Part 1 | Gate 6 | Class 4

[Music] [Applause] we are in the first part gate number six in the gates of holiness and last three classes we were talking how a person has to conduct themselves prior to going to sleep waking up early early morning which is called midnight in order to mourn and pray and cry for the destruction of the temple and then learn torah and then after that as early as possible go and pray the morning prayer and everything that has to do with that meaning in what to focus on how to do it and so forth really what we're talking about is how a person should should conduct their day in the best way possible that the person can eventually reach to the level that he can be he or she can be defined as a hasid and again i told you hasid is not necessarily if you associate yourself with a certain hasidic group rather that you live your life devoted to god following the torah and then it's vote completely and everything that you do is beyond the letter of the law everything is done for the sake of hashem and many other factors that will define the person to be a hasid but that's really what we want to reach to so like i said in the first class we were talking about how you prepare yourself to sleep by praying kriya malamita with all the details that needs to be applied second class we talked about waking up at and reading the tikkun khazot and staying up and i concluded by saying if you can do it every day that's how it should be done but if you can't do it every day at least once a week can do once a week once a month but at some point that you wake up go to sleep early so you can wake up around midnight midnight not 12 a.m rather it changes depending where you are in the world and it can be anywhere from 12 30 to quarter to one even one and then reading and reciting the tikkun and after that learning torah and so forth and very important and even if you don't do it on a regular way base but at least once a month i mean i don't take my advice and saying okay once a month i'm good start with once a month eventually get to every day but it's not so easy not so easy that's a a lot of dedication that's why i said not for nothing a person is called hasid it requires great dedication because you have to go to sleep early so you can wake up early and not so easy to wake up at the one in the morning and learn to run for three four hours so that's what i'm saying at least to show uh some uh willingness as well start with once a month once a month you can handle i hope and then eventually try to lower that amount the next thing that we talked about is what needs what you need what one needs to do when they pray shahri the morning prayer and how important is that and so forth now we're going to focus on what do you do after you pray because imagine that this is already seven in the morning you're up already from one this is like the middle of the day to some people but nevertheless let's see what he says after you woke up the right way then you should go from strength to strength which means that you don't finish you make a u-turn and go back to sleep you have to go from strength to strength now if you up until now you were great in doing doing the early prayer now you go to the next level right after you pray you have to set a time that you learn torah but for the sake of learning not to make yourself smarter not to show off not to do anything but for the sake of the torah how long should that be half an hour 10 minutes an hour today what a lot of people do they're busy life is demanding a lot of uh your time so people learn five minutes after they pray many congregations at the end of the pray they learn two tu al-akhot read a few tealim that's why i did some learning torah is that sufficient i mean it's not like learning a whole page of from the maha but it's efficient you learn torah you fulfilled the requirements of nato so most congregation what they do in our day is they will learn one or two and hot and then read some tehillim and some people read maybe the homage whatever 10 15 minutes that's it you fulfilled what you're supposed to do really the right way of doing it is that you go and learn like a good hour best to learn something from the oral torah page from or whatever you like learning and then he says lo taglife and you should not uh he says don't replace it or lo tamir don't uh the word tamir is like when you have money and you exchange the money i have shekels i want dollars or whatever it's called to change so don't replace that little learning that you set or don't change it for anything affiliate honestly even if you are forced because how many times i can tell you from experience you say okay i'm going to finish learning i'm going to learn i'm going to finish praying i'm going to learn a b and c and you're going a week two three a month two three months and you have a queue it's set but suddenly comes a very important meeting and no you have to be there at night so you're saying okay i'll learn on the way i'll learn when i finish that's it once you broke it it's broken so he says don't replace it don't change it for anything you set up a time that a setup learning after you pray doesn't matter even if you read five chapters of thielim that's you read the three al-qud even if it's two minutes but don't change it this is like a highest and top priority i have an important meaning so the important meeting has to wait this is more important than anything and he says affilo le de hones even if you're a force no and now is definitely not the time to share with you dozens of stories of people who are so particular about things like this and and it seemed like it won't work out but it ended up working out the best i'll tell you a quick story there's so many stories but i'll tell you a quick story about a certain individual that also has the same situation and happened to be that he was in a very difficult financial situation and he really needed the the assistance of the bank manager of the bank where he was banking and they set up an appointment from him on a certain time and he says no yeah that's when the bank manager will see you and for him that was like i have nothing to do i mean i need the money i need the loan and as he's running away to the to running to the bank