Rabbi Alon Anava is live!

We're going to be live in a few minutes. You got it. >> You got it. >> Yeah. >> Let's try. >> So, right. >> No, Mariel. >> Okay. >> Want to do it? >> Sure. But I'm going to have to do it in the other phone, too. We're starting in a few minutes. Not even. It's working out the Wi-Fi >> and a few other problems. >> Popped up that you're available already. >> What? >> It popped up that you are available. >> Yeah. Yeah, I turned it on this. So, this one works. >> I got I got to the house one. >> So, hold on. Hold on. Let me just do it over here. >> Thank you so much. Okay. So, a few more seconds and we're ready to go. >> So, this they're working. That's working right. Okay. Mine. Okay. Dove, you ready out there? I think we are. Dove, first of all, uh, welcome. Sorry for the short delay, but uh it's a normal day in my life that things don't work out. It's not happy when I try to do good things. So he makes things don't work. And on top of that, you bet. So that's now on steroids. So first of all especially I wanted to do it live because the information is valuable for now for you betamuz while we fast. Uh of course the lecture will be just as valuable uh uh tomorrow and the rest of the next of the three weeks but today starts the three weeks. We're going to talk mainly about that what can be achieved a little bit analyzing the day mainly what we can take from this day because this is a very very powerful day. I know everybody thinks it's a bad day. Uh it's not a bad day. It's actually a very very good day. When things are good then the master of the universe wraps it in a very bad wrapping. As I mentioned many many times the when he gives you a present he wraps it up with all the glitter and bows and all the nice stuff so it would look very appealing and then you open the box and there's nothing there doesn't wrap it with nice glitter wrapping. He wraps it with newspapers and junk paper bags so it doesn't look so exciting. So you dine with the muz looks like a bad day of course. Yeah, it was very very bad things happened then. But we're going to see how the good can come from the bad. So before we start very few and quick announcements, this is the first lecture from the summer tour of 2025. I'm going to be now in New York and New Jersey for the next week and I'm not going to go through the entire schedule, but the next upcoming uh cities of course in New York a few locations, Brooklyn, Queens, Long Island, uh after that is going to be next week, Philadelphia, Detroit, uh Denver, Vegas, uh that's the cities that come up to my mind and best is just to go to uh and you'll see all the information and follow all the the lectures and all of them. We're going to try to broadcast them all. Uh now we're doing it through a phone. Hopefully tomorrow and the next day we'll be much more sophisticated and move to the laptop where you see there's all sorts of technical difficulties but that's how it is when uh when the is involved there's technical difficulties. Now, after the after that, of course, uh I'm going to be going down to Florida and Miami, but just follow the the the the WhatsApps and the all the information and you'll get all the details that you need to know. And of course, share it that people that in the cities that I'm going to uh will know that I'm coming. I see all the cities that you're posting. When is Florida? Florida is for 3 weeks. uh UK not this time. Uh I will start the class and later on for the ones who are live online we're going to dedicate some times that you can uh post questions and I'll try to answer as much as ca as I can but we are limited with time because we're going to do ma in about an hour and a half. So without further ado, we are in Yudin Betamuz betamuz is the 17th day of the month of Tamuz. The month of Tamuz is the fourth month on the Jewish calendar and it's not called Tamuz in the Torah. It's just called the fourth month. That's not on the topic. We'll explain that another time. What really happened on Tamuz? Five bad things happen. More than that, but five things that we know that our sages have mentioned. First of all, the breaking of the tablets when Mosher Rabu went up onto the mountain. When he came down and he saw the golden calf, uh the tablets were broken. Uh there's different of opinions. One opinion says that he just dropped them. The zor explains that the letters that were engraved in the tablets just left the tablets from the impurity and the tablets became so heavy that Jesus fell down and broke and shattered into pieces and all the letters and by the way this is not something that is familiar. I know in schuls usually they put on the ces like uh the two tablets. First mistake is they make the tablets with a round top. Not not true at all. Tablets were rectangle with square uh corners. Not like what they make on a lot of places that you see that the tablets were round. That's not how the tablets looked. The problem is that on the first tablets, it included everything. The written Torah, the oral Torah, everything was in the tablets in obviously very small letters. Nowadays, there are some jewelry that it's a little stone and you come with a special magnifying glass and you see the entire Torah in something this miniature. Same idea. The tablets were not from stone. They were made from sapphire. Uh, and all the letters we we're talking about millions of letters from all the Torah just left the tablets and never came back to the second set. So when we lost the first set of tablets, even though we got another two tablets, it's not the same, not the same value, not the same power, big disaster for the Jewish nation. And by the way, today I'm not going to elaborate too much on all these things. It's less important right now. In a few days, I have another class about the three weeks. the classes in great neck New York where I'm going to go into more in details the significance of each and every one of those five things that were damaged on betamuz because why our sages explained that it's still we didn't do the tikun we didn't do the rectification so the same five things are constantly happening in our life which means that if the tablets were broken on the 17th of tamuz 3,000 plus years ago there is a certain act in our life that is equivalent to breaking of the tablets every day of our life that we need to do a tikun we need to do a rectification next thing that happened is bhalamid there was a very special sacrifice in beta mikdash it's called tamid and usually it would be a sheep one in the morning one in the evening what we say in before what was the point of this sacrifice Anyone who sinned from the night to the morning, then the morning sacrifice will atone for the night sins. And then from the morning to the evening sacrifice, if a person had bad thoughts, impure thoughts, shalom was about to sin. This offering would come to affect the person in their thoughts and their mind. Which means that the kohhen, the priest would work his holy work in the holy temple and prepare the sacrifice and then offer it. The person that was sinning or had a certain issue suddenly the person is awakened with chuv with thoughts of chuva. Suddenly the person wants has regret and this is all mystically the kohhen and the rest of the priests are working in beta mikdash and it's affecting a person that the night before sinned that's a big disaster for us that was our way out so to say you sin we bring an offering now the way it worked there was a siege on so they couldn't get to the sheep they ran out of sheep what did they The Jewish mine is a very very sophisticated mine. So they used to take boxes of gold coins and every day like with a a wire a rope lower the these boxes over the the wall and they would buy two sheeps. So they would put down like in just imagine a big wall and they're lowering a a rope and then they're pulling the rope up and there's two sheep. So they can do the sacrifices. They had a lot of money which was the Mara says it was gold and every day they would over the fence throw the gold and pull up a sheep and then they had the the coran. At some point the enemy figured out what's going on and one day they lower down with the rope the boxes of gold and when they pull it up instead of two sheep the enemy put two pigs. And the Mar says that one of them was like kind of like going like this as it was and it went loose and that's what started the the destruction of the walls. But nevertheless the bulameid this sacrifice was nullified that day and for us was a great disaster because we can't reach to an atonement through this sacrifice. Of course our sages said we will instead of the bulls we will talk our mouth will do the same action it's not the same thing doesn't matter how much you're going to use your mouth it's not the same thing of sacrificing these that specific offering third thing that happened is the walls of yushalime were broken and obviously later on the the conquering of yushalime and the result was the destruction of beta mikdash fourth thing that happened on yudin beta Aposto burnt a sephora. There's not much information about it. There's only one source in the Malmu that is talking about it and it doesn't even says where it happened. It says a name of a place that it took that it took place. We don't really know where it is. It could be very close to Harab and it can be somewhere else but we don't have much information. All we know is apostomos a certain individual ruler just burned the Torah and without many other Torah and that was just the beginning. Fourth thing that happened on betamuz is uh uh idol was placed in the in the main sanctuary of mikdash. Now here there are two opinions. One opinion says it was aposto that actually did that. A different opinion says it was mane. There was a certain evil king, a Jewish king named Manashe who brought the idol into the five terrible things that happened through uh this day in history and for us we mark this day as a very terrible day. Now we're going to go and explain a little bit beyond what we learn what the Talmud says of the five things that happened. First of all, it says in the holy books and some of you may recognize the name. There's a certain demon that is in control in these three weeks. And the name of the demon demon you can say the name because you know I know some people say don't say the name of a demon. This one you actually can say because when we pray you mention that name. The name of this evil is Ketv Mer. And this demon is in controlling in of these three weeks. He's control. He has control over this three weeks. I don't have to explain much. A demon controlling has control. That tells you that tells you enough. That's really what we need to be careful from. When our sages tell you, you have to be careful in these days because there's danger. I'll explain more thoroughly, but the danger is from this demon. And therefore our sages say keep it to the minimum. Don't do this and don't do that. And I'm not going to go today through if we have time I'll go through some of the laws what we are allowed to do and not allowed to do if we have time. If not you will have to roll over to the next class or you just open and you read them. It's not so much. But one of the things that we are prohibited and warned is not to do dangerous things. Uh I'll give you an example. Many know that on the three weeks we don't go to the beach and we don't go to the pool. It's not 100% correct. You're allowed to dip in a pool or in a in the beach. The warning is don't go in a deep place where you can be dangerous. So shalom, you know, in such a time you you don't want to put yourself in a place of danger. So dipping your feet into the beach just because you want some sun and happen to be that you're in the area. Okay, that's okay. Going deep into the water, that's dangerous. So the rule is and I'll elaborate on that as we go. We want to prevent in these three weeks from doing dangerous things to putting myself in any type of danger. Why? Bad things happen bad time and especially because that demon has power. Now let me explain a little bit the positive side of yudine betamuz because up until now I told you the bad things and everybody knows betamuz is something negative