Is Your Emunah Enough To Survive Suffering - MUSSAR Pirkei Avot (56)

[Music] always good to be inami just start off do and then we'll continue with I believe number 56 in the series The M Series so will be tooto RV Ben Rifka s sarar Gladis Nunes Ed marero Josephina Matos Rachel and Monty Sandler lard roli Yoshua Mikel Ben hadasa Nancy deesa Patricia valman Mel vanman Sonia Suarez uh Nicole valman Austin Hernandez Hernandez Isabel betan Lana anteon GTO menesses jaini roas Roger PR yah Garcia Pablo Lorenzo Miriam batara Rabbi Alon Ben Anette mam joshin Ada Vasquez and Vasquez uh suncha Vasquez Kabab Resnik SAR Gutierrez Diego Hernandez Lan Harris jacn roas Dalia Romero Lindsay Mis Patricia valman and Emily valman Leana Batar umat umam and all of and all of the lovers of they have you know if we can actually get all of these people to actually come to the Shure they could be help even better is the same so we had a Shure uh last night we also had a sh two nights ago um both got some people uh thinking which is really the goal of every Shure is to get am thinking to get people that are looking for the truth thinking um unfortunately one of the um terrible parts of this job is that you have a overwhelming amount of bad news you have to deal with because you usually when good things happen you know people celebrate with their family people uh enjoy their time but uh when bad things happen we call God and since uh God has Messengers we call the rabbis so one of the things that's very difficult not just for me but for any Rabbi uh and I probably most likely any other spiritual leader in General even if they're doing it the wrong way is to deal with the bad news an overwhelming amount of bad news and unfortunately now it seems like it's a uh usually there's like a balance of bad news and good news seems like in the last uh week or two it's been an overwhelming amount of bad news divorces children dying children dying children being born with sicknesses people's family members is having all types of major issues Partnerships breaking up business Partnerships familes Partnerships and uh Monday was a uh a um the night before I saw that a friend of mine uh posted on his page something that really got my heart shaking because I started he reminded me that there's no such thing as being finished with chuva why because if we understood what chuva is our perspective at life would be very different we see things as they look to us meaning from each person has their own perspective so if you ask a little boy how big is a star you look at a star how big is a star he tell you it's a size of a penny how big is the sun it's a size of a quarter a kid little kid five six year old kid you tell them how big is a son tell you it's the size of a quarter but anyone knows that if you look through the telescope the star and the sun are many many times bigger than the earth we live in so why does a little boy think that it's so small simply because he's so far from the truth he's so far from the Sun he's so far from the sky he's so far from where the truth really is that he has no concept of how dear it is and how great it is this is the same thing as us when it comes to our sins we think that when we make a sin we make a mistake we do it on purpose we take a uh phone and throw it across the room because we got upset at something we yell at our wife we curse at our husbands we insult our kids and so on and so forth we think ah what okay messed up I'm sorry okay Shalom finished right I'm sorry you're sorry everybody's sorry go go on with your business enough if you don't say sorry you don't even have a common etiquette but if you say sorry you feel like I said I'm sorry I'm finished and the reason why we think it's so simple is because we view our sins even smaller than the little boy views the sun simply because we're so far away from the truth so far away from the truth the same concept goes with our chuva people believe that doing chuva the beginning is difficult to get yourself to keep Shabbat to get yourself to keep kosher to get yourself to dress a certain way with modesty but once you start finished I keep Shabbat I keep kosher I keep family Purity I'm finished I'm done but what if I told you that the says in that if you didn't think about today every day not just today yesterday the next day the day after and every day of how to find a way to sanctify hashem's hashem's name not once in your life today tomorrow the next day it's a part of your day-to-day job if you didn't find a way to sanctify aem's name in essence show the world he's the king you didn't think of it not you didn't achieve it you didn't think of a way you didn't even try thear says it was better better off you didn't come to the world forget you didn't do chv it was better off you didn't come to the world that's how bad it is for us this is when I first read this in the I'm like this is uh this is farther than the sun this might as well be a different planet a different uh universe but the truth is is that the closer you get to Hashem the bigger the star looks like the bigger you see you know what this is a big deal this is a big deal so what's the difference between today a year ago two years ago three years ago and so on is that The Closer you get to Hashem the more shades or curtains if you will the rambam calls it curtains that you remove that are separating you from a in his truth and your warped version of reality our reality is false because simply said most of our desires or really all of our desires unless we really worked on ourselves a lot all of our desires are the opposite of good what do we people want every day first thing you pray for in in the morning first thing you pray for as a normal person I'm not talking about as a holy I'm not talking M pray for talking about a noral person what they pray for Hashem give me money first thing they pray for hasm give me money you don't even say hasm thank you for giving me life you don't say Hashem thank you for giving me eyes and ears and like don't say that give me money make sure today I signed the deal so I can get I go on vacation and not just the little money not just like the for the day money Millions today make me win the lot I don't want to go to work today today today I want to be rich not tomorrow tomorrow's already too late I have a student God bless him he's like listen in 3 months from now I'm going to have a man I said yeah you also have to have a job first to have the mention the job he doesn't have but the mention he says hm is going to give me a mention in three months from now the people tonight is 430 Millions oh okay so so today today is the wish day it's ly so the thing is though is that people expect hem to give him the world but the reality of it is that what we're asking for forget about about that our expectations are anything that we really get from Hashem is a gift we don't deserve anything but he gives us gifts because he loves us but at the same token the gifts we ask for are not always the gifts he gives us most of the gifts we ask for are not good for us it's like your son says ABA IMA give me a little bit of poison on the third shelf give me a little poison I want to put it on my uh schnitzel give me a little poison I want to put it on my steak and a little bit my my IC tea what are you going to say to him this is what we ask for we ask for Poison every day but we think it's not poison we think it's the we think it's the uh potion to life give me money give me women give me this give me cars give me uh Fame give me give me all these different things that are in essence not for our best interest the reason we're very very far away from the truth just like the little boy is and even more than the little boy is but what I saw on Sunday is that there's hope because the more you learn Tor the closer you get to the truth and my dear friend surprised me not because I'm a good judge of character or anything but just simply because I know I wouldn't be able to do it he went to a very difficult time to say the least four years ago his mother died six months ago his oldest brother and best friend his oldest brother was his best friend they were very very close six months ago he died and a few days ago his father died now if it was me and my dog died I don't think I'll be survived when my dog died actually was able to do a lecture you know so dog yeah but family member friend somebody human being destroyed what do my dear friend do he writes we have another loss he tells people what happened as far as that there's another loss in the family ashem I know this is good for me and that's why I love you this is what he writes Hashem I know this is good for me despite the pain that I'm dealing with that's unbearable but that's why I love you Sanctified hm's name every moment he said Your Rod Your Rod and your staff they give me Comfort in the beginning of that he says hem you're my shepherd it's a very famous teing Psalm 23 it's very famous tealing but most people have no idea what it means I saw it today I saw something unbelievable says you are my shepherd which means he says I'm the Sheep nothing little sheep now I know that even if I go through the valley of the Shadow and death if I go through nightmare mother dies brother dies father dies sh disaster after disaster is saying this Rod when you hit me it gives me Comfort because I know it's really the shaft the rod that's hitting me the pain the anguish the suffering I know that really is just trying to direct me in the right direction because I'm a sheep and I don't know where to go because I'm confused whether it's the Sun or it's a reflection I'm confused whether it's a quarter or it's a planet I'm confused whether it's a sin or it's a Mitzvah I'm confused whether it's from hem or the Satan I'm confus I don't know I don't know so I know when there's a pain I know it's from you and it gives me Comfort when I have pain he says why I know it's from you I know you're not going to do anything against me for no reason there has to be a reason there has to be a reason very few people in my opinion from the no one that I've met other than him and maybe a handful of other people not just understood that but could say it to say I love you hm after you just lost your father gives me hope that maybe one day we can reach such a level not to have those shom think such a thing like that but instead what do we focus on we focus on hem give me money now if you had $25 million in a bank but your best friend died how much is that money worth Hashem give me five houses you could only live in one house but give me five houses but the brother died you still going to enjoy those big houses Hashem give me Fame and Fortune but you're depressed because you feel empty the fame and fortune any good to you it's the opposite becomes poison the last thing you want is people looking at you like you're an insect under a microscope but some people are able to understand at least to some extent what the was talking about 2500 years ago now in this mishna we're starting a new peric a new chapter chapter four and we will connect it to what we just talked about and any questions you guys want to come up with now and um also to the par and try to see how blesses us with some insights of how we can actually improve ourselves to maybe maybe just maybe one day maybe one day we can get to such a high level that we can thank AEM appropriately we're not even saying thanking hasem for sins and forgiving us for the sins we're not even saying thanking hem for him slapping Us in the face because we deserve it for the sins we did not saying even that because actually actually he says chapter 222 you have to thank hem as much for the slaps on the face that you get as you do for the blessings you have to thank Hashem for the punishment as much as you thanked him for the