ISRAEL AT WAR: Why IRAN Wants Gog Umagog Now?

We're back here on our Sunday night show Torah, but uh just like last week, because of the situation that's happening in the world, especially in Israel, uh we uh have to veer off of our normal show of uh the Torah Foundation series and talk about what's really the uh uh the main subject in everybody's mind, which is the war. Uh Israel being at war, and uh last week we spoke about how this uh certainly a question that a lot of people have of whether this is Gog and Magog. Uh and we answered that, whether it is or it isn't, the reality is uh that we still have to prepare and understand that there are certain circumstances that are beyond our uh ability, and there are certain circumstances that are within our ability. But tonight, we're actually going to ask another question about this situation that's at hand, which is why does Iran Yimach Shmo U'Zichro. Why does Iran want Gog U'Magog now? You see, many Jews especially those that have learned Torah throughout their life, have heard about Gog U'Magog. Certainly, every Jew has heard about Mashiach. Because our sages have taught many things about it. It's a very interesting subject. Although most people have a misunderstanding of what will happen, we have a whole uh film about Gog U'Magog. For anyone that hasn't watched it, I highly recommend it. Oh, and before I forget, tonight's show is going to be for the Refuah Shleimah U'Hatzlacha U'Hatzlacha Rabba for Rav Ephraim ben Shulamit, Rabbanit Sarah bat Anat, Rabbanit >> for Ephraim bench but not but not but not but and a very big and happy uh anniversary for myself and my dear shalom be calling me live many together So, situation at hand where people are educated to a extent about Mashiach you know, you have pretty much every Jew and even non-Jew saying Mashiach now uh of course we've had uh recent days the uh the former pro-Israel uh people like Candace Owens and uh Tucker Carlson and the likes have turned into blatant anti-semites taking it as far as uh Tucker Carlson saying that Chabad is behind this whole war. Because he saw that uh some soldiers have a Mashiach now on their shoulders so they must be the intelligence agency behind uh the war. Stupidity is nothing that the world has ever been short of uh but it's also doesn't ever surprise us how far it gets. Nonetheless I many people are familiar with the end of times but few are familiar with the details. Even fewer are familiar with the fact that the Muslims also have teachings about the end Mahdi, which is their word for Messiah. What you certainly don't know is that there is a secret hidden in political correctness about our Messiah and their Mahdi. And once we understand it, we will know why Iran wants Gog and Magog now and not later. If we look at what's been happening since this recent war began, we see that there are certain things that do not make sense. Iran is not only shooting at their enemy Israel and unfortunately hitting and killing some people, they're also hitting and killing what used to be their friends, their allies. They're also hitting neutral parties that are not connected to this war in any way, shape, or form. They shot a missile at Cyprus. They're shooting at the UAE, at Oman, at Bahrain, at Iraq, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and most surprising of all, their best friend just a week ago, Qatar. Yes, this is the same Qatar that was partners in crime with Iran throughout all of these years of funding terrorism. But Iran is shooting at them also. And you can't say, "No, it was an accident. One missile, it missed. It was supposed to go there, but instead it went there." No, no. They're actively at war with everyone. Doesn't make any sense. What's most surprising to, especially us in the West, is the fact that Iran still has the ability to shoot any missiles at all. Until recently, everyone thought, or at least was led to believe that Iran, without a nuclear weapon, is uh just uh you know, a bigger version of Hamas. A bigger version of Hezbollah. But once you see that the United States, arguably the most powerful army in the world, is at full force war with them. In addition, Israel, arguably the number one air force in the world, also at war with them. Then you have the UK joining. Then you even have Iraq. And several other countries all joining this combined effort against Iran? I mean, I don't know about you, but if you would have asked us a month ago, "How long is it going to take the United States to defeat Iran?" I'd say if they go full force, maximum 2 3 days. Maximum 2 3 days, a week if they're, you know, not going full force. But here we see that a week has passed. More than just United States is in there. More than just Israel is in there. More countries are joining seemingly by the day. But Iran continues to shoot. Iran continues to fight. Their leader, Khomeini, mach shmo v'zichro, alongside several other major leaders in Iran, destroyed within the initial days of the war. No effect whatsoever. In fact, it sped up their long-term plan, which we'll get to. So we see that Iran is quite a bit more powerful than people thought. One of my dear students asked me a question about Gog u'Magog, perhaps premature, but saying that, well, since they killed the Ayatollah Khomeini, mach shmo, perhaps the war is going to be over very soon, and we're not going to have to be worried about that midrash you taught us about, of how the king of Persia is going to destroy the world. Maybe this is the good part of the prophecy will be fulfilled. And just like I said then, I'm saying now, the fact that they killed them means absolutely nothing, and in fact, if anything, the situation has gotten worse. Today somebody asked me about the situation in Israel unfortunately Iran continues to shoot into Israel. Civilians are miraculously miraculously being literally hidden by Hashem from getting hit by these missiles for the most part. But there is damage. There is injury. And unfortunately, there is even death. Not as much as Iran would like him actually Mom. But nonetheless, there is. But people are scared, especially parents from America, England that sent their kids to Israel to study there. Now they want their kids to come home. Some are even going to the extent of all types of dealings to try to get them out of there sooner rather than later. Not necessarily recommended, but nonetheless people are nervous. And the question was do you think it's going to get any worse? And I'll tell you what I told them. If it gets worse then this is the end. Point blank. If it gets worse then this is the war of Gog and Magog that we've all talked about for the last few thousand years. This is it. The good news is we don't know if this is the end. And anyone that tells you they know for sure is irresponsible. Because we don't know. But there are certain things we're going to learn today that will point us in a certain direction. At the very least will clarify what Iran wants to do. What a Kaddish Bagoo is doing. And where we play a part. One of the foremost scholars in the field of Islam and all issues relating to the Middle East is someone that I've mentioned in prior lectures in the past, especially pertaining to the wars over the last couple of years is a Dr. Mordechai Kedar. He is an extraordinary Haham that is not only a scholar in Judaism and obviously knows knows quite a bit, but he knows more about Islam and the Quran than even the best of the scholars of Islam. He goes on their networks speaking to them in Arabic and proving them wrong time after time. It's almost amazing to watch. Now, he brought something to my attention that makes all the sense in the world especially when you look at some of the Midrashim that we've learned together in the past. The Muslims have a split. The Sunnis, the Shiites, but at the end of the day, they have the Quran. What separates them mostly is their acceptance of different Hadith that they have, which comparatively speaking, not that it's really a fair comparison because we have the truth and they have falsehood, but comparatively sleep speaking, it's let's say the Midrashim. Now, the Muslims have this teaching of their end of days. But the Quran does not mention anything about the Mahdi, which is the Arab Messiah, who is a descendant of Muhammad that apparently is someone that by the name of um Imam Muhammad al-Mahdi, the son of Imam Hasan al-Askari. But this person that lived from the year 870 to 940 and then disappeared, we all know he died, but nonetheless they believe he disappeared, is mentioned in the later Hadiths, not in the ones that are the foundational ones, such as the uh Sahih al-Bukhari Bukhari or the Sahih Muslim. I may be mispronouncing the names, but these are the Hadiths that are accepted by all. Especially the Sunnis. The Shias on the other hand, they believe that this Mahdi who's the who's the this Imam Muhammad al-Mahdi is going to do what's called Raja, which is return. Why is he going to return? In the more recent Hadiths called Sunan Abi Dawud and also Sunan al-Tirmidhi, it talks about how at the end of days the world is going to be full of corruption, full of anarchy, full of horrible things. And then, in order to bring the Mahdi, there'll be two possibilities. One is that everyone goes to Islam and follows the Sharia law just like the Iranians do. Their belief systems. And that will bring in essence in their ideology will bring good. Now, before we go into the other possibility, this is what they teach their kids. This is what they believe. And this is what's written. And you can find some of this on Wikipedia. You could find this in uh Hadith chapter 7. And you're also going to run into political correctness that is part of the reason of why most Jews don't know this exists. And it says as follows. The common opinion among the Sunnis is that the Mahdi is an expected ruler to be sent by God before the end of times to reestablish righteousness. He's held to be from among the descendants of Muhammad through his daughter Fatima and her husband Ali. And his physical characteristics, including a broad forehead and curved nose, he will eradicate injustice and evil from the world. He will be from the Hassanid branch of Muhammad's descendants as opposed to the Shia's belief that he is one of the Hassanid's line. The Mahdi's name would be Muhammad and his father's name would be Abdullah. Abu Dawud quotes Muhammad. This is one of their scholars. Dawud is a is a uh like David. And Abdallah is Ovadyah. So, Abu Dawud quotes Muhammad as saying the Mahdi will be from my family, from the descendants of Fatima. And another Hadith says, "Even if only one day remains until doomsday, God will lengthen this day until he calls forth a man from me or from the family of my house. His name matching mine and his father's name matching that of my father. He will fill the earth with equity and justice just as it had previously been filled with injustice and oppression. So far, so good. Sounds like this is good times. Sounds like he's bringing peace to the world. Before the arrival of the Mahdi, the earth would be filled with anarchy and chaos, divisions and civil war, moral degradation, and worldliness would be prevalent among the Muslims. Injustice and oppression would be rampant in the world in the aftermath of the death of a king. The people would quarrel