somebody stops him on the street and tells him we need one guy for the minion for the qaddish he tells them i gotta run i have a meeting at the bank i i i can't miss this meeting the person tells him we need one guy we're nine men we need one guy to fulfill the minion one qaddish come in he says okay fine even though in his mind i'm missing this meeting the whole deal is over he goes in he stays there he answers the qadhish and he runs to the bank he runs to the bank sweating tongue out he comes there the secretary tells him sit and wait the bank manager is running late he's sitting out there then the secretary comes and says okay the manager's here is ready to see you he walks into the room and who does he see the person who asked him to come and fulfill the minion to say one qaddish that was the bank manager who of course had a lot of sympathy and appreciation tell them okay what do i need to do what do you need he says well i need the sloan and blah blah blah and the bank manager of course approved it he got the loan everything worked out so just goes to show you that he could easily say i'm sorry there's a lot of other jews i gotta run to the bank then what would happen he would miss the opportunity come early to the bank the bank manager would be late because he didn't have weren't able to say the kanisha and not necessarily the bank manager will find favor or sympathy and help him so and this is one example of the many and i'll tell you another quick story just on the same level on the negative side there was a certain individual who happened to be i i don't know if a hundred percent that person was a follower of the lubavitcher rabbi a lubavitcher or or not but it's not so important for the story what's important to the story is that the person had a beard he grew a beard an observant individual and he had this major major business deal something we're talking about tens of millions of dollars and he was afraid that his jewish appearance will hurt the deal so he went to the lobovich rabbi to tell him i have a big deal and it's a major thing it's non-jews i'm afraid that my jewish appearance will hurt the deal and i wanted to ask you if it's if you think it's okay if i shave the beard of course the answer of the lubavitchery was like shaving the beard let's go what am what does one have to do with that of course you shouldn't shave the beard you're asking me for permission to tell you to shave the beard because you're going to a business deal anyways the individual didn't take the lava tree rabies advice and shave the beard and he came to this big business deal without the beard and the ceo or whatever the the the person of the other uh side told them the deal is off what he his life shattered like the business deal of his life and when he told the man why are you calling off the deal so he says you know i'm calling off the deal because i took you as an observant man and i'm not jewish but you are are you you showed yourself as an observant jew that i had a lot of respect because i knew you're going to follow the rules of the torah by not to steal not to cheat you'll be honest etc and now that i see that your faith is not strong that you shave your beard i don't want you as a partner i don't think that you're going to be a good solid partner the deal is off and this is true story i'm not making it up to it to sound fancy so you see here two two options you let go then you don't know how it's going to affect you in a negative way here it says alta chris don't replace it velo tamiroto and don't i'll use the same word in hebrew it's a different word the killer cliff is to change and to reply la mires to exchange same thing different way affiliated honest even if you must mass honest means like it's a uh you're forced saying in other words if you have to take something out of this class is that you set a time after you pray in the morning five minutes to read a little bit of thielem learn the few allah one mission or something doesn't matter what happens you finish then you go out to your world and i can tell you on my fur on my experience that many times i was like i'll do it on the on the train i'll do it as i go you don't end up doing it and when the times that my yetzera would tell me i'll do it on the train and i said no i will finish it here then we'll excuse myself that i saw exactly like with the guy that the bank manager was like i saw how something was delayed better that i said it next um and the reward of you being so particular that you're not replacing this little time to learn torah yes is part of a verse from the book of thielem chapter 84. verse 4 and the translation he will appear to god in zion saying in other words there's a few interpretations of the verse but in the reward of fulfilling the fact that you are persistent and you're not letting go you will have this root to appear in front of god in zion saying in other words that's like a ticket to your redemption zion is then one of the names of you of jerusalem jerusalem has seven names tsiyon is one of the names you know what it means to appear in front of god in zion saying in other words you'll live to be in the redemption that you will appear in your shalom in front of hashem there are other interpretations also for the for the verse but nevertheless it tells you this is a great reward hashem is not going to let that pass he says here this is a different interpretation uh explaining about the gates that will be open to the soul in the yeshiva in the learning place in the firmaments that it's such a powerful thing that even when you will reach to the spiritual realms the gates of the motif will be open for you you know we just uh celebrated the hilu gloria it says about him that while he was learning one-on-one with the liao navy his soul will travel to the yeshivat in shamayim the shiva of the yeshiva of you know what it means to go into the shiva of ishmael i think you just walk in there so here he says also with the reward of this persistent then the gates the the the the the soul the person will be able to go through these gates and and enter all these places in this uh the shivat of the firmament of the higher world this is great thing so first thing is that when you finish praying you make yourself look viewed