Intellectual Introspection | TORAH FOUNDATION (8)

and enemies came close to home trying to take my flesh. [music and singing] They stumbled, fell and lost their charm. The plans all came to mesh. Though armies and battles rise, my heart will not despair. [music] The war [singing] may roar before my eyes in a way. One thing I seek from [music] above is home to call my own. >> [singing] >> to live there daily in his love and his temple fully known. In times of trouble, he me upon a rock I have no fear safely in his grace. Now my head [singing] will rise up high above my [music] enemies. I'll joy and praise a new [singing and music] mem you above all your face I long to see don't hide from mem so true forsake me not I pray [singing] always knew my God my strength my stay father made it [music] lifts up my soul teach me guide my heart to keep me safe Don't give me my fruity [music] to believe the goodness [singing] of a champ. I would have fainted lost to see my [music] hope is in his hand. [music] Hope in him courage long and trust his guest [singing] song in hand. Hope [music] his guiding. his plan. [music] We are back here on our Sunday night Torah Foundation series. We're at number eight. Tonight's shoe is going to be for the Eloish of Barov Ben Rosa and Yakov who uh left this world very young and unfortunate and also for Benis and for David and all of Isra and all the righteous no hides that continue to support the organization, continue to donate, continue to share, and most importantly, continue to learn with us. Anyone that wants to uh order anything from the Kiru store, you uh still can. There still supplies Bo Hashem. We're sending out boxes every single week. Boashm lots of people like the uh uh the new book that's a republication from nearly a hundred years ago but added with Rab Frame our own dear Rafim's commentary. Uh and of course people love the Kiru boxes that you could buy for a discount on our website.org. So with that being said, we are on a mission to answer some very difficult questions of how to deal with difficult times, how to deal with the death of a brother, how to deal with uh difficulties of life in general. And in essence, riding the waves of life's problems is not easy for anyone. But yet we see that they simply do it better. foot is taking us on a road on a path to make us see how and why they're able to do it. Perhaps the goal is to apply this to our lives because who doesn't have difficulties in their life? Whether it's difficulties with money, difficulties with finding a zeug, difficulties with getting out of a marriage, difficulties with uh children, there's no shortage of difficulties in this world. And of course, people are always looking for answers. And uh I would tell you uh and I've said this countless times over the last 10 years of giving these lectures that 99.9% of all of the messages that people send to me, and I think to pretty much every rabbi out there that deals with the public are problems. People send their problems. They ask for prayers. They're asked for guidance. And in essence, that's really what you get. That's the, you know, the big burden of the job is people's problems. And you try to guide them in the right way. But sometimes there's there isn't simply a yes or no answer or a simple answer. Sometimes you need a whole shore and go back a thousand years to figure out the roots of the problem. The left us off in the last lecture that we did by letting us know that wants our heart. Wants our heart. Meaning that our deeds should not simply be simply mundane where we're just doing it because we're supposed to or because somebody told us to or because this is the way we grew up or any other superficial reason. The reason why we follow Hashem has to be for a much much higher purpose. And ultimately this requires a person to do a introspection introspection of their heart to see what's causing you to do the things you do the good things and the bad things. What's driving you? Now most people may be aware that there is something called which is you know introspection of yourself. But the written nearly a thousand years ago by is telling us now the intellectual reasoning behind why this introspection is necessary. And he says as follows. First, from a point of view of reason, man as we know it is made up of body and soul. Both of these are great favors which the creator has bestowed upon us. One is seen, the other is unseen. We in turn are duty bound to serve the creator both outwardly and inwardly. outwardly through the duties of the limbs, prayers, fasting, charity, and the study of the teachings of the Torah, suka, lulav, tit muza, making a guardrail for the roof and any other precept which culminates in the act that is carried out by the body inwardly through the duties of the heart by acknowledging in our hearts God's unity, having faith in him and in his Torah, assuming his service and by being in awe of him. Humbling oneself and feeling shame before him. Loving him, trusting him, by giving over one's life to him. Abstaining from what is hateful to him. By letting all that one does be for his sake. by contemplating his good graces towards us and anything like this which culminates in the medication of the heart and conscious with no dependence on the surface limbs and the body. So of course this is a lot to swallow and that's why each and every lecture in this series and all the serieses we break down line by line add some other sources that clarify things further and dig deeper into the holy words of the sages to understand how this applies to you, how this applies to her, how this applies to me, how this applies to everybody and how we could all apply this to our lives in one way or another. So first is telling us is that before we discuss all of the benefits to it, all of the obligations from Shim from heaven to do it. We'll use the rationale. We'll use intellectual reasoning to see why this is absolutely necessary. by first understanding what we're made of. He says we're made of body and soul. Now, of course, anyone that has learned a little bit knows that the soul itself is not just a little ghost that you see in movies that enters the body, leaves the body. There are different parts of the soul. And the five main parts are the nephesh and the is only something that the Mashiach will have. It's something that a kadosh will put into the mashiach. But nonetheless, everyone has the nephesh and the nisha and the uh deeper teachings also say that each part has a and meaning that it's not just clearly five but it's five times five and even that has levels and