MONEY MONEY MONEY | STUMP THE RABBI (269)

We are back here on our longest standing series stump the Rabbi where after some divrei Torah you guys will ask some questions and will give us the answers. And parashat behukotai we have a double parashah this week and tonight she was going to be for the for Ephraim Shulamit and about and Levana but Sarah about Levana I want to be with you but you're and all of Israel and especially those that continue to contribute continue to help us and also team Hashem are very very dear to my heart team Hashem comprised of the employees and the volunteers and simply the partners that we have uh we love you we appreciate you and don't ever think for a second that we don't notice all your hard work Hashem. We're back with the songs now so if you go to the Chuvah music channel you'll be seeing some new songs there that already got published as well as will be published in the coming days. So Chuvah music channel our Hashem kids BH kids channel continues to pump out new material the new amazing series about King David uh is out both in Hebrew and English as well as we have the weekly couple of stories of tzadikim on there that a lot of people love Hashem and of course all of the different languages that we have our channels continue to expand further and further and we have amazing news for the Spanish listeners that we now have a TV station a Roku channel for our Spanish subscribers so if you want to watch it on YouTube, you want to watch it on our BH Spanish, uh, website, you want to watch it on our app, or you want to watch it on Roku TV, you can now watch our Shiurim uh, for uh, both the English and Spanish, uh, channels. Baruch Hashem and Be'ezrat Hashem, we'll continue to expand further and further. Like as I told you guys, there's a lot of good news. This is just a it's not small, but this is a small token of what's happening. New TV stations, new apps, new projects, huge things coming up very, very soon. It's just going to keep coming. And, uh, for all of those that, uh, so busy hating us, Charbanta Bobelibam, their heart will spear their own heart their their, uh, swords will spear their own hearts. So, Abba Tayya Karim, why we so excited about all these amazing projects? Because we're seeing Siyata Dishmaya. We're seeing that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is with with us. We're seeing that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is making the impossible possible. He's making simply amazing things come to our hands, and, uh, we know that, uh, when it's Sha'at Ratzon, when it's the moment of, uh, the will of Heaven, there's simply no limitations. And one thing that somebody asked me about, and, uh, we'll start off that because it has a lot to do with the Shiur. Uh, you know, when it comes to Mitzvot, when it comes to the Torah, there's a lot of, uh, issues that have to do with money. Uh, a lot of things that have to do with money. Why? Because the Gemara in Maseches Shabbos says that when a, uh, person is finished with his life in this world, Hakadosh Baruch Hu will ask him questions at the Beis Din of Heaven. And the first question that Hashem is going to ask a person is not about whether he put on Tefillin, it's not about whether he kept Shabbat, it's not about even of whether he protected his wheat. The first question that a person is going to be asked in Shamayim is money matters. Did you conduct your business with emunah? Meaning how did you deal with money? Did you steal from people? Did you destroy their life while you were in a predatory business like the cash advance industry that pretends to help people but in reality is destroying their lives? All types of other similar industries that are simply preying on people's ignorance? Or did you have emunah in Hashem and regardless of whether you were a plumber or you sold cars or you build buildings or you invested, whatever it was, you did what you did honestly because you knew that Hashem is watching everything. How did you do deal with your money? So when it comes to the Torah, there are many things that have to do with money, not just donations, not just loans, but literally everything. Why? Because money is called bloods in the words of the Gemara because people spend their entire life, their entire blood chasing it, making it, spending it. And it's very important for a person to know where they stand by simply looking at how they deal with money, how they relate to money, how they treat money. How do they uh idolize money? All of these issues have a lot to do with everything. But of course, there are always some people that realize that there's an investment opportunity that's not always an investment of real estate or stocks or bonds that is the best one, but sometimes there's a spiritual investment. There's a spiritual investment that can be made. And somebody asked me uh well listen, I know the amazing things that you did over the last 10 years. I know what you did the last 10 years, and it's amazing. And those people that donated 10 years ago, 9 years ago, 8 years ago, 5 years ago, 3 years ago, they you know, they have their set. They're set. Whatever they they invested, they you know, made a million extra money spiritually speaking. But if I want to invest now into it, but is it really going to be the same upside as what was the first 10 years? And I've said this recently, and I'll say it again. What we've done in the last 10 years is going to be literally almost considered as if it was nothing in comparison to what's coming Hashem in the next 10 years. And one of the reasons for that, we actually learned from the parashah that when gives us blessings and he gives us protection against our enemies where five five can chase after a hundred enemies. But if you have a hundred came, all of a sudden twice as 10,000. I mean, technically if you do the math, it shouldn't be 10,000. It should be 24, it should be 2,000. So the Torah teaches us that when there is a more goodness, more numbers, more results, the spiritual impact as well as on the physicality of the world is much more than what is logical, much more than what is normal. And Hashem, the last 10 years and all the partners that were with us benefited in a great amount and will continue benefiting. But the amount that is going to happen from here is going to be much more simply because there is all of that 10 years of build-up, that cumulative effect based on the shame. So that I can leave is coming. Now for those that still have a a doubt if you don't have a bad memory, you remember that just a couple days ago we celebrated the Lag B'Omer, the yard site of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. But really if you look at who Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai is you realize that he's not even the first talmid of Rabbi Akiva. You had the generation of Tanaim, the early Tanaim, Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai who had a talmid named Rabbi Eliezer ben Hurcanus. Him and Rabbi Yehoshua were the rabbis of Rabbi Akiva. So already we've traveled a few generations. And Rabbi Akiva had 24,000 students that we mourn them until this day because they died in an unusual death in a period that uh of a little bit over a month. And after Rabbi after Rabbi Akiva lost these 24,000 students he didn't give up. He didn't give up. He started again. Started again from scratch. And he started with five talmidim. One of them being Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. Which means that all of the Torah that's in the world today is not due to the 24,000 students of Rabbi Akiva that were great in Torah, enormous but did not merit to be included in what we are learning today. Rather it's due to the five talmidim, Rabbi Meir Baal HaNess, Rabbi Yehuda uh Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. Which means that the impact the impact that those last five tell me Dean that started from scratch had a much more lasting effect than even the earlier tell me Dean of 24,000. Right? Though the the last five merited because they learned and lived what the Torah says. Whereas the initial 24,000 learned but they erred. They made a mistake and therefore they did not merit. So we see from here about the Academy that in the world of Torah it's not a matter of a we don't get paid like in the world where if you work you get paid if you know as long as you produce the product. If you let's say for example order a closet a blue closet from somebody and after six months he gives you a red closet obviously you're not going to pay him. Why? Because you didn't ask for a red closet. In the world of Torah it's not that way. In the world of Torah doesn't pay us for the results he pays us for the effort. He pays us for the effort which means that even if a person tries and doesn't succeed to the same level that he hoped he still still rewards him. And we see from here about the Academy that anybody that is self-sacrifice for the sake of a Torah simply gains beyond any imagination. So now about the Parashat Behar is the first segment of this week. We have Parashat Behar Parashat Bechukotai double Parashat and Parashat Behar first starts off with the laws of Shemitah. The sabbatical year where wants us to know that the land of Israel is like the people of Israel, different. How different? The people of Israel, no matter where they live, the Jewish people must keep Shabbat, meaning work six days and rest on the seventh. A Kadosh Baruch Hu says, "Whether you live in Israel or you live anywhere else in the world, as a Jew you have to observe Shabbat." The non-Jews, on the other hand, work seven days, take a break seven days, doesn't make a difference because they don't have a law to observe Shabbat or even a permission to observe Shabbat because it's a mitzvah that Hashem gave to the Jewish people. The same concept goes for the land of Israel. Hashem says, "The land of Israel, you work on it for six years and the seventh year you let the land rest." Now, theoretically, this would mean that the people of Israel would go into poverty once every seven years. In the financial world, anyone that has studied a little bit of financial history of the markets and so on, it averages that about once every seven years there's a economic decline. Of course, there are anomalies like we've had in the last 20 years, a very consistent market of a rise overall, but nonetheless, throughout history there's an average of one market decline once every seven years. But in the world of Torah, doesn't work that way. The world of A Kadosh Baruch Hu and the Jewish people, it doesn't work that way. Rather, A Kadosh Baruch Hu tells us that if you work for six years, you're not going to have anything to worry about on the seventh year. Why? Because I'm going to give you three-fold on the sixth year, which will be enough for the sixth year, the seventh year when you're not working, and the eighth year where you're rebuilding. Why do this? Why does Hashem have to do this? He says, "Because you can go and watch shiur Torah lectures, read books about Emunah, about how much you believe in Hashem, but it's really all worth nothing if you can't put it into practice. So, the best place that Hashem wants to test us with whether we have real faith in him, real Emunah in him, is when it comes to money matters. Why? Because that's usually the main things that lead to people losing their mind, people getting into uh shalom bayit bayit problems, fighting uh the couple's fighting because there's not enough money, there's too much money sometimes, too much spending, there is a uh a lot of issues that uh stem from money matters. And Hashem says, "I'm only going to know that you believe in me if you actually have Emunah in Hashem when it comes to money." And one of the first examples that we see in the Torah is that Hakadosh Baruch Hu says, "I want to see if you're not going to work on the seventh year." Not going to work, but yet still observe Torah, observe mitzvot, not worry. Now, in chapter 25 of this parashah, in uh verse number 21, it says, "V'tziviti et birkhati lakhem bashanah hashishit v'asatah et atvu'ah l'shalosh shanim." So, the Torah is telling here that I will ordain my blessings for you in the sixth year and it will yield a crop sufficient for a three-year period. So, Hashem says, "I'm going to bless it." Fantastic. But, it's unusual. Why? Because a couple of verses earlier in verse 19, he already told us that it will be blessed. What does it say? "The land will give you its fruit and you will eat your fill and you will dwell securely upon it." So, why do we need it to be repeated? You said, "If we do this, you'll give us a blessing." But, now you're saying it again and you're even clarifying it that how is the blessing going to be? It's going to be that on the sixth year, you're going to get three times your money. So, what's the repetition for? Hashem says, "There's two types of emunah." There's two types of emunah. There's blind faith and there's can you tell me how you're going to do it faith? Rav Chaim Kanievsky, shicheh, Rav Chaim's father, says, "When it comes to blind faith, that's the first verse in verse 19. Hashem says, 'You don't ask any questions. You're simply going to do what Hashem says, not work on the seventh year and you don't have to worry about anything. Why? You'll have what to eat. The land will give you the fruit. You'll dwell securely upon it. You're good. But, if you will say, "What will we eat on the seventh year?" You start asking questions, even if you still do what Hashem said, but you're asking questions, you have doubt, you have anxiety, you're you're losing sleep, what are we going to do? Maybe we should save. Maybe we should have a retirement plan. Maybe we should uh all this thing and and put it in a in a trust. You're asking a lot of questions. You're trying to help Hashem out. Then Hakadosh Baruch Hu says, "Oh, okay, fine. No problem. This is how it's going to work, and you'll get three times your money on the sixth year." Now, practically speaking, it seems like there's no difference here. One way you're going to be blessed. The second time you get you have a definition of what the blessing is, which is 3x. Until you hear a story. There was once a farmer that uh he was a