Is It in Your Genes To Be Good? EMOR | STUMP THE RABBI (268)

We're back here on our Wednesday night where you guys are going to hear some first and after that you could ask as many questions as you want and will give us the answers. Tonight's show you is going to be for the and all of and all the righteous nohides that continue to support the organization, continue to help us do all the amazing things that we're doing and are working on. As I've told you guys time and time again, we have some amazing news in the works. Uh so it's been a very very busy time to say the least. I literally even have barely have time to even catch up with my entire team because each one is working on different projects and it's very hard for me to even communicate with everybody on a normal basis because the uh projects are more numerous than ever and the uh deadlines and the demands and uh the amount of people and boashm lot going on. Anyone that wants to be a partner with us and all the amazing things that we're doing uh can donate on the website.org or bht tora.org. Of course, you could donate through the social networks uh whether it be uh uh Facebook or YouTube uh and so on. And those of you that like to uh donate cryptocurrency, you could do that on our website as well. So, the question is, is it in your genes to be good? It's a good question. It's a common thing to hear that someone's benefits or success were due to their genes. Everyone says, "Oh, it's in his jeans. Oh, he has good jeans. She has good jeans." You know, it's a very easy to justify someone else's success and sometimes even your own failure due to something that's beyond your control. Genes. There's even a famous debate in the world of psychology from the times of Freud about nature versus nurture whether it's the environment or it's the genes that influence a person throughout their life. So of course naturally we have to ask is holiness or even the predisposition to be good something that is already built into your genes. This is of course a question that you could have a thousand hours sure about and still not complete even half the subject. But we see that it appears that the kohanim have special genes. Of course, in scientific world was published in several places. One of them that I saw at first was in uh the book by Rabbi Zamir Cohen where the kwanim do have a uh unique DNA, a Cohen DNA, a Cohen gene. So it seems like they're better and the Torah tells us that it's only the kuhen that can serve as the gadul in the keshim can do the sacrifices even as a co the regular coin and uh even if the is the regular Jew is righteous, is a Torah scholar, is a king. He cannot do what the kohen does. He cannot serve in the beta mikdash in the same capacity. And akadesh actually tells us in uh chapter 21 verse number eight. You shall sanctify him. He's talking about the sanctify. meaning this is an obligation on us to sanctify the coin for he offers the food of your God. Obviously, we're not talking about Hashem actually eating. This is in essence the serving of the of the sacrifices and the Torah speaks in human language that we would understand. He shall remain holy to you for holy am I Hashem who sanctifies you. We see here that not only is the Quran special, unique, but also is one that gives us a obligation to sanctify to enrich if he's the gadul to be the richest among all. But this also comes with certain rules where the next verse says if the daughter of the cohen will be desecrated through adultery, she desecrates her father, she shall be consumed by the fire. says that the punishment for a daughter of a cohen that commits adultery is worse than a but is or levy that commits the same sin. Both get a death penalty but the death penalty of fire is the worst. And there's a whole segment of the talks about it. There's even a debate among whether it's fire that's the worst or it's stoning that's the worst. And then what happens to a zume, which is a false witness on a woman that is a uh a baten, a a daughter of a coen that commits adultery, but he's really a false witness and he gets caught, which the Torah says that if it's a false witness, they get the same punishment as uh as the one that they were claiming. So if they said somebody committed murder that was supposed to get death penalty and it's found that they didn't commit murder, it's really a lie. The witnesses are false. Both witnesses get the death penalty that would have been given to the murderer. So the ask does the false witness on the daughter of the Quen that was uh that was said to commit adultery with the false witnesses. Do they also get the fire death penalty? And the answer is no. They die by they die by uh the uh um hanging like uh regular adulterer. Why? because the GMA talks about how didn't uh care about the uh her being a coet that committed adultery. Rather, it's a uh the the husband or the the guy. Long story short, we see here that it's not just all roses here for the Quen with this special gene he has. And but it does say the next verse, the co who is exalted above his brethren. And if he's the queen, he shall marry a woman that is a virgin that has never been married before. If he's a queen, he has more uh uh options. But the uh options are not the same thing as a regular normal Jew. He can't marry a uh a u convert, which upsets many converts or people that want to convert. He cannot uh marry a zona, a harlot, which is any Jewish woman that was uh with a non-Jewish is considered a zona. According to Rabiaaka, any Jewish woman that's not a virgin at the time that she's gets married is a zonab. But we don't pass in that way. Needless to say, we see that the Cohen is different. It's different. He has different rules. But does that automatically make them inherently better already at birth which is an unfair advantage over the rest of us? Should the converts or people that want to convert or simply people that like to complain about the Torah, should they be upset about the fact that they could never marry a cohen? Even if you're a righteous convert, you're a wonderful convert, you're the most modest person on planet Earth, you still can't marry a convert. At least not orthodox wedding. Maybe you could do what this uh some people do, which is simply change their religion just because they don't like the rules, but uh should you be upset? And the answer is no. You shouldn't be upset. And the answer is also no. That them being born a Quinn does not automatically make them better. And one of the places that we see it is right here that we see that Hashem spoke to Moshe saying to him, "Speak to Aon. Any man of your offspring throughout their generations in whom there will be a blemish shall not come near to offer the food of his God. For any man in in whom there is a blemish shall not approach. A man who is blind or lame or whose nose has no bridge or has one limb longer than the other. So many words. If he has a deformity, he's crippled. He has one arm or one leg longer than the other. If he has a skin problems, a uni brow where he really only has one eyebrow, or if he has a hole in his eyelid, or if he has a type of eye where there is a certain white streak connecting the uh the white and the black in so many words, all of these deformities, he can't be a serving in a beta mikdash. Wait, but where did he get these deformities? Where did he get this wart that he has on his skin? He didn't he didn't do anything to get a deformed body. So why is he being punished? From there we see that the whole issue of the Quran is not about the Quran being intrinsically and automatically better just because they're a kuen. Rather, it's the will of Hashem which is beyond the ability of a person to understand aside from what is written in the Torah where Hashem wanted us to understand certain things. But there's believe it or not when Mosheu was at Mount Si and asked about the future and people and righteous people. Hashem showed him sat in the bet midash of Raaka in the future on the eighth row the says and could not understand what Rabaka was teaching his students. This was not something that Hashem has told him. And Mosherenu was dismayed, was sad, was weakened until says, "And all of this we got from Moshe Abenu." And the says this comforted Mosheu where he knew that Hashem is going to teach him this. He just didn't get to it yet. And some say it's really because Moshe Benu was given a Torah through prophecy where he knew the immediate truth without the intellectual battles of arriving at the truth through the arguments like the sages did like Albaka did. So he knew the bottom line. He knew the ultimate truth. He knew the ultimate source whereas Rabaka and his and the rest of the sages had the rules of the Torah that Mosherenu gave us to use them to arrive at the truth. So they both learned Torah differently. This is why the lesson wasn't understood by Moshe until it got to the end where he knew the answer already. But then Abenu asks Hashem, "If you have such great people, why are you giving me the Torah?" Hashem said, "Stuck silence. This was my initial will." And the same goes when Mosherenu sees the end of the future. of how imm and viciously cut him to pieces and sold the pieces as meat in the market. Andu cried out, "Is this the reward for learning and publicizing Torah?" And Hashem said, "Stuck, SILENCE." THIS WAS MY initial thought. And if you remember years ago I did a whole she just about this where how is tellingu that initially I created the world with the mid of Elohim which is the judgment but then I saw that the world cannot sustain itself if it stays with just judgment and therefore there was the yud the tetrogrammaten which is mercy But he has a na that's connected to judgment. And that's why the judgment is perfect fit for his na. That's my initial thought. Meaning initially this my initial idea, but it goes obviously much deeper. Either way, we see that the Torah that we have has endless places where tells you you do not have the ability to understand. And in fact, the tell us something else about what Hashem meant when he said to Mosherenu, Stoke silence. What Hashem was telling him, Mushem, my dear son, silence before you make a sin by delving into a place in the Torah that is beyond your ability to do. and say that there is a prohibition for one to delve into places in the Torah that they're not fit to learn. They're not fit to understand. Now, of course, all of the basics, everyone is fit to learn, but when you go into the deeper aspects of the Torah, the say that if a person delves into them, their mind will go crazy. And there's actually a hospital, a mental institution in Israel full of Torah scholars that have lost their mind delving into different parts of the Torah that were beyond them. We actually know somebody that uh one of the that we have that delved into places that are beyond people's comprehension. And he was and still is an extraordinary Torah scholar. Literally, when you see him, he studies with anywhere between 30 to 150 books at a time on his desk. And he doesn't leave his desk until he finishes everything every single day. But he delved into places that he shouldn't have. And this has been a very difficult behind the scenes issue that uh had to be dealt with and still he's better now for the last year. The point is there are things that are beyond our ability to understand. A person that does not agree with that will never have the merit of actually learning the truth of the Torah because that already shows a level of