Simple vs Intellectual, Which is Better to overcome Instagram? | TORAH FOUNDATION (19)

You ever ask yourself if Mosher was so powerful? Why did M is challenge? Why did he say just a little more and they'll stone me? Listen. Imagine [music] learning every [singing and music] say you're ready to teach your mind sharp enough for [singing] the highest reach now open your path today [music and singing] of children or a giant stay in the [singing and music] garden stories of heaven Not just the same step in the color scheme song will come out soon cuz [music] [singing] we blindly giants. [music] The nation [singing] cries from my standing side [music] by side. Now we thought that [singing] your but trying [music] to choose. We're back here on our Sunday night Torah Foundation series where uh tonight we're going to learn some very basic principles that could help your life perhaps much more than you could imagine. Tonight's show is going to be for and all of and all the righteous Noah that continue to support the organization by watching our by sharing them by donating their time their resources and helping us do a lot of amazing things. Anyone that uh hasn't seen yet, we just launched our uh campaign, our annual PES campaign, the Kim Piska, which is more critical this year than any other time because it's not your typical Kim Piska, where each year we try to help uh poor Jewish people in Israel uh just simply by giving them either food or money or both uh to help them for the holidays. But this year, there's simply a war that is causing a rain of missiles to fall on different parts of Israel. Some people have lost their homes. Some people uh simply had to move away because of the uh constant danger in their area. Some people have lost other property. There's a lot of difficulties in Israel and we're trying to do whatever we can uh to help them. Hashem, our organization has a amazing track record over the last 10 years of distributing millions of dollars worth of food and money to help the poor people during Pesak and other times during the year. And uh we want to do a lot more this year than ever before. So anyone that wants to help us, wants to join us, wants to partner with us, could simply donate on the website bhpes.org. B H P P E S A C H.org. Uh, and I'm sure you're going to see the uh uh link on the uh bottom. Uh it may also say give on it, which is our payment merchant. Uh but if you want to donate different currency, whether it be the shekel or uh the euro or other currencies, you could donate on bhour.org. Either way, Rabutai, please be generous. Please be helpful. There's simply a lot more need where it's what's basic to the average person today in the west of what they're spending for just a couple of people for the sedil could literally buy an entire family uh what they need for uh for the sedil. So uh you could help uh with uh a lot without necessarily giving that much but if you have the means, if you have the ability and certainly if you have the merit uh then please uh donate much more than uh than that. Either way, there's a lot to do in a short amount of time. So, please uh try to share this uh campaign with as many people as possible. So, with that being said, Abu Tai, we uh we have our series that uh we had to take a break from for the last couple of weeks to talk more about the war. There really isn't much new uh about the war other than the fact that they discovered that the lefty liberals are bigger traitors uh than uh people thought for whatever reason the day before where uh you know in Israel it's a law that you're not allowed to publicize where the missiles are falling uh exactly and that's why any recording that you see of missiles falling are usually very very short uh just a few seconds long and usually not much uh speech. And the reason why is because there is a uh you know a law from the government that you don't want to publicize the damage, the location because that helps the enemy. But of course the left lefty liberals in Israel don't care about any of this stuff. So without caring or concern, they reported today that they believe that the defense missiles that Israel has are about to run out. Now, of course, this is simply rumors and complete nonsense, but even if it was true, it would should be considered treason. But nonetheless, when you have a government that has their own personal interest that is beyond the interest of the people, just like the inh says it's going to be before Mashia comes, there's not much to expect. Only that in the end, we're all going to realize that we have nothing to rely on other than our father in heaven. With that being said, we're going to go into the next segment of Torah Foundation, which is something that is relevant to every single person that's watching me right now. And the reason why is because everyone is watching me right now is watching using social media. Whether you're using our bezem app or you're using Facebook or you're using YouTube or you're using Tik Tok or Instagram or all the other different places that we have our lectures streamed through. You're watching you're using social media and that allowed the goim to and and the Jews to invent different sophisticated technology so we can use it to publicize his name. But what can we do that not everybody necessarily uses it to watch my sha? If you compare how many people watch my shawah versus let's say a Mr. Beast video, I think he's got me beat with how many people watch his videos? Maybe by a little bit. But all joking aside, what does that have to do with Torah foundation? From the basic levels of amuna and Hashem, having basic faith in Hashem, we know that everything that Hashem does and has done is always for our benefit. But yet, a person that's more simple-minded can often find themselves