Jew, but he uh didn't know all the laws. Until one day the rabbi comes to him and tells him, "You know that there's a shnat shmita, you have to not work on the seventh year." "Why not?" "God said so." "Oh, God said not to work on the seventh year?" "Yeah." "And what what what how, you know, what's going to happen?" He said, "Listen, if you don't work on the seventh year, God already said you'll get three times your money. You'll be fine." The guy didn't understand how it's all going to work, but the rabbi guaranteed the deal. He said, "Don't worry, you'll have three times your money." "Okay." And this was already at a time of very very simple people. It was a generation of very simple people, very what's called emunah temimah. Simple emunah. And he did it. The rabbi was surprised that during the seventh year, this farmer didn't come, ask for, you know, help, nothing. He didn't hear from him at all. So, he went to him at the end of the seventh year, and he says, "How are you doing?" He says, "Oh, rabbi, glad you came here. I've been waiting for you." "You okay?" "More than okay. Right before I you told me what you said and I said, "Okay, fine. That's what God wants. I'm going to do it even though mathematically it doesn't make sense. Even though logically it doesn't make sense, but you said God wants me to do it. So, that's what I did." And guess what? Right before the seventh year started short period of time before it a bunch of messengers from the a different country come to us and they said, "We heard that you have a onion farm. You you have all onions." Yes. Okay, well "We're willing to pay you $10 an onion." I said, "Excuse me?" "Yeah, yeah, we're we're we're going to pay you $10 an onion, but you have to give us everything you have." I said, "You sure you can afford it?" He goes, "Yeah, we're coming with the treasures of the of the king. We want everything." I said, "Go ahead." They took everything. Rabbi, I usually sell the onions for $2. Meaning the right before the seventh year started Hashem already paid me 5x five times my money. So, that extra 2x you said 3x. You said I'll triple my money. But Hashem sent five. So, I guess the extra two is for you. Here you go, Rabbi. Here's the extra money for those two. Why did Hashem give him 5x when he says 3x? Because he didn't ask any questions. He didn't say, "Rabbi, do you think that if I do this and I invest the money, but you know, I don't really pay the ma'aser now. I'm going to pay it, you know, down the road when I'm like 70 years old and I'm retired and I've already built my palace, and then I'll start taking the money out and pay the ma'aser. Is that okay? Oh, Rabbi, listen, if I have a business, and the business has expenses, you know, as a secretary, and of course I have to take a vacation once every few months, and of course I have to pay for my fancy car, and can I redo, you know, lower the total so that my ma'aser is smaller? People like that that ask too many questions, have too many complications, and try to in essence minimize the amount of what they give to publicize the Torah, unfortunately, they lose out much more than they think they gain. Hakadosh Baruch Hu is telling us, listen, if you do what I say, one way or the other, you'll get blessed. But if you do it with complete faith in me, and uh you're not going to try to beat the system, the blessing will be magnified. Instead of 3x, 5x, or more. Why? Because you believed in me. You believed in my supernatural abilities, I'm going to show you that no one ever loses when they believe in Hashem. Now, one of the things we see in the world is that when people have money in front of them, and I remember I said this in the lecture years ago, in the uh what became the movie Hashem Took Back His Millions, that one of the things I learned from the business world, and uh and how people are, psychology of people, is that once you put a lot of money in front of people, they transform into something completely different. And it's very, very sad to to see it, because sometimes you help somebody, you invest into them, invest time, efforts, and so on, to try to help them, and they it works out. It works out. They turn 100,000 to a million. It works out. They go from being a bum to being a entrepreneur, a successful one. It works out where you get this investment into turning into something that's superstar. And then you see how once they have that, all of a sudden, they become ungrateful. All of a sudden, they don't want to know you. They don't want to talk to you. All of a sudden, things change. This is a sad reality. A Kadosh Baruch Hu, in essence, is trying to tell us, "Don't idolize money. Because if you do, that means that you're not serving me, even if you're keeping Shabbat. Even if you consider yourself religious." I have a friend who says one of the most difficult parts of his of his week is going to a is is if he wakes up late on Shabbat, because then he can't make it to the prayer in the synagogue that he wants to go to, and he has to go to the second minyan, where the second minyan is comprised of a bunch of young successful business people. And he says, "This is a tikkun for me." I said, "Why?" He says, "Because these guys, they all come. Some have the payout. Some don't have the payout. But everybody is religious. Everybody keeps Shabbat. Everybody, you know, puts on tefillin. But also, everybody talks the entire time we're in synagogue, socialize, do business, everything. Like, literally, as if it's a country club." I told "How is everybody over there so rich? One key line, everybody's rich." He says, "Yeah, all these young guys, they're in their 20s, early 30s, almost every single one of them is in the merchant cash advance business." I said, "Ah, so now I know why they don't care about praying and they don't care about the be, you know, the the respect for the Torah because they already are criminals against Hashem and mankind on a regular basis." When a person does evil things with their money, when a person is not honest in their business, the Torah is clearly telling us, "You already failed on the first question of the test, the test of life." Now, further, we see that Hakadosh Baruch Hu then tells us another issue when it comes to money. He says, "If your brother becomes impoverished and his means falter in your proximity, you shall strengthen him, convert or resident, so that he will can live with you." So, here the Torah is telling us that if one of the fellow Jews falls, becomes, loses his his his his income source, don't wait for him to become homeless before you help him. Rather, he's in your proximity, help him before he falls. Strengthen him before he falls. And furthermore, what if he needs money from me? "Do not take from him interest and increase. And you shall fear your God. And let your brother live with you. Do not give him your money for interest and do not give your food for increase. I am Hashem, your God." We see again Hashem repeating the same thing twice. So, obviously we know that the first time is mentioned for one reason, the second time is it's obviously for a different reason. So first Hakadosh Baruch Hu is telling us don't charge your fellow Jew interest. But then Hashem tells us twice, "I am Hashem your God." What does it mean I am Hashem your God? We know that you're Who else is going to talk to us? Steve? I'm Hashem and I know it's the ties my God. WHY WHY WHY DOES Hashem have to tell us that he is Hashem our God twice when it comes to don't charge people interest? When it comes to usury, why? The Hakhamim teach us Hakadosh Baruch Hu saying, "I am Hashem your God that took you out of Egypt." And you know before I took you out of Egypt, I brought the plagues. And the last plague was Makat Bekhorot, the plague of the firstborn. But yet, many houses of the Egyptians that had many kids, they had five kids, 10 kids, 20 kids, didn't have only one firstborn die. Rather, they had several of them. How could it be? How could one woman have more than one firstborn? Her husband didn't know, says Hashem. Her husband didn't know. He thought that all of the 10 kids were his kids. He didn't know that his wife cheated on him. Not once or twice, but with 10 different people. And therefore, each one of the kids was a firstborn to a different husband that SHE HAD. SO SHE didn't know. IN FACT, SHE HERSELF didn't even know from who and what where, but I did. And just like I punished her, just like I killed all of those firstborns, because I knew what people didn't realize I knew. I also know all of these different tricks that you're going to try to do when it comes to lending money with interest. You're going to say, "Listen, I'm not going to lend money with interest. I'm Jewish, but I have a partner who's not Jewish. So, he's the one that's lending to this Jew the money to charge him interest." Hashem says, "I know your tricks. I'm going to punish you for it. What you think because your partner you you have this little finagling finagling that that's how you're going to make money by by having a partner that's not Jewish? Or you're going to have, 'I don't work on Shabbat, but we have a business and my partner is not Jewish and he's the one that runs the company on Shabbat.' We just end up splitting the profits." So, in essence, what are you doing? You're making money on Shabbat. Are you trying to use an excuse? Hashem says, "I am Hashem your God. You think I didn't know your excuse? You didn't You think I you fooled me? Maybe you fooled your accountant. You fooled the IRS, the government, the FBI. You fooled your wife. You fooled your husband. You fooled your kids. You fooled everyone. But, you can't fool Hashem. You can't fool Hashem. All of these strategies that people use to try to fool Hashem like they have a teriska. Somebody tells me, "Listen, Rabbi, this guy he tells me that his rabbi says it's okay to lend money with interest as long as they sign a little paper that says, 'Listen, I'm going to lend this Jew $100,000 and he has to give me $110,000 at the end of the year.'" But, he signed it. So, that's okay, right? I said, "No. It's absolutely not. That's ribbis ketzutzah. That's a predetermined rebate. Predetermined interest that's 100% forbidden. That piece of paper is worth less than used toilet paper. And the rabbi that said it's okay, he's also worth less than toilet paper. Why? He doesn't know what he's talking about. Your tricks to try to justify of how you lend money with interest, Hakadosh Baruch Hu knows. Oh, no, but rabbi, listen, I'm charging this guy 70, 80, 100% interest, BUT HE'S NOT JEWISH, so it's okay, right? I can just do whatever I want with non-Jews. Who What are you talking about? No, but it says over here you don't charge your brother interest. It doesn't say anything about, you know, uh not uh being allowed to charge the uh the the nations uh 100% 3,000% interest. No, no, no. There's no permission to steal from people. There's no permission to give them a predatory product. In fact, the Rambam says, "Stealing from non-Jews is worse than stealing from Jews." And what, you think Hakadosh Baruch Hu doesn't know your tricks? Hashem says, "I knew the tricks of the Egyptian zona. You think I don't know the tricks of your little weaseling in the business and how you're cheating people? Because what, you have a little piece of paper? Because they signed it without even understanding what they're doing? So, Abudaya Karima, Hakadosh Baruch Hu tells us time and time again, "I'm going to test you with money. I'm going to test you with money. Why test you with money? Because that's going to tell me what you really believe. Everybody can pretend like they believe in Hashem. They could even give tzedakah. They could buy an expensive pair of tefillin. They could live in a Jewish neighborhood. But the reality is how you make your money, how you treat money, that's what's going to tell Hashem whether you really believe in him or not. Furthermore, when we go into the next parashah, parashat Behukotai, we see that in the beginning of the parashah, we see a lot of blessings, beautiful, beautiful blessings. But, what are these blessings? In the beginning, parashat Behukotai, chapter 26 in Leviticus, Vayikra, says, "Im behukotai telechu, ve'et mitzvotai tishmoru, va'asitem otam." Meaning, "If you will follow my decrees, observe my commandments, and perform them." Here we see that it's not just if you follow my decrees that are written in this Torah, where you read them, but you don't do what it says, but rather you observe the commandments, meaning that you understand how to do everything. You just don't don't just decide to interpret things yourself. It's based on what our Torah tells us to do, both the written and the oral Torah. And furthermore, you perform them. So, the Orach Chaim Hakadosh says, "Im behukotai telechu," if you follow my decrees, is not just referring to doing the mitzvot, keeping Shabbat, building a sukkah during Sukkot right before Sukkot, fasting on Yom Kippur, and so on. No, no. "Im behukotai telechu," if you follow my decrees, if you toil in Torah, meaning, you make Torah part of your day-to-day life that you have to learn. Because if you do all of that, good things will follow. If you don't do all that, you don't learn Torah on a regular basis, you don't make Torah a permanent part of your day-to-day life to do it, to learn it, to follow it, everything, then unfortunately, these blessings are not relevant to you, which we'll talk about in a moment. But, if you do the good things, venatati gishmechem be'ito, then I'll provide rains in their time. What does it mean I'll provide rains in their time? It's not just referring to the right season, but rather, Hashem says, I'll provide you the rain when it doesn't bother you. I'll send the rain at night. During the day, you're working. So, you don't really want it to be raining on your head while you're working. You don't want it to be raining on the way to work. It's harder to drive. It's harder to look appropriate. But, if you have the blessings, you don't have to worry about those things. Why? I'll make it rain, but not only make it rain, I'll make it rain at the best time where it doesn't bother you. Doesn't interfere with your productivity. It doesn't interfere with the