Book vs Sefer, Lecture vs Shiur | TORAH FOUNDATIONS (35)

We're back here on our Sunday night Torah Foundations. We're after some divrei Torah, we're all going to be inspired to make some serious changes in our lives Hashem. Tonight she was going to be for the and about to find Shulamit Sarah and I mean about Sarah Sarah but Lavana and David and Doris but Shura and all of Israel and all the righteous Noahides that continue to support and push themselves further and further closer to Hashem with Hashem. Tonight we're going to talk about the difference between a book and a sefer. A lecture and a shul. In the new world of artificial intelligence many people have taken advantage of the technological opportunity to publish their thoughts, their opinions in books. Authors often point out to their book as one of the greatest achievements of their careers. And the book may be full of interesting points and ideas yet it may not quite reach the caliber of what the Jewish people call a sefer. Yes, the word sefer translates to the word book yet the two share very little else in common. The world is full of books that are filled with information. But the sefer is the one that's eternal. The word of God is explaining the difference to us between those two and the test of time will help us see the proof of his wisdom. So in the last shul we had before we went to Los Angeles and did some shulim over there and we had a lot of chizuk. The word of God explained to us the difficulty that he had to endure deciding whether to write this sefer or not. Initially, he thought that it's too big for him. He's not qualified. He doesn't have the language. But then realized that this was only the yetzer hara talking. Now, the Hovot Halevavot is going to start telling us about what he actually did. And he says as follows. I have therefore seen fit to force myself to assume the heavy suffering of writing this book to explain the subject with whatever language I can muster, whatever expressions that come to me, so long as the meaning is conveyed. I will mention those details of the duties of the heart that suggest themselves to me, but will not trouble to cite all of them. To do so would make the book too lengthy. I'll mention, however, whatever is necessary for the understanding of the major principles, each one in its own gate. I seek the help of the one and true God. In him do I trust. I ask that in his mercy, he show me the straight path which pleases him and finds favor in his eyes in word and deed, in the inward life and in the outward action. This is the section we're going to review. But the truth be told that you can actually make an entire lecture just about the first sentence. When the Hovot Halevavot, Rabbeinu Bahya, is telling us that he's going to force himself to assume the heavy suffering, the heavy heavy burden of writing this book. Now, in today's world, even though everyone has their own level of suffering, some people really quite understand what it means. Or at least their definition of suffering is quite different to the Hovot Halevavot. There's a person that I met that told me that they went to a wedding and they got upset. It was like a kapota of an old for them when they got there because they saw that the they gave a certain gift to the bride and groom but they found out that they they're giving a food as a buffet. Or they missed the first dish. Two different types of people, two different types of weddings. And the guest was more concerned about making sure that their gift was worth it because they're going to eat all of the different meals or Hashem Shalom eat from a buffet. To them, this was suffering. Sometimes, a woman tells me that she really had emotional anguish when she found out that she went when she went to an event that somebody else wore the same dress. To her, it was emotional anguish. To the Hovot Halevavot it wasn't. What's the difference between the two? The Hovot Halevavot is trying to tell us that when you're going to write a safer it's not anything like when someone writes a book. Because when someone writes a book what they're doing is they're taking the thoughts they have the opinions they have which they deem valuable. One of the reasons why people write books well, they write one for one reason to make money. Second reason is to get the honor, the kavod that you get by telling people, "Oh, you know, I wrote a book." Even though five copies are sold and four of them is his family members. Still, he tells people I wrote a book. He puts it on his bio. He wrote a book. Many people that write books take a lot of uh take that very seriously because they believe that their thoughts, their opinions are extremely valuable. And that brings us to the third reason of why people write books. They write them because they've studied a certain subject, accumulated an enormous amount of information that they feel the need to share with the public. Now, all those are perfect reasons for writing a book. But none of them are good for writing a sefer. When the Chofetz Chaim saw that the Jewish world was lacking in the mitzvah of lashon hara, he wrote a genius sefer explaining to Am Yisrael based on all of the early and late sages, based on the Talmud, based on the Zohar, based on an entire world of Torah of how bad this lashon hara is and how much damage it causes at the same time that people don't even realize it's a problem. He wrote the book not because he wanted to write a book. He wrote it because he saw that there's a need for it. Now, you would think after seeing the Chazon Ish, the uh Chofetz Chaim writing such a genius work that his next work would be just as genius. But it wasn't. He wrote a book about the significance of not shaving your beard and wearing a beard. And he called that safer Tiferes Adam. The whole book is about all the different excuses that the yetzer hara is going to tell you of why you should shave your beard. And he was explaining to people why you shouldn't. It wasn't extraordinary genius like the Chofetz Chaim like the book about Lashon Hara was like Mishna Berurah was. It was a book about a beard and why you should keep it as a Jew. If that weren't enough his next book was called Machaneh Yisrael which were different obstacles that a soldier has when he's at war. A Jewish soldier has to deal, especially if you're fighting for a foreign army. And in those days there was drafts happening in the Jewish community. They were forced to go into the different armies. And he wanted those bachurim that are going into the army to know what to do when it comes to eating non-kosher, when it comes to all the issues of immorality, all types of different details. Many Jewish young people came to him asking for a blessing that they don't get drafted to the army. So they could be left learning Torah, doing mitzvot, living a Jewish life. And people noticed that once in a while he would give a copy of this book to the person that came for a blessing. And they noticed that everyone that got the book ended up getting drafted. As if he saw already Kodesh who's going to be drafted and who's not. Why did he write these books? Why didn't he match the level of genius that he had in Mishnah Berurah and the Chafetz Chaim about Lashon Hara? Why do you write a book about beards? Why do you write a book about the different obstacles that a soldier has to deal with even though they weren't in the same level of genius. They were simple books for simple people to deal with simple things. The same goes with the Ben Ish Hai. The Ben Ish Hai wrote genius works, Kabbalistic works, but he also wrote a book about parables. Different puzzles, mental gymnastics that a person can do in order not to waste time, in order to keep their mind working, in order not to talk nonsense. Things like, do you know that if a chamol walks backwards, you have a romach. Chamol means donkey, romach means spear. So, how could this be that a donkey that walks backwards brings the spear? The parable is that if the donkey walks backwards, it's like chamol backwards, which spells romach, which means spear. These types of parables, these types of puzzles can certainly stimulate the mind, keep it busy from talking nonsense, which a lot of people do. And since he had many guests at his table, the Shulchan Shabbat, he wanted to make sure that people always had something, even if it's not necessarily Torah, something on their mind that was of intellect, that was wisdom, that was something that's going to be not nonsense. But why do they write these books? Why do they have to worry about the simple man? The answer is is one of the most significant differences between a book and a safer. A