The Greatness Of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef ZT"L - Rabbi Yaakov Rahimi & Rabbi David Yosef

thank you all the T time listeners for listening thank you for recording give you only thank you thank you rob from kazak thank you stories to inspire for live streaming this tonight we will try to say a few stories with one important message about I believe we're holding in the 11th yard site and there isn't a day that passes by that you don't have thousands and thousands and thousand thousand of rabbis Little Children Learning the T learning the learning the laws of from the from the books of the impact that one person can make in the world for generations to come is unbelievable how one man how one sadik made such an effect in the world he changed the world for the better so much that to this day there isn't a day that passes by that we don't learn from Mim we live upon his we literally go today every single day we learn his how to act when it comes to the laws of Shabbat how to act when it comes to laws of how to act when it comes to everything and everything is around the the and the rulings of we literally live by his books we live by his so tonight we're going to try to say a few stories about one specific one specific point even though we can can spend days weeks and months telling you so many stories about this great sadik up to this point it was already maybe five years ago I actually counted I tried to count how many biographies how many authors already put out books about the life of with personal stories and this was around five to six years ago and already reached over a 100 books this is five6 years ago that's not counting English not counting the other ones by now I'm sure there's many more and no matter how much you write there's going to be a lot more stories about this great sadic now one may ask what's the point of reading stories about such big such big righteous people like because I'm going to tell you crazy stories about how he learned T and how tah was his top priority day in day out and everything el else in life was only secondary to the Tora how his life was tah and only Tor but after that person hears such stories or other sometimes there's a little mindset there a little mindset in a person's mind that tells them I'm anyways not going to be such a big I'm not going to be I'm not going to be so what's the point of hearing these stories so answers the question a person has an obligation to say every sing single day he says every single day a person should say when are my actions going to reach the actions like abrah and that's now one may ask how can we reach the level of that's impossible there's no way we can ever reach to be like there's no way we can reach to be like any of any of the prophets or any of the of the of the there's no way we can reach the level of Holiness of God-fearing of of Love of T so what's the point why is telling us that every day a person has an obligation to say when am I going to reach the actions of abam andov the answer is the mus already give an answer to that and it's a very fundamental lesson to live by every time you hear any stories from sadik the reason why it's important to always pray and want to be like even though you know it's not going to happen is because we try to learn from and yob just like they were righteous in their life just like they overcame their challenges that Hashem gave them in their life so too we should overcome the challenges that hasem gives us in our life obviously we're not nearly as the same level as is andov but but when we pray every single day that we want to reach the actions like says to do what it means to says we should overcome just like overcame the just like overcame the challenges hm gave him and just like overcame the challenges the and the uncomfortableness and the that hasem gave him just like aob followed hashem's words no matter what so to us we pray every single day that we should be to overcome the challenges hm gives us on a much different level than so every time you hear a story about and like you're about to from the reason why it's important to read the stories and remember the stories and listen to the stories because a person should pray yes I'm not but I pray every single day the hopefully my actions in my life I'm going to be as strong as to be strong learning T to overcome the challenges I have not to learn T hopefully I'll be as strong as to overcome the that I have just like he overcame his no matter what to learn T another reason why it's important to listen to stories of is because a person always needs to have a person needs to have a goal in life a person needs a role model a person needs ambition who do you want to be Who's Your Role Model wrote in his diary more than once that his role model was actually his role model was the Ben he always had very very big sikim as his role models and he was trying to shoot to become like them when a person shoot for the stars then he lands to be a very big sadic maybe he's not going to reach the stars but he definitely reach a very high place but when a person's Ambitions when a person's goals are very low when his role models are not sikim in the first place then he can Shalom reach actually very low expectations of himself throughout his life so that's why it's important to read stories ofik cuz when you read about righteous people when you read that s and learned and they were so righteous and followed the words of hem it keeps you what's it called it keeps you checked it keeps you on your your eye on the ball it gives you sh to make sure your Ambitions and your eyes in the right direction to get closer and closer to Hashem so when you read stories of your is high Your Role Model bar still stays High but if a person doesn't read about sadim if a person doesn't recognize how many righteous people lived in our generation if a person doesn't utilize that simm gives us an our Generation then he himself his level of spirituality his level of connection of hem his level of can get lower and lower but when a person is aware who's around him when a person understands that in your generation lived a person that his level was