things you need to do. And furthermore, venatnah aretz yevulah ve'etz hasadeh yiten piryo. And the land will give its produce, and the tree of the field will give its fruit. I mean, technically, this doesn't sound like a blessing. Yeah, of course. I mean, trees, you plant them. You plant a fruit tree, and it grows apples. You plant a fruit tree, it grows oranges. How is this really such a special blessing? The sages explain to us, this is why you need to understand the Torah not just from the literal sense that you ration the light, but rather, what our tradition says, what it actually means. When Hashem says, "The etz hasadeh yiten piryo," that the tree of the field will give its fruit, he's not referring to the apple tree will grow apples, and the orange tree will grow oranges. No, he's saying the etz hasadeh, the tree of the field that doesn't GROW FRUIT. IT DOESN'T USUALLY GROW FRUIT. IT'S A PINE TREE. Doesn't grow fruit. If you have the blessings because you learn Torah, you live Torah, you follow Torah, you do everything when it comes to following the will of Hashem, even the trees that Hashem created that do not bear fruits will give you fruits. Even those will give you fruits. This, Abba Ekkalin, is something that I could tell you I've seen with my own eyes many times. And just off the top of my head, I'm thinking of a story. Happened maybe 10 years ago. More, a little more than 10 years ago. We moved from New York to Florida. And we didn't determine, oh, take this box, don't take that box. We We took everything we had. Now, of course, at the time I already started I started giving lectures, I started doing different things. And uh the financial situation deteriorated. And I didn't have a income. But I had expenses. So, every month Hashem made different miracles. One of the months we have to pay rent, we have to pay, you know, get diapers for the baby, we have to uh you know, eat, drink, you know, we have to live. Baruch Hashem. One month, somebody calls me, "Hey, Rabbi Reuben, listen, I uh watch your shiurim. I uh connected to your story. I'm also uh you know, I'm in the business you used to be in, da da da, whatever. Can I uh ask you some questions?" So, I talked to him for a little bit. And he uh said, uh "Listen, one thing that uh I wanted to know, do you have any you know different things that from your old work and stuff? I said, "Yeah, I have a bunch of different things that you know I brought with me." So, he came to my house. And he said, "Listen, would you mind if I buy this stuff from you? Or do you still need it?" I'm thinking to myself, this I forgot I even have it first of all. Second of all, I have no use for it. I'm not in the business world nor nor am I planning on getting back to it. So, to me, it really was doing me a favor taking it. I don't need it. He said, "Rabbi, I'll pay you a few thousand dollars for this if you let me." I said, "It's yours." It's yours. What happened here? A Kadosh Baruch said, "Listen, why did you leave the business world? Because you wanted to make a drastic change to help other people do true by like you did. But now, the business used to give you money. Used to give you parnassah. That was the tree with fruits. You gave up on the tree of fruits. Why? To go help my children. You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to make the trees that don't bear fruits. They don't bear any fruits. I'll make that the fruit tree this month. I'll make that fruit tree next month. I'll make that fruit tree every single day. And that's what we'll tie you clean what been happening for over a decade. A Kadosh Baruch shows you how he runs the world if you just simply pay attention. What you think of as garbage, what you think of as a tree that doesn't bear fruits, Hashem says, "No, no, I'll turn that into major prize. I'll make that something that is very valuable." The Gamara says that one of the Hachamim had wine that went bad and turned into vinegar. This khakam went to the khakhamim, went to the others, said, "Why why why did that happen?" And he said, "Maybe it's because you didn't pay somebody on time." He said, "Well, that person is because he he stole from me." They said, "You're right. Technically, you don't have to pay him, but because YOU'RE A KHAKAM, YOU'RE HELD TO A HIGHER STANDARD." He says, "If you guys say, if you guys khakhamim say that I am held to a higher standard, I'm going to pay him right now." He paid him. And the Gemara says it wasn't long before suddenly the wine that turned into vinegar, which means it lost 90% of its value, all of a sudden there was a shortage of vinegar. So much so that the vinegar became more valuable than what the wine used to be. Why? You showed that you believe in Hashem when it comes to money. Now, many people have this issue on their head of what's happening in Israel, the war, how there's a war also between the Zionist enemies against the Jewish people that learn Torah. The Zionist government that literally was caught saying recently their head judge said, "We're going to destroy the world of Torah." The fact that this person is still employed and in fact, he's celebrated for saying he wants to destroy the world of Torah, shows you how Israel as a government is not only not Jewish, it's anti-Semitic. It's against the Jewish people. The land, of course, will always be a Jewish land. That's what Hashem gave us. The people, some of them are following the Torah to the highest level, the best. Some of them are against the Torah. And some respect the Torah, they're just not aware of how much they need to observe, and that's obviously the main people that we try to help. And get them to do teshuvah, get them to closer to Hashem. But when a person has anything to talk about in his about Israel, right away, the topic of war comes up, because that's a reality in Israel. The topic of giyus bnei hayeshivot comes up, which is uh forcing the uh Torah scholars, the Torah students to go into the army. What people don't realize is number one, Hakadosh Baruch Hu promises us v'cherev lo ta'avor b'artzechem, that if we follow His Torah, that a cherev, a sword, will not even pass through your land. Meaning, not only will you not have war, not from Iran, not from Iraq, not from Hamas, Hezbollah, not from anybody. But so much so that Hashem will give us such protection that even an army that wants to go attack somebody else and needs to pass through Israel, will not do it. Why? The protection you will have will be to such an extent that war will be nonexistent. Meaning, that anytime the Jewish people are at war, it's because of sins. It's not because of politics. It's not because of land. It's not because of free Palestine nonsense. No, no, no. It's because of sins. It's because of sins. That's the only reason. If Israel is in war, that's because of sins. That's what Torah is telling us. Because it tells us, if there is, you follow the Torah, in the law, the law will not PASS THROUGH HIM. EVEN a sword, a sword will not cross your land. Now, when a person understands this, they realize, wow, this is a fantastic blessing, but still you have an issue of, okay, you need to have people in your army just in case there's sins. Okay, you're right. What do you feel about the going to the army? I said, if you look at it from a religious perspective, from a Torah perspective, then of course we know that for Israel to take the out of the and the law, and put them in the army, will be to their own detriment, because that means less people will be learning Torah. And that means it's less merits, and that means more sins. Simple reality. But even if you don't want to acknowledge the Torah, you don't want to acknowledge the Torah. Why? Because you're a Zionist, you're a communist, you don't believe in the Torah, you don't believe it's from God. FINE. EVEN YOU HAVE AN ANSWER. YOU BELIEVE IN HISTORY. YOU BELIEVE IN GEOPOLITICS, HOW THE WORLD IS RUN. WELL, guess what? THROUGHOUT ALL OF UNTIL THIS DAY WITHOUT EXCEPTION MEN OF RELIGION HAVE ALWAYS BEEN excluded from the army in every country that holds religion as value. Even from the time of Egypt 3,500 YEARS AGO. The Egyptians weren't religious Jews. THE EGYPTIANS WERE EGYPTIANS IDOL WORSHIPPERS. YOSEF TZADIK, THE ONLY JEW IN TOWN INSTITUTED A LAW that men of RELIGION MEANING THE EGYPTIAN religious or anybody else that comes on are excluded from the rules of the rest of the people. This is the reason that when Yakov, his father and and his brothers, the tribes, everybody came to Egypt and then for the next 210 years lived in Egypt the tribe of Levi was excluded from slavery, was excluded from all of the problems. Why? Men of religion were excluded. THEY HAD SPECIAL PROTECTION. MOSHE RABBEINU and Aaron were able to enter and exit the palace of Pharaoh without anybody getting in their way. Why? They were the tribe of Levi. And if you think that this only happened in Egypt the idolatrous capital of history guess what? It's till this day. Men of religion, whether it's in America or in different countries around the world in Saudi Arabia, in all over the Middle East all over Europe all of them have an exclusion within the law of each land that they do not join the army unless they want to. Why? THEY'RE DIFFERENT. WHETHER THEIR RELIGION is Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, whatever it is. Which means that even if somebody claims to be a secular person, doesn't believe that the Torah is from God, guess what? Trying to enlist the religious Jews that are learning Torah in Yeshiva and Kolel is against the laws of humanity. It's not just against the Torah. It's not JUST AGAINST YOUR BEST INTEREST. But it's also against the laws of humanity. So why do they still do it yet call themselves a democratic country, democratic government? Because like their judge, their head judge said, they want to destroy the world of Torah. The funny thing is that the Babylonians also tried to destroy the Torah. And they were much bigger than one judge. The Romans also tried to destroy the world of Torah. The Greeks, the Spaniards, the Turkish, every major civilization that declared war against the Jewish people, declared war against the Torah, and guess what? Not a single one of them is still here. But we are. And our Torah is here, and it's not leaving. So you think all of those great nations that failed in their ambition to destroy the Torah, but yet you, loser without a hair, loser without a head, loser without even taste of what's good or bad, you think that you're going to destroy the world of Torah. You're not realizing something. What Torah says, people like you Your own sword will pierce your own heart. We want that sword to protect us sooner. When Hashem says before the sword that all of your enemies will fall before you by the sword. We want that to happen sooner, right? Not later. Hashem says You want it? You got it. I gave you the rules. Follow my decrees, observe my commandments, and perform them. Toil in Torah, live the Torah, follow the Torah, especially when it comes to the issues of money. Don't cheat in business. Don't steal. Don't do things that make it look like you don't think God is watching. Because if you cheat in business, that means that you think you not only fooled the person or the company or the government you cheated, but you think you also fooled God as if he's not there watching. When you do things that are dishonest when it comes to business, when you act stingy when it comes to money and you only want it for yourself and you don't want to help anybody else, what you're doing is you're saying that you believe you made it, you did it, it's yours as if you decide. Hashem says that's the belief of an atheist. Which means that even if you go to synagogue, Even if you put on tefillin. If you're dishonest when it comes to business, if you're dishonest when it comes to money, if you are even stingy, then you have a major lackings to such an extent that the first question they'll ask you in shamayim, you've already failed the test. I will tell you kiddie, Hakadosh Baruch Hu wants us to do teshuvah. But there's a problem which will really put everything into perspective before we start with the questions. Hashem says "V'im lo tishme'u li v'lo ta'asu et kol hamitzvot ha'eleh that if you do not listen to me and you don't fulfill all of these mitzvot, then he starts with all the curses. Horrible, horrible things. Rashi brings the Sifra. IT SAYS WHY WOULD ANYBODY NOT DO WHAT HASHEM SAYS? I MEAN, you see that before even we get to the horrible, horrible things of the the the starvation leading to the point of where literally the the mothers are eating their own kids. Uh the war is a uh one one enemy could literally without weapons makes all of us scared even if we have 10,000. We're scared before they even come. Like horrible things happen. Why would anybody do that? The Sifra explains that's because this didn't happen overnight. Going off the derech going from being religious and following the Torah to being against the Torah doesn't happen overnight. So it's it's a process. It's a seven-step process. First, you don't do in Hukotai Telechu. Meaning, you don't dedicate yourself to Torah study. Once you don't dedicate yourself to Torah study, you eventually stop performing the commandments. That's already two. And once you stop performing the commandments, you get to the point where you become disgusted by other people that are loyal to the Torah. All of a sudden, you don't like your religious cousin. All of a sudden, you don't like your religious community. Ah, they're fanatic. You have something to say. That's already three. Now, of course, it doesn't end there. Because once you've decided you're not going to learn Torah, you're not going to do the mitzvot, you don't like religious people, the hate grows to the point where you want to hate the biggest and most righteous, the top. Who? Hate the Torah sages, who expound the ordinances, the ones that pass canal Ah, COME ON WITH YOU FANATICS, he says. Six hours waiting between milk meat and milk. Ah, come on, Yom Tov Sheni. Who says that we have to keep two days? Come on, we already have clocks. And you start hating not just the Torah it's of not learning it. Not just the religious people in your community that you happen