book is written based on the inspiration of the author of what ideas he wants to share. He has gained certain amount of knowledge about a specific subject that he deems important. And therefore, he wants to share it. Whether society really needs it or not is irrelevant. What's relevant is the motivation behind the book. Money, honor, and the fact that he's accumulated a lot of information that took him a lot of time. A safer, on the other hand, is not something that has anything to do with money or honor, or the fact that the author is knowledgeable about a specific issue. Rather, it's what the khakham sees that the generation needs. He sees that the generation is in need of doing teshuvah for a specific thing. The generation is in need of knowledge about a specific halakha. The generation is in need of improving their askafa, their ideology. And therefore, the khakham takes the task upon themself to put together the words of the sages in a format that's understandable to all. All in his generation. And we see that the way that the sages speak in different generations is different. Each one spoke in the language that his community spoke. Not just the level of words that they're using of vocabulary and terminology, but even the language itself. The time of the Rambam, many of the books were written in Arabic. At the time of the Gemara, in Aramaic. Later on, there was French. Later on, there was Russian. Later on, there were different languages. Because Am Yisrael was dispersed around the entire world, and the Hahamim wrote the books to cater to them. It wasn't about what you preferred. It wasn't about what idea you knew best. It was about the insight of the Haham about his own people and what they needed. Making or not making any money out of it was never a priority. With that being said, the Hovot Halevavot is saying, "He had to force himself to assume the suffering of writing this book." Why suffering? Doesn't it give honor? Doesn't it give money? Doesn't it relieve you from all the knowledge that you've gained? No. The Rambam writes in one of his letters that before you share anything with someone else, you should review it first yourself. If you're going to share it in public, like in a lecture, you should review it 10 times. That way you are going to be more versed in the information, but you're also going to have the ability to catch yourself before you make a mistake publicly. But if you're going to write it, the Rambam says you must review it a thousand times. Because until recent technological advancements, any lecture that you ever gave, any shiur that you ever gave, started and ended at that time. You gave a shiur to 10 people, to 100 people, or like the Ben Ish Hai, to 10,000 people, it stayed with them. It affected them. Some of it was transmitted to other places around the world, but not like today. And certainly not like a book. Not like a sefer. And the Rambam says, if you're going to write something in a sefer, you should review it a thousand times because that sefer is for generations and generations beyond you. And therefore that information has to remain valid. Now, certainly there's always people that are foolish that really should not write a book. If you were to tell them, "Listen, I know you want to write a book. I know that you think that your idea is important, but if I just gave you some money, would you not write the book?" Many would say yes. Why? Because their primary motivation of writing the book is money. If you just give them the money, they won't write the book. On the other hand, if you give the person honor, the honor that they want, the job that they want, just don't write the book. They won't write the book. There was somebody that wanted to publish a book to expose all of his reasons of why he went off the derech. And he told his rabbi, "I'm going to write a book about why I went off the derech." And the rabbi gave him respect that he was looking for, attention that he was looking for, enough that this off-the-derech person was convinced not to write the book. Because after all, his motivation wasn't because he wanted to inspire other people to be like him. His motivation was simply to get attention, and he got it. So, even though some people write it for money, some people write it for honor. And some people write it because they just have this idea in their head that they have to share. But who says that the idea is any good? Sometimes people send me books, digitally or hard copies of them, and they ask me to read it, they ask me to publicize it for them. I always tell them I'm not a marketing company, at least not marketing anybody else's stuff. We market ourselves, we market our Torah, we market our teachings. I'm not a a mercenary for marketing that I'm just going to market whatever you send me. But they insist on sending me their stuff. Or sometimes they ask questions, but instead of asking a simple question with one single sentence, they want to send me a whole megillah that's still 10, 20, 30 pages of their confused ideology that justifies that one sentence question. The truth is that it's all nonsense. It's all seeking for attention. It's all seeking for honor. It's all seeking for recognition that's undeserved. But they insist that their idea is valid. In the world of Torah, it doesn't quite work that way. When certain Hahamim would be asked to give their askama, to give their letter of support for nonsensical work, some of the Hahamim either refused or they made sure that the person knew they shouldn't have asked. One of the best ones that I know of that responded to these requests was Rav Eizel Harif. In one of the situations where a complete ignoramus came to the rabbi and asked him to give him an askama for writing this book. The rabbi reviewed the book a little bit and told him, "Listen, I'm not going to give you an askama." But this nudnik insisted, "Come on, rabbi, write me something. Come on, write me anything, please. I want your name on this." And the rabbi said, "Fine. I'll write you something. The author has done something wondrous turning paper into rags." So, the author said, "I don't understand. Some wonders she was so amazed by but but but I don't understand what you mean by paper into rags." So, you see the way they make paper, at least in those days, they take a bunch of rags, if you will, heat them up, take this paper, take this piece of wood is how it all begins usually. And they heat it up, they boil it, and they turn it into paper. You have taken paper and turned it into garbage. I know that some of you say, "Oh, isn't that offensive?" It depends who you ask. If you ask an author of some non-fiction book, sure, it's very offensive. If you ask somebody that's ignorant of the significance of the Torah, of course it's offensive. But if you ask somebody in the world of Torah that understands the significance of publicizing the word of Hashem, and even more significance of not distorting the word of Hashem, then there's nothing offensive about it. The battles between Bet Shammai and Bet Hillel that are countlessly mentioned in the Talmud would sometimes go to physical battles. Not because these were gangsters, but rather because these were tzadikim that would do their utmost to publicize the truth, and when they found the truth, they fought tooth and nail for it. And when you gave them an opposing idea, they challenged it as if you're challenging their life. And of course, at the end they would still marry each others' kids to kids, and everybody was happy, and they loved each other. But during the battle for the truth, for the ultimate truth, there's no friends. There's no being cordial. There's no being polite. There's simply fighting for the truth. So if you're publishing a book that says it's the truth, that this is the word of God, but it says heretical messages like God needs you, or that you should take drugs in order to get closer to God, all types of profanities in this generation that are being published, and you're saying this is the word of God, we have to fight this tooth and nail. Another time, somebody came to Rabbi Zalman Kalif and asked him for a letter of support. He said, "Support of what? Why should they support you?" He says, "Tell them I'm a talmud chacham." He says, "Okay, so let me test you first." So he starts asking him halacha. But he doesn't know anything about Choshen Mishpat. He doesn't know anything about Even Ezer. He doesn't know anything about the Shulchan Aruch altogether. "Okay, let me ask you some questions about the Talmud. Have you read and reviewed this mesechet? No. That one? No. This one? No. Doesn't know anything about the Talmud either. All