Pets, Tehillim, Wearing Kippah, Elephants, Bloodletting | STR COMPILATION #7

[Music] but in regards to having a pet uh that depends on you that depends on you uh some people uh you know love pets they they they they want to have fish they want to have dogs cats and so on um you have to understand a couple of things number one having a pet is a responsibility but not just a resp responsibility uh to to clean after them and so on but also an responsibility you have to learn the of what it means to own a pet for example you're not allowed to eat before your pet yes even though you are holy Jew a good Jew and all that good stuff you could be the biggest Rabbi in the world if you have a dog and you're about to eat you have to feed your dog first why or else it's called where you're you're causing the dog suffering because he's not eating and you're eating so you have to make sure that the dog eats before you dog eats before you second thing is highly not recommended for you to have them sleep in your bed or even in your bedroom or even in the house why because the MIM say explain to us that uh the dogs specifically have tum they bring impurity doesn't mean that they're forbidden because a dog is a good animal dog is called dog it's called K because k is all heart K that's why it name is k but that doesn't mean that doesn't make it perfect it's also an animal that has a lot of tum So Many religious people religious Jews do not have dogs because they don't want that Tuma in their house they don't want that impurity in their house plus it comes with a lot of different issues so if you don't have a dog I personally would not recommend getting one uh you know unless you have a need for it you a person is blind they need a walking dog a person is disabled in some way need something uh you know some type of companion that's you know there's different reason people get a dog but if you're just getting a dog because you saw a picture on the internet of cute dogs and you want to get one for your kids I wouldn't recommend it I would say have another kid instead have another kid instead definitely take away any uh any extra time that you have and uh any extra room in your heart I wouldn't recommend getting a dog or a cat even though I had a dog for 16 years and I cared for him a lot he was a fantastic dog I cared for him so much that I not only uh set a couple of stories about him in my shim is also one of my videos one of the videos that we made into a movie has him in it he's in a video that dog probably learned more to than any dog in his generation was that dog uh but point being is that I am not getting a new dog not because I dislike dogs but because it comes with certain things with it certain baggage with it that I don't want to be involved in I don't want to be involved in and part of it is the Tuma so uh that's the second thing third thing is you have to understand that animals are M during Shabbat meaning you're not allowed to pet them and even walking them is something you have to be very careful with you can't walk the dog with a Long Leash and the the leash ends up hanging you have to walk him with a short leash you're also not allowed to pick up after them which can create some uh animosity between you and your neighbors if they don't know why you're not picking up after your dog on Shabbat so it comes with baggage the point being is it's not worth it in my opinion but again there's different people have different opinions different likes I have a friend that is you know in a but he has his house like a zoo he loves animals his house like literally like a zoo he's got like 10 birds and dogs and this and that and you know for each his own you know it doesn't make him less righteous he's fantastic person he learns in t all day he's but of course he has a responsibility he has a responsibility am I allowed to pray or learn tah while an animal specific specifically a dog or cat is in the same room and is it recommended to have a pet so it's not recommended at all not recommended at all to pray when there's an animal in the room not recommended at all it's not a uh completely forbidden uh because sometimes it's the uh there's there's no option uh but uh you have you cannot face it and also you have to make sure that it doesn't smell terrible if it smells terrible then you're not allowed to pray there is considered to if you're studying it if you're studying it you're looking at it with commentary you're trying to understand what the verses mean yes but if you're just reading it without understanding a single word it's not considered learning tah it's not considered learning to it's good but it's not considered learning to but if you're studying t with commentary by the different sages that's perfectly fine so the rule of thumb that the ran and many of the uh explain is that there is no beginning middle end of the Torah meaning that the Torah is not being written in order it's not being written in order it's not like you know the uh let's say for example the event that happened at the beginning of this week's Paras definitely happened before the next story it's not it's not written like a history book so last week's parad talked about a uh Judah uh you know uh getting away from his brothers and then marrying his uh you know his sons off and then eventually they you know the sons die and then he ends up marrying Tamar and then he has kids with her this is a process that took years this is a process that took years and you know this was not necessarily something that uh uh happened before