to have a beef with, but rather you start hating the leaders. The leaders that are leading the nation in the right direction, the shepherds. And of course, it doesn't end there. The fifth step is preventing other people from being obedient and observant of the Torah. There are certain resha'im out there that literally not only don't like religious people, but they start taking upon themselves a mission. What's the mission? To make religious people not religious. There is simply no greater evil than that on Earth. Because there is no benefit that a person can ever get from his friend no longer praying and saying Shema Yisrael. His friend not putting on tefillin every day. His friend not eating, you know, no longer eating kosher. There's no benefit to him. It's worse than even saying lashon hara that there's no benefit from. But this all comes as part of the chain of reaction of sin. He stopped learning Torah. He stopped performing the commandments. He became revolted by people that are religious, that are loyal to the Torah. He hates the sages. He hates the leaders that are telling people what to do and what not to do. And now he starts getting other people to also become secular like him, to go off the derech. And if that wasn't enough, he goes to step number six, which is deny that Hashem even gave the commandments. Where he says, "No, he gave, but it's not what you say. It's not what YOU SAY. HE GAVE the Torah and he said the following, but he didn't say that Shabbat you're not allowed to carry and muktzeh. No, that's all invention of the rabbis." He becomes a whatever I understand type of Jew. What's a whatever I understand type of Jew? Whatever I understand, that's that's what God said. As if he became Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. He became Rabbi Akiva. He became Moshe Rabbenu. Yeah, where did Hashem say that you're allowed to marry a non-Jew if you're Jewish. Listen, he didn't say you don't have to or you can't. He just said don't marry the Canaanites. We don't have Canaanites. My non-Jewish husband is not a Canaanite. What will tell you Karim? This is step number six. And if that's not enough, step number seven of going off to Derek, he denies the very existence of God who made the covenants. He becomes an atheist. He becomes an atheist. It's all a process. Why would somebody ever go on this self-destructive path? Why would he stop learning Torah if he learned Torah his whole life for the last 20 years since he was a kid? Why would he stop learning from a rabbi that helped him do teshuvah? That helped him get married. That helped her get married. That helped her do teshuvah. Change her life. CHANGE HER FAMILY. WHY? WHY WOULD YOU CHANGE? I'LL TELL you why. Because the Torah, because the rabbi, because the truth all of a sudden went and confronted their lust. Didn't want to hear that they have to be honest with money. And the rabbi said it so, didn't want the rabbi anymore. Didn't want to leave the cash advance business or the wig business because it was making them a lot of money. So, you know what? They're not going to learn Torah anymore. They'll be religious without Torah, which is secular with a yarmulke. So, why would anybody learn Torah his whole life stop learning Torah and then go on this self-destructive path? Because they fell for a lust that the Torah says is forbidden. So, the only WAY THEY COULD RATIONALIZE IT, THE ONLY WAY THEY could quiet their conscious, is by simply no longer learning Torah. Or at least not learning the real Torah, learning it from fakers, learning it from people that distort the Torah, learning it from people that let you do whatever you want. And that, rabotai yekarim, is why the curses happen. Hashem says, "You didn't become an enemy of the Torah overnight. It was a process. And I gave you time, and I gave you opportunities, and I gave you all types of ways, all types of doors to do teshuvah. I sent you Hashem took back his millions. I sent you Tikun Habrit. I sent you Gehinom, the movie. I sent you Olam Haba news. I sent you the Kiyor box. I sent you the free books. I sent you the live lectures. I sent you I sent you I sent you. But you didn't want. Why? Because if you listen to what the Torah said, you'd have to change your life. You'd have to leave all the lies, and you didn't want that. So, what did you do instead? Deny that it even exists. This, rabotai yekarim, all has to do with the basic foundation of yirat shamayim, having fear of the Almighty. Having fear of the Almighty does not mean having fear of the Almighty on the things that you're strong in. Having fear of the Almighty is has to do with the things that you're weak in. That's when Hashem knows whether you really have fear of him or not, whether you love him or not, whether you follow him or not. If your followers your practice of the Torah and following Hashem is convenient, easy, then double-check if you're actually doing what you're supposed to because many times what's easy for you, that's your mission in the world. And what's hard for you, that's your tikkun. That's the actual reason why you're in this world. So, it's not just about the easy parts. It's about overcoming the lusts that are forbidden. It's overcoming the things that are difficult for you. And this, my dear ones, is why the Holy One, blessed be He, tells us, "Go up to the mountain. Do teshuvah and keep my laws even when it's difficult, even when it doesn't make financial sense. You do it. You go with my statutes. You'll see a blessing much more than you can imagine. And the more you believe in Hashem, the bigger the blessing in the end. This, my dear ones, is what I call in are some of the lessons we learned and thank God we had the merit again to learn with Rabbi Gavriel. And thank God we have them. We see how all of this is as practical, all of this is as relevant to every single man, woman, or child in this world. Because anyone that wants to follow Hashem, follow the truth, this is relevant to them. With that being said, I know that I promised you guys a question last week. So, I'll ask you a question. And you guys tell me what the answer is. There was a guy that was a jokester. I know a lot of you guys don't like jokesters. I remember from the last story with the chocolate. So, I'll give you another one about jokesters. But don't take it personally. It's a real story, but it didn't happen to you. Anyway, this guy's a jokester. And he went to his friend's wedding. And of course in weddings, you know, people like to have a good time, sometimes joke around. And he went to his friend's wedding. He stood up. He wanted to give a little speech about his dear friend that he grew up with and went to Yeshiva with. And now he's so happy to see him get married to a good zivug. And he says all these things and HE SAYS, "I'M SO EXCITED for them that I just NEED TO MAKE A BLESSINGS. BARUCH ATAH HASHEM Elokeinu Melech Ha'Olam shehechiyanu vehi giano veki mano LAZMAN HAZEH." EVERYONE'S SHOCKED. YOU CAN'T JUST make a blessing. But then they see him pull out a fruit out of his pocket. THAT WAS THE FIRST TIME HE'S EATEN this fruit in the last year. So, he does the shehechiyanu and eats the fruit. The question is, he made a blessing on the fruit. He made them think it's not really about the fruit, but it's rather, you know, for his friend. Is everyone still obligated to say amen? Which means El Melech Ne'eman. That when we do a blessing, you somebody does a blessing, you have to say amen because you're saying the blessing is you're saying amen, which means El Melech Ne'eman. The God, the king that is Ne'eman. We know that what he said he will do. He said he'll reward, he'll reward us. He said he'll punish, he'll punish. Whatever he said, he's not going to change. Not like the idolaters who think that something changed in the Torah. No such thing. Whatever I said I said in Torah, that's what he's going to do. So he made a blessing. Do you say amen or not? Do you have to say amen? Do you not have to say amen? That's the question. So one of you is saying yes, another one is saying never. Another one is saying I have to think about it. Good. Think about it and next week you guys can give me the answer. I'd like to introduce you to your new best friend. We did it. AI Rabbi is here. Today I want to base on kosher Torah sources. 30 different languages that are available to you. So if you want to ask it in Spanish, in Chinese, in Portuguese, whatever you want to do, it's available for you. Can you tell me about the AI people? So it's time stamped to this year. Because of this green button, AI Rabbi on your WhatsApp. You have the ability to ask questions at will. You'll be provided 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, Rabbotai, you guys can start asking some questions and as other Shem Hakadosh Baruch Hu give me the answers. Let's see. Um In the Shulchan Aruch, if there's a fire on Shabbat, heaven forbid, it teaches about if possible one can save a sefer Torah and other books which are first and to be permissible and are within the roof. Would a mezuzah count among those uh like the Torah scrolls and the Schmain side? No, it's not on the same level. Uh no. Uh and uh again, remember it's it's talking about if it has a Eruv. So there's a couple of things you have to also know is that if the fire is in the way that houses were back in those days, which is every person, you know, there would be uh had a big lot of land, which means that if the fire is not going to affect anybody else and all the people within the house are uh you know, are are have left the the house, then you really can't save anything. You have to let it burn. But if the houses are more like what we have today in most places, which is cities, buildings, uh houses that are right next to each other, where surely if there one house burns down, it could uh have a domino effect and affect others, then it's a completely different rule. Why? Because even if uh the people of that house left the house, uh there's still a pikauch nefesh for the next door or for the rest of the building. And therefore, the rules are different. You're actually allowed to shut off the fire. Uh but again, it's a uh the the issues of pikuaḥ nefesh in general, it's a uh it's something that a person needs to know that it's it makes a very very big difference. But if it's a $20 million house, but it's all by itself, it's literally has as much land as a golf course, and uh he's uh you know, is is the house is on fire, but nobody's at life risk, he has to let it burn. He has to let it burn. I heard that before Adam sinned, everything was only spiritual. For example, eating and intimacy was spiritual, not physical. Is this true? No, it's not, because number one, we know that uh Adam and Hava were intimate in a natural way, that's why Hashem made the uh the the those parts of the body. Number two, we know that uh uh Hava sinned with the naḥash, uh which the seed from that is where Cain comes from. Number three, we know that the uh Gemara says that uh before Adam sinned, the angels would uh cook a barbecue for uh for Adam Rishon, make a meat, delicious meat. Uh now you're going to ask, "Wait, but I thought that they weren't allowed to uh kill the animals to eat meat." Who says they had to kill the animals? So, point is that uh the uh Hashem created a physical world for physical things to happen in it, not for it to remain a spiritual world, because spiritual world doesn't need this physical world. Okay, let's see what else. I am Shamal I'm Shamal Shabbat and recovering hospitalized now in a nursing home. Can I use a call bell for a nurse? Um I mean again, it it depends if if it's an electronic uh call bell, uh you could try to ask them if they can give you something that's not electronic, that's a uh uh that's a um uh uh something that's uh the uh analog. Like you know, like a regular bell that actually makes sound. That's one thing. There's no problem to use that uh cuz you're not making music. Uh number two, it also depends on the condition of uh whether you're in uh life-risk situation or not cuz there's different levels of uh if there's life-risk, then everything is allowed. Everything is allowed. The person's allowed to eat anything they want. The person is allowed to uh pretty much the whole to loud is on hold. Uh but if the uh uh if a person is in a possibility of uh life-risk but uh you know, that's even a small one, he's allowed to do uh you know, pretty much everything that he wants. But if he doesn't have uh that level of uh risk, but still the person is uh is sick, then there is less permitted to that person. Uh but if the person is uh just has a uh headache or something like that, then there's, you know, virtually nothing extra permitted to them. So, it all depends on the condition of the person. But as far as a bell, you could usually get a bell that's not uh electronic and you can use that. Because even though it makes a sound, you're not uh benefiting from the sound. You're uh you're not trying to make music. >> Why are there so many TikToks TikTok accounts with your name? Are those your accounts? Not all of the TikToks that are in my name are my our accounts. For example, I recently heard that there's somebody that's literally using my picture and my name. He says, you know, Rabbi Yaron Rouben. Uh um and it's a uh channel that is posting my videos on there. Uh but it's not me. And uh I'm actually a little bit worried because if people think that it is me uh and they start communicating to to that person uh not like uh you know, um you know, like they communicate to me and this person is not good person, then that would be a problem. Unfortunately uh the uh it's not so simple to to to deal with stuff like that with fake accounts and stuff like that, impersonations, and so on. So, one thing I would recommend for people to always do is number one, this is the account that I s- you know, on TikTok, on YouTube, all of this is the main account. Number one. Number two, if you really have a question uh for me, the best way to communicate with me is by sending me a WhatsApp message. I'm the only one that sees my WhatsApp. Uh there's a lot of private stuff that people uh ask me about and talk to me about. Sometimes it's, you know, uh personal things of