Daily Chidush: Why should I do Teshuva when so many so called religious people are sinning?

hello how are you hope you're having a great day hope you're having a great week wanted to uh give you a daily about a very common question a very common difficulty that uh not only do Bal Chua uh have uh but also people that were formerly religious and left the religion because of it and uh I myself have some experience with this because it happened to me about 20 years ago the first time I did chuva when I was about 17 years old question is is why should I do chuva why should anyone do chuva why should anyone remain religious when so many so-called religious Jews are such big Sinners uh you see them uh doing things that are outright against the Torah whether it's uh being dishonest stealing uh cheating going to casinos going to uh the strip clubs and all types of all types of major sin especially with with the clothing and the black and white and no shame whatsoever so this is a major difficulty in today's world and is also part of the reason on a side note of why those very same people that go to those places and act the way they do have a special place in gon which we'll talk about another time because they are committing the worst possible sin you can make which is desecrating of aem's name nothing is is worse than that now I remember when I was 17 years old and I first tried doing chuva started listening to a few tapes by Rabbi amnon and uh started getting religious started keeping Shabbat and it was very difficult being religious at 17 years old when you have really no support whatsoever but I tried keeping Shabbat tried to keep koser tried to uh I put on TI started learning a little bit but little by little I started noticing that the so-called Jewish people around me were not so Jewish after all instead of observing the Shabbat like I learned they're supposed to they would talk about business okay so they're not driving a car you know shom they're not driving a car but they're talking about business you're not allowed to talk about business instead of making sure you don't touch electric uh as soon as Shabbat comes in I see them oh it's a little hot in a bed said so let's turn on the air conditioner so certain things like that you just pass and you know one thing leads to another and you start becoming more and more bitter and you get to a point where you say you know what this is not for me if this is what Judaism is about I don't want to be a Jew and this is the mistake that took me many many years to realize that it was a mistake it was not correct assessment it was a mistake why is it a mistake I heard this from a great speaker a great Rabbi by the name of Rabbi Yakov Shapiro where he uh mentions this and I've mentioned this in several of my own lectures as well that what makes a Jew a Jew before we got to mount sa as this week's says hasem spoke to Moses on Mount Si saying why is it specifying that he spoke to him on Mount Si he didn't mention it anywhere else in the Torah when he talked about Shabbat he didn't mention that he spoke to him in Mount Si he didn't mention it when he spoke about he didn't mention it when he spoke about all the other mitv but he's specifically mentioning over here that he spoke to Moses and Mount Si without elaborating too much into the details of what Rashi explains to us what our sages explain to us in the oral Torah of why he mentions Mount Si here and not other places one of the main things that we learn from here is that number one Hashem spoke to Moses where in Mount Si number two this is the very same place that we received all of our Torah all of our MIT all of the details because if anyone reads the written Torah the the tan they'll see that there are 613 in the T but with the exception of which is in this week's par there's no details of any other mitvah of how to do it he says observe the Shabbat what do you mean observe the Shabbat how do you observe the Shabbat he says cut the take the baby and cut the what's an how do you know which part of whether it's the ear or it's the lip or it's the uh fingernail and every single Mitzvah is this way and this is where our or oral tah comes in but nonetheless we realize that in the oral Torah is where we have all of the details and in there is where Judaism is in there is where are the details the secrets the beauty of the Torah is in the oral Torah and a person that thinks there's even one letter wrong with the written Torah or with the oral Torah is performing heresy against the entire Torah so now back to Mount sa now that we know that we received this Divine document the only Divine document that ever existed and never will exist we received it in Mount saai but why specify Mount saai because this is where Hashem is telling us in Mount Si you became Jews before this you were not Jews when Abraham was around Abraham was the forefather of the Jewish Nation but he himself was not in essence considered a full Jew because we didn't receive the Torah he was called a Hebrew same thing with Isaac and then Jacob was also called an Israelite he was called Israel so throughout 210 Years of Slavery and hardship and suffering in in Egypt we were all Israelites we were still not Jews the Torah is referring to us as Jews only after Mount sa and the only thing that changed after Mount saai is that we received the Torah so the one thing that every single Jew needs to realize and get this into their brain and into deep into their n the only thing that makes you Jewish is Torah not your mother not your father not your friends not the food you eat not the culture you came from nothing the only thing that makes you Jewish is the Torah not just knowing what a Torah is but obviously learning it deserving it and living it that's What Makes You Jewish because once we told AEM we will hear and we will do we became Jews see this is to teach all of the ones that were as confused as I was nearly 20 years ago looking around at the people around me that were not exactly the model Jews that I was supposed to look at and saying oh if this is Judaism I don't want to be a Jew the real it of it is all I was looking for were at people that were pretending to be Jews not people that were Jews this is not to say that they were all bad people but in reality if someone is not complying with the Torah they're not being a Jew and this is one of the main things that the mishna in chapter 26 tells us the secret of how to do chuva but also how how to be zealous and how to succeed as a Jew chapter 26 says it said one of our sages is telling us here that a fool cannot be fearful of sin someone who's a complete ignorant someone's a complete person that just knows absolutely nothing he's never going to be fearful of sin he cannot be fearful of sin why because he knows nothing he knows no he has no concept of what Hashem is he has no concept what reward and punishment is he has no concept of anything so of course he's not going to be scared of course he's going to drive even to the on Shabbat of course he's going to eat even on because he has no concept why doesn't he have a concept because he