and how do we connect it cuz we fast. So for some reason in our consciousness or whatever I was taught if there's a fast it's not a good thing which I will say the complete opposite. The fast is not here to punish me. The fast is not here to make me suffer. The fast is to give me some some type of message. We'll get to that at the end. But yeah, we know that is a negative time and the whole three weeks is negative. But nevertheless, I like to look at everything negative as a potential to do something good. So let's see what's good in Zetamuz. And I'm going to quote and he says something very interesting. You know what happened was allowed to come in the congregation of Israel on that day. Ruth converted that day. Now roots I don't have to explain too much but for the ones who don't recognize the name because of root we have mashia mashia comes from root I mean we can backtrack all the way to lot and then lot you know the story in the cave with the daughters and then came the whole lineage of Moav but from Moav came root and says no is a good Hey, she was allowed to be entering into the congregation of Israel means she converted. Now, okay, some might say, okay, what's the big deal? So, she converted. Well, it's a pretty big deal. Now, let me tell you another thing that happened on that day. It says in the midrash that on who later on married on that day, he was seeking the redeemer. I don't know da why that day why didn't he seek it the day before but the min says that that bos on that day seeked the redeemer doesn't say mashia says the commentary on that says something very interesting that if the redeemer was supposed to be available that day hashem would fly him across the world and bring him to Israel and he's using the word matisoto flying Matis means to fly him. And this is 2,000 plus years ago commentary saying Hashem would fly Mashia to the other side of the oil if it would be the pro the right time. But interestingly, UT becomes a Jew on that day and maybe there was a very fast matchmaker and before you know it, her profile went up on match.com or I don't know singles.com. How do you call it? The one the Jewish one. How do you call the Jewish dating site? >> Jate. >> J Date. So Ruth was on J Date and suddenly Buzz he had an iPhone 12 and he just going like that. It wasn't Instagram. He was just looking for a wife. Now, if it would be offered to anybody else would be such a mitzia happened to be that Bos had no kids. All his kids died while he was alive. The Midrash says that on that day Bos was 400 years old. That was his age when he died. So to make a long story short, Ruth and Boaz come together in marriage and they get married that night. And who do they conceive? They conceive the father of Mashiach, right? That starts the lineage of Mashiach. So yeah, many horrible things happen, but the birth of Mashiach started. That's a pretty big thing. It says in the Talmud in Baba Batra that Boaz was 400 years old. He didn't have kids because he they all died in his lifetime and he wasn't married. What a coincidence. So B goes and marries on and that night they conceive a child and the next day the Gar says that Bos died. So Ruth had boss for one night. That's it. And it says in the same it's a day of a holiday. Now we're just said that the all these horrible things happen and we all fast and for years we are taught that you is a horrible day. But now I'm just quoting to you that the Talmud says no it was a yumag. It was a day of celebration. root and boas come together and this is the beginning of the house of the dynasty of king David that's a very big day in in in our calendar so really when we want to h conclude on the right side we have very bad things that happened on betamuz and on the left side I would say different on the left side is all the bad things the right side you have a pretty big event something very uh big happened that day that will affect us for the rest of our eternity. Okay, now that we understand that there's good and bad, let's now go one step deeper. We just read yesterday the para of Balak where Balak goes and hires Bilam to curse the nation of Israel. You know the story. You read it yesterday hopefully and it didn't work. The curses becomes blessings. Even a a wicked person like Balak who was the leader of Moab which later on of course comes from the same nation. Balak got a reward. He got some type of aut which is sometimes hard to understand but that's where you see the kindness and the mercy of God that even the wicked people they don't deserve anything but if they did something good they will get rewarded for that. And Balak got rewarded because he did 42 sacrifices. He built every time Bilam told him build me some altars. The Gar concludes that Balak offered 42 offerings 42 and in the merit of that he won the truth will come out of his nation. So the doesn't owe anybody anything. Even a wicked person like Balak he did something good you get you get paid you get paid in this world that way I don't owe you anything but this that had to for that that root came from his nation. Now the greatgrandfather of Root uh sorry the the greatgrandfather of Root is Balak and from Root comes Mashiach. So look what a merit comes look we have both Balak and we have a a lot to that Mashiach comes from them. So that's already coming to tell us something very good has to come from something bad. Therefore, we're already trying to uh calm down the pressure. Okay, bad. But wait, wait, wait. Something good is about to happen. Now it says very interestingly in the para we read yesterday. It says before Balak goes to Bam, it says Balak and Balak saw. Okay, comes the commentary. What did he say? It just says Balak and it doesn't say what. Of course, the commentary has to come and ask what what did Balak say? Why did the Torah says the commentary says Balak is called in the Torah Balak Benipur. So we think that he's the son of but here the Zor comes and says Balak has a son Ben and his name is and the Zor says what's Mashiach. So look at that. The Zor is attributing Mashiach as a from the lineage of Balak. But really yeah it's all from the same lineage. You can say attach it to to to lot and all that. So the says that Lot saw in his obviously had some type of he saw that from him will come a son and from that a son and from that a son and all the generations and eventually will come Mashiach. As I said on that day, Ruth got pregnant from Boaz and she will later on give birth to Oedd and Oedd is the father of Ishai who is the father of King David and eventually Malavid. Mashiach comes from bed. So really if you want to look at it in a completely different way today is a very holy day. Today is not a bad day. The bad is the making all the mess, the confusion. It's bad. But don't don't don't go into the dizziness. Wait a minute. We have some solid information that today is a yum kadash is a holy day. It says in a book called Shah. This is not the Bahar that many are familiar with. This book is called Sahar. This book is written by the Reb for the ones who are familiar. He says in chapter 13 that on this day Aaron Cohan had a prophet a prophecy. What was the prophecy and when the prophecy was on betamuz while they were doing the golden calf? And by the way, I didn't add to the five topics on the list that the golden calf. I just said the tablets were broken, but the tablets were broken the same day that there was the golden calf. So I don't need to explain too much. I'm talking about the first tablets because Mosha Raben went up to the mountain 40 days. He comes down from the mountain with tablets. A whole party with a golden calf. Tablets break. Moshe makes a U-turn. Goes up again to the mountain and comes down when and then another 40 days he goes up to the mountain and comes down on three times and then he brings the Torah. Everything is concluded. But Aron Coen on that day high priest the brother of Moabenu has a prophecy as the golden calf is happening. And what is this prophecy? Then go now to the book of Schmot chapter 32 verse 5. And it says it's a holiday for God tomorrow. And this is not a commentary. This is not this is in the Torah that the book of chapter 32:5 says tomorrow is a day of celebration to Hashem. So if we compare it to the night of Boaz and and and Yudin bet is the married in the marriage. The next day of course she gets conceived and Boaz dies. So it fits very well also to the the prophecy of Aon. Tomorrow is a day of celebration. Why? Because Mashiach is the father the great great great-grandfather of Mashia has conceived physically conceived. This is not like with Lot and his daughter. There wasn't any child there yet. Here you're talking about an actual person of Ed who is the father of who's the father of David. This is an actual person. So iron says even though that all these horrible things started on that day but that's the day that Mashiach is born. Can you tell me now that it's a bad day? Of course bad things will happen. You're about to do something good. Of course things the the other side will protest. It's even in your own personal life. A person lives his life assuming now the person is observant to some extent. Okay, I'm just giving an example and it can be applied to almost any individual but I'm talking about a person who has some type of a desire to have a connection with God and he's working he she working on this connection and then they have a kind of a downtime whatever it is I'm I'm not going to even give ideas everybody has downtime in their spiritual service whether they have marital issues their mind is not focused they have sicknesses is money problems. There's so many issues that can come up that you're not focused on your on your service to god and everybody knows that and there's no no you don't need to be now pretend you're at sadic sometimes you going through a certain period you your service to god goes down you don't come to pray so often if you even pray or you don't come and pray with the minan or suddenly the goes down or the shabbat is whatever it is listen we're all human not coming to judge anyone just trying to make a point. But that individual when he's experiencing this downtime at some point will be an uptime. Whether the person goes to a lecture and gets inspired, whether something mira a miracle happens in that person's life changes everything. Suddenly the the the the mood is completely different. You all experience what I'm saying. So you know what I'm talking about. The point of the idea that I'm trying to say is that when a person wakes up to do chuva, he he she I'm using he gets excited to change their way. It doesn't happen overnight. It says, "Okay, from now on I'm going to do A, B, and C." The person does some changes right away. But uh you know if you're looking like at a graph of stocks you see the stock is going up right but there's always up down and then up and then down and then you know the motion is going up but there's always these little curves going down. It's the same thing with our spiritual life. You go up in your chuva, you become stronger, closer to Hashem. You add prayers. You add stuff that you learn. But there's always going to be like these moments that you're a little bit low and you go down. You waiting for the moment where you have a an inspiration and some a a a moment that takes you up, lifts you up, and then you back on the track. You back on building that connection with Hashem. Aonhan had the prophecy that this is going to be a day of celebration. Our sages say even though all these bad things happen but the bad things happen in order for us to see the birth of Mashiach. Going back to the example that I gave you if you relate with what I just say when you're ready to start a new start and I'm giving an example with abodat with service of God but it can be in almost in anything in life. When you are ready to a new start to opening a new page tomorrow I'm starting it then the is gonna come and put right away sticks in your wheels that nothing works out you are all excited you made in your mind that's it from tomorrow forget tomorrow from today I'm doing this and I'm doing you get all excited and you're like on a roll that's when the says oh yeah okay the rolls his sleeves and he