among themselves, and the as yet unrecognized Mahdi would flee from Medina to Mecca to take refuge in the Kaaba. He would be the Mahdi recognized as ruler by the people. The Dajjal would appear and will spread corruption in the world. Remember that word. With an army bearing black banners, which would come to his aid from the east, the Mahdi would fight the Dajjal and would be able to defeat him. Dressed in saffron robes with his head anointed, Jesus would descend at the point of a white minaret of the Umayyad Mosque in eastern Damascus, believed to be the Minaret of Yeshua. And he would join the Mahdi, meaning according to their belief Jesus and Mahdi BFFs. Then Jesus would pray behind the Mahdi and kill the Dajjal. Who is this Dajjal that's causing all these problems? The Gog Magog will also appear wrecking havoc before their final defeat by the forces of Jesus. Although not as not as significant as the Dajjal and the Gog Magog, the the Sufyani, another representative of the forces of dark, also features in the Sunni traditions. And he will rise in Syria before the appearance of Mahdi. So here we see what I This is not some conspiracy. This is not something that is unknown to them. This is a foundation of their belief no less than a Messiah being one of the 13 principles of our faith. Now what we see here is they're familiar with the end of days. They're familiar with the Christian belief. In fact of the mindset that the two combine in some way. they're familiar with Gog and Magog. But if you read this, you won't know why do they hate Israel so much? Did you hear the word Jews here? Did you hear the word Israel here? Not even once. Unless you read further or you read the Hebrew version, which is not the same as the English version, because it clarifies things that apparently the American and English-speaking mind cannot handle. You see, according to the Muslim belief, it's not enough for their Mahdi to come. It's not enough for him to be friends with Yoshke. But rather, the ultimate goal of all of this is to fight and kill the Dajjal. Who is the Dajjal? That's Mashiach ben David. That's our Mashiach. Which means, Rabbotai, that in the same Hadith chapter 7 that I've mentioned to you in past years, the Muhammad says, even though he doesn't mention the Mahdi there, he says what will happen at the end of times that as the Muslims are scaring the world and the Jews are hiding behind trees and stones, even the stones and the trees will help the Muslim find the Jew that's hiding behind it. Saying, "Muslim, Muslim, there's a Jew here behind me. Come kill him." These are their beliefs. In so many words, for Iran, destroying Israel is not a political issue like it is in the mindset of Americans and many Jews. Destroying Israel is not a political issue for Iran, but rather it's a religious duty to the extent where it's seen as a precursor to their Mahdi's Raja, to their Mahdi's returning. And therefore, while the first option in their ideology is for everyone to convert to Islam and that's going to bring the Mahdi, the second part is the reality they're playing right now, which is that if everyone does not convert to Islam, then the job of the Muslims is to create complete chaos all over the world to such an extent that it would force God to bring the Mahdi. So, he can kill their enemy. So, he can destroy their enemy. Now, we understand more about why Iran is shooting everyone. Whether it's their foes, Israel and America, or it's their former allies, like Qatar. We're also understanding why Saudi Arabia jumped into this war against Iran. And one of the amazing things that we've had the privilege to be a part of over the last couple of years is bringing to life our AI Rabbi. And this AI Rabbi is a fantastic resource for anyone that wants to have answers based on reliable Jewish sources at any given time in different languages. Whether it is in Hebrew, English, Chinese, Spanish, Portuguese, 30 different languages. And to show you an example of how AI Rabbi works, to save time, I asked the question, and this is the answer I got. I printed out the answer. I usually use the AI Rabbi on my WhatsApp, cuz you connect the AI Rabbi up to your WhatsApp, but many people prefer to use it through the app. It doesn't make a difference. It's the same subscription. And this is what I asked the AI Rabbi. Right here is the question. Very few words, I don't have to give it too many details. And this is the lengthy answer that I got with some sources. The sources happen to be two different times that I personally spoke about it in different Shiurim and provided the sources where the someone that presses these links goes to those lectures exactly at the spot of where I'm speaking about it. So, you don't have to wait two hours to find the source or look for it. It brings you right there. And the question was as follows. Where is the prophecy about the Persian king that tries to destroy the world at the end of days? AI Rabbi responds, "Thanks for asking. I'll reply soon." A few moments later, the response is as follows. The prophecy about the Persian king trying to destroy the world at the end of days is found in the Yalkut Shimoni Yalkut Shimoni in the book of Isaiah. This is a well-known prophecy that describes exactly what will happen before Mashiach comes. The prophecy states that in the year that Melech HaMashiach, the King Mashiach, will be revealed, the king of Paras, which is Persia, meaning Iran, will start a conflict with the king of Arabia, Saudi Arabia. The king of Arabia will then go to Edom, which represents America or the Western nations, to ask for guidance on how to deal with this king of Paras. Then the king of Paras decides that he's going to destroy the whole world. All the nations around the world will start going crazy causing noise, being scared and falling on their faces like a woman in labor pains. Israel will also start worrying, screaming and getting scared asking, "Where will we go?" And at that moment, Hakadosh Baruch Hu tells the Jewish people, "My dear children, don't fear. Everything that I've done, I didn't do it for no reason. But rather, I did it for you. From what are you scared? Don't be scared. The time has come for your salvation. Not like the previous salvation from Egypt, but rather the last salvation." This prophecy is extremely relevant today. Everyone knows that Iran wants to destroy the world. This is not a joke. We are living in these times right now. This is the answer of AI Rabbi. Yishtabach Shmo La'ad. Now, of course, a person that studies Torah could go and find these sources on their own, but if somebody wants an answer, not only because they don't know the answer, but also they may not know the source. AI Rabbi provides it. But what we learned here is that our sages already talked about this. In fact, there's another place in the P'sikta Rabbati. In P'sikta 36, where it says that the world views the Jewish people like a disabled person. While they hurt them and abuse them, which is what's happened over the last couple thousand years. But Am Yisrael's response is that one day our Messiah will come. And Rabbi Yitzchak said that in the year that the king Messiah will arrive, the nations of the world will fight each other. And the king of Paras will start a fight with the king of Arabia, same as we said before. But the one major difference is that Rabbi Yitzchak also says, "Why is this salvation going to be different than the past salvation?" Because the first salvation, the Exodus, had sorrow in it. But this last salvation will not have any sorrow in it. As there will be no servitude of the other kings. You see, Rabbotai, one of the things that we have heard and learned in the Torah is that everything is in it. Including what will happen tomorrow. What will happen in the future. Daniel who gave a clear picture of what the future looks like, especially times of Messiah. When he interpreted the dream for Nebuchadnezzar, he said that Nebuchadnezzar will be the most powerful king until Messiah comes. But that doesn't mean that there won't be powerful kings along the way. Just not as powerful and as dominant as Nebuchadnezzar was. And even though Amalek is what the Torah says is the ultimate enemy of the Jewish people, Daniel says that at the end the one that will get the most severe punishment will be Ishmael. The nation of Ishmael. Now, if when he said it, it didn't make sense. If you would have asked about this 100 years ago, it still didn't make sense. Today, it makes all the sense in the world to anyone that understands what's been happening in recent years. But still, we have to ask, what about Amalek? For that answer, we go to one of the greatest sages that ever lived, Abravanel. Who wrote that when Ishmael sent his daughter to marry Esau, their child ended up their descendant ended up becoming Amalek. And the same will happen at the end of days. When Ishmael marries and combines themselves with Edom, they will create Amalek. Hence the reason why Daniel says the biggest amount of wrath will go against Ishmael because this will also be combined with Amalek. Now, of course, we have to understand this may very well be that time that the Torah is talking about. Or it may not be. It may be just Hashem will have more mercy on us and delay it further to give us more time to do chuvah because if the Messiah comes tomorrow, it doesn't look good for many Jews that have not done chuvah yet. Including some people that consider themselves religious on the exterior but not so much on the interior. In order for somebody to be saved, protected, and be part of the salvation of Am Yisrael, they have to do chuvah. And if the Messiah comes tomorrow, that clock clock runs out. So, it may very well be that Hashem has more mercy on us and although there's a lot of commotion and although all of the arrows point at the direction that this is it, Hashem does not have to abide by any rules other than his own rules. And he could simply change things. And instead of making this king of Paras be the one that tries to destroy the world, he can make a later king of Paras try to destroy the world for the purpose of scaring us more so we do chuvah and more will be saved. More will benefit from the salvation when the inevitable and eventual Gog u-Magog war starts. From the perspective of Iran, what I just said is is unacceptable. Because their belief is that if everyone is not going to convert to Islam, they're going to force their Mahdi to come by trying to destroy the world just like Armilus said they will try. And therefore, they're shooting in all directions. Therefore, they're using the weapons that they've gathered and prepared for the last four decades, arming themselves day after day. After shooting a bunch of missiles and getting the wrath of Israel and America, instead of responding with peace talks, Iran laughed at it and said, "All we've sent you thus far is just our old missiles. Now, everything we're going to send you is the new stuff." Meaning, they're going all out. That's why they're shooting even at Qatar. That's why they're fighting against the Arabian king like Armilus said they will. They're trying to force their ideology to come to life. But at the end of the day, only a Kadosh Baruch decides what will and what will not be. Now, the Gemara in Maseches Sota, page 41b, warns us from the words of Isaiah the prophet in chapter 5 verse 20. Woe to those who speak of evil as good and of good as evil who make darkness into light and light into darkness. They make bitter into sweet and sweet into bitter. Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and in their own view understanding. Here the prophet not only warns us from ever listening to people that tell you that you can do whatever you want and Hashem is simply going to ignore that you're sinning against the Torah. Warning us against supporting such teachings. Warning us against listening to such teaching. Needless to say, warning us against teaching such heretical teachings that you don't have to do chuvah and that God will forgive everyone no matter what. The prophet warns us against that. But he also warns us against simply trying to scare people for the sake of scaring them into action that it's not the will of Hashem. You see all of the teachings that we have over the last decade whether it's the teachings that everyone loves like bitachon be Hashem, emunah in Hashem or the teachings that those that really want to will to do the will of Hashem like which teaches about yirah shamayim, fear of Hashem. And what does it mean to love Hashem? What is the reward and punishment? The punishment of Gehennom, Kaf Hakela, Hibbut HaKever, reincarnation, all of these different things. The goal of all of them has always been to inspire a person to change. Educate to inspire to change. Into a path that's the will of Hashem of doing teshuvah. So, when a person's mindset is that I'm learning Torah in order to apply it to my life, then a teaching like this, although scary, it's supposed to scare them into becoming a better person, a better Jew, a better Noahide, that is doing the will of Hashem because they want to be part of that salvation whenever it comes, whether this is the end of the world or it's not. Either way, I need to get my act together and become better. But a person that takes these teachings the wrong way and says, "OH, IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD. THAT'S IT. I GOT TO MOVE TO ISRAEL. I GOT TO BUILD MYSELF A BUNKER. I GOT TO GET MYSELF YOU KNOW, PROTECTION." I GOT TO BECOME MORE well-versed in how to shoot and how to aim and This is not the will of Hashem. A person that teaches Torah in order to use it as an axe to simply scare people to just do something that they want. Such as be scared, therefore you should give everything you have to me. Be scared, so you move everything, your whole life to a different place, and then you'll be protected. This is not the will of Hashem. The will of Hashem is for us to live the day as the day, and the night as the night. As people that are following the will of Hashem, regardless of what's happening around us, regardless of whether Iran succeeds in their demonic ideology or not. We still have to pray three times a day. We still have to eat kosher. We still have to be charitable to help those that are in need. We still have to learn more and more Torah. Even about subjects that we don't think are relevant to our life today. Afoch ba ve'afoch ba dekula ba. Delve into it and delve into it because everything is in it. You see, rabotai kirim, the ultimate goal of the Torah is to learn the will of Hashem in order to fulfill it for our betterment, for our benefit, because he does not benefit at all from it. Just like a father wants the best for his kids without benefiting from it, Hakadosh Baruch Hu wants the best for his children for their benefit. ANYONE THAT TELLS YOU otherwise is simply creating a new religion. The understanding of the end of days should be that we're only going to know when they are when they happen. Just like the Rambam said. And even though now more than ever it looks like this is the end. You cannot sugarcoat it in any way other than this. Between the midrashim that we've spoken about in the past that talk about the king of Persia going against the king of Arabia and the king of Arabia bringing in the king of Edom, EXACTLY WHAT'S HAPPENING NOW. To the teachings that we learned today about the ideologies of Iran, which is to bring the Mahdi by creating chaos and then uniting with Isa, which is Jesus, in order to kill the Dajjal, which is MASHIACH BEN DAVID. THAT'S THEIR WHOLE GOAL. IT'S NOT A POLITICAL MOVE. It's an ideology. It's a religion. It is what they believe in to the point where they are happily willing to die for it. So, when everyone tells you will there be peace in the middle Middle East, it's impossible for there to ever be peace in the Middle East until Mashiach comes. Why? It has nothing to do with politics. It has to do with our truth and their falsehood. And the biggest problem is that we've had in recent years as some of the great Torah sages have said is that the even though we have the truth and there's only one truth and they have the falsehood and there's many falsehood they fight for their falsehood like it's true. And we sometimes fight for our truth as if it's false. We're scared to tell each other what the parsha shavua is. We're scared to tell each other to do chuva to start being more modest, to follow what the Torah says. We're scared to do kiruv. We're scared to invest into kiruv because what's going to BE WITH MY RETIREMENT PLAN? WHAT'S GOING TO BE with my investment in the second house? We fight for the truth as if it's false. We fight for this world as if it's the next world. Whereas the other side that has been dreaming about destroying us in order to destroy our mashiach they fight for their falsehood in the open in the middle of the streets. They have no qualms about converting everyone they can get getting everyone to follow them getting everyone to declare openly that unless you're with them, you're their enemy. They fight for their falsehood like it's true. If we only fought for our truth like it's true things would be different. Abba Tayeha Karim >> I don't know how much time we have. What I do know is this. Everything we've learned is from the books. It's not my personal opinion. Our books and even theirs to show you what they believe in. Not that we agree with it, but this explains their ideology. This explains why peace is impossible. This explains why saying never again is a complete waste of time and money. This explains why fighting anti-Semitism is a complete waste of time and money. The only thing we need to fight for is to do chuvah as a people as fast as possible. Because that's the only thing that will help us at the end. It's not going to be political positions. It's certainly not going to be wealth. It's not going to be if we have better weapons or better bunkers. It's not going to be if we have friends in important places. And it's certainly not going to be if we simply try to stay out of it. When the end comes, it comes for everybody. And as a Kadosh Baruchu told the prophet, 2/3 of the world will be wiped out as the enemies of God, while the last third will be cleansed like you cleanse silver and gold. Meaning that there's going to be some Jews that you know that if they don't do chuvah they'll be gone. They'll be destroyed. And there's certainly going to be some righteous non-Jews that survive. That see the salvation. Cuz we're talking about a third of the world. If there's 9 billion people in the world more or less that means that even though 2/3 are gone that still leaves 3 billion left. So there will be righteous Jews and righteous gentiles that are part of this salvation. But everyone that's wicked based on the definitions of God of what is wicked, not definitions of man, not definitions of politics, not definitions of media but rather the definitions of God of what he wrote in his one and only book which is the Torah. Those that follow the Torah will see blessings. Will see the salvations. Those that follow the new religions that were created since then that follow a foreign God, heretical teachings the teachings of the multiple parts of God or some guy that claims he spoke to the angel in the middle of the desert with no witnesses and then now he's going to bring the salvation by forcing everyone to convert to Islam. All this nonsense, that's all going to be destroyed. And whether that's going to happen sooner or later should not be the prime thing that you learn here. The main thing we need to learn is that we have to start doing chuvah immediately. If Hashem in his mercy has even more mercy to give us more time, we should take advantage of it. Because it'll give us more time to cleanse ourself, to do chuvah ourself, so he doesn't have to cleanse us as part of that last third. If we haven't done chuvah, THIS IS OUR CHANCE TO DO CHUVAH, TO START keeping Shabbat, to start being modest, to get rid of all these immodest wigs, to get rid of all the immodest clothes, to stop wasting seed, to stop being in unethical businesses, to start doing the will of Hashem, to start learning Torah every day. This is our chance. So whether you're on board of the path of the Torah or not, this is our chance to get on there as soon as possible. Because even if this is not the end, it's not an opportunity to waste. On the other hand, if this is the end, if the Iranians achieve their goal and bring complete chaos to the world to the point where all of the nations are scared and crying like a woman that's about to deliver a baby, just like Army Doc says, because they believe that they're going to bring their Mahdi that way. And they're going to somehow get a hold of world destruction abilities. Obviously, we're talking about nuclear war here. We're talking about complete annihilation of sections of the world, big sections of the world. We're talking about a Kadosh Baruch Hu having to get involved in his creation in a miraculous way no less than what happened at Mount Sinai. But that means that the time runs out for anyone who has not done teshuvah yet. The only people that will hear and see the words of Hashem saying "Don't worry, my children. Everything that I've done I've done for your sake. The time has come for your salvation." That's only going to be said for those that have followed the Torah. For those that have fulfilled the Torah. For those that have done teshuvah. Everyone else, whether it's the anti-Semites that are constantly mentioning things against the Torah and against the Jewish people, or it's the enemies that are trying to bring world annihilation, or it's even your neighbor that simply says he doesn't believe the words of the sages, salvation is not coming to them. They won't be part of the salvation. They'll be part of the destruction. So, the main thing we need to learn from this, especially as all arrows are pointing in one direction, is that a Kadosh Baruch Hu is putting us in this situation with our backs against the wall in order for us to at the very least start fighting for the truth like it's the truth. No less than they fight for their shekel, than they fight for their lives. And as a disha we succeed. >> I'd like to introduce you to your new best friend. We did it. AI Rabbi is [music] here. Today I have that is based on kosher Torah sources. 