Cancel Culture Pretending To Be Holy | STUMP THE RABBI (267)

If you saw someone that was well known for their wisdom, for their Torah, call it the biggest rabbi in the world. But you saw him, let's say, playing tennis, riding a horse, or doing something that regular people do. Tell me the truth. Would you lose respect for him? Would you still hold him in the same high level of regard? Or are you an honest person and you admit that it's more likely that you're not only not going to respect him the same as you did before, but most likely you'll cancel him from your entire understanding of what a rabbi is even supposed to be? The truth is, that this is not necessarily a new thing. Years ago, there was a well known sefer that came out. The sefer made the world of Torah simply explode with light. And the Israel that were there in Spain at the time, wanted to meet the author. Who is this going? We want to speak to him. We want to ask him questions. They found out where this Rabbi Zechariah Levi, also known as the Baal Hamaor. That was the name of the sefer, Hamaor. They wanted to go meet him and ask him questions. So, they went to the town of Girona and uh they got to a uh house which is similar to what we would call today a ranch. And uh they saw a young man in his teens, late teens, maybe 18 years old riding a horse. And they asked him, "Is the rabbi here?" And the young man said, "Yes, yes, he's here. He'll He'll be with you in a little bit. Please wait in the uh house." So, the rabbis went into the house, waiting. And Rabbi Zachariah Levi continued riding his horse for a little while longer and then entered the house from a different entrance, got dressed in his rabbinical clothes, and went to meet the rabbis. As soon as the rabbis saw Rabbi Zachariah, they started whispering to each other. Wait, isn't it the same young man that was riding a horse? Yeah, it's him. That's the rabbi? How could he be a rabbi? So, the Baal Hamaor told them, "Why are you whispering among yourselves? If you have a question, ask it and I'll answer." And they said, "Well, please, will the rabbi help us understand this difficulty with that we have? Well, how could it be that you can write such an extraordinary sefer full of kedusha, full of chiddushim, full of pure Torah, but just moments ago we saw you riding a horse like a teenager?" How could it be? And he says, "It's true. I was the man that was riding the horse as is my custom to do every day for 2 hours per day before I start learning Torah. And the reason why I do it is because this is what I give to the Satan so he doesn't bother me while I'm learning Torah." What does it mean giving it to the Satan? What does it mean to even ask a question of why somebody did something without just assuming what they did and canceling them? It might sound like a odd second question, but in this modern-day cancel culture world, it's very much a real question. This and much more is what we're going to address tonight Parashat Acharei Mot, Parashat Kedoshim, and then answer the questions that I'm sure many of you have. Be'ezrat Hashem. Tonight's show is going to be for the refuah shleimah and hatzlacha rabbah for Efraim ben Shulamit, Rabbanit Sarah bat Anat, Rabbanit Levana bat Sarah, Sarah bat Levana, Avi Mori David ben Asriel, Imi Moreti Doris bat Zohara, and all of Am Yisrael and all the righteous Noachides that continue to support us, continue to support the organization with their donations of time, money, and everything in between. And as I told you in the last lecture and I'll tell you again, Be'ezrat Hashem has done wonders over the last decade, but those wonders are simply nothing in comparison to what's going to be happening and I have I can't emphasize it enough. There's a few big things, bigger than ever, that are about to come out in these very near months that I could just simply tell you that if you have money that's sitting on the sidelines waiting for some rainy day that may happen in the future for you instead of donating it, supporting, using it for your Olam Haba, you're simply going to regret it for the rest of your eternity. Whether it's a thousand dollars or a million dollars that you're able to donate and you choose not to because you're afraid of some rainy day, you'll simply be missing out on the biggest spiritual opportunities of a lifetime. A lot going on, Rabbotai, and I'm very, very excited about it. Anyone that wants to donate could donate on our website beezrasashem.org or bhtorah.org or of course you could also donate through the social media channels, Facebook, uh um YouTube, and so on. So, Rabbotai, we have the story of the Baal Hamaor was told in a Sefer Maasei Tzaddikim in Siman 156. The Baal Hamaor was discovered, his genius was discovered when he was only an 18-year-old man, riding a horse every single day for the sake of quieting the Satan. Silencing the Satan. What we call stuyot today. In Parashat Acharei Mot, we see that in chapter 16, the kohen has to bring a korban to Hashem on Yom Kippur and one korban la'azazel. And the Gemara says, "What is this korban la'azazel?" Well, they take a goat. They dress him nicely, put a little bells on him, all types of nice things. Beautify him. Feed him. Make him fat. And take him on a trip. What goat doesn't want to go on a trip? He's going on a trip. He's feeling good. Never got treated this good in his life. And then, on Yom Kippur, after going on a long trip and every so often stopping at a certain place where it was like a a station where another person would continue taking them on this long trip. I believe there was 10 stations. After the last station, they get to the end of the mountain. The goat is looking at the beautiful scenery over there. Feels like HE'S THE KING OF THE WORLD, NOT JUST THE KING OF THE GOATS. And before you know it he gets PICKED UP AND THROWN OFF THE MOUNTAIN in the most vicious, heinous death YOU CAN POSSIBLY IMAGINE. And this is what a Kadosh Baruch Hu himself commanded in the Torah to do every Yom Kippur from the time of Moshe Rabbenu until the destruction of the Bet Hamikdash. We don't do this anymore today. But we have to ask, why would we even have to DO IT BACK THEN? EVEN IF YOU WANT TO KILL the goat, just shacht them. Why take him on a trip? Why beautify him? Why feed him? Why this illusion? And why does he have to die in such a vicious way? And the holy books explained that this was for the Satan. Not a sacrifice for the Satan, because giving a sacrifice to the Satan is a form of idolatry, but rather this type of vicious death is what the Satan craves for and in order to give it to him so he can busy himself with this and not disturb us on the holy day of Yom Kippur when Am Yisrael is repenting for all of the sins they've done during that year asking for forgiveness, asking for clean slate to begin the year with. And the Kadosh Baruch Hu himself commanded this in the Torah. In the book of Leviticus, chapter 16 verses 20 and on. But what is this business about giving something to the Satan. Why do we have to give him anything? Later on, we see that the same parashah in chapter 17 starts telling us different laws that the Kadosh Baruch commanded, which are repeated in parashat Kedoshim again. First, not allowed to eat blood in chapter 17, verse 10. Then, after you slaughter an animal, you have to cover the blood. Then chapter 18 is starts talking about the forbidden relationships. Don't follow the traditions of the nations. Carry out the laws. Observe the decrees. Don't approach any close relative, meaning don't marry your mother, father, brother, sister, your father's second wife, your uh daughter, son, your daughter's daughter, all types of prohibitions. And then of course, in chapter 18, verse 22, the Kadosh Baruch compares the prohibition of bestiality with LGBTQ. In the eyes of Hashem, it's the same thing. And Hashem says, "Do not become contaminated through any of these. For through all of these the nations that I expelled before you became contaminated. And then we go into Parshat Kedoshim that repeats these prohibitions again. After telling us to observe Shabbat love your fellow, who your fellow is, which is a Torah-observing Jew. Not someone that's a heretic or anything like that. The obligation to do business honestly so much so that Rashi says that when a Jew conducts business dishonestly, he empowers the Satan. He empowers Amalek. So if you see Iran becoming stronger, just know that somebody in the cash advance business has closed a deal. Or one of the other corrupt businesses that are out there. Which ooh, the stuff that I heard in the last 48 hours, my ears almost fell off. From multiple people. It's literally just getting worse and worse by the day. No one's talking about it. And then the Torah talks about in chapter 20 of Parshat Kedoshim the punishments for all of these different forbidden relationships whether it be LGBTQ, bestiality, Niddah and so on. Why does the Torah have to repeat all of this? Why does the Torah have to tell us this in multiple ways. Why is it clarified in such a way? And what does that have to do with cancel culture? The Gemara in Masechet Chullin, page 109 B. Yalta said to Rav Nachman, her husband, Now, let's see. Whatever the Merciful One forbid us, he permitted us something corresponding. He forbid us blood, but he permitted us liver. Meaning, we're forbidding like the parashah I just quoted, we're forbidden from eating the blood of an animal, but we're allowed to eat a kosher animal's liver. You have to cook it a specific way, you have to uh only grill it and open up the uh liver, but nonetheless, you're allowed. And you actually have the taste of blood there. He forbid us the niddah, but he permitted us the relations with a woman with blood of purity, which means your wife for the first time. He forbid us the chelev of a domestic animal, but he permitted us the chelev of a undomesticated animal. He forbid us pork, but he permitted us the brain of a shibuta, certain type of fish, that tastes like pork. He forbid us a gerusha, but he permitted us fish tongue. He forbid us relations with a married woman, but he permitted relations with a divorcee while her husband is alive. Meaning, she was married. And now she And she got divorced. You're allowed to marry her. Even though her ex-husband is alive. Which is in essence a day before she got divorced, she was a married woman. And as much as you wanted to be with her, you couldn't. He forbade us relations with one's brother's wife, but he permitted us a yevamah. People have sometimes desires for their brother's wife. It's forbidden, but there's a permission for yevamah, which is Torah says already at the time of Judah. Well, before we got the Torah, we already had the mitzvah of yibbum, which one man marries a woman, and if he dies without having children, she would marry his brother. And the children would in essence continue the spark of the neshama of the dead brother. If the brother doesn't want to marry her, then it would be the next relative. Could it be even a cousin, which is actually what happened with Ruth. Ruth married Boaz. And that's where the Messiah comes from. But, this mitzvah of yevamah, of yibbum, one of the things it did is it showed us how Hakadosh Baruch Hu did not take away any pleasures of the world, even if they're odd pleasures. Through the Torah, quite the opposite. He tells us all of the possible desires you could want have a kosher way of allowing them, but it has to be specifically how I said it is. You can't eat the pork, but if you want that taste, you can eat chibuta. You can't be with a married woman, but you can marry her after she gets divorced. Can't be with a non-Jew, but you're permitted a beautiful captive. This is when Am Yisrael would go to war. There was a Torah talks about how Hashem says he's allowed to marry the one of the women, beautiful women of the He would convert her, of course, and he wouldn't force her to marry him, but nonetheless, if you have a desire for a non-Jew, there was a way to do it by converting them. And she says, Yalta, the wife of Rav Nachman, says, "What about if I want the taste of milk and meat? Where does the Torah say that I can have that pleasure?" Today, we know there's soy, you can make cheese from soy and have it with meat, and it's the same taste, apparently. But, RAV NACHMAN SAYS, "OH, NO PROBLEM." HE ORDERED his chefs, he was very wealthy, he had chefs, "Impale for my wife udders on a spit and roast them." The udders of the cow. A kosher, and they'll have the taste of milk and meat for obvious reasons. Here we see, Rabbotai Kerim, that Hakadosh Baruch Hu allowed us every possible pleasure under the sun in this specific way. And therefore, A PERSON CAN NEVER SAY, "OH, if I'm religious, then I can't enjoy life. If I'm religious, then I can't do this. I can't do that." No. Why is this have to do with anything? That means that anyone that's breaking the Torah, they're not breaking the Torah because they cannot have this pleasure in another way. Meaning, they're not breaking the Torah because the Torah says there's no way for you to enjoy this. There's a way for you to enjoy everything just in a kosher way. They're breaking the Torah because they simply have no fear of God. They don't care about what God has to say about anything. Now, today, many people have strong opinions about the criticisms that the defenders of the Torah, like our organization, like our dear Rabbi Ephraim, like myself, and anyone else out there that defends the truth of the Torah, people have strong criticism against us when we speak against heretics, when we speak against the secular mentality and things that are against the Torah. But rarely do you ever hear any of these religious people defend the defenders of the Torah when there's a bunch of people that congregate and create a culture squad. A cancel culture squad that is there to destroy the reputation of somebody. Like what's happening in Israel right now. One of the Hahamim that paskened you have to be careful with