has no Torah and it says an an ignorant person cannot be a scrupulous One what does it mean a scrupulous Pious there's no such thing as someone who's ignorant but yet is righteous so all of those people this answers the question of all of the people say listen I'm religious in my heart I'm spiritual I'm a spiritual person I think I'm a very good to people I think I'm very nice and I treat everybody fairly the reality of it is that you have no idea or concept of what good or fairly is why because you are just a creation and the only one that knows what good or fair is is the Creator and the Creator gave those instructions in the Torah so long as you do not know Torah you do not know what's fair or what's good if you just happen to be a nice person that says hello to people that's fantastic but what if you're saying hello to someone that is about to blow up the next World traits inom what if you're the Misan doctor the poor doctor the poor Jewish doctor that one day came to a screaming mother trying to save her son despite the fact that they were not Jewish despite the fact that they were not very big fans of Jews and he said you know what I want to be nice and you heal this baby and the baby grows up to be Hitler and kills over six million of your brothers and sisters are you still nice are you still Fair the reality of is we have no concept of what's fair or nice is without having some knowledge of the Torah so without Torah we cannot be Pious and then it says the person that's shy can never learn why is a person that shy can never learn cuz if he's so shy that he's just hiding in the corner he's never going to ask the rabbi hey Rabbi can you provide me a source for what you just said can you provide me some sense of of reality he from the words of Hashem and not necessarily from the words of Mankind's opinion can you provide me a source can you show me what AEM thinks if you're so scared to ask questions you never going to become a big sadik that knows something he's not not going to be somebody that knows anything and an imp impatient person cannot teach if you ever want to teach people the one major thing that you have to have in common with all great teachers of all time you have to have patience because your students will be annoying at times they'll ask the same question 15 times they'll go over the same issue they'll ask things at the end of the sh that you had a whole Shure about and they ask a question that you already answered throughout the entire sh but as if they weren't there but they looked at you the whole time they'll play with their phone while you're giving a lecture they'll talk they'll eat they'll chew but you have to be patient with them why because you are their example and without patient patience you'll never be able to teach them and anyone that's excessively occupying himself with business can never be a scholar yes being in business is fine you can work we live in a natural world we have to make a living but if you want to be a scholar if you want to be extremely close to Hashem not just close but extremely close to him to the point where you can feel him you cannot spend 25 hours a day working you have to make time to learn to each day in the morning if possible a little bit in the afternoon to break up the day to break up the mundane to break up the slavery that we don't think is slavery and at some point before you go to sleep you have to connect to Hashem and the only way we know how to the only way he says we know how to and the only way that's available is through his Torah and last but not least the one statement that answers this entire in a place that there's no leaders strive to be a leader in a place where there's a bunch of fakers where there's a bunch of people that are pretending to be lovers of Hashem because they they wear the costume they wear the outfit they have a beard that could sweep the floor like Rabbi mizi says they have a sombrero they have the Hat they have all of these things that makes them look Jewish and they Sway and they do this and they do that and they make big deal about certain things but at the same time you see them going to the casino you see them going to the beach you see them doing things that are not Jewish you see them wearing these disgusting skinny jeans and saying no no this is the style the reality of it is that uniform means nothing what does mean something is what's inside them and the only way you know what's inside them is through their actions if their actions are not representing Judaism then you must be the Jew you cannot care about what everybody else is doing you cannot care about whether he's keeping and she's keeping and she's modest and he's modest doesn't matter because the reality of it is that even if you were left on an island by yourself you'd still have to be Jewish why because the only thing that makes you my friends Jewish is the Torah that's the only thing the Torah does not depend on the Jews Jew it existed before the Jews and it'll exist after the reality of it is that a Jew has an opportunity to become partners with the Torah if you want to be Jewish you have to accept the Torah 100% not 10 not 12 not 50 and not even 90 you have to do your best to fulfill the entire Torah of course we all make sense from time to time but the reality of it is our effort is what we get paid for our effort is what the reward Hashem gives us for and if you're surrounded by Wicked people then you must be the leader you must rebuke your brothers if you see someone that you're close to that's sinning against hem say something to them whisper to them don't embarrass them in the middle of the street but whisper something to them find an opportunity to tell them Listen by the way I saw you driving to besset on Shabbat and I didn't know if maybe you don't know but Hashem specifically said you're not allowed to light fire on Shabbat and I have engineering reports that showed that each time you bre you press the gas pedal the minimum amount of fires that are lit is over 3,000 times just for one gas pedal how much how many times somebody lit fire driving five miles five miles 5 minutes to the synagogue this could be Millions of sins of the worst possible sin so my brothers and my sisters your chuva is all based on Torah it's not based on people if you end up finding people that are like-minded that love AEM like you do God bless you God did bless you but if not then all hasem did is he tested you just like he did with abah ainu when he told him the first mitvah that he told before he told him about Shabbat before he told him about anything else he said leave leave these Wicked people why because those people were so wicked you cannot change them if you're surrounded by those types of people then you must leave you're not allowed to go outside you're not allowed to hang out with them you're not allowed to rebuke them you're not allowed to even talk to them but if you can change them if they still have a Jewish n in them then you must be the leader you must listen to Hashem you must listen to the Sages thank you for learning with me and may hasem continue to bless you