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How To Convince HaShem To Keep You On Top Of The World

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Rabbi Yaron Reuven avatar
Rabbi Yaron Reuven

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departed from and went to this this week's para Jacob is running away from Asav. The whole town is talking about it. He stole his blessing. He stole his right of the firstborn. The whole town is talking about it. He's in the news on CNN, CNBC, Bloomberg. Everyone's talking about [Music] it. Kazal says that he goes to the yeshivat of Shemville. He goes to yeshiva 14 years. Learns Torah for 14 years without sleeping. learns Torah without sleeping. 14 years. We learned for 14 minutes. We already think we do. You learn 14 years no sleep. You learn to Yes. Today 15 minutes. Wow. Oh would be proud. Guy says, "No, I learned a lot. I did a whole hour today." Wow. 14 years. 14 years without sleeping. This is a different world. Might as well be a different species. We're closer to a monkey than we are to the shoe. Not even to Yakovino. To the shoe of Yakovino. 14 years. We're not sleeping. Goes to yeshiva. But then it says something scary. He goes to sleep. After 14 years, you get kind of tired. Said, "Not bad. I'm tired after 14 minutes. He's tied up to 14 years. And it says here in verse 12, "And he dreamt, and behold, a ladder was set eastward uh was was set earthward, and its top reached heavenward, and behold, angels of God were ascending and descending on it. ascending and descending. Not my whole life, ever since I discovered that God was real when I was a little kid. I remember in school we went to a little religious school and they gave us a picture of Yakovu taking a nap on this rock. There used to be a few rocks that became one rock and there's like a ladder next to him. There's a bunch of angels climbing and a bunch of angels going down, ascending, descending. That's what I thought. Why are they ascending, descending? Who knows? Maybe they're playing. I don't know. Having fun. the page 68 and also both agree with each [Music] other says that if it wasn't written in we wouldn't be allowed to say it. What does it mean ascending and descending? The angels are going up. They're seeing Yakavinu's face. They come down to see who this person is. See him sleeping. They go back upstairs to Shine and say, "Hashem, we should kill him. There's no sleeping for." Yeah, but he was sleep. He was awake for 14 years. So what? So what that he was awake for 14 years learning to that's what he was created for. So what that did you learn 15 minutes or 15 hours and you gave and you kept Shabbat. So what? That's what you created [Music] for says means they are contemplating how to kill him. They're coming to kill him. And if it wasn't for the if it wasn't for himself they would kill him. Yakovu if Jakov is being rebuked like this by the angels I think we need to learn some now what saveu this week's last couple of weeks we've been learning what he and Shai used to say so So he said the Mishna last week and he says another one this week. He was accustomed to say the reason he says he because it's the same person that said it in the previous Mishna. I didn't understand it either. Don't worry. I could just make the sounds. Let's read in English. We understand. It was in Aramaic. Anyway, he was accustomed to say, "He who seeks renown loses his reputation. He who does not increase his Torah learning decreases it. He who refuses to teach Torah deserves death. And he who exploits the crown of Torah shall fade away." As we learned from the series so far, we see that each one of these verses, each one of these sayings can be broken down and learned for 60 years, not two hours, 60 years. And we're still going to learn more from them. That's how much mousar is in each one of these. But we're going to try to learn for a little bit to see what it means here. So is telling us someone who is looking to build his reputation. Hey, I learned some Torah. I know the whole shots by heart. I know this. I know that. Says that's the person that Hashem is going to take that away from it. The very same wise man we talked about earlier. He says the pride comes before the fall. Before Hashem brings somebody down, he makes sure that they go all the way to the top. Why? Cuz the fall is much bigger. It's much more painful. You're forced to look up. If it's a little fall, you built your portfolio up. You went up from 800,000 to 1.1 million. You feel happy about yourself. You're smart. You're good-looking now, too. Maybe you're going to buy a new car. Maybe you're going to throw a party this year. It's nice. Go down from 1.1 million to 900,000. Okay. I can still keep the car. Not going to sell it. I could still the extension on the house. I'm going to keep that, too. It's no big deal. the party said, "So, we're not gonna get a five course meal. Let's just make it four." That's not what we're saying yet. Hashem says he's going to make you an artificial bull market for 10 years that's based on nothing like we have right now. Based on absolutely nothing. There's absolutely no reason for the market to go up. Nothing happened. True. Technology companies are being valued at 50, 100, 200 billion dollars for absolutely no reason. Even if they meet the growth rates, they say they're still never going to be worth what they're worth today. It's based on nothing. But people making fortunes off of this. They bought the stock at 50. It went up to 200. The $800,000 portfolio is not 1.1 million. It's three and a half, four, 5 million. Everyone's IQ went up with their portfolio. Everyone thinks they're smart. Everyone thinks what? What am I wasting my time working a regular career? I should be a day trader. I should be a investor. I should be an adviser. I should tell all my friends to invest. I should start investing seminars. Start teaching people how to become millionaires in the stock market. Leave my job and do this. Everyone became smart. Hashem says, "I'll take you from the little portfolio you had with the retirement account that you had that you built for 30 40 years and you put everything and I take it to three four five million. Now, if you do the right thing and you