Parashat Bechukotai - is there a world to come (Olam Habah)? - Rabbi Alon Anava

[Music] this week we again have the pleasure of reading to uh weekly pares at the same time so Tuesday we learned about the first parasa and now we're going to learn about the second portion that is called and this is a very interesting portion that a lot of people actually don't like this parasa because it's talking about a lot of punishments this week we learn we're reading both and but TR we learned about be today we're going to learn about and a lot of people don't like this par so much because it's talking about a lot of curses and punishments and this is called the par of sakar and Onish the reward and Punishment and a lot of people when it comes to punishment or negative things hurts their ear how come there's a punishment but more than that it's talking about the reward that I will get in this world for doing a Mitzvah if you do like this you'll get like that which is very nice I'm very happy to get a reward but it's skipping a very interesting detail which you know makes everybody interested it's skipping about the detail what will be my reward in the world to come and the Torah is going out of its way to disregard and to ignore the world above after when I die now this is a big a big question cuz a lot of people you'll come and tell them you know there's life after death so to say and there's a afterlife and there's a heaven there's hell and there's all sorts of things going on a lot of people say where you come up with this idea doesn't sound like a Jewish idea where do you see in the Torah that it's talking about a spiritual world where does it say in the Torah that there's a gedan doesn't have the word ganeden in the Torah I mean it has it in the book of bit but it's talking about ganeden here where does it say in the Torah about the world above or the world to come doesn't say the word doesn't say anything so the question is why the Torah chooses to ignore or to completely hide the fact that there's a world to come and in this par it's talking about if you do these positive actions you'll get a positive reaction you're going to get a reward and ifom you do something negative then you'll get a negative reaction but we want to know at least in this what's interesting to me is why the T is choosing to ignore right the Tora is choosing not to tell me that there's a world to come and there's a spiritual reward because a lot of people say listen you know I'm actually investing here for the world to come so more than that there's a big question is why the Torah is being so obvious about the reward and the punishment I mean our sages tell us we have to do a mitzvah for the sake of the Mitzvah not for the sake of their reward and I should not do a certain action not because I'm afraid of a punishment rather because I want to listen to Hashem so why is the Tora really explaining all this reward and Punishment so for this question the the midash gives a very interesting answer and it says that if you're noticing in the parasa of the rewards it's starting with the letter Al if you will go in my laws and it's ending in the letter t as it says so it's starting with an Al if and it ends with a t meaning it has all the letters in between and it's is not limited so the Paras of the clot of the curses it starts with the letter VAV and if you will not hear and it earns it it ends with the letter hey ends with the word bead Moshe so it's starts with a VAV but ends with a he meaning that it's going backwards so the midash teaches from that that when it comes to blessing blessing you can get more and more and more like all the letters you want have the first letter the second letter the third letter when it comes to curses whatever the Torah says that's what it is there's no more that's that's why it goes backwards it starts with a V and goes back to a he so the good news is is that when it comes to blessing there's no limit it can go more and more and more when it comes to Shalom something negative then there's there's a limmit and hasem says this these are just the curses of Shalom that punishes now it also arouses an a question because it talks about a little bit of reward and a lot of curses there's only 11 verses that are talking about their rewards and there's only 29 verses that it's talking about the curses which is almost three times as much so again one might look from that why why is there so much information about the curses and not information about the blessings which we'll get to that at the end of the class but mainly today we want to concentrate on the fact as a where do we learn in the Torah that there's a world to come that there a spiritual world and after we die we go to a better place Le we hope so where does the Torah teaches this where does it come from in Judaism and more than that why does the Torah choose to totally ignore it and not to mention anything about it in the Torah now there's a book it's called seph this was written by rabud Lev few hundred years ago and the book it's the story says that he sat with the king of kuzar and the king of kuzar would ask abuda Levi questions and he would answer them and he put them in the book and in this book you will find that the Kari comes and he says to rabud Levi how come other religions they talk about the world above the and your religion doesn't I mean Christianity is only talking about the world to come same thing with Islam they're they're talking about a lot the spiritual world the world to come and the Kari says how come your religion doesn't talk at all about this world about the world to come where where do you learn even that there world to come what's called so where really do we learn about it cuz the Torah really doesn't talk it's talking maybe in hints but it doesn't really talk about anything solid telling us there is AA the first time we find information abouta is in the book of prophets and that's in the book of shmoel and there's a story there that Shaul went out to a war with the Pim and unfortunately they were losing the war and there was a lot of casualties and it seemed like they're about to lose the war so it says that Shaul went to a place called aor and he went to a fortune teller and he wanted her to do a seance and to bring the soul of Shmo Lavi so he can ask him a question because while he was alive Shmo was his mentor Shmo the prophet used to answer Sha's questions he was an adviser now in this war Schmo already passed from the world so he didn't know what to do it seemed like they're about to lose the war so he W goes to this fortune teller or it's not really a fortune teller it's I don't