RABBI YAAKOV RAHIMI: SPECIAL Q&A FOR TEENS AND YOUNG PROFESSIONALS (PART 1)

good evening everyone and welcome to this amazing series brand new series we're going to be where where your submitted questions are going to be asked um we're going to we're going to be asking them to um we're going to hear amazing answers from rabbi yakov rahimi um this is being presented by hazak and tara anytime and uh each week we're gonna have different themes but but but really you can ask a question on any topic whatever is bothering you whatever you're interested in um addressing whatever's on your mind something maybe a question you didn't ask before maybe uh but it will be addressed on this amazing platform every single monday at 8pm eastern standard time right here on tourneytime.comlive um so i was thinking that we should open up with uh with the with uh marshall so i heard this from joey newcomb he's a he's a tomato he's a rebbie in the in uh he's a renowned singer as we know so he's so um i actually i was there when i was recording him he said it's amazing watch they said that that sometimes like you don't even realize what is what's the what's what's going on in the inside he said that they have a building you have an unbelievable building that has 20 stories and everything like and then you see okay it's just there whatever it is but you don't realize that the foundation of the building that that that was built in the beginning that is what's keeping it all together so he said he uses a muscle he said that that is a parable that so too in life that sometimes there's people behind the scenes and they're the people who are keeping everything going so i wanted to use it in a different way and say sometimes we just like we're running through life and we don't really know what's going on but we need certain uh fundamentals foundations in our life and then that's how we're going to grow and become the people who are meant to be so as we know that that um um the ville mcgowan says that one of the main things that we're in this world for is is tikka namidos to improve our character traits so i was thinking that that will open up with some questions about the the eight sahara it's at 12 and then that that way i'll graduate into correcting our middle so uh maybe if you could just uh address us just the fundamental what is the yetzer atov what is it what's the difference okay thank you robbie okay so before i answer the question oh it's upside down i did this every day at my house now i can't do it here okay so before answer the question first of all thank you for all the listeners thank you torah anytime thank you guys the queue thank you behind all the projects um and if any teenagers or young adults have any questions they want to ask an ashkafa what's the purpose of life what is life what is the it's hard like you say it's all the topics i'll try to answer them but if you have anything on top of your head you're afraid to ask somebody else whatever it is send in the question and we'll try to help and guide as much as possible be seated ishmael and like you said robbie the foundation is one of the main things in life how true it is the torah always says that you saw that you saw the foundation has to be correct it has to be strong you know when you're building a building you don't start building from the fourth floor then third floor or fifth floor the foundation has to be strong once the foundation that you started strong then you could build the top of it a person has to understand what the purpose of life is what is he here for what does it mean to be a jew what is the purpose of a jew once you have that clear once you focus in your mission your objective is clear oh life is so easy life only becomes complicated when a person doesn't know what his goals in his life and he doesn't know between right and wrong so that's the first thing i want to say robby of the foundation beautiful mashaan now to answer your question what is it what is it of holy moly i mean to answer fast i'll stay like this just to bring out the picture first i want to make sure the viewers know that there is something called the yetzer hara and there's something called the yetzeratov in english our school calls translation not that it will help much but it's called the evil inclination right yeah thank you see that was a big word for me and the yetzeratov i guess would be called the good guy okay every person inside of him has an ishma he has a soul that came from the kisaya kavod from the holy place the holiest place in the world that is the chair of god the chair of the dodgeball every one of our shamath come from there every person is extremely extremely holy and capable of doing the most unbelievable things in this world however this neshama this soul is hidden inside the body the body is like a costume around the soul a person's challenge in life is to do what his soul tells them and not what his body tells them for example the body tells a person to go after desires to run after money or to eat or to hang out too much in vacations the body pulls a person the body tells them to go more to the groundly stuff more to the world desire stuff the problem is that the spiritual the shama of you that you have inside of you tells you no connect more to shaman connect more to heaven so the body pulls you down to the ground which means the world desires and you know shama and he tells you no go up so every day says the balatanya what's the battle the battle should i go up should i go down should i go oh should i go down you're in the sharma which is the yetzer hat of the good soul in you which is who you truly are and who you're always going to be after 120 is going to be here in the sharma tells you always connect to hashem like a candle it always wants to go up and the shama the banishka tells us and the shaman looks like a candle like the flame of the candle which is why by the way when we have a yard site in english are you saying um