marriage, you know, health, financials, uh literally everything and anything. There's nothing I haven't heard and haven't dealt with. Uh so, that WhatsApp is the best way to to communicate with me, not through the messaging services of uh TikTok, Facebook, and uh uh and and the others. Uh number one, because like I said, there are some fake accounts out there. Uh not all of them are fake. We obviously ourselves have many accounts uh that the team runs, but uh uh uh but the second reason is I usually don't check the messages on all of those uh accounts, the Facebook and the uh uh YouTube comments and all that stuff. I just don't have the time to check all those uh all those comments and questions. So, many times people send questions to, let's say, the Facebook profiles and they don't get answers for months if ever. And it's not because I'm ignoring them. I just don't have the ability to answer all of the questions that keep coming in. It's just not uh it's impossible for me to uh to deal with everything. Uh there's endless amount of questions that come from people around the world at all hours of the day, literally 24 hours a day. There are, of course, many things that I have to deal with with the our team, employees, volunteers uh that are constantly working on new projects. There's things that I need to do to run the organization. There's, of course, students that ask endless questions uh by you know, that uh for their life, for their business, for their marriage, for their uh whatever that they need for me, and I try to help them as well. Uh there's learning to love, of course. There's a lot, so it's a um simply not possible for me to uh to go and uh address all of the comments that are out there or the questions out there. So, if you really have a serious issue, you have a question about, the best thing to do is to simply uh send me a WhatsApp message, and uh I'll be happy to answer you. And usually I answer uh within a reasonable time frame. Get a team to handle those sites. Well, we have people handling all those sites, uh but uh I do not want uh my, uh, my, uh, talmidim, or even my, uh, employees to handle every type of, uh, uh, question. There are some questions that are easy questions that, uh, we could have our AI Rabbi system answer. Uh, and they, uh, the team just copies and pastes what the AI Rabbi says. Uh, but there are sometimes, you know, personal issues, you know, that, uh, they need me to to to address, and I do not want anybody else to do that for me, because, again, if people think that they're getting it from me, then it needs to be from me. Now, again, I can't do it with everybody, so I have to limit the amount of, uh, uh, ways to to, uh, to to help people, but the point is is that, uh, to trust somebody else to answer on my behalf is not, uh, is not a good idea. And, uh, I don't want to do it. Yeah, somebody was texting me from one of those accounts. Okay, so I don't know why they're texting you, but, again, anytime somebody sends you a message, um, that's with my name, um, ask them if they are me, and, um, then you can send me that message on WhatsApp, and, uh, ask me if that's really me again. And if the answer is yes, then you know, okay, then it's me sending you a message. If the answer is no, then it's not. Uh, one thing I can, uh, assure you is that I don't have the type of time that, uh, would ever allow me to send anybody, no matter who it is, a unsolicited message. Just it's just never going to happen. The only types of messages that come out of my inbox are either the marketing messages that, you know, the system generates, whether it's to, you know, donations or campaigns or shulim and stuff like that, or it's responding to a question or or an email that somebody sent me. You're never going to get a "Hey, how are you?" message from me. It's never going to happen. In fact, some people get uh very uh surprised when they send me messages telling me, "Listen, I want to donate $10,000, $50,000, $5,000, $500, whatever it is. I want to talk to you." And I tell them, "Sorry, I I I I don't have the time to call you." Because what people are used to is the moment you mention money, the other side runs and calls you, meets you, kisses you, whatever. I have had people tell me, "Listen, I want to donate $100,000. Can you call me?" And the answer was, "I'm not sure when I'll be able to call you." And in many cases, I either didn't call or it took me two, three, four, five days to finally find time to call them for 5 minutes. Even though they wanted to donate. So, it's not like I'm only going to answer calls if it's about money or No, I I I literally I don't have time. I don't have time. I don't have time. It's It's my primary concern is to try to help people in the most effective way. That's my primary concern. Now, of course, sometimes, you know, people uh you know, send me a message, I know them, they they need help, and sometimes I need to speak to them. No problem. But, it's not very common. Usually, the way that I can I communicate with people that's the most efficient is through WhatsApp messages that uh you know, that way I can answer whenever I can, which could be around the clock. And number two, it's a uh it's it's it's the same place that I They how uh who, what, when, and how, and uh nobody else is uh uh you know, interfering with that. I don't uh nobody could impersonate me or or answer on my behalf or any of those things. And that's the way that I usually communicate. I know that some people prefer phone calls, some people prefer emails, some people prefer uh other phone meetings. I'm sorry, I can't uh I can't do all of that, and it's not about money. It's just simply I can't. Um you know, but whenever I can, I do. Whenever I can, I do. If I have a few minutes, if I'm in the car, I'm on the way somewhere, and I have a 5 minutes to call somebody who's waiting for a call, I'll call them. I'm not against it. It's just that more times than not, I don't have that kind of time. I just don't have that kind of time. If you guys actually knew what my schedule looks like every single day, you'd understand better, but uh there's only so much I can explain. Actually, come to think of it, just uh today actually it happened. Somebody sent me a message on Motzei Shabbat. Rabbi, I want to donate $10,000. I don't know who this person is. And I never spoke to them before. But they wanted me to call them. I said, "I don't know." I first of all, I you know, even though they sent me a message on Motzei Shabbat, I don't think I call I don't think I sent them a reply to their message until I think it was until Monday. Either Sunday or Monday. Like it took at least 24 or 48 hours to respond to them. Because even responding, again, it takes a certain amount of time and uh it's just it is what it is. So, yeah, I understand that most people you tell them, "Listen, I want to even give you $100." They'll call you and they'll even come to your house sometimes. But it's uh person wants to donate a significant amount of money, we appreciate very much, and eventually I reply to them. I think it was a day, 2 days later, whatever it was. Anyway, and my reply was, "I don't know if I'm going to be able or when I'm going to be able to call you. Uh it's nothing personal, but um if you want to donate, you can still donate. It's up to you. You can donate on the website, you can donate by sending a check, you can donate uh so on and so forth." Some people want to donate uh you know, jewelry or or or precious metals, they send it to us in the mail. Some people want to donate stock or um or a crypto currency, so they donate on our website. We have a whole system to do it. Uh some people donate on, you know, the the little uh donate page that we have or you know, by pressing, you know, with the credit card. So, whoever wants to donate can donate. It's not a problem. But, um to get a call for it, it's not always practical for me. Um so, long story short, I told him I I don't know if I'll be able to call you or when I'll be able to call you, but uh just know it's not personal. I just don't I don't have the time. And Baruch Hashem, this person was a very, very nice person, and uh they they said they understood and everything else. And just so happened today, today I actually uh had to go uh somewhere. I was in the car for a little bit, and I remembered, "Oh, this uh this guy, this uh he said that he wants to uh speak to me." And I happen to have a few minutes that I wasn't doing something. I'm like, "God, let's let's let's call him now." And I spoke to him for a few minutes. Really, really nice guy. Baruch Hashem, listening to the shiurim, trying to help other people do teshuvah. Uh and uh Baruch Hashem, it was a few minute call, but I know that it was very uh uh valuable to him, and it was also very valuable to me. I wish I I would be able to do that all the time. It's just not possible to do all of these things. I I promised you, it's not I'm not sitting here playing video games. You know, so when people get a response from me for their questions or you know, they don't realize, you know, uh it's not so simple. And when people don't get a response, and they start sending me question marks, there's nothing more annoying than that. Why? Because you're make you think that you're alone in the world. You don't realize there's a thousand, 5,000, or 10,000 like you at the same time. So, you guys have to understand whatever I can do, I'm trying. I'm trying my best. Uh and that's with a lot of uh exclamation marks after it. Let's just say that. Um let's see what else. When is the best time for a Jew or a Noahide to pray? What type of things can make pray unanswered or rejected by God? Okay, so Jewish people, if it's a man, he uh prays three times a day. Prays in the morning, that's called Shacharit. Prays in the afternoon, that's before sundown. Uh that's called Mincha. And he prays in the evening, which is after Tzeit Hakochavim, which is after the stars come out, that's Arvit. So, it's three times a day a Jewish man prays. And you pray from this siddur. Now, usually if you live in a Jewish community, you pray at synagogue. And they have times, scheduled times throughout the year of when these prayers are. Most places have the Mincha and Arvit, the afternoon prayer and the night prayer, right one after the other, where which means that they pray very, very close to the night, the Mincha prayer. Then usually they wait a few minutes, sometimes there's a short shiur, short divrei Torah, uh for a few minutes, and then they go right into Arvit. So, people don't have to go to synagogue three times, three separate times, they go twice. That's for a Jewish male. A female does not need to go to synagogue, nor does she need to pray three times a day. She needs to pray once a day saying the Shema Yisrael and Amidah. Now, she can do this at any time. She could do it in the morning, she could do it in the afternoon, she could do it at night. Most women that are my students, typically they pray part of the prayer that she they need in the morning and part of it in the afternoon or at night. Why? Because they don't want to wait until night to pray, to connect to Hashem. At the same token, they don't have the ability to do a full prayer in the morning because they have the kids, they have the husband, they have to help them, you know, they have to do all these different things, responsibilities that uh they have to take care of. So, they don't have the ability to do it. So, what they do is they pray usually the morning blessings and the Shema Yisrael in the morning and then the Amidah prayer usually they pray later on, usually after the kids go to school, after the husband goes to work or maybe later on after their during the afternoon, but at some point during the day, sometimes even at night. But, point being is is that usually most women that have kids and so on, they usually break up the requirement to a couple times of the day. Uh women that are single should pray more than once a day. Why? You have time. You don't have a husband, kids, and so on that's taking up your time. So, you should pray more than once a day. And uh and even a woman that is married with kids, but has, you know, either good time management skills or simply has more time on her hands, then they should pray more than once a day. But, that's for Jews. Noachides, on the other hand, can pray at any given time that they want with their own words, not from a Jewish siddur, not from some uh recently made Noachide siddur that they uh they are trying to make money off. But, rather pray to Hashem with your own words that are coming out of your heart. Pray to him by simply talking to him. Say what you need. Say what you're grateful for. That's the best prayer. And in fact, that type of prayer Jews should also do in addition to the three that I mentioned that they have to do. So, it's not that it's this the prayer that I'm saying for Noahides to do is like is lesser. In fact, many times that personalized prayer is superior to what people are going to pray from the siddur because they understand what they're saying when it's coming out of their heart, whereas what they read out of the siddur many times they don't understand what they're saying. But, the point being is is that a structured prayer is only for Jews. A prayer from the heart is both for Jews and for Gentiles. And anyone that's selling you a new bag of chips, a new trick, a new invention of Noahide siddur, and Noahide Shabbat, and all types of new things, just know they are inventing a new religion. They're inventing a new religion, which is actually a prohibition against the Torah. You're not to invent new religions. So, this is the reality. I know that there is a a lot of money at stake for people, and they don't care about what Hashem says or what the sages say. They care about money, which is exactly what our shiur was about tonight. All right. Rabbi Avraham Avinu a Yid. Uh Avraham Avinu was before Judaism was uh officially created. Avraham Avinu is our forefather, meaning he's the father of all the Jews. Uh but Judaism in itself was created at Mount Sinai. So, before uh Judaism, Abraham was called a Hebrew. He was uh Abraham Avinu. And uh that's what he was called. Then later on uh that