goes at you full full force. Pretty natural. That's something good was cooking in the background. So the can't just say, "Okay, go and celebrate. Have your have your day of celebration." So of course the has to interfere and bother you. So that's kind of what's going on here. the day was set for a very positive thing, but the of course doesn't like it. I'm going to add on that another thing that the way Hashem works and I love that attitude and if you can incorporate that attitude in your life, you'll be very successful in everything that you do. The Talmud says the blessing doesn't dwell only on something that is hidden from the eye. When you want something to have blessing, don't show it to the world. Whenever you show something to the world, there's not going to be blessing there. It can be um when you're dating to go out to get married, you don't tell anybody. You tell everybody when does the engagement uh same thing I'm taking something from my personal life my wife we have seven kids seven pregnancies nobody knew till the nine months my mother would know and of course whoever could figure it out underneath the big uh dresses why I want a blessing I don't want anybody to see it it's called you don't have to show the whole world what you have. I know it's very you like showing the world what you have, but try to relax a little bit, especially when you want a blessing in something. You have a new business idea. Don't go and put it online and tell everybody what you're going to do. Keep it for yourself. Don't let anybody look know here. I operate like that. I follow this uh advice. I don't tell anything to anybody and people just see when it comes out. And even when it comes out still in modesty not shine ah the whole world no no everything has to be in away from the lamb light. Same thing here the kadoshbu works in a very interesting way. when he wants the so to say the the the the attention away from something important then he creates a situation that all the attention goes there and many people do it up until today I mean listen the the the Israeli army that's how they operate when the Israeli army wants to do something they do it very quietly and they create a mess somewhere else so all the attention goes to the mess and And when all the attention is on the other side, then I can operate here quietly and that's it. That's why our sages say when you brag too much, when you show off, you were fool everybody knows everything about you. Keep keep something private. More than that, you want a blessing to dwell on what you're doing, then it has to be samoy means hidden that you don't see. Here's a perfect example that Hashem created all sorts of scenarios which of course in our eyes look tremendously bad to hide the real important thing that there's not going to be much attention on that. Did you ever hear that Boaz and Ruth got married on betamuz and conceived oed on betamuz? No, you never heard that. Hashem needs to know that. We need to know that quietly. Let the go and pick on whatever he wants and let us quietly do what we need to do. That's what Hashem is trying to do here. Now, let's continue. From today, we're starting three weeks. It's called Benitarim. three weeks that are going to end on tishab. uh tishab signifies two destructions of two temples and it says in two sources one of them is in the malmud intracted and the other one is in the midash of meat and it's the explanation is on the excuse me chapter 1 in verse 51 if you want to follow And there's a story and it says about a certain individual who was uh working in the field and it was to be it was nine of and suddenly the cow did okay not so good in the cow imitation but the cow did her uh noise I don't know a dog barks what does a cow do moo okay So the cow did moo. He didn't uh really pay much of attention. All the cows do moo. Comes and approaches him a man and tells him, "Your cow just moved." He's like, "Well, I noticed too." So he says, "You know what your cow just said?" So the Jew tells him, "I don't know. I don't speak cow language." So the person tells him, "I speak cow language. I You know what? what your cow just said. And shocking the person says, "What? You understand what the cow said? What did the cow said?" So he tells him, "Your cow said that beta mikdash just got destroyed." The guy leaves the cow in the in the in the field. He goes home, rips his clothes, puts ashes on him, starts mourning, starts crying. Beta mikdash is destroyed. Suddenly the cow does move again. He doesn't know what it means. This person is still there. He says, "What did the cow say now?" So the person tells him the cow now said Mashiach was born. The guy throws all the stuff, goes back to the field and continues working the land. That's the story that it says in both the Talmud and in the Midash in the destruction in the the the ruins of the beta mikdash is already in there the tikun and the redemption which means once the the holy temple was was already destroyed it's burning in fire that's in in that point is already the tikun, the rectification and the birth of the redemption. Unfortunately, everything in this world before something good comes comes a lot of bad. And you can look at it in many different ways. I will choose just one example. Before a child is born comes a lot of pain and a lot of discomfort and the poor woman what she has to go through. That's all I have to say. But then a minute later you have a beautiful child and a new life and and a moment later you forget about all the pain. Every time my wife gave birth, I told you we have seven kids. Then she was screaming, "That's the last one." And two minutes later when the baby is on her, she's like, "Oh, we need another one." Very fast you forget the the pain. Why? Because the positive overpowers the negative way, way way more. But that's everything in our life. Have you ever seen something come easy in your life that end up being good? If something came easy in your life, it's not going to be good. It's going to come as fast as it is. It's going to go as fast as it came or it's just going to be some thorn in your eye or some rottening situation in your life. That's the rule. It's never changed. Nothing good comes in your life without a struggle. Nothing good comes in your life without fighting, without pain, confusion, stress, but in the end something good's happened. The moral you need today from that is why you're stressing while the bad things is happening. Just sit quietly till the good thing is is happening. You know already that the path to the good has to go through bad. So be patient. Even to go into Ganedin, Ganed is heaven. You have to go through gum. Everybody has to do it. Doesn't matter who you are because the path to ganed and to heaven is going through ganom through hell. Even if you're not gay, you'll go like this, careful not to be burned from each side. You see everything thanking you're not there, but you still have to go through gum. That's how it works. And if you want to stay on the same topic, I explained many times there are different levels of ganed. When one when a soul wants to go from one level of ganed ganed is heaven to the next level the soul has to go to a river of fire it's called to completely reset everything and then go to the next level and not to talk too much about it to conclude everything that comes easy in your life will not sustain and can turn bad anything good in your life I'm sure that If you make a quick analysis of your life, you'll figure out very quickly that everything good in your life came with a lot of struggle. Whether it's your livelihood, whether it's to meet your other half, whether it's raising your kids, whether it's even finding a house to live and then financing it, everything in life comes with a lot of struggle. Here is where most people fail because they they they they let the struggle and the challenges affect them and then they're depressed or they're sad or whatever it is or confused or they're not inspired or they're not focused on what they need to do. That's just the joke of the the right ways to say, "Oh, if something's real bad right now, let me sit quietly. Let it incubate in the spiritual realm for the right moment that it needs to come to fruition. In the meantime, instead of me whining and instead of me trying to find solutions and in instead of me trying to go and get advice everywhere, sit down, do what you need to do, which is serving God, and the problem will by itself dissolve and the proof is that if you look at your life, 50 to 80% of your problems got solved by themselves. You didn't do anything. So, what's the point of stressing out over that? It's important to know that in the destruction is already the tikun, the rectification and the goula is already there and that's not only in the destruction of the temple in any situation in your life that there's some type of a destruction and I'll elaborate on that. It says also interesting I just mentioned before that we read yesterday paradak and balak says in a verse right from the beginning who right from the beginning of the para it says how bil saw the nation of Israel going out of the desert he got very scared because the nation of Israel defeated all the enemies and he goes and seeks a a solution but the verse that's used in the Torah and this can be found in last week's parasa in book of chapter 22:3 and he says he's rav means a lot doesn't even make much sense but let me tell you what's really what Balak is saying rav is written in Hebrew and bet can you think real quick what's the acronym of ra and bos that's what sawak saw he saw oh no from that is going to come mashiach and mashia is going to destroy us all quickly 1800 b we need to get them off they're going to kill us he wasn't afraid of the nation of Israel now attacking them. Balac saw, "Oh my gosh, it's going to come now. Mashiach and Mashiach, what's going to do? All the enemies of God, he's going to get rid of them. I can't have that." Right away, he calls Bam. So, Barak already knew what's going to happen. Therefore, he wanted to destroy the nation of Israel. Not because he was afraid they're going to take over his land or anything only for the sake of killing the potential of bringing Mashiach. And that's why all the blessings and the prophecies of Bam are about Mashiach. Very simple. Now everything is makes sense cuz Bilam could have blessed us with being rich or being fruitful or being smart. He all his blessings. He's just telling us how great we are and that we're going to have Msiah. That's it. Balak did I told you 20 42 sacrifices and he did it not for the sake of Shamim. It's called lishma. That's what we need to take from that. And leave this now on hold. Let me continue. And then we're going to go back to Balak. There is a concept. It says what we have down here is a reflection of the world above. What you have down here exists in the world above. It just goes through a through a chain a descending chain going through one world under one world and another world and eventually it manifests into this world. But what you see here exists in the world above 100% oneonone to the extent that right now somewhere in the spiritual realm there's a spiritual chamber and all of you here I'm not talking about the ones on the video right now cuz that I don't know actually the ones that are here we have some type of encounter our souls are having some type of an encounter in the world above as we speak and therefore you are physically here. I mean after all how come you are here? I know you'll answer me. I wanted to come to see the lecture life. Yeah, happens to be that your nama your soul is already there and you were drawn to come here and it was available for you to come. You didn't have to work. There was a babysitter. The car was available. You know how many people wanted to come and couldn't come? Is this going to be recorded? In the last two hours, we got maybe 300 messages. Is this going to be recorded? I can't make it. Yes, it's going to be recorded and you can see it live on your phone. But why am I saying that? Because this is called and I say it in many of my lectures. You were chosen to come here because you could have got stuck in traffic. You could have got told