memorial you let a candle why do you let a candle to remember somebody passed away by the year a year after they passed away because a candle represents a soul on the shaman because they have the same figure and the shama looks like a flame that always wants to go up to shaman always wants to connect to god what stops it the body the bodies that we have stopped because the body tells us connect to the ground do more sins go against god go against the spiritual force go against heaven so when you say yes that's the soul that's us the truly who we are our nash tells us to learn tara and do the right thing and follow the terror don't follow society what's the yet that we have in us that's the world desires that's our bodies that tell us go to the ground which means connect more to this world more ground connect more to this world and go against god so that's the yetzara and that's the yetzeratov did i answer that question yes yes okay now what do you do with them it's different question but when you ask it okay amazing um just uh definition of the words i wanted uh just um i forgot to mention they're getting to submit a question email us at eventsahazak.org e-v-e-n-t-s at c-h-a-z-a-q dot org and they will be addressed by robert so now that you just define the the these uh these terms these concepts so how um what are um some practical tactics to use both forces um for good okay it's like musical chairs with this mic okay so how do you use the yetzera and the it's a very complicated question i mean uh can i just ask the question before that yeah you might not be here okay yeah we did we just found we defined what the yet salah is the force that we have in us that tells us to do and go up against god the torah tells us one thing our bodies the yetzara tells us not to listen to hashem not to not to grow your spiritual life but rather your physical life now so why is it there why is it that god why is it that hashem created this scenario where we have souls we have an ishma but we're inside bodies that tell us to sin and to go against hashem why did hashem do that the answer that question is welcome to life god's whole purpose of this world is for us to overcome the yetzer allah god's whole purpose of creating us and putting us in this world is for us to overcome our bodies and listen to our nation our souls that's our goal in life we were put in this world to overcome tests we were put in this world to overcome desires now this is not easy this is not going to be easy but once you know what your mission is in life life becomes easier if a person doesn't know what life is about he's never going to know to even try to overcome his physical desires to even try to overcome his yet first thing a person needs to know is why am i even in this world and the answer to that is hashem answered that the reason why you're in this world because hashem wants you to overcome the sins you were born in this world to overcome sins you were not born in this world to have it easy you were born in this world to be challenged to see how much you can overcome your physical pleasures how much you can overcome the desires that you want to do naturally and we have it in us every single one of us has the capabilities to win every single one of us has the capabilities to succeed in life and become righteous people and let awareness overcome the yet so now when you ask what do you do with this yet sarah the answer is friends let's make it practical let's say a person likes to eat okay a person likes to eat now eating can be a sin or eating could be a mitzvah like every other physical pleasure in life it could be either a sin or it could be a holy thing a mitzvah our goal is to take the physical pleasures and make them into a mitzvah you see in other religions they don't understand this concept of how you could be so holy but at the same time be connected to the physical world so for them holy means totally disconnected to the physical world not eating not getting married not having any children that's a mistake judaism teaches us the opposite is true your goal is to take the physical pleasure take the food take houses take money take marriage and make it into a holy situation use it as a tool as a utensil to connect even closer to god how do you do that for example food hashem says a person must eat breakfast that's the extra credit is one should eat breakfast why because god wants a person to be healthy and shabbat one has to eat he has to wash on bread you should try to have meat and chicken we know we have many meats where a person has to eat because hashem wants you to take this concept of food he wants it to enjoy this world judaism is about enjoying life he wants it to take this world but make it into a holier thing how do you make food holy you're about to have a nice sizzling piece of steak you know like when it comes out that's like talking to you like it's like moving like that you're about to cut a piece of steak you make but you make the blessing before you just took that piece of meat and you made it into a mitzvah and through the food now you can connect hashem so what do you do with all the desires you don't chuck it away like other religions no no that is a mistake hashem tells you take all the physical fun take everything and make it holy have him in mind make it into a mitzvah grow with it and use it as the tool to get closer i answer your question yes okay now where's the stake um i wanted to just uh follow up on a point that you made about about in the beginning you were saying that that that that we have these are but but we we can win but i wanted to just um um address that point that that sometimes like we know the eight star sometimes he's like he's like double faced like like on the one hand before before you do the action then oh you should do this sin you should you should eat this you should not you should look at this or whatever the example is and then after you the person does the wrong thing