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Organ Donor, Tzedaka by Rasha, Kosher Supplements, Convert Prayer | STR COMPILATION #1

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Rabbi Yaron Reuven avatar
Rabbi Yaron Reuven

Transcript

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[Music] I hear sh and the rabbi said that giving taka will save the person in the next World I personally know some people that don't keep T and however they they give tons OFA so how is it that they will receive reward in the next World they will not receive reward in the next World whoever is telling them that they'll receive reward in the next world is lying to them because he wants their money uh a person that does not observe the tah does not keep Shabbat does not keep the basics of tah and gives all of their reward will be rewarded in this world as it says in theem pay his haters for their merits of giving or doing anything cat to their face in this world in order to destroy them this is one before last verse of a person does not keep will not get rewarded in the next World they will get destroyed in the next World they'll go to G in the next World they will not get rewarded for it but if a person has some sins and some MIT but it's not the sins that are irreparable in the next world uh then that staka will help them but uh as far as if they don't keep any but they just donate money it's not going to help them one bit in the next World they'll get punished severely and uh they're uh actually going to get punished even for giving that money even for giving that money a it's a verse in the talks about it also different people that think that they can bribe God there's no bribing God you can't buy me you can't uh bribe uh God and give have give you Heaven if you don't follow No Heaven Can your go to your parents Merit if they are old if they're off the D like the mitvah one does I few my biological mother will be in G could I get her to G by my I'm afraid not I'm afraid you cannot get your your mom to Go to Heaven by simply you doing me and she doesn't like she has to at least keep something that's the basic of Judaism she has to keep Shabbat she has to keep family Purity she has to keep kosher you know the very Basics where if uh if a person's uh dies without keeping the mitv they can't go to heaven even if their son is the biggest Rabbi in the world so but if they do keep the basics and they have a son or daughter that does keep even more than the basics and becomes very important and and does many many more MIT than they're even required to do then that extra Merit uh can help that person but that's also because the person's already in heaven but if the person does not keep the basic foundations of uh of Judaism they get no benefits from uh from what their kids are doing because it's not to their it's not that they are married they didn't do anything for it they actually did the opposite so plus it said so that if a person doesn't keep Shabbat they uh they don't go to heaven they go to G some sages in apparently discussed praying in certain directions besides the temples like the North and the South can one do this today since the uh the is has decided the have decided that we have to pray in one particular direction a person cannot do otherwise once something became AA or even a widely uh uh exercise custom we cannot change it why because it's part of fulfilling of uh fulfilling the Tora of our forefathers and our fathers so if decided this this is what it is so important to note that even something as simple as praying in a certain direction is all part of the now as a disclaimer if someone makes a mistake and prays in the wrong direction it's not you don't have to repeat the prayer and uh it's not necessarily a sin you didn't do it on purpose but the point is if there's a custom that's already practiced by Amed we stick with it if it has a good taste if the pill or the uh uh you know liquid if it has a good sweet or whatever good taste then it has to be kosher then it has to be kosher if it's a supplement because you don't have to have it uh but if it's a or even if it's a medicine it's a it has to be kosher if it doesn't have a taste or it has a bad taste then it does not need to be kosher not need to be kosher so meaning like a pill that uh actually let's repeat so a uh let's say if there is a vitamin that's uh multivitamin that's gummy that's gummy and it's sweet if you want if you're a Jew you want to consume one of those gummy vitamins it has to be a kosher one you cannot you know eat one that's not Kosher why cuz the non kosher one has gelatin has gelatin in it which is coming from Bones of animals uh and it's not Kosher on the other hand almost all pills have gelatin in them because uh they need it for the uh adhesive for the pills for the casing and so on so how come you're allowed to take those they're not Kosher that's because all of those pills and medicine for your antibiotics and uh other types of pills that people take they either have no taste or a bad taste that even a dog wouldn't eat and therefore the gelatin that they have has been destroyed to the point where it's no longer food and that's why Shalom says that you're allowed to uh consume gelatin that has a bad taste or no taste but you're not allowed to consume uh gelatin that has uh uh good taste now how would you know if the gelatin is the one that's giving good taste to uh the the multivitamin that's gummy you don't know therefore you stay away from it and uh you go find yourself a jelly gummy kosher vitamin if you want to consume that or medicine if you want to consume that but if you don't care about the taste and just take something that's a uh doesn't have a taste you could choose whichever if a person goes to somewhere not good for example church because he or she was forced and pressured by the parents and by the husband will Hashem still hear that the person in prayers SS he or she prays to Hashem only and doesn't participate any to any other worship uh a person it's a Jew is not allowed to go into a church a non-jew is also not allowed to go to a church because it's a place of