by your boss, you're not leaving early or whatever excuse. It doesn't matter. But why is that happening? Cuz right now in the realm above in some type of spiritual chamber we are there. We are there. Now in the people on the video I don't know that. I actually have to that's an interesting concept. I never thought of that. I know for a fact that when we're in the room we are in the room in in a chamber in the world above the viewers. Sorry guys. Uh maybe you're in another chamber and we're we're broadcasting from my chamber to your chamber. But nevertheless, going back to what we were talking about, we're limited with time. What you have here is a reflection of the world above. Now, let me take you to some example and then things will be a little bit more clearer. If a person all their life will eat bad food, sugar, white flour, processed fruit, GMO, MSG, all this junk. When they're a young child, it doesn't affect them much in the first few years. Assuming your diet is not a good diet, a certain age, the body starts reacting. It starts reacting with aches and pains and then shalom all sorts of problems and then it goes to operations and you know you know the how it works. And of course when you're 60 you you h ah I should have that's why I always tell my my kids when I try to educate them and that's what I was told the same way but I brushed it off. Think of your of your years when you're going to be 60 and 70. Now you're young. You do what you're reckless. You do whatever you want. One day you're going to pay for that. And that's how it happens. You don't care take care of your body. eventually the body will uh rebel. But that's not what I'm trying to say. I'm what I'm trying to say is is that if a person treats the body the wrong way, at some point the body will react and that will come in sicknesses and many different ways. If if I can take some type of a pill and and remove all the problems, then I can continue operating, right? But that's what most people do. They take some type of a medicine and that medicine makes the symptoms disappear and they're back to square one. Okay? So, I'll give you one example out of many so you can relate. You have a terrible headache, uh, a migraine, you can't work, you can't function, you're just sitting there. What do you do? You take a Tylenol. You take an Advil, whatever it is. Voila, 10 minutes later, no headache, and you're back to your daily things. So, you took care of the problem. You took care of the symptom. You didn't take care of the problem. It will work once or twice. That's it. Or three times or four times. The problem here is that most people in our generation and many other generations, they they take care of the symptoms. They don't take care of the problems. And it's very easy to take care of the symptom. You put a plaster, you put some band-aid, and it's over. The problem is that that doesn't work. You need to take care of the problem, not of the symptom. When a person is going through hardship, things don't work out so well in their life. They're running into many difficulties. Closed doors, opportunities don't open. You all, this time nobody's nodding, but you all inside nodding. So sometimes that I see the crowd, everybody's nodding. They're very excited to nod and I'm right. Now everybody's like [Music] but the sad reality is that we all go through hardship and I will now separate the hardship into two one will be complete suffering hardship of suffering and that can be physical and many other ways that you suffer you actually suffer and another part of the hardship is it just life is not going smooth there's no suffering here but things don't go go smooth. You try to do a business doesn't work. You love your wife dearly, fight with her all the time. Nothing that you're trying to do works. You try to learn Torah, you don't get anything. You want to come and pray in the minan traffic all the time. Nothing works out. Not in in any type of area. Now, when it doesn't work out physically, you can come up with all sorts of explanations. But why wouldn't it come out what work for me spiritually? Did it ever happen to you that you tried to do spiritually something it didn't work for you that you had the decision okay I'm going to stop doing this sin and the next day you sinned again or on the other way I'm going to add I'm going to pray I'm going to learn I'm going to give more charity I'm going to do something and you it goes for two three days and that's it that's usually the case you take on yourself some good decision from today I'm doing this and it lasts three days that's the reality ity of most situations. So for me, hardship can come in actual suffering which we all have our fair share. Uh of course it depends on the on the person. Some people say I'm not suffering from anything. I have suffering. I'm not suffering at all. So really you're not suffering. But now let's go one step lower. The hardship can come as suffering. And the suffering can come in many different ways. I would highlight that the top of it is is physical problems. A tooth ache can be a headache and then can be serious things. So there are physical suffering and of course physical suffering can be many other ways. I choose to choose to say about health but the other type of hardship and suffering like I told you and I summarize it in one sentence. Life is not going through smooth that's it each one in their department. In a month we're going to have it's going to be tav the 15th day of av. So we have a big shabbaton here in New Jersey for singles and then another big event and a lot of events for singles. If you're looking at a person who's single for them the suffering is that they can't find their other half for five years 10 years I I know people I invited to that Shabbaton somebody and that the person told me oh probably everybody will be young there. I said, "No, no, the singles are not young. The singles are actually older." So for a person who's in their 40s and can't find their other half, that's suffering. That's physical suffering. Loneliness of whatever other aspects of it. So not to talk too much about suffering. Suffering can come as I see it as physical suffering. And then the suffering and the hardship like I told you life is not working out like blockages in everything whether it's your finding other half whether it's parnasa whether it doesn't matter what it is that's type of hardship now that we understood the two types of hardship when a person is experiencing this hardship he doesn't understand that these sufferings are coming with a purpose. That person doesn't understand. First of all, in many of the cases, you're responsible for your own suffering. Don't cry. There's no other nice way of saying it. You did something bad. That's it. There's no hardship if you didn't do a sin. Okay? So, admit, be a man. Say, "Okay, I sinned." That's why we three times a day we say no admit. But in many of the cases the hardship or the like I told you life is not going smooth is not because of your actions because that's what Hashem wants. Hashem wants to test you. So now just to make it it's not even but to make it even 50/50. 50% of what you're going through is your behavior. 50% is what Hashem wants. And it's not don't don't take it as 50/50 cuz it can be 10% your behavior and 90% Hashem wants to test you all day long. So I'm just saying 50/50 because some of it is Hashem decides some of it is you. So the you part just just just don't do bad things. That's it. And when things go bad wrong in your life do your intros introspection do some self assessment and do chuva and say okay am I kidding? This is not working out. But I'm sitting here. That's it. Do your cha. But all all the rest of the times when things don't work out, not always it's you. Sometimes it's a tikun. Sometimes it's a tikun means a rectification. It can be a test. Hashem is testing you. You eagerly want the business to work. And Hashem says, "No, I'm going to drag you now for two years. Why? Because I want you to pray and I want you to feel the lack of the parasa. So I want you to do actions for that cuz you're going to start saying how am I going to get more parasa? Suddenly you start donating to the betet. Suddenly you start doing this, you're doing that. Why? I need the business to work. You become very creative. So sometimes Hashem takes away your little toy because he knows you're going to do something. And in many of the cases, Hashem takes away something for you because there's some type of purpose that if you would be bothered with that, you wouldn't fulfill your purpose. I'm sure and I don't need to tell you that. Trust Hashem. He knows what he's doing. But when I'm going through hardship, and I told you now the great definition of hardship, you you relate it. Take it to however you can in your life. Most people don't understand that the hardship right now is a very good thing for them because it's coming with a purpose and with a target and you just need to focus. What what am I need to do? 90% of the time if you do what you need to do the challenges disappear. That's why I told you if you just let things go they will work out by themselves. You don't have to do too much. The point is that the same way that the person will take now a Tylenol or whatever it is for a headache, you do the same thing when you experiencing hardship. You are not going to deal with the problem. You're trying to deal with the symptom with all sorts of excuses and all sorts of imaginary thoughts and all sorts of ideas that maybe will change the situation. But in many of the cases, this is taking a pill. You're not just numbing the problem. You're not looking at the essence of the problem. And again, let's just choose for the sake of the example. Panosa, the livelihoods. And there's many examples, but I'm choosing that because that's a I would say a pretty popular one. Many people who struggle with their livelihood they think that if the business is not working well or something is blocked is because uh whatever they come up with some idea uh first is the much lower level the we have to do much more things to the business that's not the solution then maybe the person gets a little bit of sense and they're saying okay maybe I'm doing that lacking something spiritually and they become closer to Hashem. But that's not going to deal with the problem. They need a person needs to kind of reverse engineer what is the problem and then to fix it. Therefore, you do not want to take a pill to numb your problems. You want to see what is the problem that I can fix it from its root. David deer says that when you're going through hardship, it makes you stronger. It makes you smarter, makes you bigger, and makes you much more successful. This is coming from David. Where does David says that David says it in 118 verse and he says, I'm sure you know this verse. It's from Hal translation, from the straits I called God. God answered me with a vast expanse. This is where David says, I was in obviously in a place of of right from the straight from something very narrow. I have called Hashem. How did he hashem answer me with a vast expanse? So when do I call Hashem when things are tight? Whether it's money tight, situation is tight. This is the this is an American way of saying situation is tight right now. We call it Benim between the straits that like now that we read yesterday with the donkey of Bam that first saw the angel went into the wall but at some point what does it say about the donkey that there was he went between to the the gate it was so narrow that Bam had to be crushed into it. That's a so when do I call hem? When unfortunately when do you call hem when things are bad? I don't know many people who call to hashem when things are good. That's in itself is a red light that one needs to put in front of them and apply that. Why do you call Hashem when things are bad? Can you imagine how Hashem feels? Try once to call Hashem when things are good and then you'll see that when things are bad, you don't have to call much. But unfortunately, we call Hashem when things don't work well, which is natural. But I'm telling you as a side note, start calling to Hashem when things are also doing very good. Thank Hashem all the