blessing meaning you won the lot you won 400 something million like Fidel said today somebody's gonna win 400 million you have to thank Hashem just as much for the 400 million but also just as much for the flat tire for punishing you in some way someone dying someone suffering having sicknesses the book of laws of the Tor says it's a law says in you have to thank AEM in the same level for your suffering and for the blessings we don't even thank him enough sometimes for the blessing suffering thanking him this is so far but today we're going to learn how so give me some questions yeah a question just related to saidas right that's truth and uh and we have as far as I understand from previous sure that we have like a what I call not a complete free short a so my question is what is the significance of a sin and in which way a sin help us to uh evolve to to do shat because this a plan with sin if if with sin it's part of a plan I don't know if I'm perfect question okay okay that's it that's my question great question I didn't know I was next good question so the question is is the significance of the sin and how is a sin part of the ultimate plan of good question I have the answer next go okay uh so obviously there is no tribulation without punishment words so we receive there's no suffering without sin right right okay uh and if we suffering aniz that things are going well and all that we we're close to him we pray you know we do what we're supposed to do but yet you still with a sickness or something so could you be a a continuous for something that you have done in the past or how long you going suffer for suffering time frame is what you said yeah that's the question okay so next question is how long can we suffer for right okay next more go um if we initially forget to thank God for the pain M and we at the same moment I mean we know that we just forgot immediately and then we say thank you I know it's from you is it as equal as if I would have said it the minute I had to P simply answer is no but uh ultimate answer is if you're able to do it on a regular basis eventually you're going to be able to do it on a all the time but simple answer is no obviously because if uh it's like for example uh if you buy your wife flowers for the anniversary first thing in the morning is it the same as you bought her flowers the next day you bought her flowers it's not the same but we'll elaborate more on it more questions anything rest of the we know okay so keep coming okay so I wrote today I thought I was expecting I was writing down the question was making it easy for me today we will try to answer the question will give us the words to answer uh again also this week is says see I present before you today a blessing and a curse the blessing that you will hearken to the Commandments of hem your God that I command you today so he is telling I give you the blessing and the curse is a package deal which we talked about last night so we'll expand on it says the blessing you're going to get if you follow what Hashem says you get a blessing simple enough following verse says and the curse it's not or the curse it's and the curse meaning it's part of the same package and the curse you get if you don't herken to the Commandments of hasem your God and you stray away from the path that I command you today and follow to follow other go the gods of others that you didn't know and so on and so forth you do a bunch of things that are against hem you won't get the blessing you'll instead get the curse so here already we see that similar to what you said where we our our free choice is not so free this is a literal verse in the Torah one of many where mosenu the one and only who spoke to Hashem face to face the one who was closer to Hashem than anyone else in history the one that Hashem called him Moses my servant because Moses removed his own desires and replac them with hashem's desires he had no desires of his own if you're a millionaire and you want to get a servant you want to get a butler you want to get a uh someone to work in your house because even though technically slavery is frowned upon today it's still very much real and it even exists in America by the way there are slaves in America there are slaves all over the world but today since it's frowned upon they hide them but if you had a slave and you told the slave hey slave make me a coffee it's 3:00 a.m. but I want coffee if the slave said I'm tired that's not an acceptable response if the slave says I'm busy it's not an acceptable response a slave doesn't have such an option and hasem himself said Moses he's my servant he's my slave why cuz he himself decided to be that he himself decided to perfect his midot to perfect his character traits to such an extent that he remove removed his own desires and he replaced them with my own he replaced them with's desires that's why he's the only one that hasm says that's my servant if we could be a servant for half an hour to Hashem that's already a big level he did it for a lifetime and this is not a mocking of us it's just a reality because Moses didn't ask to win the $430 Million Lotto he didn't even think about the lot it wasn't part of his calculations at all he had no desire for the $430 million what he had a desire for is to fulfill hm's will so long as we have desires of our own we're wishing for this wishing for that we have a wish list we're not home yet doesn't mean that you can't have desires you can have desires but you haven't perfected yourself yet so in this par it starts off by telling us that so long as you're not mhu which there never will be another mosenu even the mashia will not be like mosenu even the mashia will not be as great as M you should know that your free choice is not so free it's a package deal get reward and there's punishment this is one of the 13 principles of faith in the Tora that the ra put together from the Tora this is one of the many sources where it says that there's a and a there's a blessing and there's a curse there's a good and there's bad there's no such thing as Hashem loves you regardless of what you do that's nonsense lies that's either Christianity or fake levels of different parts of other religions or unfortunately some people that call themselves Jewish say this is also the case this is 100% falsehood and you don't have to listen to me who am I this is an outright literal verse in the Tora that tells you there's no such thing as just reward there's no such thing there's no such thing as you could do whatever you want and you never going to have to pay the bill so now this is how we start this par it's a little scary and he goes into the details of different things that happens idolatry false prophets and so on and so forth now this particular mishna that we have here is going to give us a little bit more details translation Benz who was one of the biggest tanim that ever lived and kazal says he was called Benz instead of RAB z or r z or RAB Z or raban Z why because he didn't get a he didn't get a but the in page 57b says that Ben if you looked up the dictionary of wisdom you have his picture knowledge in Tor say someone that's ultimate wisdom Benz and they said that when Bena died those there's no such thing as someone giving good lectures in here meaning the greatest lecturer that ever lived in our generation previous generation Next Generation you combine all of them they said it wouldn't be equivalent to the first minute of his speech to Bena but he wasn't a rabbi as far as SM as far as Torah he had more knowledge than apparently most people in all of history and it says he's one of the few that um uh was at the level of having the just was not died too early died young and he's one of the people that had to die but he was at such a level that he's also one of four people that hasem allowed him to see what happens in sham there was four people in thear it says there was four people that were allowed to see what happened sh was one of them was another one Ben was another one was able to see what happens in sh we barely seeing each other right now but you're next to me I can see you he saw what happens in sh so he's okay so Ben says who is wise he takes a few different things a few different traits and he says look at how much you don't know anything how much we think we know and how much we actually don't know he says who's wise you ask yourself who's wise Stephen Hawkings uh Albert Einstein Bill Gates oh some guy a big IQ no says no that's not wise who is wise one who learns from every person as it says and he uses a uh verse in in Psalms 11999 119 verse 99 it's a very long it's the longest from all of my teachers I grew wise knew the entire T Hades became the fourth part of the put on and became number four says I learned from all of my teachers what does it mean all my teachers anyone that had anything I learned from it whether he was 5 years old 50 years old if it was an ant if it was a human anything I could learn I learned so first and foremost already just the beginning of this Mish already Ben shocks our reality because you ask somebody who's Smart Start naming scientists we don't even know what they did but they're famous they're on TV they were in a magazine they uh said that he discovered something they're rich they were something we said no this guy uh this guy's smart that guy's smart was no no no all that's wrong all that's wrong the definition that we have is based on things that are beyond our control and we'll explain further in a moment what that means so he says who is strong who's strong first thing we're going to think about oh yes it's the guy that won the last competition where he was able to pull a plane with his teeth he put a rope put in his teeth he started pulling the plane with his teeth like yes that guy's strong he pulled the whole plane with his teeth Ben says absolutely not has nothing to do with strength has nothing to do with strength who is strong one who subdues his personal inclination one who beats up his yet takes the Satan and beats him up and he uses another verse from Proverbs son as a source and he says says he who is slow to anger is better than a strong man and a master of his passions is better than the Conqueror of a city so he says someone that's able to control his anger is much better than the guy that's pulling a plane with his teeth and someone that's able to project his anger in the Right Way project his energy in the right way to control his midot and use every trait that he has for the good is even better than Napoleon thanan than par than all these people that rule the world for a certain section of time we all have the ability to rule our kids they rule the world he says you are able to be and actually control it you're better than all of them just simple trait that's so simple though he continues of course we're going to elaborate on all of these who's rich we go back to the first list Bill Gates Warren Buffett all the for's 500 you say you say who's rich you just give the guy the magazine 5 10 bucks you give him the magazine oh is rich cors 500 500 people that have a billion $2 billion dollar plus some of them have $70 billion I think the richest man has 700 whatever billion dollars he has that's rich right that's our definition of rich guy has a million dollars today it's not even considered rich anymore million dollars like oh you're doing okay rich rich means 10 million or more that's what Rich means and even that to the rich people he's not really rich he's like new money he's like okay but Ben Z one of the wisest men that ever lived says you're so far from the truth you don't even know what rich is says who's rich someone who's happy with his lot someone that's happy with whatever hasem gave him yeah what if hasm just gave him problems what if the only thing he gave him is bills no income it's a