30 different languages that are available to use. If you want to ask it in Spanish, [music] in Chinese, Portuguese, whatever you want to do, it's available for you. Can you tell me about the via people? So it's time stamped to this year because of this [music] green button, AI Rabbi on your WhatsApp. You'll have the ability to ask questions at will. You will provide the sources and most importantly, you'll be able to know the truth and be able to rely on the sources. Now I know that some of you may have some questions. I'll take some questions even though it's not normally what we do, but I'll take a few questions if anyone has reasonable questions that can add to the subject. I'd be more than happy to. Oh, and also this shoe is going to be for the Refuah Shleimah and Hatzlacha Rabbah in the surgery for Malka bat Nechama Leah. Kadosh Baruch Hu Yevarech Otah Bechol Mikol Kol Chaim Arukim Shleimim U'Melaim Torah, Mitzvot, Gemilut Chassadim. And as a disha, a lot of nachat for her and her dear husband as a disha. She's having a surgery in the morning and as a disha we'll be praying for her and as a disha Hashem, all the merits of this you from tonight and all the other times that uh people will listen to this will be for our merit to be with Hashem have a full shalom. How can I convert? There is a If you go to our website, which is beezrathashem.org, spelled b e e z r a t h a s h e m dot o r g. You go to that website on the top left, it says a free books or a free e-books. If you go there, type the word conversion, there's a conversion guide. You could download it for free. It's an interactive guide. It'll give you all the different uh bits of information of what you need to know in order for you to convert as far as moving to a Jewish community and learning all the different things that you'll need to learn. Is Gog u Magog North Korea? Is he going to help Iran? We don't know who is Gog u Magog yet. We're only going to know that once it actually happens. Do you believe that converts to Judaism are less Jews than Jews who are not converts? That's the opposite of our Torah. According to our Torah, a Jew that's a natural-born Jew, Hashem is considered their father, whereas a gentile that converts to Judaism and is legitimate uh conversion, Hashem is considered both their father and their mother because their biological father and mother are no longer their spiritual mother and father, and therefore Hashem takes both roles. Furthermore, the Rambam writes in Paskins the Halacha, this is a law that we are obligated to love all Jews like we love ourselves, but if they are converts, if they're righteous converts, meaning they were born a gentile and they converted to Judaism later on in their life, we are obligated to love them even more than a natural-born Jew, only to be compared to the love we have for God himself. So, any Jew that thinks that converts are less than natural-born Jews are not only clueless about what the Torah says, but they're actually going to get punished because our Torah mentions in several dozen places how Hakadosh Baruch Hu loves and protects the converts to such an extent that he says that anyone that harms those that convert to Judaism, he will take a personal war against those people with his sword. Obviously, Hashem doesn't have a physical sword, but he's talking about how he will literally go to war with people that go against converts to Judaism. So, anyone that thinks less of converts is a clueless person that is bringing the wrath of God upon themselves. Furthermore, for anyone who does not know and has not watched my uh the film about my personal life, the dearest person in my life, my dear wife, is a righteous convert that I've merited to be with for Baruch Hashem a few decades already, and simply the greatest person I know. And we've also had the merit of converting many, many different people from around the world to Judaism, bringing them to recognize Ben Din whether in Florida, or New York, or other Ben Din in Israel, and other countries. And bringing these righteous people that were born non-Jews into Judaism, and bringing it to Am Yisrael, as the Midrash says, as a gift. As a gift to the Jewish people. Where Hashem takes the best of the nations and gives them as a gift to the Jewish people. Some of the greatest sages that the Jewish people have ever had, the most important people that the Jewish people ever had, were converts to Judaism. Our Mashiach comes from converts. As the grandmother of David Hamelach, who from him comes the Mashiach, his grandmother, Ruth, was a convert. The father-in-law of Moshe Rabbeinu was a convert. Yitro, our parashah that we received the Torah, the culminating point of the entire Torah, where at Mount Sinai we get the Torah, is called after Yitro, the convert. Rabbi Akiva, who reached the highest level of holiness in the history of mankind, the 50th level of kedusha, came from converts. His father was a convert. Rabbi Meir Baal Haness, one of the students of Rabbi Akiva, came from converts. Shemaya and Avtalyon, they were even in the generation before Rabbi Akiva, they were in the generation of the Zugot, both were converts. Coming from the uh dis- being descendants, and some say even the children of one of the most vicious people that ever lived, Sennacherib, who tried to destroy the Jewish people, and God miraculously destroyed him due to the merit of Hezekiah by sending the angel to kill all of Sennacherib's soldiers, and only leaving Sennacherib and his two sons alive. And once his two sons saw this, and then saw that their father is still praying to idolatry, they killed their father and converted to Judaism and became Shemaya and Avtalyon. So, anyone that thinks that converts are less than natural-born Jews is simply clueless, because what I've said until now is not even 1% of all of the amazing things that has been brought to Am Yisrael from converts. Now, of course, not all converts are the same. There are righteous converts, and there are wicked ones, just like there are natural-born Jews that are righteous, and some that are wicked. Just like there are righteous gentiles and wicked gentiles. So, we can't put everyone in one basket, but nonetheless, if they're righteous, we have an obligation to love them more than we love natural-born Jews, only to be compared to the love we have for God. And this is a law, not a custom, not a suggestion, it's an a law by the Rambam. Who's the one-eyed man who says, "I am God. No one says I am God that has one eye, but if you're talking about in Parshat Balak where Balaam the wicked prophet of the nations calls himself the one-eyed man, that's because he had one eye. And his other eye was just a hole in his head. And the sages say that he was such a wicked person that he literally sinned with his entire body. Was committing bestiality, married his donkey. And Hashem made him have a hole instead of an eye because that was the only part of his body that he didn't sin because from there Hashem can give him the prophecy. That's why he calls himself uh he calls himself the one-eyed man. And he says he knows the words of God, not that he is God. Didn't say that he is God. What happens with after conversion with their natural parent parents spiritually? Well, the convert still has to respect their biological parents, still has to, you know, be you know, a good son or daughter. Certainly not disrespect them in any way, shape or form. Uh and they have to you know, listen to them in anything that's not violating the Torah. Not because they have a Torah obligation to do it, but rather because they have a uh a ethical obligation to do it as a gratitude for their parents raising them. Uh but as far as spiritually is concerned, they're not considered their spiritual parents, but they're still obviously someone that they they have to be grateful to, that they raised them, they fed them, they helped them in their life. Now, I know that some of you going to say that oh, I had a bad childhood and you know, one of your parents or both of your parents abused you or anything like that. Obviously, that would be exceptions to the case. You don't have to honor parents or even be communicating with parents that abused you, but I'm talking about someone that had a normal childhood where their parents did not abuse them or do anything horrible to them. Now, in addition to that, their parents benefit spiritually from their child's conversion to Judaism, especially if their child is a righteous Jew, that uh you know, is really going to grow into what? Even though he's not considered their spiritual child anymore, he's still someone that they brought to the world. So, every good thing that their child does as a Jew also goes to their merit. Goes to their merit. And it certainly helps their situation even if they've already died. Uh this is actually one of the reasons why a uh the uh Hachamim say that uh Haman Haman the wicked Haman from Amalek who tried to destroy the Jews, uh he actually merited having a uh his descendants convert to Judaism. And one of the reasons that the sages explain is because even though Haman was trying to destroy the Jewish people, he unintentionally caused the Jewish people to do teshuvah and to fast. And also to get closer to Hashem and to bring to to to to to bring themselves to where they can actually fix their mistakes. So, even though that was not his intention, he still caused the benefit. So, needless to say if a non-Jewish parent brought a child to the world and their child ended up becoming a righteous Jew even though that was not their intention they still brought that they're certainly going to benefit from it in a very big way. Even more so if they're a righteous parent. >> So, Sharia law says that under Sharia law you can marry little girls. That's what happens when you have man-made laws that are based on lust and insanity. I mean, Muhammad himself did it. Now, of course, I know that those that want to be uh uh want to be uh uh clever say, "Wait, Rabbi, you said that you're not allowed to marry little girls. And that's a bad thing, but didn't you say that Rivka was 3 years old when she married Yitzchak?" Yes. And Batsheva was 7 years old when she married David Hamelech. So, how is this allowed and that's not allowed? As I explained during those lectures, one of the things that the Torah, the text itself shows us is that although Rivka was 3 years old in age, physically speaking, she was a grown woman. How do we know? The fact that she was able to bring enough water for 10 camels, which is an enormous amount of water, which literally requires superhuman powers, much more than any bodybuilder has today, and she was able to do it as a 3-year-old person. So, obviously she was physically much bigger than the 3-year-old presents. The same concept with Batsheva. She was 7 years old, but she was already previously married. She obviously was able to bring a child to the world shortly after marrying David Hamelech, which in today's world, biologically speaking, a 7-year-old cannot bring a child to the world. So, we see here that the uh the bodies of people have changed. They have changed significantly. This is not something that uh those people that learn to learn and believe in the Torah have a problem with. The only people that have a problem with this is people that do not believe in the Torah completely, or better yet, people that don't believe in Torah at all, which is funny because those same people will not have any problems believing that the whole world came from some explosion that came from nothing, or that people came from monkeys, or that people