know the word in English in NE it's called malat she used to do a seance like a witch sitting in a dark room so she called the soul of Sho Ai and she did a seance and Shmo told her tell shaol that tomorrow he's going to die well that's not a good news so sha got very upset what that's the news you getting me so he wanted to see if she's talking truth so how can he believe her so he asked her how do I know you really spoke with shmoel how does he look so she says he's wearing a a coat made out of a certain cloth and that's how he recognized that he knew that she's talking truth because it was known that Shmo was not buried with the you know when we bury we take little pieces of of fabric and we s them together it's called and that's how we cover the bodyo was a buried in a coat from these fabric it wasn't he wasn't buried in and this fortune teller she saw Shmo with the coat and she told shaol that he's wearing me that's the word that it's using a coat made out of fabric and he recognized it and of course the next day sha B died he he committed suicide I mean he put the sword the other way around and he told one of the boys there to push him and he he died the next day so you can go to to the chapter there in shmoel and read more about it but this is the first time that we're getting a solid hint that there's a spiritual world and it is a life after death because she brought Shmo from the dead she did the Seance and she brought the soul from the world above so this is the first time that the tanak is mentioning some about the world above the next time is also in the book of shmoel and there's a story with a certain individual and his name was navalha car navala car was a very very wealthy man and at the time David King David was not a king yet and he he was considered Outcast he was considered a felon because shaol was going after him shaol knew that he's about to get the chair sha wanted to kill him constantly was going after him soav had to hide out and in order to run his operation he recruited a bunch of uh boys to be his gang so to say and they needed to eat so they used to go to this navala car and ask him for food he was rich and he the story says that he didn't want to give them food so they went into his David was a little bit sh and he says okay no problem you don't want to give us food I'll show you and he took all his boys like a gang and they went into his fields and they started making problems causing problems destroying things vandalizing doing all sorts of all sorts of damages and he got very upset now this navala car had a wife who was actually a pretty righteous woman and his her name was AIG she came to David a and she told him she told him a certain verse that your soul should be when it goes to the world above will will live forever this is why we say when somebody die and we say the name of the person you see it on all the tub stones and you go to cemetery it has an acronym this is this is where it comes from that his soul excuse me what does it mean it means that the soul should be so to say imprinted or placed or or so to say sold in the tree of life in the world above so she says about David she was obviously she had marital problems with her husband so she was happy that David was causing problems so she told him your soul should be a signed for the world above forever and ever and the soul of my husband should be hunged in kafa she didn't like him at all obviously they had some bite issues maybe he maybe he took her out of the whe but this is the first time actually in the tanak that she mentioned the world above the the spiritual World more than that that's the first time we find in the tanak the word kafak kafak we know that is a very severe punishment that a soul can go through and it's talking about it a lot in the talmud and it's mentioned even a lot in the book of Tanya by the balatan the concept of kafak kafak is a slingshot but this is the first time it's mentioned in the tanak in this story so again we find another story in the tanak that it's talking about the spiritual world and the world above now the next time we find anything about the world above is in the book of calet calet by by King Solomon and and it says a verse a very interesting verse it says that the person will go back to the Earth to the to the ashes of the land like he where he came from and the spirit will go back to God from where it came from the god that gave it so this is really the first time this is also in the in that the wisest man King Solomon literally says that the body is worthless it's going to rot and go back to it where it came from and the spirit the ru is going to go back to God so he's saying there in a very clear an obvious way that there is a world above that the soul goes to when it leaves the world so we see three very clear H details in the tanak talking about the world above then of course in the talud in the oral Tora we find many stories that it's talking about the spiritual world one of them which is the most famous one is if you remember the story with RAB AKA that Rabbi AKA he was a part of the war of the what's called merid merid is the is the how do you say merid merid is the H when they went against the the government re excuse me reevolution Revolution yeah let's say Revolution so at the time there was a certain individual his name was Bara yeah Bara at the time they they had a mistake they even thought that he's mashiah but there was a revolution against adrianos adrianos was the ruler at the time and RAB AKA that was already after the destruction of the Temple and and RAB AA was participating in the revolution in the mer and the decree was made by adrianos that you're allowed to learn Torah and RAB AKA didn't listen and he he didn't care he continued teaching and learning Tor like as if nothing happened so the result was that one day they came and they combed his flesh 300 times with a steel comb made out of steel and they literally murdered him and that was on his birthday he was exactly 120 years old and and there are four people that we know that reached the age of 140 120 120 sorry and he was one of them and they murdered him with 300 Combs 300 times combing his flesh with metal Combs and as he was being murdered his students were screaming out to him like what this is the reward you get for the Torah you are our rebi you are the giant in the Torah and that's how you leaving this world they couldn't understand at the same time the Angels were standing above and looking down and screaming in the Heavens to this is the reward for the Torah the person dedicated his life to become a Torah scholar 24 years he was not with