right. I'll ask you about the Chumash. Perhaps you read some Chumash, perhaps you read some Midrashim. Beyond the beginning Hashem created the world, and he starts asking him questions about the Chumash. And to his dismay, the guy doesn't know anything about that, either. So he doesn't know Chumash. He doesn't know Gemara. He doesn't know halacha. He doesn't know anything. But he wants to be known as the Talmud kham. The rub says to him, "No, I'm not going to write you a support." "No, but please rabbi, I need you because I'm going to go and I'm going to collect money. I'm going to do this." "All right, but I'm not going to write you a letter to support." And this nudnik didn't want to leave the rub alone. So the rub wrote him a letter. Why do you write in the letter? This Ploni ben Ploni, this person if he were in the generation of the prophet Elisha, the the oil would have never filled up. So this guy is so excited. He just got a letter from the Godola dough that says something about the prophets, connecting him to the prophets, oil he hear he hears oil is good. So he takes this letter and he goes to another rabbi in a different town. He says, "Listen, you should write me a letter of support and even donate to my cause because even of Isaac Khalif wrote a letter for me." "Let me see the letter." And the rabbi smiles and takes a dollar and he gives it to him. "No, no, no, I think you made a mistake. Only a dollar? You should be right giving me a lot more." "No, no, this is it that I am full in full agreement with this letter." So this ignoramus says to him, "Can you tell me what it means though?" And he says to him, says, you ever Have you ever read the prophets, the navi?" No. He says, "Well, years ago, there was a navi named Elisha. He was the student of Eliyahu Navi. And a woman, her husband was Obadiah, and he saved many of the prophets, 100 prophets, by making a major sacrifice. And he took upon himself a lot of debt from the king's son in order to save these prophets' lives. But then he died without paying back the debt. So, the wife, the widow of Obadiah, came to Elisha Navi crying out to him, "Please, I need help, or else they're going to take my sons as slaves." So, Elisha Navi told her, "Get as many canisters, as many vessels that you possibly can, and bring them into your house. And whatever little bit of oil that you have in your house, that's going to fill up all of the other canisters until there's no more canisters. So, bring as many as you can." So, this is what she did. She collected different vessels from different places, different pots from different places, and she saw that the little bit of oil that she had would fill up one jug after another after another after another to the end, miracles, until it got to a point where there's no more room for more vessels. All of them were full, and therefore the oil stopped. So, the ignoramus asks, "What does this have to do with me and the vessels never being filled?" He says, "Because what the rav is saying is that you are such an empty vessel of knowledge that she could have filled you in forever, and it would have never stopped. That's how empty you are of an actual knowledge. So, this type of rebuke is not unique among the Hahamim. It's not to insult the person and make them feel bad. But, rather to insult the arrogance that is causing a person to think that they can represent the Torah with simply their logic, with simply their opinion, as if it's just a book. The moment you think that a safer is a book, you have no concept of what the Torah is. Because if you're writing a safer, that means that you are going to include what Hakadosh Baruch Hu told us at Mount Sinai, what has been transmitted to our tradition throughout all of the generations, to clarify the word of Hashem. And in essence, you are becoming a continuation of the oral Torah. You are representing God. You are representing what happened to us at Mount Sinai. You're representing the truth. The truth has nothing to do with your opinion. The truth has nothing to do with your motivation. The truth is simply the truth. And to take upon yourself that burden is not something that you do for pleasure. And therefore, the Hovot Halevavot is saying, "I'm forcing myself to assume this heavy suffering in writing this book." Why? Because this book that's full of emet is not going to be a pleasure to write, because it's an enormous responsibility. Where the moment I fall for the yetzer hara, and his enticement to put in my opinion, put in my motivation, put in my bias, it ruins the whole book. And further, the Hovot Halevavot is saying, I need to explain the subject with whatever language I can muster. Meaning, I need to exhaust all efforts. Whatever expressions come to me, so long as the meaning is conveyed. Meaning that I'm not worried about people appreciating my literature, my philosophy, my vocabulary. No. I need to make this understandable. So, even if I have to use simple words, even if it's not going to be so poetic, even if it's not going to be elevated language to the point where only scholars could understand, that doesn't matter to me. Why? This book is needed for this generation, and needless to say, for every generation after until today. And it needs to be understood. And needs to be understood because if it's not if the message is not conveyed to them, I have failed miserably in representing Hashem's Torah. As the Torah itself says, "Befikha uv'livavkha la'asoto." It's in your mouth, it's in your heart to do it. When Am Yisrael is complaining about the difficulty with Torah, Moshe Rabbenu says to them, "There's nothing difficult about it. Hashem gave it to us in such a simple way that everyone could understand it, no matter where you started, no matter whether you're a child or you're an adult, male or female, you started religious or you started secular, everyone has a part of this Torah. And if you're going to teach Torah, you need to know, as Moshe Rabbeinu says, it's in your mouth, it's in your heart to do it. This Torah was meant for you. Yes, you. That's watching right now, whenever it is and wherever it is, it's for you. It's for everyone. And you have to make sure that you do everything possible to understand as much of it as possible and apply as much of it as possible to your life, because that's what you came to this world for. And the Chovot Halevavot is saying, "I'll mention those details of the duties of the heart that suggest themselves to me, but will not trouble to cite all of them, because to do so would make this book too lengthy, which means that this sefer, written nearly a thousand years ago, full of endless knowledge, is not even all of it. He could have written much more. Now, anyone that's actually read the Chovot Halevavot understands what I'm saying. If you've read from beginning to end and understood at least some of it, you realize that literally every sentence is a chiddush. Every sentence is genius. Every sentence could be a life-changer. Here we're doing already over 30 lectures just about the introduction. We're not even in the sefer yet. We're not even in the first gate. We have done over 30 lectures just about the first few pages that are the introduction. Imagine what the rest of the book is. Look how much wisdom we've learned in over probably 50 hours of lectures just about the introduction so far. The rest of the sefer is no less. And yet, the Rabbeinu Bachya is telling us this is not all of it. I'm going to go easy on you because I don't want to make the sefer too big. So, what we have today, a thousand years later, is the condensed version of the Duties of the Heart. Because had he written everything he knew, it would literally be a library full of sefarim. Just like the Gemara says in Maseches Avodah Zarah, that Avraham Avinu learned the Mishnah. And he had 600 chapters for tractate Avodah Zarah. Now, anyone that learns the Talmud knows that Avodah Zarah, Maseches Avodah Zarah, has five five chapters. Five sections. It's considered one of the smallest masechtot. Avraham Avinu had a hundred X a hundred times more than what we had just in that tractate. Literally, the tractate of Avodah Zarah that Avraham Avinu had was bigger than our entire Talmud today. That's how much Torah Avraham Avinu would learn. And that was just one masechet. Now, people ask, "Wait, how could it be? What else is there? What other idolatry is there?" Exactly. Even if you learn the tractate of Avodah Zarah once, twice, or like one chacham that I know, 40 times, it's still not even 10% of what had. But you know, lived at a time where it was either him or everyone else was an idol worshiper. So, it wasn't that