specific types of food because there's certain Hahamim that say that it's not considered kosher to Pesach. And now you have a lawsuit against him. Several different rabbis are issued letters or speeches against him, literally trying to destroy his life. Why? Because he paskened like the lay said but not the dolim that they prefer. So, is your rabbi the only big rabbi out there? What about the other dolim? There's others. This is the way of Torah. Someone came to me today and said "I heard a very strong speech that you had against Bibi Netanyahu and how he's not religious and he's not he's a heretic. But how can we say that someone is against the sham when we don't really know how they grew up, when we don't know what their feelings are and what their surroundings are?" And it's coming from a good place. It's not a person that's trying to argue. It's just a genuine question that stems from confusion. Confusion that comes from their surroundings. Surroundings that are comprised of rabbis and other religious people that are part of this cancel culture squad that the moment you speak against anyone that's a heretic, that's an epic pulse, that's secular, that's against the Torah, they'll fight you. Yeah, but you're religious, too. No, no, but you are saying things against Jewish people and uh you're you're creating uh you're creating a separation. You're you're breaking the unity. But yet when someone that's defending the Torah is getting insulted, abused, attacked for simply doing what Hashem said to do none of these cancel culture people ever come to defend them. Is this just? Is this right? Is this holy? We began with the story about the Baal HaMaor who was the rabbi of the Ramban, Nachmanides. He was his rabbi. The Baal HaMaor was a giant among giants. And if he came to our generation today and they saw him riding a horse, they wouldn't do what the great sages did back then and ask a question out of confusion because how could it be that you are a giant in Torah, but also riding a horse like a teenager? They asked. They were confused. But he gave them an answer and they accepted it. Then of course, we know today he was the giant among giants, accepted among Am Yisrael, everyone. Despite this particular thing cuz he had a legitimate explanation for what he did. The Satan needs something to keep himself busy with. Something that's considered a waste of time. Now, to give something to the Satan cannot be giving him a sin. You cannot do a sin and say I'm giving this to the Satan so you can let me, you know, learn Torah. No, whatever you're doing has to be a mitzvah. Where do we learn it from? From this week's parashah where we give the korban to the Satan KORBAN AZAZEL, THAT'S FOR THE SATAN. To busy him with this destruction so he can let us serve Hashem. So the BAAL HAMOE SAYS, I have to give him this so I can serve Hashem and make a bigger mitzvah. And what I'm doing is not a is not a sin. I'm riding a horse. You're allowed to exercise, you're allowed to do these things. But in today's cancel culture world if they were to see him and they were certain type of Hasidut or they were certain type of community, they would say, "No, no, this guy is uh he's a He's uh he's not even Jewish. He's uh he's probably Christian. Maybe he's Muslim. Maybe he's uh HE'S BAAL TESHUVAH. OH, he's a Baal Teshuvah." Another end if you go and you tell them, "Listen, this Baal Hamoe writes psak halakha that's zealous, that's truth, that's emet." And you bring him to the modern Orthodox community, they say, "No, no, he's he's fanatic. He's too much." Yeah, but this is what the halakha is. "No, but not today." Wait, but it says the Torah doesn't change. But they'll cancel him. And if you take him to the Chabad community, they say, "No, does he believe that the Rebbe is Mashiach? No? Oh, then uh we we it's not for us. No, no, he's uh he's uh not for us. No, he actually says that uh what you guys are saying is against the divine. Like Rav Feldman says that it's a question of whether you could count these Meshichistim in minyan. What do they do that? They attack him as if he is a anti-Semite. Cuz he doesn't believe that their Rebbe is Mashiach, so they'll cancel him that way. If you go and you take the baal maaleh to Ashkenazi's neighborhood, they'll say, "No, he's a Sephardi. What do What do Sephardis know about Torah?" And if you take him to certain Sephardi communities, they'll say, "Wait, is he Moroccan? No? Oh, then it's not for us." Or if he's Every community will have a problem with the baal maaleh. Every community would have a problem with Moshe Rabbenu. But having a problem is not just they would not accept him, but rather if the moment they see that his truth is against what they want, they simply cancel, they simply destroy reputations, they do everything and anything possible to wipe this person off the earth. And we see that yes, it was questionable behavior, but the behavior of the Chachamim in Spain 800 years ago was very much in accordance to the Torah, which is to simply ask a question, get an answer, it's a legitimate answer, accept it, accept the Chacham's wisdom, and that's it. Today, not so much. The Torah tells us all of these prohibitions in Parashat Acharei Mot, all these prohibitions in Parashat Kedoshim. These prohibitions in the Torah are going to determine whether someone is part of the holy nation or not. If someone is in a forbidden relationship if someone is acting against the Torah that means that they are not a friend of Hashem. They are not a servant of Hashem. You cannot say, "Oh, but what do we know what's in their heart? Maybe they mean well." There's no such thing. Why? Because Hakadosh Baruch Hu is the one that created everything, including the definition of good. And in the Torah in Parshat Va'etchanan, Hakadosh Baruch Hu says "Those that observe my commandments are my lovers. Those that forsake them are my haters, are my enemies." These are the last couple of verses of Parshat Va'etchanan. Meshallem es sona'v le'abido. Meshallem es sona'v lefanav le'abido. He gives payment to his haters to their face to destroy them. Meaning that whatever good they do these secular Jews, he gives them a reward in this world. I'll make you prime minister. I'll make you a multimillionaire. I'll make you famous in this temporary world. Why? For the few good things that you did, so he's paying you a reward in this world, but this is your destruction. This is your end. After this, it's gehennam forever. And anyone that rejects this simply does not believe in the Torah. The Torah is very, very clear about what's allowed and what's not allowed. If your understanding is different from the Torah if you're canceling righteous people because they simply do not agree with you because they simply do not hold like you do, but they hold like the Torah. It's just not what you think. Then you should know you are in the wrong. And if you're part of the cancel culture that not only disagrees publicly, but also tries to give these people a bad name, a bad reputation. You're bringing upon yourself a very big problem. The Torah talks about doing business honestly. These people are short. Because if you do business dishonestly, it's called onaa. Onaa is in essence hurting people. But there's two types of onaa. There's onaa dvarim and onaa mamon. Onaa mamon is hurting people with money. Onaa dvarim is hurting people in other ways. Hurtful behavior towards others, even things as simple as giving somebody an attitude, a bad look, yelling at them, insulting them, shaming them, not defending them when they should be defended. The Gemara in Masechet Bava Metzia says in the name of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, it is better for a person to throw himself into a fire and not shame another person. We learn this from the story of Yehudah and Tamar. And the same Gemara says, this is referring to Amita, meaning do not shame your fellow Jew that's observant of Torah and mitzvot. We're not talking about shaming the heretics or shaming the secular people. Those you're allowed to shame them and it's even a mitzvah to shame some of them. Some of them, not all of them. Don't just think that you could just shame everybody just because they're not uh fully Torah observant. If they're an enemy of Torah, it's a mitzvah to shame them. They're an enemy of Torah. But the point being is that the Gemara says this is referring to Amita. This is referring to from people. So if you're one of those people that is shaming rabbis, that are righteous rabbis, because they're not in accordance with your Hasidut, because they're not in accordance with your, you know, heritage. They're not Ashkenazi enough or Sephardi enough or whatever it is enough according to your understanding. Or they're not part of your Chabad Kehila, or they don't believe that the Rebbe is Mashiach, or they whatever other craziness people have added. If you're part of those people that publicly shames these rabbis, that speaks against them, that insults them, even if you simply tell somebody don't watch their shiurim, you're putting yourself in a very big problem. Where? You are making a sin against the Torah called Ona'at Devarim. And for Ona'at Devarim, Rashi says over there, the cries of those that are insulted or abused are heard right away by Hashem, and he takes vengeance against their pursuers. So much so, Rabbotai Kerim, that the Gemara brings the story of Rabbi Eliezer Hagadol and his famous debate against Rabban Gamliel and the Chachamim. At the end of the debate, they pass can like Rabban Gamliel and the Hakhamim and they said that Rabbi Eliezer is not accepting this because he learned from Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai and he cannot go against his rabbi, but we cannot allow everyone to think that it's okay to be like him. So, they put him on Nidui. Don't learn Torah from him anymore. But, they were scared. Who's going to TELL RABBI ELIEZER HAGADOL THAT HE'S ON NIDUI? RABBI AKIVA CAME AND SAID, "I'm going to go because if you do it wrong, the sorrow of Rabbi Eliezer could destroy the entire world." And this was not an exaggeration. The Gemara says, when Rabbi Akiva came to Rabbi Eliezer and simply hinted at the fact that the Hakhamim said, "People should not learn from you anymore because YOU PASS CAN AGAINST the Hakhamim EVEN THOUGH YOU HAD A REASON." Rabbi Eliezer started mourning and two tears came out of his eyes and the Gemara says, "On that day, a third 33% of all the olives in the world became rotten. A third of all the wheat in the world became rotten. A third of all the barley in the world became rotten. AND SOME SAY THAT ANY WOMAN, any person that had ready-made dough, all of a sudden became moldy and rotten. And on that day, any place that Rabbi Eliezer would look at would light ON FIRE, BURN UP. RABBAN GAMLIEL was on a boat on that day, and the boat all of a sudden started moving in such a way, the waves were rocking the boat where the boat was sinking. Until Rabban Gamliel cried out to Hashem and says, "If this is because of Rabbi Eliezer and what we did, you know that we what I did was simply to defend your Torah and not for my own honor." And only after his prayers did Hashem stop this from continuing to get worse. But from that moment on Rabbi Eliezer Hagadol's wife would interrupt his prayer every single day at the time of the Tachanun where he would you are crying to Hashem. At that part, she knew exactly when he gets to that part she would interrupt him. So he doesn't have kavana. For the rest of his FOR YEARS. BUT ONE DAY SHE DIDN'T REALIZE THAT HE started praying and he got Tachanun and he did it and she saw him as he finished Tachanun and she started crying. As he finished the prayer, he said, "What happened?" She said to him, "Come and let's mourn for the death of my brother, Rabban Gamliel." He says, "How do you know he died?" "BECAUSE I KNOW THAT the moment that you are going to mourn Hashem will hear your prayers and will kill your pursuers which is my brother, Rabban Gamliel because of that argument you guys had years ago. They went and looked, they found out on that day RABBAN GAMLIEL DIED. YEAH, BUT RABBAN GAMLIEL DID SOMETHING FOR THE SAKE OF THE TORAH. YES, HE DID IT FOR THE SAKE OF THE TORAH, but still it hurt a fellow Jew. To hurt a fellow Jew that has Yirat Shamayim, that's Torah observant, is worse than playing with fire. The Chatam Sofer says, "When you see children die, Hashem Yishmor, many times it's due to the sin of Ona'at Devarim. That parent made fun of another fellow Jew. That parent hurt another Jew. That's why their kids died." So you see, Rabbotai Yekarim, there are times where the Torah speaks very harshly against sinners. And it's our obligation to publicize this truth even if it's inconvenient, even if it doesn't fit your understanding of what's going to bring unity. Now, if you don't want to be part of that, that's your choice. You're missing out on the mitzvah, you're missing out on serving Hashem properly. But to go and speak against people that have Yirat Shamayim, that are serving Hashem, you're simply bringing a makah, a plague to your house that the Torah says, Ein Trufah LeMakato, there's no cure to his ailment. So yes, there are many things in the Torah that are forbidden. And unfortunately, there are people like Bibi Netanyahu and the Zionists and the heretics and all types of people that fall for these lusts. It's not because Judaism is too hard for us to practice. Because the Torah clearly says, "Any desire that you have, Hashem provided a way to enjoy it. It just has to be in a kosher way." So, the reason that you're violating the Torah is not because the Torah did not allow you to enjoy yourself. You're violating the Torah because you don't care about Hashem or the Torah. You care about yourself. And therefore, Hakadosh Baruch Hu calls you his hater. Now, our job is to publicize the truth, not to the people that already accept the truth, but also to the people that are simply not familiar with the truth. When a woman