his wife he gave his heart and soul and mind to the nation to teach the Torah and he lived till 120 and this is how he ends his life in such a a horrible death so hasem answered the the angels and he said sikim the righteous people their portion is in life but you just murdered him what do you mean in life so the answer was the life is up there not here the real life is the world above this world meaning the real reward of the Torah is in the world above not in this world so this is one of the most famous stories in the talud basically saying out in the open the real life is the spiritual life it's in the world above and the reward you get from what you did in this world is not in this world you get it in the world above there's no reward reward in this world so to say now there's another story in the tud that emphasizes the fact that there's a world above and there's a very famous story with RAB Yan bin zakar Ben Zak sorry ranan B Zak was one of the pillars in the oral Torah and the story in talmud says that on the day that he died he was sitting in his bed and he was crying and all his students couldn't understand they told him Rie why are you crying I mean you're such a sadik and he tells them I'm crying because I'm scared and you're telling you're scared he's like yes I'm about to meet my Creator so they're telling him you are scared you are a perfect sadic they the tud says that he never even talked one time conversation that has nothing to do with Tor one time in his life and they're telling him you are scared you are like the most righteous you are s g what do you have to be scared of so he said if I would meet a king flesh and blood king I would be excited if you would now go meet a president or a Big King you would get excited so he says so much more so I'm going to meet the master of the universe I am scared maybe maybe there is something wrong and he's basically saying there in other words I'm going to the spiritual world in the a life after that he's basically saying in a very obvious way that there's a spiritual he's not saying I'm I'm about to be manure to the to the worms right now he's basically saying I'm leaving this world and going to the spiritual World saying very clearly that there is a world above there's a spiritual world now comes a very big question because we know for many hints I just told you two stories out of hundreds we know from many stories that the reward that we get for our good deeds in this world is in the world above but the Torah also says that you're going to get a reward in this world comes a big question there's a story in the tud said by a certain Rabbi called RAB aov and he was one time observing a story and he's sitting in the in a nice Forest he's sitting leaning on a tree eating his sandwich and he sees a a a scene and he sees a father and a son walking in the path suddenly this father looks up on the tree and he sees a a nest and he tells the son son climb on the tree and Scar scare the bird away and do the Mitzvah of sh again scaring the bird away and take the the eggs the sun goes up on the tree does the mitzvah he comes to come down and the ladder moves and he falls down and dies and he doesn't understand what just happened he's like these are the two Mitzvah that it says in the Torah Le that if you do this Mitzvah you're going to gain long life the Mitzvah of honoring your parents and the MIT of scaring the bird away the Torah says clearly when when it comes comes to honoring your parents that you will gain a long life from it so this ROV says I don't believe it I don't understand what happened here the boy did two mitv that the Torah gives a promise that you'll G again gain a a long life and he dies I don't understand it so the answer was that the that you will gain good good and long life it's talking about the world above it's not talking about in this world when you honoring your parents it doesn't mean you're going to live till 150 it means that in the world above that your days in the world above you'll get a lot and is you're going to get good long life in the world above not in this world so basically we see here two things a that the Tor is totally ignoring about the fact that there world above the Torah not the tanak it's totally hiding it there's nowhere that you can find in the Torah the world the word more than that it's talking about that the reward of what we do is in in the world above not in this world comes a certain commentary that is called the cleak and he brings seven explanations seven why the Torah is ignoring the fact that the that is a world above seven explanations why the Torah chooses to totally disregard now we're not going to go through all of them I'm just going to mention two of them one of them is is explained by a certain commentary called yoseph albo and he explains that the Torah is not mentioning anything about a reward in the world above because he says all the reward that the Torah is talking about is a re reward for the public not a personal reward and if you're going in the it says if you're going to go in my rules I will give you the rain in its time once rain was the most important thing no rain no crops no crops no food now nobody cares about the rain but in the olden days rain was the most important thing but if it look if you look at the word it says when it rains everybody enjoys the rain not only me it only doesn't only rain on me the entire city enjoys the rain this is a very Collective reward it says it's in a plural well all your Reigns meaning that he says listen the reward is not a personal reward it's a very general means that I do a certain action everybody enjoys it it's not me it's not my reward the next thing that it says that the Torah says Shalom I'm going to give peace in the land if there's going to be peace in the land everybody benefits from that not only me it's not only that me where I live there's going to be peace and everybody else is not going to be in peace the entire land is going to get peace then it says that I'm going to control the bad animals again this is something that affects everybody meaning that the reward of our good actions goes to the public it doesn't go to me therefore the Torah is choosing not to mention anything about the world above because that's a personal reward it's not a general reward okay this is the explanation sounds very makes a lot of common sense why the Torah will choose to ignore the reward in the world above comes my Mones and he gives a a a very solid foundation in our belief that this is a basically used by most commentaries and most people go by that there isn't a reward in the Torah for the world