another left. Right. Left. He gets to the room, knocks on the door. Hey, excuse me. Uh, God, send me to pick my package. Ah, no problem. You got it. You see that room over there? Go inside. He walks into this room. It makes it look it looks makes it look Amazon warehouse looks small. Whoa. But he came with a mission. He's taking the smallest package you can find. I don't want any suim. I don't want any suffering. I'm taking the smallest package I can find. I don't want any troubles. And he starts digging. [laughter] He finds one. This one. Oh, no. This one. Uhuh. He's climbing. He's climbing. finally gets one, the smallest one he can find. He walks back upstairs AND SAYS, "I GOT IT." We see you picked your own package. Cuz if a person will look up after 120, you see how Hashem guided his whole life. You see that Hashem gave you exactly what you need for you. It's like a person looking at his friend saying, "Yo, his shoes are so much bigger than mine. Give me your shoes." He's size 11. I'm size nine. I'm walking around like a platypus. One and one doesn't equal two. I'm walking around like a platypus. We don't have we're not the same person. We have different lives, different realities. And Hashem gives me the package according to me and to what I need. And the that everything stands on is that I have to understand that Hashem gave me everything I needed for me. And I have everything I need because whatever Hashem gave me is everything that I need whether I see it or not. I told them one time take the word end the word evil and evil take the word is what the eye sees is only a man of perspective but when a person can step outside of himself and understand that every time in your life look back look back at your life how many times I had girls come to me rabbi I was going on a shiduk date with this guy and we were going good five dates we thought he was the one Broke it off out of nowhere. Now I can't. Don't relax. Relax. Five dates. Relax. Huh? Relax. She's crying. She's this. She's that. A year later she gets married. You remember that? No, I don't remember. Now you don't care about it now. Huh? Two minutes ago. Pray for everything. Yeah. Right now it looks like it's not so good, not so green, not so. of an understanding when after you look back after 120 Hashem prepares for you what you need not what you think you want we don't know with our limited capacity of thinking you think we can know what's good for ourselves and how many times you come to Rabbi I don't know it's not for me why the look's not rabbi you know name I doesn't mean though. She's going to be a good mom. Wow. She's going to be amazing. I told him you're not attracted at all. No, but you know, I didn't picture my life. I'm going to marry. I told you're not a 10 either. Relax. Be realistic. I told the kid if you don't marry her, it's going to be the stupidest mistake you ever made in your life. Guy calls me back eight months later after the marriage. Thank you, Rabbi, for pushing me. It's the best thing I ever did. They go to they go for one guy going. One girl called me. Rabbi, I can't go with him no more. Why? He picked me up in a old car. I told don't call his number anymore. [laughter] picked me up in an old car. I don't want to mention names or one guy told no I can't this high that this one thing. Oh, you know she has she's I told him you know when Hashem's profile there's no filters. You go filter tab. No, not this one. No, this one. No. Okay. And then the guy stay single his whole life. What happened? Huh? Take off the filters. The other day [laughter] he's like rabbi I'm already 28. When am I going to get married? I said, "How many looking I sent you? You didn't want to go on because this one was like this. This one like this. I don't want this style. I don't want this. I don't want that." Take off your filters. You put your filters on. I'm saying, "THIS IS WHAT I want." Hashem goes, "Okay, you want your filters. No problem. Stay in your filters. No problem. You believe in yourself that you know what's best for you. No problem. I'm going to leave you in your own hands." And what happens? How come I didn't? Cuz you think that you're the one who knows. You think you know what's right. Take off the filters. Take Hashem take you in your hands. He'll guide you and next thing you know what do you want? Whatever sends my way. Yes. Everyone talks. You have to have a rabbi. The rabbi was saying earlier make yourself a rabbi right from it's very important. Everyone in the world needs a rabbi for everything. People think only rabbi is there and salad and there's a lemon seed. That's not the only question you ask a rabbi. Rabbi I took I call my I clean my jacket on Shabbat. What's the dean now? It's not only the questions. The most important question you have to ask your rabbi is, I'm talking to this guy. Should I go? Should I bury him or not? Oh. Oh, now we're talking. I have no idea. But now we're talking. Oh, Rabbi, I have two business now and this one is like this. Which one should I work? Oh, this is a good question. Or rabbi, I'm thinking about going to Shiva. I'm leaving work right now. I want to go. This is a good question. Question have to do with your life. This is the question you ask the rabbi. everything only yes you have to ask also it's very important to know the but more so than that is because the mindset the guidance is what's going to change your whole mindset and how you see the world you have the prop now all of a sudden now one guy told me rabb I love coming to your I said why recharge for me every time I come I get recharged I'm be able to go to next week and by the time I get to next week my battery is already dead I need a new recharge I said good keep on coming and the guy doesn't I don't have things are going there one guy I didn't see him in 8 months then he come to shim where are you and he calls me after 8 months I wish I had better news of course you know better news where you been 8 months how could you have better news how could you have better news or how many couples come to you after the fact we're married already a year problems in shalom bite where were you the last year where were you I had a couple come to me two weeks after