then he said then the eight i get server like like a big sad thing oh what are you doing like like like who do you think you are you're gonna go to you're gonna go to minion now you're you're gonna you're gonna you're gonna go to the rabbi's class you're gonna eat kosher you just did you just did a horrible thing and then i'll start quoting all these uh all these all these teachings and stuff like that and use it against you so how do you um overcome how do you not let the atahara win on that front not not the regard beautiful question beautiful question robbie unbelievable home run question okay home run question i'm just going to hold it from that one beautiful question robby i love that question welcome to the yet sahara that devil oh i'm telling this yet sahar knows how to trick me and he knows that it tricked the world so badly that's what they yet by the way he's called the ham he's called the zakken of kasilym he's called like the old man of the genius of making people into fools calls the king of fools why is he the king of fools why does solomon call the yetzara the king of fools because he's the best at taking human beings and making them foolish for example why is a shoe maker called the shoemaker because he knows how to take a shoe and fix the shoe right good humans innocent humans born to the world about to serve god he takes them and he brainwashes them and he makes them into fools and then they go up against their own creator the yet sarah is so strong and he's so smart and a person has to be aware the yet sarah never sleeps he's always ahead of the game he always had he always has a game plan of months worth or years worth how he's going to trick the guy how he's going to make him fall but the answer is specifically your question that yet sarah makes a person doing a vera then a person wants to do good he tells them oh you're not worthy of it so let me tell you something that's extremely fundamental and it's very important in life because i see more and more with teenagers it's very important hashem knows a person is going to sin in this world hashem was very aware and is very aware that bene adam will do avert it should be once in a blue moon shouldn't it be often but hashem is aware that this power called the yetzella this power called desires is stronger than the human being yet salah is a spiritual force and we have our physical bodies spiritual beats physical wind can knock out mountains spiritual and stronger hashem is aware that a person will do a viral that's why he created this concept called teshuva before he created the world now what do you do about it hashem didn't leave you hanging hashem never points fingers on why a person does hashem does point fingers and listen to this hashem does point fingers on why a person put himself in a situation to sin we don't have the power to beat the yet sahara but we do have the power not to put us up in situations for the yet to beat us for example let's say a person can't control his eyes okay he looks at immodest things a person is a person he's gonna go after uh immodest things with his eyes naturally he's gonna go after sin so the question is not why are you sinning because a person is human the question is why would you go to a place where you know you can't control your eyes or why would you hold a device that you know you cannot control your eyes with you have the power to make sure you don't put yourself in a situation where the yet sahara is going to corner you it's like let's say i tell you that block over there don't go there there's a lot of robberies and people are going to mug you do you blame the guy if he goes in the block do you believe in being mugged i mean it's almost automatic you can't fight these guys they're much stronger than you they're much more prepared and they know they're going to mug you what you can blame the guy is why did you go down the block in the first place where you know you're going to get mugged salted when it comes to yet salah once you confront the yetzara he's going to kill you yet sarah is much stronger than us and hashem said that he's much stronger than us what could you do is avoid sarah that is in your hands the challenge is to avoid the yetzara as much as possible always be smart always think ahead if i do this what's going to happen if i do this what's going to happen is he going to get me is he going to make is he going to make me trip and fall that yet is always the head of the game but know that hashem never points fingers on why you do avert hashem points fingers on why you put yourself in the situation in the first place now what is a yetzara do i just read a beautiful line from hoffman said so is always going to be around the last day of your life 120. yet is always going to be here sadiq learn how to deal with the yet salah and said again righteous people never beat the evil inclination righteous people are people that learned how to deal with the evil inclination you have to learn how to deal with yet you have to know how to handle him how to tackle him you have to know how to duck him if he tries to jump on you when a person does an average when a person has shalom doesn't have arab once in a bit in a blue moon here and there he should know that that there is a horrible thing but it's even worse for a person to be depressed after that there it's even worse for him to think that hashem is not going to give him another chance and yet sarah knows that the yetzara is aware that a person can be very sad after he does and he manipulates the person and he takes him because he's vulnerable he talks a person and he makes him do even more of it now how do you know that's wrong because as long as you're alive if god is giving you life if you woke up in the morning even though you stand the day before if you woke up in the morning that means hashem specifically that morning took your nash and put it back in your body so that means hashem is telling you yo you have another