so high in like it gives a person a push to now shoot to get higher and higher and closer to through it's important to have the right role models in life Your Role Model are your role models are your role model is that's who you want to be in life you want to be the greatest s possible so why does say every day you have an obligation we have an obligation to say when are my actions going to reach because every day a person has to utilize their potential how do you utilize your potential to get close to Hashem make sure your role models are make sure your role models the and when you have the right role models and you keep on praying for it you're going to reach very far in life in that's what it's important to listen to stories of I want to share a story that I heard from one of one of the students of at the time was the chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv K actually became for those who know his history he became a chief Rabbi of Egypt at the age of 24 they're trying to make that calculation at 24 years old he was the rabbi in charge of a whole country of M called Egypt now at the time before 1948 a little bit after 1948 there were Egypt was a huge Jewish Community my grandparents are from Egypt my wife's grandparents are from Egypt the uncles aunts Egypt is a huge Jewish Community for to be Chief RAB at the age of 24 you know what that means that means besides knowing laws of Shabbat laws of laws of he was the at the age of 24 that means he knew everything already at the age of 24 years old now a person doesn't get that smart unless he learns toat day in and day out day in and day out in fact his brother one of his brothers said over the when he learned they didn't have a dorm when he was a when he wasn't married yet they didn't have a dorm so he had to walk back from to his parents' house now what happened was he learned until late at night so many times when he walked back to Yeshiva he knew that his parents are already sleeping and he knew that the house is locked now if he's going to knock someone is going to have to open the door already closer to the middle of the night and if someone is going to have to open the door that means someone is going to have to get up from their sleep so he said that many times he knows this is a fact that his brother when he was and came back froma he would sleep by the stairs of the house outside why because he didn't want to wake up his parents when he was knocking on the door coming back to Misha learning late night night learned day in day out there were there's so one of other stories he said over his brother is that one time he woke up in the morning and he saw the left his shoes in the living room and then he didn't understand so how did he get to Yesa cuz wasn't in bed he already woke up early to go learn T see he didn't recognize how his brother got to when he went to he saw his brother had a few socks on in his on his on his feet and he asked him why didn't you take his shoes so he said I put the shoes near my bed before I went to sleep I woke up and it wasn't there and I was looking for the look but I didn't want to be late to I decided why waste my time let me put on a few socks and walk to somebody must have moved the shoes but that didn't stop for making sure you go TOA to learn Tora on time when you learn like that you become a huge so basically one of the stories was when he was a chief RAB of Tel Aviv way after he was a chief RAB of Egypt there was a blackout in the building where lived the lights went out so at the time the street light was working so a lot of people in the building that there's a blackout decided to leave the building and go on the street light until they start fixing things until the township comes and that's what happened himself was still learning throughout the night but when there was a blackout he had to leave his house and he took his G with him and he was holding it like this under the street light waiting like everybody else until the building is fixed and the lights are back on they can go back in the building one of the people one of his neighbors that was there while the blackout was happening he says he remembers was holding a like this didn't stop learning for a second under the street light even though there's a commotion going on but listen to this after they fixed the lights and everyone went back in stayed and learned and when he said he woke up the neighbor said he woke up for Nets he woke up for Sunrise to go to when he walked outside the building the neighbor he said that was in the same exact position still learning under the street light which means was so into his learning under the street light outside he was so focused on his learning toah that he stood still until after the black it happened until sunrise his neighbor woke up he still was still in the same position didn't even go back home yet that's a person who loves Torah his driver his name was Abraham he said that it happened multiple times had to go somewhere because he will be a in so you had to pick him up early to go to a certain place or whatever was in the country and they're going to over there see he said they happened many times and he will walk into his office in and he said it was already like early in the morning like 6:30 in the morning and was writing and writing and learning and learning and then noticed that his driver walked in he picks up his face and told his driver what are you doing here in middle of the night what happened is everything okay and his driver would tell him it's not in the middle of the night it's already 6:30 in the morning which means was so into his learning he was so focused on learning T and he learned throughout the whole night that when his driver walked in in the morning to pick him up still thought it's still the beginning of the night he still thought it's still the middle of the night because when you're having fun time flies remember that line when you're enjoying what you're doing time flies love Tora and nothing stopped him from learning Tora his driver came to pick him up he still thought it was the morning one of his sons who's now the new Chief said over a tremendous