the story continued with YF because as we see with YF the story continued practically live where as soon as he was sold he was you know he went to Egypt already so we see that there is no beginning or End plus also we see that there are certain verses in the Tora certain even T where the event that happened in that Paras actually happened before before the previous par even the previous book so there is no beginning or end in the in the Torah it's not told in order uh many times it's not told in order many times hence the reason why it's very important to read the Torah like a Jew which is to read the Torah with commentary by Rashi especially Rashi more than any of the other commentaries because he's accepted as is that's what Rashi is an acronym the rabbi of that's what Rashi is so it's very important everyone accepts rashish everyone accepts rashi's commentary other commentaries uh there's a uh some accept some don't accept some uh uh praise it as the uh the best and some lesser you know so the point is Rashi everyone knows that's the standard that's the standard that's the blueprint to understanding the T so when you learn the T with comment Rashi he's going to tell you this happened at this time and this is actually after the other event or before the other event and so on and so forth so into this week's it's a uh you know it's a time where the story continues when it comes to the relationship between uh uh the brothers and yourself but that's also happening simultaneously with the story of Tamal where the story of Tamal could have literally taking place during the 20 years that YF was was gone or it could even happen after it could even happen after it could happen during the point being is there is no beginning end but of course point out certain things that happen specifically at certain dates because we need to know those dates but when there's no Naina there's no specific uh uh importance a importance for something to happen at a specific date then there's usually a there's a debate between the sages if it happened before or happened after certain things and you see it in the many times where debate why is this Mitzvah being said in a certain verse in this order when we know that the way you perform this mitvah is not in order it's not in this order it's actually the opposite and a debate why it's this and not explain to you why Hashem wrote it this way and not in the order we would think as he says he doesn't think like us so this is in essence again some of the things you learned from the commentary and of course uh are there any specific requirements for kipa well a uh One requirement is a keepa has to go on your head that's what it has to go through if it goes on your shoulder or your hands I'm just kidding by the way but I have to be sarcastic a little bit sometimes uh if it goes on your hands or feet it's not fulfilling the obligation second the source for the keep is in the last chapter where one of the when he was a baby his mom would cover his hair his head in order to remind him that he is under hashem's rule so keepa is in essence supposed to remind you constantly that you are serving hem number three AA a keepa is supposed to cover your entire head your entire head that's the word your keepa is supposed to be big like mine I mean you may have a smaller head than me I have a head like a moose you may have a smaller head so uh you know so you may not need necessarily such a big keeper you can get the keeper on our website bash.org we have our Keo that are slightly smaller than the one that I'm wearing because we assume correctly that most people don't have a big head like me uh but the point is is that those Keepers usually cover most of people's head the more the keeper covers the better now does that mean that if somebody has a smaller keeper they're Wicked no no it just means that they uh have a little smaller keeper and in so many words most of the time you would notice that the bigger the the bigger the not always the case because as we always know there's some people wearing a costume some people wear a whole like the r but they they're Wicked people so but the point is that the bigger your keeper the more of your head that it covers the more you're showing AEM that you love and that you acknowledge that he is leading over you watching over you at all times at all times other things is you only need to wear your keeper while you're awake you don't need to wear it when you go to sleep you can if you want to just like your ti you don't need to wear it when you go to sleep you can if you want to but you don't have to uh of course you take off your keepa when you're uh you know showering bathing things of that nature uh you can take off your you have to take off your keepa for that you don't need to get your keepa wet every time uh when you're in the bathroom or working and things like that you have keep your keepa on you don't need to take it off uh and uh that's it I mean generally speaking it is a uh a bigger deal in Israel the type of keepa that you have than it is in the Exile uh or the diaspora I'm sorry the diaspora uh where in Israel there's much more value given to people that wear a knitted keepa versus a keepa like what I have and if it's black and sometimes there's even certain uh uh communities that even count the amount of parts that the keep us split into and if it's this type of black or different type of black there are all types of things in customs I personally don't care for any of that stuff I just want of the biggest keeper that cover