layers. that go up to 125. But nonetheless, the uh nephesh is the body and the nama is the soul. And both of these says are great favors which the creator has bestowed upon us. What does it mean that these are great favors that the creator has bestowed upon us? The seph inesh says as follows. The early sages proved that it's only for our benefit that a kadoshbu created us and not his in a great way by first explaining that there are really three reasons of why a person sins. Why does a person go against Hashem? First, fear. Fear of missing out, fear of being lonely, fear of being poor, fear of being mocked, fear. People do foolish things because of fear. Second, benefit, joy. He goes with a woman that's forbidden to him. She goes with a man that's forbidden to her. for joy, for benefit, because they feel like they're going to benefit out of it. They take money or make business deals that are against the Torah because they want to benefit from it and completely ignore the outcome of what's going to eventually happen to them as if it's not going to happen. The third reason says the foolishness. Simply the person is a fool. Now these three things that are the causes to sin are not something that you would find in the creator himself in Hashem. He doesn't have any fear. He doesn't get any benefit and certainly he does not have any foolishness. And therefore says the sages that this is a proof that Hashem only created these three limitations and put it into us in order to limit us. Because the original soul, just like as the ramkal says, the original soul was getting a [snorts] free bread, free reward for no reason and as a result was suffering because what am I getting a reward for? Now, of course, this is hard to understand from people that live in this world that only want good for themselves without a car or concern about anybody else. But deeper thinkers would simply understand that yes, for everything that I have, I I want to earn it. I don't want to just get free. If you're a child, you want to get free stuff all the time. You want to get presents all the time because you're a child. But as a person grows up a little bit, matures a little bit, the more they mature, the more they want to earn it. And therefore, that original soul wanted to earn earn this reward and therefore put them into the body and said this will allow you to complete your tikun meaning to earn this ultimate reward that I want to give you and therefore say the sages since these lackings these limitations of fear of benefit of foolishness do not exist in the creator. We can clearly see from this that he created it just for our benefit unlike the fools out there that pretend to be teachers and rabbis and and so on that tell you that God needs you and it's going to say I'm sorry to you and all types of other heretical nonsense. So the first wants to establish this point that we understand that we have a body and soul and all of it is for our benefit. If you haven't understood up to this point, rewind this your start again and repeat it over and over again until you understand. So long as you think that God needs you or that you think that you're just a piece of meat walking around and one day you're going to turn into some type of uh uh you know mutated version of yourself or that you came from some monkey then perhaps this is not the lecture for you. You could go to my other lectures Torah in science the signature of God and other lectures that discuss different aspects of the Torah. This is not yet your level. But if a person understands then they can proceed in understanding the deeper and more extraordinary teachings of the problems that we all face the problems of life and how to deal with them. Once this is seen, a person can now go to the next level. And says one of these is seen meaning the body. The other is unseen that's the soul. We in turn are duty bound to serve the creator both outwardly and inwardly. Whether you remember that you were a mount sai or not, whether you believe that you were a mount sai or not, whether you believe that God created the world or not, the obligation stays the same. And the obligation to serve the creator is in two two ways, outwardly and inwardly. Outwardly, it's through the things that require the body. We pray, fast, giving taka charity, study to teach in Torah if you're able, at least teaching your kids. Don't show up to your Shabbat or Yum without anything to say. Quite frankly, every single meal should have something to say. Whether it's autim or it's a or something that is in the level of the kids of the family, don't start telling your family some uh of the tot and and and and everything else that you learned over there where you know they're only six, seven years old. You have to obviously cater it to the audience. No one needs to know how great your wisdom is. They need to learn what they could learn. Of course, the other mitzvot that we just succeeded in fulfilling the suka, the tit that you wear if you're a man, the muza you have on your door. And of course, as a side note, for those of you that still have not understood the significance of the mizuza, I keep telling people over and over again that if you're buying a mizuza based on price, you're very very likely to find out that you overpaid. How come? How can you be over how can you overpay if you bought it for a discount? If you buy a mizuza today for let's say $80, $100, how could that be a overpayment versus a muza for $150, $200? Simple. More likely than not, based on today's prices and how much it cost to get from a real sophila that you got was either done by a computer printer or a non-Jew or somebody who doesn't know how to do it. And the muza you have is the paper is worth more than the writing. There was even a research done by a team out of I believe in New York in uh where they got they had some type of campaign where they had a bunch of people send their muzzot for them to check and they said that over 85% of the muzot that people sent in were not kosher. Do you know what kind of ridiculous statistic that is? People have misot on their doors protecting their house with something that not only doesn't do good, doesn't protect, but it actually causes harm. And this unfortunately abutai is a problem that continues to grow because people are buying muzot based on price versus based on who is the sufel who is the source that's giving you this. Now this muza or anything else that you do with your body is one of the ways that you're serving a kadu with your body. Making a guardrail for a roof. This doesn't necessarily only apply to