questioning why Hashem made them more simple and not like their brother that's much more intellectual, that's more sophisticated, that has clever questions, that has a career in philosophy or some doctorate degree of some kind while he is a blueco collar worker working at some store or as a UPS driver or something like that. So the person could easily find themselves questioning why did God make him smarter than me? But is that really a benefit? That's the real question. Now, in the grand scheme of things, you could see it as a benefit because a person that's more intellectual is more likely to succeed in certain fields than a person that's less. But of course, there's plenty of stories of people that are complete fools that have gotten to even the White House and become the president of the United States. Think September 11. Who was the president back then? Now, we've heard stories that intellectuals made some terrible decisions. People that were very, very smart made horrible decisions that kind of proved they were complete fools. So, which is better? And what does it have to do with your Instagram addiction? [snorts] So, we'll get into it. In our last segment of the this Torah foundation series, Rabenu Bakya clarified to us that when it comes to serving Hashem, the King of Kings, whatever you can do, there's no permission to simply take it easy. If Hashem gave you the ability to give because he gave you a lot of resources, you must give and he further expands on it. What if you don't have what if you don't have the mental capacity to delve into all of these things? And he says, "If this subject of the duties of the heart were something that you could not fathom intellectually, such as the reasons for the commandments which have their origin in the revelation alone, then you would have good reason not to investigate the subject. or if you were too limited or slow-minded to understand a subject at all, you would not be punished for negligence. Rather, you would then be like the women and children who accept what they receive from the massoid from the tradition. So the first thing that is telling us is that not everybody is judged the same. If you are a person that is not so sophisticated, not so intellectual in general, not just in when it comes to Torah, in general, you are a simple person, simple job, simple life. And when we start talking about the obligations of the heart and inspecting each and every single action and trying to understand why Hashem commanded specific things, what is the benefit that you have out of this mitzvah or that mitzvah? Why do you wear sha, you know, why are you not allowed to wear cha? What does Hashem care about? You know, drinking milk while you're eating a a hamburger. all of the different details of the mitzvot. You're not really all for that. You don't really understand and quite frankly, you don't really care. You just want to follow what Hashem said and uh that's it. Now, the Rambam in is the foundations of the Torah. In the first ala he writes, "The foundation of all foundations [snorts] and the pillar of wisdom is to know that there is a primary being who brought all existence into being. All the entities in the heavens, the earth, and what is between them came into existence only from the truth of his being." This is an ala that we've reviewed a few times already. But one of the things that we learned here is that the Rambam who is well known for being very particular with his use of words. So much so that when a professor thought that he could write just as good as the Rambam and challenged that he could write the same way the rabbis gave him a challenge. Go learn an ala and describe it to us in as least amount of words as possible. After many many months of learning and then eventually trying to describe it in a simple way, he failed miserably to even come close to what the Rambam wrote. In fact, Rambam wrote more with less words. The Rambam was a genius beyond geniuses, not just in Torah, but in medicine, in science, in philosophy. And he was very particular to the amount of words you would use, the type of words you would use. So much so that people that are rambomists that are really particular about the Rambam and study the Rambam don't only study what he said, but also study how he said it, why he used this word here versus a different word that he used somewhere else. So they would tell you that when the Rambam says the foundational foundations and the pillar of wisdom. He is not trying to exaggerate for the s for for the purpose of making it more exciting but rather he's trying to teach us something that in addition to the fact that this teachings of there being only one God foundation of foundations also this has to do with the level of wisdom that a person has meaning that the higher clear your level of wisdom is, the more capable you're going to be to understand things that the less capable are able to. And in fact, as the Torah tells us in chapter 4:39, there's a commandment that we have to know. In fact, this commandment is something that we repeat at least three times a day when we pray at the prayer of where it says, "And you shall know this day and take to your heart that Hashem, he is the God in heaven above and on the earth below. There is no other. And the Torah gives credit for this verse to none other but aside from Abenu mentioning it. But there's a big credit to Rahav, the wife of Yeshua Benoon, who was a righteous convert and a complete amazing turnaround story and was also the Gar says one of the most beautiful women that ever existed. She testified that she knew already what this great God has done for Am and that there is no other. Even though she never saw him speak, she never saw his words like the rest of Am saw at Mount Si. She never heard, but