above because the Mitzvah should we should be done for the sake of Heaven not for the sake of the reward Ram says I don't want the Torah doesn't come and says if you'll do this you'll get that because then I'll do the mitzvah for the reward and the foundation of our belief is that you have to do the mitzvah for the sake of the Mitzvah not for the sake of the reward and if the Tora is going to come and start telling you what's my reward I'll be like oh if I put Fillin on I'm going to get a million dollars let me put Fillin on and I will be driven to do the Mitzvah because of the reward and the Mitzvah should be done only for the sake of the mitzvah for the sake of hem and not for the sake of the reward therefore rambam comes and he says that's where the Torah totally disqualifies the the fact that there's a world to come so I'm not going to have an incentive here and if I'm going to have an incentive then I lost the point of the Mitzvah he basically says something very very simple that this is what we're learned from that the Torah is the conditions for my job if I get hired right now to a job I come to the job interview they tell me this is your job I agree now in order for me to fulfill my condition my my job they're giving me conditions they're telling me we're going to give you a car because you have to go to meetings and we're going to give you a cell phone CU you have to make calls and we're going to give you a laptop and we're going to give you an iPad and we're going to give you all sorts of things they have to give me condition I mean they can't come and tell me listen we want you to drive for our company but bring your own car so almost any job opportunity you come to they'll give you conditions you come to do a certain job let's say you are uh you do cleaning they have to give you a broom they have to give you detergent they have to give you the soap they you can't bring it from your home tell bring it from your your home so almost in any job that I go to it has to be conditions have to be tools to do the job we learn from what the rambam says that the Torah is these conditions for my job it's not the reward it's not my paycheck it's the conditions I have to fulfill my job then I have to get conditions and I have to get tools and the Torah and the Mitzvah is the tools it's not the reward so where where do we learn something interesting from that there is a story in the talud that kind of teaches us that the mitvah that I do in this world I will get gain reward in this world and this is where the parasa comes from because the parasa chooses to ignore the the reward the reward in the world above from the reason is that the Torah says I don't want to tell you what's the reward I don't want you to work in this world for a reward but then again the Torah comes and tells me if you do what I tell you I will give you a reward but here it's coming to a reward in this world meaning that the S the reward that I get from my work in this world is in this world not in the world above it says if you go in my path in my rules I will give you now the rain the reward is here it's not in the world above meaning that the Tor comes and says listen I'm totally ignoring the world above concentrate on this world and if you do a Mitzvah you'll get a reward if in this world not in the world above maybe you will we're not going to talk about it right now so thear comes and tells a very interesting story that we learn how one gets a reward in this world now this story says that there's a certain family in in their last name was Eli now like in our generation you have a g you have a Feinstein whatever it is their last name was Ellie and this family had a serious problem that older kids died by the age of 18 that's some weird genetic disease that the kids will come to the age of 18 and die and they didn't have ER sophisticated technology and medicine they couldn't find out what's the disease what's the problem but they knew that there's a problem and the kids never reached the age of 19 at the age of 18 everybody died to so they went at the time to the re of the generation which was yanan B Zaki and he told him listen your family is cursed because you are the grandchildren of the Cohen that was named the elien there was a certain high priest that his name was Eli and he had two kids one of them one of his name was pinhas and the other one was name was Ki and these two kohanim these two priests were not behaving the right way in the in the excuse me they weren't behaving real nice in while they were doing the sacrifices and they got cursed that all their kids will die they really were not behaving nice next to the Altar and there was a curse that Aller kids will die and yanan B Zak said you are Grand great grandkids of this Coen Gad therefore all your kids are dying now this family at some point had two kids that are became very very famous one of them is called abay and the other one is called Raa and these are the two most dominating amim sages from the talud they conclude the talud and these two sages end up actually living much more than 18 why because they were very smart individuals they knew they are offsprings of this Coen Eli they knew they're not going to reach the age of 19 but they were Torah Scholars and they made a deal with the kadosh so abay came to Hashem and says listen I'm going to devote my Torah 100% to you if you're going to let me live I will learn TMA the same way that came and told hm if you give me a child I will take this child and I will sacrifice him for youo I will give him he's going to be dedicated to you AB said listen if you give me a longer life I will devort my life to Torah and my entire Torah is going to be dedicated to you sure enough AB lived till the age of 40 he got 22 years bonus from his Torah learning Raa was a little bit more smart he did the same deal with the K just that he added I'm also going to do I'm going to devote my entire Tor to you and I'm going to totally be immersed in charitable acts and it's also going to be devoted to you so he would learn all day long in a Yesa and at night he had all sorts of charitable organizations soup kitchen clothes whatever it is so he lived till the age of 60 so he got a Bonus of 42 years so from this story in thear we learn how an act in this world a Mitzvah in this world actually you get a reward in this world M you get the reward in this world it's not talking about the world above right now it's talking about this world why because the Mitzvah is the conditions for my job meaning that if I'm a very good employee I'm an outstanding employee you know what I'm going to get I'm going to get a