good question and he used another verse to prove this also Psalm 1282 it says when you eat of the labor of your hands you're prais you're praiseworthy and all is well with you you're praiseworthy in this world and all is well with you in the world to come and last but not least another proof that our reality is very very different than his reality and kazal and the torah's reality is he ask who's honored who's an honorable person so what do we think what does the average guy think oh yeah it's the shikh from Saudi Arabia he has as many cars as you have hair on your head he has as many wives as you have socks he has as many planes as you have you know dust in your kitchen that's honorable he has real estate like uh we have uh germs I mean they have they own countries they don't just own own uh neighborhoods they don't own a building their own countries that's an honorable person right everybody gives them honor they bout to him they change the clothing for them that's honorable says you have no idea what you're talking about says who's honored one he who honors others and he uses Samuel 1 verse two uh chapter 2 verse3 I mean for those who honor me I will honor them and those who scorn me will be degraded so Bena one of the pillars of our sages with thear signs off on him he was the sign he was the symbol of wisdom he says to us first things first if you believe that wisdom means IQ if you believe that strength means physical muscles weapons if you believe that wealth means money gold diamonds and honor means having control of things that a material if you show up to Sham with all of them show up to Sham with all of them to theed of sh they're going to say who is a failure they're going to have a they have a dictionary have who is a failure they're going to put your picture there yeah but I had money you had a lot of it yeah I had women yeah you had a lot of that too I had people kiss my hand when they see me yeah yeah he had that too I was be I was able to pull the two planes two not one plane two planes with my teeth and just in case I tied one to my leg Yeah you did that too I had money had power I this yes right here definition failed you failed at your test you're you are the definition of failure that's what I say in sham Ben is telling us I have I went to Sham he says I went to shamim I went to shamim I saw some things you know knows a few things and it wasn't a clinical debt what's the source for this entire mishna says I listened to the Prophet Jeremiah Prophet Jeremiah chapter 9 verse 22 he gives us in essence the same thing we just read he says everything that Ben Z said it's not his opinion everything that Ben Zuma just said of telling us that if this is our achievements we're all failures it's not his opinion it's God's opinion God says you have zillions and zillions of dollars you have houses in every city you have uh the strength of five elephants you have everybody kissing your hand when you just look at them he says hashem's opinion is means nothing where Prophet Jeremiah says it Prophet Jeremiah chapter 9 verse 22 says thus says hasem so you don't get it mix there's no two hasm there one thus said hasem let not let let not the wise man glorify himself with his wisdom and let not the strong man glorify himself with his strength and let not the rich man glorify himself with his wealth for only with this may one glorify himself contemplating and knowing me for I am Hashem who does kindness Justice righteousness in the land for these is my desire the word of Hashem hasm says you have all those things it's absolutely nothing the only thing you're allowed to be proud of is your connection with me beginning middle end you have a connection with me you got something going for you got something going for you you don't have a connection with me whatever you do have is working against you so Ben Zuma already telling us I'm not giving you an opinion I'm giving you a fact now for those that still want to Chase my and all the other things the rest of that paragraph in Jeremiah gets a little scarier because it doesn't have to do with common sense anymore it has to do with Hashem making a promise hasem says I gave you an interesting life I gave you all types of gifts but I also told you that you need to use these gifts for certain things if you do good if you don't this is what happens and verse 24 continues immediately after what I just read says behold the days of coming this he's talking about the days of mashiach the word of Hashem when I shall deal with everyone who is circumcised for his uncircumcision with Egypt and with Judah with Edom and with the children of Amon and with moav and with all those who dwell in the remotest corners of the Wilderness for all the nations are uncircumcised and the house of Israel is of uncircumcised heart it says when the Messiah comes I'm going to deal with all of you all of you that spent your entire lives chasing money chasing strength physically chasing everything except connection with me I'm going to deal with all of you because theim had a mission in the world you didn't do it he already said we talked about it last night two-thirds of the are going to die and go but he says that's just the go the Jews also have a serious problem why because if you didn't do chuva you're not maybe you're circumcised because your parents force you to get circumcised at eight days old but your heart is still uncircumcised maybe you look like a DA maybe you look like Aid maybe you look your pay has reach the floor and your beard reaches the next door neighbor but if your heart is still uncircumcised you haven't done chuva yet I'm going to deal with with you personally also because instead of connecting with me sanctifying my name being proud of being a Jew what did you do you want to sanctify your bank account you want to sanctify a new neighborhood you want to sanctify people saying thank you to you for doing nothing you gave so you want your name on the top of the Beet you want everybody to know you give to the say I'm going to deal with you also he's giving you a promise over here he's giving you a promise Jew or non-jew the day is Gonna Come I'm gonna have to deal with all of you the circumcised and the uncircumcised the uncircumcised are uncircumcised physically the circumcised are uncircumcised spiritually meaning we haven't done cha yet so here's this mishna is getting scarier and scarier so now we have to know how do we get out of this trouble that we're in he says first and foremost you need to understand something when Hashem says that everything is from him everything is from hem everything is from Heaven except the fear of Heaven means simply said anything you have money houses Fame Fortune wife kids tall short black white Spanish Mexican I don't know Chinese you're a little teddy bear you're a panda bear you're a lion in the zoo you're a liing in a movie whatever you are all of that is beyond your control has nothing to do with you has nothing to do with you AEM decided you will have this so what are you so proud about the fact that you're proud about things that are beyond your control shows the distance between you and reality the fact that you're so proud of how rich you are and how many houses you have and how smart you are and how great you are about things that are beyond your control anyway shows how distant you are from reality shows that you are no different than the little boy that looks at the son and says wow that's a size of a quarter when anyone that goes to the class in school and said no no it's not the size of a quarter it's really more like a few thousand sizes times the size of Earth we can't fathom how big and powerful the sun is just like we can't fathom how different reality is from our warp version of reality he says if you're proud of all these material things you're far away from the truth because none of them are in your control none of them the only thing you're allowed to be proud of is something that you are able to attain yourself and the only things you can attain yourself are things that are built on a foundation of the foundation it says everything is from hem except you decide whether you fear hem or not is like has staircases has levels of it whatever you have if the foundation of it is fear of hem connecting to hem you could potentially attain it yourself so for example he says you can learn as many books as you want you can learn science books biology books all the books you want but that doesn't make you wise you could be educated but still a fool there are many many people unfortunately that know or believe they know a lot about different science medicine and plenty of other things but they're the greatest fools on Earth people that are especially famous scientists that go on TV that go in magazines that have fame and fortune that have power that have the ability to reach the public instead of saying wow thank God for where I am what do they say there's no God everything starts with nothing it's just there even the ant the ant the little ant that has a brain that's microscopic knows that it couldn't happen from nothing the ant even knows that there's no such thing as something happening from nothing but these very famous people that people look up to spend their entire life trying to convince the world of this foolishness so he says that you reading books you having a high IQ you having certain degrees means absolutely nothing why because it did not change your character you're still the same you with just more information which in many cases is nonsense to begin with but even if the information was right let's say your mathematician math is math 1 plus one is always going to be two regardless of who the mathematician is if you tell me it's 2.1 you have to go use a calculator from that one so you could be the greatest mathematician but it's not going to change your character a stle was known as a person that would teach his students to be civilized upper class nose up in the air better than n you know better than everyone else but there was one fla a system it's very well known that when Aristotle ate food he would look 100% like a lion eating a zebra he would look like an animal so in the beginning know people were scared of saying anything but after a while somebody couldn't take it anymore they said you teach us to be civilized you teach us to be sophisticated teach us to be this and that and this and that but you're eating like a I don't know even the baby is cleaner than you the baby has spaghetti all of his face has less than you on his face you have it on your hair even why do you eat like that he said says when I eat I'm not Aristotle meaning that the whole thing he was teaching was nonsense it did not change him this is the key difference between secular knowledge and Torah when you learn secular knowledge math science all types of other secular knowledge architecture Graphics whatever it's a skill set it's a tool today a tool can be a program on the computer tomorrow that program can be obsolete it becomes absolutely useless which means that all of the knowledge and experience you have from that program is worth zero I remember before I got into the stock market business I tried going into the computer business and I wanted to uh check out this course and I took a Microsoft course to be a Microsoft technician and uh I was like a few thousand for the course and I know like they when I interviewed with the guy the guy I told him listen I don't really have much computer knowledge other than like the internet was just beginning at the time you know it's not internet wasn't in every house yet companies had it but houses didn't have it uh at least most didn't have it kind of gives you an idea of how old I am um but anyway I told I don't really have much knowledge about this Microsoft C++ a this a all this stuff