sent me a message earlier today, just a few hours ago, asking me if I can do her wedding, but only if I would allow her to marry a non-Jew. So, I don't know who this woman is. And I asked her, "Why would you go against what your forefathers did and marry a Jew? What are you going to do when your husband wants, you know, you have kids and your husband wants to take the kids to church to go serve a man, serve an idol?" She didn't exactly celebrate hearing this. But the reality is, Abutai, is that I, as I explained to her, "I don't even know how you got my number why you even heard about me because what you're asking for is the last thing on earth that I would that I would you would anybody would ever ask me. BUT IF HAKADOSH BARUCH HU SOMEHOW connected you to me, that's only because I went through the same process that you should go to. Hashem is trying to save his daughter before you make the biggest mistake of your life. Here's the movie, Hashem took back his millions. Go watch it. It's not boring. You could even watch it with the person you want to marry. I am certain that you will enjoy it and after you watch it, ask any question you want. Now if I was one of these reformed, deformed modern type, I love everybody types of people, then I would tell her, "Listen, I either I do the wedding, no problem, you can marry an ape, all I care. Doesn't make a difference. Or I would say, "No, I don't do marriages, but mazel tov." Then this woman would think that okay, it's okay to marry a non-Jew, there's nothing wrong with it. And he just happens not to do it. But the fact that she heard this information, I don't know if she's going to listen to me and actually watch the film and I don't know if she's going to watch the film to complete and actually be inspired or even share share it with who she considers her significant other. What I do know for sure is that at the very least for the first time in her life she has a question mark on her current thought process, on her current ideology because I am sure that everyone around her until now had no problem with her non-Jewish boyfriend, had no problem with promiscuity, had no problem with anything because everyone thought, "Listen, if we tell her not to do it, if we tell her it's not good, if we tell her she's going to get punished, she's going to go to gain all." That's creating uh you know, that's not that's not unity. Torah tells us, "If you really love somebody, you tell them what the law says, because that's the only truth that exists. And even though somebody that's spiritually sick may detest the cure of Torah at first, once they see even a little bit of the results that the holy Torah brings to their life when it's applied, they will love you more than anybody else in the world. Why? Because you saved their life. Now, even if they forget you exist at some point, I can assure you that one day neshama comes out one day after 120 and they're in the world of truth, and there's nothing to distract them from the truth, you're going to be the first person on their list to thank because you saved their neshama. So, yes, rabotai, we are a nation that has the Torah, but not all of us follow what the Torah says. What we can do is we can publicize the truth for those that are willing to hear it, even if it's inconvenient, even if it's challenging, even if it's not considered what's called mainstream. What we can't do is simply accept everyone as they are. And worse than all, speak against those that are actually trying to save souls, to help people do teshuvah. S- Anyone that speaks against righteous Jews that are trying to publicize the truth is simply bringing geinom into And our Torah tells us, "If you wanted the pleasures, you could have gotten them." If you were worried that this secular person is not going to enjoy life because once they become religious, they can't do this, they can't do that, don't think that way because there's even a way for them to enjoy the pleasures they desire in just simply in a kosher way. Stop making new rules for the Torah. Stop making decisions on behalf of people. Stop deciding that you know what's in their mind and what they can handle and what they can't handle. Hakadosh Baruch Hu created all of it. He created the same exact Torah for all of us. Go and publicize THAT AND YOU'LL SEE the results. Everything else is simply the wrong path. This is some of the things that we learned and I hope each person understands that it applies to them. We're not in the business of insulting people. If you enjoy insulting people, then you obviously have a lot to fix on your own. Even if it's insulting people that are not following the Torah, just insulting people does not bring any good to the world. If you're going to help publicize the Torah, then publicize it. Support it. Do what it says. Don't just walk around acting holier than thou that you're going in the wrong right path and they're going in the wrong path. If you don't care about the people that are going in the wrong path, then I can tell you you're not going in the right path either, even if you think you are. Because someone that loves Hashem will do everything possible to save his children from going to gehennom. And if you don't care about his children going to gehennom, then you don't care about Hashem, either. You care about yourself. Do teshuvah. And Hashem you succeed. Now about that, I know that there was some of you that love the questions segment. Which is really amazing. Because technically when a when a when a person is thinking about these questions, that means they're thinking Torah. That means that they're thinking with a with the time that they have about what Hashem decreed in the world. Last week's question was a person was a cab driver, was fooled by his passenger to drink a drink that had you know, poison in it, if you will. He ended up getting robbed. But then after that, the the cab driver who had shamayim came to his rabbi and said, he did he make a sin by making a blessing over this drink? And uh, because that had poison in it. And if not, should he make a blessing on the drink now, an ending blessing? Because he drank it after all, even though it was poison. And I love the answers that different people gave me. The answer is as follows. The reason why we make a blessing, the message of says that anyone that enjoys what Hashem has in this world for us, without blessing Hashem, is considered like he's stealing from Hashem. So, at the time that he was drinking, he was doing what he's supposed to do, thanking Hashem, blessing Hashem, for giving him the goodness of the world. Cuz he didn't know that there's poison in it. So, he certainly had to make the blessing, the initial blessing. But once he found out that this drink was poisonous, that it's no longer something that he needs to thank Hashem for. And in fact, he does not have to make the ending blessing. If anything, he should thank Hashem for not killing him after drinking such poison. The next question I'll give you guys at the end of the show with Hashem. Uh, so we could, uh, think about, based on your questions, maybe if there's something that fits. I'd like to introduce you to your new best friend. We did it. AI Rabbi is here. It's an AI model that is based on kosher Torah sources. 30 different languages that are available to you. So, if you want to ask it in Spanish, in Chinese, Portuguese, whatever you want to do, it's available for you. Can you tell me about the app? So, it's timestamped to this shield because of this green button. They are live by on your WhatsApp. You have the ability to ask questions at will. You'll be provided sources, and most importantly, you'll be able to know the truth and be able to rely on the sources. So, now you guys can ask some questions of his other Shimon Kodesh will give me answers. All right, in regards to this sick person that keeps promoting marijuana and all types of drugs and showbread and all that stuff, don't uh don't respond to him. He's uh He's spiritually sick. He spams my mail 24 hours a day with insults and curses and all types of nonsense. So, he's not he's not a normal person. Don't bother uh responding to him. And doesn't matter how many times you block him, he just creates new pass new things and just comes back. He's like a Kultia. When does a person make a tove u'metiv blessing? When does a person make a shehechiyanu? Is there a time when a person makes both blessings? No, so the uh shehechiyanu is uh is done for when we eat a fruit that you haven't eaten in a long time or at least a year. Usually, this is reserved for uh you know, times like Tu Bishvat where you eat a specific fruit or Rosh Hashanah. Shehechiyanu is done on uh on a um during the holidays, and also shehechiyanu is when you acquire a new garment that uh is giving you joy. Like, for example, a new suit or new uh tzitzit that uh is uh you know, uh beautiful or something like that. You do she he on him. Um as far as a uh uh a tove u'metiv, there's different uh the different uh uh considerations to take place. But in fact, one of the things you have to understand about tove u'metiv, it's not only about the obvious things that Hashem did good for you, but it's even sometimes about things that are not obviously uh good. Uh for example, if a uh person uh uh acquires an inheritance that's a lot of money, he shouldn't uh some Hakhamim say you should not say a tove u'metiv. Why? Because maybe this is his reward uh in this world and Hashem is destroying him. Meaning maybe he's wicked. So So, uh there's different uh different times that you would make a tove u'metiv. Uh of course, uh the laws of Berakhot are extensive. And as good news to you, our next series of uh the uh daily Halakha that we publicize in our WhatsApp group uh that we have uh Halakha Yomit with uh uh with pictures. The next one is going to be the laws of blessings. So, we'll uh you'll learn a whole lot. Anyone that's not part of that uh group, uh you're missing out. Every day, they send out a Halakha with a picture that explains the Halakha very simple for anybody to learn, whether you are a uh religious your whole life or you're newly religious or you're in the process of conversion, uh these are very important uh laws that uh are your day-to-day. This is day-to-day Judaism. So, and it's very easy to understand. We actually have some rabbis in that group. We have some talmidei Hakhamim, and we have also people that are brand new to Judaism. We have all types of people. In ancient times, did people go to the bathroom like we do, or could they go for long periods like a month or more without going? No, the uh the uh way that the body works has always been the same with the exception of when Am Yisrael was in the desert for 40 years. Uh their bodies worked the same, but when they ate only the man, since the man was purely holiness, and uh you know, from heaven, all of it was all of it turned into uh blood. All of it was absorbed by the body, and there was no waste coming out. But yet, the Hakhamim explained to us that some people still had to go to the bathroom, and they would have to leave the camp in order to go to the bathroom. Why would some people go to the bathroom? Because they ate other things aside from the man. They ate the slav. Uh they ate meat. Remember where there was a section where they were uh looking for meat? So, there were some people that were looking for other things. Or, for example, when in uh Parashat Balak, when they went to the uh women of Midian, uh and uh they uh they sinned with them. One of the ways that the uh they they got them to sin is by giving them food. Giving them food that they uh that they ate. So, they had to go to the the bathroom. But anyone that ate the uh the man only did not have to go to the bathroom for 40 years. Uh but with uh with the exception of that, that wasn't a change in the body. That was a change in the food. If you ate only man today, if Hashem uh decided to give you man only today, you also wouldn't go to the bathroom. Um but uh as far as uh before that, people would go to the bathroom, uh and uh no different than we do today. In fact, there is uh many different uh uh uh parts of the uh Gemara that talk about uh the halachic ramifications uh and how certain things uh uh are impacted. For example, uh if there is a uh um filth next to you, human filth next to you, or any any filth that smells, uh then you're not allowed to pray next to it. But what about, you know, so for example, praying outside, and uh as they're praying, they uh find out that there is, let's say, filth next to them. What do you do if you're in the middle of prayer and let's say it's Amidah? So the Gemara says, if there's smell coming out of it, that means it's still fresh, therefore you have to move far enough uh at least four amot to the point where you can't smell it anymore. But so long as you can smell it, you're no long you're not allowed to pray there. But if it does not smell, there's no smell coming out of it, that means it's dried out and it's practically the same thing as dust. Therefore, you're allowed to continue praying. You don't have to You don't have to stop your prayer. Um and also at other times, it talks about if there is a filth, you could cover it and therefore it cover you know, it covers the smell as well. Uh there's also a Gemara in Masechet Avodah Zarah where one of the uh Chachamim had a uh problem with his stomach. And uh very very serious health problem with his stomach. And there was another person uh who was a young man, also Chacham, but uh not always. And I'll you'll understand why. He actually tried to cure the rabbi. He tried to cure the rabbi, but he knew that the way to cure the rabbi was uh to force him to hold uh himself and not have and not go to the bathroom. Which was the opposite of his problem. His problem that he would constantly have to go to the bathroom. In those days, anytime you had to go to the bathroom, you had to, you know, it wasn't like today where every house has one or two toilets. You