came from lizards, or that the the orangutan used to be a whale or or or some type of parakeet. They have no problem believing that stuff, but they have a problem that the biology of people, the physical makeup of people has weakened over time. Now, we know this to be true not only because of our Torah saying it, which is more than enough, we also know it by simply looking at how physically strong people were without all the steroids and HGH and the the the all the different things they put into their body today. Physically strong just in our grandparents' age. In our grandparents' age. I'll even tell you a story. It's a family story that's well known in my family. I told you a few stories about my dear grandfather, alav hashalom, Saba Gavriel. Saba Gavriel, him and his brothers were the heroes of the Jewish people in his time in Tripoli and later on in Israel. And one of the things that they would do is fight against the the Arabs that were constantly kidnapping and abusing Jewish girls. During the war, during the World War, my dear grandfather Gavriel, he uh would go and collect the body parts of the Jewish people that died and you know, from all the bombings that happened. And he says that you know, during those times literally every day people were dying like flies. And you know, everyone was scared to even leave their houses, leave anything, he would go and literally not only collect the parts, collect the bodies, but go give them a respectable burial. In some cases you know, late at night coming home completely full of blood. And he says that he would always see their faces of all the people that he buried in his life in his hands. So, he saw a lot of supernatural things, a very extraordinary things. Anytime that there was a Jewish girl that was kidnapped by the by the the Arabs he and his brothers would go into the Arab places. Which was a life risk. Go in there and get them out. Sometimes physically sometimes negotiating. There was one time where a group of Arab thugs were on their way with weapons to cause a disaster in a Jewish community. Everyone was scared running into their houses. Including some others that were strong people. But they didn't have weapons. Saba Gibly, my dear grandfather decided to stand at the entrance. And as this group talk about a few dozen thugs come he's standing at the gate at the entrance. And he says to them, "Whoever comes close to me, I'm going to kill him on the spot." By himself. And much the fear of God went down into these people, and just like dogs, they ran away. Later on, there was a in Israel already, there was a the the bus drivers, many of them were Arabs, that whatever they could, they would uh take advantage of the Jews, no different than today. And they didn't really care about what the Jewish people wanted to or not. Now, Saba Gibly, alav hashalom, used to work very, you know, leave to go to work very, very early in the morning, start his day at 4:00 in the morning, not come back till the night. Used to build build buildings. And it was very important for him to get to work on time. And one day, the the buses weren't coming. The buses weren't coming, and everyone was running late. But nobody's bus was coming. Eventually, more than 45 minutes after, as they're all waiting there, a bunch of buses come at the same time, meaning that these buses, apparently, were all socializing and uh some type of uh coffee shop or something like that. And they didn't care that they're causing everybody to uh risk their jobs and uh and go late. And they all came at the same time. So, as soon as the uh the the the driver opened the door, Saba Gibly told him, "No, what's going on with you? You you're causing me to be late. Why are you guys all late?" And the the the Arab took looked at him and goes, "Huh? You think you can say something? No, I'm not letting you get on the bus." Grandfather told him, "I'm getting on the bus and you're going to drive me." The guy starts cursing my grandfather and comes out of the bus. When the other bus drivers that all got there at the same time, maybe another six or seven of them, uh or more, see this, they all also come out. And they're all coming to attack my grandfather. And this is a bunch of Jewish people witnessing this. This is not like some fairy tale. He takes the initial guy by the legs and starts hitting using him as a bat. Using him as a bat to hit all the other drivers that were trying to attack him. Let's just say he didn't like being a baseball bat and he was never late again. And the rest of those drivers weren't weren't happy to be the baseball either. Now, if you say this story, most people that have the mentality of today, they'll say, "Nah, come on, what is a cartoon?" But the truth is that in those days and before that, people were much stronger. If you even look at, let's say, the uh historical weightlifters, today you see people that are world's strongest men, the person has to become like a half a giant in order for him to lift a lot of weights. But if you look at the records of similar weight and in some cases even more of previous generation, it was held by people that look like a regular normal person. They look like a normal person. The gives multiple examples of how the abilities of people were superior physical abilities of people were superior to the people of today. The army of King David had the ability to run for days without tiring, without pain. Because King David was able to remove a certain nerve from their foot where and also from their spleen where they literally would not need to sleep and they would not ever tire. One of the sages Rabbi Hanina, Rabbi Yohanan saw that there was a fire in a building. He grabbed two young men as if they're both duffel bags under his arm and he ran with both grown men under his arms. The average person was able to see more than 10 18 miles with his naked eye. Just with his eye, no glasses, no Today, if you're able to see 500 yards it's already considered like you have great vision. The point is I'll be telling you that if your belief system is based on only what you see then you are giving yourself a very big limitation because most things that you have to believe in you can't see. You can't see electricity, you can't see sound waves, you can't see a lot of things. >> [snorts] >> And usually most people don't have a problem believing in things they can't see unless it comes to the Torah. So like I said when it comes to people at the time of the Torah, whether it's Rivka or it's Batsheva or it's several other people that you see them mentioned in the Torah and it sounds like they're adults, but in reality they're children. Whether it's Bezalel or it's Jeremiah the prophet who was only a teenager. Uh you know, it's a lot of these people that are mentioned, they're very, very young. They sound like they're 50 or 80 or 150 years old even. But many of them are very young. Not all of them, many of them are. And it's important to understand that our Torah does not uh limit us because of age. Does not select us because of age. A Torah mentions who Hashem chooses to mention. And as far as if Hakadosh Baruch Hu made sure that Rivka would be the wife for Yitzchak at 3 years old then obviously this is not only allowed this is the will of Hashem. And therefore, this is also the reason why it was possible for them to be together and bring children to the world and so on. So, again, a person has to understand that if you're limiting your knowledge based on the world that you see today then you're simply fooling yourself because history has shown us time and time again that times have changed. Times have changed, people have changed, the abilities of people have changed and the the human body has not only the mentality and the and the the intellect, but the body itself has weakened drastically in the past few generations and especially in you know, in the time of my lifetime needless to say in the last couple hundred years. Just look at the what we were able to do as kids and what people are able to do today. It's a In In my day the children of today sometimes will be considered like a ball moon like a deformed person they're not able to do anything. So things have changed over time things have changed. Let me see. Is there a positive side to our weakened bodies? Or is it only bad? I mean listen there's always a positive to everything that Hashem does. And the way you past generations the desires that people have were much stronger. And the some of the sins that people made are uh not understandable to us because of how things are today. For example, when you read about how uh people worshipped idols, not just the golden calf, but even at the time of the Beta Migdash, you know, people would worship idols. It's not understandable to us, but that's because there was a certain uh lust for for for idolatry at that time that was a uh similar to how people today have lust for uh for intimacy. That's so it's not really understandable to us. The same concept goes when it comes to physicality as far as uh the lust, the things that uh you know, a uh um certain wicked people did, uh especially the kings, the wicked kings of Israel, uh whether it's Manasseh before he did chuva, or Ahab, uh the the things that they uh or some of the other kings, uh the non-Jewish kings, whether it's Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, uh the Gemara talks about different uh you know, uh immorality crimes that they made that are completely beyond understanding. One of them marries a dog, the other one uh you know, brings all of the kings of the nations and rapes them. I mean, all types of strange things. Why? Why would they do this? Because again, the their their their physical uh makeup that made them stronger, more powerful, and uh you know, also gave them much bigger tests than we have today. So, even though people think that oh, it's the world today is not like it was back then, there's much more test today, Hashem doesn't make mistakes. If he gave us the test that we have today, then he gave us the ability to handle the test that we have today, which also means that we would not be able to pass the tests that the previous generation had. Had we been at the generation of the Bet Hamikdash, we would be part of the sinners. Had we been at the generation of Adam Harishon, we would have eaten from the fruit much before Hava did. Had we been at Mount Sinai, we would be part of the people that are sitting with the golden calf. Worse than the people that did it back then, cuz at least most of the people didn't worship the golden calf. They just didn't rebuke. But the reason why Hashem did not give us that test is because we can handle the test of this generation. We cannot handle the test of the last generation. How do I know this to be a fact? Because we have Torah to Gilgulim. Anyone that has not succeeded in their tests during their life may have the merit as someone that he gets reincarnated and come back to try again. Which means that they failed. We all failed in our previous lives. And Hashem is giving us a test appropriate for the generation that we're we're living in. He's not giving us the test of, you know, walking idols. He's not giving us the test of wicked kings that are technically our kings. He's not giving us the tests that they had back then where witchcraft was practically the norm. He's