I I don't know anything there's no to worry about you don't need to know anything about networking you don't need to know anything about anything you just come to the class you pay the fee you're fine you learn everything in class I'll give you these books he gives me these five six giant books so come to the class you're fine I come to the class everyone in a class is already in the field everyone's already expert they just didn't have the certification the guy's a complete filthy liar they're all experts they're just there because if they get this certificate on the wall their salary goes up 50 60% me I don't understand a word the guy's saying nothing he's telling me this he's telling me that the only thing I understand network cable I knew I had something like that in my house other than that nothing else he was an expert an expert in networking an expert in lying meaning that all of the knowledge that he had did not improve his character if anything it made it worse when you learn Torah the way Torah is supposed to be learned not when you just read the book and just say ah it's like it's interesting not when you're using the Torah like it for intellectual purposes when you look at the Torah you read the M you read the lessons of mosu you read the lessons of Abu you read the MIT you read what Kaz says you look at all this stuff he how can I apply this to my life where are they where am I how can I use this to make me better a better version of me the Torah doesn't change you it improves you the difference between Torah and secular knowledge is that when you apply Torah it changes you it improves you to such an extent that you become a much much better version of you sort of like a souped up car you know I remember when was a kid he used to have the show on TV and it was this uh rapper that that uh liked taking beat up cars and souping them up like putting rims on them and new windows and TV like this little junk car that was like worth $300 he puts 15 20 $30,000 worth of electronics and equipment on it it looks amazing so times that by a zillion and that's the beginning of tah of what the Torah does to your n what the Torah does to your personality what the Torah it does to everything that has to do with your inside but it's not so simple it's not that you just read CH or come to class for a year or two and everything becomes wonders it's gradual it's something that takes a while but the first thing to know is that who is wise according to Ben Z it's not the one that possesses the wisdom of the secular world and it's also not the one that possesses what he believes is Torah even there are many people that know you ask him they'll tell you the whole thing by heart you ask him they'll tell you things by heart many pages by heart laws by heart you ask him certain stories they'll tell you that which page it's on they'll know a lot of things by heart but then you see them the way they behave they're worse than Aristotle you see how they behave how their nature is lack of patience huge amount of anger filthy mouth all types of things you're like you and Aristotle are no different but how is that possible he has Torah he learned Torah he knows who mosenu is he knows R AKA he knows Ben he knows all these things how is it possible that he has Torah and he's still like Aristotle how could it be because there's one major key ingredient that's missing that breaks the whole thing the key ingredient is the Torah without is only an intellectual Endeavor it's not Torah it is no once the Torah is missing it's the same thing like mathom like history like a uh science like anything any other secular subject it's purely an intellectual Endeavor and the reason is because once the Torah is missing you have no idea why you're learning it because you have no idea who's watching you who wants you to learn it who's commanding you to learn it and the purpose of learning it you have no idea what you're doing you're just reading a book you're doing some laws you're growing some beard because you don't feel like shaving you're not doing it for the real reason it's not Torah anymore it's something else you've changed the Torah and Shalom you've made it into a secular subject so now Beni is telling you who's Wise It's someone that not only has the real Torah by applying this Torah says this is what mosu did I'm going to do that this is what Abu said I'm going to do that this is what Ben Z said I'm going to try to apply this I'm going to do this I'm going to do this why because I know it's good for me it's hard it's good for me though but it's hard it's going to be good for me it's tough to do this it's tough to change it's tough to keep your anger in it's tough to do all these things but you know it's good for you when you start applying it because you have your because you have a connection to hasem and you're afraid of the outcome of sinning Ben says you're at the beginning of wisdom but what's the ultimate level of wisdom that he's talking about here it's not that you possess Torah it's if you chase it it's not that you possess wisdom it's if you chase wisdom someone that knows a lot of Torah is called a t in Hebrew it's called literally means means wise student now if he's the do he the biggest Rabbi of the generation why are you still calling him talmid he's a rabbi no no no he's because anyone that truly possesses Torah knows that in order for you to possess Torah in the first place first thing first you have to be a student forever you're a permanent lifelong Eternal student which means that one of the most important character traits to have in order to even have a chance of becoming wise in order to even have a chance of attaining Torah of reaching Torah of reaching this wisdom is humility don't look for people to call you Rabbi GA amazing whatever all that that's not that's not if they call you they call you it's their business but you yourself I'm I'm maybe one day I'll be too maybe one day means you need to know the entire tah they ask you a question on any subject you have to be able to answer it there's not many of them in the world anymore there's many people that know certain parts of the Tor you ask him about he knows about you ask him about certain he knows about you're ask him about he knows about but you start asking about he doesn't know he's not an expert to be a true you have to be able to answer questions about every subject in the Torah this is a very very high level that requires years and years and years of changes sacrifices and serious amount of learning that never ends without even a single day break so first and foremost benzai is telling you the difference between wise and smart smart is something that Hashem gave you Hashem gave you a brain with an IQ of 150 you decide to use it for science you decide to use it for architecture you decide to use it for I don't know uh fashion fine that's just a skill set you have it has nothing to do with you I gave it to you it's free you can't tell people look how much money I have if it's daddy's money you didn't make it there's nothing to be proud about you can't wear the ramban the ramban writes in the letter that he wrote his son he says you can't go around in the king's robe celebrating it's not your robe oh I'm you're not the king you just stole his robe you can't pretend like you're the king you can't celebrate the IQ you have it's not yours sh gave it to you and just as easily as he gave it to you he can take it away and also says this to his son he says just so you know don't ever celebrate any wisdom that you have or you think you attained because as fast as hem gives wisdom to people he takes it from them so Benz first tells us first things first you need to understand the only things that you're allowed to be proud of is something that you were able to attain by yourself knowledge of Torah you can attain by yourself because it requires it requires self- sacrifice it requires an extraordinary amount of applicable changes not just intellectual changes but applicable changes to your behavior if you have done chuva but you're still yelling at your wife on a regular basis you haven't done Chua yet you started but is not even close to being completed if you've done chuva in your eyes but you're still cheap stingy when it comes to giving your wife money when it comes to investing into the Torah World whether it be to kiru or toim or something to publicize the Torah you haven't done Chua yet you've done chuva on certain things but complete Chua requires an overall encompassing character change if you've done chuva but you still look at every woman that moves you haven't done chuva at all because you have you don't even realize the purpose of life if you're still looking at women like a piece of meat you're not even close all you are is just a Golem that keep Shabbat the donkey also keep Shabbat as long as you don't put anything on his back he just hangs out doesn't do anything so Ben says first and foremost know that you're allowed to be proud of something you actually did and what you could actually do in this world is very limited now who do we learn this from he says we learn this from David was completely in to give you guys a little bit of an idea of people know the famous story of him in b and a lot of people think that oh maybe sinned some people teach that he sined but thear says didn't sin didn't if he sinned hem would not make him the fourth part of the that holds the with in his level it was frowned upon in his level because he was so holy but if it was us doing what he did be 100% allowed why because Beva was not married at the time he was with her because one of the things that the says that it was the tradition was that any time somebody goes to war the husbands give all of the wives a git they give all of their wives a get until they come home if they don't come home then they're already retroactively divorced meaning they're divorced from the time they already left because if a if a man dies in a warom you need to have witnesses that saw the body saw that he died if there's no body you have a serious problem you have to have proof that he died so if someone didn't give his wife a g and he went and he died in a war and there's no body to be found there's no get the wife is still is is is is still not allowed to get married again this was one of the very famous cases that had to deal with uh with the war there was unfortunately a lot of deaths and radya investigated every single one investigate every single death to make sure that the wife is allowed to get married to confirm that the husband was dead he would talk to people he would interview them he was a private investigator for months and months and months why why such a big deal in Judaism unlike in zoo in Judaism we have laws of marriage you can't just be with anyone you want meaning that once a a man and a woman are married they're married by a Biblical law they're married by the laws of God it's not the laws of some courts system that no one really cares about but you have to do it for formality purposes or because you want money when you marry for God when you marry according to a system you have to follow certain things you're only allowed to be intimate at certain times of the month you're only allowed to do certain things and so on and so forth one of the things that you are definitely not allowed to do is you're not allowed to marry a different woman unless your original wife accepts it unless the original unless your initial wife says yes marry another wife that was the original biblical law but about a thousand years ago rabenu outlawed it he says even though polygamy was originally allowed in Judaism we see certain uh sages had multiple wives a thousand years ago we saw already sages already saw that we're not at the level anymore that we could actually marry multiple