that you learn something if you can you do a good hour you can't then do five minutes that's what most people do five minutes ten minutes most congregations they learn at least two halakhot read whatever tea lime of the day some ritikuna whatever you read that's considered and you're good to go after that after that go and make a meal but this is not uh now uh the continental breakfast meal have a little bit of bread with salt um a little bit of water and soda is what they used to like uh not a pitcher like a spout you know it's about a ladle that you kind of like take out a little bit and pour it a little bit of water don't go now to the you know top restaurant in the city and have the continental breakfast but nevertheless have a little bit of bread with salt and water kitsadie because at sadiq he eats to nourish and to fulfill his nephesh not his body you don't need to eat now scrambled eggs and locks sandwiches and whatever i mean eat whatever you want i'm just saying that's it's a little bit to fulfill the nephesh you don't think you need to go now out of i would say go out to town out of town pancakes and whatever some people stuff themselves not healthy eat something healthy you'll be good to go why kids that sadiq eats to sustain the nephesh and to maintain the nephesh not for the body but we have to remember that you're eating shaman for the sake of jamaica not for your gladness not for your diet not for your hunger you're eating for hashem why what does it mean that you have energy to be strong to serve the master that's it don't have to start cookies now and the this cake and the cheesecake and the ice cream and the commercial as it says in the book of michele proverbs chapter 3 verse 6 beholder in all your paths you should know him meaning that i have to devote myself that even when i sleep for hashem when i eat for hashem even when i shower and bathe myself and excuse myself for hashem why so i can be healthy strong and serve the master now when you're sitting around the table here he says it in a very poetic way ahmad bayma stand in fear on the table not don't stand on the table al means next to the table because some people you know they do around the table jokes clownery mockery talking slandering how do you say like the discussion about nonsense now i know a lot of people say okay shabbat i speak only torah at the table no that should be also during the week some people the table is where the discussion opens and all the latino and the slandering and the nonsense he says have fear why because the table hanim is the table is compared to an altar you are sitting at the table of the king now you might imagine a table from plastic but really you're sitting at the table of the king uh if you're sitting at the table and you're saying jokes and nonsense and that around the table because that's the time when everybody talks it's a joke then you're not going to do anything but if you make your table the altar then the table can be an atonement for all your sins not the table itself the fact that you're eating for the sake of saying words of torah and you're saying it doing it in the right way how does the table become an atonement for you is because if you and don't eat in a gluttonous way wait a little bit most people they stuff themselves like as if there's no tomorrow especially if it's like the all-you-can-eat buffet so the way it works is that the the connection between the stomach and the brain there's a delay you only feels full and satisfied in a delay system rambam says eat a quarter of what you think you need to eat to be full because what happens is you eat and you eat and you eat and the delay comes to the brain after you're already stuffed and you overeat not good to eat a lot you eat a little bit and that's it now he says behind it when you eat a little bit so you weaken the clipper this negative energy hasho amazon that's dwelling on the food is in his own that your soul is being fed from that food there's a clip in the food if i eat a lot of it then it will contaminate the nail fish if i eat just a little bit then it diminishes the power of the clipper that's already a huge a huge uh tip don't eat a lot sometimes i see how people eat no offense don't be offended about how i talk sometimes they see how people eat is like well relax you know you don't need so much food it's not healthy forget about that it's not manners it's not their hair it's all the stuff you face but it's not healthy also and now we learn another thing you eat a little bit the body doesn't eat much food by the way you eat a little bit you weaken the clipper then once you're sitting and eating occupy yourself with torah don't take pictures of the food that's what people do they take pictures of the food and then the picture of me and the pancake and who cares about your pancake be occupied with learning torah what is the mishna learn a mishna something not telling you now to read the whole track date sounding small and if you do that then it will be announced in the heavens that this is the table life hashem this is the table that will be sitting in front of the master the mamas the sudah is like a miss versus like an altar it's a time of kappa and so much more so in shabbat by the way the three meals on shabbat that's the one of the ultimate capacity atonements for the nephesh more than that that's already worth it has power will diminish them and your intellectual soul will be strengthened by the torah that you learned on the table so you gave a little bit of food for the body and the nephesh but what will strengthen the left the little torah that you learn around the table should make yourself a habit that every time that you eat even if you're not a big big bread eater and i don't know if you'll tell me i'm gluten free i'm this okay so it's our dough this is the the way to derive and you don't need to eat much bread by the way a little bit of bread but you want to make a meal and if you already wash your hands for bread and a meal then learn something at the table and even if you didn't wash for bread always learn some torah on the table read one chapter of tilim you notice that in the before birkat amazon there's always tealim before that so the ashkenazis they sing shilom alot right that's