had to leave, go into a certain part of the woods or certain part of the outside of town where there was a hole and go over there. So, it was a whole process to go. Um and but this person that really was trying to heal the Rabbi knew that the cure was to force him to hold it for much longer to the point where it's very, very painful. So, what he did, the Gamara says that when he saw that the Rabbi needs to go to the bathroom, all of a sudden he came up and he asked him a question. And the Rabbi answered him and then he started walking again and then he came up with another question again. And he did this several times to the point where the Rabbi realized that something's going on here and he uh realized he's doing it to to stop him from going to the bathroom and he cursed him. And that hurt. Physically hurt the person that was trying to cure him. Some say he even died. I he looked at him and died. Uh so, he cuz he didn't know he was actually trying to cure him. But the point is is that there's different parts of the Torah that both the written Torah and the oral Torah that talk about every aspect of of of life. Every from the minute that you wake up to the minute you go to sleep, from the minute that you're born until your your neshama leaves your body. Everything is in the Torah. Um How many letters uh are in the Torah? If I remember correctly, it's 304,805, I think, but uh uh you could double-check. Oh, again, you see he created another profile. I ate cannabis and I lost 75 lbs. Yes, you also lost your mind, too. So, um you know, it's uh again, there's a price that uh person pays. And not every price is worth it. What was the situation where there was three scrolls found in the temple courtyard? Not sure what you're talking about. If you have non-Jewish friends, should you tell them you better keep the seven Noachide laws or you're going to gehennom? Uh in fact, the hakhamim say that yes, that's the halakha. You have to tell them that uh uh they have to keep the Noachide laws, and in fact, there is uh even a mitzvah to rebuke the the Noachides as well. Not the same level as the Jews, but yeah. You uh we're not allowed to just sit there and ignore the fact that the uh uh people we know are acting against Hashem. What are your general thoughts on inflation? Can we ever see a time where the dollar becomes useless, similar to Venezuela? As far as I mean, this is two two parts question. Um as far as the uh inflation prices going up, um this is not a uh something that uh is new. The the value of all currencies has continued to uh to go down throughout the years. Uh this is simply a uh the reality of the type of currency that's not backed by anything. Uh but for most people, these financial issues uh the the uh the you know the whether it's the GDP or the inflation or the CPI, all the different financial metrics that are reported by uh by uh news channels and all don't really affect the average day-to-day life. Yes, it affects the price of your milk and the price of your eggs and the price uh you pay for for gas, but overall, the impact is much less than most people uh uh realize. Um and in fact, the uh only reason why most people even know these things exist is because they watch the news. It's not because they uh you know anything happened in their life that they are disappointed that the CPI numbers are not what was expected. Now, as far as prices, the solution I've always known and uh I've always seen for prices going up is simply for people to find ways to get more blessing from Hashem so they can make more money. This is a combination of your acts spiritually as far as you the way you serve Hashem, uh as well as your uh efforts and you know using your time wisely and not uh simply wasting it. Somebody asked me just yesterday or the day before about their new job uh that they have. They they hate it because uh they they're not giving him anything to do all day and only uh once or twice a day there's actually a customer in the uh in the store, so they're bored and they're thinking about quitting. I told him don't quit. If they don't give you anything to do uh and uh they don't care about you doing nothing, then you could at least use that time, you know, to to learn. Learn something that's useful. You can learn about how to use uh uh AI for marketing purposes. You can market your services, market your ideas, and so on. So, at least use your time wisely. Uh why? Because if you're going to already be in the world of making money, then use your time wisely and and make more because that's really going to be for all intents and purposes your only defense against inflation. Simply making more money. Now, the second question in regards to currency going to zero, uh it's a certainty that all currencies will go to zero. Uh not because of the reasons that the financial news media is saying uh that they're printing a lot of money or they're not paying off their debt, the debt ceiling continues to rise, uh you know, geopolitical turmoil, none of those reasons. Simply put, it's in the in multiple times as part of the prophecies of what's going to happen before the end uh comes, before Messiah comes, that uh in Gamarra Messiah Sanhedrin, Gamarra Messiah uh uh Sota, uh and that and several other places, that uh and Ben David by the Messiah will not come until people will all all things will be the same value. What does it mean all things will be the same value? The value of currency will be worthless. Doesn't matter whether it's the dollar or the shekel or it's the yen or anything else. Now, again, for all uh practical purposes today, it doesn't matter to you. So, because again, when it's going to happen, then the money you have is not going to matter. How much you had or how much you didn't have. Today, it doesn't matter to you and shouldn't change your life in regards to whether you should you know work or not because you still need to make a living. You still need to function in the world we live. We can't be so idealistic to the point where people start doing things that you know as if the Messiah is already here and you're already preparing yourself some bunker to be protected from Gog and Magog and you don't know what to work anymore. No, you know you have time you need to work. You have time you need to learn Torah. You need to mix both of them and live a righteous life and as far as you know when it comes to finances make the best decisions you can to be as productive and as successful as you can. At the same time be generous when it comes to money to use your money not just for your own personal needs but also for your physically but also for your spiritual needs meaning get yourself a good pair of tefillin, get yourself good mezuzot, donate generously to support to support Torah. You know so a person needs to make the right decisions because those right decisions are your hishtadlut that gives you different ways that he can give you can open the gates for you. You know so just because money will be worthless at some point does not mean that anybody should simply stop work stop working and wait for the world to end. That's a stupid mentality. That's a idealistic mentality that is not that's not according to the Torah. You have time if you're not learning Torah 24 hours a day simply then work and learn Torah when you're not working. So the fact that money will become worthless is irrelevant. You need you're living in you have to live in the world of today. This is the same thing that I told people in the last couple of weeks when we talked about this mentality that of making aliyah because the world is going to end anyway and there's a war and maybe this is the end. This is not da'at Torah. Da'at Torah is to work with the reality that we are living in, not the potential reality or the the future reality that may or may not be during your lifetime or during this month or during next month. Every day we have to work with the reality that we have. So, to make a move, to make aliyah to Israel, is only okay if you meet the requirements. Meaning, you're going to be able to serve Hashem uh as good or better. You're not going to have shalom bayit problems as a result. Meaning, your wife or husband is not going to divorce you just because you're making aliyah. And also you have a way to make a living by going there. If you have those three check marks, then no problem, make aliyah. But if you can end up getting divorced as a result of aliyah, or you're going to be in in the poorhouse because you made aliyah cuz you have no way whatsoever of making money there, uh you know, and you don't have any savings. So, pretty much you're moving there with the clothes on your back and you're hoping for a miracle, then you don't qualify to make aliyah according to the Torah. You want to make aliyah, go do it anyway, but that's fine. But again, this idealistic mentality that people have that oh, I just converted or I just did teshuvah and I'm going to make aliyah, it's it's that's not da'at Torah. Da'at Torah is to work with the tools that you have and do what you can for today. And as far as uh what the chachamim say about uh when Mashiach comes, no one ever said that you're going to be saved uh from Gog u'Magog because of your address. Just because you're located in Yerushalayim or in Netivot or in Tzfat or in Tveria or in New York, or in Lakewood, or in Florida, does not mean that Hashem is going to help or hurt you. The only thing that's going to determine whether Hashem is going to help or hurt you is your actions in accordance to the Torah. If you live in accordance to the Torah, Hashem will give you blessings, protection, and all the good that you could possibly imagine and more. If you're living against the Torah, you're doing business against the Torah, that's not in accordance to the Torah, you're hurting people, you're a cheater, liar, deceiver, adulterer, immoral person, and so on. All these different types of sins, then guess what? It doesn't matter. You could live literally under the Kotel, and Hashem is still going to destroy you when Messiah comes. So, the idealistic mentality that an address somehow turns a person into the good side or saved or any of those things is not in accordance to the Torah. And in fact, we've since we're already talking about, you know, onah, one thing I can tell you guys also is that Hakhamim also explained that many times that when a person has problems making money, meaning whatever they do is not working. They have a business, but the business is not profitable. They have a job, but somehow all the money that they're making is going for expenses. The reason why many times the Gemara says it's because there's stolen money in their hands. Even if that money they stole was 5 years ago. They stole from their friend. They borrowed money, they didn't return it even though they could. Or they stole from, you know, from somebody at their job. They worked for somebody and they stole some stuff from the drawer. Or all types of things. That stolen money ruins the blessing that Hashem wants to give you. And that's the reason why you having problems making a living. And until you either return the money that you stole and do teshuvah for it, you're not going to have the uh parnassah. Doesn't matter what profession you're in. So, if a person is living an idealistic life, none of what I said, which are rules from the Torah, is going to matter to them. Why? Because in their mind, listen, I'm not making money anyway, so I might as well not work. I might as well not try because Messiah's coming any given DAY AND UH THAT'S IT. I can be poor and a loser and sleep at some uh synagogue that whoever hosts me and pretty much live like I'm a homeless person. And pretend like I'm righteous. That's not da'at Torah. A person has to understand the laws of the Torah are for you to fulfill them, are for you to live by them, not to die by them. And every person has to know that yes, we all expect Messiah to come any given day. Uh it could come tomorrow, it could come next week, come in a year FROM NOW, WHEN BUT UNTIL HE DOES, we have to fulfill the Torah, which also means we have to work, we have to pray, we have to learn Torah, we have to fulfill the mitzvot, and so on and so forth. And everything that we talk about uh when it comes to uh Gog u Magog, the end of the world, all that stuff, that is good information to know, good information to inspire you to become righteous now versus waiting for uh uh you know, a better time uh down the road, uh but it's not to turn you into some uh messianist that cares less about everything else that Torah says except the fact that the world is going to end. That's not the uh that's not the uh Torah. >> I stole money when I was 5 years old. Who do I return it to? So, taking something when you were little uh certainly is uh uh something that is lesser of a problem than if you stole it as an adult, but needless to say if you remember it, then you should return it. Now, in the case where a person stole from a company or from a person and if they're not able to return it to that person or to that company anymore, either because that person or company does not exist anymore, they died, they moved away and you have no idea where they are, uh you know, and no way of finding them or the company's out of business, then the Gemara says that you take the same value of the money that you stole and you donate it for a public cause that Hashem will uh ensure those people benefit from it in the level of how much was stolen. So now, the reason why we say that you should donate it for kiruv instead of let's say donating it to a homeless shelter or to donate it to build a public park or even a mikveh or even a shul is because if let's say for example, you stole $10,000 and now you decide take $10,000 and donate it to a park, a zoo, a uh then the person that you stole it from or the descendants will have to enjoy that zoo or park in the value of $10,000, which for that to happen is virtually impossible. Now, even if you do it in the