not giving us those tests. He's giving us tests that we can handle, and with Hashem we do. So, yes, there is a benefit to people weakening because it makes us fit for this generation. Uh and had we had the abilities of the previous generations, not only would the obligation on us be much bigger uh but also our our tests would be much bigger. >> Who is Mashiach ben Yosef? Mashiach ben Yosef, the Gemara in Masechet Sukkah mentions that before Mashiach ben David comes, Mashiach ben Yosef will come and will start fighting the wars of God. If Am Yisrael has the merit, he will not only win the wars, but he will continue living. If Am Yisrael does not have the merit, then he will die during those wars. Uh at which time Mashiach ben David will uh will come and defeat all of the enemies. He will have uh much more power and uh that's uh superior to uh to uh to Mashiach ben Yosef. But they uh even if uh Mashiach ben Yosef wins the wars, it's still uh it's not all of the wars. You're still You're still going to need uh to wait for Mashiach ben David to come to win the greater wars and the wars that require superhuman powers. And there's a lot of different uh interesting things that will happen at that time. Rabbi, with us being able to ascend now to the outer top area of the Temple Mount, what is the rabbi's guidance? All of Gedolei Yisrael, including Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef, Rabbi David Yosef, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, Rabbi Elyashiv, Rabbi Kanievsky, the Steipler Gaon's father, uh the the Ben Ish Hai, all of Gedolei Yisrael have said that Jews are not allowed to go to Temple Mount. Not allowed to go to Temple Mount. Uh you do not know exactly where the Kodesh Kodashim is and therefore you're risking uh failing and uh having an issur kareis. And even if you claim that you know where it is, you're still not allowed to take a risk. You're still not allowed to take a risk with such a thing. So much so that the Gemara in Maseches Bava Metzia says that if a person has two ways to get from where he wants to get go from where he is to where he wants to go. On the right path, he has a long path, long path that is clean and nothing in the way that will endanger him spiritually. On the other path, it's much much shorter, but it's full of zonot. It's full of immorality. Women that can cause him to sin. And the Gemara says, "Even if he goes on the short path, while closing his eyes the whole time, meaning he did not fail. He did not look at immorality. He did not look at any of the girls and he got to his destination without sinning, according to the Torah, he's considered a rasha, wicked. Why? How dare you take such a test? How dare you put yourself in such a situation where you're putting yourself in the unnecessary test? Yeah, but the other path was much longer. It's going to take me a half hour to get there. I would have been late. It's better to be late or even not to make it to your destination than to put yourself into a test that you don't have to put So, for a person that goes to Temple Mount, they're not only failing following the sages throughout all of the generations that seem not to go there, but on top of it, they're putting themselves into an unnecessary test, which means that even if they don't fail, even if they don't go to the place where there is Kodesh Kodashim, they're still considered rasha. It's not a mitzvah, they're considered rasha, they're considered wicked. Yes, of course, the Gedolim have said no. Rabbi Reuven, is today your birthday? No. It's not my birthday, but it's birthday for my dear Rabbanit, was yesterday, anniversary is today, and tomorrow is one of my dear kids' birthday. So, we have lots of Baruch Hashem to be thankful to Hashem. Not just these three days, all the all the time. Baruch Hashem. >> Now, my What's the difference between Hasidic and Haredi? The word Haredi comes from the Torah, which means "Hared al Dvar Hashem", somebody that is willing to sacrifice in order to follow the word of Hashem. Meaning, it's somebody that is going to do everything they can to follow the word of Hashem. Hasid is, according to the Torah, is someone that is going to do above and beyond what is commanded on him. So, [snorts] certainly he's doing what's commanded. And he will try to do even more than what is commanded. So, for example, observing Shabbat for an extra hour. Or I, you know, making sure that every mitzvah is medudal, it's the in the best way of doing it. Now, Hasidut of today, and the last, you know, couple of hundred years, in essence, it's supposed to be a group of people that are doing above and beyond the law, above and beyond what's required of them. And that's really how it was founded. Today's world, not everyone that calls themself a Hasid or is part of Hasidut is actually really a Hasid according to our Torah. And in fact, some people that call themselves Hasidim are not even observant Jews. Uh, uh, don't even keep Shabbat or don't keep, uh, you know, basic laws. Some are outright heretics. Like, uh, the, uh, the ones that we've spoken about in the past that are heretics. So, it there there's always a understanding of what Torah says, how it applies to today, and who actually fits that description. Rather than looking at people and defining it based on people. We don't define things based on people. We define it based on what Torah says, what our sages teach. And instead of people defining what Torah says, the Torah defines what people are supposed to be. And what they actually are. Is Breslov Hasidic, it's a type of Hasidic, sure. Rabbi Nachman of Breslov was one of the descendants of the Baal Shem Tov. What makes a marriage between non-Jews valid? Uh, if they, uh, for non-Jews, there's no requirement to have a religious ceremony to make the, uh, marriage. For non-Jews, they simply have to live together and agree that they're going to be with each other. Uh, but if they, uh, choose to, uh, be with other people, or, uh, to, uh, to leave, you know, to live in different places, then they're not considered married. Is it hard to convert to Judaism? Well, it's certainly not easy, but it's, as far as whether it's hard or not, it dep- it depends on how passionate the person is about it. Because converting to Judaism is not should not be the goal for a person, but rather one of the stations on the way to the destination. You know, because your goal should be to live as a righteous Jew. And in order to live as a righteous Jew throughout your whole life, if you started as a Gentile, one of the stations you have to get to is to succeed in converting. But then you have to continue growing closer to Hashem and more observant of his Torah to live a righteous Jewish life. So, conversion is not a destination, but rather just one of the stops along the way. So, how hard it is all depends on how committed you are to the destination. Uh if you're really committed to it, then it's uh it's not as hard as people make it seem to be. Uh it's certainly not like the other religions where uh you know, the the false religions that either just simply make you say a few words like in Islam and you become one of them or in a uh Christianity, they they they put you into some bath and you become one of them. And uh doesn't matter what you did and what you do. You become one of them. That type of nonsense doesn't go doesn't fly with Judaism. You have to show that you're knowledgeable about the basics of Judaism, of how to live a Jewish life, and you're already making the adjustments in your life to show that you're able to do it in your life. Meaning that you have to move to a Jewish community, live among the Jews, go to synagogue if you're a male, uh be a part of the Jewish community, uh and to follow the laws uh as a non-Jew um to the best of your ability following 99% uh until you eventually convert. Uh and uh where you have to keep 100%. And if you're a male, you have to be circumcised. And uh if you've already been circumcised and the circumcision is valid according to Jewish law, then there's still going to be what's called a hatafat dam, uh where they uh uh they prick the male member and make some a little bit of blood come out of it as a part of the tradition. Uh but nonetheless, there is a process a process of you know, gaining knowledge and taking action on that knowledge that will prepare you for the conversion whenever that's going to be and usually the process can take anywhere from a year to several years depending on how committed the person is and how uh you know, a certain life circumstances. Some people may be ready to convert uh ideologically and knowledge-based, uh but they're not ready to convert to be yet because they can't make all of the adjustments in their life. They can't afford to move to Jewish community or they're in a marriage where their partner does not want to convert yet or is not ready to convert yet. Uh so even though they may be ready, they're you know, they're not able to take action uh yet and have to wait longer. But nonetheless, anyone that's truly committed to converting to Judaism will eventually get there. Will eventually get there. How many sects of Judaism are there? I mean, there's people that follow Torah laws and people that don't. Now, as far as cultures among the Jewish people, it's uh they're they're uh different to the many because uh the uh the Torah is the same for all of us. And if you're talking about among the people that actually follow the Torah, their Torah is the same, the laws are more or less the same, but the customs are different. For example, the customs of the Jews that lived in Poland, whether it's a specific foods that they have or certain customs they have in a different things that they do during holidays are different than let's say my ancestors that you know, that lived in Tripoli, which are Sephardi Jews. The Torah law is the same, but there's certain customs that are different cuz they lived in different parts of the world, had different problems, different issues that they overcome and so on. So, in regards to the Jews that observe the Torah, Torah is the same. There are different cultures based on where everybody was raised for for obvious reasons. The same thing goes for you know, a uh non-Jews. You know, there's a people that let's say for example, Latin Americans that were born in America and then Latinos that were born in in different countries. You can say they speak the same language, but you can't say they have the same lives, you can't say they have the same customs, the same life cuz they live in different, especially second generation and third generation. So, again, there's different there're different traditions even more so for the Jewish people because obviously everything is connected to the Torah and how we serve Hashem, but nonetheless, it's a the Torah is the same. Now, as far as if you're talking about people that are reformers that don't follow the Torah, but rather they they manipulate the Torah to their likings, there's no end to the amount of heretics that are out there. Every heretic is different from the next. There's some that call themselves modernizers, rationalizers, reformers, Sadducees, Bet Tzedek, and in fact, even Christianity started with with people that tried to reform Judaism. Primarily their head, Yoshke, Jesus they call him. He was a Jew