my head and that's only a stepping stone to eventually have the when my Rabbi tell me tells me I'm allowed to have it other than that you know the the whatever you have whether it's a knitted keepa or it's Fabric or it's this or it's that doesn't really matter as much as the size of it the size of it it's more important where it should be as big as possible to cover your head but again it's also a matter of comfort the most important thing I would say aside from everything that I say is that you don't change you don't downgrade whatever you start with what you stay with meaning don't ever like you know wear a big keeper but then you know when you're hanging out with your friends or you're a at a restaurant or you're at a meeting you downgrade to a smaller keeper or you put a hat on don't do stuff like that that could be even it's better to have a smaller keeper that you're going to wear all the time even if it's literally half the size of mine and half the size of your head it's better to have that little one all the time and to have one that changes with the weather it's not good it's same thing same thing with some some women where they cover their hair with they but if they have an event they have a wedding they have something like that they put the wig on that's a very very serious problem it can even be considered so it's a very very serious problem it's it's a really big mistake that people make surely it's better that they cover their hair with with the scarf all the time and I could never say that it's better they would cover their wig with their hair with their wig the whole year but the point being is is that we do not downgrade in kadus we don't downgrade in Kusha we only upgrade that's also a reason why a woman a Jewish woman that gets married she has to cover her hair if she gets divorced is she has to continue covering her hair with continue covering with had leniency that if she's having problems getting married after getting divorced uh then uh then she could change it to a wig but that's assuming she could find the Kos wig in the world which in my opinion doesn't exist but the point being is the reason why a woman that's married covers ahe with a cannot take it off once she gets divorced the reason why is because we do not downgrade in kadus we do not downgrade in kadus anyone that tells you otherwise is simply mistaken uh we don't dig down so again when it comes to the keeper it's important to have a keeper you're comfortable with and you're going to wear it all the time all the time whether you're in a meeting or you're in a uh whatever you are you're in business or you're with your family you know sometimes people are religious at home at home they wear a TI they wear everything but when they're with their friends they go to work they look like an average Joe that's not good that's not good at all does not like that why because you're embarrassed of your Judaism it's a it's a it's horrible it's horrible so imagine you have a kid and uh he tells you how much he loves you I love you ABA I love you IMA you're the best you're the best you're the best and then one day you uh go out you see your your your your son is sitting there with a group of people say hey son Hi how are you and his son looks goes I don't know you I don't know you why are you talking to me I don't know you I don't know you you're not my father you're not my mother I don't know you how embarrassing would that be how horrible would that be how heartbreaking would that be that's the same thing with people that are religious at home or religious you know only when no one's looking it's horrible horrible horrible a woman that covers a with a needs to cover with all year round all the time you could have a fancier and a less F that's fine but to go from to wig is 100% a horrible thing horrible thing and that's even if you found a a kosher wig horrible thing horrible I have even stories of women that told me that they regretted wearing a wig one time they wore a wig on a event because their son got married so she wore a wig that she used to wear but she took off because she has the uh she washed her she took off the wig she put a and she always wor but then one day her son got married her first son got married oldest son got married and she felt weird to see all of her family with just a so she put on a wig she tells me she got she regretted it why she regret it aside from the fact that her conscience told her that she's wrong and it's terrible and so on why because one of our son's friends HD on her he didn't know she's not married he didn't know she's a son's son's mom hit on her he wanted to go on a date with her she's like you know at that moment I realized I look like a single girl I can't even blame the guy can't blame the guy do you understand it's very very important to know that we do not downgrade in kadha whether it's with the or or everything else we don't downgrade says that one of the punishments for the Tower of Babel was that people were turned into monkeys and elephants does that mean that those two animals were not created during the six days of creation no it doesn't mean that it's a good question no it doesn't mean that it simply means that turned them into other creatures there are some creatures in the world that uh you know have in them that have souls in them of human beings as the AR says in shim that there are certain sins that a person can make that uh their uh punishment is not even G but rather they have to be reincarnated as an animal for example if a Jew is intimate