case of building a synagogue or building a uh a mikveh. Uh for them to enjoy the mikveh $10,000 worth, it's literally they have to spend the rest of their life there. So, that's why to donate to publicize the Torah, to donate to kiruv is the best bet because the Torah has it's priceless. It's priceless, and therefore, even if they listen to one shiur that we make, and they end up doing teshuvah as a result of it, they end up learning Torah, they end up doing a mitzvah, you that in itself already is of equivalent value to what you stole. So, that's why it's the best public cause to to give to. Now, if you still insist on donating to a different public cause, then Chachamim say you should give to a public cause that's in the same city that you stole. Meaning, if you stole, let's say while you were living in Paris, but today you live in New York, you should donate to a public cause that's in Paris, not in New York. But when you donate for Torah, it's anywhere. Either way, it's a uh for person cannot return it because the entity doesn't exist, or because the person doesn't exist anymore, or even in the case where if they would return it to the entity, they would get in trouble. For example, you stole money from the government. You stole money from the government, you uh stole $100,000 from the government, you overcharged them on screws, you overcharged them on some bill, whatever it is, you stole So, in other words, you stole a bunch of money. Know this, you're not going to enter Gan Eden until you return that money. But you also know that if you go to Mr. Government, you say, "Listen, uh Donald Trump, yeah, listen, I stole $100,000 from the government, I want to pay you back." Now, if you're talking to Donald Trump, maybe he'll just say, "Thank you," and uh take the money, and uh you know, deposit in some account for for the government cuz he isn't uh he's got somewhat of a uh uh sechel. But, if you just go to any clerk, most likely they'll say, "Okay, 1 second, sir." And they come back with cops, they'll put you in jail. So, so you can't return it to the company or to the In that case, you take that $100,000 and you return it to you give it to a public cause. Whether like I said, whether it's to publicize to Kiruv uh is the best, but if you want to do it for something else, it should just be in the same city as where you stole the money. What do What do you think about Philo and Josephus? I don't know Philo, but Josephus, if you're talking about Josephus, the uh the one that wrote the history, many chachamim uh wrote about Josephus. He was known by different names. Um and uh Josephus was actually a tanna. He was tzadik kadosh. He's not only uh many of the chachamim, including the Geonim, Rabbi Saadia Gaon, and uh uh others quote him and uh and and say that uh you know, not only he was a uh righteous person, he was one of the tannaim. He was a kodesh kodashim. Anytime that what he says is uh not contradicting what the chachamim say, the chachamim quote him and follow him. But, anytime that what he would say would contradict what the psak halacha is or what the chachamim said, then we go with the chachamim. But, uh needless to say, many chachamim rely on the information that he provided. There's a lot of uh uh information. The uh uglification or or or the uh defacement or all types of uh um uh, about Josephus uh, come from the Christian world uh, because uh, many of the things that uh, uh, they want to prove uh, you know, are actually disproved by Josephus. But needless to say uh, anyone that actually looked into it knows that uh, what he actually wrote uh, that uh, Hakhamim actually quoted many things. As far as Philo, I'm not sure who you're talking about. Not sure who the person is. Uh, let's see. Anyone that wants to dedicate these shiurim uh, to somebody that they care about, there is a place on our website b'ezrat Hashem.org in the store where you could sponsor the shiur uh, for a refuah shleimah, for yahrzeit, uh, ilui neshama. Uh, you could uh, sponsor shiur or you could buy it over there and uh, we'd mention them the next time uh, we have a shiur. Uh, is it permissible for a guy to have cosmetic surgery, let's say hair transplant? Uh, yes. If a person is uh, um, let's see for example, either having a health issue, uh, then certainly they could do whatever they need to in order to fix that health issue. But even if it's something cosmetic, like for example, they want to have hair transplant or they want to have a surgery on their nose, um, you know, then uh, and it's because they feel like it's uh, they're not able to get a shidduch or it hurts their confidence uh, or self-esteem or anything like that, there's several times that I've told my students then you should go go get it. In fact, just maybe about 2 weeks ago one of my students asked me about removing a some birthmark from a part of their body that nobody ever said anything about it to him, but he bothers it bothers him. And he said, "Is it really should I really have the surgery or is it vain?" I said, "Not only it's not vain, you should have it. Why? Because even the fact that it hurts your confidence means that you're going to take this into account even when you're serving Hashem. So, if it's if it's going to improve your confidence, improve your happiness, it can make you into a better servant of Hashem, certainly you can go have that surgery and do it. But again, there is there is also common sense here. Meaning, I'm not saying that everybody has a free ticket to become you know a the next Lego where you're made out of plastic where you're having a surgery every other day. You know, like some of these sick Hollywood people that literally have turned themselves into plastic. You know, it's you know, things within reason. Within reason. Somebody wants to have plastic surgery, cosmetic surgery in order to remove something that is bothering them, you know, whether it be hair or nose or other things like that, there's no problem. But if you start turning yourself into one of these addicts that has turned himself into a Lego, then certainly you are not doing what God advises. >> So. How do you think people won't hate you if you use usury against everyone but not each other? Uh okay, so any laws that we implement in our lives, you have to understand that this is not laws that we just decided one day to do it uh because this is a way we could hurt the nations, hurt the and uh make ourselves, you know, a new world order. If our Torah says something, that means that God said it. Because he is the creator of everything including what is good. Including what is good. And in the Torah, he commanded the Jewish people all of these different rules which include that we are not allowed to charge fellow Jews interest at all. Not 1%, not 50%, not 100%, nothing. Not allowed to charge fell- A Jew is not allowed to charge another Jew interest because we are obligated to help each other. We're obligated to help each other. So, by charging interest, we're not helping each other. We're doing business only. So, by doing that, we're hurting each other. Now, there are ways that a person can make uh money with a fellow Jew with uh with a transaction where it's a partly an investment and partly a loan. For example, it's called a tel escot. So, let's say for example, somebody needs $100,000. Uh so, the the that wants to give $100,000 is uh is a Jew and the guy that's borrowing is is also a Jew. But, he doesn't want to give it 100% for free because there's certain element of risk. So, what do you What do we do is sign a teliska where out of the $100,000, $50,000 is a interest-free loan. $50,000 is He's not going to charge him interest. He has to return it at a certain uh time frame. Same exact $50,000 without a dollar extra. Nothing. He's not even allowed to say uh extra hello or give him extra respect because of the loan. Nothing. Simply return the money as is. Even if he loses the entire $100,000 on his business venture. But, the other $50,000 is an investment where the lender and the the the investor is a uh investor and lender. He is subject to risk. Meaning, if the guy that got the $100,000 loses all of the money, then he does not have to give that part of the $50,000 back. He lost. The uh investor lost. But, if he gains, then he uh the the investor would get a part of the gains. Whatever they agree. Now, when it comes to the way that Jews deal with the nations, with we don't have an obligation to help the nations. And therefore, we are allowed to charge the nations interest. But, we're not allowed to charge them predatory rates. Meaning, what we are allowed to charge is what is legal and normal in society, which in today's world is bank rates. So, if the average bank rate is, let's say, 9 or 10% for a loan, then we're allowed to charge another uh uh non-Jew uh 9 or 10% like they would pay for a bank, maybe an extra couple of points let's say 12% but that's it. We're not allowed by any stretch of the imagination to charge him a predatory rate like 40% or 50 or 100%. If a Jew is lending a non-Jew money with a predatory rate of 40%, 50% or more, they are not following the Torah. They're violating the Torah. They will get punished by God by going to Kaffa Kela which is a horrible horrible punishment and anyone that wants to know the details of that punishment could watch my 4 and 1/2 hour lecture about it. In so many words, God turns you into the rock that goes into a slingshot and you get thrown from corner to corner of the universe while the angels are destructive angels are beating them up. So, it's a horrible sin. For what? For lending the nations money with predatory rates. And this is just the beginning of the punishment. We're not even talking about what they're going to get in Gehennom and and and Chibbut ha Kever and so on. So, we are allowed to make money off of the nations but we're not allowed to hurt them by charging them predatory rates. And predatory rates are like I said above and beyond what is the norm of uh of of of the banks that is to the point where it's inherently predatory because you know that the person that borrowed the money is eaten alive with these high rates. It's going to be nearly impossible for them to return the money back with such high interest rates without like succeeding beyond the norm. Uh and and statistically uh speaking, most people that borrow money from these cash advance businesses, these payday operations that are charging 40, 50, 80, 100%, 300%, most of the people that borrow for money end up defaulting on the loans after they have uh forced themselves and were forced to convert them into bigger and bigger loans because they couldn't pay back. So, the original loan for let's say $50,000 ends up ballooning into some half a million dollar loan they can't pay back and then they end up declaring bankruptcy, losing their house, losing their everything. So, anybody that's in the cash advance business uh just needs to know they're going to go to Kufa Kela, they're going to suffer endlessly. And the people that are the worst of all are those that promote that business. Where you're hiring people, you're promoting that business for other people to work in it, you're going to go to a special place that will have simply no end to the suffering. So, again, Jews follow the Torah. If a Jew acts in accordance to the Torah, then he is just according to Hashem, according to God. With Jews and with the nations. You're allowed to uh make investments with a fellow Jew and be subject to profit or loss. If you're going to lend money to a fellow Jew, you're not allowed to charge interest at all, zero. If you are doing business with the nations, you're allowed to invest subject to profit or loss. But if you're going to lend the money, uh then you have to charge them rates that are not predatory. And if you're charging the nations rates that are predatory, you are desecrating Hashem's name, you're desecrating the Torah, you're going to be punished endlessly, you're considered a wicked person according to Halakha, you should not even be counted in minyan. And in fact, at the time of uh the Sanhedrin or even when the Children of Israel had significant power, they would beat you with a whip uh until you agreed to stop doing that business. And any rabbi or somebody that pretends to be a rabbi that says that the cash advance business is allowed is only saying it either because they're ignorant about what the business actually is. They just think it's traditional lending like a bank and they don't realize it's predatory rates. They don't realize the people that they're charging people 50 100% interest rates. So, they just say it's allowed to charge interest. They don't think that they're giving charging people predatory rates cuz nobody's told them these details. So, they're saying yes to lending, not necessarily to cash advance. Or in the second circumstance, they're saying yes knowing that they're charging predatory rates because the rabbi is not really a righteous rabbi. He's a wicked person pretending to be a rabbi and he's going to go to gehenna and all the horrible places alongside with all of those people that are doing corrupt business with the nations. Why? Because when a Jew is dishonest with a fellow Jew, it's a sin. But when the Rambam writes that when a Jew is dishonest with the nations, it's a worse sin. It's actually a worse sin to be dishonest or to steal from a non-Jew than to steal from a Jew. So, you have to understand that sometimes the things that you may experience with people that you know that may be Jewish happen to be Jewish um you think that they're representing Judaism but they're not. They're actually themselves acting against the Torah. And one last thing I would say is that if a Jew is not following the Torah, is not observant of Shabbat then another fellow Jew can do business with them and even lending as if they're not Jewish. Meaning they're allowed to charge them interest. It's not recommended because if they do to you, you have to return the money