the chapter of tilling that's it you learned okay this party the dota is that's it i said the chapter of tealim a little bit around the table if you can learn a little bit more then listen just for this it's worth it the power of the etsara will be diminished that's it thank you so much where's the bread i i will diminish my yetzera anytime and how would the nephesh elite will gain power by the torah that you learned at the table why she was only because the food for the nephesh is the torah not your bread now after you're done vacationing after your body got its sustenance and the nephesh got a little bit of sustenance how alia de gilat that the master of the universe feeds us and gives us valia and by the food that by by the torah that i recited although don't be ungrateful to me to steal from the master of the universe now assuming now i'm not continuing to read me being ungrateful and stealing from hashem what are you talking about how can i be stealing from hashem what do you need to do say the prayer after eating which really is the only blessing that is from the torah all the blessings that we say were established by our sages the only blessing that is written in the torah is birkat amazon that we so don't be ungrateful don't steal from the master of the universe and say bill cat amazon with great joy not like some people say it in about three and a half seconds but say it with great joy how can like as if you're getting a great present from your friend and you're full of joy and excitement that's how you have to save your cat amazon i told you any most people will do anything in their power not to save your cat amazon some people will drive half an hour to the other side of town to buy the pizza that is mesonos just not to say because amazon you're willing to waste half an hour each way just not to say because amazon takes you exactly 35 minutes what's the logic here i don't know how many times you sat at the table is this mr nuts no i'll have from the app i'm giving you now a five trillion dollar check you're not going to take it because it takes you three and a half minutes to say okay you read very slow seven minutes if you would understand what's a bitcott amazon you would say it five times a day you would wash just to save your cat amazon and most people they try to somehow get away from it like we read in the last class i told you about the hanun remember last class we read about the confession and the tachanon most people will find any excuse why not to say tahanu is there a good girl here a groom maybe there's a mohel i told you once i prayed in the show they had a book of all the hilu lot of all that said they came today is the lula of so-and-so never heard of such a man no never set the harun in that role but that's the peak of the prayer that's the ultimate part of the prayer where you can get your sins forgiven when you get the ultimate blessing that you want to miss therefore one should pay a uh say birkat amazon like as if you're getting uh see he says that you're getting a present from your friend i will add on that that five trillion dollar check imagine now every time you say because amazon a bag full of cash five million dollars you would sing it next when we say in the blessing of we should be thankful for you and for the eating of the food that you're sustaining us now four parts of bircat amazon there's one part that we saying all the bachot we're blessing we thank him this is birkat no delekha right so he says the texts we thank you for teaching us torah and for the food that you give us and the reward of you doing that hashem will open his like uh a treasure imagine like the fort knox of hashem he will open the ozarks to the good treasure and you'll find sustenance and livelihood from his the translation won't make sense from his wide hand rather from his gracious hand from his great hand tamid always so by doing that hashem will open his vaults his great treasure can you imagine that hashem says here the vault is open take whatever he wants really and what's this vault you will find your sustenance your livelihood because hashem is very very generous he has no problem he can write checks a few years ago i was in los angeles i lived there and i used to give classes there give clay lectures so one time i had a student i used to give classes in the persian community and i had a student very diligent showed up of all the classes one time she came and told me rabbi i need a blessing okay he says no you don't get it i work in real estate not such good times business is slow i need a blessing it's okay i'll give you an advice it's better than a blessing she's like no i need the blessing i said okay i'll give you a blessing you'll make good parmesa but for you to make the good parnassa your livelihood business should be good you need advice you need to create some type of a spiritual vessel to receive the blessing she says okay whatever you tell me i'll do i said i want you to in the morning have you have breakfast every day right yeah so take bread wash for bread and save your cat amazon oh no give me something else everybody thinks it's home depot and give me something else you asked for parnassa right you said your business is not doing so well i'm telling you now the key to parnassa save your cut amazon in the morning wash for bread you're eating breakfast anyways no so wash your hands and say because amazon it's too long too long you're coming and asking for a blessing for palestine that's too long listen i lived in los angeles too you are at least two hours every day in traffic i guarantee or more you go to the convenience store this two hours traffic never seen anything like it i told her i guarantee to you that if you spend your ten fifteen minutes on saying we'll cut amazon you'll be 10 15 minutes less in traffic every day i guarantee it to you sit and wash for bread save your cat amazon i guarantee to you two things you'll have good parnassa and you'll be less in traffic it's too long i said okay so i'm sorry and this is where i this is where i leave i can't help you you're not willing to say birkat amazon and she kept agreeing to give me something easy so to conclude this part what we do after we pray is not less important than the prayer so what do we