that tried to, you know, make people follow him instead of following God in the Torah. So, there are all types of people that tried to change the Torah. So, those we don't consider them as part of Judaism. They're not following Judaism. But if you're talking about people that actually follow what the Torah says, the only difference among us is customs, customs that you have based on where you lived in the world. If you don't have the temple, how do you perform the sin offering? Or is it just a day of atonement for now? No, no. First, the Torah tells us that even at the time of the temple, the biggest part of the atonement was not the actual sacrifice, but rather the teshuvah, the repentance that the person would do through prayer. So, that prayer that we did at the time of the Beit Hamikdash, at the time of the temple, is still what we do today. So, that that hasn't changed. Secondly, the the fact that the Torah tells us that we're not obligated to do things that are not possible. Meaning, it's not that we don't want to bring sacrifices to the Beit Hamikdash, it's that Hashem removed it from the world for now. So, it's not possible for us to fulfill that mitzvah at this point. So, we're not obligated to do something that we can't. Just like, uh you know, a a man is not obligated to do the mitzvot of women because he's not a woman. A woman is not obligated to do the mitzvot of men because she's not a man. It's not It's It's not that the mitzvah itself that the law itself is not valid, it's just not applicable. But the part of it that is applicable, it has to be uh has to be practiced. So, the prayer that we were doing at the Bet Hamikdash at the temple, we still do today. Secondly, our Torah teaches us that when we study the laws, all the intricacies, all the intricate parts of them, all of the different uh uh opinions of how to do it best, how they did it back then, all the different teachings about each and every law, it is considered as if we fulfilled the law itself. Because ultimately, that's the goal. Ultimately, it's to learn the Torah in order to fulfill it. Which means that the only thing we can do right now is to learn it, and when we will be able to fulfill it, we will be We'll We'll do it. But if we don't learn it, then that means that even if we were able to do it, we wouldn't do it because we don't know how to do it. So, we're fulfilling all of the parts that are relevant to us right now because we can do them. The parts that we can't, it's not that we don't want to. We can't do them. But we're still fulfilling the law, we're still repenting every day. We still have part of our prayer every day that is specifically called Tachanun, which is uh repenting for our sins, Hatanu, Avinu, Pashanu, uh the uh the the we sin different types of sins, and we're saying, "I'm sorry to Hashem." Every single day, we also have the uh Day of Atonement. Uh first, we have the Judgment Day, which is Rosh Hashanah, then we have Day of Atonement, which is Yom Kippur. So, technically, a Jew that's a observant Jew is doing some form of repentance every single day. Every single day. There are sometimes that we do more than the average day, but every day is supposed to repent for something. Have you ever studied Mesilat Yesharim? Yes, of course. Few times. Bochurim. It's a fantastic sefer. Lots of kedusha, lots of wisdom in there. I don't think it's something that a new person can apply to their life, you know, all of it right away just simply because it's much higher than the average person even thinks. Or is capable of doing. But nonetheless, they every person can learn something from it. Every person can apply at least parts of it to their life, and especially the part of what they should aim for ultimately in their life. To cleanse themselves, to be more ambitious about doing more mitzvot, to to be a righteous person. To be zealous for the mitzvot. It also says that if a person wants to learn Torah, they should learn from a baal teshuvah. Because a baal teshuvah knows what all the traps look like, because he has done it. He has failed in the past, and he does and he came back. So, he will be a better teacher than someone that hasn't sinned, because someone that hasn't sinned doesn't know all of the different pitfalls in the track. And the the Mesilat Yesharim, the Ramchal, gives it an analogy of a maze. Of a maze. Different parts that you can enter, and someone that has gone through the maze already, uh you know, could tell you exactly where to go. Whereas someone that hasn't gone through the maze is not going to know exactly where to go. By the way, the Muslims have Ramadan and they fast. The Jews also fast. Not during Ramadan. We have different fast days uh that we fast. Uh we fast at Tisha B'Av on uh we seven 17th of Tammuz uh before uh Purim, which was last week, uh the uh eve of Pesach. Uh we have a multiple fast during the year, but uh our fasts are very different than the fast of uh they have in uh Islam. Because ultimately the goal of the fast for the Jewish people is to elevate our repentance, elevate our observance of the Torah, get ourselves spiritually closer to Hashem, and not just simply stop eating and drinking. If you just stop eating and drinking, then it's just a diet. Yes, and of course Yom Kippur. Uh so we have a uh we have our fast. The ultimate goal of the fast is what Hashem says to the prophet Ezekiel, that he's not interested in our uh you know, our fasts as far as us not eating. He's uh he's not looking for us to uh tear our clothes and to uh torment ourselves and pretend like we're uh you know, we're sorry. He's looking for us to tear our hearts, to do teshuvah, to say I'm sorry, to elevate ourselves spiritually by being less connected to the physical. So, it's much more uh deep as far as the fast that we have. Um and uh therefore, it's also not necessary to do it for 40 days. If you are uh fasting with food for 40 days, but you're still, you know, uh preaching hate and uh you know, and and bitterness, then the fast is useless. And the same thing goes for a Jew. A Jew that uh is uh fasting, but is still planning to sin uh you know, the next day, or even uh already planning his sins uh the notification that he's going to go to, then the sin is worth the the fast is worthless. Can you explain Kol Isha and how bad it is? And how I can stop to enjoy it? The Gemara in uh Maseches Sota says Kol Isha Ba'erva. That the the voice of a woman is considered like her nakedness. Which means that the way that Hakadosh Baruch Hu created the man is that his physical makeup, whether it's his hormones, his physical nature, is very different than a woman. A woman, when she looks at a man, she usually, if she's a normal woman, she's usually thinking about his personality, and not just his physical features. A man does not even need to look at a woman in order to think of everything but her personality. They're always thinking about things that have to do with immorality. Now, because of that, there are certain rules that the Torah and the sages put into place to protect a man from falling into sin. So, the Masechet Berachot says that if a man is doing business with a woman and he wants to he has she buys something from him and he wants to give her change. If he gives her the change slowly just so he can get a good look at her hands, which again, the hands are not a place of modesty. The hands are not something that we cover. The hands is a permissible place. But if he is doing business with her, which is perfectly fine. But he's doing it in such a way that he is giving her change one bill at a time slowly or one coin at a time slowly so he can get pleasure out of looking at her hands. The Gemara says he will certainly go to Gehennom. He will certainly go to Gehennom. And this is for looking at a permissible place. Now when the Gemara says that kol isha ervah it means a couple of things. One is that every part of the woman kol can be considered something that can cause a man to sin. Can be considered as something that will lead a man to think about her ervah, about her naked. And also means kol isha, which is the voice of a woman also is considered ervah, which means that even the voice of a woman is considered as something that can bring a man to think of immoral thoughts about a woman. This is why if a man knows what a woman looks like he's not allowed to listen to her sing. Why? Because when he listens to her sing he is imagining what she looks like. And when he's imagining what she looks like, he's not imagining her in a in modest clothes as with her husband and kids having Shabbat dinner. He's imagining her in inappropriate places doing inappropriate things. And therefore, that thought will bring him to further immorality and will bring him to sin. So, Kol Isha Ervah is something that a person has to take seriously, or else they will ultimately fail in wasting seed. They will fail in immorality. They will fail in life. Because if you're not willing to give yourself offense, make yourself offense, to give yourself restrictions from things that our Torah and our sages specifically warned you against, then you're not going to be able to control yourself when push comes to shove. Now, you may think, "Oh, no, but it's not really a big deal. It's just the voice. I just like the way she sings. I don't think those things." You may not think those things right now. But if once in your life you will think them, then all of that those years of listening to it was not worth it. Why? Because that one time that you'll sin could literally ruin a life worth of mitzvot. So, a person needs to know that if they want to do the will of Hashem, if they want to be a servant of Hashem, if they want to have a chance at being righteous, if they want to have a chance of having a good blessed life where they are walking side by side with Hashem as their guard, as their source of blessing, as their as their protection, as their everything, then they have to know that they have to give themselves restrictions, especially in places that it's clear that the Torah warned us against. If there was something that the Torah didn't warn us against, but it's particular to you, you still need to do a make a fence. For example, if the Torah didn't warn us uh against, let's say uh you know, a I don't know, looking going to the going to the park. Didn't warn us about going to the park, unless there's immorality there. But if a person knows that at this park, there's all types of things that can bring a person to immorality, that he knows he has to take an extra measure and not go to this park at all. Or if there's certain activities that a person does that are unique to him, he has certain lusts or something, has certain fetishes with certain things, that even though the Torah didn't warn us against, he has to put a protective fence for himself if he doesn't want to fall into sin. Whether it's spending time with specific people, going to specific places, so it's really all a matter of how committed a a person is to Hashem, how committed a person is to going in the path of the righteous, going in the path of the just. If a person wants to go in the path of the just, then they need to know that in order to succeed, they will have to give themselves certain restrictions. But this is also true with anything else in life that a person wants to succeed. If