arrogance that simply makes them allergic to the truth of the Torah. When people try to rationalize God, rationalize the Torah, rationalize things according to their own desires and their own understandings and simply their their own opinions. It's simply because they're telling you that there's nothing that's beyond them. If the Rambam said it, why can't I? If the sages did it, why can't I? If Ra Vya did it, if Revel Yash did it, why can't I? This is a person that is consumed consumed with his own ego or her ego that it's they can't see how something would not be possible for them to understand. But here the Torah tells us the Quran. Yes, he has a different gene, but that does not automatically make him predisposed to be righteous. There were plenty of them that were wicked. Furthermore, we see here that the Torah itself, just like it has the specific rules for us to sanctify the Quen and punish the daughter of the Quen if she commits adultery and all these special rules. It also has the rules that if the Quen is born with a deformity, he cannot be a coin serving in the beta mikdash. Even though the deformity is not doesn't seem like due to his own actions, he was born with a longer arm or a leg or one eye or whatever it is. He didn't do anything. So why should he be punished? Hashem says silence. This is my will. Why is it your will? Because says you only see the part of the picture that's in front of you while I see everything and anything that has to do with it from generation to generation from the beginning of the world to the end of the world all at once. There is no beginning, middle, end for Hashem. And therefore, when Hashem sends a cohen with a deformity to the world, it's in essence punishing the khen for what he did in his previous life where apparently he did something to lose the merit to serd and it wasn't enough to just reincarnate him as Isel, but rather he had to reincarnate him as a quen that can't serve in mdash where it's a certain type of suffering of why me I didn't as to be deformed it's not fair but here the Torah is telling us your genes can only take you so far if your actions are against pays everybody what they deserve, whether it's reward or punishment. And in fact, in chapter 22 of the book of Leviticus, Hashem says, "You shall not desecrate my holy name. Rather, I shall be sanctified among the children of Israel. I am Hashem who sanctifies you who took you out of the land of Egypt to be a god to unto you. I am Hashem. In so many words where is telling us here, do you know why I took you out of Egypt? I took you out of Egypt as a reward for you accepting the Torah and serving me. Meaning even though you got the reward before you accepted the Torah officially, I am going to pay you further reward for following the Torah. But if you don't follow the Torah, then certainly you're not only not going to get the reward, but you'll get the opposite. You'll get the punishment instead. When a Jew tells you that they do not want to observe the Torah, they do not want to follow the rules of the Torah more time than less, it's simply because they're not aware of the consequences nor of what's on the line as far as what why they're even here in this world. says the for this were you created. If you do not serve and follow his you have no right to exist. You're literally defaulting on the manufacturers's warranty. And that's why things like Shabbat that are supposed to give you a blessing don't. where the Torah says in chapter 23 verse number three, for six days labor may be done and the seventh day is a day of complete rest. But really in the Hebrew language that shall be done is not really referring to you shall work six days but rather the fact that you are going to observe the Shabbat. It's going to give you the success during those six days. Meaning the Shabbat is going to bless you. Shabbat is supposed to be such a blessing for a person that their entire week, supposed to be successful just because of them observing the Shabbat. And then when the Torah talks about the holidays later in the later in the par as I was studying it with my dear guest and a very very special guest of honor Gabriel Kon F's brother says that's because telling us that when you violate the holidays, it's considered as if you're violating Shabbat because when there's a whole section talking about holidays, talking about this whole section starts with observing Shabbat. Why? Why observing Shabbat before the holidays? That's because the Torah is telling you when you violate the holidays, you don't want to keep Yum Sheni because you think you know better than the sages. You don't want to fast on Yonipur or whatever other foolishness people do. Know this, it's considered as if you just violated Shabbat. And violating Shabbat is the worst thing that a person can do. Even if they're born a coin, even if their grandfather is a big rabbi, your genes can only take you so far. But most people do not understand this reality. the vast majority of it of them have never even heard of it. Now, because that's the case, many would use every possible avenue to try to bring Jews to do chuva. There were many copycats that failed not because the strategy doesn't work but rather because the copycat never really intended to follow the strategy like the inventor. If you remember years ago, I told you the stories of the Rav Gman who's known as the disco rabbi who literally built an entire holy community of mdal emik by starting to do kiru in a nightclub. Of course, there are fools today that walk around Israel with the gle of the costume, give themselves a look that they look like the with the hat. really confused people, go to major national events where literally even newscasters and politicians thought that this was really the only to days later be found in a nightclub, men and women dancing together and they're wearing THE SAME OUTFIT. And when they were asked about it said, "Yeah, my rabbi allowed me to special unique permission from one of the 36." Complete nonsense. So, it's not about the clothing. It's not about the exterior. It's not about what family you come from. It's about the will of Hashem. Are you or are you not fulfilling the will of Hashem that is clearly stated in the Torah and clarified by the sages or not? When Rav Gman did what he did, he became very well known and famous. But he wasn't the only one that did it. About 25 years ago, the world changed. In fact, although I was in my 20s at the time, I didn't know that my world was going to change because of this story. Fry's father decided to help a community, a community of gangsters, a community of criminals in the neighborhood of Neot Gula near Kayat Noo and Natana. And he opened up, he took the a building over there and they called it the betetal. Why go to a community of criminals, gangsters? Why not go to Benak? Why not go to some holy neighborhood? Why go to the neighborhood of the biggest criminals in the country where it was scary to walk around during the day, needless to say, at night knew that there's an opportunity here, but it's not going to be easy. He had to bring the teenagers to the synagogue. How do you bring teenagers to synagogue? Well, if they grow up in a Froom family, you simply make some teenager programs, get them to interested in the uh in the shul. What if they weren't raised in a from family? In fact, they're as far from the from family as you can possibly get while still remaining Jewish. Instead of the from family, they're in a criminal family. They're in a mafia family. They're in a family where you already have the police chasing you at six years old, seven years old in some cases. How do you get that guy to come to shore? You know, the same guy with the tattoo on his neck or he walks in with certain outfit like he looks like he just came out of some, I don't know, sometimes a hospital, sometimes a prison, sometimes you're not even sure, but you're scared. How do you get that guy to come? How do you get those guys to come by the dozens? Oh, everybody can say, "Well, maybe you can get pizza." They can get pizza on their own. OR MAYBE YOU GET SOME Chinese food. Good luck with that one. How do you get criminals, girls and boys, to come to a synagogue? You turn it into a nightclub. That's what Ravim says. WHAT? NIGHTCLUB? A SOUL? WHAT'S GOING ON HERE? Raadim Klon knew the strategy. If I turn this synagogue into a place that looks like a nightclub, do parties here, you know, with the music. Boom, boom, boom. like it sounds like somebody's knocking on your head or something, you know. Old friend of mine used to call it uh Indian war music. All the techno in the house and all that stuff. So says we'll do this. We can't just keep looking for people to hopefully get a minan. It was very hard to get a minan. We're in a bad neighborhood here. These are criminals. These are not regular kids. So, this we're going to do. There's two sections to the building. They split it in half. One side for boys, one side for girls. And we're going to publicize everywhere. We're having a party. Party with a DJ. Come dance. Going to have also the smoke machine, which in those days was still very expensive. smoke and that little that that light that looks like you're in some disco that if you said this in 99.9% of shoos that are still kosher they'll tell you listen thank you very much for visiting us maybe you could cut your lecture short and we have somebody else that was waiting or everybody's tired they cut you short they don't want to hear the rest of the story they want to hear your strategies If you say it in the places that say, "Yeah, it's good. Maybe we'll do it here." That's usually places that need to hear the rest of the strategy. Rafim says, "We're going to do a disco. Get these kids to come." And they came. They came. They came. Separated dancing. Don't even see each other. And of course the main event was a little boy named Rab Fry Rabon. I can't call him a frame, but he was known as a frying back then. A little boy that everyone loved. All the gangsters loved him. All the criminals loved him. He was literally the main event. One of the gangsters named Lean once took Rab Fry as a boy said, "Come, come with me. Go on my bike." Put him on his bike and they started riding the bike on the highway. Cars are going 80 miles an hour and he's on a bicycle and he's going on the highway. When he returned, you his father was looking for him everywhere and he sees he's on the bicycle of this criminal. He's like, "No, was loved by them." He also has an extraordinary voice. So, everyone wanted to hear him sing. One time one of the criminals decided that during this dancing in this nightclub, he's going to dance with little little boy Fry and also of course was there too. He was three years old at the time, two three years old. Frame was maybe uh 12, 11. He started dancing with him and a lot of these guys were very very big. Apparently Natana has a uh city of heroes. The says that there's a uh places that uh create heroes, create really strong big men. And one of them started dancing with Ra Fry and threw him in the air, but it wasn't straight up. Threw him across the room 15 feet. smashed into a stander in the wall. He was okay, but he says, "I never knew that you could fly that fast." Anyway, these weren't the regular kids. Some of them had scars from stabbings. Some of them were spent time in jail. Rafim would dance with the boys. The the kids Rafim his brother of Gabriel were all little at the time. They would dance with