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Is it allowed to Gamble according to Torah?

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Rabbi Yaron Reuven avatar
Rabbi Yaron Reuven

Transcript

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yesterday one of the uh guys that came to the sh arrived a few minutes early and he asked me um Rabbi can uh is it any way that uh there is a leniency to gamble cuz he's heard me say it in many shim that it's 100% forbidden to gamble there's no uh no this is one opinion this is that opinion just just one opinion not all to gamble and and I can give you 11 different reasons 12 different reasons off the top of my head if you'd like such as say that for one reason is that anyone that gambles cannot be used as a witness because they're not a trustworthy person because thean says a person that gambles is infatuated with money and if he's infatuated with money we can never use him as a witness because somebody may be able to buy him off so you can't buy you can not be a witness similar to how is treated somebody they cannot be used as a witness so if you want to have a Jewish ceremony or for example you want to have a wedding you have to get two two witnesses for that wedding if one of the witnesses is aab that wedding that is not valid those two people are not married that's how significant it is when the Torah says you're not a valid witness so when somebody gambles it's the same thing another another thing kazal says is that when somebody gambles even though there are rules to the game and both of you agree to the rules you agree that if he has X and you have y he wins but if it's the opposite you win you agree that if you have Aces and he has Kings you win but if he has Aces and you have Kings he wins you agree that if you have four of a kind and he has three of a kind you win you agree to these rules and if all the money that goes into the pot stays in the pot and so on and so forth you agree the reality is that if you win if you win you're going to take his money and the Tora says you are a thief wait a minute how am I a thief how could I be we agree to the rules he said yes I said yes to the rules why would I be a thief I won fair and square Torah says you're a thief because even though he agreed to the rules he only agreed to the rules because he believed he was going to win no one agrees to those rules assuming they're going to lose everybody goes into the casino thinking they're going to win no one goes into the casino saying I can't wait to lose all my money no one says that not in their mind not even if they're drunk no one says such a thing everybody goes into the casino and says tonight I'm going to take down this house that's everybody's mindset how do I know I used to go to the casino and my big sins that I did in the past before I did chuva I didn't know that this is stealing so I went to the casino and I especially when I saw religious people there thought even but going to a casino and winning is 100% stealing why because the other party only agreed to the rules because he assumed he's going to win which means that once he lost once he lost he doesn't really want to give you the money so the fact that you're taking it from him because there are rules to the game is insignificant to him he still doesn't want to give it to him it doesn't make him any more uh you know inclined to give you the money because there are rules he's you're he's giving it to you against his will and what is it called when you take something from somebody against their will know who wants to volunteer Ste stealing you don't even have to be a big not that you're not you but you all know when you take something against somebody's will a five-year-old knows that's stealing third reason says that if the if it was allowed to steal the entire world will turn into Sodom and gomorah and the reason why is because places of gambling are called m a place of clowns a place of PE jokesters not tell me not holy people fourth reason cinos are swamped with znot with immodesty with prostitution with drugs with all the filth in the world is in these casinos even though some of the people playing in a casino may be worth a billion dollars they're just as much as a degenerate as the guy that has $5 they're all degenerates and going to place where there's all this disgusting stuff this immodesty this prostitution this drugs and all of that other stuff even if you're not involved in it you're not allowed to go you're not allowed to associate yourself with such things and there are many many other reasons we want to elaborate further I guess you at the point the point is is that there is no second opinion so the guy that uh came to the shoe the student that came to the sh says well I don't understand there's a rabbi that's telling me I had a whole debate with him he says that it's not allowed because I heard it from you that it's not allowed and you gave the sources and thear and and so on and so forth but he's saying it's allowed I said well I don't know he has to learn again I don't know what to tell you I'm not responsible for what other people say all I can tell you is ask him to provide you a source he says allowed I'm showing you it's not allowed I provided you 11 12 sources that it's not allowed he says it's allowed tell him to give you one source not 12 one one source that says it's allowed one if he has