idolatry but there is a bigger uh sin for a Jew to go to a place to a church or place of idolatry and uh no their prayers will not be answered when they are in a church uh and no they cannot use the excuse that someone pressured them to go to a church um because they have to stand up for themselves and they have to uh not go and if uh you know if if the if they stand up for it like they would for anything else they will eventually win does using donations at the tax break take away from the merits of the donation and count as a payment in this world it's a very good question uh now if somebody's only donating for the sake of taxes then you know then most likely the donation itself is not worth very much anyway not because of the loss of Merit but rather because if he only cares about the tax benefit then he does not have have much merits that he's looking to acquire he's looking to just simply acquire honor from somebody so says that you know brings Merit to those that have merits and are looking for merits uh and obligation is one that's looking for obligation meaning that if someone is looking to do a Mitzvah just itching for a Mitzvah let me see if I can help somebody let me see if I could Don at somewhere good he's looking for something good to do Hashem will bring him something good he'll give him a good organization that helps people do CH do and so on and so forth will bring it to his attention that he'll donate to such an organization but if he just looking for a tax benefit most likely the emails that he's going to get are going to be from the family zoo or from uh Jews and Christians Alliance or something like that that he's going to be supporting idolatry or maybe to help uh save some whales or maybe donate for rescuing of dogs he's not going to donate to anything that's worth anything so there is no merit to speak of for such a person if a person is donating for the right reason then he's going to get the full Merit of it and the tax benefit is just a uh just a cherry on top it's just a cherry on top as a result of what he's doing but he's not doing it for the tax benefit so therefore it does not take away from his marriage because he wasn't donating for the sake of taxes now if if he's encouraged to donate more today uh rather than normally because today we have a bigger benefit to donate for tax-wise then it will in let's say two days from now once the new year and the Gregorian calendar starts he should not refrain from donating anyway simply because again it's a one of the things we learned from Abraham ainu is that when we have a Mitzvah opportunity we have to expedite it we have to hurry after it we have to run after it as soon as possible and if a tax benefit will motivate us to run after it then so be it let that motivate us let that be the motivator because why because the Mitzvah will have enough reward enough good in it that uh we need to do it now whereas if we delay we could potentially open the door for the Satan to not only not have us do it the right way but not do it at all so if the motivation is tax purposes or or some other type of motivation uh for donating now it's uh it's still good to do it it's still good to do it that way uh of course a person should be donating at all times and whenever they can but uh sometimes people need to be reminded and therefore uh use whatever tools you can to motivate you to do the Mitzvah as soon as possible how do we fulfill both mitv of erasing am's memory from the face of the Earth and remembering what they did to us if we erase their memory then we can we can't fulfill the Mitzvah remembering them uh well erasing their memory is not necessarily always killing the person killing an Amal we don't even know who Amal is erasing the memory of Amal is let's say for example a person does chuva gets closer to hasem but she still has pictures of herself when she was young and practically uh naked in the streets or he has pictures of himself when he was young and uh uh promiscuous with different girlfriends most of them being not Jewish destroying those pictures destroying them from the face of the earth is erasing amalik is erasing amalik uh as far as a uh not remembering Al not remembering Al is a little bit of a different Mitzvah it's a little bit different Mitzvah or remembering what they did to us is a different Mitzvah it's a mitvah of a acquiring acquiring uh fear of the almighty because the reason why Amal felt comfortable to fight am Isel is because of the Tora because they had no fear of hem so acquiring is in essence remembering plus there's a verse in the Tora that you read once a year uh or twice a year technically uh but the point is is that the erasing Amal and remembering Amal is not just literally you know with a people named Amal but rather with a uh certain things that are within your life certain actions that are connected to like for example if somebody tells you not to go to a even though it's a very good Shi or someone tells you don't keep Shabbat uh or somebody tells you don't uh marry a good kosher person that's a character trait of Amal and ending that relationship or even at the very least not listening to them is a way of fighting amalik is a fighting amalik soik is not just a uh a person per se it's more to that tithe is gratefulness to hasem for your P right if you made money and uh and bought books of Torah learning for your spouse or another family member as a gift for their birthday um and it's more than 10 10% of what you made does that count as it depends what it is because a man is obligated to learn T and also a uh the obligated to have their kids learn to so uh when you're obligated to do something you cannot use your M your tithe money to pay for an obligation like you can't use your tithe money to buy and for you can't use your sell money to uh uh to let's say uh you know do things that you're obligated to do uh so this would be counted as a gift you give a gift on the other hand if you're buying something that's say uh you're investing into tah you're publicizing a specific type of Torah you're doing certain things that are not obligations that could potentially be M uh