all these people. On the other side, the rabbi. She was dancing with the girls. So there was no sins. But how do you get anybody to do chba with smoke, with disco lights, with music? It's not enough that you have just a little boy sing. It's not going to change. Well, they had a few parties, had food. One of the people that was helping Rafaim was a chef. So, that was part of the advertisement also. that this professional chef was making the food. But every night after the party, after the dancing for about an hour or so, there's a shield to where gave these boys and girls a to change their life. Change it from the life of crime. change it from horrific character traits. Change it from Sodom and Gomorrah to going on the right path. And all even though this place was only open for a couple of years before the government shut it down because they didn't like the fact that people were doing chuva, they didn't like the fact that there was holiness in a place of crime. You're ruining the statistics. There were many ballet chuba but we're not just talking about they started keeping Shabbat only some of them became very close of a guy by the name of Leor became a full bal chuva him and his wife a close of till this everything the Torah says they do. Now the guy took upon himself that this is the word of Hashem everything but they were exceptional. a guy by the name of Shakar, he didn't just do chuva. He entered the world of Torah in such a way that it became his oxygen. He started learning Torah day and night. And today this criminal, former criminal named Shakar became a role in a big and respectable Kyph in Israel. He's an extraordinary Torah scholar, great midot. If you look at him, you would never even think he even thought of a crime. needless to say was living and among such people. Of course, there was also people that did well. They did cha but weren't as successful like this guy that he did the mitzvot but never accepted that a rabbi is something he needs. So sometimes he would listen, sometimes he wouldn't listen. But the point is many ballet came from this two years of self-sacrifice of the entire family. The entire Kaklon family was immersed in this to wake up these sleeping namote that certainly weren't born with some special genes that made them holy or inclined to do good. If anything, it was the opposite, but rather proved that the Torah is something you choose. Following Hashem is something you choose. It doesn't matter where you came from. You can be the son of a rabbi, the daughter of a coal, and still choose to be wicked. On the other hand, you could be son or daughter of a mafia boss only no crime and then choose the Torah and become ash a an author of many books. What's the difference between the two? Simple. Somebody has to sacrifice their life to try to save you. But by sacrificing their life, it means they're not going to do what's convenient to them, what they want to do, what they dream of doing, but rather what is necessary to do in order to save these kids from going to the next holocaust. I can't get them to come to the if I simply say there's a I have to make them think this is a nightclub. Make them think this is a place of parties. But in reality, they'll come, they'll like it, they'll stay for the desserts that are really the main meal. They'll stay for the shield and little by little it'll transform their life and not only transforms their life, it transforms everything and anything that ever comes out of them for all generations. The gadul was chosen by Hashem. The time of the second betdash was chosen by people. What was the difference? When it was chosen by Hashem, Hashem knew he's righteous. He's right fit. when it was chosen by people in the second bet mikdash. It was simply politics, money, corruption and therefore the beta mikdash was destroyed. Both were but one had the actions that followed the will of Hashem and therefore Hashem selected them while the other forced themselves into the position pretending like they really are better than what they are without even trying to do the will of Hashem. At the end of the para, we see a sad story. The son of the Israelite woman named Schulamit blasphemes because he does not like the fact that he does not have belongings to any of the tribes because his father was an Egyptian. The truth is Abu Thai. He had a choice. Even though he started in this world with what seems like a disadvantage. Many righteous people had even bigger disadvantages. were not even born in Jewish families yet they chose to become Jewish sages that our entire Torah comes from them did not come from a lineage of Jews but yet Hashem says this is the reason why I did not kill because I knew that will come from his descendants. A person cannot think that just because they come from a certain family, therefore they have an advantage or a disadvantage. Hashem says this Torah is what gives you the instructions that you can choose to follow or not. If you follow them, then you are fulfilling the covenant and therefore it was worth it to take you out of Egypt. If you don't, well then you're reneggging on the deal. I don't want to lose you. So I'll have to send you some messages in different ways until you get either a reality check that you change and go to the right uh side or you simply run out of time like the son of Shulamit ran out of time. We have an opportunity to do the will of Hashem every single day by watching one of these lectures, by donating to support, by learning, by learning, by getting other Jews to learn to do. We have such desire to do the will of Hashem that our entire organization tries to make it easy for you to do the biggest mitzvot by helping other people. We have a kiru store. The kirutore.org is constantly getting to more and more places. You can order books. You can order the posters. You can order the USBs while they still last and you can distribute them in your community, the posters. And every day we get new pictures of people that are doing just that. But it still saddens me that not everyone takes advantage of it because people do not realize the significance of doing kiru. People do not realize the ramifications of not. 25 years ago, my life changed without me even knowing it. If Ravim had not started that nightclub that was really a Kiru operation, I could assure you my life would not be the same. And the reason why is because Rafim did not just do Kiru for his own personal benefit. It was the opposite. Rafim didn't just do Kiruv to help these young boys and girls for fame or fortune. And certainly he did not do it himself. He rather he made it a family ordeal. the whole family does. Kiru, the kids, the boys, the girls, the mother, the father, everyone's going to help these criminals, turn them into. So when you ask, HOW DO THEY SUBJECT their kids to such danger? We don't even want our kids playing with the neighbors that are not Shabbat. Well, If it's just playing with the next door neighbor, then you're right. You shouldn't have your kids play with the next door neighbor if he's next door neighbors are heretics are against the Torah. But if you are actively investing your time and resources to help is do chuva and you're not only doing it yourself but the whole family is involved in constantly doing not once or twice but constantly trying to help do then guess what Hashem says while you're doing these mitzvot I'm going to protect your kids much more then you would be able to protect them even if you leave them home all day. When Rim decided to open up that place, he engraved into his children the importance of helping Isuva. He engraved into his children that kim that all of Isel are obligated to each OTHER NO MATTER WHAT THEIR BACKGROUND IS. NO MATTER IF THEY COME with a tattoo or without, whether they come with three earrings or one, whether they come with a strim or a keeper or a tank top, you have an obligation to do what you can to help them return to their father in heaven. And if you really want to win, go all in. Do everything you possibly can. Get your family involved because that not only brings you blessings, that'll bring you the special protection from Hashem that your children will see the fruits. It's no surprise that he has children that are one better than the other. Rav Fry finishing the shingi twice each before he was 20 years old. He's still in his 30s and he's published over 50 books. I don't know how many times he's finished the sh in the last 20 years, but I certainly know it's not the same four. his dear brother of Gabriel finished the sus a couple of times in a matter of a year and a half I believe it was the rest of the children some of them work for the organization forem a lot of you speak to them some of you get different messages from them without even knowing it's them each one is better than the other talented amazing righteous Why? Why is it Why is it their genes? No, it's not their genes. IT'S THE and his dear wife put on the line. Their own life, their own resources, THEIR OWN EVERYTHING. WHAT? FOR Hashem's children. Yeah. Yeah. THOSE ONES THAT LOOK UGLY, THOSE ONES THAT LOOK LIKE THEY'RE GOING TO KILL SOMEBODY OR THEY MAYBE EVEN DID. those people. Hashem says, "If you take a lugard, you take a criminal, a Shabbat, an adulterer, or a thief, and you turn him into a bal, you're going to be like my mouth." You say, "And I'll fulfill." You become partners with Hashem. And surely anybody that's a partner with Hashem only wins. If each of you knew the value of helping other Jews do chuva, not only will you distribute books and all the stuff that we give out for free on a regular basis, you would invest all of your resources into it as well so we could do more because it benefits you because it brings you the blessing. Whatever Hashem wants to send us, he'll send us anyway with or without any one particular or 10 particular people. But people have to understand as said, if people knew the value of helping is do chuva, they wouldn't worry about genes. They wouldn't worry about what's your literally worry about helping other Jews do chuva their entire life. Why? because they simply would go after anyone they can to help them do chuva like Kadosh himself did. He says it's worth it to chase after one person for 70 years non-stop. No eating, no drinking, no going to the bathroom, NO NOTHING ELSE. JUST CHASING AFTER ONE guy for 70 years and succeeding to help him do chuva. It's worth it to come to the world just for that. If you understood the value of helping people do chuva, we're trying to make it easy for you. We're trying to make it accessible. We're trying to make it global in 15, 16 different languages. We're trying to do whatever we can. But you have to help yourself. Don't worry about the genes of the Cohen or the genes of the naturalborn Jew or the genes of the smart guy or the genes of the beautiful woman or the genes of whatever. Don't worry about the genes. worry about what can you do today to help do chuva tomorrow. Once you know that, do that every day and you'll have a lot of success and blessings. This was what we learned. This is what we felt and this is what you guys will hopefully apply to your lives moving forward. Now, we're going to answer the questions from last week. There was a question of how do you eat soup? If you're a safari Jew and um you want to eat soup, not on Friday night because that's easy. You could just put the soupat on the platter on the hot plate before Shabbat and you eat it hot by the time you do kouch, but rather if you wanted