time. Acknowledge what Hashem does. Hashem just listens to you. You can talk to him. I talk to Hashem like it's if somebody would look at me in my private life thinks I'm I don't know some I don't crazy person. I have conversations. Now you don't look crazy because people think I might be with a Bluetooth or something like a earpiece in my ear. But I talk to Hashem like I talk to you and believe he answers. So try once in your life to call to Hashem not when things are bad and when things are going great thank he hashem advertise that. So David says hard tests like very hard difficult tests come to us when you understand something what you can come to a place of how did he say expanse when you calling to Hashem in a place of a straight that's what David says that when there's a place of bad you obviously call Hashem but you need to understand that when you do that, that's when you get the with a vast of expanse. You need to to to to in Hebrew we say like is you take the medicine before the sickness. You need to get to a point that you are you understand that when you call Hashem the the vast the vast expanse comes. So David says, "Don't be so excited when you have hardship. It's not a bad thing. The is very good for you." Now getting sidetracked for a second, but I want to emphasize something. I'm sure you heard it yourself, but the last day every person that I talked to told me, "Have an easy fast." The fast is not supposed to be easy. But you know what people do when they want an easy fast? They sleep the whole day. You You That's You beat the point. Why are you wishing me an easy fast? I don't want any easy fast. The fast has to be hard. If the fast is easy, what did I do here? I need to suffer now. I need to be hungry. I need to have a a a stomach ache. I need to be weak. Why? Because that wakes me up to get my act together. Don't wish me an easy fast. Don't wish yourself an easy fast. You want to suffer because when you voluntarily take suffering on yourself, you reduce suffering that Hashem wants to give to to you because Hashem says listen in Shai tells you that you have to go through a certain amount of every year. I explained that last sh I explained that every sh that not only how much money you're going to make is decided. I know everybody wants the money. Who's going to be rich? Who's going to be poor? That's not the only important thing on who's going to live, who's going to die, but on is also decided how many you're going to have the whole year. And not only how many, how many hardship you're going to have, how you going to handle it. And it's going to be a lot. It's going to be a little bit. Just imagine what you're going to do. you can decide how much how much hardship you're going to have to deal with this year and if it's going to be a little bit of hardship or a lot of hardship. So David says the and the challenges and the hard this is not good. This is not something bad. It's good. It's actually a good thing for you. Don't look for a discount. Don't tell me now have an easy fast. You know right now I also have a stomach ache and see I just said that and my body starts talking. I'm also tired. But I'm also weak. I I don't see it as suffering. I see it as tremendous spiritual growth coming from my suffering. And that's what David says. When puts you in a situation, it's a tikun. Don't try to too much fight it. What happens is you lose all your strength. You lose all your hope. You lose all your connection to Hashem cuz you think that the hardship is a punishment. But the hardship is not a punishment. The hardship is for you to become stronger. It's for you to call. And when you call from a place of how did he call it? I'm sorry that I like the Hebrew. From the straits I've called God. Now what happens? God answered me with a vast expanse. So I need to understand the hardship is good for me. Don't try to run away from that. Of course, you first need to do your own your own self assessment, your introspection to figure out maybe I did something wrong. Why am I getting all these? That's what the say you're going through hardship and suffering. First of all, go through your actions. Maybe you'll find out that you didn't say a certain prayer. Maybe you'll find out that you owe somebody money. Maybe you find out that you say a vow and you didn't fulfill it. Maybe you said a promise that I don't know. You know everything that you do. That's why I recommend to you for the last 20 years say every night the bedtime because that's when you write down oh that's when everything is fresh in your mind. You think I wrote remember what I did three weeks ago. I can only remember in regards to my physical spiritual actions what I did today and yesterday. I don't know what I did a month ago. How am I going to do when I don't know what I did a month ago? That's why I say every night bedtime it takes me. So you'll be 10 minutes less less less on the Facebook on Instagram or whatever junk you're on. And after the 10 minutes of reading the text, I sit and I think, was I a good husband today? Was I a good father today? Maybe I screamed at one of my kids of a moment of I was busy or something and I owe my kid an apology. Three weeks later, I won't remember that. Today, I remember that. I remember today what I did. Then yeah, if you screamed at your kid and you and it wasn't the right time after you you owe the kid an apology, at the end of the day, I know what happened. I know if I owe you money, if I borrowed money, I shared that example many times, many years ago when I still lived in America. One time I come home late at night and my wife tells me as a by the way I didn't have cash to pay the cleaning lady. So I borrowed $40 from the neighbor. So I told I pulled out $40 from my pocket and told her go pay the neighbor right now. She tells me ah it's 11:00 at night. I'll do it tomorrow. I said 11:00 at night. Do you know anyone that has so many kids like our neighbor that is up that is sleeping at 11:00 at night? Anybody you sleeps at 11:00 at night? No. Go and knock on the door. No, no, no. I don't want to bother her right now. My wife tells me, I told her, "Listen, if you're not going to pay her tonight, tomorrow you'll forget. You'll wake up in the morning, you're going to be busy getting the kids ready for school, you have a lot of things on your mind, you will forget. And then another day will pass and another day will pass and you'll forget. It's not half a million dollars. It's $40 neighbors." Now, a few days will pass and then you'll bump into her in the hall. She's not going to say anything. She's just going to look at you. And in her mind, huh, I gave her $40. She said she's going to give it right back. And she didn't. And it's not the $40. And two days later, now she's already having a a talk with all the ladies in the floor. I gave her $40. She didn't give it back to me. A week later, the whole building knows. Two weeks later, I go out of the elevator. The whole red building is looking at me like, "Just go and pay the money." Now, you think you're going to remember in a week or two, and now what's going to happen? You're going to owe her $40. She's not going to come and tell you, "You owe me $40." It's embarrassing. Are you going to come to somebody and say, "You owe me $40." Not all my answers are yes. I'm just saying how I talk to my wife. The point is I told her, "Finish it now. Don't drag it. Don't drag it because you will forget. This is a perfect example how you finish your day in karachma in the bedtime schma. Summarize everything. Now I remember. Now I remember what I told you. I remember if I was rude to you or not. Now if I was rude to you, I feel bad. In two days I won't remember. You remember that I was rude to you. But you des you deserve an apology from me. So is not to bore you to death and reading text that you read every night. It's for you to say sorry to Hashem. Make it well. Make make amends with Hashem cuz you're going to sleep. Nobody promises you're going to wake up. I don't know many people who's saying goodbye to their family at night. Turn around to your wife. Honey, I might not wake up in the morning. You were great. But you're very quick to say Who says you're going to wake up? If you had the attitude that you might not wake up, I think your night would look completely different. But nevertheless, that's how I end my day. I make a quick uh calculation. Do I owe anybody money? Do I owe anybody an apology? Did I say something rude, wrong, something? Did I did something? 24 hours. It's very easy to do chuva. Do that on Friday, a whole week. That's already a whole week of chuva. Now try to do that on and try see you do that on you do the bedtime every day. You don't have to do chuva much on and all the rest of the time. So going back to what I'm saying when Hashem puts you in a certain situation it's because that's where he wants you to be. Of course you need to do the minimum minimum in introspection to see that you're not messing things up. And if you did not come up with any conclusion like I told you, what would what could be the conclusion? I owe somebody money. I promised somebody I'll do something. I yelled at somebody. I said the wrong thing. I said something rude. And I'm giving you some examples how my mind think. You use your own your own mind. But you have to make sure that before you put your head on the pillow, you're good with everybody. And if somebody needs to hear you saying I'm sorry that night, that night I somebody taught me a long long time ago, every night before you go to sleep, ask your wife, my dear wife, did I hurt you today or was I did do I oppo you owe you an apology? I maybe said something wrong. Go to sleep and apologize to your wife before you go to sleep. Even if she did something wrong and you are the one who needs the apology, it doesn't matter. Make yourself a habit that at the end of the day, the ones who are close to you, make it good with them. Never go to sleep angry at your spouse or a child or anything or don't let somebody go to sleep angry at you. Enough of that. Why am I saying that? Because after you did your self introspection and you figured out that you are okay then the says let me repeat go back says a person is going through hardship go through your actions you didn't find anything that you did then could be that it's many other things could be could be that it's we're not going to now dissect the entire but what is it saying what I'm saying in other words that's where Hashem wants you to be right now. Hashem wants you to be right now single. Hashem wants you to be right now not doing so well in in your finance. Hashem right now wants you to have bad relationship. Why? Because from the hardship you become stronger from the suffering you grow. If you're smart if you're not you stay in square one. You stay where you are. So David says the hardship and the challenges are very good for you. Accept them with a lot of love. That's the saying. Accept the hardship with love. Hashem knows what he's doing. But you have to understand that if I'm in a situation, that's where Hashem put me. It's not that I got myself in the situation. I know there's a whole argument. We had sixour discussion yesterday in Shabbat about this topic. If Hashem makes me do things or I have control, I don't have control. It's my decision. Hashem controls everything. That's the bottom line. Our discussion yesterday was, can I make wrong decisions? If Hashem controls everything, can I make a wrong decision? Can I look back 20 years and say, 20 years ago, I did a wrong decision? Can you think about it? That will be your homework and we'll talk about it another time cuz it's a very deep question. Can you say oh 20 years ago I did a mistake or last week I did a mistake. Can you because I can come and say Hashem decides everything. Hashem controls everything. Everything that happens in your life that's Hashem doing his design, his will. So, did you really made a bad choice or did a Hashem put a thought in you to make that choice and it wasn't the wrong choice? It was the right choice. You think it was wrong cuz nothing good came out of it or a lot of disasters came out of it. But maybe it was the right choice. And if Hashem let you do it, isn't it