a person wants to succeed in business over a long period of time, they know they have to give themselves restrictions with how much time they spend partying, how much time they spend with friends and family, how much time they waste, how much you know, how they you know, preserve their body, how they spend their time educating themselves, doing business honestly. All of these different things are restrictions that a person has to put onto themselves in order to improve their work ethic and increase their chances of long-term success. But a person that does not give themselves any restrictions will certainly not succeed over the long run. They may have short-term successes like high highs but also have low lows. So anyone that wants to have a success over a long period of time will have to be much more disciplined and that's actually one of the things you'll see as a common denominator among all successful people without exception. They all have different, you know, unusual schedules, unusual life, unusual habits, unusual behaviors. It's unusual to everybody else that does not want to put restrictions on themselves. But those that are willing to put restrictions on themselves and limitations among themselves end up being the most successful primarily because of those restrictions that everyone wasn't willing to do. The same concept goes with someone that wants to go on the path of the just, going on like the Ramchal wrote, the path of the righteous. You have to have certain restrictions. Now we're not saying restrict everything and anything and simply live in a cave. We're saying restrict yourself from things that our sages have already warned us about. Because if you're going to allow yourself to listen to a woman sing, then you're much more likely to dream about women, think about women, look at women that are not your wife. And then end up sinning even if you have a wife. And needless to say without having a wife. So the more a person applies the teachings of the Torah and the sages to their life, the more they're showing that they're committed to the path of the just and the more Hashem will enable them to success. As the As the Gamara says in Maseches Mo'ed Katan, "A ba'al litayer mesayin b'yado." Someone that comes to be purified, Hashem helps him. By putting those protective measures, that fence, around your life, you are showing that you are committed to following the path of Hashem. You're at least trying your effort. By ignoring the guidance of the Torah and the sages, you're simply saying you don't care, or you think you're smarter than them. You're going to beat the system. Well, guess what? Even HaMelech, who was known as the wisest man that ever lived, thought that he can outsmart the Torah because he was so smart, and he thought that the Torah's limitation of wives and horses wasn't applicable to him because he was smarter than everybody else. He failed at exactly those things. Those were his failures. Everything else that he followed the Torah to the T, he didn't fail at. Where did he fail? The places that he thought were not relevant to him. So much so that the Gamara says that the letter Yud came, the smallest letter of the Hebrew alphabet, came and cried to Hashem saying that he's not following the Torah. And Hashem says, "Let there be and a thousand like him, and I'm not going to erase even one letter in the Torah as small as a Yud." Meaning that these laws are applicable to HaMelech, and every Yud, even the smallest letter, is applicable to every single person. Needless to say, to HaMelech. And the fact that he thought that it wasn't relevant to him was exactly the reason why he failed in those tests. So, again, a person that wants to follow in the path of the just will apply everything and anything they possibly can and know that's in the Torah to their life. A person that wants to beat the system or ignore the system will simply suffer the consequences that come with it. Not just in the next world, in this world. In this world. I can tell you one thing that one of the primary differences between a man that preserves himself, protects his eyes, protects his ears ends up having a much easier time not only protecting their breed, but also much easier time having a very happy and healthy marriage. Why? Because a man that is listening to women sing will easily rationalize that it's okay to also look at women. And think about women. So, what ends up happening with those people is that even if they're married it'll be very common for them to compare their wife to other women that are on their mind. Either during the most inappropriate times or even during conversation where his wife is saying one thing, but he heard some celebrity zona say something else. And he's comparing this one to that one. He's seeing his wife with a towel over her head and pajamas because she just, you know, went to the mikveh. And he's comparing her to some zona that he saw in Hollywood. And guess what? He's not GOING TO BE HAPPY. WHY? BECAUSE HE'S COMPARING unrealistic to reality. So, he's constantly going to have problems in his marriage. he's not going to be satisfied with his marriage, he's always going to compare he's always going to feel like he's missing something, like he could have done better. Whereas a person that's protecting his eyes by not looking at other women, is not listening to women sing, is protecting their eyes, is protecting their mind, protecting their ears, then guess what? The only woman that he ever looks at, like properly looks at, is his wife. Which means that she will always be the most beautiful woman he ever saw. Cuz she's the only one he sees, and needless to say, she's beautiful. He sees her for what she really is. So, guess what? He has nothing to compare it to. Why? The only thing he compares it to is her beauty today to her beauty yesterday. And guess what? You're more beautiful today, honey. How did you get more beautiful? What did you do? Honey, she's laughing, she thinks he's joking. But he's serious. Uh how did you get so beautiful? What what happened? What did you do? What, you have a special potion? Honey, I just What are you talking about? She has no idea what he's TALKING ABOUT. BUT HE'S 100% seeing the truth. He could be with her 60 years and still think that she is more beautiful today than when he met her when they were 20 years old. Why? She's the only one she he's looking at. So, her beauty in his eyes is much more than just a physical. Her beauty is his connection to her neshama, her real self, in addition to the physical. It's a superior relationship, it's a superior ability to see. Why? Because there's nothing in your way that's blurring your vision. There's nothing in your way that's steering you away from the truth. Whereas when you have different women in your mind, different women in your head, how do you ever We're to have time to really give the the proper look to the love of your life. You're not even sure if she's the love of your life. Why? Cuz just yesterday you heard some zona that made a new song and puts herself on television without clothes on. Yesterday. So, how are you going to think about your wife even though she has given you four or five kids? You're thinking about ah man what if I was where what if I was that? You're thinking about something else. So, there's constantly something blurring your vision. And where does it start with? Ignoring the guidance of the Torah. Ignoring the guidance of the sages. Saying ah come on IT'S JUST A VOICE. Kol Isha Erva. Kol Isha means the voice and the entire Isha, every part of her. If she's not your Isha, every part of her could lead you to immorality. If you stare at any woman that's not your wife even her hands could lead you to immorality hence the reason why the says he will certainly go to gehenom. For what? For looking AT HER HANDS. YEAH, BUT THE HANDS ARE ALLOWED. Not for you. You can give her change and see her hands in the process but not see them for the sake of enjoying them. See them because it's in your in your line of sight. What you're focusing on is giving the change and ending it and going on your business. But if you are such a person that you're trying to get pleasure of different women then guess what? Even that will be enjoyable for you. And your real life will not be. When our sages teach us about kedusha, they tell us kedusha only exists in a place that does not have immorality. If there's immorality, there cannot be kedusha. There cannot be holiness. Why? The two cannot coexist. Kedusha and immorality cannot coexist. It's either kedusha or it's immorality. One or the other. Cannot be It cannot be that there is kedusha in a place of immorality. Immorality comes in different forms, different levels. There's immorality of behavior, there's immorality in in the way people dress and carry themselves, behavior. There's obviously immorality in acts, but nonetheless a person that thinks this is bad, but this is not and starts deciding for themselves which one is okay for them, which one is not, not based on their own understanding then it's exactly what our prophet Isaiah said that the Torah in Masachet Sotah warned us about. Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes. And are wise in according to their own understanding. Woe to them. So, listen to the Torah, listen to the sages and you'll have a good life. Okay, my dear community, baruch Hashem, we've learned a lot, we've answered a lot. Be'ezrat Hashem, we'll continue learning later this week. Everyone should take the right message out of this and most importantly share this lecture with as many people as you possibly can. Uh Be'ezrat Hashem, we're going to have a campaign not only for Pesach, but also to help some people that have lost their homes and different property during this horrific war. So, anyone that already start donating generously, you could already do that by donating at beezrathashem.org or bhtorah.org uh and help us help Am Yisrael, help us as much as you possibly can. Most importantly, anyone that has not taken the advantage of kiruv that they can do by distributing our books and USBs and all the different things that we can. This is the time you can do it by in showing Hashem that you're not only believing in the Torah, but you are following it and following the truth like it's true. Not like it's not true. When you follow it like it's true, that means that you are publicizing it. You are marketing it. You are getting as many people as possible to do it. So, order some books and different things that you can on our website or if you have the ability financially, order some of our Kiruv Boxes. Get 10, 20, 50, 100 of them to distribute and Be'ezrat Hashem, you will help your friends, family, and the rest of Am Yisrael that you don't know do teshuvah and Be'ezrat Hashem be part of the salvation that's coming sooner or later. Thank you very much for learning with me and Be'ezrat Hashem, we'll learn again later this week. Kol tuv u'vracha. Shalom u'vracha, rabotai. We're finally here. The new Kiruv Box. Opens up. A nice little cushion here. We get Let's see if it's charged. Everything is amazing. It's the box you wanted. Now available at besodhashem.com. .org. besodhashem.org. Get yourself 20 of them, 30 of them, 50 of them. Distribute them to all the people that you care about. And you get people to do teshuvah.