day to live obviously you can repent otherwise you want to be here so who are the people that can argue with god if god gave you life who are you to say it's too late for me i can never come back that is the yet sarah the yetzaram wants to tackle you to think you can never come back but the answer is about we grow with the yet sarah every time you beat them every time you get up that's you grow and you're going to spirituality it is never too late for anybody to come back to god as long as you're alive you have the upper hand to get close to hashem wow i'm speechless um [Applause] is there drinks here we have drinks where's the iced coffee no no i'm drinking no um so i wanted to maybe maybe maybe um talk about maybe if you could if you could um elaborate about the eight sahara overcoming challenges and the power of not no you're not in it alone you're you're you're you're with the good friends you have a a good cover around you how does how would that affect the atari i mean it's not like okay it's myself the versus the sahara no it's it's me my friends like like you're not welcome to the world you say yeah very good question very good question this is a very interesting topic especially for teenagers okay all the the teenagers have to understand the holy holy teenagers world the world is standing on the teenagers the next generation who's going to run the next generation who's going to hold up the terror who's going to dance who's going to fancy him kipper who's going to keep shabbos the teens the teams running 2020. they're going to hold up they're holding up the world right now and they're the next generation that's going to uh hold on to the torch of the torah that we have from mashallah bender for moses and harassing they have to understand you're never in it alone when a person does an average if khashog once in a blue moon it happens to be a guy since he has to understand he's not in and alone the yet is extremely strong and every person struggles even the biggest rabbis in the world there are every s has a yet and the opposite is true the bigger the righteous the person is the bigger siddiqui is the stronger the yetza is we know when it comes to wars right if you read history or all these things terrorists only mess with the big guys right big armies go against big guys if somebody is coming to you with thousands of shoulder of soldiers and tanks and airplanes are the most expensive and the biggest bombs and what's it called f-35 and all these things if somebody is confronting you if they're confronting a nation with so much soldiers and such expensive weapons it's because they know that the country that they're confronting are very strong the stronger the country you want to go to war with the more weapons you need to have so the yetz only attacks the people that make a difference in this world so the more you see the yetza once you do what's wrong the more you see you're struggling harder that's the biggest reason why you're the most righteous guy if you see that you keep on following if you see the attack why are you why you bother me there's like 50 billion people in the world leave me alone you know what's the soil this all says before it says were around the same farms let's see the same field it ends up being the lot this person lot who was at siddique we're not sure but lot his sheep were eating other people's grass got upset because you know you're making hashem i'm this first jew in the world mr jew i go around and ends up being that you're my relative stealing stealing other people's hey and grass sava vino told lot why are you next to me the whole world is in front of there's so much land in front of you you have to be next to my sheep that's what i found the zoa over there says i read it from the banish says one day we're going to tell the yet we're going to tell this evil inclination that makes the whole world sin we're going to tell them why are you bothering us you have the whole world to make them sin the whole china you have so much people to make sin there's so many people in the world what do you want from us what do you want from the jews and queens the jews and lakewood the jews are broken leave these teens alone already what do you want from these guys why do you specifically target us why do you always come strong on us take your weapons and fight other people there's plenty of people to fight leave us alone the answer is says the soil you're not getting the point the yet doesn't want to fight other people because there's no point of that he wants to fight the good guys he wants to fight the teenagers because he knows they are going to be the next generation they're the ones who are going to be holding judaism in the next generation so he wants to get them but you have to be strong you have to understand it is in you to be a righteous person it is within you to serve hashem like anybody else and just because you sinned it does not mean you can't get up like i said if you fell and you see the desires are strong it's because you're righteous it's because you're worth a lot because you're worth a lot that's what the yitz wants to get you so get up and move forward because it's within you well amazing i think we'll just end up one last question for uh for tonight um um one question is um i heard a beautiful uh mashallah a in green bay in wisconsin they have they have uh football teams called the green bay packers and and they they play and it's so cold down there and sometimes they play and it's like negative 20 degrees like below zero and and um so so somebody was asking like like what is what's game football like he just came from another country doesn't know what football is um football you throw not not not uh no not soccer where you kick it but yeah so he was asking all these questions everything so he said oh there's also there's these fans in the crowd and and they're there and and what happens what's the game so so these fans what do you mean so what