bonus the employee of the month I'm going to get a nicer office space I'm going to get a nicer car I'm going to get a vacation because the conditions that I get in my job is to do perform my job not for the paycheck that I get at the end of the month the paycheck is the salary but I need conditions if I want to be a good worker I need conditions the Tora and the mitv is the conditions for my job in this world the salary is not discussed here in this world now there's another story in the talud proving that the reward is in this world there's a certain Tana there's a certain Sage his name was rahuna he was known to be a very great sage and at the same time he was also known to be extremely wealthy and he had vineries he had wine he used to do wine and he had what's called a a he had 400 400 Vines just imagine what it means to have 400 Vines he would would be the mass producer of wine of the time anyways uh it says that one time he had 400 barrels of wine that went sour overnight so that's a big Financial loss you know what it means to lose 400 barrels of wine I mean you buy a little bottle of wine imagine 400 barrels of wine anyways he didn't know why overnight they all got sour this is a a huge financial lust so you know everybody was kind of embarrassed to maybe suggest that he did something wrong he only had one friend that told him listen you know there's no hardship in this world if there's no sin you must did a sin you probably did some type of a sin that you're getting a punishment in this world in this world if you get the punishment in the world about that's a whole different thing but when you get a punishment in this world there must be a sin and there's no such a thing the Torah tells you so his friend who was the only one who was telling him straight to the face listen do a check you have to check your acts maybe you did something wrong and he found out that there's a certain worker in his vines that he didn't pay him 100% he missed some of the payments and he called the worker they made a an account they made aesan and he paid him everything till the last scent and they squared it out the story says that there's two versions of the story one version says that overnight they all became unsour another version said that the he very quickly had a whole new H crops that came and he was able to make double the amount that not only that he didn't have any lost he made much more money became even more wealthier but we see here very obvious that the reward that you get for a good act for a Mitzvah is in this world not in the world above the keson the the summary the salary in the world above that's not discussed because Hashem says I don't want you to operate in this world based on a reward I want you to operate in this world based on this world concentrate on this world why are you concentrating on the world above so we see that there's a very huge connection between the spiritual and the physical and the Torah basically comes and tells me if you're going to do good deeds in this world you're going to get the reward in this world I'm not talking about the world above right now you're going to do charitable acts you're going to learn Tor you're going to follow the MIT you're going to have a good life in this world don't don't don't concenter it now on the world above that is obvious the reason why the Torah is not talking about the world above because it says that's obvious I don't need to talk about it if you do what I tell you in this world so much more so it's going to be good in the world above the to wants to be very clear by saying if you do what I tell you in this world in this world you're going to have ganeden I mean in this world we have we want to have a good life I want to have a nice home I want to have money I want to have a nice uh relationship with my wife I want healthy kids I want to be healthy I want to enjoy the world I want to travel I want to I want to see things I want to enjoy this world so the Torah tells me do good in this world you're going to get the good in this world meaning that if I'm not getting so much good in this world meaning that I'm I have to like with thisa I got to check maybe I'm doing something wrong that I'm getting some bad things going on in this world so the Torah comes and tells me very very simple that the reward that I gain from the Tora and is in this world that ganed heaven can be in this world it's not in the world above the world above is for the world above we're not talking about it because mainly the Torah comes and tells me I don't want you to have any agenda I don't want you to do anything based on the fact that you're going to get something in the world above when the kar was arguing with r that saying other religions they talk about about the world above the answer was yeah because for example the terrorists the Muslims you know why they bomb themselves cuz they're promised something in the world above they're willing to do something extreme in this world because their belief is that oh in the world above I'm going to get 72 virgins you know the joke is that they don't get 72 virgins they get just they get one virgin that she's 72 years old so that's just a joke but there maybe it's real I don't know I heard said is actually 72 Virginians oh so hello so the point is that that the they do an extreme act based on the fact that they're getting a reward in the world above and in many other religion they they teach do a the reward in the world above will be such and such and the Torah comes and says no I don't want you to say now oh I will observe Shabbat because in the world above I'm going to get a reward cuz that's what going to happen I'm going to sit like this the entire Shabbat thinking of my reward and the Torah says no I want you to serve AEM for the sake of serving AEM not for the sake of getting a check at the end of the month so therefore the Torah chooses to totally ignore the reward of the world to come cuz the Tor says I want you to concentrate on this world I want you to do the mitzvah for the sake of the mitzvah for serving AEM but if you do the Mitzvah in this world you will get a reward in this world what's going to happen in the world above don't worry about right now don't worry if you're going to get a reward if the Torah comes and tells you you're going to get a reward in this world for a Mitzvah so much more so you're going to get a reward in the world to come from a Mitzvah but the real way of doing the actual Mitzvah or learning the Torah is for its sake not to have an agenda so to summarize it the Torah comes and tells me I'm giving you the Torah and Mitzvah to educate you to