name was uh changed to Israelite after Yaakov, his grandson. Yaakov's name was also Israel, so people were called Israelites, but they were same thing was synonymous with Hebrew and Israelite is the same thing. Uh but then the official Jewish religion was created at Mount Sinai when we received the Torah. How to identify the line between exceeding limit of his yetzer hara and engaging in bitachon? Uh very good question. So, the uh bitachon is something that is a very, very popular subject, but it's a very, very deep subject. We have a whole series of, I believe it's 16 or 19 lectures based on the uh teachings of the Beit HaLevi Rabbi Soloveitchik from a couple hundred years ago uh that is called bitachon b'Hashem. I highly, highly recommend people watch that series. Many of my students watch that series literally on a regular basis. And then uh many of them also go to the first 20 lectures of the Jewish Hashkafa series, which is sort of like a continuation of the bitachon series. So, you go from the 16 or 19 lectures of the bitachon series. It's a playlist on our app and also on YouTube. Bitachon b'Hashem, it's called. Then you finish those and you go to the first 20 lectures of Jewish Hashkafa series. Once you finish those 35 40 lectures, you're a different person. Why? You'll have more tools to deal with life's problems than anything else you've learned in your entire life. One of them is answering that question, which is how much is too much hishtadlus, too much effort. So, that depends on the person itself. The more a person has bitachon in Hashem, which is believing that Hashem not only is going to help him, but whatever Hashem gives him is the best out of all the possible options, which means that it's not Hashem is going to help me get a billion dollars or a million dollars because that's what I want or that's what I need. No, that's not bitachon. Bitachon is believing that whatever Hashem gives me, whether it's the billion dollars that I want or believe that I need, or it's financial problems, chas v'shalom, or it's a headache of some other kind, whatever he gives me, I have 100% bitachon, 100% faith in Hashem, confidence in Hashem, that whatever HE GIVES ME, THAT IS THE BEST POSSIBILITY, that is the best choice for me out of all of the possibilities. That's what bitachon is. So, now, of course, we always want to pray for good, pray that what we want is good, and we want positive things, and we don't want uh the the problems and pain and so on. But, the point is that bitachon is not just simply believing that Hashem will give you what you want, but rather that what you you're getting is what you need. That's number one. Number two, the Chazon Ish explains that the line between having too much hishtadlus and bitachon is based on when you start worrying. the more bitachon you have, the less you worry. And therefore, the less hishtadlut you need. If somebody, theoretically speaking, has 100% bitachon, then they don't need to exert any effort whatsoever to do what it is they are doing, whether it's to make money or to find a shidduch or or or anything else. They don't need to do anything else. But of course, people do not have 100% bitachon. It would be great if they even had uh 10% bitachon in many cases. So, a person has to exert a certain amount of effort because they know that there is a uh part of them that's worried. Worried they're not going to make money, worried they're not going to get married, worried they're not going to have enough to eat, worried they're not going to have kids, worried they're not going to something something. So, based on that, you have to exert a certain amount of uh effort that you know that you did the norm, meaning what is basically the average what anybody else would do. So, that means that you have bitachon in Hashem, but you also exerted effort. You had hishtadlut. When is it too much hishtadlut? Once you start doing things that are beyond the norm to get what you want. Meaning, let's say for example, you want to make a $100,000 a year, but your job pays you 60,000. If you have the necessary amount of bitachon, you will simply only work your job and spend the rest of the time you have extra learning Torah. Yeah, but you say that I he needs $100,000. Yes, you need $100,000, but you're already exerting the required amount of effort to generate what you're doing. Yeah, but even though you only get paid 60,000, you are working to get your hishtadlus in order. You're working to show your effort, but all that other extra that you want, that you believe you need, or you that you actually do need, you're not going to exert any more effort on a physical sense, but rather you're going to exert your effort on a spiritual sense. You're going to learn Torah there in that time. Now, on the other hand, if you now say that, "Oh, I want or I need $100,000, and I only make $60,000. So, in order to make that extra 40,000, I'm going to get a second job. I'm going to do some hustling on the side. I'm going to do different things." The more of that second job that you're doing, which is above the norm, that means the less bitachon you have, and that means the more excess hishtadlus you're doing, which is not good. So, there's no problem of doing the norm, but once you start doing above the norm, it's already excess, it's already showing a deficiency in your bitachon in Hashem. Any resources on developing self-confidence worth from the Torah? Yes, I just said the two serieses that we have, the bitachon b'Hashem series, it's a playlist on my YouTube channel. Watch it, and you'll learn a lot of good things about Hashem. Does Hashem hate the Absolutely not. Why would he hate everything that he created? There are some that Hashem hates because they are against the Torah, they're the enemies of Am Yisrael. And that's why he says, "Et Esav saneti, I hate Esav," cuz Esau was against the Torah. But, there are many righteous So many So much so that some of them Hashem made them into prophets, like for example, Job. There's a whole book in the Tanakh that's the book of Job. He was a non-Jew. Uh Ovadia was was born a non-Jew who eventually converted to Judaism, but Hashem, uh you know, did not hate him, obviously, uh before he became a Jew. He protected him. He gave him special miracles. So, there are many non-Jews that uh Hashem uh not only did not hate, but quite the opposite. He loved them. They did good. They were righteous. Uh and uh but, there are many people that are uh Jews and non-Jews that Hashem calls them his enemies. Why does he call them his enemies if they're Jewish or if they're not Jewish? Because they are against the Torah. They fight against the Torah. They're heretics. They're atheists, uh and so on. They cause people to sin. Mhm. Does Hashem hate the Zionists? Well, if you're talking about the Zionists that are the communist ideology anti-Torah ideology, then of course, Hashem calls those people his enemies. The problem today is that different people have different definitions of Zionism. Okay, so I uh had to go somewhere about a week ago. And when I was uh at the gas station, uh somebody saw my car and he sees, you know, "Be'ezrat Hashem" all over it and "Baruch Hashem". It's uh we we we go with the Be'ezrat Hashem and the Torah everywhere. If I could put it on my face, I'd put it on my face. We want to publicize Hashem's name. We have it on the car. Make Jewish Make Jews more Jewish. Tikun Olam Brit. All the different things that you guys see on the magnets and so on. So, the the recent thing we did made it even more more bold and more more exciting to to go anywhere because even though I don't go places often, anytime I go I go somewhere, somebody stops me and wants to talk about it. And in a very positive way. Anyway, I went to this I was in this gas station. And this guy walks up to me. He says, "YOU A ZIONIST?" I SAID "What's a Zionist?" You know, it's it's cuz the definition of Zionism is different. Now, I said, "If you're talking about do I believe in the ideology of the Israeli politics the Bibi Netanyahu's of the world, then no. I am anti-Zionist. But if you are talking about the Jewish people that live in the land of Israel as well as around the world, I am the biggest Zionist in the world if you're asking me if I love those people. They're That's me. That's me. That's I sacrificed my whole life for them. So, if your definition is based on politics, I'm anti-Zionist. I'm against Zionism. They're the enemies of the Torah. They're the enemies of God. They're my enemies, too. But if you're talking about the Jewish people that are respected Torah, follow the Torah, serve God, or at least trying, of course, I sacrifice my whole life for them. So, it depends. So, the problem today is that there's so much hatred in the form of different forms of anti-Semitism in the in in the air that uh people have forgotten what actually things mean. They forgot what things mean. They simply just basket into everything into the same basket. And uh it's it's wrong. So, if your definition of Zionism is the political system that is fighting against the Yeshivot, that is fighting against the Torah scholars, that is fighting against the Torah itself, that wants to destroy it, if that's your definition of Zionism, then of course every religious Jew and every normal Jew and even normal human being that's decent would be against that form of Zionism. That, as a side note, is what the original Zionists, Herzl and uh all the others, that's what was their belief. Their belief was just simply based on land, politics, and nothing to do with the religion. In fact, many of them hated uh the Torah so much that they converted to different religions. Uh like Herzl converted to Christianity. He didn't give his son a Brit Milah, a circumcision. His son was name was Hans, uh who eventually killed himself. But anyway, the point is I have many lectures about the subject. Uh the series Era of Mashiach by Rav Elchanan Wasserman that we made, uh and uh the War of Amalek, both of those serieses have a lot of information that exposes the truth about that form of Zionism. That form of Zionism is against the Jewish people. It's no less anti-Semitic than uh you know, in its purity, it's no less anti-Semitic than than the Nazis. In fact, during the Holocaust, the Nazis tried to negotiate with the Zionist politicians to free a million Jews in exchange for trucks and tea, and the Zionist refused because they didn't think that those Jews were of good quality, and they just let them die. It's a whole story. We've spoken about it in the past. Disaster. So, those types of Zionist are enemy of everything. They're enemy of God. They're enemy of the Jewish people. On the other hand, if you're talking about Zionism defined by people who believe that Israel is the land of the Jewish people, that the Jewish people have a right to defend themselves, the right to live in Israel, um that it's that, then yeah, every normal Jew and every normal human being would support that. And anyone that doesn't support that doesn't care about Zionism. He cares about Jews in a very negative way, meaning he hates them. He's an anti-Semitic. So, if somebody doesn't think that the Jewish people have a right to the land that God gave them, if somebody doesn't think that the Jews have a right to defend themself, if somebody doesn't believe that the Jews have a right to live, then they are anti-Semitic. So, that's another form. A third form that has popped up in more recent years is a mix, which is people that practice Judaism, meaning they follow the Torah, they keep Shabbat, they keep you know, kosher, they learn Torah, and of course, they love the Jewish people, they love the the land of Israel, but they also support much of the political position of Israel. And that's a confused bunch. That's a confused bunch. Uh there is many of them that are decent people, but nonetheless confused. Uh but I think that uh again, it's a it's not necessarily that they are agree with the communistic beliefs of Zionism, or they believe in the anti-Torah uh attitude of the of the leaders of Zionism, but rather they're picking and choosing the parts that they support. I believe that in uh most of them are really in the second class and not really in the third. But nonetheless, that is another form of Zionism where that's a usually modern Orthodox Jews are very very pro uh uh Israel uh to the point where sometimes they uh let's just say they uh close an eye or two to some of the laws of the Torah for the sake of the the political beliefs they have. And that's obviously not good. But if you're talking about loving the Jewish people even the ones that are not religious as long as they're not enemies of the Torah, and and that's your definition of Zionism, then I, your own Reuven, am the biggest declaring myself officially the biggest Zionist in the world the world will ever have, at least from the time I was born until I I die, because I dedicate my life for the Jewish people. Because I know that's the will of Hashem, I know that's his children, and I'm trying to save as many of them as possible. But if you're talking about politics, then there's probably nobody that hates politics more than me. So I am Zionist and anti-Zionist according to depending on what your definition is at the same time. The same time. So, the point is the but I is that if a person wants to follow the truth, the Torah, the good then they're going to support the Torah, they're going to do whatever they can to publicize the Torah, and they're going to increase the good in the world and in their own life. But if a person is uh simply self-centered uh and they don't really care so much about what God said, they don't even know if they believe all of what he said uh then of course they're going to be like blind people uh walk walking in darkness and just running into things and uh once in a while saying ow. I'm trying I'm having a hard time trying to launch my product. Can I you please give me a bracha, please? Um if you take on a mitzvah that mitzvah will be the seed. Once you tell me which mitzvah you're going to take upon yourself then I'll give you a bracha. That's how my dear rav uh does it where the mitzvah that you take upon yourself at this moment is the seed and the bracha