with a non-jew and they don't do chuva and they end up dying then they have to be reincarnated as a dog they have to be reincarnated as a dog uh so as I told you guys several stories about that and there's other animals also it's Al always mid mid so there that doesn't mean that all dogs have souls in them some do some don't I would say comfortably that most don't but I don't necessarily know that for a fact it just seems to be that case uh the dogs that have souls in them are usually unusual the animals that have souls in them are usually unusual for example there was a video made some time ago where there was a video of an elephant that was able to draw an elephant the elephant was able to paint an elephant obviously no I don't think anybody that read some of what the and the other talked about and so on it's not hard to believe that there is a soul a human soul inside that elephant uh that knows how to paint an elephant and there are other animals like that there are also sometimes unfortunately uh you know people that get punished and they get reincarnated as plants uh so there's actually a video I once saw in it was actually in is that a woman had a death in the family and then and uh you know she uh few months later however long later she walked by and she saw that there was a plant a plant a flower in the street that as soon as she passed it started moving she thought she was hallucinating so she looked back and she saw the plant is when she's dead she's moving back and forth back at the plant Little Flower is going back and forth back and forth back and forth she started going away from it it stopped moving uh you know it moved less and less it came closer her as if it's happy to see her starts moving back and forth she thought maybe she's losing her mind so she brought her friend and her friend brought her phone of course and started videotaping this and it's unbelievable unbelievable you see how the friend comes next to the plant nothing happens she comes next to the plant the plan is moving back and forth she starts talking to it and it responds and certain moves unbelievable stuff now again you can say this is this this is that the point being is if it's legitimate if it's real it's not a very uh difficult to uh explain it according to our tah which is that there is a soul in it that perhaps is connected to that woman in somewhere or another family member or something like that so there are many many things you know in today's world everybody is a cameraman everybody's a newscaster with the phones and everything else so a lot of things that we read in books read in books that only few were privy to see in previous generations today you actually see a lot of things in real life because somebody videotapes everything uh so there's many many examples like this uh of souls going into different creatures whether it be animals or it be rocks or it be uh uh a um uh dogs and and so on and so forth so that doesn't mean that those things didn't exist at the time of creation it just means that took his existing creation and utilized it for something in addition to what the original creation was for what does one do when in doubt whether or not were recited well first and foremost he has to do chuva he has to do chuv and say I'm sorry to that he or she are treating the to so lightly that they forget that they even did a blessing because when a person does a blessing he should remember it so one of the ways to remember a blessing is by breaking it up into three and not being in a hurry like we all tend to do breaking it up into three so whatever the blessing is let's say for example you want to bless water I already blessed this water but I'll give you an example I'm not going to say the name of hem but uh you see so instead of saying which is you know takes you two and a half seconds most of us do it some of us do it even faster you break it up into three that simple addition of an extra two or three seconds of breaking up the the blessing into three you know you pause for a half a second in between makes a world of difference makes a world of difference so that's the first thing that he should do should do chuva and make a commitment or she should make a commitment to changing the way that they make blessings I know it's hard I know sometimes you're in a hurry and so on and so forth but I promise you those extra two seconds are uh you know going to save you a lot of headache now the next thing is is in regards to the says that uh uh since blessings are a rabinal en enactment anytime we forget whether we blessed or we didn't bless we don't bless again if we forgot if we don't know if let's say for example you want to drink or you wanted to eat an apple but you forgot if you made a blessing on the Apple if you forgot whether you made a blessing on the Apple or not you don't make an additional blessing you don't make because because blessings themselves are rabinal enactment we do not corrected by blessing again and the reason why is because if you already blessed and you just simply forgot that means that the Second Blessing is now not a blessing but rather it's a sin of taking hashem's name in vain so that sin of taking hashem's name in vain seeing aem's name in vain is much greater than the benefit of uh of of blessing and in case you didn't bless so therefore because that's a Biblical sin so you don't sacrifice a making a a Biblical sin for the sake of benefit of a rabinal Mitzvah so if you forgot whether you blessed or not you do not do a blessing unless it's unless it's because