there was so many different types of statues, but rather understood how many ways a person can sell their soul to the town and worship something else, whether that is money, fame, fortune, women, men, anything and everything that he replaces a sham in the truth for. So, this also had to do with me dot, with character traits. Character traits that literally make a person lose their bar. Lose their connection with a sham. And what the word is saying, I want this word to be understandable to whoever is reading it, whenever that may be. Because just like the said, 200 years after the word, if you're going to say a word to somebody, review it before you say it. If you're going to say it to the public, review it 10 times. But if you're going to write it in a word, a thousand times is what you need to review it. Why? Because that is going for generations. If that's a real If that's the word of a sham, then it won't have an end. It's forever. So, the word says that if this is going to be forever, it needs to be understood forever. It needs to be understood by every generation forever. And therefore, I need to make sure it's It's too lengthy. What will I mention in this book? I will mention whatever is necessary for the understanding of the major principles, the shoresh. Each one in its own gate. Here the Hovot Halevavot is telling us don't worry about how lengthy it could be, rather understand that regardless of how lengthy it could have been, none of that would have applied to you if you don't understand and how to apply the shoresh, the foundation. If you don't understand the foundation, you can't build anything on it. You can't build anything on it. If you don't understand the importance of the foundation of a building, you should never even think of being an architect building a building. There are many buildings in America and different place places around the world where they're realizing that they have to tear this building down if they don't restructure the building by some miracle and it works. Why? Because the foundation is rotten. They build buildings here in Florida ignoring the reality of the land, ignoring the fact that they were building on the near the ocean, ignoring the fact that if they don't build a good foundation, they're jeopardizing lives. And now there's a another building, I think it was uh branded after Porsche, the car manufacturer, that many are saying this building may have to be torn down. It's sinking. There's a building in New York City that no one wants to go into. No one wants to continue building. Why? It was built on such a foundation that literally any type of major move in the stand status quo, the whole building could collapse. So, anyone that's going into any subject, any field, has to understand that if you don't have the foundation, you don't have anything. You know, in the last few weeks, between the traveling to doing Shiurim in New York and Monsey and Brooklyn, and then after that doing the podcast, and then uh the lectures in uh Los Angeles, Baruch Hashem, a lot of old faces, a lot of people that have been watching our Shiurim, I got to see them, but also met a lot of new people, both in person and online. And of course, with all of the good and all of the wonderful people that you meet, of course, there has to be some people that are not exactly in the uh right place of mind. They also come. They also come out of the woodwork. So, a bunch of different types of people have contacted me, asked questions, and so on. And among them, there was a few heretics that uh thought that they could convince me to uh join their heresy. Some have sent me their uh their uh their writing, which literally is not even worthwhile to read in the bathroom. Some have uh thought that they could debate me on different things. One common denominator that I found among all of the heretics is that they're convinced in their ignorance. Meaning that they're ignorant about Torah. They're ignorant about the difference between a Torah and what their thoughts are. But they're convinced that the Torah is wrong simply because they read something that they don't think agrees with the Torah. Or that they think or perhaps even know that it contradicts the Torah. In one particular case this one Israeli guy tells me that he doesn't believe in the stories that are in the Torah beginning with the Exodus. Meaning he doesn't believe in the Torah at all. Doesn't believe in the Torah at all. Why don't you believe in the Torah? Oh, there's no scientific proofs. There's no archaeological proofs that we ever came out of Egypt. And this is coming from an Israeli guy. Now this guy, if you look at his, uh, resume he's apparently very well accomplished. An inventor, a, uh, a uh, businessman, an entrepreneur. His resume is, reads success. But his spiritual intellect about the truth is as much of a failure as you can possibly have. And all starts with a bias. What's a bias? The bias is that if I believe that the Torah is true, therefore it obligates me. So, I have to do whatever possible not to believe. Even if it doesn't make sense. So, he told me he doesn't believe that the that Hashem took us out of Egypt, that the story of the Exodus is true, because he has not seen any paper written about it. I told him, "Well, we have the Torah." He says, "Well, anybody can write a book and write whatever they want on it." Rather than argue with him on it, because again, that also takes a lot of time, I said, "Okay, fine. But, you have proofs in museums." He goes, "What? I went to three different museums in Egypt, and none of them say that the Exodus happened." So, you went to Muhammad's turf, >> [snorts] >> and you asked them about Israel, and you think that Muhammad is going to vouch for Israel? Okay. Well, you do realize that those three museums that you went to, I don't know what's there and what's not there, so I can't speak on their behalf and justify or even argue what they say, cuz I don't even know what they say. Perhaps you just didn't go to the right room. Perhaps you uh you didn't even go there, you went to the wrong address. Who knows? Perhaps you went to your friend's house, buying coffee, and you thought that the pictures on the wall is a fossil. I don't know what you did. But, you do realize there are many other museums. There are many other museums, and they do have proofs of the Exodus. Well, I don't see them in any of the papers. I said, "Okay, well, here's a book that was written by Rabbi Zamir Cohen, published recently in the last few years, in English and Hebrew, I think even in other languages. This book is full of proofs from third parties. It's not the Rabbi's opinion. This is proofs by different scientists, archaeologists, and so on, not only of the Exodus, but literally, the entire Chumash is proven in there. The entire Tanakh is proven there archaeologically, like you wanted. No, but this is in a book. If it was really up to the caliber, then it would be in a published in a paper. And that's when I realized that I'm playing with someone that doesn't really know the rules of the game. He's just inventing them as he goes along. He wants a paper that some scientist, archaeologist, or whoever, maybe I don't know, is uh, one of the superheroes that he saw in a movie would publish. It's not good if it's in a book. Even though society at large has relied on books throughout history. In fact, the way he learned how to do what he does as a career certainly was from books. But that's not good enough then. He wants it to be in a paper. And I realized that today he wants it to be in a paper, tomorrow he's going to want it to be in a white piece of paper, the next day he's going to want it to be in a yellow piece of paper, maybe in a toilet paper, maybe a paper that came down from the heavens and hit him on the nose in a perfect way, and maybe whispered in his ear, "I am the paper." I realized that this is a person that does not want the truth. And he's going to do everything and anything possible to deny it. Another time, person told me that uh he doesn't believe history. He doesn't believe in the history of uh the Jewish people. And again, this is a Jew talking. Not only a Jew, an Israeli. So, don't think for a second I'm talking to somebody who just, you know, was born in some cave in Mongolia. No. This is a Jew born in Israel. But, he doesn't want to believe. So, I asked him, "Why don't you believe?" Well, I I didn't see it. So, then I listed for him a bunch of things that have happened over the last 3,000 years. Aside from the things that happened of Hashem taking us out of Egypt, the building of the first and the second Bet Hamikdash, all the different wars