happened they pay to watch the game what like what they're going and they're freezing for three hours and and and and some of them they they wear a shirt they write like defense like spelled out on there and and there and they're going and and they're freezing for three hours and they're gonna pay hundreds of dollars to watch it so he said so too we have to use that force that that in our mind so let's let's just say an example let's say it's around sukkah's time so so the person's like oh should i go outside it's cold like this that like no like you have to learn from this guy who is who is who's paying who's freezing himself and getting sick and and just just to watch the game where he's not even not even playing it and whatever it is so we have to learn for us to as as you were saying we get so much tremendous war and all mahabhara in the next world and oh and also not only in the next role in the blessings in this world for keeping them its vote and and we have to that we have to learn from this fan these people who are at the stadium there for we have to do that to do the mitzvot so maybe you can uh just uh maybe talk about learning from the eight sahara and also just about using the the concept of reward and um and blessings in our fight against dates are okay okay i'm gonna look around to the camera this one okay everybody's watching look into my eyes like i don't look nice whatever i have to kill my glasses but listen there is nothing greater in the world the getting close to god there is no greater enjoyment in life than getting closer and closer to the creator of the world whoever is looking to enjoy his life forever is looking for fun whoever is looking for excitement is judaism you want to run after not money not florida not cars not houses not food you want to enjoy your life get close to hashem as much as possible you will have the funnest funnest life ever now how do i know that hashem god created this beautiful world oh god created all the fun stuff you can ever think of there's a creator who created that hashem and the same creator who created all the most enjoyable things you can ever think of is the same creator who tells you hello the most enjoyable thing is learning tara who can argue with the same creator who created all the fun and he's telling you the funnest thing is learning terror yes you might not understand in the beginning you might not feel it in the beginning and yes you look at the whole world more than most of the world doesn't follow the terror but that means nothing because the creator of the world is telling you the greatest enjoyment is beating your desires the greatest enjoyment is getting closer and closer to hashem one may think that when he becomes religious let's see he starts keeping shabbat let's see a guy is brave in this society he decides i'm going to keep shabbat his parents don't keep shabbat yet his relatives don't keep shabbat yet he says i'm going to be i'm going to be loyal to god in 2020 i'm going to keep shabbat no games no games i'm going to be loyal to god i will keep shabbat he sits at home he goes to shul then he sees his siblings or his cousins they're going to the beach and they're going to the movies so he's going to feel like oh i'm losing out and enjoyment in life that's a mistake when you become religious when you keep shabbat you're exchanging small enjoyment for much bigger enjoyment it's like me giving you pennies and then i'm gonna i give you like 10 shiny pennies and then you give me a hundred dollar bill when you become religious yes you gave up the movies you gave up going to the beach on shabbos you gave up your phone on shabbos you gave in the pennies but god is giving you a hundred dollar bill the pleasure you get when you serve hashem there is nothing like it in the world so when you serve hashem you're not locked in you're the happiest guy in the world you know who says that oh my gosh god himself the creator of the world who can argue with such a thing it's like imagine you go to a restaurant and you set their first course you loved it you and your wife are going on a date oh you love the food the first course and the chef tells you haha you think that's good went until the second course are you going to trust the chef yes because if the first course was good why not the second course the second dish hashem created all the fun stuff that you're enjoying he created it and he's telling you hello i'm the chef you think that's fun you think eating is fun you think going to the beach is fun wait until you learn how to learn yourself wait until you finish wait until you start singing by a shabbos table wait until you start controlling your eyes you know how enjoyable it is for a person to be close like it is the most enjoyable thing in the world so if anybody is looking for fun do not follow society do not follow your neighbors who tell you go make money go to college for 20 years god money's going to make you happy yes you need to go to college you go to college you need to make money you make money but what's the purpose of everything to get even closer to god not to further you and distance you away from god you go to work to get closer to god you go to college to have a good job to get even closer to hashem but everything is a purpose to have fun what is the funnest thing getting closer and closer takadosha you want to enjoy life get closer and closer to hashem be that brave guy or girl be loyal to hashem and you're going to see you're going to be the happiest person alive amazing um so i think we'll stop here for tonight we want to tell this is a brand new series and not only you you you who's watching right now but but tell your friends and family um and then teenage friends and etc to tune into the stairs not only to tune in and to watch and and be a bystander but you should be active and and submit questions every week uh which will be um addressed email us at events at kazakh.org thank you thank you very much