women for the right reason we're only marrying multiple women for lustral reasons and that's not the right reason so they outlawed it so now if there is a marriage that has problems that leads to divorce and the husband doesn't want to give the wife a get she's not allowed to marry another guy she's not allowed to be with another guy if she's intimate with another man before she gets the get the child that's born is a Mel and AEL is not is is is in essence a very different part of Judaism to such an extent that he's only allowed to marry another M or convert he's not allowed to marry a regular Jud that's not a Mel why because the goal is for hasem to remove that seed remove that Sin from the world he doesn't want him to continue so this creates a lot of problems for Generation after generation after generation so now to say that sinned is to say that potentially one of the children was a Mel this could not be because the mashiah comes from D and the says that not only didn't sin but his Beva was not married at the time she got the get they would get the get before anybody went to war because in case they die it's already retroactively as if they were not married as of the first day the second thing is also in addition to that the gar says even without the get the laws of a king are different than a citizen the laws of a king are different than a person why because unlike the secular world where you have to elect Donald Trump and Osama or Obama and this one and now you have to elect them people need to like them or they have to buy off the votes or cheat the system and all that stuff there's no cheating God the only way you become king of Israel is God needs to pick you God he say say you're the king so that's the other thing and the laws of a king are different there's other issues but point being is that says he didn't sin but still because his level of K was so high was afraid that maybe what he did is frowned upon and therefore he fasted for 22 years he only ate once a day at night and he fasted for 22 years straight because he felt he cried every day he says in he cried every day and he filled a cup a cup full of tears every day for the little bit of distance that he felt from hasem the little bit of distance he still Hades but he felt a little bit of distance from Hashem he cried about it for 22 years that's KES so now this very same in Shabbat page 30 asks hem Hashem when am I going to die we ask Hashem a lot of questions difference is HEM doesn't answer to he answered he says you're GNA die on Shabbat you die the day of the week I can't tell you the year or the time but you're going to die on Shabbat you're going to die day of the week you're going to die in Shabbat so David says Shabbat they're not going to be able to bury me I don't want anyone to desecrate Shabbat I don't want Shalom Shabbat that's the deal between us it's the Covenant that's everything Hashem please bury me on F bury me on Sunday bury me on Friday not on Shabbat absolutely not hasem says if I bury you on Sunday that means that your kinghood is going to go into the territory of your son schlomo's kinghood and there's no kinghood that can be at the same time when yours ends the other one begins and yours can't have an extra day just like his can't have one less day or one extra day the math of shamim is beyond precise it's not like us we postpone you get the alarm in the morning you you know uh what snooze it for a half hour and another 20 minutes then another half hour another half hour next thing you know you woke up the next day no hasem doesn't snooze doesn't snooze says the kinghood of your son specific spefic day in sh I already wrote it when I created the world when I created the world I already knew he's going to be king on that day so the okay no problem I'm not gonna I understand no problem Friday I'll I'll even lose a day I'm willing to lose a day of my life I'm willing to lose a day of my life just so you don't bear just you don't kill me on Shabbat that's it I don't want anyone to violate Shabbat on me I don't want maybe my body's going to smell maybe this maybe all that all million and a half reasons of why I don't want to die on Shabbat I'm willing to give a day of my life who here is willing to give a minute of their life for any reason if you have a guy that has a trillion dollars a trillion dollars you tell them listen you're going to die in five minutes but if you want give me the entire trillion dollars I'll leave you five bucks I'll leave you five doll I'll let you live for another day one more day five either you're D in five minutes or one more day but you have to give me all of the money I'll leave you five bucks you can buy coffee is he giving you the money or not is he even thinking about it for a second not if he's a normal person why because he knows once he dies the money is worthless so he worked his whole life to gain this trillion dollars but in reality he could spend it in a moment for something he had for free but the is telling you shabbat is is worth more than a day of my life he's saying to you I'm willing to give a day in my life just don't bury me just don't kill me just don't take my out on Shabbat and listen to this says to him on the day your son opens the bet mikdash he's going to bring thousands of corot thousands mrai one time did the math he said the amount of corot of sacrifices that SCH did just on the grand opening of the BET mikdash was somewhere in a neighborhood of $150 million $150 million in sacrifices valued today tens of thousands of cows and this and that birds and so on it's whole an exact math in the uh in the toab how many birds and how many cows and how many bulls and how many all these different things so if you do the basic math the cow is let's say $10,000 a sheep is I don't know 500 bucks and so on and so forth you do the math of everything he did the math it was like somewhere in neighor of almost $150 million grand opening grand opening it's not every just a grand opening they said that when schl was King the the uh gold was like sand that's how rich he was gold was like sand when they destroyed the bet mikdash it took them days to take to chip off all the gold from the bet mikdash but when they brought the gold to Babylon it was so much gold the whole gold market crashed it was over supply of gold that's how rich they were so the amount of sacrificed to to honor him to s sanctify his name to make him King and publicize his kinghood extraordinary hasem says all of those corot a thousand corot any corot all of them are not worth to me like a single day of watching you my son DAV learn to learn learn learn Mish learn in your head learn Tor one day is worth to me more than all of the that your son's going to give me all of them and we're not talking about was given wisdom thatal says was one level below God Shem gave him a gift that he didn't give to anybody else he gave him with if it wasn't written in the books we wouldn't be allowed to say it he gave him wisdom that was m one level below God it's something beyond our understanding only thing I can tell you to understand it is you read some of the mid of how they describe the technology that schl had in his throne it worked off of speech with no electricity he had a golden dove fly in the air no technology hold his crown and put it on his head I mean things that we don't have today not not even close to having today only he could sit on the throne no one else could sit on the throne po tried to sit on the throne broke his back things that are Beyond Comprehension so this that was potentially gonna bring the mashia he tried bringing the mashia that's why he married a thousand women not because he's uh sick shalom it's holy person Hashem says all the that's going to build mydash the first mikash all of the he brings is not worth to me like a single day of you learning single day therefore I'm not removing a day of your life it's too valuable to me it's too valuable to me to lose one day of you learning my Torah one day not a week not a month not a year not a one day if you learn Tora learn a little Mish little little something worth to me more than all the that's so this very samees says okay I know that when I learned Tor the Satan can't bother me so on Shabbat he made it a thing what did he do he says from now on on Shabbat I don't take a break I learned Torah from beginning of Shabbat until the the end of Shabbat without taking a break no sleep no nothing it's not like he slept much during the week he slept 15 minutes at a time they say he slept like a horse 15 minutes at a time but he says on Shabbat not even the 15 minutes so Satan page 30b says Satan came to take his he said okay it's time Shabbat that's the time that hasm decreed in sh have take his he shows up he's like I can't I can't touch him he doesn't stop learning he doesn't stop learning meaning his mind doesn't leave the Torah for a moment we're not talking about five minutes 10 minutes an hour two hours takes a break eat some bambba take a you know go to the B not talking about that a moment his mind doesn't leave the Torah a moment I wish I could study a moment like he studied a day he studied for just one moment Satan says I can't touch him I can't touch him eventually Satan had to finagle something and he made a noise outside on a tree that was outside of David's window and jumped up went to go see and the Satan removed one of the stairs so fell on the stairs and the moment that he fell as he fell his mind lost Focus for that moment lost focus in that moment he took his there's no way of fooling the Satan but asked a phenomenal question so holy so amazing so extraordinary but every time somebody goes on a tree gets up he just said he doesn't even take a break for bomba and beastly Somebody went on a tree what somebody made a noise you're GNA get up every even I don't get up for every single joint M got up because somebody's on a tree I believe was the that answered this question and maybe I believe it was the it's one of the Giants previous generations I confuse the names between those two all the time even though they're nothing alike it's just in my mind this name sound the same and um he says absolutely not you think he's going to get up for every time there's a noise you think he's going to get up every time there somebody sneezes it's not did not leave the Tor for a moment to the point where the Satan says I can't touch him because he doesn't stop thinking about Tor so of course such a person such a holy person doesn't just get up for any reason what happened knew hey somebody's on my tree it's Shabbat today you're not allowed to climb a tree on Shabbat I have to go rebuke him I have to go tell him you're not allowed to go on a tree on Shabbat many people many people watching this today just learned you're not allowed to climb a tree on Shabbat for the first time he already was at a point where he's not knowing that the he's thinking actively he's applied it to his life where natural clation was forget that you're not allowing it forget it's not allow it's easy anybody you go TOA you learn now from now on for the rest of your life you're going to know you're not allowed to climb a tree it's not the big deal him it became one with him it became part of him where he knew the fact that you're not allowing it the fact that made a law you're not allowing somebody to climb a tree and someone Dar desecrate your name and climb a tree on Shabbat I must defend your honor I must put a stop to it now there's no way that I could allow someone to desecrate A's name and go on a tree on Shabbat that's when you become one with the Torah that's the difference between science math and all this other and applying to to your life that's what the stat of a woman that is married is don't know what HB aa aa so now how did he become D secret to a success