say a you learn a little bit of torah after you pray five minutes even is sufficient that's why many great teachers have set up to the tehillim of the day everyone according to the group they love to to pray with so the breast lift they read the kuna clearly after shaharit khabad they read the thelim of the day as party they learn halakhot everyone has what they whatever it doesn't matter it's just as long as you learned a little bit of torah that's it five minutes ten minutes but don't replace it for anything then what did we say you say you make a little meal again you don't go out of town with that meal with pancakes and all this junk a little bit of bread something for your neshama something for the body something healthy hashem and in your mind i'm eating for hashem you know i'm not hungry in the morning i i'm not hungry the whole day i eat for hashem i don't eat for myself and i don't feel i don't need to eat a sandwich now it's too much a sandwich now but hashem why because hashem told me and i'm already on the table take your book a little bit of the limb learn a mishnow till something five minutes and if there's somebody else in the table even better and then you say because amazon like as if you handed out now a two million dollar check and not that we're looking for the reward but he concludes by saying who is in this reward hashem will open his vaults his treasures and will give you panasonic with no limit hashem has no limits mr next class we're going to see what we have to do after that but so far we're in the morning but that's how one dedicates his life to hashem and all that we said now maybe 20 minutes the whole thing five ten minutes of learning five ten minutes of eating with the berkat amazon that's it now calculate how many times a day you spend on facebook whatsapp instagram youtube and all the rest of these pits on what on watching some ridiculous video that after the five minutes of watching it you're like what a bunch of nonsense and how many hours a day like this you waste at least 20 minutes if not four hours most people there you know it's like a it's like a disease you watched your first video then comes the next video because this is suggested and and then there's a little junk some guy falling on a skateboard a cat flipping to the backs someone said nonsense so if you calculate how much time you waste a day and all these nonsense it's not even a fraction to do what i just told you five ten minutes of learning torah five ten fifteen minutes of eating insane bilcart amazon and on top of all that i don't care so much about the vault i care about two things here to weaken the clipper that is dwelling on the food and the yeah will diminish that's it that's good for me i weakened the yetzer that's it he's leaving me alone for the next few hours that's what i need hashem should bless us that we should have the desire to actually live by that fulfill that and listen it's uh i don't want to quote the person who said what uh many people quote saying about little steps but you know my my thoughts about that but sometimes a little step makes a huge difference something so small that seems to you what's the big deal i'm learning later no what does he say lota life don't replace it don't exchange it and set yourself something you know the the success in spiritual growth is when you set something and you don't uh change it i don't want to say set it and forget it because you don't really forget but you said something that's why in judaism in torah observant there's all these rules because when you set something when you pray when you eat how you eat how you sleep it's not to control you it's because when you make something so important and you give that value then every all the rest of the things that don't have importance and value they diminish and you focus on what you need to do and yeah you're doing it you know like it sounds maybe wrong like a machine but a machine does things very precise and needless to say that's your steps to for growth when one time you pray here one time you pray here i know sometimes when i came to swat it was fun one time to pray in that show one time that shows so many different shows that's when you were tourists in the city it's nice but some people one time they pray shaharit at six the other one at 11. the one they hear one it's not good if you don't have any other option that's one thing but you need everything has to be set organized this is the kawaii team everything is organized in the right way you see great success from that when you scatter yourself all over the place it's very hard to have your spiritual growth and we're focusing here on your spiritual growth because eventually i want to reach to a level that i'm a hasid that i serve hashem everything is for the sake of hashem and i operate in a completely different level so these little steps they actually what you know set the tone for the rest of your torah observant imagine you would climb a ladder that one step is this level and the next step is like half a meter and then the other one is this big and then the next every step will be different you get conf you can't even climb the ladder steps and ladders are always the same distance can you imagine when you're walking up the stairs well here's have it in swat because it's all 500 years old one step is this big this step is this big it's hard to climb like that there's a shortcut you know down if you go where it sounds to the sofia ali you know what i'm talking about every step no like there's no engineer there there wasn't any engineering one step is this big the other one is this big i always fall there i'm saying who built these steps now probably with the time they moved but what am i trying to say when the ladder and steps are the same then you easily climb it when they're difficult and different distances it's very difficult to climb it same thing here when your spiritual growth is in right accurate steps it's easy to grow and when the steps are not together it's very hard to grow bless us to follow the right steps and that we should be able to fulfill everything that we're learning and have the dedication and the desire and do it all in a great level of simcha whatever we do hashem should make us successful [Music] you