to them. Uh but the point is that you're allowed to to charge them as if they are part of the nations and not you. Either way, it's never allowed to be predatory. You're never allowed to hurt anyone. Even if that person is a anti-Semite. Meaning, you're not allowed to steal from an anti-Semite. You're not allowed to cheat an anti-Semite. Yeah, but he hates Jews. Okay, he hates Jews, but that has nothing to do with you stealing from him or you being dishonest with him in business. You don't want to do business with him, don't do business with him. But to think that you're allowed to hurt him and to steal from him just because he's an anti-Semite or just because an idol worshiper, that's not God to us. That's not what Torah says. You're not allowed to cheat anybody. Midvar sheker tirchak, from a thing of lies stay away from. That's what the Torah commands us. So, the more a person learns Torah, the more they realize that the only good and the only truth that exists in the world is in the Torah. Anything that you have heard that makes the Torah sound bad is because you didn't hear the Torah. You heard something that sounds like the Torah, but is manipulated and misinterpreted most of the time intentionally in order to make anti-Semitism the norm. But anyone that actually learns the laws of the Torah, both the written Torah and the oral Torah, both the uh Chumash, the five books of Moses, the Tanakh, and the Talmud, that many people think that is a bad thing, anyone that actually learns the truth of it sees that all the wisdoms of the world are in it and all the good that's in the world is in it, and the only way you can even know what good is and be good is if you follow it. Everything else is not. I would like to learn the Torah because I feel in my heart, but I'm Hispanic. Would that be accepted? So, I have many lectures on my YouTube page uh that uh you will definitely find very interesting. There's actually a playlist uh on the uh my YouTube page. Go Rabbi Yaron Reuven. There's a playlist over there. And the playlist is called Noahides. Over there, it'll tell you about what you are allowed to learn, what you're not allowed to learn, different things that uh apply to you if you decide to stay a Noahide, or if you decide to convert to Judaism. Uh there's plenty of things for you to learn uh in the Torah and uh to apply to your life and improve it. I have countless lectures uh that uh you can learn from uh not just on that playlist, and other things including this one, and I have many, many, I don't know how many thousands or tens of thousands of uh students uh around the world, and uh some of them are Jewish and some of them are not Jewish. And they're all wonderful, and they're all dear to me, and I have tried to help uh every one of them the best that I can with guiding them and teaching them whatever I can. Specific commentary on verses, you just have to open the uh commentary by Rashi and it explains the verse to you. Does a Jewish lawyer have to follow the Torah in their cases. Absolutely. A Jew is always obligated to follow the Torah and if the law of the land contradicts the Torah, they're not allowed to do it. And that's why it's a very big problem for a Jew uh to be uh a criminal lawyer uh because to be a criminal lawyer means that most of the time your highest paying customers are going to be criminals you have to defend knowing that they're criminal. Uh you know, whether it be a thief, a murderer, a rapist, and so on. But uh so you know, a drug dealer and so on. So that's a very big problem. The second thing is that it's a problem for a Jewish lawyer is that if it's a lawsuit uh between two two Jews, then they're not allowed to go to a regular uh court to civil court unless they got permission from a Jewish court a bad din uh to go there. And if they simply don't get the uh permission from the bad din, then all parties involved, the lawyer, the the the the person that sued, and the person that's suing all lose their uh olam haba. So for for somebody to be a Jewish lawyer, uh they have to not only follow the Torah, they have to know a lot about the Torah in order to make sure that they're not going to lose their eternity as a result. I think Rabbi Ruven laughs when he reads my comments. I don't know where your comments are. Uh I have baruch Hashem many many comments from different places and I'm reading them. Some of them get censored by the different social medias. Some of them are silly, so I skip them because they're just anti-Semitic insults or other types of insults. Uh some of them are not questions, some of them are just simply uh you know, compliments or something else. But, if it's a legitimate question, I answer. Um Which type of people are supposed to be a ed at the wedding? Uh any Jew that's not Torah-observant is not allowed to be an ed in the wedding, a witness in the wedding. Um heretic, mechallel Shabbat, idol worshiper, uh someone that lends money with interest, someone that's a gambler. Uh these are all people that are not allowed to be uh a ed in a wedding. If you're going to have uh a wedding, make sure that the people that are a- edim are righteous people, even if they're not family, even if you don't even know them. But, they're righteous people, they're Torah-observant, have them as edim. If you're going to have wicked people in your wedding, unfortunately, it could hurt you in a big way. In last lecture, you said that the Satan will be transformed into a good angel. I saw a couple of old lectures you say he gets slayed when Mashiach comes. Why is he getting rewarded? Didn't he have any iniquity? Okay, so when the Gemara says that the Satan will get slayed uh when Mashiach comes, it's not he's going to get slayed meaning he's going to be destroyed, but rather is is task is is his job in the world, current job right now, will be completely destroyed cuz there's not going to be any more reason to entice people to sin because the salvation has arrived. So, that task will be destroyed, and he will be able to serve Hashem in a different capacity, and he'll become a very, very holy angel. What's the scariest and life-changing video you believe will change my life? Uh that depends on where you are spiritually. If you are very very new, then I would say start off with my personal story of Sham Took Back His Millions. If you've been watching my lectures for several months at least, uh and you've seen Sham Took Back His Millions already, then I would say move on to the film we made Tikun HaKlali. And if you've watched that, then watch the film uh Gehinom uh that we made uh and Hibbat HaKever. Uh those those will definitely uh shock you. And they're full of Torah sources. Each one of them has over 100 different Torah sources that are quoted on the screen that you could look into and further and learn from. It's not just simply uh boogeyman's going to scare you. Where do I come from? Um as far as if you're talking about my uh my heritage, my uh my ancestors, my grandparents, my grandparents are from Tripoli. I was born in in Netanya, Israel. I lived in New York for since I was 10 years old, and we moved to Florida about 11 years ago. Why in Rabbi Meir's Torah it says death is good, while in the Torah it says it was very good? Uh does it mean that the Rabbi Meir had another version of the Torah? I'm not sure what you're talking about. Sorry. If you want to send me after the lecture the where do you found this, where you're getting this, then I could uh understand what you're talking about, but I'm not really sure what you're talking about. >> Does Shem have names that consist of three letters? Yes. He has many names and yes, he has every single letter in the Torah is one of the names of Hashem also. And also in Ana Bekoach the uh the what you say it's These are all different uh names of Hashem and uh you could even uh get to a point of knowing the Shem Mephorash to them. Don't ask me how and when uh but point is Hashem has many many different names. Uh but the Yud Kay Vav Kay is the holy name that uh uh we use in uh reading and blessings. How does one do teshuvah? How do they repent? They do certain blessings. Okay, so the first thing that a person needs to do is to understand that everything that they know the Torah forbids, stop doing it. If you know, if you're committing adultery and you obviously know that the Torah forbids adultery, stop. Oh, it's hard. I love him. I love her. It doesn't make a difference. I have somebody that you know, has been having a very very difficult time and asking for blessings and asking for guidance and asking for you know, uh all types of uh help in the last several months and come to find out after all these months that uh that this person is in a forbidden relationship. And uh and I tell her, "Listen, you're not allowed to be with this man unless you guys get married. You have to go to the mikveh. You're a niddah." And she says, "Well, Rabbi, I don't even care about Niddah, you know." So, I then I respond to her. I'm like, "Listen, you send me messages on a regular basis asking to bless you, asking to pray for you, asking how is Hashem going to help you with all these difficulties that you have. But, at the same token, you just said that you don't care about Hashem's laws or Hashem or anything that he says. So, how do you expect Hashem to help you when you just said you don't care about him?" And this got her to understand where, you know, that she's in the wrong. And hopefully she does teshuvah. Uh the point is that anybody that wants to do teshuvah, the first step is whatever you're doing that you know already is forbidden by the Torah, stop as soon as possible. That's one. Second thing is, start take upon yourself to start learning Torah every day. Um you know, you watch these lectures as many of them as you possibly can. Uh if you're brand, brand new and you're very busy or it's very hard for you, you could start off by watching at least 15 minutes a day of my lectures. And if you could do more, obviously do more. You could do an hour, two hours, five hours. Do as much as you possibly can. And as you're watching the lectures, take notes of things that stand out for you. Ask questions about them. Apply them to your life. And little by little, you'll start applying more and more Torah to your life. Of course, start praying every day. If you're a male, you pray three times a day, Shacharit, Mincha, and Maariv. If you're female, you pray at least once a day. But, if you are if you're able to pray more than once a day, then certainly you should. Especially if you're single and young, you don't have responsibilities, then there's no reason why you shouldn't pray more than once a day. Um and again, take upon yourself to learn Torah every day, especially this type of Torah that's musar, that's ethical development, that's teaching you all the mitzvot, and apply what you learn to your life. By stopping the things that you know are wrong or that you're learning that are wrong that you're doing, and start doing the things that are right. And you'll be doing teshuvah. You'll be doing teshuvah. Uh, let's see. Is it kosher to have the JDL and be part of it? I admire Meir Kahane. I would be more interested in being part of something that teaches Torah. Um, I understand that Meir Kahane was for a, uh, you know, the Torah and a, uh, but, uh, it's not the the, uh, the world doesn't really care about the zealousness that he or his followers have about the state of Israel. The other Jews that are not as interested in the Torah don't care about his views of the Torah and how it's supposed to be applied in the, uh, in in, uh, in the state of Israel. And in shamayim none of this is going to help your, uh, judgment in in in heaven to to be pro the land of Israel or or pro all these things. What's going to help you is learning Torah and doing good deeds and not doing sins. So, whatever group or place is going to help you learn more Torah and do more mitzvot and make less sins, that's the best group to enjoy. That's the best group to join. If that group is watching my lectures with other people that you're watching with every single day, then join that group. If that group is a local kollel, then that join that group. If that group is a shiur Torah locally at your synagogue, then join that group. Whatever group is going to make you learn more Torah, do more mitzvot, and make less sins, that's the group to join. I don't care what it's called. It could be JDL, it could be ABC, it could be uh RYR, it could be with Rabbi Ron Reuben, it could be it could be uh REK, Rabbi Ron Cahlon, whatever group you want that's going to make you make more mitzvot, less sins, learn more Torah. That's the best group in the world. Tripoli, Libya. Uh Why do you ignore the Torah and the Talmud when it mentions Jesus as the son of God? Neither the Torah nor the Talmud ever say that Jesus was the son of God. In fact, it's quite the opposite. He was a heretic that uh went against the Torah, went against Hashem, and turned himself into an idol, and is being punished until this day for it. So, if you want to learn about the Jewish perspective of Jesus, you could watch my lectures about the topic. I have it on my YouTube channel, which has helped many, many people that were born Christians uh see the truth for what it is. Many of them have converted to Judaism since. Uh some of them just simply abandoned Christianity and became righteous Noahides. But, uh needless to say, not a single person in all of these years has ever regretted uh discovering that uh Christianity is falsehood and uh applying the Torah to uh to their life. Uh every single person has uh become happier as a result of it, more fortunate, more blessed. Uh so, it's not uh uh it's it's not the This is not the place for you to be a missionary. This is the place for you to uh discover why you're in the wrong. Uh did Nachmanides prove the Christians wrong in a debate in Barcelona? Yes, a very famous debate uh about 750 years ago in Barcelona, where the Ramban proved to uh