is from the t is from the T that's the only one otherwise everything else is a rabinal but again like I said the most important part is to do chv and to make sure to put more thought into your blessings why does the r speak about blood leing in deot is it to be practiced okay so blood leing is in essence in the old days the uh the the uh leading the leaders in the medical world believe that blood leting was healthy was healthy it was good for people and even some of the sages in the used to do it only later on as uh medicine evolved and uh we discovered even more things than we knew back then did we realize that it's not as healthy as we thought and actually could even be uh dangerous uh due to infections and and so on so in those days at time of the ram which is almost uh 850 years ago or at the time of thear which 1600 years ago and stories even going back to 3,000 years it was believed that bloodletting uh was a healthy thing to do but today we have a uh more advanced uh medicine in certain aspects that has confirmed that this is no longer relevant it doesn't mean that the sages were wrong 2,000 years ago uh because we all know that nature in itself has changed to a certain extent over the years not like the heretical scientists say and philosophers say that they all you know believe that uh we all came from some rock and somehow we're speaking today you know they they have a hard time believing that uh God created The World God created a chicken completely made and didn't need a chicken to sit on an egg they have a hard time believing that God created a monkey They believe he had to come from some lizard that they have a hard time believing that uh humans you know were just born as humans created as humans it had to come some from a monkey and so on and so forth they have a hard time believing that but they have no problem believing that the monkey the human the lizard the cat the everything else came from a rock and The Rock came from nothing that they don't have a hard time believing which is obviously absurd but the point being is is that the itself thear itself tells us how people were in those times during the uh debates that they're having and the different uh stories they have and for example they say you know how does somebody know you know if he has a uh if he's a shepherd and he has sheep he has a huge field and so on how does he know how far to take allow his sheep to go versus once it's too far and it's already perhaps reaching into uh you know into a land that could be belong to somebody else simply explains and obviously the whole debate going back and forth but the point is says as far as I can see as far as I can see okay so then the next obvious question is how far can the average person see it said they gave a description in a uh in a uh the terms of that day measurements of that day which in in today's terms 10 miles meaning that The Shepherd of that day500 2,000 years ago was able to see with the naked eye 10 miles today you can't see 150 yards p barely Sometimes some of us could barely see in front of us we're talking about the average person was able to see 10 miles 10 miles or another says one of the uh was already older but there was a fire in the building he took two people carried them and ran a human being one individual took two human beings carried them both one in one arm under his arm and started running who has such a strength even the strongest men in the world don't have such strength now you could say why were they super human back then no no that was just human back then that was the nature back then we have gotten weaker we've gotten smaller we've gotone stupider you know people have deteriorated over time not just in their uh spirituality but also in in a lot of other things uh we also have a that talks about how M and the entire tribe of Le were all uh 20t tall 20t tall to us W they were giants no they were normal be a Le in order to be if you are a leie you were 20t tall now how come you don't see anybody today that's 20t tall because 3,330 years have passed a lot of things have changed a lot of poison has entered our body a lot of things have uh you know a lot of the blessings that the previous generation were gifted are no longer being given to to this particular generation and so on and so forth point being is nature has changed to a certain extent it doesn't mean that we went from being monkeys to being humans no that uh that's not it's actually the opposite it's actually humans Hashem turned some of them into monkeys at the Tower of Babel as a punishment and some of them into a elephants as a punishment but the point being is that the nature of people has changed so has medicine to a certain extent and uh there is actually a uh a movie uh that we did uh five-part movie that we did called Torah science and ancient wisdom that I highly recommend for people to watch because much of it talks about some of the the ancient medicine that was already discovered at the time of the gar 2,000 years ago that is actually being utilized today for example anesthesia or different medicine for the eyes there was better medicine in certain aspects available 2,000 years ago than what we have today and certain things are not available today or available today and weren't available back then so it's not that the present that is better than the past and it's not necessarily that the past is always better than the first it's just different it's just different not nothing new Under the Sun in so many words things are just different [Applause] [Music]