give you a tool how to operate in this world you buy now a a machine you buy a phone you buy a TV you buy whatever it is it comes with a manual so the manual tells you how to use it how to benefit the most out of it same thing here hasem puts me in this world and he tells me here's a manual I want you to know how to use the world here's the Torah it's going to teach you what to do you just follow the manual there's nothing to do with a reward right now don't don't look look for a reward the Torah is just my work conditions in order for me to serve hem in this world and yes I need to look at it in a way that's saying if I should already get a reward it's for this world and there's nothing wrong in saying yes you know what I do want to have an nice relationship with my wife I want to have health I want to have money there's nothing wrong with that it doesn't say anywhere in the Torah that I have to suffer it doesn't say anywhere in the Torah that I have to live in poverty or that I should fight with my spouse or that I should be spending my time in hospitals Shalom it says you have to have a good life Shem says I'm not looking to torture you if you see that when the world was created hasem says I will put man in ganeden it says the word en I want to put you in heaven in this world hasm didn't create this world to torture us he created the world to for us to have a a heaven a place to to be but there's rules if you do good you get good you do bad you get bad it's very simple one can look at it as a reward and a punishment like we mentioned several times it's not a punishment it's a reaction it's very simple you'll go now to a dietician and The dietitian will tell you listen if you eat all these good healthy vegetables you will be healthy you're not going to have all sorts of pains you're going to have energy you're going to be alert you're going to be alive and if you eat all this junk all these treats you're going to be sick you're going to have pains you're going to gain weight and so forth and you listen to the dietician in most cases you listen why because you know I want to live healthy so so here the Torah comes and tells me you want to have a good life listen to what I tell you it's not a reward it's the conditions for my work and the Torah to answer the the major question why the Torah chooses to ignore the world above is mainly because the says I don't want you to concentrate on the world above I want you to concentrate on this world you know when mashiah is going to come we're going to be here we're not going to pack our bags and go TOA the whole concept of creating of of the world is to enjoy here this world in a later stage when mashiah is going to come there's going to be What's called the resurrection of the dead and then we're going to get our reward in this world by having a soul in a body so the body needs to get a reward for its Mitzvah and the soul will get its reward but the main reward is we're going to be like Adam and we're going to be in this world in the level of like they were in G so the real reward is still in this world has says listen I created the world for this purpose so what we need to take from that is that the reason why the Torah is ignoring the entire concept OFA it's ignoring the concept of Rewards or punishment in the Torah not talking about the tanak and not the oral Tor and not the zor and not the cabala and anything else the Torah because the Tor says this that I don't want you to operate based on a reward I do not want you to operate with an agenda or with an incentive I want you to do the mitzvah for the sake of the Mitzvah and yes you will get a reward in this world that's why the par comes and says if you're going to walk in my path can be translated as rains and Gish can also be translated as the gash the physicality and you're going to get whatever you need in the physical world if you're going to go in my path my path is the Torah and if if you're not then there's going to be all sorts of so to say curses like the Torah calls it clot curses punishments this is basically the Constitution if you read the Constitution it says what you're allowed to do and what you're not allowed to do and if you go to any normal country there's a laws if you murder first degree you're going to go to jail for a certain amount of time if you're going to do second degree murder you're going to go for x amount of time if you're going to steal if you're going to embezzle if you're going to cheat there's laws very simple so the Torah also has laws and says listen if there wouldn't be laws there wouldn't be chaos before we got the Torah there was chaos there was chaos at the at the generation of the flood they did whatever they wanted there was the chaos at there till we got the Tor there was basically chaos everywhere there was no rules people do whatever they wanted so says okay I have to bring rules you can take now any child and put the child in a deserted island without parents he will grow wild he will do whatever he wants one one can come and observe the education system of parents and say you are mean you're are tyrants you are putting the kid to sleep at 8:00 at night when he wants to stay up till 11: you are mean parents and you're not giving him a bow of of lollipops right now you are such mean parents and you put the child against his will in the shower how dare you you know you take any child now and put him in a bath they'll start screaming but you need to be clean and the children will go wild one can come and say this is child you know how do you say abuse the child is screaming how dare you give the child a shower so one can come and observe Parenthood and say you are are take taking away the child's Freedom some people say that they come and say that you are abusing the child you're taking its freedom that's my child if I'm not going to put boundaries he's going to do whatever he wants if I'm not going to punish him when he does something bad he's going to grow to do something worse he needs to understand that there's rules that there's laws that there's going to be a punishment if he's going to do something bad I can't give him to do whatever he wants I can't give him a bowl he can eat of lollipops he can have one there's nothing good if he has a whole Bowl all of them so even when I try to educate my kid there has to come rules I can't give the child whatever he wants so the Torah comes and tells me listen totally ignore the world above take it away from your your your reality don't do anything for the sake of the world above that's that's do that is doing something with an agenda or you're doing out of out of fear that