the uh the church uh the the king at the time uh that Christianity is false and that uh debate is uh well publicized. There is literally a word-for-word um text of what uh took place there. You can find it in the uh the writings of the Ramban. Uh there was even a movie uh made about it. Point being is that the what the Christian people ignore to uh accept is the fact that it's not realistic, logical, or rational to think that any Christian today knows more than the Christians of 750 years ago, because they were closer to the so-called source. There were scholars there with it. And yet, those Christians those pastors, those scholars lost a debate against the Ramban in such a way that um simply put, it was a they the only their only uh way to respond after that was that they tried to kill the Ramban because he proved uh their religion wrong. Uh and many people obviously uh had many questions after that. Point being is that if a person sees what the Ramban said during that debate, it'll open up their eyes and their mind to realize that Christianity is a man-made religion that is full of falsehood, idolatry, and mistakes. And um the only people that benefit from it are the uh the the uh the people that are making money off of it, the priests, the pastors, the churches, and so on. But the actual uh rest of the people are simply victims. Do we believe that every word of the Zohar was written by Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and his students? Uh I know that Rabbi Yaakov Emden thought otherwise. Uh much of it was written by Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and some of it was written by his uh you know, by by other Hakhamim. Uh which is pretty clear uh that uh other Hakhamim wrote it and added to it later on uh because they did not even exist at the time of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. But needless to say it is uh still a uh holy document, holy sefer, it's Zohar Kadash according to all of Gedolei Yisrael, whether it's the the obvious or it's uh Rabbi Yosef Caro or the name of our generation of the style of the Yishuv and so on there's always a good dish. But regardless of who wrote it whether it's Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai or it was the other it's words of wisdom it's words of Torah. What's worse insulting a rabbi or making your kids pass through fire like King Manasseh? Well if a person kills a person it's certainly worse than insulting a person even if the person is a rabbi because killing a person does no way to you can fix that whereas insulting you can fix it by apologizing by publicizing the apology and so on. So one is fixable one is not. Let's see uh Is a convert considered a Jew? Of course they're actually considered not only they considered a a Jew but a convert to Judaism is considered even higher than a natural born Jew. Uh where the Jewish people are obligated to love the convert more than they love other natural born Jews. That's what the Rambam asked him. But again not all conversions are the same meaning if they converted with an Orthodox and legitimate conversion then all of what I said applies but if they converted to some you know conservative or reform or Messianic or deformed types of conversions and these are not considered anything. They're not considered Jewish become. Um Why do many women still wear wigs and their rabbis permit it? Why does anybody make mistake? They make a mistake because they either do not know that they're making a mistake, they're ignorant of the truth. Uh or two, they're addicted to the shekel. They're addicted to making the mistakes. They're addicted to lust, they're addicted to uh greed, they're addicted to anything. Now, in a related topic, somebody uh sent me some articles that are coming out uh recently about the the wigs industry and how people are questioning it and uh in fact are saying everything that I've already been saying for the last 10 years. But now that it's being publicized by different uh Ashkenazi uh rabbis and different uh leaders within Ashkenazi community, you're actually seeing that more people are being receptive to it. And the person said, "I don't understand. You said all of these things 10 years ago, 9 years ago, 8 years ago. For years you've been yelling all this stuff. But now it's finally coming out. What's the What's the p'shat? Why? Why is it like that?" I said, "Unfortunately, this is due to the sinat chinam, the baseless hatred that still exists exist today. Even though every year on Tisha B'Av and even throughout the year, there are countless lectures that rabbis talk about baseless hatred, baseless hatred. The truth is, many times it's even those rabbis that are hating other Jews with no reason. How so? When we came out with the information about the wigs, at that time the issue of wigs coming from India and idolatry started and ended in 2004 when Rabbi Yashiv poskined it's not allowed to get wigs from them. Uh and it ended there because some corrupt uh Jews invented the kashrut on the uh on the wigs, which is complete scam of the century. And people stopped talking about wigs being from idolatry. When we came out with it we didn't just repeat and rehash and recycle the information of the past. In fact, we brought everything new. Proofs that they're still coming from India, proofs that the kashrut of wigs is complete false fabrication, scam, scandal, corruption, and everything in between. Uh proofs that the uh what the hakhamim said is allowed has nothing to do with what is being worn today, and so on and so forth. But there was only one problem with everything that I was saying and everything that we wrote. What was the problem? It was coming from a Sephardi baal teshuvah, me. And unfortunately, in a world full of baseless hatred khash v'shalom that the truth would come from a Sephardi baal teshuvah. If you're a Sephardi, already it's almost like to some in the eyes of some of the mainstream people, it's already like a half a non-Jew, half a A SEPHARDI BAAL TESHUVA, WHAT COULD HE POSSIBLY KNOW? WHAT DO you mean? But he's bringing information, he's bringing facts. No, no, no. So, what do they do? They cancel you. They categorize you. No, they're just making up. Oh, he's a fanatic. Oh, he's lying. Oh, he's making stuff up. And they literally butcher you, which is me, all over the place, all over the internet, all over their communities, literally murder me alive year after year, day after day. For what? For reporting the truth, to try to help people. It's not like I have a hat store and I'm going to benefit out of people taking off their wigs and putting a mitpachat on. The same thing when I said I showed people in the before Pesach, there's a bunch of people that ate chametz on Pesach only because of sinat chinam. Why? We saw that uh the Rishon LeZion, Harav David Yosef, did some research and found that there is chametz in bags of baby carrots. The liquid that preserves them has chametz in it. So, he said it's chametz gamur to eat these baby carrots that come in little packaging on Pesach because it's chametz. So, most people did not know this existed. So, we reported it. Don't in in his name. Don't eat warning from the Rishon LeZion, don't eat these baby carrots, get regular carrots because they have chametz in them. That's it. I don't have a carrot store, I don't have a tomato store, I don't have any other I'm not in the business of vegetables. But because it came from a Sephardi baal teshuvah, literally there were people that were inventing lies. They said, "No, he made it up. This is a lie. This doesn't exist. Look, it's allowed." AND THEY LITERALLY DAVKA bought baby carrots because they don't want to they don't want to listen. And guess what? They ate chametz on Pesach. They're going to have to go to gehennom for this. Not only for the eating the carrots, but for sinat chinam that they have. So, back to the wigs. Because it came from me, people didn't want to listen to it. Now, of course, many people that are normal listened to it, took off their wigs, burned their wigs, destroyed their wigs, and baruch Hashem, not a single one of them regrets it. But, along the way, since it's been many years, different people came to me, rabbis of Recheim, women, and asked me for my information. Asked for all the stuff that we gathered, the pictures, the reports, all the different stuff. And we sent them. We sent some some of them a USB drive with a full of information, full of lectures, full of data, full of pictures, full of all types of stuff. We sent them on emails, a bunch of them. And guess what? Many of them made lectures about it. Some wrote books about it. Some wrote articles about it. Some uh did all types of things with it. But, not a single one of them ever said that they got all of their information, without exception, all of their information from me. Not a single one of them ever mentioned me. Not quoted, not nothing, zero. Now, again, I don't care about being quoted, but what I'm telling you now is that the only reason why they didn't quote me is because of sinat chinam. How In their eyes, how could anything good ever come out from a Sephardi baal teshuvah? Now, you're thinking I'm making this up. This is a reality. This is a a pathetic reality we're living in. They wrote books, they wrote articles, some of them even started organizations. Just to fight the whole wig lie, but not a single one of them ever mentioned my name, even though they got their information from me. Surely they got other information from other places also along the way, but it all started by getting it from me. Because until I came back, until I came into the world of Torah and started teaching this stuff, it was a dead issue for for over a decade. And in the beginning, they simply murdered me everywhere. Just don't listen to the guy, but eventually the facts kept coming in, and you can't ignore the facts. How much can you possibly ignore? EVEN THE DONKEY that's mentioned in the TORAH IN PARSHAT BALAK WAS PROVEN RIGHT. And is quoted in the Torah. Okay, so let's just get information from this year on Reuben. And we'll uh recycle it in our own words. And that's exactly what many of them did. And that's why the articles that you're seeing being published today literally quoted some of them word-for-word, stuff that I said in lectures. Some of them are simply, you know, reworded, put them through ChatGPT Chat ChatGPT or Claude or one of these AIs. They could just take my lecture and turn it into a whole thing. And that's the reality. Now again, I don't I'm not looking for credit here. That's not the point. Don't misunderstand me. What I'm telling you here is that right now we have a spiritual sickness among our nation and nobody even knows we're sick. People are canceling others simply because of where their ancestors come from. Because they're Sephardi, because they're Hasidic, because they're not the right type of Hasidut according to you, or all types of stupid things there that are converse, they're baal teshuvah. Is a cancel culture cult that's within our own communities. And unfortunately, it's even hurting the Torah world where you actually have hakhamim being sued. Hakhamim being sued in a court that you're not even allowed to go to. For what? For their psak halakha. Which is hillul Hashem galore that they're even doing this. So, when a person wants the truth, they have to understand that the more you have lies within you, the more you are going to simply be allergic to the truth. You're going to be allergic to the truth. And you're going to invent all types of reasons to ignore the truth. The more a person wants the truth, the more they're going to hate the lies. Which includes all forms of hate, all forms of uh things that are against the Torah. So, what's happening right now, we're very happy that the stuff we said years ago is coming out. We're very happy that more and more people are waking up and realizing that the kashrut in wigs is a complete scam. There's no way in the world anyone could ever legitimately say that any wig in the world is kosher because there's no way to track it from the minute it's shorn off of the woman until it arrives uh in the store. There is endless amount of hairs in every wig. It's at least three heads of of of women in there. You don't know if one of them came from India, where 95% of the wigs are coming from, uh or it came from uh I don't know, some uh dead person in China. It's definitely not coming from Brazil. Brazilian women do not shave their head. It's not coming from France. It's not coming from all of these other European countries because nobody shaves their head in those countries. And the type of wigs that are being made are are wigs that require the entire head to be shaved. Not just cut short. So, it's a complete fabrication to say that the wigs the hair is coming from all of these other countries and it's not coming from either dead people in China or or from uh uh the idol worship in in India. And even if you say there's no way to know, still there's no way for you to know where it came from and there's no way for you to know what happened to it along the way. For any wig to say made in Brazil, you already know it's a lie. Nothing is made in Brazil aside from the packaging. Aside from the little stamp they put on it. Everything else has nothing to do with it. And anyone that tries to find out is either going to be sent back home in a box or simply not sent home. So, all of this stuff we have on video, we have in documents, we have a lot of stuff that we've publicized over the years. So, anyone that looks into the kashrut of wigs realizes that there's really only one rabbi that uh is doing the kashrut. And that's like saying that the entire kosher meat industry, it's one rabbi can supervise everything. In order for the wigs to be supervised, you literally would have to have a mashgiach, a rabbi, that knows all the laws of avodah zarah, of of all the different things that have to do with this from the minute it's taken off the woman's hair