is this verse that Ben Zuma uses from Psalm 11999 says from all of my teachers I grew wise he says I love the Shem and his Torah so much that anywhere that I looked at I found a way I looked for a way and found a way to apply it to my life and apply it to Torah to learn from anywhere that I can Tor I looked at the ant and I said ah I could learn to stop being lazy from the ant the ant doesn't stop working I could learn to stop being lazy because if I'm lazy I can't learn T why if I'm lazy what I want to do when I go home I go to sleep you want to be there's not much sleep my friend you could sleep six seven hours a day enjoy whatever you're not going to be you'll know some basic you'll be a basic level Jew it's fine no problem you're not going to be sleeping six seven eight hours a day you're not going to be it's not going to happen so what's somebody on the internet no no but the rambam said you're supposed to sleep eight hours a day yes if you're an average person not already have it so M chapter six we're going to get to it it says one of the laws there are laws to becoming a already know it from the beginning if you even want to Aspire to be already know sleep less how much less a lot less a lot less the bigger tell me the less the Sleep the Giants that you read about in the stories all the time don't be surprised if you see in their bios the guy slept for an hour and a half a day two hours a day an average person can't survive you can't just stop sleeping you have to train yourself you have to have the Merit to not sleep because a lot of people you could skip sleep people pull uh you know all nighter a lot of times especially when you're a teenage or you're young you pull all nighters all the time I'm not talking about that I'm not talking about P pulling an all nighter I'm talking about being at the top of your mental and spiritual capacity for an extended period of time without being bothered by not to sleep just not sleeping yeah you eat ice you won't sleep drink a lot of coffee you won't sleep it's not a big deal not to sleep one day two days three days function after three months 6 months a year two years four years 5 years 15 years of no sleep and use that time you're not sleeping not on Facebook use it learning from books so already here is telling you I looked at the end and I learned that in order for me to be laziness has to be thrown in the garbage I looked at my enemies my enemies and I asked them questions because I knew maybe there's an there's one two five I don't know what they know maybe there's something I don't know it's irrelevant that they're my enemies it doesn't matter that they're my enemies maybe I can learn on in order to sanctify aem's name in order to honor hem in one more way who cares that it's coming from my enemies who cares it's to honor hasem who cares that it's who cares if it comes from Saddam Hussein it's a way to honor hem who cares what it's where it's from it's real it's good it's it's a it's legitimate it's from Torah I don't know it I don't I I want to learn is telling you you want to be you want to be wise you have to chase the knowledge because that's in your hands chasing it chasing the Torah the that's in your hands outcome is not in your hands Hashem decides when to give you knowledge when not but the whether you're going to show up to the at 9:00 at night in the middle of a week or you're going to be sleeping at home that's in your hands you could sleep you could watch it on YouTube tomorrow you could watch it on Facebook live or you could drive an hour and a half to show up difference is when you have says you're already on the on the right track of attaining wisdom next is telling you first and foremost you need to understand has nothing to do with physical because physical again has nothing to do with you even if you work out every day there's plenty of people that work out for the last 20 years they're still fat chubby and weak working out doesn't necessarily make you a bodybuilder but it has nothing to do with strength that he's talking about here he says someone that's truly strong is someone that's able to take the Torah and apply it to his life to change his evil inclination take his natural desire to want money to want sex to want uh Pride to want uh all of these things that are natural inclinations of the body the rambam says the rambam he said he says the only reason gave you a body only reason is for you to generate seed as a man to generate seed so you can bring kids to the world if there was no purpose for procreation to bring children to the world hem would not give you a body simply put there is no other useful use for your body which means that the natural inclination of a of a male body is to generate seed and his yet says don't just generate it waste it you don't need a woman you need a woman it doesn't make a difference you don't want the kid you just want the woman waste it waste it do what you that's your only he's convincing you that it's good for you you have even people with phds after their names telling you it's healthy so Satan keeps convincing you of all the things that are against what's really your best interest so Ben Z is telling you if you're able to take the Torah apply apply the M that helps you get this to your life and get yourself to stop not because you don't want to cuz you're still going to have the physical desire but because you're scared to there is honor in being scared so much honor that the wisest man of all time says the first sign that you have any sign of wisdom to even say that you could possibly have wisdom first you have to have fear of hasem if you're not afraid of God you cannot even consider yourself in the same sentence paragraph or even book as someone that's wise you can know anything you want to know it doesn't make a difference you have no wisdom whatsoever why you're not afraid of the only thing you should be afraid of so if you could take the Torah and apply it to your life to such an extent we say I'm going to stop wasting seed I'm going to stop stealing I'm going to stop driving on Shabbat I'm going to stop things that I want to do I your natural inclination wants to do it and the rambam even signs off he says some of these things you want to do that's what you were made for so it's going against your animalistic nature why I'm scared purely simple bottom line beginning middle end I am scared that's the first reason anyone that says starts did any of these things for a different reason is a liar you don't do any of those things on an extended period of time for a different reason you could potentially get to a point of not wasting seed and keeping Shabbat and doing all the mitv because you love hem you can get there starting there is impossible why because in order to love hem first you have to fear Him and you can't love something if you don't know what it is and if you know even a small inclination of what God is of course you're going to fear him you can't know what God is without fearing him so beniah is telling you first and foremost understand the depthness of what wisdom is understand the depthness of what real strength is overcoming your physical desires your natural desires the things that made sense to you your whole life all of a sudden you realize they're wrong it's wrong to be married into marriage it's wrong to do things on Shabbat you're not allowed to do on Shabbat it's wrong to steal it's wrong to whatever you know what every Thief doesn't view himself as a thief that's a bad guy every criminal doesn't wake up in the morning says can't wait to be a bad person everyone views themselves as good even Hitler viewed himself as good he thought he was doing Hashem a favor he thought he was doing mankind of favor by destroying this insects called Jews that's what he thought he was doing he thought he was doing everyone a favor the thief thinks that he is doing the store a favor cuz he's going to take money from them they're going to be able to claim money from the insurance that's probably more money than he stole so they're going to be profitable at the end he's rationalizing in his head of how he's doing them a favor the card that he stole oh now the insurance company will give this guy a new car so look I did him a favor I took his old car now he has a new car he should thank me he should if anything he should pay me for it the will always convince you that your evil is good Ben says you take that yet you punch him in the face you tell him whatever you're telling me I know it's a lie person wakes up in the morning needs to go to needs to go to be go yet says no go to sleep what are you doing 6 o' in the morning go to sleep wake up go to at 8 go to m at 8 why you going at 6:00 it's so early you work so hard yesterday you didn't go to sleep till 2 o'clock in the morning what do you think you who do you think you are go to sleep you're a human being relax next week go to six you convincing you someone who applied the Torah to his life Ben says what do you answer him say wait a minute let's think about it it's 6 o' in the morning you're right it's very very early but what are you doing up oh you working what are you working what do you work for you work for God what's your job your job is to weaken me to distance me why because that's the test so if you're already working leave me alone let me work too I go work atet you take the Torah and you use it as a tool to apply to your life you're never going to want to wake up at 600 6:00 in the morning you're never going to not want to go to the beach where everyone's naked never you're always going to want to go as far as physically you're never going to not want to have intimate relations with somebody you're not allowed to do your body will want it always the Torah will purify it over time to the point where you're not even looking in that direction people ask me all the time again this is only for the purpose of Education don't think I'm anything or anything I just know my so I try to protect myself you want to learn to you have to protect your eyes unfortunately we've gotten to a point where today it's virtually impossible it's virtually impossible to walk around the street without seeing people naked it's impossible now naked doesn't necessarily always mean always naked naked means that pretty much they're wearing underwear that's naked so you have two choices one choice look on the floor all the time this is difficult takes a little training but it's not impossible when I go to Israel for the most part that's what I do in America same thing but it's tough to do it over an extended period of time simply because you just you don't know where you're going how you're doing it's makes makes the whole trip miserable so this is the second solution don't leave the house that's the solution that's it don't leave the house so people ask me all the time oh how's boka how's bokeh you like anytime I go to n oh yeah you live in boa Ron like yeah like how is it I don't know what do you mean you don't know how long you live there 3 years so how is it I don't know what do you mean you don't know I don't go anywhere the biggest trip that I go is my that's it other than that once I don't know a month two months my wife has to send me to uh the Windixie or Publix to get some groceries because she can't do it or somebody else can't do it then I have to go other than that I don't leave the house why I don't want to look that's that is the way how's B I have no idea how is the next neighborhood going to be that I'm going to move to I don't know and I won't but know why it's the only way it's the only way it's the only way I know that looking on the floor I could do it but over an extended period of time becomes miserable I rather just go sit study do my thing and you know go to a lecture that's it what what do I need to go outside for I'm