to eat it on Saturday morning. So there's a couple of ways you could do it. There's more than a couple ways, but there's a couple of ways. Since Jews do not allow the Safhari Jews do not allow you to take it off the plat and then put it back on. You know, if you took it off, you rest it on a table or you put it in the fridge for the night and then you want to put it back on in the platter the next day. It's not allowed. But there is a permissible ways to do it. Number one, you could have a Shabbat clock. turn off the plat at a certain time and then before that plat turns back on, let's say it's off at midnight or 10:00 at night on Friday night and it turns back on, let's just say at 10:00 in the morning on Saturday morning. If you put that hot the uh the cold soup on the platter before the hot plate turns back on with the Shabbat clock, that's one way to be allowed. Another way is to never take the pot of soup and rest it on anything. Rather, you could either serve the people on Friday night from the soup directly to the plate and then take the plates to the table or take the soup, hold it in the air while somebody else is serving the people and then you could without resting the pot on the table rather you could put it back on the hot plate. What do you do uh for the next day? You just simply leave it on the hot plate the whole night. Some people would say this would ruin the soup. Some people say this would make it better. It depends on the soup. Apparently, the point is that there are ways. But what happens if a Safhari Jew that you have as a guest decides that he doesn't care for this and he sees you sitting on a table learning Tawa doing whatever it is. He knows that you're a religious Jew and he decides he wants soup for both of you or for himself, whatever it is. And he decides to take it from the refrigerator and put it on the platter on Saturday morning on Shabbat morning. Well, he told him, "No, no, don't do that. We're we're a safari. We're not allowed to put the uh cold soup on the hot plate. It's it's on. It's not off." and he says, "Ah, come on. I don't care. It's too much. I got to eat soup." And he's a criminal. But at the end of the day, the soup heats up. An hour later, two hours later, he comes to you with a beautiful plate of delicious soup. He goes, "Here you go. Enjoy. Are you allowed to eat it?" The overwhelming majority of you said, "No, not allowed to eat it." In fact, some people say you could take the plate and throw it at him. No, you can't do that, but it's funny. Uh some say you should yell at him and some, you know, used other language, but for the most part, everybody said, "No, you're not allowed to. Why? He's violating dua as a criminal. If the question was that easy, I wouldn't ask it. You're allowed to eat it with no problem. Why? Because the issue of bishul after bishul, cooking after cooking, meaning cooking cooked food already, which is the difference between how the Safhari Jews and Ashkenazi Jews treat reheating soup is not a recent debate. There are different opinions among the from the from the time of the Rambam. And the pimeadeim lived about 250 years ago. He was a Torah giant that became very very famous for his primadim. And uh but before that he would act like he was crazy so people would leave him alone so he could learn Tawra. And he even gave some people an advice. Act like you're crazy. Act like you were forgetful. Act like Wait, what did you want? Okay. Wait, what did you want again? Oh, what? Where? what that's in the Torah. Oh, he would act crazy or like uh simply so people could leave him alone so he could learn to but after he became after he published the book uh the whole world knew who he was. Anyway, the was just a few days ago. So he writes that when there is a a debate among the among the early sages where one says yes and the other one says no then if somebody violates it we do not punish that person. Meaning that there is a debate among the even though we pus like as Safhari Jews like the say that you can't take that soup from the fridge and put it on the platter. But if somebody did while he has a problem with Hashem that he's going to have to pay for or do cha for we are allowed to benefit from that soup. we're allowed to benefit from that soup. Again, remember it's soup, not just anything. He doesn't can't just like start cooking schnitle and you eat it. We're talking about specific soup, which is food that is already cooked. You're allowed because the says that if there's a debate among the and somebody violates it, we do not punish them. So that's the you're allowed to certainly you don't need to throw it out. Certainly you don't need to yell at him or beat him up. What you should do is eat with him. Give him a and try to be a mini version of and give him a little disco. So hopefully next Shabbat he keeps completely because that's the way that we can show that we love him by loving his children and helping them do chuva without violating the you need to know the in order not to violate it. There are many people that try to be the disco rabbi. They try to be the fun rabbi, the friendly rabbi, but they get too caught up in the fun and too caught up in the disco, they forget that they're still a rabbi. So, the whole thing is a big failure from the beginning. That's why it's important to have a rav that's why it's important to have someone that's overseeing you at all times to make sure that you're always with Hashem in mind. You're always doing things because this is the will of Hashem and not just your personal desire. That's why you have to be careful. Whether it's rebuking people or teaching people or helping people, whatever it is, you have to know the right path. >> 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 so timestamped to the shield, you press this green button, hey, Rabbi, on your WhatsApp, you'll have the ability to ask questions at will. You'll be providing sources and most importantly, you'll be able to know the truth and be able to rely on the sources. >> So with that being said, you guys can start asking some questions. I'll think of maybe a question to ask you again for next week and we'll go from there. Question. Does a righteous gentile benefit from keeping Shabbat and doing a mitzvah with the intention of learning towards full conversion? Good question. So if a gentile keeps Shabbat and he's not in the process or she's not in the process of conversion, not only are they not going to benefit from it, but they'll actually get punished for it because it's considered stealing. Shabbat was given to the Jewish people and not to the Gentiles. and stealing the mitzvot is a serious crime in according to the noahhide laws. But if that no decides to convert and the rabbi tells him, yes, you have to keep 99% of the Shabbat, 99% of the mitzvot where you violate it just a little bit in order for it not to be 100%. that gentile, that righteous nohide is doing what he's supposed to be doing. He's not going to get a reward for observing the Shabbat because he's not commanded to keep the Shabbat. But this is necessary for practice of what he'll do once he becomes a Jew. So there's no reward for it whatsoever because there's no obligation to do it. But the good thing is that he is or she is listening to her rabbi uh which in itself is going to bring them a lot of reward. But if a person simply acts out on their own, then you can assure yourself that person will be a failure in everything they do in serving Hashem because the first first Mishna in which we learn right now tells us how there's an obligation for us to connect to the tradition to the the to the todah where it tells you that everyone had to get the from somewhere and we have to have a rabbi that guides us and if we decide to that the rabbi is just simply someone we like to hear we like to listen to but not necessarily to apply what he says to our life then you're not you're not following what to telling us that we're supposed to do so you're making your own rules and that in itself brings a lot of problems to life. And I can't emphasize that enough. There's literally horrible stories that I've had to witness because of people that I tried to help. I tried to guide them. They refused to listen to what I was guiding them with. And many times they come back crying after their strategy failed completely and uh their life is miserable. There's not much you can do. But the point is is that make yourself a rabbi. But the reward for observing Shabbat 99% as a no is not for the observance of Shabbat, but rather for following what your rabbi told you to do. Uh but and it's also going to bring you more success. And the same applies for all of the mitzvot while they're in a process of conversion. Will an online rabbi work for uh for what you mean? For doing the actual conversion or for guiding you? If it's for guiding you, telling you what to do, what you should or should not do, answering questions, yeah, you don't need a rabbi to be in front of you to guide you. But if you're talking about actual conversion, no, you have to physically go into a bed, uh, which is comprised of three rabbis, uh, one of which has to be a, uh, uh, you know, a an expert, if you will, that, uh, would do the conversion. Can't be online. What do you think about the differences between the Maseratic and the Dead Sea Scrolls? I don't think about them because it's already been proven that some of the Dead Sea Scrolls were altered and I'm not as reliable as people say they are. Uh they were intentionally manipulated. And also we have a tradition of what our maso is, what our what we believe, what we don't believe, what we know, what we don't know. So there's no uh there's no uh reason to question what uh all of the j sages for the last few thousand years have already answered how to find the right community and integrate properly. Uh well first I mean you have to be in the community of whoever your rabbi is. If you don't have a rabbi, uh, then you need to find a rabbi. Find a rabbi that has the right that's, uh, uh, has and someone that you're willing to submit to. Meaning, someone that uh, whatever he says, right or left, up or down, you listen to just like as if you heard it fromu. If you do not have the ability to do that, you're not going to succeed uh in your life as a Jew as much as you can because a person that does not uh follow someone that's uh as uh that's greater than them is uh simply going to be making their own rules. I mean, I I have a case where a family is literally being broken. And why? Because the father is simply so arrogant that he's willing to listen to you so long as you don't disagree with him. But the moment you disagree with him, he will do everything in his power to discredit everything you've ever said, even the things you didn't say to him. You said to somebody else. And this has caused turmoil in his family. The children hate him. The wife hates him. Everybody like literally it's a disaster and a half. and he thinks everybody else is wrong, but the reality is otherwise, but it's all ego. So, a person that has an ego is not going to succeed as a servant of Hashem. Now, as far as finding a community, aside from obviously a rabbi that teaches, a rabbi that uh that uh you're willing to to follow, uh then that that in itself is the most important part because if the rabbi is the right one, then even if the community itself is not the right one initially, he's if he's the right one, then he's certainly going to transform the community into