use the money for good, you give staka, you bring more Torah to the world, then there's a reason that you gave Hashem to allow you to have this money cuz he didn't give you the money for you to have it. The whole reason of why you have any money is for you to publicize Torah to eat. Obviously, you need to eat. But Jacob also has to eat to learn more Torah than us 14 years without sleeping. What did he ask? He says he says here in verse 20, Then Jacob took a vow saying if God will be with me. He's not even sure. He learned 14 years without sleeping. He's not even sure God liked his Torah. He's not sure. He goes, "Oh, maybe he's not enough. Maybe I should learn 15 years without sleeping. Maybe 16 years. Maybe 30 years. If God is going to be with me, if Hashem is even even going to give me any attention whatsoever, will guard me on this way, he'll protect me where I'm going. What do I want from him? All I want is from him will give me bread to eat and clothes to wear. He learned for 14 years without sleeping. All he's asking for is bread to eat and clothes to wear. We learned for 14 minutes. Went to shield to us. Somebody tells me, "Listen, I listened to your whole shield the whole two hours." So, okay, good. Hashem goes, "Yeah, but I was expecting a prize at the end." Jakov was expecting close clothes to wear and food to eat after 14 years. It's a little bit of a difference. So now, if we do the right thing with the moneyem, Hashem is going to give us more. Not only going to give us, but we become messengers for Hashem. We do the wrong thing with the money. We keep buying cars, houses, and have parties and there's no reason for him to give it to us. And what happens is what happened to me. Hashem uses the pride, uses the tool to that he built us to make us fall. So people need to question themselves here. And where are we learning this from? We're learning this from from Elen. Who was El? El was the ni. He was top number one. Page 28. It says, "Who were Elah's students?" He had 80 students. 80 students. Nice little coll. Who are his students? 30 of them. They were they deserved to have this sit on them like Mosheu. 30 of them were in the level in their generation of Mosheu. Another 30 deserved for Hashem to stop the sun in the middle of the sky for them like he did for Yeshua Benoon. Joshua Abdullah right after Mosher Benu Yeshua Benoon 30 of them deserve the same privilege that Yeshua Benoon got 30 of them and 20 were Benim 20 were average 20 were average let's see what these averages the names of these individuals huh the names of these individuals say we know it's all the top student was Benel The top student was the least of the students was every page in the wasab you see his name it's the least of them it's the lowest what know is what he knew he knew all the all the everything by heart obviously not no books there's no oral tora written yet at this everything by heart. All the all the all the all the gimatriot, all of the calculations of how to figure out the calendar. They didn't have nice calendars with the picture of the rebi on every wall. No, no. They had to figure it out. They had to bring people. They had to see if the moon came out. But if it didn't come out calculations, a six-digit number, lot of a lot of wisdom to figure out the calendar. He knew how to compute the calendar. He knew all the midim, all the all the stories behind the stories, all of the analogies, all of the small debates and the big debates that everyone would have had, especially the ones by also every page in you see debates about everything. He knew all of them. But that's just average. This is the beginning. What else did he know? He also knew the language of all the angels. Apparently the angels have a different language. He was able to speak to angels. But also he knew the language of all the shadim, all the demons. And if that wasn't enough, he knew the language of of all the palm trees. Which one of us knows how to speak to a palm trees? There's a bunch of them. There's one guy right next to my car. I want to tell him something. Anybody know how to talk to palm trees? This is the least of the students of Zaken. He knew how to talk to palm trees. He knew how to talk to Shahim. He knew how to talk to angels. The top student, it said that when he would study Torah, it would create a spiritual fire that if there was a bird that flew on top of him, it would burn immediately. Go on fire. The bird. Poor bird. He's learning to. So now if you have students like this, who are you? If his least of his students isaban, who's and is telling us now that I'm at this top position, I'm telling you that if I focus only on the fame and fortune, Hashem is going to use this to bring me down. where he learned it from Yakov Aino. Yakovino got famous. Everyone found out, hey, you stole the fortune, the blessing from Asav. You're on the news. Everyone knows. Everyone's talking about you. If you take advantage of the fame only for your own interests, Hashem will use it against you. So what do you do? Despite how big you are, you go to step number two. He who does not increase his Torah decreases it. Says you want Hashem to keep you on top. You want Hashem to keep you rich. You want Hashem to keep you famous. You want Hashem to keep you where you are. Increase your Torah, my friend. Says, "Yeah, my students, the least of them knows how to talk to Shim." Cuz yes, even you have to increase your Torah. That's why is teaching us here. If El has to increase his Torah after his least of his students knows this, what about us? How much Torah do we have to learn? Last time I checked, I don't know anybody who knows how to talk to Shadim. I don't even know anybody who knows by heart. I look at after the 15, you know, 15 pages, I already think. And then I look at, oh wait, there's another 40 books. So he says you want to stay at the top, increase your Torah. This is why as soon as he ran out, he didn't go to Lavan. He says, "If I want Hashem to protect me, I have to go to the of 14 years to study Torah without sleeping cuz that's the only way I can justify Hashem protecting me. That's the only way I can justify Hashem giving me food and clothing, not more food and clothing. 14 years of studying without sleeping.