one for every one I'll give you three but I'll shall give me one you know why he said one cuz there is no one there is no one there's no one so Source no one's going to say it's allowed to gamble you know was the best part this Gambler calls himself a rabbi was asked this question I didn't know he was asking him the question while we're talking he was texting him please provide me a source that you're allowed to gamble to that extent I don't know the exact words but he asked him for a source so this so-called Rabbi sends him a voice note and he plays it thinking he's providing him a source and this Rabbi starts cursing up a storm fing this and effing that the guy was so embarrassed wear in a Shool it was right before some of you guys came he was cursing such a filthy M guy was so embarrassed he stopped it I said who's that truck driver goes no that's the rabbi I said that's a rabbi you're not allowed to learn Tick Tac Toe from him forget Torah why because the gar says and I'll give you a source for that says if your Rabbi has Behavior like an angel learn to from him meaning Angel what angel angel meaning he serves hem he's there to serve Hashem no matter the pain no matter the suffering no matter the agony no matter the difficulty he's there to serve hem he's there to tell you the truth he's there to do the truth if he's like an angel you go learn to from him if he's not like an angel not only you shouldn't learn to from him thear says you're not allowed to learn toah from him it's a sin like eating pork why his T is like was the head of the but he had horrible midot he was a jealous evil person and he ended up losing his and he's in G till this day and I'll never leave even though you knew a lot of Tor why because if the Torah that you're learning does not affect your character traits then you're not learning to you're learning philosophy you're learning something else you've desecrated hm's name is of unate so this so-called Rabbi cursed up a storm and I said uh well did he at least provide a source no Source why because there's no Source but this even though this was a on his hand it was actually K too why it proved it proved the Torah Tor that we're teaching T that we're telling you anytime somebody tells you anything that's contrary to what we're teaching you simply say no problem I believe you but can I have some proof I believe what you're saying but I want to prove it to my Rabbi I want to prove him wrong can you give me a source for what you're saying can you show me this in a book you want to show me this in a book now they're going to tell you something that happened after this Sho that you didn't see it's very interesting someone said I asked the rabbi so another Rabbi another oh oh actually I forgot to say this part of the story I forgot to say a part of the story that was the best part actually I said you know why this rabbi is telling you it's allowed to gamble and he's so angry and he's cursing up a storm like a truck driver Rabbi talks like that who mean truck drivers talk like that gangsters talk like that street thugs talk like that football players talk like gabis don't talk like that it's a sin curse cursing saying someone that it says is curse words FW s word all these disgusting words someone that curses even if it was the greed in heaven for him to get 70 years of blessing he immediately loses it and he can get up to 70 years of curses that's how horrible it is to curse in because why this mouth is supposed to be a mouth used for tah not for cursing so anyway I told you you know why he's cursing why he's so angry and he said why I said because he's a gambler he's a rabbi Gambler and the guy looked at me like I was a prophet he like how' you know said because only a rash defends something that's a rash only a rash only someone that's a gambl defends gambling so anyway after this sh someone else came and said listen you said something at some point I asked this so-called Rabbi and he said no listen yeah I know he says what he says but it's not like that anymore what do you mean it's not like that anymore he says well listen you know the generation that we have today has changed we're a weak generation a generation that people walk around half naked a generation of people don't know much Torah a generation without mosu we're weak generation so if it says in the that cannot be counted on the even though it says that it's not really relevant anymore if it says in the Tora that wasting seed is the big sin it's not relevant anymore because it's a weak generation pretty much what are you doing if you're saying that wasting seed is the biggest sin still now that pretty much means almost every single Jewish male is a sinner in the eyes of hem that if he doesn't do cha he's losinga that's what it means so what you g to say everybody's going to L who's going to go to heaven you only who's going to go to heaven I'm adding a few words but in so many words theatrics aside that's what he said so so this Rabbi said that the laws are real but they're not relevant to this generation anymore now I'm going to give you a source to show you it is relevant in fact I'm going to give you two one from this week's parasa as I always tell you the answers are always in this week's par whatever week it is it always it's in this week's parasa and two it's in your Sido doesn't matter what Sido you have ashkanazi Safari kabad any do all s have it