story he said it was the what was the day B that's 2012 I think it was in Tish I have it written down over here when this story happened it was a second oh here we go this happened okay during the summer time in 2012 he said there was a very big um expected meeting with the with the prime minister of the time bi bi had to meet for a certain reason and it was a whole preparation before bi came to his apartment in high North obviously you have to make sure there security you have to make sure that the the prime minister is safe and the Prime Minister walked inside his house and they have this on video you see in's study standing like this next to his bodyguards and this happened at T B is writing on and leaning over all his learning for a good few minutes and what happened was his children told B we're going to go over to our father to tell him that you here the prime minister is right here and bib told his sons no no no no leave him leave him leave him I want to see him learning tah and the Prime Minister and everyone around them was so they were so surprised and so shocked that even if the Prime Minister not only came to your house in your study a few feet away from you you're so focused and you're learning he didn't even know this BB was he had no clue the Prime Minister was there you know why because when you love T and everything is about t nothing else distracts you nothing else is important even the prime minister is a few feet away from you he didn't even pick up his head he didn't even notice it sound like he ignored him didn't even noticed that the Prime Minister was there the Prime Minister was there the noise didn't affect him and he was still learning and learning learning to they had to go over to him and tell him by the way the prime minister is here and right away he sat with him and it's do what known that any Jewish politician that came to no matter how not religious he was yet made sure to L for a few minutes from the r there is knowing that he did that another story that his son said over in the year 20 6 had to go through a major surgery in his back that's already when was getting older now the problem was that the doctor told we're going to have to give you very heavy anesthesia to do the procedure in your back now what's the problem what's the plus and the minuses the plus is hopefully you're going to get better you're not going to feel anything the minus is at your age having such strong anesthesia could be very dangerous it can make you have some memory loss it can even kill you so the w sure should we give the procedure in his back should we not so the doctors decided to ask his sons so they brought his sons over they had a meaning and they told them the plus and the minuses the sons said that they went over to their father and they told them that the doctors are saying if you take the procedure with anesthesia you might not wake up it could be very dangerous but on the other hand ABA you're in extreme pain it's really hurting you and it also bothered him because it was on his back so it was very hard for him to learn to he was trying to pick up the SE trying to move around he had a very hard time learning when his back pain was extremely extremely strong it was very hard for him and it said that he ruined his a little bit so the sons were telling him should we take this should we let you take the surgery now you take the surgery and he writes this himself writes this in his introduction to the which is a book that he wrote on brings down this story told them I want to take the surgery even though they're going to give me very strong anesthesia and even though I might not wake up from it you know what the calculation is if I have such strong back pains and no painkillers are helping me and there's no way I can get healed and I can barely learn because my back pains are so strong I was a hardly able to learn then what's life if I'm not going to be able to learn Stark if I can't learn and I have such extreme pain he says so if I have a choice to take the procedure and then actually learn like even though there's a chance I might not live for me there's nothing to lose because if I'm living I'm living only to learn to if I'm not going to be able to learn toah properly of course I want to take the surgery and he took the surgery he survived and then he put out a book thinking he wanted he wanted to than he made and he put it a thinking that he survived this surgery who thinks like that what's the point of life if I'm not learning what do I have to lose taking the surgery what's going to happen what's the point of staying alive if I'm not going to learn to I might as well take the surgery so at least lives so I can learn to properly I heard this from was known that while he was in the car he always learned to however many people don't know that he was car sick he used to get very nauseous when he would read from a inside the car but will tell us that hasem is challenging me to see if I'm still going to learn properly even though means you can think and learning when you're walking in the street when you're sitting in the car and you thinking of it's as if you're learning and while you're traveling you thinking of wanted to go he wanted to overcome challenges you always make sure he's learning with a SE not just learning in your mind but learning as if you're in theid you open up a se you open up a gimar and he would startop learning and even though he would throw up his driver would said that it was pretty common that he asked to pull over in order to throw up because he was extremely car sick but he told his that hasem is going to ask you one day I knew you know how to learn in the when it was comfortable for you but why didn't you learn when it was not comfortable for you even though you were car sick and he overcame that challenge and he started learning in the car no matter what not just in thinking but he actually opened up a seph and started learning that's a sadic that's a person that no matter what never stops Le learning now you know why he's he worked for it he learned day in day out t t and nothing stopped him will say over that sometimes will take the bus rides when he