a roof. This also means a guardrail around your pool. How many tragedies have we heard about over the past year, 10 years where little kids fall into a pool and drown? Many times it was because somebody did not follow what the law, what the Torah says, which is you have to have a guardrail around the pool. If you don't have a guardrail around the pool, but you have kids, then that simply means you are ignoring the Torah. And people that ignore the Torah, unfortunately, suffer. You cannot put other people, whether it's your family or other people's families, at risk because of beauty. If you don't want to have a guardrail around your pool, either don't have kids or don't allow kids in the backyard. Simple. and any other precept that culminates in the act carried out by the body. So all of this is well and understood anytime you're praying, anytime you're learning to anytime you're giving taka, anytime you're fasting, anytime you're doing something with your body that's part of the Torah, you are serving Hashem outwardly. Inwardly, on the other hand, is the more difficult part. Because that's the part that only you and see and sometimes only one of you knows the truth and it's not you. Inwardly says the through the duties of the heart meaning through the introspection of your heart of where is your heart really aiming towards what is your motivation why are you doing this what do you really feel what do you really believe by acknowledging in one's heart God's unity what does that mean that means that you believe there's nothing else but Hashem. Even though I've mentioned this several times, I'll continue to mention this until Mashiach comes. When that statistic by PW research came out some 12 years ago that said that according to their research in the modern orthodox world today they admittedly said that over 50% of them do not believe in divine providence. to not believe in divine providence and still call yourself religious needless to say modern orthodox or any type of orthodox is an oxymoron because divine providence is one of the 13 principles of faith. So if a person does not believe that he himself is watching every single thing, knows your thoughts, knows what's in your heart, he's the only one. No one else can hurt you or help you if it's not the will of Hashem. For a person not to understand that, not to believe that is more than just a problem. And this is the first among a list of duties of the heart that the is saying knowing that Hashem is one. He does not have a body. He didn't come back and transform himself into some dude with long hair and a beard and then die and come back and all types of nonsense like the goim say. He's above anything and everything physical. He has no limitations. And it's not that he can't transform himself into something. It's that he won't because he said it in the Torah. And Balak even said it and it's a prophecy for all of us to know and believe where he said, "Is God a man that he would change his mind? So the first thing is to understand God's unity. Second is to have amuna have faith in Hashem and in this Torah. Meaning what it says is what I believe. Doesn't matter whether I agree with it or not. Doesn't matter whether I understand it or not. First I believe. Understanding will take time, will take learning, will take effort. Believing will take practice. But believe but knowing that this is the truth is an absolute must. The next thing that perhaps is a little more difficult is assuming his service meaning he commands me to do XYZ therefore I'm going to do it. He commands me to pray every morning therefore I'm going to do it. He commands me to put on to fill in therefore I do it. He commands me to say therefore I do it. No questions, no debates. No, I don't have time. No, I'm in a hurry. I have to go to a meeting. None of that. He commands me to only eat kosher. Therefore, I do it. He commands me not to look like I am doing something against him, such as by going and having a meeting in a non- kosher restaurant and therefore making it look like I'm eating at a non-hos restaurant. Therefore, I don't go I don't go to non- kosher restaurants not to sit down, not to have a meeting, not even to have a drink of water. Why? because someone that's passing by could see me and say, "Wait, look, there's an Orthodox Jew over there and he's in a non-coosher restaurant. Either this place is kosher or he eats non-coosher and he's a faker." Assuming his service means that a person has to swallow their pride because not all of the things that a kadosh commanded are initially going to be to your likings. Kadosh says that there's no problem with you making money but you have to make money in a kosher way. meaning it's an ethical, it's in accordance to the Torah. So if you are in one of these predatory lending businesses and you're charging people interest rates that are simply going to destroy them and they literally have to win the lotto in order to pay you back, then of course this is not in accordance to the Torah. Of course you're giving the Jewish people a bad name. Of course you're giving God a bad name. Of course you're giving yourself a bad name. And you're going to have to let it go. Yeah, but Rabbi, where can I make so much money without any skills or effort or anything? It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. It's forbidden to do it. Of course, it's forbidden for you to do anything unethical. You're allowed to make money, but you have to do it in an ethical way. You're allowed to be intimate, but it has to be with your spouse. and a spouse that's of the opposite gender. Everything is allowed, but there's a kosher way to do it. But what happens when a person has a lot of arrogance? It's going to be very difficult for them to submit. And that's why the next thing that says is we're commanded to have fear of God. This is one of the 613 commandments. In fact, the sephim written about almost 500 years ago or like 430 years ago by he wrote a seil that was unlike anything else published before or after him where he separated each mitzvah to a specific body part and as Ra Zilstein said this is to teach you that anytime you have pain you can look at that book see which mitzvah is connected to your pain and know where you have to do chuva 613 mitzvot with a cabalistic musar and it's listed according to the body parts. As a side note, also wrote the very famous. He also wrote that that love to sing to as we already know from David. But the point here is if a person does not have fear of the Almighty, they may be able to do mitzvot like putting on their tillin, keeping