the right choice? Oh, that's a little bit of a right now. Think about it for the next few days. We'll address it in another class. But nevertheless, if Hashem puts me in a certain situation, that's where Hashem wants me to be. And obviously, there's some type of a rectification that needs to be done there. And it might take time. It might take five years, might take 10 years. And when I'm ready to go out of this situation, Hashem will make it that I go out of this situation. And in the meantime, what am I required to do? The tikun, the rectification. I'm required to do what I'm supposed to do. You're not going to find solution to your problems. Like I told you, in a month we're going to have a big shabbaton for singles. The question that I get from singles, what can I do when I need to get married? Well, uh I don't know what else to tell you. You uh fast 40 days. You read 40. to do everything that everybody told you. So you think I'm can invent to you more things to do more prayers, more charity, more more what? When I be when I was single, by the way, I wasn't born married. I got married when I was almost 30. I also had the process of being single in a later age. So I was going on the dates on Shidim for about half a year. Nothing happened. So, you know what I decided? I'm single. What's the best thing to do when I'm single? Learn Torah. I'm not going to be able to learn Torah when I'm married with kids. So, actually, it's good to be single. So, I went and admitted myself to a yeshiva. And two weeks later, I met my wife. I wanted to learn Torah. In my mind, I was like, okay, I'm going to learn now for 2, three years. I'll be 31, 32, 33. It's not that old for a man. And then I'll find a woman. And the second that my mind was like, I want to go and learn dua. Shem brings me my wife. Now I can't learn. So, and that was after I was dating and going and looking. I just chose to say if the situation right now is under the title single, let me do the best I can. Why do I need to cry all day long because I can't find my other half or go every night to a singles event or I don't need to do that. I need to do my minimum effort. Look normal, presentable, be in touch with at least not more than one or two matchmakers. That's it. When you need 500 matchmakers and 30 accounts on all the single websites, you only need one husband. You don't need 17 husbands. So when I was single and again not that I'm trying to pretend that I'm that great but I I I I understood okay now it's not the time to be married let me use my time right and when the time to be married will come it will come that's it and that's how I do with everything I wait for the time to to be ripe I do whatever I can it's not that I just sit like this but I don't do more than I need to do because I understand everything works on Hashem's schedule, not on my schedule. I want to run run fast. Hashem says, "No, no, no, no, no. This process will take five years. Take a deep breath. It will take time." Now, when you do it the right way, the five years that I'm saying is not suffering. You're not discouraged. You're not disappointed. You're not losing sleep cuz you're waiting for something to happen today. You know why it doesn't happen? Because you're not waiting. She's saying Hashem that's it. Whether it's going to come now in a year, you have any control of it. No. You think you're going to add more prayers, more charity, more Torah, more acts of kindness. You're going to change much your situation. In many of the cases, you'll sweeten judgments that are against you. But it doesn't mean that the date of the wedding will change because the date of your wedding was decided before you were born. You cannot bring the date closer. to give another quick example there and then we're going to start wrapping it up and I'm talking specifically now on the topic of singles because it's a very sensitive topic paras and and marriage is two big things big problems people are struggling with livelihood and a lot of people are struggling with finding their other half and finally when they find someone then their marriage is a struggle so for many many years I think I even shared that story in the past for many years we had a friend in our group that all all of us got married and that friend didn't get married and within a year all the the friends in the group got married was a year everybody got married and of course a year later babies one girl didn't get married really there was nothing wrong with her very attractive very beautiful intelligent successful came from a rich family anything that you can think No, this is like a perfect bride. How come she can't find another half? Really? No flaws. Okay. Years pass and maybe a decade later, I live I moved to California to Los Angeles. One time my wife comes and tells me, "You're not going to believe where are we eating? Where are we eating in Shabbat? Who invited us for Shabbat? Who?" She tells me the name of that girl. and she tells me, "Don't ask. She's married and she has a kid and I can't wait to see her." I said, "Okay." So, we go to Shabbat and we see a beautiful couple, handsome husband, tall, big, very successful, beautiful house, nice cars outside, mench, mench, like a nice guy, god-fearing, of course, everything perfect. Then the equation makes sense. cuz we spoke to them in that meal and I and we understood that when she was looking for a husband, she kept telling the matchmaker, I want a husband with a beard. I want a a religious man. At that time, he was in India partying on Zambich. She had to wait 12 years for him to get his act together. And finally when he got his act together and did chuva and went to yeshiva and for him it's a long slow process of chuva but the wife is waiting in the meantime years maybe 12 13 years waited but she was smart she waited patiently she went and learned and volunteered and she didn't not once I heard her whine and I know close cuz at some point she used to come to me for advice. She would hold me as her rabbi. Smart woman. She just used her time, right? Understanding the husband will come when he's ready to come. No point of whining, no point of being impatient, no point of being anxious, no point of anything. It's not coming. And the same level of advice, that's what I used to give people and still give people. You might relate with it less, but I lived in New York for 20 years. So, my transportation was subways. And I hated the people who go to the end of the platform. Okay. The guys in the live video didn't see it. The guys looks at the platform like that. What are you looking at? Are you think you're going to see the train? The train is going to come faster. Why are you looking in the tunnel? Just sit on the bench, read your newspaper. The train is scheduled to come at 11:42. It's not going to come later or earlier. Just sit down. Use your time. I keep looking in the tunnel. Like as if you're going to look, then you're mentally going to pull the the train to you. Same idea in everything in life. Hashem puts you in a situation. He tells you, "Patience, wait. You need to go through a process." And the process might be long, it might be short. If you do what you need to do, it will shorten it. And in many of the cases, it will take the amount of time it's supposed to take. Can you come now, I'm just giving you an example to a contractor. You bought a a piece of land. You want to build the house. The contractor tells you, "I can build you the house in a year." No, I want it in a month. No can do. I'll pay double. Pay triple. You can't cuz it takes time to build the building. It will take me a year. No, please. No, please. It can't take more than that. I'll give you triple the money. I don't need the money. It's a certain process of time. End the story. So, we conclude that David says, why are you whining? Theim are good. You know that theim the hardship are supposed to bring the person to some understanding. If you didn't understand, then you missed the whole point. >> Exactly. Exactly. You need to understand that the the hardship that you're going through is is the script of what you need to understand. But we choose to look at it in a very superficial way and cry, whine, complain. We are now like I told you for the last hour and a half in a period called Benamearim. Benames is between the straits like very tight place. This is not a time that you want to pray that it will pass. A lot of people like ah 3 weeks all the vacations are scheduled for August. You're waiting for this three weeks to pass. Don't wait for the three weeks to pass. Rather, you have to understand that this is a very very powerful time. Three weeks where you can very easily get close to Hashem. I'm sure you heard the concept that inul the king is in the field, right? Everybody heard that the king is in the field right now in in August. in in no in inul in Benitarim the king is not in the field but the king is extremely available extremely extremely available to you which means that these three weeks are very powerful time when comes alul you wishing for to be over you know alul goes like that every I have an event everybody's excited and then three days before everybody remembers they didn't do nothing the entire nova no nothing nothing so now you have two months to prepare for but the same way that alul comes you're waiting for to come I'm waiting for to come it's a time when I can do chuva clean out all my junk prepare myself for ship of course I'm waiting for so you should also wait for the three weeks three weeks is not three weeks that you want to push away it's three weeks that you want to bring closer deal. These three weeks are parallel par parallel to another three weeks in the year that are very powerful. I'll give you a few seconds. When in the in the year we have three weeks that are very powerful from Shana to three weeks and what do you do in three on those three weeks? That's when you charge your your your nishama with spirituality for the rest of the year. These three weeks are parallel to the three weeks now. In these three weeks, it's not a time that you are far away from Hashem like what people think. It's the complete opposite. You can reach to closeness with Hashem in these three weeks more than any week in the in the year. [Music] There is a concept that it says uh if you feel bad and you have sorrow and you participate in the suffering of the mass of the public or the congregation you will see the it says it's >> I would say salvation Maybe what did you say? >> Consolation. >> Salvation. >> Salvation. Which means that if I see now the public under stress, public the congregation, I will choose now to say the nation of Israel. You sitting here quietly in New Jersey. That's all I hear here. Birds come. You think like nothing exists by It's very calm here. Come two weeks to Israel. It's not calm there. It's pretty chaotic. I I I I almost didn't come. My all the flights were cancelled. It's a miracle that I somehow was able to come. Why am I saying that? You live in a peaceful place and you see your brothers and sisters are struggling. That has to be burden on you. You you need to feel my brothers and sisters are suffering. Now, it doesn't mean now that you need to change your life entirely, but it means that you need to have some type of sorrow for their sorrow. I'm now sad because they're under stress. So, you'll see how that congregation or community will be saved or see better days. So, not that I'm giving you advice what to do with Israel, but it's the same thing when I I'm the thing is I see that on the Americans, by the way. I sit in Israel, I'm like, "Oh, these poor poor Jewish Americans are stuck in America." So, you know, it works both ways. >> Comforted was the word. >> Comforted. >> Thank you. So the point that you want to take from that is the concept that where can I help the rest of the congregation or the rest of the nation not to look and say h okay it's far away it has nothing to do with me I constantly want to see where I can participate in the suffering of others even if it's just by sometimes all you need to do is acknowledge the suffering of another that's enough for that person to be thank you that somebody else sees that I'm suffering all this together