it could be potentially M but generally speaking the m is supposed to go for the sake of publicizing tah or helping people do chva even if that is your own household so so if the books that you're getting are going to help them get closer to Hashem and so on it could potentially be Mel but it's not uh always because it depends how much you have and what you have and what level the person is in uh so a person that wants to make sure that they are giving M uh would not use the money uh that they're giving myself to buy themselves books or to buy anybody else books but rather to help the Torah be ized uh either help people learn T that are or people that even your own you know people that uh are secular help them do chuva that's what you should use your money for as your M but it doesn't mean that what you did is bad what you did is perfectly fine it's just that it most likely is not M it's not doesn't qualify as M how can one combat internal arrogance so arrogance had in one's heart outward arrogance is relatively straight forward to stop but inward arrogance seems harder to tackle Jonah it's a very very deep question how do you you know obviously outer arrogance is in essence showing off certain things inner arrogance you could you know you could pretend you could pretend that uh you know you're humble you could pretend that you're not as good as other people like some people do they walk low and they see certain things they even embarrass themselves in public but in reality deep in their heart they think that they're they're better than everybody else so how do you defeat it you defeat it with more Torah what does it mean with more Torah the more T you learn the more you realize how much you don't know again the more tah you learn the more you realize how much you don't know and I don't mean just learning one particular topic but rather covering the entire T you learn the each week with commentary perhaps if you're good enough maybe few comment Aries on top of that you learn a few pages of or at the very least one or two pages of each and every single day with commentaries if you're Advanced read some of the read some of the other go look at some connected to read read the the more you learn the more you realize how much you don't know which you realize at that point that you have nothing to be arrogant about why because all the things that a person could possibly be arrogant about in this world are material things but the truth be told is that those material things you can't take with you anyway that car you can take with you that house you can't take with you those looks that you have are not going to stay with you whether you like it or not everything at some point or another is lost is Left Behind so all the things that people are arrogant about are things they don't truly possess they're not theirs because if it was yours you'd be able to take it with you wherever you want your car although you paid for it it's not yours your house although you paid for it it's not yours nothing is yours because you can't take it with you except your and your good actions your that's what's yours your sins also are yours the point being is when a person realizes what they actually have they realize that the only thing they should be should be arrogant or embarrassed of are things they truly possess because all of the other stuff is not really there it's like somebody stole the crown of the king and is acting as if he's the king I mean it's silly it's silly to be arrogant about all these material things so the more T that you're going to learn the more you realize how much you don't know and how much you don't possess and the point being is the less you have to be arrogant about now to work on yourself cannot be simple uh by any stretch of the imagination because to work on yourself means that you have to constantly repeat what I just said and many other things like it on a regular basis to yourself you have to constantly test there's a very famous story about a one of the in the previous generation already was recognized as a big when he was very young and one of the wealthy people of the community saw recogniz his wisdom and tah and said I want him to marry my daughter and he decided to take him as a husband for his uh for his daughter surely the daughter wants to marry one of the people that's going to be the next giant of the generation and uh so they got married now shortly after the marriage it was yum so the the wealthy person the father-in-law wanted to celebrate with his son but also show him off to the community and he invited them to his community for y and the community heard about all the good things about this this young and they wanted to give him they wanted to give him honor by making him the for the starting the beginning of the Y so walks up to the takes up the uh theit and puts it down takes it up puts it down takes it up few times and he start talking no you do it then no you do it no I'll do it no you do it you do it you do it okay what if you're going to do it I'm out of here I'm not I don't want if you're going to be here I'm not going to be here you do it yourself everyone starts to laugh at the wealthy man that just had his daughter marry this crazy person talking to a talit on y po nonetheless but he didn't say a word they continued praying and after they finished praying later on that night on the way home says to says I don't understand why did you choose to embarrass me this way if you wanted to embarrass me already why don't you just do it some other way says Noom I wasn't looking to embarrass you I'm sorry if I embarrassed you he says to him the father-in-law says to them that if you aren't looking to embarrass me then what was that all about what was that all thing you're talking toit he goes no I wasn't talking toit so what happened he says I arrived and everybody's giving me Cav honor and so on and if that wasn't enough they say why don't you be the Kazan for and all of a sudden I get to the and who shows up other than the himself the shows up also so I say to him what are you doing here he says I'm here be I say to him but I'm going to be a go no