she heard the stories and she knew there is nothing greater than Hashem. And the Rambam is telling us here that the Torah is commanding us to know that Hashem is the only God. But further than that, that our level of knowledge is all based on the level of wisdom that a kadosh gifts us. In today's terminology, the IQ, the higher the IQ, the more you're supposed to investigate, the more you're supposed to utilize, like we said in the previous year, meaning that a person that has the mental prowess to understand what the are, what the duties of the heart is, even just the fact that you understand this subject. You have watched and understood more or less everything we've said over the last 18 lectures in this series. That alone means that you have the mental capacity and the responsibility and obligation to investigate further. And in fact, the more intellectual a person is, the more they will be unsatisfied with the basics of the laws. They'll want more. They'll want to do more. They'll want to know more. They'll want to inspect. They have questions, clever questions. Why is this? Why that? But before we get into those intellects, the truth is that some of the sages have taught that for many people, it's better they don't ask. It's better they don't dig. Why? The following example will give you an idea. There was once a young bah that went off to they asked him what happened you were learning Torah. You were in yeshiva and all of a sudden you don't want to learn Tawa anymore. You don't want to be religious anymore. What happened? He said, "Ah, listen. I have a lot of questions." Okay, you have a lot of questions. Torah has answers. No, no, it's too many questions. There's no way. All right, so let us at least ask you, where did you get these questions from? He tells them, "Well, you know, every Shabbat after we eat the the chulent, the the name is the the food is relatively the same. It's just depends whether you're what you call it, but it's the same thing. chew and after I eat the kam I want to study a little bit. So I open up the kuzari but I fall asleep so I can't study that much. What do they find out? that since it's a known thing that after somebody eats it's a heavy food it's delicious but it's a funny saying anyone eats means death but also means means bed person falls asleep and what happens to this guy is that he would start reading the kuzari he would read the question that the king is asking and he would fall asleep before answers the question and the next week again he sees another question that's interesting to him but before he reads the answer the kabu brings he falls asleep so what happens over a period of time all he has are sophisticated questions but no answers person like that it's better off they don't investigate it's better off they don't learn the kuzari and different philosophical books why because in order for you to get the answers. It requires much more investigation than to figure out what the questions are. One of the tragic times that Am has endured was the Spanish Inquisition. Spanish Inquisition we've spoken about in previous lectures was a horrific time where the simple Satan went into the hearts of Asav and they gave the Jewish people that were living in Spain a condition either leave with virtually no possessions. Meaning your house, your building, your gold, everything you've gathered throughout the generations is given to the government or you're allowed to go with is the clothes on your back and you're out of here. Or you can stay in Spain, but you'll have to convert to their idolatry. Anyone that stayed behind pretending to convert but then trying to practice Judaism in private was not only caught and arrested but were tortured and burned at the stake. It was a horrible horrible time. But the Yavitz, the Yavitz says that those that survived the Spanish Inquisition, not just physically, but spiritually, were the ones that left. the ones that left Spain, abandoned all of their possessions, all of their wealth, their house, their business, their everything and left. Whereas the ones that stayed, if they survived physically, they usually did not survive spiritually. Now, one of the distinguishing factors the Yavitz notices is that the ones that left were predominantly people that were very simple, very simple. Amuna God says, "Therefore, I do." Hashem says, "We're not allowed to worship an idol. We're not allowed to pray to a man. We're not allowed to abandon our faith. Okay, we're leaving. What about all your money, all your wealth? Well, if we have to lose everything just for the sake of being faithful to Hashem, then that's what we're going to do. They're very simple. It wasn't two options for them. They simply realize that it's better off to die than to abandon Hashem and go to idolatry. On the other hand, the people that stayed behind and survived physically ended up not only adopting Christianity but sometimes even becoming the biggest enemies of the Jewish people later on. And the avid says those people that abandon Hashem initially to protect their property, initially to protect their wealth. That wasn't the only thing. It was also because they tended to be the more sophisticated minded types of people, the people that were believing and worshiping God based on their logical and rational understandings. If it made logical sense to them, if it made rational sense to them, then they would do it. whether it's observed Shabbat or kash and he told him listen the you do it on the eighth day because the vitamin K in the body is the highest on that day oh okay yeah that makes sense makes sense that it would be on the eighth day but if you told him no listen it's the eighth day because God said so no I need a different reason I need something else why else did he do it well Hashem said to