brings us to a few key conclusion points a as I said the three weeks is not a bad period I I you know I'll take it one step before that is not a bad day I mean again don't don't distort what I'm saying bad things happened but We concluded in the last hour and a half that when bad things happen, they're not always bad. They're sometimes designed to protect, to remove from the uh attention or to isolate. There are many many good things happen from bad things. We perceive it as bad. I choose not to see nothing as bad because it says in the Hashem doesn't do anything bad. Can you really say Hashem did something bad? I know many people will say holocaust October 7. I don't have an argument. I do. But most people don't know how to handle the argument. The argument here is nothing bad happens from shamim. I know for us for our physical eyes it looks very bad. And there are some things that you cannot explain any any way but bad. But let's not let's ignore right now holocaust. Okay? Let's just look at our daytoday life. Shem doesn't do bad things to you. Shem is not looking to punish you or to take things from you. Shem only wants you close to him. So he will do whatever it takes to make you close to him. And that's really what you need to understand that the opportunity that you have. We are walking in now into three weeks that are so powerful with such potential. Why would I even want to see it as something negative? I see it. The negative things that happen that we're commemorating is only for me to understand that Hashem wants me to become closer to him. Hashem doesn't do anything negative or bad to me. And now is the opportunity to come closer to Hashem. So instead of looking at the three weeks as a time of that I'm very restricted and I'm very far away and I'm under so many rules. No, now I see wow I have such an opportunity in the next three weeks. Our sages say when they quote the fasts all these horrible fasts because bad things happen. These days are going to become joyful days when Mashia is going to come with all these days are going to be days of celebrations. That's why I told you from the beginning says what are you talking about? This is a holiday for Hashem. It's a day of celebration. And same thing with everything that I just explained to you. Our sages says this is not a bad time. Yeah. Yeah. It's covered with bad. Because if it wouldn't be covered with bad then the sim the satan will go straight to that direction. Hashem always kind of camouflages the important things with bad situations. So the other side of what's called the sra won't look at it won't look at it as what's going on there. That's why I told you before you want blessing in your life move it away. Nobody needs to see it. Because you know who else sees it? The the he also sees the good. So why would I want to give him the opportunity to come and pursue and go after that? So Hashem is telling us in other words, I'm going to bring birth to Msiah. I'm preparing the the building of the temple. If the Sam will see that and go full force against that, we didn't do anything. So Hashem does all these scenarios that were kind of look like in trouble when bas basically Hashem just wants the not to to pay attention on what's going on. And again I'm not removing the bad things that happen on this is for us to look and to focus and to see what do I change and that's why I told you before don't call the the the the fast have an easy fast. I don't want an easy fast. The fast has to be hard. I need to suffer because I need to now do chuva. Now is the time for me. We're going to finish in a minute. We're going to go pray. Now you do chuva. You take five minutes till I answer all these people here on the way on the YouTube and you do it as fast as you can. You take on yourself this three weeks. I'm I'm like rocket. Now is the time. I know you want to wait for al now is the time that you want to take on yourself as much as you can. Now is the time when you come closer to Hashem. Where do we learn that from? It says about and about the seven the three weeks. This can be found in the meat which is chapter 1 verse3. And it says, "All her pursuers overtook her between the boundaries." I don't like the English. Let me read the Hebrew. Okay? Which means in simple words all the ones who were going after us caught up at Benitzim the ones who were pursuing us the ones who are after us our enemies the ones who want to kill us when did they catch up in Benitar that's a simple explanation but we don't like simple explanations if you take the word cut the word and you will write it yud which means means pursuing going after. If you pursue, if you're going after yud after hem, when is that? When is the time to pursue to go after hem? That's the time that you pursue Hashem. That's the time when Hashem listens the most. Not only in when the king is in the field. Now you can the word in in Hebrew is you can explain it as when you pass somebody you kind of go past that person is to grasp or to understand that's the time in the three weeks as the verse says who do you when you means to go after. When a man goes after a woman, he says, it's it's like a nice way of saying he goes after and he, you know, he buys her flowers, whatever he wants to get her attention. Saying, in other words, Hashem is telling us in in in clear words, now is your time. Now push everything aside. Now's your time when you come close to me because when now you do that that's when you get like the minaria now you get the answer we think in our mind oh bad three weeks we've been bad kids we've been bad Jews now we're going to we getting it hit on our head now oh no that's the attitude we've been taught that these three weeks we have to like be a doormat and we're sorry of course you have to be sorry for anything that you did, but now is the time when you reach out to Hashem. Now is the time when you can grab Hashem and grab Hashem's attention. So, we have a few things that we need to concentrate on. And I'm going to leave you just with one piece of advice. You do whatever you want with it. I told you before that Balak did 42 sacrifices and in that marriage, he didn't even do it for the sake of shamine. He just did it to kill the nation of Israel. But nevertheless, he did the sacrifices, he did the offering. He still got the the blessing that root is going to come from his lineage. And Mashiach is going to somehow be connected to him. He did 42 sacrifices lishma. How do you think is going to come about if you do 42 sacrifices? Lishma if you do 42 sacrifices for the sake of sham. Now what are these 42 sacrifices? You decide it's called kbanot because balak the sacrifice is called kban. I know a lot of people are like animals slaughtering pagan let animals live. Corban comes from the word in Hebrew to bring closer. So when I sacrifice something in this case bulls, sheep, then I come closer to Hashem. But right now we don't have beta mikdash yet. So I need to sacrifice other things. Now what happens when I sacrifice something in my life? If you take the word in Hebrew, then I'm just bringing myself closer to Hashem. means to sacrifice but means to bring closer. So when I put some sacrifices on the table, what's the result? I come closer to Hashem. That's my ultimate desire. I know many people their wish is to be rich, to be successful, to be this, to be that. Your wish should be to be close to Hashem. If you're close to Hashem, life will be good. You'll have what you need, more than what you need. You need to focus on I I want to be close to Hashem, not close to my bank account or to be rich or to be famous or to be this and my business to successful. I attribute all my success in everything that I do in my life because I'm not pursuing success. I do everything for him. So by default comes success with it because I'm not doing it for myself. Very simple. And I do it with everything. So you need to come now with your imagination. I'm not going to help you with that. And if Balak did 42 sacrifices and for that he got the merit that Mashiach is part of his lineage and he did it not for the sake of God. Can you imagine what you're going to get when you doing sacrifices forem? And the sacrifices can be many different things. You don't have to bring bulls to the altar by sitting here and not eating. That's a sacrifice. You're fasting. You're sacrificing your hunger right now. And sacrifices can mean many different things. You wake up in the morning to go to pray instead of sleeping till 4:00 in the afternoon. That's a sacrifice with your time. Everything you do for Hashem, it's a sacrifice. You're giving of yourself to God. You make money. You give some of it to charity. That's a sacrifice. You need to think what are the sacrifices I need to take? I need to make because you want results. You want closeness then you have to do what Balak did. Balak did not for the sake of shamim and got that. You do it for the sake of shm and just imagine what you will get. So to conclude these three weeks are very powerful three weeks and the reason why I wanted to teach this class today and especially to have it broadcast because I don't know we have here bunch of people we'll give you some attention soon. uh is for a person to hear it now and you want 3 weeks. You don't want 20 days. You want 21 days, not 20 days. And the ones who are going to hear it tonight, they have 20 days. Sorry. Better to have 20 than 19. But if you want the whole package today, so in a few minutes we're done. You're going to take till we pray. You're going to sit with yourself and kind of recap what I told you. And then if you're smart, you're going to watch the recording later on online to put in your mind. A the three weeks are very powerful time. It's a time that I can draw the most positivity and blessings in my life compared to other times. What do I need to do? I need to do the sacrifices. You need to decide what are your sacrifices in your life right now. If you learn half an hour a day Torah, learn two hours, that's a sacrifice. Everything that you give from yourself, from your time, from your money, from your pleasure, from your knowledge, from your space, this is all sacrifices. Nobody, nobody, you don't owe it to anyone. You're doing it because that's what you want. That's how you become close to Hashem. Cuz a sacrifice in Hebrew is kban and kban means you're coming closer to God. another sacrifice. I'm closer to God. And when you're closer to God, by default, the light shines much, much stronger. By default, you'll have success in whatever you need to if Hashem wants it to be successful. But you'll be more successful in kind of locating where you need to go. So there'll be success there. Whether it's business, whether it's relationships, whether it's finding out your other half, where it doesn't matter what it is. If Hashem is not your number one and he's not the guide and he's not the partner and and then you're going nowhere. What you need to take is now you have three weeks. It's the same parallel three weeks like from Shah till these are the days that everybody wow what they do from then you have the same thing now without the long prayers and without the all the rituals and everything that comes with that. So take take advantage of that. You have an opportunity now to leave the room or to get off the live streaming by by saying, "Okay, what am I doing?" I have an opportunity. We have another hour and a half. When is the fast over? An hour and a half. Really, this class, we should have gave it last week. But hopefully the smart and fast people understand that this is an opportunity. Many good things happen. Let's put aside for now the bad things. Bad things always happen. bad things. I see bad things happen like I told you part partial for my behavior and the rest that's what Hashem wants it to happen to test me to see if I get angry to see if I get impatient to see if I get happy to see if I get the discourage how what's my reaction but what you want to take from now and again you can leave the room and say okay not for me okay good you wasted your time hopefully you didn't but if you want to go three steps ahead of your game. Then you're starting from today by saying, "Okay, Hashem is the one who's bringing me all