no no no I'm going to be goes okay so you be go no I'm going to be a you go back and forth says to the says to listen but I earned my way I learned a lot of books Satan says I learned a lot of books too because yeah but I toiled and toiled in tah Satan says I toiled and toil and to with you he says then but I worked on myself Satan says I work on myself too if you know so much Torah if you worked on yourself so much if you think you're so good and that's why everybody's giving you C you be thean I'm out of here I'm not going to Bean does with you you think that you're getting greater you think that you're getting better you think that you're becoming a sadik after 6 months 6 years 20 years you think that you have no sin under your belt you don't realize Satan is doing Chua with you and he's looking for you he's looking for you to turn all of those all of that all of that all of the things that you have he wants you to turn all of it into arrogance into something that you think you're better than other people about and that makes all Worth garbage that makes it all go to the garbage was not only a but he also understood his own limitations he also understood the Satan was looking to give him kav why to take all the Torah that he has and turn it into garbage this is what a person needs to know on one hand in reality if you compare yourself to some of the greatest rabbis in the world some of the greatest in the world some of are forefathers already you have nothing to be proud of why because only thing that you could possibly own is and they had a lot more than you then what the hell are you so proud of what are you so arrogant about that's in a simple way if that's not enough remember even if you are learning even if you are doing even if you're reading and writing books already at this point remember that the Satan wants you to express arrogance why to take everything that you have and turn it into garbage and that's unfortunately what's happened many times of different people that were doing good at first helping people do chv helping people get closer to Hashem in the beginning but then they turned arrogant and unfortunately everything they did turned into garbage and you see it from their speeches perhaps even from their books and otherwise can there be any benefit to taking vitamins or supplements because hasem is completely in charge of our health is taking a supplement making a reasonable effort of thinking we need help to need to help AEM uh no you have a um there a in the Tora says uh that uh gives permission for the doctors and as well as the uh uh chemists and drugs and Pharmacy companies the right uh to cure people and there are different things some of them are uh cures per se of specific diseases some of them of supplements and there is a uh entire book that uh uh the rambam wrote of different things that are supplemental they're not necessarily cures but they supplemental uh to your health different things that can help your health uh it doesn't all work the same today as it used to be uh used to work back then uh but it's very effective uh uh medicine or supplements that you can uh learn from um and there's uh actual uh I would say a few quite a few quite a few uh books uh written with uh ancient Jewish medicine they call but many of those things are not necessarily per se just medicine to cure diseases but also supplements meaning that you are allowed to take vitamins or any type of supplements to improve your health uh for different reasons there's no problem doing it no problem can a convert use his or her mother's name who's not necessarily Jewish for the purpose of tahila or no uh the person that converts is no longer related to his biological father or mother uh their uh their father and mother is a abam and Sarah so a person that converts has to say that their mother their father is Abraham and their mother is sah uh saying that their mother and father is their biological uh parents he could say it if it's referencing uh know your uh you know government documents and if somebody asks you person but for the sake of a mitzvah for the sake of spirituality it would be considered a lie be considered a lie so he has to use Ab and sah uh and if a person uh has not converted yet and still has a problem with what I just said they should reconsider whether they should convert or not because it doesn't seem like they understand yet what conversion is because they're connected to their past and I understand that you're saying that you know it's your parents and you love them that's fine but your parents are not at synagogue because they're not Jewish what difference does it make if you mention their name or not means that there's something else here in this question I don't want to go too deep into it but the point being is that a person should really really think twice before they convert if if they're still deeply connected to their past the Torah allow us to donate our organs when we die uh when you're alive you could donate organs like you donate your kidney and so on as far as once you're dead uh there's some uh that say no some say yes but uh you know it's a uh it's uh it's a very very touchy issue simply because uh there's really no need for you to donate your organs and it's also very problematic to uh desecrate the dead body so the general opinion is don't deal with any of this any donations of any organs or any bodies uh it won't uh help you don't donate your time while you're alive donate your money while you're alive your body uh the world doesn't need it just let hem take it back as it is um it's not a good idea to donate any organs um you know after you die because it's a very problematic as far as desecrating the dead body and so on and there's plenty of uh non-jews that are doing it anyway but if you alive and you don't need a certain organ whether it be part of the liver or be a kidney something like that then you know some even say something it's about to do it you're saving a life or something like that but uh uh there's uh better way to do MIT put it that way there better ways to do MIT than ding donating your body [Music] [Applause] [Music]