that I will give you will be the uh the water. The water doesn't work without the seed. So, tell me what mitzvah you're going to take on yourself. If let's say if you don't keep Shabbat then obviously keep Shabbat. If uh protecting your breed, if you don't then take that on. It has to be a big mitzvah. Uh but if you already keep all the basics then uh what don't you do? Take it on and uh but I'll tell you I'll give you a bracha. I'll be more than happy to. What do you think of Jonathan Pollard starting his campaign in Israel? Uh I think he's a kofer. I think he's an apikoros because of the things that I saw him say um some time ago about what he thinks about the Torah leaders and so on. As far as his political views, I care less about them. I care less about his uh political views. But, I think that he needs to do teshuvah for some of the things that he said about the Torah scholars and the leaders, especially during the time of uh uh COVID. He has to publicly apologize just like he publicly shamed them. Do you think Do you believe in expanding the borders of Israel for the greater Israel project? I'm not sure what that is, but if you're talking about the biblical expanding of the borders, yeah, of course. Once the Messiah comes, Israel is going to be much, much bigger than it is right now. What is your opinion of Benjamin Netanyahu? I have a video. Go to my channel and it says "Bibi Netanyahu" and you'll see exactly what I think of him. He's a politician, so that should tell you what I think of him. Your product is a life-saving home home address device. Okay, bezrat Hashem, you'll have hatzlacha, but take on a mitzvah to make that a uh something that will have uh blessings from above. So, if you already keep Shabbat, good. So, take on a mitzvah of something that you're not doing. Whether, let's say for example, learning Torah. If you're not learning Torah every day, take upon yourself to learn from now on every day learn at least 1 hour of Torah. Whether it's watching my videos that I have, or it's a reading Torah books, take on learning an hour a day of Torah. You'll have a long life and learn Torah and do mitzvahs and good deeds. Is a man ever required to give a get, or is it entirely up to him? Of course, there's a time that a man is required to give a get. If he's violating the ketubah. If he's not giving what he promised in the ketubah giving his wife money, food, roof over her head, or intimacy. If he's not doing that, then yes, he has to give her a get. Or if he's a uh if the bet din determines that he has to give her a get because he is abusive to her and so on, then yeah, they the bet din could say that he has to give her a get. Or if he took on a second wife without permission. Which you teach you that there is a situations where a man is allowed to have a second wife. According to the Torah, but it's not permitted for everybody. You just have certain permission. Why don't you support Jonathan Pollard? Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu visited him in prison. And always supported him. He supported him back then just because Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu alav hashalom went to prison to support a Jewish prisoner does not mean that he would support him 30 years later for the heretical comments that he makes online on a regular basis. There's no such thing as permanent support. If somebody changes their stance and they go from being a follower of God to a heretic, no one that supported him while he was a follower of God and a believer in God as and a religious Jew is going to continue supporting him when he becomes an enemy of God. No. So, no, it's not permanent support. Can you recommend where I could purchase Torah to start my learning? I want to convert. Uh yeah, you can go to our website, which is b e e z r a t h a s h e m dot o r g. It's Usually you'll find it in my profiles. That's our website. On the website, on the top left, there is something called uh free books, ebooks, and PDFs. Go there to that tab. Over there, look for something that's called conversion guide. It's a free conversion guide. It's an interactive guide where over there it'll tell you all the different things you need to learn for the sake of conversion. It has the videos there that you click on of what that's going to teach you what you need to know, how to know it, and also has book recommendations that you could click on and it takes you to, you know, Amazon stores or different bookstores that sell these books. So, you can go there and buy it from those stores. If you use the Linktree, not LinkedIn, Linktree, we have a profile on Linktree. You go to our Linktree, I believe just look for my name. Um and in the Linktree, we have actually like a connected store, like a connected like Amazon or something. Or different things, people that actually sell those books. So you can just click on it and it takes you to the site. So if you use that then you could find it that way and buy the books from from there if you want. The point is that we have a different things that we've made that will help you guys choose the right books to learn, whether it's for the sake of conversion or if you're newly religious or you want to become a religious Jew, then you could do that. Do I know people in Antwerp, Antwerpen in Belgium? Yeah, I believe there is at least one or two students that are in touch once in a while from there. I don't mean have a big gay lower anything, but there's at least a couple of people I remember that told me they live there. Are you going to bed John Pollard? Why do you say that is heretical? He made He made some very very horrific comments about the Torah leaders, the Torah scholars during the time of COVID. He spoke against it because I believe he was against the uh the um the vaccine and some of the Torah scholars said it's okay or I don't know. He said some things that I remember back then I said it's a real shame that the guy um became famous in a positive way and is now turning it in a negative way. Are other people required to jump in to convince this person to give a get? Other people, if you mean the beddin, the beddin has to tell him that he has to give a get. And uh if he refuses to listen to the beddin, then he has a problem. He has an alachic problem. Uh I mean at the time of uh where the beddins would actually had power, they could beat him senseless until he gives the get. That's what the alacha is. The rambam says, today we don't have the ability to do that because the the law of the land of the nations is uh what, you know, does not allow that. Uh but as far as alacha is concerned, yeah, they could beat him up until he says he wants to give the get. Uh but as far as today, um if somebody doesn't want to give a get when he has to give a get, um there's no obligation for just any average Jew to go and uh you know, try to tell him to go give the get, uh especially if they don't know why and who, what, when, how, uh but uh you know, it's again, it depends. It's usually the best thing for it to be dealt with with rabbis and not people that are seeking attention where they just make protest or they shame somebody and they think that that's really uh permissible to do. You can't just decide to go in the middle of the street and shame a person um you know, for for not giving a get and think that that's just allowed across the board. I mean, I I don't I don't understand why anybody would ever think that's allowed. Uh but uh nonetheless, it's um it's just uh people just invent invent new uh uh new laws and new forms of zealousness that it's really has nothing to do with Torah. >> What's your stance on the genocide in Gaza? Never heard of it. Let's say someone squashes their doubts about the truth of it to law, does chuvah and becomes very from with the unconscious motivation to become center of the universe VIP. Is that real righteousness? Well, if he is arrogant and he wants to become center of the universe, then he's never actually done chuvah. So. Just because somebody's practices the laws doesn't mean that they're righteous. It just means that they're doing things. You know, it's There's people in Africa that do all types of strange things and wear all types of strange clothes because that's their custom. You know, they put those rings around their neck and they jump and they wear practically no clothes and they make strange sounds and they wear little, you know, different things. And if you look at them, they look, you know, they're not normal to you. Why? Because that's not the way the way the world, you know, is. Um So, even though they could claim that they're uh there is normal to them, you know, that what what the norm is supposed to be uh for the rest of society. Uh so, in regards to somebody that uh does the same thing but just as a as a Jew where they're jumping and they're celebrating and they put uh ring thingies around their neck and, you know, maybe a hat as a uh streimel or jacket, it doesn't really make them uh a righteous Jew. It just means they have the custom on. To be righteous, you actually have to do what Hashem says, and believe it. Okay. See what else. What are your thoughts on modern Hebrew? Modern Hebrew that was uh an intentional attack by Ben Yehuda who was a Zionist uh against the Torah. He intentionally took words from the Torah and gave them a new meaning that was the opposite of what it is. And this is the reason why modern-day Hebrew and the biblical Hebrew are not the same. They use the same letters, but it's not the same. So, just because you speak modern-day Hebrew does not mean that you will understand anything if you read the words of the Torah. Uh so, it's important for a person to know that there is a significant difference between the two, so much so that the uh the Ben Yehuda actually intentionally uh planted certain words uh that literally mean the opposite of what the Torah says. All right. Let's see. Can a person give a donation if they don't own a business but work for a corporation? Yeah, of course, why not? Um yeah, of course, why not? I mean, there's most of the people that donate to our organization, uh they have just regular jobs. They don't uh they don't own any businesses. Some people that uh work for companies um that actually have uh different uh donation uh uh donation planning where uh the company actually allows people to select the nonprofit of their choice, and they will match whatever they donate. So, for example, if they give 100 bucks every paycheck, the company matches it, so the company sends us uh $200 every uh you know, every couple of weeks, or every month, or whatever it is. So, uh you could if you work for a company or you, you know, you could donate and uh from your paycheck, you could donate from, you know, to that. There's a lot of ways that you could donate, sure. I work in a job, and I have a contract in the exact and have a contract in the extra time. Do I have less bitachon, even if I pray for God, praise be He, to give me chochmah and help me along my way? What should I do then? Should I leave my contract and study Torah? I think that that should be a balance. I mean, trying to shut down work from time to time and study Torah. Well, yeah, that depends. It depends on um on how much of that time it takes of your day, and how much you're able to study Torah. So, if let's say, for example, you work from, you know, 8:00 in the morning, uh whether it's one job or two jobs, it doesn't matter. If you work from 8:00 in the morning till 8:00 at night, so you work 12 hours a day, then by the time you uh get home, eat, drink, sp- you know, spend some time with your wife and kids. It's 11:00, 12:00 at night and you don't have any energy to, you know, learn Torah at that point. You have to go to sleep cuz you have to wake up early. Then, of course, you're overworking. Of course, you're not doing the right thing because you're not leaving any time to learn Torah. On the other hand, if, let's say, you work a certain amount of hours, even if it's 8:00 to 8:00, even if you work 8:00 to 8:00, but you find a way, however it may be, to legitimately learn at least an hour or two a day on a regular basis, uh then uh even if you work that much, you could still uh you know, do good. Generally speaking, every person should study at least a couple hours a day. Uh but again, you can't start that way. Most people, they can't just start with 2 hours a day. Uh and most people that want to grow can't stay at 2 hours a day. They need more. So, but the point is the goal should be to at least get 2 hours a day. If you could do whatever you need to do for your own personal life as well as uh study a couple hours a day, then you should be fine. Shalom dear Rabbi, I've seen Rabbi Eliyahu Kin associated with Maayon Yisrael in Los Angeles has a series on astrology and our zodiac signs. Is there any prohibition on this topic that we should be aware of? Uh there is a teaching of about zodiac signs in the Torah. Uh I mean, I haven't seen the series by uh Rabbi Eliyahu Kin uh about it, but uh from what I remember years ago when I watched a couple of his uh videos, he was very uh talmid chacham and a very righteous person, so if that should be the same, I don't think there's a problem with it. Um and um but as far as zodiac signs and things like that, there is a source. There's in the Zohar Kadosh talks about it. There's different parts of the Torah. In fact, the uh when Avraham Avinu uh Hashem told him to uh um that Am Yisrael is above the mazal, what Hashem was in essence telling Avraham Avinu is that Avraham Avinu was able to read the stars. And all of the people from around the world would come to him to tell him what is the future going to be and to guide them through the stars. Uh and uh when Avraham Avinu saw certain things about himself uh and his son or his his future, uh Hashem told him reading the stars for yourself is useless. Why? Because you're Am Yisrael, you're you're above the mazal. So, it's not relevant to you. So, don't don't worry about what the stars say. Um but the point is is that this is also the gift that he gave uh his uh children. Not Yitzchak or the other children that he had. He This is the gift that he gave them, one of them at least, uh knowledge of how to read the stars and you