being the right one over time. And you have to support as much as you can to do that. Now if you want to go into already a readymade community uh then uh there are several uh quite a few uh you know religious communities in in America, in Israel, all over the world. just go into the religious community and try to uh try to adjust, try to uh not uh fight with anybody, try to in so many words keep silent and try to adapt to the best of your ability into uh into the community. Uh so you want to go to Muny, you want to go to Lakewood, you want to go to Yaleim, wherever you want to go. Uh there's plenty of religious communities out there and you could just simply go to one of those places uh and uh check out the different synagogues that are there and hopefully you'll find someone that uh you're willing to make uh into your rabbi and um and that's it. Now as far as um one thing that uh it's important to know is that as much as people focus on you know knowing what they want very few people ever think about what they don't want until it's too late. Meaning that they want a big a big synagogue. They want a big house. They want uh make a lot of money. They want, they want, they want, but they don't think about what I don't want, what is a absolute no no for me until it happens to them. So, make sure that when you're making a list of all the different things that you want, you also make a list of things that are an absolute crossing the line that you would not accept. So make that and that will make your ability to find a place easier because you'll have a uh you'll narrow down the list. Now again, if you're looking for a perfect place, uh that place hasn't been built yet. We're waiting for Mashiach to do that. But if you're looking for a place that you can help, that you can contribute to, that you can bring something to rather than think that they owe you something or they need to give you something. Uh then uh then there's certainly many places, there's certainly many places, many choices. Uh but I, you know, from my experience and from my learning, it all has to do with the rabbi. It all has to do with the rabbi who's in control. If the rabbi uh is not in control then unfortunately is uh you know then then you have to see who is in control and if that person is not righteous then usually uh you know it's just a matter of time for things to go to uh downhill. Let's see. When is a Sephartic Jew allowed to get a haircut during the uh Omill? Uh we get a haircut the day after Lagba. I believe Lagba is next week on May 5th. So if anybody wants to get a haircut, it would be day after May 6th. A few days ago, I was listening to one of your questions and answer sessions where you mentioned that if one dies while owing debt, he will not enter the new earth. Can you elaborate some more on this? So, if somebody owes money to another person and uh they borrowed $1,000 from them and they simply did not pay them back, they don't feel like paying them back, they don't want to pay them back, then that debt turns into stealing. And you cannot enter heaven with blood on your hands, which is you know what stealing is considered because people spend their life, their blood acquiring money to make a living. And when you steal that money, you have a very serious problem. So that person would have to be reincarnated, brought back to this world. uh and uh so will the one that they stole from. Uh they'll have to be reincarnated and there would have to be a uh a way that Hashem is going to uh design for that person to return money that they stole from that person. But it's not necessarily uh always going to be reincarnating as a human. Sometimes a person will be reincarnated as an animal that will serve that person. like the story that the Balmtov told that happened to his student that uh had a uh uh horses and when the Baltov came to him and told him I want to buy a horse from you and he pointed at the horse that he wants to buy the guy said no it's hard for me that's my best horse and the baltov refused to change his mind he said I want only that horse and the since he was his rabbi he said okay fine rabbi you could have this horse and then BMP asked him, "Did you have anybody that was special to you that died?" And he said, "Yeah, my dear friend who lived down the street, died, you know, just a few months ago." And the B symptom says, "Did he owe you any money?" And the guy was shocked. He said, "Yeah, Rabbi, he did. He actually he didn't owe me much. He only owed me $100." Says, "Do you forgive him for that debt now that he died?" And the guy says, "Yeah, of course I forgive him. Of course." So the bump says, "Say," I forgive you. I forgive you. I forgive you. And he did that. And as soon as he did it the third time, the horse that the Baltov just bought dropped dead. And the guy, the surprised person, you know, said, "What just happened to my horse?" The BMP explained to him that his friend that died had to be reincarnated as a horse in order to pay him back the $100 by serving him. And this is not the only story that's like that. There's many others. The point being is that uh a person should be very very careful when it comes to stolen money. In fact, the says that the sin of stolen money is more difficult to do chuva for than even the sin of immorality. Repeat, the sages teach that to do chuva for the sin of stealing is more difficult than to do chuva for immorality like wasting seed, adultery and all the other heinous crimes that we have a whole film on called tikunit. You want me to repeat it a third time? The sin of stealing is more difficult to do chuva for than the sin of immorality. Why? Why doesn't make sense, Rabbi? What are you talking about? So hard FOR ME TO STOP WATCHING THESE THINGS. It's so hard. But stealing? No, I'll I'll give the money back. The problem is the problem is when somebody committed immorality, THEY KNOW THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS SOMEBODY NOT KNOWING THAT THEY COMMITTED IMMORALITY. HE KNOWS WHAT HE DID. SHE KNOWS WHAT SHE DID. AND THEREFORE, if they truly want to do chuva for it, they want to repent. Then they know they need to do it. They either want to fast a million times or they want to donate money to replace the fast. But certainly they have to DO CHUVA AND STOP IT. POINT is they know they did the crime and they have clarity of what they need to fix if they want to fix it. But when it comes to stealing, the sages teach that the average person does not consider his stealing stealing. And therefore, he doesn't even think he needs to do chuva FOR BEING IN THE CASH ADVANCE BUSINESS AND ROBBING PEOPLE OF THEIR LIVELIHOOD BY CHARGING THEM 80% INTEREST. He doesn't think he needs to do chuva for that. He doesn't think he needs to do chuva FOR SELLING PEOPLE SECONDHAND goods as brand new. He doesn't think he needs to do chuva for that. He doesn't think he needs to repent for that. He doesn't even consider IT STEALING. WELL, THEY got what they got. What's the problem? He doesn't think he needs to do chuva for walking into his competitor's store. Not because he wants to buy, but just to check out what his competitor is doing. How is he selling these suits? How is he selling these motorcycles? How is he selling these cars? So, he comes pretending to be a customer. And guess what? THE TORAH SAYS HE IS A THIEF. He stole. Why? Because the store clerk, the boss, the house thinks, "Oh, there's a customer in my store and you just stole from him." Do you consider yourself a thief? No. What do you consider yourself? I'm doing research, CHECKING OUT MY COMPETITION. THE average person that went to a casino or went to have one of these private games and won a few thousand dollars or a few hundred dollars from his friends, not even from his enemies. Does not consider that stealing. So why would he do chuva for it? But the Torah says it's stealing. And therefore the average person out there will have a very difficult time doing chuva for stealing because he doesn't think he's stealing. And unless he or she learns mus what is stealing and what is not and start paying back as soon as possible. And when they can't pay back the one that they stole from, then they take that same amount of money and they use it to help people do chv to help kuf. Why? Because that kiru could potentially help the people that they stole from. This is what the sages say in the do. A person doesn't think they even stole. They just simply think that they were hustling. They just think that they were just doing what you got to do. They're not going to do chuva. So, they'll have to come back as dogs, cats, horses, frogs, or whatever type of pets they'll sell in the pet store. It's a problem. You arrive in even as a Shabbat. You arrive in Shamayim even as someone that did good things. But you arrive with blood on your hands because your business was corrupt. Because you stole from people, you stole their time, you stole ideas, you stole money, the bet of heaven will say, "Good job. You stole you you uh kept Shabbat and you even gave some staka, but we can't allow you to enter heaven." WAIT, BUT MY FATHER IS THERE. MY GRANDFATHER IS THERE. YES. YES. They didn't steal like you. They didn't steal like you. So, what's going to be with me? You got to go back. Wait, I have to live life again for another seven years. No. Uh, usually uh usually dogs live only about 15 years. And the breed we're going to put you back into probably about seven, eight years. A little a little girl named Samantha is going to buy you. You're going to be our puppy. Who wants this? Who wants this? If you guys think that I'm making this up, be my guest. Go learn the Torah. Go learn what the sages say. You'll see. This is sources from the from Soaling is a big deal. Stealing is a big deal. Make sure to give back anything you know that you stole. If you're smart, if you believe in God, if you believe in the Torah, any money that you know that you've stolen, pay it back as soon as possible. like literally as soon as possible. Even if it means you have to borrow the money. Why? Who knows when you're going to die? Who knows where any of us are going to die? Who wants to die with blood on their hands? If you know you have money that you stole, like you know for sure you stole from this guy cuz you borrowed money and never gave him back. You stole from that guy because he wasn't looking, so you took a few thousand. You stole from that one, you stole from this one. Give the money back as soon as possible. And like I said, if you can't give it back, then use it to do kiru. Use it to publicize to what? But give it back as soon as possible. As soon as possible. Oh, but it's going to kill MY BANK ACCOUNT. FINALLY, I GOT TO HAVE SOME MONEY NOW. IF I RETURN THIS MONEY, I'M GOING TO GO TO ZERO. COME ON, RABBI. DON'T DO IT THEN. WHAT DO you want me to tell you? I don't make the rules. I give you guys answers, solutions. This is what the Torah says and it will not change. This is it. Be clever and understand that if you can fix something, go and fix it as soon as possible because no one promises any of us tomorrow. And if you wait, you may never get the chance. And then there's different consequences. No one can take their money with them to heaven. You could only take the debt because that becomes the problem. Is it okay to put my pot behind my ears or should they be visible? They used to be down on my chest. You could put your pot whatever way you want. Some people put them behind the ears. My uh Robert Fry also has long pot, but