was a he always made sure to take a specific SE with him which there's a called now for those who learn in there's also one of the hardest one of the hardest books to learn on the G is called one paragraph you have to spend days to understand it properly because every line is quing you a that's contradiction another you really have to be holding a learning and understanding the map of all the to understand B basically a paragraph one paragraph from this was he decided he wants to be he wants to learn really Stark even while he's on a bus start on a daily basis so what did he do he made a special Sader which means he made a special time to learn the safer Che one of the hardest farm specifically while was in the bus why because he wanted to overcome challenges and he said just because I'm on a bus ride doesn't mean I'm not going to learn not only am I going to learn I'm going to choose one of the hardest F possible to teach myself that no matter where you are you got to learn Stark and you have to be and that's what he did he finished the several times just from bus rides writes a person should never waste a moment in life not learning T and he said that Friday nights after he got married he noticed that even though he came back from sh Friday nights it will take the family it will take the the woman the family a good few minutes to get the Shabbat table properly set of course the tablecloth was there but until they get the salads and the food you know how it is people are smoing people are walking back and forth setting things up said I'm not going to waste those few minutes every Friday night what did he do he took upon himself another s another special time to start Li to finish the whole from beginning to the end besides that he finished it many times already by his by the way finished was years old and he finished already a few times when he's 15 years old 16 but definitely 13 years old he finished but he took upon himself a whole liud a whole different liud from learning the T from the beginning to the end just from sitting down Friday night until the table was ready what does that teach you what does that teach us that just from five minutes just from 10 minutes if you take it seriously if you love to you can accomplish so much he finished sh so many times just from Friday nights until the table was ready what is a person going to say after hearing such stories what am I going to say after hearing such stories how much time is wasted daily weekly every month every year it's becoming a normal thing for a person to travel all over the world just for vacation it's becoming a normal thing just because a person wants to eat to wait a line in a restaurant for 45 minutes it's becoming a normal thing on people's phones to go on social media and watch videos all that that is be all that is a waste of time if a person wants to become a if a person wants to be a the number one thing is make sure you're learning to make sure you don't waste time on every person on their own level like we said in the beginning so when a person hears such stories so much love of T what do you take home what is that tell you what it means that in your schedule in your daily schedule if whatever time learn is whether it's at night after work whether it's before in the morning whether it's in the afternoon whether you're Ina whether you learn an hour day whether you learn the whole day whether youn three hours a day a time of learning is a time of learning not because there's some birthday party I should I should not learn nights cter or because my cousin's friend is getting married I'm not going to go to Da here or because things are getting hard why should I go to D learning is learning that's what the says the first three questions the first three questions Hashem is going to ask a person and it's an unbelievable thing how hasem is warning us and telling us the first three questions I'm going to ask you and therefore prepare yourself before you leave this world to make sure you're good at those three things CU hm is telling us what is going to be the first three questions in when we're going to be judg one of the first three things ism is going to ask us did you set specific time for learning Tora now notice says the it doesn't say that is going to ask us did you learn it says did you set specific time permanent time means a permanent time for says why didn't the just ask that is going to say did you learn to it doesn't say that it says that you set time specific time that no matter what permanent time for says the because what hasem is looking for is what hasem is looking for is consistency what Hashem is looking for is for a person to be on top of it no matter what I am here and I'm learning T and no wind that's going to blow this way or that way or this way is going to push you away from a bet mid when it's time to learn that's what Hashem is going to ask did you set specific permanent time to learn tah because if it's per per it to you then it means that it has a big room in your heart but if T is he as the Ser say one day yes one day not that's not what Hashem is looking for even though there's reward for every one moment of Tora but what and that's beautiful but what Hashem is looking for is the so the one thing from the stories that we heard today that we can learn from that the most important thing in life is learning T it's not that we live it's not that we go to work and it happens to be we're also learning we're in this world to learn tah but it happens to be we need to go to work it happens to be we need to eat and drink it happens to be we need to sleep we need to use the restroom the main thing is we're in this world to learn T this world was created based on the T first then he created the world that we're in based on what the Tor says basically this world is a movie of the book called Torah the Torah was first created by Hashem then Hashem said that he likes a to he said let me create a world that plays out the written tah and that's where we're at right now the whole world was created for to we're in this world to learn it can't be that a person goes through life and doesn't learn properly it can't be that