that have taken place, but I've also included all the major scientific discoveries, all of the major uh historical events, whether it was the Black Plague that happened in Europe, or World War I, World War II, the Spanish Inquisition, uh the Spanish War, Civil War, all types of things that have happened over the last 3,000 years in the world, including the Jewish people. And excluding them. Everything. And I asked him, "When does your history start?" "When does it start?" Because unless you believe that your grandfather or your great-grandfather was the first man that ever existed, then certainly you have to choose where your history starts here. His response was, "I didn't say that my grandfather was the first person that ever lived. So, well, it has to be because you say that you only believe what you saw. So, most likely you saw your grandfather, maybe even your great-grandfather. But, you didn't see anything before your great-grandfather, which means that according to your logic you don't believe anything happened before your great-grandfather. Therefore, the world started with your great-grandfather. But, if you were to say, "No, I believe in what happened 300 years ago or 500 years ago or 1,000 years ago in these different places around the world." But, you weren't there. Then, how does it justify that you believe that, but you don't believe something else? You believe it because you read it in a book. You believe it because someone showed different proofs that it happened. And really, the only difference between what you believe in and what actually happened in the Torah is the fact that if you believe that the Black Plague happened, if you believe that uh the uh there was all types of civil wars around the world, let's say you want to talk about the um French Revolution that happened on July 14th or the American Revolution or the Civil Wars or all of the major destructions that happened or when 300 different German armies of barbarians combined to turn into the modern Germany of today, all of these different things that you believe, the Roman Empire, Greek Empire you believe in those, but you don't believe in what happened to your great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparents, the Jewish people. The only reason you don't believe that is because if you believed in the history then you have to believe in the Torah, too. And if you believe in the Torah then you are obligating you to follow it. So, you see, Rabbotai when a person wants to know the truth, the truth will hit you in the face. If you really want it, Hashem says if you look for me, you'll find me. But only if you look for me with all of your heart and all of your soul. This is in the book of Deuteronomy. But if a person is looking for falsehood, someone that looks to be purified, Hashem will help him. Someone that is looking to become impure, Hashem opens the door for him. Go, do what you want. Do what you want. If you're looking for falsehood, you don't even need to make excuses. You could just simply say, I want falsehood. But the interesting thing with these atheists, heretics, and so on, is that even if you prove to them that their logic is flawed, that will not change their mind. Why? Because they're not looking to change their mind. This is the reason why having debates with such people is not only a waste of time, but if it's a Jew versus a Jew, you're not allowed to have a debate with them. And says that if you're going to have a debate with a non-Jew, because it's necessary, your life's on the line, there's a public good in it, all types of different reasons that would uh put you in that scenario, then you can. With a heretic non-Jew, you can. But with a heretic Jew, you can't. Number one, because even if you prove that heretic Jew wrong, he won't change his mind. Instead, he'll mock you. He'll mock the truth. Because he's not looking to change. He's looking to mock the truth. And therefore, with the heretic Jew, the Rambam paskins lahalacha, you're not even allowed to be within four amot of him. You're not even allowed to stand within 6 ft of him. Four amot is about 6 to 8 ft. Not even allowed to stand 6 to 8 ft of him. Needless to say, you're not allowed to talk to him. Why? He's not looking for the truth. He's looking for making fun of the truth, mocking the truth. Now, if a person is clueless, if a person is ignorant, you could show him the truth. But the moment you see that this person is mocking the truth, end of discussion. Why? They're not looking for the truth. They're simply looking for a stage. So, the Chovot Halevavot is telling us, "I will mention whatever is necessary for the understanding of the major principles." Meaning that if you want to know how to live, how to serve Hakadosh Baruch Hu, how to follow the truth, it all stands on the same foundation. Once you have this foundation, you could build something solid on top of it. If you don't have a solid foundation, whatever you build is unfortunately temporary. This is also something that I encountered years ago when I met different bachurim that were learning in yeshiva. Some were still in yeshiva. Some already graduated yeshiva. And they would come to my shiurim. Baruch Hashem, they would learn. And after they would ask me different questions, and I would ask them, "What did they learn?" Based on their question, I would ask them, "What are they learning in yeshiva?" Or what they learned. And each one would tell me something. And many times I would ask him something about that massekhet or that uh subject that they're learning. And um many times I realized that they didn't really understand what they were learning. Not always, but many times. Enough times is where I realized this is a pattern. So, eventually I started realizing that this pattern is not just because this guy didn't know or that guy didn't know. I realized that there was a common denominator here. And I started asking him, "What language do you learn?" He says, "I learned the Talmud in Aramaic, Aramaic {slash} Hebrew, with the way that Talmud is is written." And I realized that although they were taught to make the sounds they were taught to pronunciate things properly in many cases, they can read it. They can make the sounds. But they don't truly understand it. And what ends up happening when you are learning that way where you could pronunciate the words, you could say the words, it sounds like you know what you're saying. But if you arrive at the wrong conclusion it's not a surprise. Why? Cuz you say something that sounds like what it's supposed to, but you don't actually understand what it says. And many times what ends up happening if you don't really understand what the language is saying you arrive at the wrong conclusion. And if you arrive at the wrong conclusion there you arrive at the wrong conclusion at the foundation, everything you build on it, all the additional arguments and questions and issues that you build on top of that also are wrong because it's a wrong foundation. So, many times I would recommend to them to start learning in English. Start learning in their first language. Because at least they'll understand the foundation and they'll be able to build the right questions on it. And unfortunately in many of the case they would tell me no, but they told us that we're not allowed to learn from Artscroll because it makes it too easy. I said, "No, no, it has nothing to do with too easy." The Gemara, I don't care how many times you've learned it and what language you've learned it, it will never be easy. It can never be easy. Rav Kanievsky learned the Talmud every single year, Talmud Bavli, Talmud Yerushalmi, and many, many other Seforim. Every single year he'd complete the whole thing, and if you ever asked him if it's easy, it's never easy. Why do you If it was easy, why would you learn it so many times? If you're learning it so many times, that means that there's more details in the details that you didn't realize when you first reviewed the details. And every year there's more because there's en- endless complexity in it. So, to say that just changing the language makes it easy means you don't really understand what the Talmud is. You don't understand what it means. There was another guy that came just today. Says that uh he doesn't believe that there's any place in the Torah that mentions Torah codes. And uh I responded to him, "Well, that's not true because the uh the Gemara itself says that if you want to find the name Mordechai you look at the uh Torah at Mord ro." And over there you see that it's Torah codes that are exactly the same number of letters that are in the Megillah. Oh, but that's just