know, different things that have to do with it. Um But so, there is a certain foundation that uh of knowledge about it uh that is taught in the Torah. Uh there are some things about it that are interesting. Uh there are some things about it that are absolutely uh forbidden. Uh and um you know, a person needs to spend time learning the things that are not just interesting to them, but are actually going to help them uh better themselves and live their day-to-day life. So, I don't know how much um a learning about the zodiac signs could help a person in their personal life. So, I would say if you're interested in the topic, maybe you could watch, I don't know, one lecture about it that's half hour or something like that or an hour even. But to watch a whole series of, I don't know, 10, 20 lectures about it, I I I don't really understand what uh what could be so uh um useful for a person's life to learn from it? That they need to dedicate that many hours to learning it. You know, but again I haven't watched the series. He may be bringing in Musar in there. He may be bringing in other interesting things that are that are critical and important for people's lives and he's just using that as a topic to bring in what he really wants to talk about to help people. So I can't really comment about his particular series, but nonetheless see if after you watch one lecture if you see that this is actually not just interesting to you, but it's also helpful for your life that you can apply certain things to your life then of course you could continue. What happens when a politician non-Jew makes a vow in public? Is this person still liable for the vow just for the fact of being in public position? Vows are not relevant to non-Jews. Doesn't matter if they're a politician or they are a plumber. Doesn't matter if they do publicly or privately. Vows neder do not apply to non-Jews. Okay, we're going to ask for maybe one more question. It's late. Does criticizing or rejecting the policies of Israel equal to anti-Semitism? It all depends as I explained earlier today. It all depends what's behind it. It all depends what's behind it. Actually have a person that was apparently a very famous anti-Semite for many years who apparently is a fan of mine and he recently abandoned his anti-Semitism. He contacted me. Uh apparently he likes my lectures and uh we exchanged a few uh a few uh a few words. Uh seems like a decent person trying to really turn around his life, go in the righteous path, and with the same I hope that he succeeds in it. Uh but uh one of the things that uh I uh uh I wrote to him that I think really puts things things in perspective that um I don't know. I think I think that most people don't really take into account when uh when they're practicing their uh let's just say their beliefs or whatever it is they call their beliefs uh you know, against politics and and and things like that. Um and in fact, I'll actually read you exactly what I wrote them if I could find it quickly. Uh Let's see. Let's see where I can find it. Let's see what I can read to you. Ah, yeah. Um the problem with anti-Semites is their predisposed bias. And they're Again, I'll read it. The problem with anti-Semites is that they are a predisposed bias and therefore the Jews can do nothing right in their eyes. This is one of the reasons the anti-Semites feel comfortable throwing all Jews into the same basket. The good news for those who watch my lectures is that they will quickly see that there's a necessity to distinguish between good and bad based on actions and not religion, gender, or any other bias. The thing that happens in the world today is that people hate something but they don't really understand what they're what they hate. So, they hate bad players. They hate bad players. They hate people that cheat the public. They hate people that manipulate people in a negative way. They hate thieves. They hate pedophiles. They hate whatever it is. And now, the truth is any normal person will also hate those people. Any normal person that has a decent that's a decent human being will also hate those people. So, what's the difference between an anti-Semite and a normal person? A normal person will hate an anti-Semite. A normal person will hate a a a person that is you know, a thief or whatever. A a person that's you know, hurts other people and so on. Normal person will hate it. An anti-Semite may hate those same people, but he will also mention that they're Jewish. Meaning, if somebody is a publicizes a bad player, and he isn't nobody knows what he could be Christian, he could be Muslim, he could be Chinese, he could be Russian, whatever he is. What you'll see in the media is oh, or you'll see in the the articles uh Mr. Steve you know, Jones just uh stole a bunch of money. Steve Jones just killed such and such. Steve Jones is a thief. Steve Jones is a bad guy, right? On the other hand, the anti-Semites, whether it be the media or the talking heads or whoever it is out there, reporting Steve Jones killed somebody, and by the way, Steve is Jewish. That's an anti-Semite. Why is that an anti-Semite? Because when he wasn't Jewish, no one cared about his religion enough to mention his crime next to his religion. Nobody cared that Steve Jones made a Ponzi scheme and he happens to be Muslim, and he happens to be Christian, and he happens to be atheist. Nobody cares. They just say Steve Jones stole, raped, killed, whatever he did. And that's why we hate him. THAT'S WHY HE'S A BAD GUY. But when Steve happens to be a Jew, everyone all of a sudden cares about his religion, EVEN IF HE HIMSELF DOESN'T care about it. Even if he himself was born Jewish, but is an atheist. He himself is born Jewish, but he's a communist. Born Jewish, but is completely secular, drives on Shabbat, and I don't know, kills uh kills uh uh every uh opportunity to even learn Torah. He doesn't care about Torah, but people will still mention that he's Jewish. That's anti-Semitism. So, for those of you that feel the need to mention that the person that you hate is Jewish, even if the person that you hate happens to have done a bad thing, and you decided you want to mention their religion, too, then you're an anti-Semite. Because the reality is their bad acts have nothing to do with Judaism. Because if you learn anything and know anything about Judaism, the foundation of the Torah is morality, which is being moral, being good, not hurting other people, whether they're Jews or Gentiles. So, if you're mentioning a bad player, that means he did something that's against the Torah, that means he's an enemy of the Torah. That means that he didn't do it because he's Jewish. He's doing He did it because he just feels like it even though it's against the Torah. So, his Judaism was not part of his rationale behind his crime. So, you mentioning that he happens to be Jewish of religion is completely un you know, a bias that you are just using as an excuse to express your anti-Semitic views. On the other hand, if you mention everybody, whoever it is, Jew, Gentile, doesn't make a difference, that did something bad, whether it's politics or it's civil, whatever it is, and they did something bad, then there's no problem. They did something bad, they did something good, you want to talk about it, no problem. Because again, if it has their behavior has nothing to do with their religion, then why you mentioning it? The only reason why you're mentioning it is because you're anti-Semitic. So, that's the difference. Do I think I'm superior to I'm superior to you because you are so self-conscious that there's no possible way that you could ever do the will of Hashem like he created you to do. Anyone that wants to serve Hashem to do good things can do it. Eliyahu Hanavi, Elijah the prophet himself says, "Whether Jew or Gentile, male or female, young or old, maidservant or or or slave, everyone can get to Ruach Hakodesh if they do what the will of Hashem." So, everyone can get to a high level, but if you're too busy worried about whether I think I'm better than you or less than you, you're you're not spending your time wisely. You're too busy thinking about what I think as if you could find out what I think. You're a self-conscious person. You need help. Worry about yourself. Worry about what you do. It'll be much better for your life. Did the former anti-Semite do complete chuva? I mean, I I've no idea. I don't know enough about him to know if he did complete chuva. From what it seems like, he completely turned his back to the uh his past beliefs of anti-Semitism uh and uh apparently he's uh opened up his eyes to what the uh that that that it's all simply hatred for no reason and hypocrisy. Where he ends up in the future, it depends. If he continues in the right path, uh then he'll do very good things. If he um you know, uh starts uh reinventing the uh you know, himself of the past again in just a different version of it, then obviously not. So, it depends. I don't know. I don't know, but he seems like a decent person. Seems like an intellectual person. Seems like a person that wants to do good. It just depends on what is moral compass is going to be based on. If his moral compass is going to be based on uh you know, the uh the media, the opinions of others, the uh the the the heresy and idolatry of the world, then unfortunately, that's going to steer him in the wrong direction, no matter where which way he goes, whether he supports Nazism or not. Uh it's still going to lead him in the wrong direction. But, if his moral compass is based on the Torah, which is something that can impact his life in a very, very positive way, whether he's Jewish or not, um then his moral compass will guide him in the right way, and he could succeed in fantastic ways and even make has sham sanctify sham's name. He could become a righteous no hide. He could do do a lot of things. He could even convert to Judaism if he wants. But that's up to him. That's up to him. I don't I don't know him well enough to know uh what his future plans are, but from what I did a little bit of that I saw, it seems uh it seems uh like a positive progress. Why is alcohol allowed in Judaism? Uh because alcohol in itself is not something that a hurts a person, you know, with any quantity. You know, if you if you drink a little bit of wine, it's not going to hurt you. In fact, uh according to research, uh I I believe it's about a glass of wine is actually healthy for the heart. Uh if you let's say for example, if you eat a meat meal, the Hakhamim say that there's there's no simcha without meat and uh and wine. Why is there no simcha if there are meat and wine? Because if you eat meat, many times that's going to be heavy for your digestive system and uh make you tired and not be so beneficial to you initially. So the Hakhamim say meat and wine is also good for you and is going to give you simcha because if you if you eat only meat, then you may it may hurt you. You may get tired. You may fall asleep too early. You may not be able to speak divrei Torah. But if you drink a glass of wine, that's actually going to thin out the blood that was thickened by the meat and actually make the digestion much better, much easier, and you'll actually be able to celebrate. So meat and wine. Uh so that way you have simcha of of meat and wine. So again, one glass of wine is not a problem, but of course if a person is an alcoholic starts drinking, you know, entire bottles of vodka or or bottles of wine on a regular basis, then of course this is not good for anybody. And it's against the Torah. So, again, it all depends on how much it affects a person. Uh but usually a glass of wine is not going to hurt anybody. In many times, more cases than not, it actually may even be healthy for them. Again, depending on circumstances. Some people are uh very much allergic to wine or certain types of wine. So, for them even a little bit is too much. But again, every person has to know what what is uh uh ability is and so on. Okay, Rebotei. Abba Hashem. Um I appreciate learning with you guys. I hope that everybody here is going to apply this stuff to their life. Anyone that wants to support and donate and be partners with us on the amazing projects that we're doing, you could donate on our website bezras hashem.org. You could also become a monthly donor uh that you know, donate a certain amount every month. That way it's not even something that you have to think about. You just do it. You commit to it. You become a partner, which is really something that uh we want to continue building on because the more we have a steady amount of uh uh of donors, the more we could know uh you know, with certain big things we could commit to. Even bigger than what we're doing right now. But like I told you, there's a bunch of big stuff happening. I'm trying to give you a little bit every week. This week we have the new TV channel on Roku uh that's in Spanish. We already had the one in English for several years, which many people like. Uh we recently upgraded it to be uh even better than what it was before. Abba Hashem. Uh we have a big update coming to the AI Rabbi very soon. Bezras Hashem. We have a couple of really really big secret projects that's also coming very soon. Uh in so many words anyone that has the ability to donate and doesn't donate is simply going to regret it forever. Um why? Because it's it's something that could help you. And um anyone who doesn't want to donate uh don't donate, you know. You don't have to. You could do what you want. It's your money. Uh like this guy over here that's making comments, do not donate, do not donate, do not donate. He doesn't want to donate. And guess what? If you don't want to donate, we don't want your money. But anyone that wants to is more than welcome to. Either way, about that it's for your own good. Bahavas achim is cooling mitzvot and we'll learn again later this week. Shalom rabotai. We're finally here. The new key roof box. It opens up. A nice little cushion here. I got Let's see if it's charged. Isn't it amazing? Just the box alone is Now available at the besuraschaim.com.org. besuraschaim.org Get yourself 20 of them, 30 of them, 50 of them. Distribute them to all the people that you care about. And you'll have people do teshuvah.