Shabbat, you know, a uh giving taka, but it's not going to stop them from going against Hashem. Even the kabadnik do not know that their own rebi the labavichbi famously said love of hashem is not going to protect you when you're walking on Broadway in New York only the fear of gum will protect you meaning you're not going to look in places that you're not allowed to you're not going to do things you're not allowed to in places of immorality if you have fear of gum And of course there are levels of fear but the foundational level of fear of actual punishment is always there. You only build on top of it. Fear of losing money, losing health, losing life and losing eternity or suffering for eternity or both. person that gets themselves involved in a life of sin loses everything. And a life of sin doesn't mean that the person goes out there and becomes a hitman for the mob. A life of sin means that they simply disregard what the Torah says. They do not observe Shabbat or they commit adultery or they lend money with interest. the whole list of sins that the says it's a it's the first duff 36 of them. Then the zor adds another 12. So 48 different specific sins where a person that commits those sins without doing chuva, they have a permanent problem on their hand. So without having awe of Hashem, a person is not only going to acquire themselves gay which in the English language they say hell but gay is the real proper term even though gayom has multiple names as we discussed in our film. Gum on our channel that Bo Hashem has helped countless people do chuva even from people told me that they did chuva after that movie and it's highly recommended for people to watch at least once in their life if not at least once every few months if necessary same thing with tikunit and some of the other films we have on our channel but the point being is that the whole goal of this type of teachings of having fear of is not because we have some type of stock in uh in in a company that uh you know sells uh costumes to scare people. We don't have stock in cemeteries. We don't have stock in in in scary movies. The whole point is that if you're afraid of Hashem, you will make less sins. In fact, this is what Mosherenu told is when they heard Hashem's words. When he said the commandments, they all died. Hashem resurrected them. They heard the second commandment. They all died again. Hashem resurrected them. And then they told Mosher Abenu. You go talk to him. We will do and we will listen. Meaning, we'll do everything he says without even hearing it. And then we'll hear from you what he actually said. Because we're scared we're going to die if we hear anymore. Why are they scared? They're going to die if they hear anymore because they die twice already. And responds to them and he says he's only scaring you in order to make sure that you don't sin. Fear is one of the primary motivations of why anyone does what they do in life regardless of what it is they do. So now the says that a person has to inspect their heart to make sure that they're serving God inwardly that they have fear of God that they're assuming his service that when it comes down to praying they go pray when it comes down to giving they give approp appropriately. They don't give like a poor man if they're a rich man. They don't cheat their own spouse by being stingy with their wife if they're rich. They don't cheat their children by trying to save a few dollars and not giving them a Torah education. They don't put themselves in a in a life path where for the sake of their own benefit they cheat others. Then says again emphasizing this point another service of God is humbling oneself and feeling shame before him. Of course, we understand humbling himself. If a person has nothing to be proud of, then it's pretty easy to be humble. The person is a loser. Didn't make anything of his life all day. Just sits on the couch and plays video games. Barely is able to make ends meet unless the government sends him some money or his parents send him some money or or some other type of uh um you know, free money, then for him to be humble or at least pretend like they're humble, it's not so difficult. What if the person is a king? Does Hashem really expect him to be humble? Well, let's see. Thean has a whole section about this in the BA in chapter nine. Beta number three. Shiman Bazal says as follows about some of the most successful people in history and how arrogance led to their destruction. And he says affliction which is a both a combination of a physical and spiritual disease comes upon a hotty spirit. Where do we see this in the Torah? In the case of Uzia where it says, "But as he became strong, his heart became hardy to the point of destructiveness and he betrayed Hashem is God. He entered the sanctuary of Hashem, meaning the kodesim to burn incense upon the incense altar. Aaria the kuen gad the coen went after him along with 80 strong kohanim of hashem and they stood next to kinga was not just a regular common he was the king of Israel and he wanted to bring the incense offering but he's not allowed to he's not a quen so they ran after him and they stood next to king Uzi and they said to him it's not for Uzia to burn incense to Hashem. But it is for the Kanim, the descendants of Aon who are consecrated to burn incense. Leave the temple for you have been treacherous and this will not bring you honor from Hashem. How do you respond? Yah became enraged and he already had a sensor in his hand to burn incense. As he was becoming enraged with the kanim, a lepous growth appeared on his forehead. Meaning on the spot, Hashem punished him and brought on his forehead for everyone to see and of course for him to feel. Apparently that wasn't enough. His ego did not let him just leave. After all, I'm the king. Who are you to tell me what to do? I'm bringing a sacrifice to Hashem. So what if the Torah says otherwise? Can't the king make new laws? And the Torah says at that moment the sanctuary split this way and that way creating a chasm OF 12 MIL BY 12 mil meaning a hole in the ground. Huge hole similar to how the ground split when Kak went against Mosherenu. And at that point the kohanim were rushing to leave and even he too hastened to leave for hashem had afflicted him. He got the point. Everybody was scared to death. And he, this king Wuza, was a leper until the day of his death. And he dwelt in his leprosy in a place of asylum. For he was banished from the temple of Hashem. And his son Yotam took charge of the royal house and judged people of the land. Hence, we see that hardiness is