most people don't know because he turns them really really to a little ball and he puts them over here. So unless you look at him from the side, you won't even know that he has pout. And many people do that. Some people prefer to have them behind their ears because it's more comfortable. It's not hair on your face. Some people want to put them. They're big. They're bolded. They're on the sides. Doesn't matter. Whichever way is comfortable for you. Whichever way is comfortable for you. Is it the Rambam's opinion that a man should first get a good job, get a house, and only then after those two he should get married? Absolutely not. No, that's not the Ramb's opinion. Marriage has nothing to do with money or you having a house. All you need for marriage is two people, a male and a female. That's what you need for marriage. Everything else comes and goes. Have a house. Don't have a house. Doesn't make a difference. I can tell you personally because I know you guys like to hear some of the personal stuff. When I met my dear Abanit, my dear wife, my soulmate, we met in business and at the time I was making millions and millions of dollars and she was helping me and uh everything uh seemed like uh the world was ours. But after we did Chuva, if you guys saw my film, Hashem took back his millions, uh we lost everything. And not only lost everything, it became negative. So when we started our Jewish life, all hell broke loose financially and we literally were at a point where we had to pray for miracles in order to survive, in order to eat. And if it wasn't for a kadosh's mercy on us by having either my parents send us some money or some miraculous way somebody else would send us money literally we would not have food to eat or or or or a house to live in. And this is already at a time where we're doing ku we're helping people do chuva and and uh and a lot. So guess what? Money did not change our marriage. When we had a lot, when we had nothing, it didn't make a difference. Why? Because the marriage is the marriage. We're there to help each other. We're help we're there to support each other. We're we're there to love each other. We're we're there to be there for each other with or without money. If your marriage depends on money, then it's not marriage. It's a business relationship. And that's what the says, love that is dependent on something is not love. It won't last. It won't last. love that doesn't depend on something that will last. That was the love between Yunatan and Davidid that they loved each other without having any personal interest. They were lifelong friends. And that's what a person needs to know. If you think that you need money in order to get married, you simply do not understand what marriage is. Somebody that wants to marry you only because you have a house or only because you have a certain job or anything like that, uh it's not really somebody that wants you. They just want your house. They want the comfort. They want the, you know, the uh the uh uh access to what you've built. And guess what? Somebody that doesn't want to marry you because you don't have much. Also, it's not somebody that you uh you should want either. I'm not saying that you should go and uh up to some multi-millionaire woman and tell her, "Listen, I'm homeless, but if you don't marry me, that means you're wicked." No, it's not. That's completely false. A person has to understand that uh money is not what makes relationships. Money is not necessary for a marriage. Uh it's uh it's simply something that is supposed to help you become a better version of you and help them become a better version of them by supporting each other by being there for each other and uh hopefully by eventually getting to a point where you do have uh the uh financial resources to do the good things that you want to do. I heard that that's the Rambam's opinion. It's not. So, whoever you heard it from is should write uh books to write books because he has he or she has a vivid imagination. What if someone pays back the money but the person wants more? If you paid back what you owe, you have fulfilled your obligation. The fact that they want more is not your problem. Is declaring bankruptcy and not paying back employees the same as stealing? It depends. if you declared bankruptcy when you just simply because it's a legal loophole and you could just beat the system and not pay anybody or it's really because you had nothing and there was no other option for you. If a person has employees and he doesn't pay them when he can then certainly he's considered a thief. He stole from every one of those employees or customers or investors whoever it is. But if a person does not have the ability to pay them, then at that time at least he uh he doesn't have to pay them. But in some cases, you would have to pay them back in the future. So again, it depends depends on the circumstance. Uh depends on the circumstance, especially if it's a Jew and a Jew. There's more of an obligation to return money to a religious Jew than to return to a non-religious Jew. But needless to say, you're not allowed to steal from anybody. What about someone that's 36 years old struggling with depression and anxiety and laziness working on these things? Should I wait to get married until I improve? No. You should get married and improve at the same time simultaneously. If we all waited until we were perfect to do anything in life, we wouldn't do anything. We wouldn't leave the house. Is an prenup allowed or not allowed? It depends on what the terms of the prenup are. Some are allowed and certainly even recommended and some no. Depends. Is there a book named Chronicles of Jerem? Never heard of it. Doesn't sound Jewish to me. Let's see. Is gambling okay? No. Absolutely not. Gambling is considered stealing. It's considered mushim which is uh scorn. It's wasting time. There's a lot of problems with gambling. So no, gambling is absolutely not allowed. And if a Jew gambles, then you're not allowed to use him as a witness in a Jewish ceremony. You cannot be a witness for a uh as one of the uh edem in a kupa in a marriage. He cannot be witness in a uh legal case. He cannot uh so a gambler is uh very very problematic person. My ex-in-law got addicted to gambling. Yeah. Unfortunately, we live in a generation where many many people are getting addicted to gambling including the governments as well as the uh corporations where you have access to gambling in more ways today than any other time in history. In the past, when you wanted to gamble, you had to go to a place where people gamble. You had to go to a specific place, whether it would be a casino or somebody's house or or some type of place, which means that there was a certain amount of distance and effort that you had to overcome in order to, you know, do that uh do make that mistake. But today, that's not the case. Today, anyone that have a computer or a phone could literally gamble all of their money in a matter of a few seconds. and they could gamble it on pretty much anything and everything they could imagine. Whether it's sports and and and casino games, the usual, or they want to gamble on the weather, what the weather is going to be tomorrow, or what uh tie the president is going to wear or not wear, or what someone's going to say, or uh uh whether someone is going to wear a certain suit, or whether some countries will go to war. There's this new scam uh called Poly Market where literally people uh gamble about everything and it's an entire industry that is destroying people's lives and unfortunately uh it's uh being promoted all over the media, all over uh society. And if that wasn't bad enough, there's also on TV when it used to be illegal for for for gambling to even show its face on television. Today there is gambling on practically every channel on television. And if somebody's watching a sport, they're watching football, baseball, whatever other sport they're watching, these channels, ESPN and the other sports channels apparently have the uh gambling, not just the odds and all the different possibilities of gamble, but actually ways to gamble through this network. And if that wasn't bad enough, many of the video games, many of the video games, including children's games, children's games, give children access to gambling, actual real money, but they make it uh uh they rationalize it and make it okay by saying, "No, they're not gambling money. they're gambling uh the uh uh you know the the the swords or they're gambling the the coins they acquired or the stars but in reality to acquire these things requires money. This is just a different form of money. So today there's unfortunately a society of Sodom and Gomorrah where all bets are off in regards to any level of morality anywhere. Pornography and immorality in every way, shape or form has become standard. Gambling has become standard. Corruption in business standard. If a person does not learn Torah and follow the Torah, it's no longer a matter of being righteous or wicked. It's simply if they don't learn Tawra and follow Torah, they're simply guaranteed to be a wicked and evil person. Even if they smile at you and they want to have a beer with you and they say, "How you doing?" If you follow what their actions are in their day-to-day life, you'll see that at some point or another, they're either committing immorality, stealing from somebody, uh gambling, all types of different things that until recent generations, everyone, both Jews and Gentiles, knew is forbidden and wrong. But in today's world, learning Torah, learning mousar, following what Hashem said, it's not just a matter, it's not just a matter of being righteous or wicked. It's a matter of if you don't, you're for sure not even a decent person. Why? Because you don't even know how. You don't even know how to be a decent person. Because the things that were against the benefits of society in all past generations have become the norm. You have been taught, you have been literally poisoned in your mind to think that all of the things that were against the better interest of society at large are actually good things to do. Whether it's LGBTQ or it's every other heinous thing out there, corruption, stealing, cheating, lying, it's all become simply as long as I don't get caught, it's okay mentality. So do yourself a favor, learn as much Torah and Mousar from the sages as you possibly can because it's our only chance. It's our only chance to even be decent, needless to say, to be righteous and to go to heaven. There we go. Let's answer. Let's answer one of the haters. Does this clown, this is me, he's called, have a job to go to? Imagine having to work an honest job. That's That's what he says. All right, Mr. Having an honest job. Let's answer you. We'll entertain you because I like entertaining morons once in a while. It's fair entertainment of the rest of the riceers, decent people. While you were still a in your diapers, I was making no less than two or $300,000 a month. At one point in my Wall Street career, I made $1.6 million in an hour. Have you ever even seen the number on a calculator of $1.6 million? I had a company making millions of dollars just for simply me showing up for years. So, I had a career. I employed I trained over 120 people. I did over a billion dollars in business. Do you know how big a billion is? Do you even know what that means? That word means? Go ask your mom or dad. Maybe they'll tell you. Or you could look at a dictionary. For the last 10 years, I worked