AVOIDING SPIRITUALLY DANGEROUS PLACES

This is one of the things that's the most dangerous about today's world. People allow a lot of secular studying, a lot of news, a lot of immodesty, a lot of things that seem good, seem normal, seem like they're positive, ruin their visual, ruin their relationship with a Kadosh Baruchu. You watch a lot of news, you follow a lot of politics, you watch a lot of TV, you uh watch a lot of movies, you know, this uh that somebody reported or somebody said that uh some movie came out and they made a billion dollars in one day or some stupid number like that. How many of those people that paid part of that billion dollars are Jewish? A lot. You understand? The point is that each time a Jew plays one of these video games, each time a Jew watches these movies, each time a Jew watches the news channel, each time a Jew spends time on the internet looking at nonsense instead of looking at Torah, guess what? They are creating a barrier between them and Hashem, which makes things seem unclear to them. They don't know where the salvation is going to come from. How dangerous is this? I'm going to give you one last story then you go to sleep. But this story is worth it. Almost 80 years ago, one of the talmidim of Rav Wasserman, alav hashalom, became a very important rabbi in Poland. But the war was getting hotter and hotter, and he knew that because of his age, the Polish government was going to draft him into the army. Now, at the time, Rav Wasserman was visiting America trying to raise some money, and he got a letter from the student. And this is what it says. He says to him, that he knows that they're going to recruit him into the army, but if you could please speak to the American American Rashei Yeshivot and submit an affidavit to the American government and enable me to obtain immigration an immigration visa to escape the danger. Meaning, tell the Rashei Yeshivot in America to sign for me so you can bring me to America and I can become a rabbi over there. I get a visa to leave Poland. Why? If I can't I can't just leave Poland. Tell our other rabbis to sign off for me so I can come teach over there. I'm a good rabbi. You're my You're my teacher. Help me out. Perfectly normal. Rav Wasserman, alav hashalom, answers the following word for word. I'm reading from his book. I have received your letter, but I am unable to do this. The American institutions capable of bringing students over are spiritually dangerous places. So, what is gained by fleeing from physical into spiritual danger? In so many words, Rabbotai Yekarim, Rav Wasserman, Gadol Hador 80 years ago, was saying the yeshivot at that time, which was drastically better than today, to say the least, he says they have become spiritually dangerous places. So, by taking you from Poland where you have physical danger, I'm going to put you in spiritual danger. Better off you die over there. Why? Why? Why is it spiritually dangerous place? Because earlier he writes a different letter and he says the yeshivot, not all of them, but a good part of them started teaching secular studies giving people the impression that the secular teachings is just as important as Torah and mitzvot. We have no problem with secular teachings. You need to learn a little bit of math even for Torah. You need to learn language even for Torah, for communication. But when you start teaching history and math and the science and archaeology and all types OF STUFF AS IF IT'S JUST as important as learning about Moshe Rabbenu, now we have a spiritual danger. Better off you die in Poland. Rabbotai, what did Rav Wasserman say? If he said this today, they'd put him on cherem. If he was today giving you a shiur, no bet knesset in the world would accept him for a shiur. Maybe just write comments about me on the internet. Why? Because Daat Torah is so clean, it already sees the end result. He already saw 80 years in advance. He saw once you start treating secular studies as if it's in the same level and magnitude as Torah, 80 years later the teachers are going to wear mini skirts. 80 years later, you're going to have organizations that have dance parties for boys and girls. Like B'nai B'rith and Aish and all of these organizations that call themselves JEWISH ORGANIZATIONS, THEY HAVE DANCE parties for young teenagers to dance together. You know how I know? I used to go to them. They give you trips to to go to Israel. Why? To make more sins. Millions and millions of dollars and no one thinks there's anything wrong with it. More millions are coming. Why? Because Daat Torah is lost. Daat Torah is gone. People think there's nothing wrong with boys and girls being boyfriend and girlfriend. In fact, parents think it's cute when the boyfriend that's 15 years old, 16 years old is sleeping over at their their house because he's their boyfriend of their daughter. They think it's cute. They see nothing wrong with it. Oh, look, they're holding hands. They're like me and you, honey. People don't see anything wrong with everything that's wrong. Why? It started 80 years ago. We started looking at the secular world as if it's in the same level as the Torah world. Rav Wasserman already saw this. He says, "If you're going to look at both of them the same, this is definitely spiritual death. Only a matter of time." Now, we're not saying don't study math. We're not saying don't study science. We're not saying don't study language. You need to study those things. But remember, they are not in the same level magnitude of importance as Torah and mitzvot. Never will be, never were, never are. They're just not. You have to remind yourself this constantly. You have to use all of those secular subjects in order to connect to a Kadosh Baruchu. How can you use math to connect to Hashem? How can you use language to connect to Hashem? How can you use science to connect to Hashem? If you're using it, if you're learning those subjects purely for wisdom, for for intellect, then you have a serious problem. Because that all of what you're going to learn is going to cloud your vision. It's going to cloud your vision to the point where when it comes push comes to shove and you're going to have a test of life, you're going to fail miserably. Why? Cuz your connection to Hashem has a barrier. Has a barrier. You don't think it's a barrier cuz all you do is watch the news. All you do is know a little bit about politics. What's the big deal? The big deal is you have no connection to Hashem. You think you do cuz you don't see anything wrong with it. But when you see 15- and 16-year-old boy and girl hanging out dancing in the street together, you don't think there's anything wrong with it. When you see two people kissing in public or you see a RABBI AND HIS WIFE HUGGING EACH OTHER AND HAVING A PICTURE ON THE INTERNET, YOU DON'T SEE ANYTHING WRONG WITH IT. YOU see a Jewish Kehilla invite a Christian FOR SHABBATON, YOU DON'T SEE ANYTHING WRONG WITH IT. THERE'S SO MUCH WRONG, BUT YOU don't see it. The community is not seeing it. Why? There's no Daat Torah. Why? Because it already started a long time ago when you started looking at the secular subjects the same way as you looked at Torah. This is the poison of bitachon. So, remember, before you press the play button on the next movie, on the next video, on the next uh story in the internet of some kind, remember, if you already know ahead of time that you cannot use this to connect to a Kadosh Baruchu, it's 100% poison. Either way, it's poison. It just depends what level. It just depends what level. Everything has a little bit of poison in it. Even the medicine sometimes has has poison in it. But if you have zero way of connecting your new information about politics, your new information about the stock market, your new information about whatever subject you're learning to connect to a Kadosh Baruchu, guess what? It's 100% poison and that poison will only come to haunt you when you need it. When you need your bitachon to work. So, this is how you remove yourself from this stuff. It's not that difficult. You simply don't press play. That's it. Don't test yourself. Don't test your own yetzer hara. Don't spend so much time watching stupid things. And with that the sham, this will save us. Any questions?