you're going to be barbecued somewhere in G home maybe if you do something wrong that's wrong that's the wrong attitude don't do the prohibition not because you're afraid to be an oscure in in hell because somebody told you you yesterday we met a young lady she came and she was traumatized by the Orthodox world because she grew up more modern she wanted to become more closer to God and she moved to a a very Orthodox community and all they told her you're going to be burnt in hell because you do this you do that you do this she was she traumatized now cuz everything they told her she's going to be burned in hell and now she's now she's literally traumatized and I told her don't worry you're not going to be burnt in hell I don't know who told you that maybe the fire department I don't know who told you such a thing but the people are traumatized from that and that and Hashem says I don't want you to learn about the world above because I don't want you to be traumatized now and be afraid to do something because someone is going to come and threaten you that you're going to be now going to a certain place this is not what the Tor is saying that's why the Torah chooses to say I'm not talking about the world above it's not only your business your business is this world not the world above you want to learn a little bit about a world above you want to learn Z you want to learn cabala now it's becoming very popular people are having near-death experiences all day long 100 years ago who had a n this experience now now it's popular people come and ask me how do I have one I mean you had one how how can I have one it seems pretty interesting so the point is the Torah comes and tells me listen be simple be Torah says don't start investigating too much what's going to happen in the world above it's none of your business that's why the Torah chooses deliberately to ignore everything that has to do with later on it came in hints in the tanak later on in the oral Tora it came a little bit more obvious later on in the zor it was even much more obvious but the T itself comes and tells me concentrate on this world concentrate on the good deeds in this world yes you will get a reward in this world you'll do something good in this world you're going to get a reward in this world you're going to do something bad in this world there will there will be repercussions you will get so to say a punishment in this world don't lie don't cheat you're going to cheat in business the money that you're going to make in the business is going to go to the dentist or going to go to the auto shop from the accident so there's not going to be any blessing you're going to work on Shabbat you're not going to have any blessing in the money it's the money is going to go to something bad but you're going to give charity with your money you're going to get a reward from that there's a story in the talud we'll tell you one story and that's it about uh uh talking about the story is talking about Zak and he was once walking with his students in the street and they see a woman picking up the you know ra before said the the the word in a more obvious way but she was picking the outing dropping the droppings of an animal I mean there's other ways of saying it but she was picking the droppings of the animal they walked close they couldn't stand the sight of this lady picking up the the extent y benak looked at her and he tells her oh I know this girl you know who this girl is she's the daughter of nakon benuron she's the daughter of the Bill Gates of of the generation there were three very wealthy people at the time of the after the before and after the destruction of the temple one of them of course was the father-in-law of AKA Ben kalba but one of them was a certain individual that his name was ndon benon and he was extremely wealthy it said that he was so wealthy that he was able to sustain the entire city of J jeram for 3 years that's how much food he had that's how wealthy he was was anyways this girl that was picking up the outings the droppings of the animal was his daughter how come the princess the daughter of Bill Gates is now picking up the exrt of animals so the students wondered how did something like this happen so y b Zak said because her father didn't give enough charity didn't give enough charity you know how much charity he gave so raban Yan B Zak says yes he gave charity but not in the level what he was able to give for him for Bill Gates to give $50,000 charity that's no charity he needs to give $500 million dollar in charity because he has billions then the charity has to be in the same value you have you're worth $20 billion you need to give at least $2 billion in charity so to a billionaire that is worth two20 billion to give $50,000 that's not charity it's like me giving two cents so y b Zak said yeah her father did give charity but not in the level that he was supposed to give he he was supposed to give much more charity therefore the punishment so to say that he lost his entire Fortune now his daughter is picking up the droppings from the animals so why does the daughter geted him up by himself that's a very good question why would the daughter get affected because there are many explanations one of them is that the father is responsible for the CH children and me as a father and you as a mother you are responsible for the child if I'm lazy and I don't want to get up to work or I go and take my money and drink it or snort it or gamble it my child will get affected and it's not you would say why is the child getting affected obviously it's the it's a Divine Providence for the child to suffer but it's the responsibility of the parents when I go into Thea I should go into Thea and to understand that I'm about to take responsibility now to my spouse it's actually in theba it says that I have to take responsibility I have to to provide to my wife that's what it says in theba I sign it then I have children before I have a child I have to think am I responsible enough to take um care of this child I have children now I cannot do whatever I want I can't just get up and leave I can't just take my money now and go on a vacation and leave my children with a babysitter I have responsibility to my kids that's why when I have children you have to be responsible and if I do something yeah it will affect my kids you know that if I now do something foolish and I will be arrested and go to jail my kids will suffer from that one might say what is it what is it the kids fault obviously that's the Divine Providence what's called that but yes it's my responsibility but we learn from that that my actions in this