for free to help people that want to help themselves by becoming decent, by becoming righteous. How much do I charge them? nothing free. In fact, I don't even take a salary from the nonprofit organization that some of these people are donating to. Over the last 10 years, we have use this money to distribute over 358,000 books for free. Over 2 and a half million CDs, USBs, and cards, and posters for free. Communities all over the world. We have fed over 300,000 poor people. When was the last time you helped anybody but yourself? I could assure you I know the answer without even knowing what your real name is. People like you with mentalities like you could only see bad and others without realizing that you are the one that's evil. You are the one that's self-centered. You are the one that is so absorbed in your own ego that you forget the difference between right and wrong. So while I had a successful career in business and had another successful and still having a successful career in the world of Torah helping people, feeding people, transforming their lives for the better, helping them get married. You or simply a keyboard warrior loser that cannot even get out of his own way. If you want to help yourself, start by shutting your mouth and watching every lecture I've ever done. You don't have to say I'm sorry because you're sorry doesn't mean anything. What will mean something? You fixing yourself. Fix yourself. That will mean a whole lot more than any type of sorry you could ever say. Because at least if you fix yourself as a result of your foolishness, then this was worth it. Rabbi, I just want your confirmation that if that it was actually you on WhatsApp today. I don't know. I mean, I don't know who you are. I have a WhatsApp and that's usually the way I communicate with hundreds and hundreds of people around the world. So, if I communicated with you, then you either heard my voice or saw my text. But I can't I I don't know who you are. I asked you about the Zah then. Yes, I spoke to you. Yes. Yes. And I think at the end we also said about you asked me about whether I could come to Canada to Montreal to give lectures and I told you that uh if somebody arranges an event like they did in the past then uh I'd be more than happy to come. So if that's the case, yeah. Is ma and the same thing? Meaning if one gives ma do they completely fulfill their requirement? No. These are two completely different uh mitzvot. I actually have a short clip that I believe it's titled the difference between ma and uh you should watch it because it really gives the details uh of what's the difference between them. These are two separate mitzvot and um it's um short clip. It's maybe five 10 minutes 15 minutes I think. I don't think it's more I don't even think it's 15 minutes. I think it's 10 minutes or less. with the Mosaic tradition where the ancient scrolls of Torah handles handles like we have today. Well, there's a tradition if you're talking about the way they look on the outside, whether it's a shell like the Spharti Jews have or it's just a uh cover that the Ashkenazi Jews have. If that's the question that you have, then in past generations, it was more like the uh the cover uh the scroll was covered like the Ashkanazim do uh rather than the uh the case that the Safaris do today. Uh but as far as it being a scroll, yeah, it was a scroll back then. It's a scroll today. The the the cover or the uh uh whether it's a wooden metal cover or it's a uh some type of fabric. Uh that's um uh that's just, you know, way to beautify it. It has nothing it's not has nothing to do with the text inside. It's just a way to honor the Torah. Oh, the wooden handles. Uh yeah, I mean you have to have something to help you roll the um the Torah because you every week you have to prepare the para before Shabbat where the para is and if you roll things with your hands only it uh like you do with for example with the migilla the migill of Esther is rolled with there's usually uh not uh uh the same type of rolling mechanism as there is in a syphil Torah. So it's a process to roll the uh the migilla uh that takes a while uh after you complete reading the migillah is much much bigger than a migilla. So if you would do the same thing with a sephel tora it would be very very uh time consuming and it would be considered a uh uh a u detriment to the uh to to the community. So they always had something to help them uh facilitate the uh the rolling and getting the para with more ease. Uh especially when there is uh you know times where you have to read uh the Torah and you know multiple times and stuff like that. So yeah, there's always something. Did the acceptance of the Torah scrolls written down in Greek lead to corruption of scripture? No, there was no corruption of scripture. In fact, the specifically talks about the day that the uh Torah was uh uh translated to Greek. Uh the uh it was exactly the same thing. We know exactly the sages that translated, they all intentionally made the same uh change, the same intentional error. Uh we know exactly what it is and therefore there was uh no uh uh there's no corruption that came out of it. There was no distortion. The Torah that we have today is the same Torah that Moshe got at Mount Sai. And it's in fact one of our 13 principles of faith to believe that the Torah that we have today is exactly the same Torah that we got at Mount Si. Is there a problem in Judaism of Cabala holding hands and fingers like interlaced fingers? Yeah, according to Cabala, it's not good. But um it's not a Torah prohibition or anything. Is it permitted to start and finish in one sitting? Of course. Most people, most Torah scholars that I know uh usually do it in one sitting uh on Shabbat. On Shabbat or on Friday. Uh many of them do that. But uh yeah, if you could do it in one sitting, by all means. If you could do it in two sittings, you could do it also. There's different ways of doing it. But yeah, sure. Okay. See, are Noah Hides required to donate 10% of their income? Also, required is a strong word. Required means that it's an obligation and if they don't do it, they will get punished. And that's not the case. They're not required to donate 10%. Uh they should donate 10% to publicize Torah, but they're not required. Uh they wouldn't, you know, it's simply if they believe in the Torah and they want to publicize Hashem's name, they want to help more and more people do chuva, then they would do it. But there's no obligation to do it. But if they do it, they will get rewarded endlessly, probably more for that than anything else they did in their life. because then they'll have the uh the merit of the people that have done chuva go to their account rather than just their own merits for good things they do on their own. Should one be worried about affording school tuition for children and my current income I can't afford? With every child, Hashem sends the parasa, sends the money for it. Hashem is not going to give you children and then they'll starve to death. You have to understand that whatever Hashem gives you, that's because that's what you need in order for you to serve Hashem and your children to serve Hashem. Uh so don't worry so much about the hypothetical future. Just be concerned of today and do the best you can today and tomorrow will be better. Why don't Jews believe that Jesus is the Messiah? Because he wasn't. Sharia law will come. Yeah. To your house. What do you think about the draft in Israel? Uh depends which draft. If you're talking about them drafting, you know, every 18year-old uh that uh you know is going to secular university and uh doing nothing with their life, then yeah, it's necessary for the country. But if you're referring to them trying to force the Torah scholars, the the kids that are learning Torah and and uh you know, instead of learning Tawat, they want them to go into the army. This is the worst thing that the government could ever do uh for themselves. Uh because the only reason why the country exists is because of the merit of the people that are learning Torah. And the less people learn Torah, the more the country and the people in it are at risk. And if you want proof for that, you could simply see every single time the uh especially in the obviously in in recent years, every time Israel has had a major tragedy, whether it's or or some type of major crisis, whether it's the Iran war, October 7th, the previous wars before it, every single time you'll see that the wars started after the government attacked the world of Torah and try to get the uh the the world of Torah to pretty much be destroyed to either join the army or to take away uh even minimal benefits they give to the Arabs and all types of things. Every time the government fought against the Torah, it brought uh it was followed by crisis. It was followed by rockets, bombs, death, destruction. Why? Because anytime you lower the amount of Torah in Israel or even around the world, you are lowering the amount of protection that is have. You're lowering the amount of goodness in the entire world because the world exists for people that are learning Torah. It doesn't exist for you to go to the casino. It doesn't exist for you to shoot a gun. It doesn't exist for you to buy a new Ferrari. It certainly does not exist for you to buy a new private jet. It doesn't exist for you to come out with a new uh clothing line. It doesn't exist for the new AI that uh somebody will develop in the future. It exists for the people that are learning Torah. So if you don't believe that, then there's plenty of lectures that I have that uh discuss the proofs of the Torah and why God created the world. Uh and uh if you do believe it, then this is not even a question. Can you talk about the laws of of prohibiting castrating in animals specifically regarding kosher meat and animal cruelty? It's actually in this para The source for the prohibition of neutering cash trading animals is actually in this week's parat uh in chapter 22 verse number 24. It says one whose testicles are squeezed, crushed, torn or cut, you shall not offer to Hashem, nor shall you do these in your land. So here, Hashem is telling us a few things. Number one, if you're going to bring a sacrifice of a kosher animal, it must fit the requirements. It cannot have a moom. It cannot have a defect, which includes having its uh its uh reproductive organs uh castrated, cut, torn. There's different ways. Some of them are as I was learning it with Rav Gabriel today. Uh there's different you see there's different uh descriptions here. One is where uh the uh the the scrotum is still there but uh it's still attached to still attached to the body but inside the uh the there's crushing. uh others where the uh the actual whole part was uh uh that part was cut off, but there's still something hanging. The uh the uh the the eggs uh the the um the bim were cut from the connection to the body. So, they're still in the scrotum, but they're um uh they're uh they're not connected. Another one is their complete uh cutting of that area. Why am I telling you all these graphic details? Because the Torah felt it was necessary. Torah knew it was necessary for us to know all of these details. Not because any of us are going to go bring a sacrifice tomorrow at the beta mikdash, but rather because it also says, "Nor shall you do any of these in your land, meaning aside from the sacrifices, you're not allowed to do this in your land." Meaning anywhere in the world, you're not allowed to