through the whole manufacturing process all the way until it arrives in the store in uh you know, in in uh in New Jersey or in Brooklyn or somewhere else. Or in Yerushalayim or wherever Bnei Brak. And that's just simply not going to happen. Why? Because there's not many people that even work in this kashrut industry. Uh they have different uh names for the kashrut now, which is a development in recent years, but it's at the end of the day it's it's the same people. Uh, and it's simply a scam. It's simply a scam. Most people that are you know, showing the wigs uh, are are showing wigs that are even if they had a uh, a a source that was not problematic, is not idolatry, the wig itself is not kosher because it's not modest. It's pleatsut. So, it it violates the laws of of tsniut. Uh, and the point being is is that if a woman wants to go to Gan Eden without any problems on the way if a man wants to go to Gan Eden without problems on the way then you have to run away from all wigs nekudah. The end. No wigs. You could wear a hat. You could wear a mitpachat. Put cabbage on your head for all I care. Wig? You're simply taking a risk beyond any level of comprehension that you have. Because in the minute chance it came from a kosher source um, you cannot reliably say that uh, you're going to continue being able to do that and you could certainly not uh, say that the wigs of today are accepted by the poskim that allowed wigs because the the ones that they allowed did not look like real hair anyway. So, either way it's a person that wants to go to Gan Eden without any problems, stay away from the ugly and what looks ugly. That's what the Gamara says. Uh a chic mena kill by the mellow. Stay away from the ugly and what looks ugly. And the entire wig industry is a very ugly, hideous, disgusting, filthy industry. Um and um that's just a reality. I understand that many women are in business to sell wigs. They make a lot of money some of them. Uh and um unfortunately they'll have to pay the bill one day for being a partner in crime. It's a it's a it's a reality. Um I don't wish anybody bad, but uh I also don't run the world either. I provide information. You can watch. You can listen. You could apply or you could ignore. That's up to you. Decision is in your head. I'm here rebuking evil, which is that the rabbi is overeating. He doesn't need to eat like that. He represents Hashem, so he needs to look blessed as if he is going to claim to be blessed. Seriously. Now I intentionally wrote this imbecile's comment. He's is the same idiot that I mentioned to you guys earlier that I keep blocking him, but he continues to send me spam mail 50 times a day. He's on every live and every one of the things. I don't know how many computers he has in his in his house, but it's the same person over and over again. But I actually read the comment, so to address it. To show you how ignorant people are when they simply assume things. First of all, to assume that anyone that is heavier than you is as a result of them overeating is simply moronic. Because I can assure you from my personal perspective, I eat less than you. I don't care how much you eat, I eat less than you. In fact many Hakhamim especially in recent years ended up being heavy not because they eat a lot. It's quite the opposite. They may not have the healthiest diet as far as eating the the greens and the the I don't know the the grass that you eat all day like a cow. Uh but uh but even the cow is fat by the way. So salad doesn't work for everybody. But it has nothing to do with eating a lot. It has nothing to do with eating a lot. You are just a sick person with a pebble for a brain and you think that just because you lost weight by doing drugs, that makes you healthy. Like I said earlier you may have lost weight, but you lost your mind, too. That's number two. Number three. To be heavy is not a sin. It's not a sin. Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai had a son. His son's name was uh Rabbi Eliezer. And he was so big that he made me look like an infant. But yet he was Kodesh Kodashim. And in fact, if you want to see a very entertaining story about him, we have an our BH Kids channel which is certainly a little bit above your level cuz you're not even at the level of a child. But you can watch it. You can watch it. It has cartoons and everything. It's you know, people moving. So it'll it'll be entertaining for you. Uh but over there you'll see that Rabbi Eliezer was very, very strong, very, very big, very, very holy. That's number three. Number four, to insult somebody based on their looks is not rebuke. It has nothing to do with rebuke. It has to do with your ego. It has to do with your ignorance. It has to do with your self insecurity, where you feel that you have to squash somebody, insult somebody in order to elevate yourself. I do not forgive you, even though you're writing I apologize, because I've already gotten your apologies on the emails. And literally within moments later, you send me an entire email cursing me and everything that has to do with me. So, I know that you your apology is meaningless, just like your words are meaningless. You are mentally ill. You should go to a mental institution. Put yourself in. You are a danger to society. You're a danger to yourself. The only reason I'm even addressing what you're saying is because some of it has to do with how people live their life without the mental illness you have. They simply criticize other people and they invent sins. They invent mitzvot based on their own understanding. You cannot invent sins or invent mitzvot. The Torah clearly tells us what is a sin and what is a mitzvah. What is righteous according to God? What is wicked according to God? So, you can't just decide that just because you don't like big eyes, therefore everyone that has big eyes is a wicked person. Just because you don't like tall people, therefore everyone that is tall is wicked. That is simply inventing your own religion, which is is actually a special section in Gan Eden for that, too. On the other hand, just because you like to eat carrots doesn't mean that eating carrots is becoming a mitzvah. Just because you like to do drugs does not mean that God created drugs for the sake of you know, you inventing this mitzvah. You cannot invent mitzvot, just like you cannot invent sins. The Torah tells us what is a mitzvah, what is a sin. I can assure you anyone that gets pleasure out of insulting anyone, doesn't matter if it's Jews, Gentiles, young, old, your friend or your enemy, if you get any level of pleasure from insulting people, you are a wicked person, you're an arrogant person, and unfortunately, you have evil within you that until you remove it, no mitzvah that you have, that you're doing, will count for you. In fact, all of the mitzvot that you are doing give power to the Satan instead of giving you schuyot, and only if you do teshuvah do all of those mitzvot go back to your good account. Why? Because you are not doing mitzvot for the sake of serving Hashem, you're doing them for the sake of serving your own ego. So, if you get pleasure out of insulting people, you get pleasure out of mocking people, you get pleasure out of doing things that are hurting other people, you're bringing a disaster to your eternity, to your life in this world and the next. And it's a very very unfortunate situation that is not only with you. It's with a lot of people that they literally get a pleasure out of insulting people. And they don't realize that when tragedy hits them that's the reason. Oh, what did I do? How come God's doing this to me? What do you mean? What? You're lucky you're alive. All the things that you've done. Khatam Sofer says Hashem could punish a person by killing his children because he insulted another person. For simply for insulting another person. We're not even talking about a public insults like you're doing or like other people do online. We're talking about literally just, you know, insulting him to somebody else. That is enough of a reason for Hashem to punish a person to kill their children. Yesh din v'yesh dayan. There's a judge and there's a judgment. If you play with fire, you get burnt. Habotai karim everything we teach is in accordance to the Torah for your good. Use it, you apply it, you'll become a better person, you'll become a better servant of Hashem, you'll become simply a blessing to be around. If you ignore it, if you mock it you're simply going to continue living a cursed life and you'll have a cursed eternity. Not because I said it, but because the Torah promises it. Those that have uh those that follow the laws, those that follow the Torah will have a blessed life. Those that don't will have a cursed life and a cursed eternity. It's very simple. Why? Why? Why Why choose evil for yourself? Do Do hate yourself that much? Do you hate yourself that much that you want to punish yourself? Why? For what? What do you get out of it? I Okay, about that I can do. Let's finish off with a positive note and ask you guys another question. Another question that is going to get you guys to think. Let me think. Let me think what a question I could ask you guys to think. If someone made a uh soup made soup and we know that the uh Sephardi's poskin that on Shabbat if you put the soup before Shabbat on the hot plate and you take it off you uh you're not allowed to put it back on the hot plate. But the Ashkenazim some poskin that you're allowed to put it back on the hot plate. What is a way that Question number one. What is a way that a Jew could eat soup without being Ashkenazi meaning being Sephardi on Saturday afternoon. That's question number one. Question number two is if let's say you are in a place and it's our it's Saturday afternoon, Shabbat afternoon and you have a guy that doesn't care about Halacha so much and he puts the takes the soup from the fridge and he puts it on a plata. And you say, "What are you doing? You're you're not allowed." "Ah, forget about you rabbis make up all these laws." So he's even mocking it. He knows, doesn't care. And then he gives you a plate. What do you do with the plate? Those are the two questions that you guys can think about to Halachot Shabbat. I know it's not um the uh business stuff that you guys typically like, but Halachot Shabbat are also very, very important uh for everybody to review on a regular basis, especially practical things like this. Think about it. Send me the answers and Be'ezrat Hashem we'll go over them next week. Anyone that wants to donate and support can donate on beezratHashem.org b e z r a t h a s h e m {dot} o r g or easier you could just go to b h torah {dot} o r g b h t o r a h {dot} o r g. You could donate over there. You could also uh sign up for monthly donation, which is fantastic thing to do even if you want to donate more from time to time, but when you donate monthly on a regular basis that helps us uh plan certain things cuz we know how much we're going to be able to budget. Uh so even if you want to you know let's say donate more, but if you could commit to a certain amount that helps us if you could donate monthly uh on a regular basis every uh first of the month, 15th of the month, or whatever day you choose, that certainly could help. And also I want to remind everybody that if you have um investments such as stock or or cryptocurrency or precious metals, things like that and you want to donate them, you can. There's a way to donate the stocks and cryptocurrency on the website. The precious metals and and jewelry and things like that that you want to donate you could send it to us. We could sell it and use it to do Kiruv. Either way, those of you that want to support, please do because like I said, it's not necessarily that it's it's needed all the time, but rather because the opportunity that you have right now is unlike any other opportunity we've had with the exception of the first time 10 years ago. The stuff we have cooking right now is mamash unbelievable. And you're going to get news very very soon on some of the developments. Some of the developments are going to come out very very soon. Some developments are going to come out let's say in the next couple of months, but either way it's going to be some huge things. And I know that the earlier you're on the bigger the reward, the bigger the blessing. Why? Because you are simply trusting in Hashem and in his servants without oh let me know let me know the accounting, let me know the details, let me know this. Oh this I'll do, this I won't do. The more you go into investing into Hashem's Torah completely with with simply a belief that this is good, the market is going to going to bless you and just like any other investment in the world, the earlier you're in the bigger the reward. So, those of you that can, please do. And B'ezrat Hashem, try to get others to do as well. You could If you don't have yourself, or even if you do have, you have friends, you have family, you have colleagues, you have bosses, you have customers, ask them. Do them a favor by getting them to join and support and invest into B'ezrat Hashem. And I call it an investment because it's literally the greatest thing you could ever do with your money because the reward you're going to get in this world and the next is going to be exponentially higher than you could ever imagine because you guys have seen what we've done over the last 10 years. And I'm telling you time and time again, these next 10 years are going to be even more, much, much more. And starting with the stuff that's coming out B'ezrat Hashem in the very, very near future. Call to B'ezrat Hashem, we will learn again next week. Shalom habotai, we're finally here. The new Kiruv Box. Opens up. Nice little cushion here. I got Let's see if it's charged. Is there anything still boxing alive? Now available at B'ezrat Hashem.com.org. B'ezrat Hashem.org, get yourself 20 of them, 30 of them, 50 of them. Distribute them to all the people that you care about. And you got people doing chuvah.