not going to malls so what's the ideal situation stay in house go give lecture go back home go give lecture go back back home who do I need to look at my wife my kids the beginning middle end let's say it's finished that's how you protect your eyes the other option is look on the floor all day problem is many guys don't want to stay home obviously they want to see the world and whatever fine I don't blame you you want to see the world do it at your own risk the problem is that along the way of seeing the world you're also going to see a bunch of people and if you want to inherit tah you can't see it you can't look at women that are half naked and think it's okay it's not okay why that damages your n every time you see an immodest woman it damages your n now one of the questions that we asked is the significance of a sin now we saw in the beginning we used an analogy little boy you ask him how big is the star how big is the sun he says it's a quarter you as an adult know it's not a quarter it's it's not even a ball it's thousands and thousands of times larger than the size of Earth and really no human being can comprehend the true size of Earth because we're still human we could see it in pictures we could see it on a screen but to comprehend the size of just the ocean the comprehend just the size of your city is impossible for a human being because it's so much bigger than you so to comprehend a son that's 90 million miles away it's impossible that's our sin when you ask yourself how big your sin is that's your sin a guy looks at a girl that's half naked that's not his wife that's not appropriate that's the sin that's the significance of the sin and kazal says the biggest gome of a person the biggest gome the gome that there's no no size for there's no measurement for it is when a when a person shows up to the bed of sh and he discovers the size of his sin forget about the fire forget all that stuff the embarrassment the shame that he has at that moment that he discovers the size of his sin versus what he thought when he was still in Flesh and Blood the shame and embarrassment that he has no Gom can withstand it because his whole life he thought it was a quarter maybe a ball it was beyond his comprehension to think it's a son without tah you can never arrive at that with Tora you have a chance so when you're talking about significance of sin only to is going to give you that now as far as suffering different levels of suffering different types of sins when a person connects to AEM would want to give him gifts sometimes those gifts is suffering how do you know whether you're close to hasem in the truth or not when you eventually arrive at a point where you start seeing that even your suffering is good for you Ben says who Rich someone that is happy with his share now already by now we've confirmed that none of this stuff is what we naturally think it is so if strength and wisdom are not what we thought they are then obviously the wealth isn't either so Ben Z says this one's an easy one all you have to do in order to be considered rich is be happy with your share and fulfill theah in of celebrating and thanking hasem just as much for the rod as you do for the staff celebrating and thanking Hashem just as much for the blessings as you do the curse and vice versa now don't worry you're not the first one that says are you serious in your mind myself included when I heard this and I'm still hearing it and I'm saying it I'm saying are you serious you really have I mean okay saying I know it's for the good I know everything is for the good that's one level already at certain points of our life we arriv I remember one of these times I had really really difficult time I knew that these surgeries were for the good saying it's for the good it's one thing that's already huge not going to give you the full details but imagine I don't know a surgery very painful imagine a surgery with no anesthesia even more painful imagine a surgery with no anesthesia and you have to give it to yourself so at some point we can get to a point of saying you know what even this horrible horrific pain is for the good that's a level that's amazing that's wow right on the other hand they say forget this is for the good care about being the good thank God it happened it happened like you just won the lot that's a different that's that's that's that's it's beyond comprehension that's like the sun thank God it happened thank God this craziness happened this pain happened that pain happened this loss thank God it happened to most people this is as far as the Sun but this is Al in this is in [Applause] the we have to find a way to get there several students of RAB of lens came to him and said this is in a generation of saints this is a generation of Kes this is a generation of people that you would be certain one of them is mashia if not all of them the students of come to him and they say this you have here in being happy for the curse thanking Hashem for the curse how do we do it how do we do it teaches how do you do it he says you know I can't really teach you this mitvah my brother can teach you go to my brother RAB zusa rabusa of napi go to him he'll teach you this Mitzvah where does he live goes several days that way several days this way you're going to get to him zealous young students want to go find out how to fulfill this Mitzvah go to see one of the great they finally arve but they see instead of seeing a castle for or at least a normal house they see a broken house a shack with holes in it they knock on the door the door almost Falls the door opens they see RI zusa singing in with his children who all look like they haven't even eaten bread forget meat or chicken or eggs bread they haven't eaten in days bread he has toai in front of him and he's singing and learning and celebrating with his family holes in his clothes the kids look like they haven't eaten in days he looks like he probably hasn't eat in his life and he is as happy as can Poss we be there are holes in the ceilings Holes in the Floor I mean this looks like a homeless a homeless shelter a homeless suitcase that someone lives in looks better than this house for they look at they think they're in the wrong place there's no way this is but they say it's the only house not like there's apartment complexes you say he looks up he start celebrating with them how are you how are you how are you celebrate with these people we're at the right place I guess we came here because we need to learn something from you we have a question oh yes what question do you have for my son what question do you have we want to know how do we fulfill the the mitvah the Commandment of thanking celebrating aem's name for the suffering for the hardship as much as we do for the blessing at this moment the students see rha's face stand still and become very serious and he looks at them he says who sent you here to ask me such a question and I said your brother says I'm surprised I'm very surprised that my brother made such a mistake and sent you here to ask me such a question I wouldn't know an answer I've never had any suffering I've never had any pain how would I know how to do it you understand that's the sun distant far away all of us can get there all of us can get there in our own way it's attainable it's possible rusa with the holes in the ceilings and the holes in the floor and the kids that don't have food and the suffering he went to the Exile there's no end to the suffering he had his life he just didn't view it that way it's a complete perspective transformation when you're glued to there is no such thing as being unglued thear says it's virtually impossible for someone that's glued to hasm to ever leave him so they asked so how is it possible that or some of the other people that became K how they leave they knew Torah kazal says they were never connected to hasem intellectual purposes some of them were giants in Torah but as far as true pure connection impossible why once you have it you can't let go even if you want it one of the four people that saw what happens in shamim said couldn't handle it he died why he says I want to be there I can't leave once he saw what happens in shamim he I can't leave he couldn't leave he allowed himself to die he could not leave when rabus connected himself to suffering was no longer part of his life it removed he removed that word from a dictionary and here he's benai is telling us do you know how you can be eventually beus start with this whatever hasem gives you be happy with it I'm not even just talking about saying thank you and sanctifying his name and celebrate just be happy with whatever you have you have $100 be happy with 100 bucks you made 50,000 be happy with 50,000 you made 100 be happy with a 100 because your natural inclination is always going to want double what you have says you want you give him 100 he wants 200 you give him 400 he wants 800 and no one says no one ever dies with even half of what their desires are you've always won double what you have and you're not even going to die with half of what you want why because the is in the driver's seat controlling everything so unless you start beating him up with an immense amount of Torah it's not going to change nothing's going to change you'll suffer forever so he says if you actually start with just being happy with what you have just the fact of you being happy being happy is not only going to give you a happy life here he says that happiness with whatever hasem gave you will give you Merit to reacha imagine it seems so simple Hashem gave you something say thank you that's it we're not saying B whatever he gave you say thank you gave you 20,000 say thank you give you 50 say thank you say thank you just common etiquette somebody opens the door for you you thank him like they mashia say thank youm that gave you everything you have even if it's a problem even if it's doesn't make sense just say thank you since that alone in the page 29a it says that a father has numer numerous obligations to teach his son one thing he has to teach his son is an obligation we seen is to teach his son Torah a father's obligation is to teach a son Torah what happens if the father doesn't know Torah he hire somebody that knows Torah but in reality it should be from the father but if the father's not able he has to pay for somebody to teach him Torah it's one obligation that says father has to a son second obligation he must teach him some type of profession some type of skill that he can use to make a living both of the these two things you don't really need the Torah for it education skill set what's so special about it the third one is the tricky one the third one the says is the father is obligated to teach his son swimming swimming with your Merit about this swimming part now most people look at it literally it's good to not how to swim especially in those times they didn't exactly have uh life jackets and if you want to travel from City to City there's only one way there's no planes no trains boats and the boats weren't exactly uh the greatest boats in the world all the time you're lucky if you survived so it's good to know how to swim but we know there's no way they meant this why do we know CU tah is eternal the teachings of the sages are Eternal there's no way they told you learn swimming when you know today it's not even relevant why is it not even relevant today cuz if you're righteous today you're not even allowed to go swimming anymore in 99% of the places why because there's naked people there true it's one of the of die and not sin it's better you die than go to the beach with the naked people there it's better you die than go and hang out by the pool with a bunch of Imus women die I'm not talking about don't go it's not good Bo you know you get slapped on your head it's the same