castrate or neuter animals. God said you're not allowed to do it. Not your own Reven. Your own Reven just read the verse from the Torah. Book of Leviticus 22 24. It's forbidden. It's a uh because God said so. There are reasons for it also that we could understand whether it's animal cruelty. Uh it's a it's against the purpose of the creation and so on. But the point is a uh the Torah clearly says in this week's the answer to your question. What if you can't afford the high cost of living from neighborhoods? My city of Miami has become so unaffordable. then move to a different city that has a uh you know has cheaper living that still has a Jewish synagogue and has a Jew you know a kosher supermarket and nobody told you you have to live in one of the most expensive cities in the world. Uh but usually people that live in expensive cities usually also work in those expensive cities and make an income that's according to it. They just don't like that everything costs more money, but they are also making a lot of money. But if you're not making enough money to make ends meet, then move to a different city that may not be uh as developed, as fancy, or whatever it is that you like about Miami, uh but uh still has kosher food, a mikv, synagogues, k all the good things like the stuff we'll build in our community. Hearing you is like hearing a calming father. Rabbi, shalom for the Philippines. How is an animal that has been castrated allowed to be kosher meat? Well, the castrating does not make something uncosher. It makes it a not qualified to be a sacrifice. Uh it's not qualified to be a sacrificed uh because it has a defect at the time it's being slaughtered. So it can't be a sacrifice. But it doesn't change the kassoot. The kassoot is only determined of whether the animal was uh already died on its own. If it died on its own and then you're slaughter and then you're eating it, then it's not allowed. That's not kosher. Or if it uh wasn't slaughtered properly, uh then that could make it not kosher. Or it after you slaughter it, you check the lungs and uh and you see that the animal maybe had a nail stuck in its heart or had some type of hole in the lungs where you knew that this animal would die within a year, then it's also considered not kosher. So the uh the the aspect of kosher is not determined about whether it has uh three legs or four legs or uh or it has the male member or it doesn't has it has to do with uh other other parts other things which is life whether it has uh it was alive at the time it was uh slaughtered and not going to die on its own uh due to illness uh at the time you know within a So if Ma and Staka are two completely different things, what percentage should be given as staka component? Uh there's no percentage as far as staka. uh the minimum is to give $1 which is considered like a pa but of course a person should give according to their uh to their means. If they are a multi-millionaire uh if they have $100 million then certainly they need to give a whole lot more uh than somebody that let's say has $5,000 to their name. Uh not just because the number is more uh but because they don't ever need that much money. Nobody ever needs $100 million to live. Um, so they uh a person like that should literally give, you know, 90% of their money away if if if if they have nothing to do with it uh to uh to uh um that's absolutely necessary. Um but uh as far as how much again it's a uh each person should give uh to the right causes, number one, and number two should give as much as they possibly can. When it comes to mael, the masel the sages said maximum a person should give him their income is up to 20%. Mael is 10% but the maximum a person can give him their income is 20%. But when it comes to taka there is no limit. Person could literally give 100% of their money if they really want. If it's to publicize not 100% to feed the poor not 100% to uh help a friend. No, nobody is supposed to make themselves poor. But if it was to publicize Tawa, then a person could literally give as as much as they want. Now again, I don't necessarily recommend people giving 100% of their money and then end up becoming homeless. But this is simply to uh understand there's no limitation. It all depends on uh case by case basis and how much they have and how much they make and so on. I saw a former kidic woman on TikTok now practicing Muslim saying that she's open to return to Judaism if her questions would be answered. She doubt that it will. Is there anything that I can do? You could invite her to come to the next stump the rabbi which is going to be next Wednesday at 9:00 and she could answer ask questions just like everybody else. Okay. What's the difference between an Israelite who lives by the Torah and an Ashkenazi Jew? Not sure what you mean by Israelite. If you mean an Israelite like a Jewish person that is from Spafari descent uh or or Yemenite or something else pretty much everything else that's not Ashkenazia, you know, then uh and then versus Jew, what's the difference between them? Simply customs. But if you're talking about an Israelite, which is like these people that call themselves Hebrew Israelites, what's the difference? a world of difference. The Ashkenazi Jews are Jewish. The Israelites are morons. They're not Jewish. They're they're simply Christians that are very angry, confused, ignorant, and love to look like the Power Rangers mixed with Mortal Kombat. That's what they are. That's a good mix. Mortal Kombat and Power Rangers yet. It's a big probably there's no tugging in the uh in the uh there's no tugging in the Dead Sea Scrolls Hebrew Bible, but only later. What do you think about it? I don't think about it. And again, like I said, there's a lot of things that uh people are unaware of. Uh number one, there's manipulation. Number two, not everything that looks like a Torah scroll is really a Torah scroll that we'd read. Uh some or the codeex, which is something you use for the sake of uh writing other Torah scrolls, but not actually reading it. There's different alic things. There's also some books that you'd see that are full of uh pictures and uh that are different cabalistic books. There's all types of things. So again, we anytime you go to uh learn Torah or anything that has to do with Judaism, you have to go to the experts, which means it's going to be Torah sages, Torah scholars, and not uh believe anything that comes out of the uh you know the uh Christian and other missionary type of world because they invent a lot of things. They manipulated a lot of things no less than uh what uh the uh you know the uh scientists and philosophers did with the uh uh you know theory of evolution and Darwin's theory which even you know uh people that follow it today don't realize that Darwin himself did not follow his own theory of re you know his own theories and his own belief and uh in fact it was proven to be wrong a million times. The point I'm trying to say is that why do people still teach falsehood? Because they have some type of vested interest. They have some type of bias. So we have our tradition. We have our uh uh our Torah and that's what we go by. Nothing is going to change that. Why would uh why would that be your first thought? Uh what you mean about Ashkenazi or Safhari? Well, again, because if you're comparing Jewish people and Jewish people, then the difference between them is uh is that they there's a difference in customs because there's different there's Jews that were have been all over the world. So, they have different customs. Uh my ancestors come from Tripoli, which is in Libya. But uh you know there is a uh many uh Torah scholars that I know that their ancestors came from Baghdad, Iraq uh or Syria or uh Egypt or uh Poland, you know, so their ancestors are from different places. They have different customs. But if you're comparing uh Jews versus non-Jews that pretend to be Jews, then uh because that's what the uh is happening in the media, that's what's happening online and a lot of people think that these Israelites are actually really Jewish. Uh then then I'll answer that. So in so many words, I try to answer uh the questions that you ask well as the questions that you could have asked. Usually if you notice with my answers I uh I try to be very uh you know full of information that is could uh could answer the questions you have and the ones that you should have had or could have had. Okay, last question and then we'll be done for the day. uh the Babb made the outreach of nohide laws a responsibility upon Jews. What do you think? You didn't invent it. This is, you know, a uh we have it's an Rambam that if uh you see a Noah that's sinning, you uh you can rebuke him. Uh and it's uh it's an where uh we don't want the uh the the Gentiles to uh be idoltors or be uh uh corrupt or cruel if we could do something about it. So if you could do something about it, do it. But you have to always remember that your first priority is Jewish people. But if you don't have a Jew to help to teach, then you could certainly go and teach and help uh the the non-Jew that you could help. So he didn't bring anything new. He just told us what's there. Oh well, it's late. Okay, thank you very much for learning with me. Keep your questions for next week. Um, as far as the questions are usually some of the favorite part that people have, which is very, very good. It's very entertaining. It's very informative. Um, in regards to a uh question for you guys for next week, let me see if I can think of something. Let me see if I can think of something. One second. Uh because it' be a good question that could ask question to keep you guys thinking that one we already asked. I can't think of one. I stuck myself what we'll do is maybe if I come up with something I'll uh I'll send it uh either on email that we're sending to everybody so anyone that's not subscribed subscribe or maybe I'll put it on um you know one of our uh WhatsApp groups you guys can answer it that way and next week I'll be better prepared with the question. Uh, I just you guys wouldn't believe how many things are going on right now. Oh, Hashem, we're trying to do something some big things right now. So, it's literally there's no time to breathe, eat, drink, sleep. It's around the clock. Okay. Anyone that wants to support can donate on our website.org. uh be e a uh be e z r a t h a s hmorg or bh tora.org bht t o r ah.org and certainly anyone that uh has a lot of questions and wants answers subscribe to the AI rabbi app that we have aire rabbi.org or you can download the app there and subscribe over there. It works through WhatsApp and it's going to have some major upgrades in the very very near future on the website. Also, we'll have a uh not only the ability of asking questions on the app as well as WhatsApp that we have right now, but you'll also be able to ask those questions on the website and new features and new stuff. So, subscribe, get in while you still can for a very, very cheap subscription price that um for the most part I believe everybody that's watching my lectures on one of these smartphones can afford. Uh so do it for yourself and you'll have all the answers that uh you could possibly get until the next time we learn together. We will learn again next week. We're finally here. The new Kiru box opens up. A nice little cushion here. We got Let's see if it's charged. >> Isn't that amazing? Still bucks more lives. >> Now available at bottom.com.org.org. Get yourself 20 of them, 30 of them, 50 of them.