punished with. Now, if that was the only story, ah, but it's not. The Rav continues. We also know the Torah tells us, "Do not associate with a wicked person." And this teaches that a person should not associate with a person who's bad, who sins against his fellow man as well as against God. And not even with a person who's wicked, meaning that he only sins against God and not against other people. For example, doing business with somebody that you know he's going to do business on Shabbat or he's a cheater just because it's your benefit. For thus we find the case of Yoshafhat who was a righteous king and he associated with Aav who was a wicked king of Israel and he went up with him to wage war in Gilead and as a result fury went upon him from before God. Afterwards, Yoshafhat associated with another wicked king's son Aayah to make a joint fleet of ships to go to Tarsish. And they built the ships together to gel and God wrecked his undertakings. And then the prophet came to him and said to Yoshafhat, "Because you've allied yourself with Aayah, Hashem has wrecked your undertakings, the ships broke down and did not succeed in going to Tish." This is all in Chronicles 2:37. And furthermore, we find a case with the Vidame son Amnun that he associated with his cousin, the wicked Yonadav who ultimately gave him bad advice. And the Torah says the book of the Torah chapter 13:3 says, "And I had a friend named Yonadav, the son of Davidid's brother, Shimeya. And Yonadav was a very wise man, which the Torah means, why is he wise? He was wicked. He was wise for the purpose of evil." And this led to Amnon being murdered by David's other son because of what he did. And from there, the Torah teaches do not associate with a wicked person even for the purpose of studying Tawa together. A person can say, "Yes, you're right." But how come I see that there are wicked people, but they succeed? This guy just made a million dollars. That guy just made $10 million. This otherw made $100 million. And they're all wicked people. They cheat. They lie. They go against Hashem. Therefore, says Abinai, do not despair of retribution. How so? This is to teach you that the heart of a person who has sinned should be in fear every day. And he should constantly say to himself, "Woe is me. Perhaps the divine retribution for my sins will befall me today or perhaps it will be tomorrow." Thus, it emerges that he is in fear of retribution every day. And this will dissuade him from sinning further because as Job the prophet said because I fear a fright. So Nitai is in essence telling us not to become complacent in this world as retribution even in this world could come at any time. And when a person sees that his endeavors are succeeding, he shouldn't say to himself that it's because I'm worthy or God has given me food in this world. But the principal reward for my goods remains uh intact for me for the world to come. No, what he should say to himself or attitude should be woe is to me perhaps only one merit was found from before me and Hashem already rewarded me for it in this world. Give me food and drink leaving me with no merits so that he may destroy me in the world to come. Meaning the attitude that a person is supposed to have if they have awe of Hashem is very very different than they teach you in most places. Why is that? Because our obligation to our creator is much greater than we can possibly imagine. And if a person does not have some self-introspection, they're never ever going to evaluate that. About a year ago, we came out with a film called Oregon and one segment of about maybe 25 minutes. In that film talked about the evil, corrupt, disgusting, destructive business called cash advance, merchant cash advance. And we took segments for my lectures that I've done over the last 10 years discussing this horrible business, how it's a predatory business, how it's forbidden according to the Torah, how it's destroying people's lives, it's destroying society, and it's not the first time. We've made this mistake many times over the last 3,000 years. This is the reason why even Schlam Melik said it's forbidden to lend money with interest, both to Jews and to non-Jews. the chief rabbi of Morocco over the years went against it. In Poland, in England, we've had horrible, horrible history as a result of this lending money with interest. But again, people ignore the Torah, don't learn the Torah, they're ignorant of the Torah, whichever one it is, they go back like a dog goes back to his own vomit. And I tried to warn people by showing them not only what the Torah says, but also what history has shown us is the result of this horrible business. How it was literally the pretext to every major destruction that Am has had over the last couple of thousand years. Whether it was the pilgrims, the Spanish Inquisition, the Holocaust in Germany, literally every disaster that Amis is had on a national scale. number one business right before it was lending money to the go with high interest. Hashem detests this business. Rashi even speaks about it. But yet people ignore. So we gave information and showed them that Hashem will punish those people both in this world and the next. And Hashem some people listened and left the business as difficult as it was because they were making a lot of money. Now they're going to a job that pays normal wages. But unfortunately, many people ignored. And there's not a day that goes by without more disasters being reported. Just today, literally a few hours ago, one of the people that watches my shim tells me that his friend just lost his wife and kids in a tragic accident. And his rabbis told him, "It's because you're in the cash advance business. I wish these rabbis would speak up to the to to everyone and tell everyone this." [snorts] But they told him at least it's because you're in the cash advance business. Hashem is punishing you. AND GUESS WHAT? HE'S STILL NOT CONVINCED TO leave the business because the business is full of sins. creates a kipa that makes it even more difficult to leave. It's not just the money anymore. It's being addicted to the sin. When a person is not willing to humble themselves before the creator, the creator will humble them. How many times have we spoken about the idol worship that's connected to the wigs of today, the real wigs, real hair wigs of today? And how many times have people sent us different reports of tragedies happening in their communities and it's always families where one of the members of the family is selling wigs, business burned up, kids dying, sicknesses, horrible things, but no one dares