level there's three sins where it's better you die and not sin one of them is idol worship somebody says here's JC Penny go worship Him says die and don't worship Him die and don't bow to him die they say we're going to shoot you no problem take the gun shoot yourself marriage it's km second murder not allowed to murder anyone for you to survive they tell you look either you die or your friend dies die don't kill your friend not let to kill anybody third sex crimes to go to a place full of immodesty like the beach the pools the water parks those places it's now I know this is shocking to some people but this is a reality this is reality so for all of those people that are like halfway religious with the small little keeper but they go to the beach the whole summer you are violating one of the worst possible sins in the Torah so obviously this commandment this law this teachings from the sages of teaching the children to swim it's not possible that it just means that it could mean that but something else also what's the the is that it has to do with this entire Mish the is that the swimming does not actually mean swimming the is is that yes you need to teach your to your son T yes you need to teach your son some type of skill set you need to teach your son Torah and the skill set so he can get to a point of having this wisdom we talked about you need to teach your son Tor so you can actually develop his midot develop his character traits so you can actually be a Gib that overcomes his yet you can teach your son Tor and skill set so you could be somebody but without teaching him he's not going to survive without teaching him about a and where he is when it's dark he's not going to survive life that's swimming my friend that's swimming swimming is not to swim when it's coast clear and everything is fine swimming is when you're drowning and you're swallowing water because the debt doesn't stop coming the bills don't stop coming the loss don't stop coming everyone hates you it all looks like it's terrible and you feel like you're drowning and you don't know where God is God's where the darkness is that's what swimming is that's what emuna is emuna is not when everything is wonderful and you just won $430 million and M is when everything is dark and you can find God that's swimming that's what the father's obligated to teach his son he has to teach his son to survive the turmoil that he's going to experience in his life because regardless of who he is he could be Joey or he could be mosenu he could be Steve or he could be AB ainu you are going to suffer in your life it's just going to happen why because that's what makes you a diamond that's what makes a diamond a diamond when you first find the diamond it's an ugly looking Rock it's hideous looking what makes it beautiful when you cut it and you break it and you cut it and you put the laser and you smash it and you cut it and you kick the hell out of it eventually becomes a diamond what made mosu mosenu the non-stop suffering he had what made abuu at least 10 tests that he got from that k only their their only m is which are the 10 why is there m which are the 10 because there was more than 10 there was simply more than 10 right after he went to sacrifice his son to he passed the test Hashem says don't touch him now I know you fear me you figure this is a 10 test I finished I'm done vouch signed off on me I fear hem I have who's greater than you he comes home s is dead did you ever see a p in the Torah complaining to God why did you kill my wife I passed the test test number 10 why' you kill my wife why why' you let the Satan killer why you ever see a complain to hm hey hasm dear hasem why ask a question why' you do it give me give me give me give me a give me give me something no why AB a knew everything is the will of hem even if it doesn't make sense because abah a knew how to swim abrahamu knew how to swim and that's what he thought and that's what Tau yob and that's what yob was able to survive survive against as it doesn't get worse than as as is someone that writes in the I hated asem hem created him he says I hated I hate him every day he said I'm gonna do chuva he never did chuva he knew all the truth he never did Chua him I hate him I hate and when yobu comes back home to Aba and IMA he doesn't see him over 20 years he wants to see he say oh is is going to come what did he say to hem Hashem save me save me from the hand of my brother save me from the hand of asav despite knowing the Tor the Kus all the amazing things yov knew that even to swim even to swim even to have to survive you need you need aem's help you need to swim to survive to have this the basic level or the you need the help of hem how do you get to the help of hem you start with the beginning go to page one who's wise T okay I'm Gonna Learn Tor who's a I'm gonna start fighting my who oh so I'm G stop one two three we don't go to from a to z a b c Al G one after another we don't skip to loving hem it's not possible whoever is teaching that is lying to you and last but not least Ben says who's honored who's honored Hashem says someone who honors me someone who honors my children and in the book of Deuteronomy chapter 6 verse 5 it says when you love God you love theem your God in The Book of Leviticus chapter 19:8 it says and you loved your brother as you love yourself I am God the gatria value the numerical value which we learned a little bit about it yesterday of both of those sentences is 493 loving God and loving your brother your fellow Jew has the same exact numerical value giving us the hint that to if you love one you must love the other if you hate is you hate God if you hate God you hate is if you're anti-semitic you hate God too you can't hate is and love God you can't love God if you hate am is one goes with the other but how do we know we love God how do we know we have a chance a chance of loving God said what's the purpose of life what's the purpose of everything we said in the beginning of the purpose of life is to sanctify A's name live your life with a constant strategy of how I'm going to sanctify shem's name what am I going to do today to honor his name to make him my king every day we say every day we say bless you king of the world king of the world but not me king of the world but everybody else he says that says it starts with you make him the king of you he's watching you he's looking at you you not him forget about him you starts with you who you see in the mirror that's who it starts with make him king of you because if every everybody said he's the king of everybody else except me he's the king of no one he says first starts with you the chuva starts at home it starts inside sanctify hasem his name on a daily basis the silliest thing we can do is sanctify hashem's name everywhere else except at home everyone else has to do chva but I'm still working on Shabbat everyone else has to do but I still like to look at girls everyone else has to eat kosher but I still like to eat salad at Subway you're a cheat you're a liar and when the time comes and hem gives you a test you're G to fail because you don't even have the basic level of or or or anything it's all a show at the summarize at all how do we know we got here T we learned yesterday we're learning today you want Torah get used to get used to sacrificing your life your time your sleep your sanity your everything get used to making yourself uncomfortable if you want Torah you don't want Torah you're not going to have a point to life you'll be just like the you and the Sheep same thing only difference is they don't get punished you want Torah get used to getting uncomfortable eventually you'll enjoy it but in the beginning it's uncomfortable you want to survive the first level of Torah start picking fights with the yet instead of picking fight with your wife instead of picking fights with your husband instead of picking fights with the neighbor with your kids start picking fights with the yet yet want you to stay asleep wake up da yet wants you to finish half a page finish the whole page daa yet want you to yell daa don't yell whatever the yet want you to do do the opposite why because you know it's right get used to fighting the and if it's hard you're in the right direction you could be considered a Gib for that moment that you beat the after you start beting the yet you're going to get some bigger test your test will be upgraded you're going to see your friend get a raise but you didn't you're going to see the financials go down and you're still supposed to keep a smile because an upside down smile doesn't look so good you can have rent coming or mortgage coming or not money in the bank but hasem says you still have to be some you still have to be happy you still have to look like that honorable person at the end of the mish how how do I survive how do I survive all of this he says get Lear learn learn how how to swim learn how to swim So eventually you can say Your Rod and your staff that's that's what gives me my salvation this is what gives me my salvation why because God I know you're my shepherd you want from me you're my shepherd a Shepherd is not going to deliver me to the slaughter house a Shepherd is not going to deliver me off the mountain a Shepherd is going to deliver me to a place that's good for me to my safety mosenu chased the sheep and when he finally found them he carried them on his back all the way back home because Shalom he ran extra because of me because I didn't feed him I didn't give him enough food I didn't give him enough drink it's my fault mosu says Hashem says you worry so much about my sheep I want to one I want you to lead my people too so if mosu which still at the end of it all is the prophet of all prophets but still Flesh and Blood imagine is telling you God is my shepherd God is your Shepherd so even if he's hitting you with the rod he's not hitting you to hit you he's hitting you to direct you the rod is really the staff you just got to look at it the right way way but you're never going to be able to look at it that way you're never going to be able to look at it that way if you don't go with ABC if you don't start with Torah if you don't start with working on your yet if you don't start becoming happy with stuff that doesn't make sense you're never going to survive the battle if you don't start with the Torah because everything else is secular garbage everything else is not applicable to life it may be applicable to your career you may be an architect you may be a lawyer you may be a mathematician but when life punches you in the face you're not going to survive you're not going to survive without the is telling you the tough the difficulty the hardship that's God that's God if you identified it that means you follow the steps you follow the steps if you celebrated it that means you've made those steps part of you you made them you didn't just you don't just know them theoretically you don't just know them theoretically like maybe this sounds good this may be no no this became part of you when you take the needle you start stabbing yourself you rip your skin apart there's enough blood like you just butchered somebody you're saying this is good for me you got somewhere maybe you got started maybe you have 1% yes it hurts but maybe you got somewhere that's an achievement in life without it with all the architecture and all the law and all the real estate and all the stock market and all the books you could write that all these different people with self-help books give you it's worth nothing nothing because when push comes to shove you can't become one with secular knowledge you can't become one so anyone that teaches you otherwise is either lying to you or just doesn't know what suffering is yet any questions am amen very [Music] [Applause] [Music] la [Music]