a person goes through life and doesn't understand the Torah is a priority you're here for Torah everything depends on Tor I'm going to end with to remind us not to waste our time the said one time he was walking in the streets of Ren and he saw a little girl playing with a doll with a BBA and as she was playing with the doll it fell inside the mud and she started crying and crying a little girl is crying over her doll getting dirty says the imagine I will take this doll away from the girl and give it back to her when she when she's an adult 20 years from now and I will tell her you see this doll you cried over this you were whining and crying on the floor O My Doll got dirty o says the now that the girl is an adult she's going to start laughing she's going to start giggling that's what I cried about I was such a little girl and she really was she was a little girl it befits a little girl to cry over a doll getting dirty but says after 120 when a person gets to Hashem is going to show a person you see this you wasted your time your effort your life your emotions your Ambitions this is what you wasted the life that I gave you on sports baseball you see this this is what you gave your this is what you CED this is what you fought for you fought for this cars wealth money you wasted your time on all this I give you life I give you health I give you tah and this is what you spent this is what you cried about this is what you fought about this is what you woke up for and went to se for for nonsense for wealth and money and more pleasures and cars and houses and this is what you wasted your time on and says the when is going to show that to the person over there it's not going to be funny a person's going to have a sense of regret a person's going to have a sense of because now it's too late you can't accomplish only while you're alive can you utilize your life to grab as much and as possible the go writes when a person passes away part of G part of the suffering of Gom is the feeling of regret and how TR that is says the G when a person understands and then cops how high he could have reached in life how much he could have accomplished life when a person realizes how he could have been such a big such a big but he underestimated himself he underestimated his power he underestimated how much hm loves and how much hm believes and how much to could have learned and they wasted their time once they realize what they could have been and every person could be great on their level wherever they are in life once a person recognizes how much AEM believes in them when they start wasting time and they look back at how much days were wasted they have a feeling of regret and says the G that feeling of regret itself is a part of G not utilizing our potential the time that's being wasted is such aan every person should take upon himself to try and tell himself to learn toah as much as possible and the hour of toah that I have every single day take it seriously shut your phone no coffee breaks no ditching for weddings who's Lakewood no matter which wedding he goes to and I saw this myself in weddings in Lakewood no matter which weddings he goes to after the they announc in the microphone that he's giving a DA whoever wants to join d by the wedding come they have a special room for wherever he goes he makes sure works it out why because it's about K it's about learning no matter where you are your flag is never your post is never moving what's your post that's not moving T nothing should push you away from Li T take upon yourself to start learning no matter what and if you don't have a learning schedule wake up now while you're alive start learning to utilize your potential yes we're not going to be like but we definitely can overcome the challenges we have in our left no matter what we got to learn to thank you for listening I want to say a few words my father Ben in our we read about Noah HZ say very bad things about Noah Noah saved himself but he didn't save anyone the midash said that Hashem told Noah if you if you would cry one tear you had before the mabul Before Before the Flood I would not bring it what is the meaning of that it means Noah was trying to make people good to make them B for 120 years during the time he was building the T so he failed even one B didn't become because of Noah in our generation we can see many rabbis making people B they talk nice to them and some rabbis they have maybe two 300,000 B in is and some less but one even one not Noah failed completely even one Bala he couldn't make why because Noah didn't have feeling for people he was cold Hashem will kill you you will die it will be flood you will die he didn't show people that he cares about them if he would cry my brothers I Don't Want You To Die My Brothers please make Thea he would succeed but he was called it means that we have to be care about our brothers all of am Israel my father gave his life for that he loved to study most than more than everything most of his time he was studying and in the evening every day he used to go from place to place to talk to talk sometimes low level stories he used to tell people because he knew this is a way to bring them to Torah and mitv once I asked him you like to study so you waste your time for that he said no I'm not wasting my time that's what Hashem wants for me Hashem wants me to go and to give my life to bring people for Torah we try to continue that we try to go from place to place around the world to make people B to bring people to Judaism we have an organization in New York hak hasem Last 5 Years I was with them together and we succeeded to bring more than 1,000 children from public school to Jewish school bashem we collected money we talked with people and bashem we succeeded with this helped me barem my friend Rabbi El and the chief Rabbi of the bukari community RAB iseli together I think this is the way to continue what my father was doing during all of his life to bring people to save their souls not Shalom to be mixed with the go to remain Jewish with everyone has to follow that the way of my father that to bring that was the most important thing was to bring people to [Applause]