pinpointing saying maybe it's because you're in a business that gives people maybe a better look but a worse. You're putting idolatry on people's head. Nobody wants to say why. Scary. Scary. Well, the circumstances are scarier. What would you rather be scared of? The words or the outcome? This is why the is saying humbling yourself. Humble yourself. Furthermore, he says feeling shame before him. Why should a person feel shame before a kadosh? Why should he feel shame? Well, let's see. Every day a kadosh gives us 86,400 seconds. That means 86,400 opportunities to do his will. 86,400 moments where he's giving you life. He's giving you the ability to see. He's giving you the ability to hear. He's giving you the ability to speak. He's giving you food. He's giving you sustenance. He's giving you a spouse, children. He's giving you all types of good, everything you have every single day. Yet, if we evaluate how much he gives us every single day, how much would a person pay to get his eyes to work if they're not working? How much would a person pay to get his body working if it's not working? How much would a person pay to fix the problems in his life? Gives us and gives and gives. And yet when it comes to us proving our worth, serving him, doing what we're obligated to do, we're not exactly all there. And if that's not enough, what about when we use those 86,000 moments to sin against him and yet we expect him to give us another 86,000 tomorrow. This is why Ezra said in the book of Ezra in chapter nine verse number six. I said my God I am embarrassed and ashamed to lift my face to you my God for our iniquities have multiplied over our head and our sins extend up to the heavens. BLMI says Ezra. Ezra was such a sad say that if Bah did not give the Torah to Mosheu, he would have given it to Ezra. But yet Ezra says our sins would if we put them stack them of one on top of the other, they'd surpass THE MOUNTAINS. THEY'D SURPASS THE HEAVENS. But yet we plead for you to give us another 86,000 moments tomorrow and again the next day. And not only that, we all want a long life AND WE ALL WANT TO HAVE A LOT OF MONEY AND WE ALL WANT TO HAVE NO PROBLEMS and we all want to have everything. empty. I'm coming to you with shame. How dare I even ask for anything as if you haven't given me more than I deserve. If a person does not feel shame before his creator, that means that he not only has arrogance, that means he has literally a spiritual disease that is incurable by anyone else other than himself by learning from that will actually give him the medicine. The only other cure is a kadesh having mercy on him and breaking him to pieces to force him to humble. Not everyone has that merit. So now a person starts going through this list and starts to see themselves in it. Am I really serious about serving Hashem and accepting his mitzvot? Am I excited for the holidays? Like I'm excited for some office party. Am I excited to give to publicize as much as I am about buying a new watch or another vacation or a new bag or a new car? Am I as excited about eating kosher as I am about doing things that perhaps are not so kosher. Am I as excited about marrying my wife and being together with my wife even 10, 20 years after marriage as I was with all of the sins I made before marriage. A person has to start evaluating where do I really stand? Do I really have fear of Hashem or do I just look at Hashem like a ATM machine? Am I really humbling myself before Hashem or am I just simply doing it just to show face? Then the says other things that people assume they have, loving Hashem, trusting Hashem, and giving over one's life to Hashem. Now, of course, every second person you ask if they love God, they'll tell you, "Yeah, of course I love God." Do you love God or you love what God gives you? It's like asking, "Does the fisherman love fish?" If he loves fish, why does he fish him? Do you love God or do you just love what he gives you? If he gave you problems, would you still love him? Do you trust God no matter what? What does that all have to do with giving over life to Hashem? It doesn't necessarily mean just the obvious, which is being willing to die for the sake of Hashem. Like if the idol worshippers tell you either convert to Christianity or die, of course a Jew must die. Or if they tell you to kill somebody or die, then of course you must die. Or commit immorality, go with your friend's wife or die. Of course you must die and not make those sins according to the Torah. But this is not all it means. Giving over your life to Hashem means you have complete and absolute bet in Hashem throughout your life because you know he's the one steering the wheel. in page 121A tells us a story sees through his spy glass. He had a special spy glass that was able to see up to one kilometer. This the page 30 43b talks about it. And one day is seeing through the spy glass that there is a boat that's crashed as broken and the show is over if you will. And he says, "I felt much sorrow because I knew that on that boat was Rabaka. And when a boat sinks, people drown, people die. But later that day, says Raan, we're in the bet midrash and suddenly ENTERS THE BET MIDRASH ALL WET, soaking wet. I said, "Aka, who lifted you?" Meaning, weren't you on the boat? He says, "Yes, who lifted you? How did you survive?" Byaka says to him, "A piece of the boat that broke and shattered to pieces miraculously became available to me." Meaning Hashem made a miracle that a piece of the boat that was able to not only carry but small enough for him to grab and in the right place at the right time was able to grab it. I grabbed it and at every wave I lowered my head and that's how it continued until I got to the shore. And of course theim have to learn mousar from every single thing that happens in life. And the says from there the sages learned that when a person is attacked by by wicked people by problems he must lower his head to survive. This is what Yunani in chapter 2:4 says. All of your breakers and waves have passed over me. The same thing that David says in Psalm 42:8, but all the waves. He lowered his head. Of course, Yona really was in the ocean. But what David, why is David saying it? All the waves of problems. All of the waves of problems. All of the wicked people trying to attack you. All of the difficulties. You want to show that you truly believe in Hashem? Lower your head. What does it mean lower your head? What does it mean lower your head? There's problems. They're making fun of me. They're saying bad things about me. They're stealing from me. They're this. They're