world will affect me good or bad I will do something good like we see with Runa he he he fixed a damage that he did that he didn't pay his worker not only that he got his barrels of wine back he tripled them and we see here with the with this rich person likeon that he didn't give enough charity he lost his fortune so basically what we can take from that is that anything that happens in this world happens for a reason and very possible that I did something to cause it and when I something bad happens to me the tells me first of all go through your acts you might have done something wrong if I wake up in the morning now and I got a ticket or my car got towed or somebody smashed into my car and ran away then I should right away say wait a minute maybe I did something let me back track now to see maybe I stole maybe I did gizzle maybe I lied maybe I cheated maybe I did something and if you're really honest you might find really what you did if you're not honest you'll sweep things on the table and say no no no that's that's fine but if you're really honest you'll be like you know what it wasn't right I did raise my voice on that individual it wasn't nice I cursed my wife I I was mean to my parent whatever it is or I cheated here and there you have to be honest if you're 100% honest then you'll find out that you're not 100% right and you know how to do chuva that's why I don't like calling it punishments I rather calling it a reaction and more like a sign Hashem tells you listen you did something wrong here's a sign wake up you did something so it will come we talked about it last week first it comes a little bit sh knocks very soft in the beginning then he knocks A Little Bit Stronger then he knocks more so hasem sends you sign all the time you can call it a punishment I will call it a sign hasem tells you you did something wrong wake up do Chua apologize give it back and it will be reversed so we want to take from that something very simple something very Noble serve hem for the sake of hem don't serve hem for the sake of what you're going to get a reward in the world to come and hold yourself from doing negative things not because shom one day you'll find yourself an a skewer what people saying G home you're not going to find yourself an a skewer stop yourself from lying or cheating or cursing or doing something wrong because it's the right thing to do because you're going to hurt somebody else because that's the will of hem and we're supposed to represent hem as human beings and I have to be aware of what I'm doing not because of the reward of the punishment because it's the right thing to do I should now give you charity not because I'm expecting to make a business deal I know people that they come to me and they tell me here's $1,000 charity why are you giving me suddenly $1,000 because I have a big business deal I want it to close pray for me now you're deciding to give me charity the whole year what yeah the whole year I'm telling you I need money for my Yesa I need money for the food I need money for that now you have a business deal suddenly you come with the check so you're right at least they're honest and they're saying I want my business deal to work out but you know sometimes people all year round they don't show their face in sh they come on R suddenly big amounts are being declared in the in the in the air $1,000 $2,000 why because their agenda is I need to get a blessing for the rest of the year so they come and suddenly they're very generous in R they raise the hand when it comes to the auctioning they forget to pay it but they come for the fact for the blessing for the rest of the year I was was a gabai in a in a Big Show for many years I can tell you that 90% of them don't pay they raise their hand it's very easy to say 100 but to pay the 100 to go like this is easy to go like that it's very hard to write the check so that's a very severe thing by the way cuz when you raise the hand in the Sho when they sell the opening of the ark or going up to an alah and they sell it and you raise your hand and you say 100 or 200 or whatever it is you made a n you made a vow and if you don't pay it that's a severe sin is to break a vow and I always kept telling it in shs in many shs that I go to people raise their hand to volunteer for certain amount I always tell them pay that M Shabbat or Sunday come and pay it because you're going to forget and you you have a severe sin of breaking a vow so to take something out of today is I want to concentrate on this world I don't to concentrate on the world above I want to do the mitv for the sake of the Mitzvah not for the sake of getting a a reward in ganeden I want to do good deeds in this world and prevent myself from doing bad things for the sake of hem for the honor of hem it says when I do a Mitzvah I'm making the honor of hem greater in the world above that's what I have to think of I'm not going to cheat right now or lie or steal because I'm wearing a yamaka and I have a long beard and even if I don't wear yamak and I have a long beard people know who I am and I'm going to do the decration of the name of hem and even if it's in a closed room Hashem knows hasem sees and the point is to be humble and to serve hem in in a with a clear heart and not with an agenda to get a reward when we do everything with a clear heart and a and a and a pure heart that's what's going to allow us to get the ultimate reward is to see the coming of Messiah and to see their own eyes and this is the ultimate reward because the Torah comes and tells me if we would observe two times twice the Shabbat we would get mashia that's what it says in the Torah if we keep twice Shabbat that actually we learned from that that it's one Shabbat is enough because it's talking about two levels in the Shabbat but the sad news is that in the last 3,300 years we didn't observe Shabbat the entire nation tce because we would get redeemed [Music] already shim says in the that it's not two Shabbat it's one Shabbat there are two levels in Shabbat Shabbat and Shabbat there are two levels in the Shabbat so we don't need to do two weekends we need one Shabbat that is observed 100% the sad news is that in the last 3,300 years we didn't as a nation not we as a nation we never observed the Shabbat fully because if nor we would be we would be redeemed that's how sad it is but the Torah comes and tells me if you would keep Shabbat 100% you would be you would be redeemed meaning that if I will do the mitv with my pure heart and a clear heart with no intention we will gain to see mashiach very soon with our own eyes should happen very [Music] [Applause] soon [Music]