a hint towards Torah codes. It doesn't explicitly say Torah codes. So, he thought that he understood. I said, "No, no, you don't understand." The Mishnah, which is the foundation of our oral Torah, in Maseches Avos in the third chapter, the 18th Mishnah, says that there are certain teachings like Gematria that are considered palpiraos l'chochma. They're like seasonings to wisdom. Seasonings to wisdom. So, just like Gematria, which is the numerical values of letters, is seasonings to wisdom, so is Torah codes. It's also seasoning to wisdom. But, these are just hints. I said, "Yeah, but that's how the Torah is learned. Pardes. Pshat, Remez, uh the is is the Pshat is the simple meaning, literal meaning. Remez is the hint. Drash is the Midrash, the story behind the story. And Samech is Sod, the secret meaning. Meaning that there are four facets of how you learn every single part of the Torah. So, if you find something in the Torah that doesn't agree with your logic, never fault the Torah. Rather, the fault is yours, that you are of limited knowledge. You are limited in your knowledge and understanding of the foundation. And that's what the Chovot Halevavot is trying to tell us here. That he is going to include in this sefer everything that is necessary for you to know the sholish, the major principles. He's going to divide it up into its own gates. And then he ends up this section with the most distinguishing factor between a book and a sefer, a lecture in a shiur. And that is his request. I seek the help of the one and true God. In him do I trust. I ask that in his mercy, he show me the straight path which pleases him and finds favor in his eyes, in word and deed, in the inward life and in the outward action. This, for anyone who hasn't understood, is the ultimate difference. When you're writing a book, when you're giving a lecture, you're giving a TED Talk, you're giving a lecture and wherever you are in some hall, or even at a synagogue, and you're mentioning all of the different secular sources, you know, to show that you're a well-read person, and you're mentioning all of the different details that you know about science or history, or you're trying to present how knowledgeable you are about so many different subjects. In so many words, what you're doing is you're trying to appeal to the crowd. Why? You want them to like you. You want them to admire you. You want them to appreciate you. You want them to invite you again. Because after all, that's what you're there for. Either money, honor, or because you've accumulated a lot of information that you want to share. And it's usually all three or at least two out of the three. That's a safer, that's a book, and that's a lecture. Where your primary motivation is those three items of money, of honor, of simply sharing the information, your opinion, your knowledge about some subject. And the feedback you get from your audience is of utmost importance to you. You want them to like it. You want them to buy it. A safer on the other hand, a shield Torah on the other hand, takes none of that into account. Meaning, whether you make money out of it or not is irrelevant. Whether people give you honor or not, irrelevant. Whether you're well versed in it or not, irrelevant. Why? Because your primary goal is to do the will of Hashem. And your major audience, your ultimate audience, quite frankly, your only real audience that matters is Hashem. What does he think about what you said about his Torah? Because the information that you're sharing is not your opinion, your expertise, but rather you're sharing his Torah. It's not yours. It's his Torah. And you want him to help you share his Torah because only he is one that someone that you can trust. And only he can help you. And therefore, your only goal is to find favor in his eyes. So, whether people like or dislike your shield Torah or your safer is irrelevant. It'll be nice if they like it. It'd be nice if they appreciate it. It'd be nice if they follow it and they apply it to their life. But it can never be your motivation. Why? When you're teaching Torah, whether via via Shiur Torah or a sefer that you're writing, you don't write it because you think people are going to like it. You write it because you know that according to the Torah, they need it. So even if what they need is the opposite of what they like, like for example, Musar, Musar is not something that everyone likes. There are some people that like it. There are some people that say they like it until it applies to them. And there are some people that are allergic to it. Why? They don't like to be told what to do. They don't like to be told that they're wrong. They don't like to be told that they're making a mistake. But you still teach it. And so did all of the Chachamim, all of the Tana'im, all of the Amora'im, all of the Nevi'im, all of the great sages that we've had from the beginning of time, primarily focused on teaching ethics, teaching Musar. Noach tried to teach the people after Chanoch died. Chanoch taught the world Musar, ethics. Noach was willing to teach anyone that would come to him. That was his mistake. He would wait for people to come to him. Avraham Avinu elevated it and taught everyone. He went from place to place to teach people Musar. Anytime somebody would come to eat at the famous restaurant of Sarah Imeinu for free, you would only get it for free if you would bless Hashem. But how would he know about Hashem? Because Avraham Avinu would teach him about it. And the Zohar Kadosh says that after he taught them about Hashem, he would then teach them about Gehennom. And what would happen to them if they don't go after Hashem? If they don't listen to Hashem. He would teach them mussar about all the different things that they're doing wrong with their idolatry, with their false religions and beliefs. That was the lessons of Avraham Avinu. The same goes with Yitzchak, the same goes with Yaakov. When Moshe Rabbenu took Am Yisrael out of Egypt, there was seven weeks between the time of leaving Egypt until we got to Mount Sinai. What did he teach Am Yisrael during those seven weeks? Aside from Shabbat and Rosh Chodesh, the two mitzvot that we got, he taught them mussar, especially about Gehennom and what happens to people if they don't follow the Torah. If they don't keep Shabbat, what's going to happen to them? If they steal, if they lie, if they worship idols, all of the consequences, all the things they need to change and improve. So bad things don't happen to them. And this is what Am Yisrael has taught throughout all of history. If anyone reads the writings in the prophets, what is Hamelech saying? What is David Hamelech saying? What are the prophets is uh uh Yeshayahu, Yirmiyahu, uh Yechezkel, all of the prophets we had. What are they all talking about? It's all rebuke, it's all mussar, it's all character development. It's all askafa. Why? Because this is the truth. And we see that the people didn't necessarily like the truth. In some cases, they even killed the prophet. They killed the messenger. So why did the next generation's messenger do the same thing again? You saw that they killed Isaiah the prophet. Why did you continue and do the same thing he did? You saw that they killed Zechariah. Why did you continue and see that they they did different and think that there's going to be anything different? You saw how much they tormented Jeremiah the prophet. Why did you continue doing the same thing he did and rebuke the people? Says the Hovot Halevavot. I seek the help of the one and true God. In him do I trust. I ask that in his mercy he show me the straight path which pleases him and finds favor in his eyes in word and indeed. The Hovot Halevavot tells us why all of the tzadikim that are mentioned in the Torah from the beginning of the Chumash until the end of the Tanakh until the end of the Talmud all of them taught things that Hashem says we have to know. Things that please Hashem, not necessarily people. You tell a person that if they violate Shabbat on purpose, they're considered like a idol worshiper, person's not going to like it. Tell a person that if he hits his wife, the sages would cut off his hands if he doesn't stop after warning him. He doesn't like it. Why? He likes to hit his wife. You tell him that if he steals from the Hashem is going to make him poor. He doesn't like it. People don't like to be told that they're they're wrong. But yet all of the righteous people that are mentioned in our entire written and oral Torah, constantly told Am Yisrael they're doing wrong and they have to fix it. Whether it was intermarriage, idolatry, stealing, whatever it was, constant