that. What do you mean? I'm sick. I'm poor. I'm all the problems people have. A person that has complete amun in Hashem. A person that has given his life over to Hashem has problems. Pro trust me they have everybody has problems. Everybody has problems. Aka had a problem. He was on a sinking boat that shattered to pieces. And he says the secret to survive the ship is the same secret to survive the problems and to survive life. And what is it? Lower your head. And lower your head means I know that you're the one behind all of this. You're the one that broke the boat. You're the one that made me sick. You're the one that made me poor. You're the one that made me lonely. You're the one that put me in this predicament. You're the one that took this. You're the one that took that. You're the one that does everything. And of course I know that you only created me for my benefit. You don't benefit from me. Only I benefit. And therefore all that you do is for my benefit. Even though I don't see it and I don't understand it currently, but because I believe in you completely BECAUSE I'M GIVING MY FULL LIFE TO YOU. I lower my head and I say, "Thank you, I know that you're gonna take me to a better place as a result of this than otherwise available." Meaning, a person that submits themselves to au gives over their life to doesn't mean die on. It means live on kushm. It means live on kushm. It means that despite the problems, despite the agony, despite the pain, despite the difficulty, you lower your head. I know this is good. Not because I understand, but because you're the one behind it. Because you're the ONE BEHIND IT. YOU'RE THE one pressing the buttons. You're the one steering the wheel. You are the one in control. No one else. You are behind all of it. You brought this problem. That's for me. Apparently good. Apparently, it's good. And that's why the teach us time and time again. You want to learn from the learn this, learn this because you are also going to have problems in your life. And if you want to show your loyalty to Hashem, show how you cleave to Hashem, show your love of Hashem, show how much you trust in Hashem, when your problems arrive, say, "I know this is for my own benefit because you're behind it. Because you're behind it." And of course the continues and says another introspection that a person has to do is to see if they're abstaining from what is hateful to Hashem. This is as clear as can be. But you need to know what's hateful to Hashem. hates immorality. Immodesty hates it. So if you are at a place or you're in a business that has immorality that has immodesty, know that you are already violating this. Somebody asked me about the things they need to do in order to prepare for their wedding. Even though they didn't ask all the right questions, I made sure to give them the right answers. They were asking about the ring. They were asking about proposals. They were asking about the rabbi. And I answered them all of what they needed. Plus, make sure that the wedding does not have mixed dancing between male and female. If you're going to have dancing in the wedding, which is certainly acceptable, the dancing has to be the men on one side only men and then there's a which the men and the women cannot see through and the women are on the other side. Men and women are not allowed to dance together in public. If the husband wants to dance with his wife, he can dance it to his wife at home when nobody else is there other than his own kids, little kids. But if there's going to be male and female dancing together in your wedding, know that your wedding has turned from being a blessing into a curse. And you're acquiring the sins of everybody. It's better off not to get married or not to have a wedding or both if you're going to have such a wedding because you're going to literally instead of leaving that wedding with a blessing where wipes out all of the bride and groom's sins up to that point and they start clean as a gift. They instead acquire the sins of everybody that made sins in their wedding. They literally leave the sin with a debt of of someone that literally borrowed money from the world. Literally. So a person has to know they have to stay away from things that are hateful for Hashem. Hashem hates idolatry, immorality, all of these things that are dishonest. Stay away from them. Woe to the wicked and woe to his neighbor. Furthermore, says the by letting all that one does be for his sake. Meaning evaluating why you do mitzvot. Why do you do them? And that's why the page 13b says it was better off for man not to come to this world than to come to this world because he's more likely to sin against Hashem and therefore was better off for him not to come. But since he's already here, then he must inspect his actions both on the outer surface and on the inner surface. What does it mean inspect on the outer surface and the inner surface? Inspect your actions on the outer surface to see clearly are you doing good or bad. Are you doing mitzvot or are you doing sins? If you're doing sins then of course do chuva start doing mitzvot. But let's say the person is from he's religious. She's religious. They look religious. They act religious. They do religious things. They learn Torah. They give staka. Then why do they need to investigate and introspect internally? Because there's a different level of introspection. When you're contemplating the good graces of a bahu upon us, when you are contemplating whether what you're doing is for the sake of hashem as part of your servitude, then you can start inspecting why am I doing the good things that I'm doing? The bad things that a person does that are against the Torah. We already said there's only three reasons of why they do them. Either they want joy or they're simply fools or they're scared. But what about the good things that you do? Why are you doing the good things? Why did you give so much daka? Why are you modest? Why are you uh eating kosher? Why are you doing all these mitzvot? Are you doing it because of your own benefit where people going to look at you a certain way? Maybe they'll do business with you. Maybe they'll want to marry you. Maybe they'll want to be friends with you. Maybe you uh because you want, you know, Hashem to give you more money, that's why you're giving. Are you doing it for your own benefit only or are you doing it purely for the sake of heaven? Of course to get to the level where everything is for the sake of heaven we get there of even one mitzvah being for the sake of heaven. But the point and the key here is to be real with ourselves