these hardships. Hashem wants me to do something to understand what what does Hashem want me to do?" And Ban Hashem, we're going to have now I have now you're going to have my all my attention now for the next two months. Every night there's a lecture. So you'll be a lot of lectures in the last in the next three weeks about the three weeks with a lot of guidance and information. Thursday we have a lecture in great neck in New York which will be also about similar topic. Now, what I want you to focus on is what you're doing today and how you're leaving this room and what are you changing in your life that will add all the blessings that you need in your life. And to do that is like I told you, I'm taking the advantage of the the the example of Balak. If he did something for not for sake of heavens and he got a blessing, then I'm going to do the exact same thing for Hashem. And I want to see who can come and contradict and say I'm not going to get a blessing from that. We're going to do questions in a second. What I want you to do now is apply, share the video, watch it again, and don't waste the opportunity. Don't waste the this powerful day. Don't carry now three weeks of heaviness. It's a heavy time. It's not a bad time. It's a dangerous time. That it is. No time now to explain. We'll do that in the next class. It is a time that you have to be kind of watching out. It's not a good time. And why? Not because of what I told you from one reason because this demon that I told you is now have power and control. You don't want to be come crossway with him. So you keep it to the minimum. Don't do dangerous things. Don't go to dangerous places. That's why I said you say don't travel right now. Don't do what you don't need to do right now. Keep it simple. Don't bring yourself into dangerous situation because this demon is looking where where he can harm and what what he can do. You have to incubate yourself now in these three weeks and have the mind frame of saying I have three full weeks that I can do a certain act and I'm telling about many act and I gain this closeness to Hashem and closeness to Hashem is equal only one thing life is good life is going to be smooth smoother I can't guarantee to you that your because I don't know what's your tikunim but I and I never pray for a tikun. I I take my morning prayers very serious. Most people don't do that. If you want to do one more sacrifice to add to the list and add to yourself that you're saying the morning prayers with full attention because I can guarantee to you that most you don't say it with the right attention. And if you would say it with the right attention, you would realize what powerful the words are. Every word in the morning prayers I'm talking not takes three minutes to say two paragraphs three paragraphs and one of the most powerful prayers we say don't bring me to a test I don't want to be tested but on the other hand when shalom I'm already tested or there's an is or certain challenge I don't I looking for the opportunity Then the challenge and the the hardship in your life is a jumping board to the next level. It's a ladder. If you know how to climb it, the hardship will take you to the next level. If you don't, it will take you down. So, I'm going to wish you not an easy fast. I'm going to wish you a horrible fast. I hope you suffer throughout the day from this fast because we want the fast to be hard. The fast is for me to remember what I need to do. It's a sacrifice. I don't put in my mouth every two minutes something. I like fasting. Most people all day long. All day long the mouth is busy. I have that sickness too. It's not food. I drink coffee. So every every 3 minutes a sip. Listen, nobody's perfect, but at least when I fast, no coffee. Fasts are good. I love fasting. You know when I became observant for about three years I would fast every Monday and Thursday because I wanted to do a lot of tikunim a lot of rectifications and I had this book from the all what you need to do for almost three and a half years. Every Monday and Thursday I would fast and sometimes I I didn't even like double fasts. I needed to catch up. But the fast brings you very close to Hashem because you're not thinking of food. You're less thinking of yourself. The fast is a good thing. That's why I'm wishing you were not an easy fast. I'm wishing you a good fast. When I was in the beginning of the path, people would tell me have a meaningful fast. I don't know how fast can be meaningful. When you turning meaningful, when you do something, the fast is to remind you what you need to do. I'm not on the right path. Where can I get better? What can I do? That's what the fast is for. That instead of you concentrating on your stomach, concentrate on what do I need to do? So use this fast. Use this three weeks and utilize it for the best of your ability. I promise you, you'll see tremendous changes in your life. Life will be not necessarily you're going to win the lottery in 3 weeks, but things will work out. Problems will solve themselves. Things that are stuck will start flowing. life will become a little bit easier. And why? Because you gain closess to Hashem. Three weeks is equal closeness to Hashem. And that's what you want to achieve. So I wish you great success in your short journey. I invite you to uh join me on this journey because in the next few uh weeks almost every day there's a lecture when we're going to broadcast it or we're going to load it. A lot of information, a lot of good advice and what you need to do. But the point is to do because our sages say talk talk as they say in America talk is cheap. The the the action is what counts. Do a certain action. You have to know how to transform the thoughts and and the and the talking into an actual action. And the first action that you you you have the opportunity of doing is don't leave the room. We're going to pray here. Grab another mitzvah. And then we're going to pray. grab another mitzvah. Your mind has to be constantly how am I grabbing another mitzvah and how am I coming closer to Hashem? And for that I'm going to wish you that Hashem should bless us all with great success. Anyone who needs salvation in whatever type health, Shem should bless you in the best way possible. That everything that your heart desires to serve him in the best way possible should be given to you in the nicest, please, pleasant way. And may Hashem bring you closer and closer to him and make these three weeks very very valuable for him and for you that you should grow spiritually closer to Hashem. And eventually that will bring us closer to Rosh Shah and the ultimate blessing that we're crying on the destruction of beta mikdash. Then Hashem should build us the beta mikdash and send us the very soon and all should be inim till the next time continue your easy fast and uh and may hashem bless us all with great happiness and success. >> For the ones online don't go off. We're going to do some questions. When are we doing mka? right now. >> 12 minutes. >> 12 minutes. So, we don't don't hang up. The guy's online. Yes. >> I heard somewhere because I know that he was obviously involved somehow that Hashem comforted him by saying you will have some kind of a descendant. I believe a black at the end of time >> who will be somehow very involved in coming up, but I don't really know exactly what I'm quoting. Is that with a thing or did I make that up? >> Uh I don't know if you made it up. I I heard something similar, but uh it's it's I would completely ignore it now and and uh and focus on the fact of what the Midash says that that was a prophecy for Aon. So Aon should state tomorrow is a very big day. >> You're right. uh Shem promised him a lot of things. >> Well, just because he was involved in you talked about, you know, Balak and Root and all of that. I I thought I heard something like that. >> Yes. No, but really what we need to focus on is the fact that our own literally said the prophecy that there going to be a day of celebration to Hashem and then that's where we see it. I'm going to let's see if we give some attention to the guys online. I uh the messages are running very fast and I don't see much questions. If anyone has a question that they want to post on the chat right now, we have a few more minutes. Uh can't wait to move to the holy land. We're waiting for you. Uh and then all sorts of comments that uh Okay, whatever. Uh anyways, for the guys online, for the people online, thank you for joining us. Uh follow the rest of the messages for the rest of the schedule. moving enough everyday lectures. All the lectures are going to be posted online and we are doing I mean okay I I see the messages are going too fast so it's very hard for me to I don't see necessarily questions it's just all sorts of hearts and thumbs up and all sorts of free Palestine people that uh I don't know where they always come you we're teaching Torah we're learning Torah free Palestine what are you going to do with Palestine right now Why does in the go to another see the the messages are going way too fast. I'm sorry. So I think we're going to conclude here. We got a pre I'm going to wish you the viewers online the same what I wish here success happiness and I will try later on to read all these comments. It looks like there's a lot of good questions here but uh they're just going too fast and I can't follow them. But uh again just to conclude, may we all have a meaningful meaningful fast. May Hashem turn these days from to from morning to happiness. Hem should bless us all with all the good things. Until the next video, share this video. We're going to post it also online uh on the regular YouTube. And I'm going to leave it a little bit open for you guys. Maybe you can see us here. And for the local ones, thanks for coming. and may we all have a very successful journey in the next 3 weeks. >> Amen. >> We're going to put everything back together or >> I'm going to try to see if whatever I can read. >> It's hard for me. Yeah, you can turn it off. It's hard for me to read all the comments, but you guys online, thank you. Thank you for joining. How are you? Good to see you. >> We'll talk in a second. Uh thank you all for joining us. We're going to have more classes. So, please join us. I thank you for all your thanks and all the hearts and all the emojis. I like seeing it. And uh I hope you benefit a lot from the live lecture. We're going to continue doing it and get better and better and wishing you all the best. I love seeing all the comments. Waiting to see you in Florida. I'm coming to Florida in Rosh de Jal and we'll be there for 3 weeks. [Music] I love I love all your comments. Thank you so much. We're going to sign off so we can uh pray till the next time. And by the way, for all you I see a lot of comments. Come here, come there, come to Virginia. Uh go to the atmud.org or tour and you'll see the schedule of all the lectures and uh whatever is around your area you can come or if there's there are some free days if uh we can come to Mexico by the way JM come to Mexico we're working on Mexico we have somebody who's working on that we're going to try maybe to come in uh January to Mexico if you know anyone and we are looking at we have somebody organizing lecture trying to organize a visit in uh in Mexico. But if anyone wants to help or in any of the places see now come to London anyone Canada I'm bound from there I can't go into Canada >> Canada >> uh h >> Canada comes to you >> Canada comes to me >> from Canada >> no people saying Canada please talk to Trudeau and see if he will let me in but as as of now I'm banned from uh from Canada but all the those great places Baltimore uh I will come wherever I'm going to be invited so work on that get the place uh up and running. Uh Papa New Guinea, I don't know, make it there. Uh although I thought it's pretty beautiful there. Uh but anyways guys, have an easy meaningful fast. Tomorrow's going to be another lecture. Uh till the next time, thank you all for all the support and the comments. Blessings to you too. and uh bes I'll see you in the next uh live broadcast. Okay. Okay. How do you stop this? >> Hey, how are you? >> How do you stop this? I don't know. That's up to you. All the best. Adios.