message, even though many times it cost them their life in this world, it elevated them in the world to come. And therefore, the Chovot Halevavot say, "I'm not seeking money. I'm not seeking honor. I'm not seeking to share information that I'm well versed in. If anything, I told you I'm not well versed in it. All I'm seeking is to please Hashem. All I'm seeking is to do the straight path that Hashem is going to lead me in. Because if I do that, then I'm simply following the tradition we've had since the beginning of time. Avraham, Yitzchak, Yaakov, Moshe, Aharon, David, all the prophets, all the righteous people that lived in history, that's what they did. If I do what they did, I know I'm going in a straight path. Whether people will like it or not, irrelevant. It's what they need. It's what they need to know. Because that's what's going to get them to heaven. And that's what's going to get someone to gehennom if they don't listen. Either way, you need to know it. You need to know where you're going. So this, rabbotai yakirim, is the difference between a book and a sefer. A book is focused on what the author wants and what the audience will buy. He wants to express his idea and match it and sell it to the public because he wants them to continue buying. Meaning there's a bias in both directions. A safer, on the other hand, is simply publicizing the word of Hashem in a clear way for the generation that you see and the ones that would follow it. Not because they want it, not because it's popular, not because it sells, not because it's going to show you as a genius, but rather only because it's the will of Hashem for his people to know the truth. You know they need it, therefore you do it. Their preference, their likeness, their doesn't matter. As long as you're doing the will of Hashem, you're already going on the right path. And as the Torah says, emet me'eretz titsmach. The truth will rise even after you cover it with all of the dust in the world, the emet will rise anyway in the end. And this, rabotai yekarim, brings me to a point of reminding everyone of something that started about 12 years ago. Most people know that some of the most brilliant ideas are surrounded by a bunch of people that are naysayers that say don't do it, you shouldn't do it, you can't do it. Whether it started off with Paroh telling Moshe Rabbeinu that he's out of his mind for thinking that he's going to take all these Jewish people out of Egypt. Or the Av Deal, all of the major technological innovations we've seen throughout history, ones that you know of, ones that you don't know of, all of these major things didn't get notoriety from day one. Quite the opposite. The Be Ezrat Hashem organization that we started 12 years ago is no different. When we first started the Be Ezrat Hashem organization, we started with a shoestring budget. There was $25,000. That was a little bit of money that I had left that I put into it just to help some of the Avreichim have the time, ability, and courage to start teaching Torah and put it on online. When someone else promised that they're going to do it and didn't do it, I chose to be the one that actually did it, even though I didn't have much, and also selling my car, the last of my possessions that I had after Hashem took everything else. And this little shoestring budget got us started. Baruch Hashem, my parents helped us as much as they could month to month so we could pay our bills, but in reality, we were living on a miracle each and every single month. We started teaching Torah. We started publicizing it. We started doing whatever we could to publicize what people needed, even though there were many that told us we're crazy, even though there were many told us that we shouldn't do it, we continued doing it. Over time, we started raising some money so we could publicize more books and CDs and posters, the Asher Yatzar posters you see everywhere today. These were all ideas that one after another everyone told us no. Why are you giving a bunch of money to people you don't know? Why don't you give it to yourself? Why don't you buy yourself a house? Why don't you invest it? Why don't you go back to Wall Street? Why don't you do this? Why don't you do that? This was a constant constant buzzing in my ear for years. But over time as we continue doing more and more, the impact got bigger. And even though the first several years were very difficult were barely able to literally afford basic needs, we still did whatever we could to help as many people as we can. In the last 5 years most of what's happened in the last 12 years took place in the last 5 years. And last 5 years were a different level of difficulty, but also a different level of impact. In the last 5 years we've distributed over 10.3 million dollars back to Am Yisrael in books, in CDs, in USBs, in the Ashrei Yuchav posters and all posters, 2 and 1/2 million of them. 370,000 books. We fed over 251,000 people either by giving them money to buy food or by giving them food or both. We've publicized Torah in over 15 different languages, over 40,000 videos. And guess what? Along the way, there was plenty of people that said, "No, you shouldn't do it. You couldn't do it." And the naysayers continued coming. But the impact get getting bigger and bigger. Several years ago, we had the idea and the dream of actually establishing a physical location. Our own place where we can have our own Torah lectures, our own kollel, our own place that we could have something for everyone from birth until olam haba. Anyone that wants the word of Hashem, wants the truth uncensored, can come to that place where no one can censor us, no one can silence us, some place that we can actually call home. We have some good things in Israel, but we needed something in America. The Gemara says in Maseches Shabbos that a lie that stands over a long period of time is only because it it has a little bit of truth in it. The sages call this world the world of lies. So, what's keeping this world of lies going? The Be Ezras Hashem organization chose to be that little bit of truth that will keep this world going. Surely, there's other truth, there's other tzaddikim out there that teach the truth. We're not the only ones there, but unfortunately, the truth is harder and harder to find these days. And the reality is, Abba Tai, those people >> [snorts] >> that chose to be our partners 12 years ago and over the last 12 years became partners with the truth, became partners with the success of the truth as Hashem raises it above the dirt and the lies of this world. And many of them got endless miracles. Whether was cures for cancer and other diseases, finding marriage when they haven't found before, uh having kids after being barren for a decade or longer, financial success beyond their understanding and dreams, all types of extraordinary miracles have happened to many of them. And they continue to. Especially those people that have made major sacrifices just like we did. And those people didn't only get those miracles, but they also got to be partners in the countless people that have done chuva through our lectures, through our books, through our teachings. To be partners in all of the people that have converted to Judaism and are building holy Jewish homes. To be partners in all the marriages that became the fruits of our labor, became partners of all of the Torah that has been publicized, became partners in feeding all of the tzadikim and tzadikot. As a result of it, they became partners in all of it. In fact, we have three books that are on the way here on ships. And these three books, Avot d'Rabbi Natan, are not only special. We have the Sipurai Yehudim. This will be in English as well as in Hebrew. 21 Sipurai Tzadikim that tell you what does it mean to be a Jew. Color pictures, beautiful quality. 