and not live in a lie thinking that I'm perfectly fine as I am. Hashem understands me type of thing. That type of mentality of simply saying, "I'm going to do whatever I want and Hashem understands me. He's going to accept me as I am." That's a wicked person's mentality. That's in essence not only not doing the will of Hashem, that's the most arrogant thing that a person can possibly do. Simply saying, "I'm going to do whatever I want." Hashem is just going to take it. As if Hashem needs you. A person has to inspect what is the reason, what is the motivation behind all of their acts and to see if they can improve at least somewhere, at least with something and not only be for their own greed, for their own desire. And this is why the say make his will into your will and he will make your will into his will. Now of course in life you're going to have all types of waves and you're going to have to go through them. You're going to have to go through them. And as my dear grandfather was also the grandfather of my rav Rabime Sabah Gibli taught Rab Fry when he was a kid. When you go into the ocean sometimes there's a whirlpool. If you find yourself in a whirlpool, don't start swimming with all of your energy out of it because then you're going to exert all of your strength and you'll sink and die. Okay, Sabah. So, what do I do? He says, if you find yourself in a whirlpool, let the whirlpool take you. Don't do anything. But the moment you see that there's some type of weakness, swim out of it. Exit out of it. This lesson for life, just like the lesson from is the same thing of how a person can deal with all of their problems if they have complete confidence in Hashem. If they simply understand that common sense, rationale, intellectual introspection requires us to investigate our heart and our actions to lead us to the conclusion that we have to trust Hashem completely, that we have to submit to Hashem completely or else we suffer because the waves will come, the whirlpools problems will come in different parts of your life. Whether it's during your teenage lives or before you get married or after you get married or when you before you have kids or after you have kids, when you get older or when your kids need to get married or when you're moving or you're getting a new job or you can't find a job or all types of things that happen in life, there's going to be whirlpools. There's going to be waves and instead of doing what the vast majority of the world does, which is, oh, as soon AS A PROBLEM COMES, THEY START FIGHTING IT. START GOING AGAINST THE WILL. OH, NO. I'M NOT GOING TO CHANGE. I'M GOING TO FIX I'M GOING TO FIX WHAT'S BROKEN. I'M GOING TO GO. I'M GOING TO GO. And they exert all of their energy pretty much because they want to force something round into a square hole. Something square into a round hole. They want to force their opinion. They want to force their way. They want to force their deal. Even though Hashem says this is not what he wants. This is not what he wants for you. He doesn't want this marriage for you. doesn't want this shiduk for you. He doesn't want this deal for you. He doesn't want this job for you. So, he didn't give it to you. And you're trying to force it. You're trying to write letters and you want to sue and you want to protest and all these crazy things that people do instead of just simply saying Hashem. No. Okay. Put my head down. Try something else. YEAH. BUT WHAT IF YOU TRY HARDER? MAYBE I SHOULD. Is it really necessary to try harder on everything? Some things it's not. Sometimes it's simply not the will of Hashem. And if of course a person has to either be a or have access to to know how to go through life. But if you're fighting with every single problem, with every single thing, then of course you're not going to have any energy to live life. Of course, you're not going to have any energy to serve Hashem because you're fighting everything and anything. And you forget the whole purpose and the whole reason of why it's even happening. Instead, do what our sages have said, which certainly my dear grandfather directed his words to. Go with the flow. Bow your head as the waves come. And the moment you see an opening, that's where you go. This is one of those lectures that you can hear it not just once or twice, but really on a regular basis as you navigate through the waves of difficulties in your life. because it's very easy to exert all of our energy to fight against the wall. And many times those fights are unnecessary. There are times where fighting is what's an absolute must. when they're trying to destroy our Torah, when they're trying to desecrate God's name, this we fight not because God needs us to, but rather because our obligation to there, you exert all of your energy because that's the obligation, but when it comes to everything else, if a sent to you, if he sent that wave to you, that's because you have the opportunity to complete your tikun by bowing your head and saying, "Hashem, I know it's you." And that's why I'm going along with the flow. Even though it's hard, even though it's painful in the end, I know you love me. I know that you did everything only for my benefit. And therefore, this too is for my benefit. So why should I reject it? Why should I fight it? Why should I delay it? I'm going wherever you take me. Thank you very much for learning with me. May Hashem bless each and every single one of you that took these words to heart and will be able to apply at least some of them to your life during your difficult moments because not everything has a clear answer of who, what, when. But this answer applies to all questions and all difficulties. And we all learn and we all apply. As long as the waves keep coming, we at least have the answer of how to deal with them. Call to for anyone that wants to support they can donate on our website.org. You could also order the kiru boxes on the website. And of course, if you want to order things to distribute in your community, like the books that we have for free, you can go to the kirutore.org. Over there, we have the books, the USBs, a lot of good things over there that are uh being distributed all over the country and actually different places around the world. We'll learn again later this week. We're finally here. The new Kiru box. opens up. Nice little cushion here. We got Let's see if it's charged. Isn't that amazing? Still bucks in your life. >> Now available at bottom.com.org.org. Get yourself 20 of them, 30 of them, 50 of them. distribute them to all the people that you care about and you let people do the chuba.