marriage two weeks They were crying. She husband's like, "Look, I don't understand. Maybe I married the wrong person." I told him, "You don't understand. You have the biggest maj." He says, "Why?" I said, "You coming after two weeks. Some people coming after 3 years. At least you I believe in nice way possible. Almost every couple in the world has to take classes." You know why? Cuz a man doesn't know how to deal with a woman. Who doesn't know how to deal with a man? Why? They operate into different frequencies. A man doesn't need what a woman needs and who doesn't need what a man needs. Imagine if the if the woman came home or if the man came home. You think he needs to hear the same thing his wife needs to hear? His wife needs a lot of affection. Come the man after he comes home from work. Go jump on him. Hugs, kisses. Leave me alone. What is this? Too much. Too much. Too much. Leave me alone. I can't take it. I can't take it. I'm going go back to the car. Huh? And the woman, how come you didn't tell me hello properly when I walked? I said, "Hi, ma." No, it wasn't. It wasn't affection. I need them more. Okay, the woman needs a lot more affection than the man. So if I'm going based on what I need, I can never give what she needs. I have to step outside of myself. But no one taught you how to do that. People think you I'm a good guy. She's a good girl. How come when why is not successful? Because no one taught you how to be a good husband. No one taught you when you see the laundry basket of the woman. That's the favorite thing. You didn't see the laundry basket. You didn't think about taking upstairs. No, I didn't. Let's be honest. I did not. You didn't see the dishes in the sink? No, [laughter] I did not. You didn't see. No, I didn't say anything. You have to be trained to see. Oh, wait a minute. Laundry basket over here. Let me pick it up. I take it upstairs. Oh, this is over here. Let me wash the dishes. When I told him, what do you do with Shabbat? I told him I wash dishes. What do you think I do? Shabbat. I come home. I said, okay, honey. You know, wash dishes. You have to help the wife. You have to be alert. You have to be. But no one taught you. So when it comes in the beginning, oh sometimes the biggest dean can be the biggest the time that people think oh I'm fighting with my husband now I have to go to the rabbi so early ah ah we're only married it's the biggest because now you get to fix it at the beginning cuz you know how people build rotten foundations and they come from shaft you know how hard it is to fix at least they come in the beginning they fix it off the bat there's no rotten foundation everything is beautiful in the beginning so when things are going wrong thank you Hashem right now is an opportunity for me to grow, to give love, to get to the next level. Thank you, Hashem. But you have to all your life understand thank you Hashem. And people think that they get married. I talk about how do you how do you how do you successful in marriage? H I tell them if you look at your wife or your marriage as a boat and if things are not going well, you jump ship. Then you're never going to succeed. But if you understand you're in the middle of the ocean, your only option is to drown. Yeah. You have the only other option. Yeah. It's only you got okay maybe if you want to do you do it. That's up to you. That's that's your decision. But if you understand I have no choice but saying this boat. You're going to make it work. You're going to make it work. That's the famous question of I found a woman I found good. Right? Mat found good. Finds a woman found death and bitterness. What's the answer? cannot be do I look at the words found a woman past tense I found her she's mine I only have one finds a woman I find but keep on looking different product different the neighborhood that one is going to find death and bitterness I found you're going to find only bitterness found for me, I'm only going to find good. A person lives his life understanding that Hashem is in control of everything and I have to leave myself in his hands. And if I'm in Hashem's hands, I'm in the best hands in the world. Say over here, guys think I'm going to finish with you. Anyone who knows about Shim or speakers, they say, "We'll finish with this. It's never that. This what I promise you." Okay, I don't want to promise. I don't want to lie. [laughter] He says over here something mad. Madim, I I drove away for Brooklyn. You guys have to suffer with me now. It would have been better if I would have ended up in Dubai. No. He said [snorts] over here like this. Look at this. Last thing. So one time a couple came to him and they were complaining about the financial situation. He told them you know where the financial situation comes from. He goes Ham was one of the wealthiest people in the world. He ruled over 120 cities. And then little Morai doesn't bow down to him. And what ends up happening to him? He loses everything. Ham is the coming right. What's a ham? I never have enough. [snorts] I always want more. And a person always wants more. He's not happy what he has. He's never going to find any happiness. He's going to be like a man get on the but a person who's like he's happy whatever he is. You have to be happy. Whenever gives you understand everything I have, this is the person that's going to be this is the person have success. He's going to be the one riding at the horse with the ground or the cherry. Why? Because it all comes down to one thing. Understand that Hashem is the one guiding your life and he knows what's best for you. So put yourself in his hands and if you're lucky, you won't get off the exit, right? Wrong exit. You'll get to where you need to go. But only on having faith in hem lean on yourself can find yourself in the wrong places. You have to know that he is the one to take you. Therefore, we have to have and the way we'll get that guidance and understanding is through is coming closer to and if we do that and we have a faith and trust in Hashem 247 to bring to you. [applause] Thank you so much for joining us in person. Of course, everyone is encouraged to join. We brought back and down in Mar. Thank you everyone for joining us.