60,000 of these are on the way. And then we have a commentary of Maseches Keilim. Unlike any other sefer that's ever been written about the subject, showing you every kli that the Mishna mentions in order for you to understand the maseches unlike any other time. Rav Chaim Kahan that wrote this sefer and worked on it for many years says we made it easy enough for even children to understand. These books anyone that will open them and learn them will first have to go through the names of some of our partners that have sponsored, that have partnered with us. And this is what we do each year. People are involved in these projects sometimes without even realizing it. And what they also don't realize is that these books, they're not just sitting on some shelf. They're being distributed distributed in the thousands and tens of thousands. So, imagine those people that have been partners with us over these last 12 years making a major sacrifice every single year. How many people have done chuva because of them? How many people have converted because of them? How many people have learned from sfarim because of them? 370,000 sfarim and then 70 75,000 on the way right now, on ships right now. Meaning that we're expecting to be over a half a million between these and a few others by this time next year. How many people are going to learn Torah from it? How many people are meriting from it? All of those people that partnered it. All of the people that helped us feed both spiritually and physically. And what changes now? Now that we have our new headquarters that will have a soft opening during the high holidays and a grand opening a couple of months later. We'll have a physical place. A physical place not only to pray, not only to teach Torah, but also have all of the strength that we've gathered from around the world also centralize in one place in order to make our impact in the world a thousandfold bigger. So, whatever merits, whatever miracles, whatever good people have benefited from and have been partners to over the last 12 years, be'ezrat Hashem, we're expecting to magnify that no less than a thousandfold over the next 12 years, be'ezrat Hashem. So, what I ask you to do is not just what we ask you to do each year when you help us feed the poor, when you help us publicize more Torah during these High Holidays for the High Holiday campaign, but I ask each and every single one of you to think of what you would have done to be partners in all of those amazing things that I just told you about over the last 12 years if you could just buy now. Well, even though you can't buy the last 12 years after it already happened, you can be partners to the next 12 years. And that's what I ask each and every one of you that cares about the Torah, that cares about the name of Hashem being publicized, that cares about the little bit of truth that's still keeping this world going, be as big a partner to it as you possibly can. We have our campaign bhyk.org is the website. I ask each and every one of you to not only join and partner us partner with us on it, but also get anyone and everyone that you know to be partners with it again. Because as Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai says, gadol hamaseh min haoseh. Greater is the one that enables others to do a mitzvah than even the one that did a mitzvah. And the hakhamim ask, which mitzvah is this? Rabbi Shimon says specifically one that helps other people give tzedakah. Meaning, you give tzedakah, you give 1,000, 10,000, 50,000, 100,000, whatever you give is great. You'll get a lot of reward for it. But guess what? If you get your friend, your cousin, your neighbor, your boss, your colleague to give that money also, you'll even get a bigger merit for what you've encouraged him to make, to give. Get as many people to be partners with it. Because these types of opportunities, habotai, it's not an everyday thing. And the proof is the [snorts] last 12 years. It's simply what we've done that's been public information. The videos, the miracles, the shiurim, everything has been public. It's all available on our channels, available on our website, available on our apps, available everywhere. We have tried to be as transparent as humanly possible about everything we've done, financially, spiritually, everything. It's been an open book. I want each and every one of you to do as much thinking and analysis as you possibly can, not only for yourself and what you should be partners with, but also to get all of the people that you know to be partners with it as well. We have our High Holiday Campaign, which is the biggest campaign we have of the year. Each year is right now. It's happening. Rosh Hashanah is Judgment Day for everyone. Anyone that wants a favorable judgment needs to do things to give the Judge of all judges, the King of all kings a reason to judge you favorably. There is no better reason than telling Hashem, "I want to publicize your Torah. I want to save your children from intermarriage. I want to save your children from idolatry. I want to save your children from heresy. I want to save them." And Be'ezrat Hashem is the one organization that has dedicated everything and anything in order to make that happen. And the proof is simply in the results. Thank you very much for learning with me. Thank you in advance for anyone that is going to choose to be a partner with us in this campaign and to be partners with us in this extraordinary new center that we're opening. And of course, anyone that wants to join us during the holidays, especially men, Jewish men, we need as many as we can, not because we don't appreciate the ladies as much, but because the new community, we need as many people as possible so we can have at least a minyan two in every prayer. So, uh if you can, please come. It's uh the address is 4806 North University Drive. It's in Lauderhill, Florida, 33351. And Be'ezrat Hashem, a lot of uh remodeling and construction, a lot of different things are happening literally till last minute just to get the place ready for everyone. So, Be'ezrat Hashem, we'll be open and we'll be celebrating the holidays and uh Be'ezrat Hashem, this will only grow from here, but we're uh so excited about uh finally having this place that we're pushing the envelope to make it happen where we're already starting even prematurely to at least be able to pray there this holiday. Of course, we'll have a lot more to offer down the road as things are more prepared, but needless to say, we'll have more than what we need to at least pray to Hashem and thank him for the amazing thing that he's given us. Thank you very much for being partners in the past and thank you for those that choose to be partners in the future. Call to learn again later this week. >> This is not an award. It's much more than that. What is it? It's the Candid Platinum Seal of Transparency. There are 1.8 million nonprofits in the United States. Less than 1% of them are recognized at the highest tier of financial program transparency of platinum. For the third year in a row, is one of them. What is it? This Candid Platinum Seal of Transparency is where an organization publishes publicly, not just its financials and governance, but verified program outcomes. Numbers that have to be re-proven every single year. Most nonprofits our size don't even apply. Documentation is demanding, the accountability is uncomfortable, but we pursue it because you deserve to know exactly what your support is doing. What did your support do in the year 2025? Here's what your support did this past year. And it was verified by Candid. 238,000 Jewish individuals were fed or financially assisted. Over 15,000 Torah lectures and 500 Torah films were produced and distributed across 23 channels and 15 languages. 280,000 free by Cahlon and myself were distributed worldwide for free. Up from 150,000 the year before. 2.3 million outreach materials were given out free of charge like the and USB CDs. All of this was funded almost entirely by individual donors just like yourself. No foundation grants, just people like you who watched our videos, got inspired, and decided to do something with us. Why do we pursue this? In Judaism, we say that a person is judged not by what they do once, but what they do consistently. Earning platinum once shows that you can prepare a good report. Earning it 3 years in a row proves it's how we actually operate. When you give Be'ezrat Hashem your donations, you're not just trusting us. You're trusting a system that's been audited, verified, and made public three times over. And your trust is something that we hold very dear. We don't take it lightly. One of the most amazing things we have now is the kiruvstore.org, where people can order free books and other materials. But in addition to that, we also have real-time numbers of what we've done. So, you can actually see that the numbers have gone up much more since this report was officially granted to us last year. If you want to be part of what we're building, go to beezrathashem.org/donate. The link is going to be in the description. And you want to see exactly where every dollar is being used, our full candid profile is also going to be linked below. See it for yourself. And if you know someone who's been waiting to support a Torah outreach organization that actually proves what it does with people's donations, share this video with them. Thank you for the 3 years of trust, and Be'ezrat Hashem, we keep going. When we do this, we do this together.