observe the Shabbat why why do I need to observe Shabbat. Well, it's an opportunity for you to spend time with family. It's an opportunity for you to take a break from work. Oh, okay. That makes sense. But if you tell them you have to observe SHABBAT BECAUSE GOD SAID SO. OH, NO. I need something more. What do you mean God said so? Like why? Why didn't he just make it Tuesday? It's not really convenient for me for it to be Saturday because Sunday is better. And those types of people that question everything and required approve for everything or a rational reason for everything, the Yavit says those are the ones that eventually left God. Why? If you had proofs for all that you were doing until now, you had proofs that the God of Israel is true, that the Torah is true, that the mitzvot are true. Why would you abandon it now? Because it was true so long as it made sense to me. But the moment it stopped making sense to them, because they would have to lose their money, they would have to lose their reputation, they would have to lose their position in society. It no longer seemed like this was the truth anymore. And the truth is that this is still very much relevant today. Even though we enjoy hearing about different and teaching about different proofs of the Torah's divinity as much as the next person. We have several lectures we've made over the years about Torah and science and different archaeological proofs. But the truth is, one of the things we've tried very hard to constantly remind not only ourselves but everyone that's learning with us is that the reason behind all of the mitzvot is because God said so. And where was God during the Holocaust? He did it. And whether you understand or don't understand the Torah, you're still obligated. Meaning despite the intellect that Hashem gave us, despite our abilities to question, despite anything else, we always have to realize that it is because Hashem said so. And that's the real reason behind it. and one that insists on understanding God. The Rambam says if you were to understand him, you would be him. Meaning that for a human being to understand his creator is impossible. Hashem gave us different things to understand in order to feed our intellect and give us some insights that we want. But if you think that this is the reason and not the fact that he said so, you're mistaken. And in fact, this is one of the traps of the Satan that tries to make people delve into the world of philosophy until they become complete heretics. Certainly, there's a part of philosophy that's Jewish philosophy that uh uh and uh and the Rambam and many many delved into and taught and wrote about. But this was only after they became masters of everything else that has to do with the Torah, including the basic principles of our faith. The in page 42 gives us a story. Pes is coming up. Anyone that has learned knows that this is a m that's full of jewels, precious jewels, not only in regarding to PES, but also in regards to a lot of other issues among them is stories about the different communities that were around throughout the history in the page 42A. There's a teaching by who says that a woman should need the dough for the matzah only withanu which is water that slept overnight. explanation. Since at this time of the year when we make matzah, the world it becomes hotter and that heats up the water on the ground. And in order to make the matzah that it doesn't ferment too quickly, we need the water to be cooler. And of course, this is before the days of refrigerators and freezers and so on. So teaches that if you don't want the dough to ferment too quickly, then you have to make sure that you use malanu, which is water that sat overnight, sat for a while, which gave it enough time to cool because it was warmer than usual when you got it out of the well, when you got it out of the river. So once you take it out and you let it rest for a while, it'll get cooler. Matna took this al that taught and he gave this in a teaching in a lecture that he gave in a town of Papuna. And he says that a woman should not need only withanu. The next day hears knock on the door. He's a little commotion outside of his door. He opens the door and he sees the entire town is outside of his door, each with a bull, each with a bucket. Mata says, "What? What? What? What do you need, Rabbi? We came We came to get water from you. Get water for me. Why do you need water for me? Everybody needs WATER FOR ME." YES, THAT'S WHAT YOU SAID. I said it. I said you get water for me. Yes. We need to make the dough for the matas. And you said in the sh yesterday that in order to make the dough use smiled and said, "Ah, you understood that when I said instead of it being water that rested, you understood Shalanu, which Shalanu also is our water. Shalanu means our. So you understood that in order for you to make the dah, you need to use our water, meaning my water. But that's not what I meant. I meant which is water that has rested and so it cools. Now says why is the telling us this story? What? to make fun of the people of Papuna that they're all no opposite. The Torah is celebrating is celebrating these people's amunatim simple amuna in the unlike the people that think of themselves as smarter than the sages, smarter than the rabbis, smarter than everybody else and questions everything. This town was full of people that were very simple. They heard an issue. The rabbi said, "Use, if you want to make matzah, you have to use our water." That's what they understood. They didn't say, "Why his water?" I mean, I saw him take it out of the river. It's not different than my water. I can take it out of the river also. Maybe he's trying to make money out of us. Maybe he's putting something. THEY DIDN'T ASK THOSE QUESTIONS. They heard the rabbi said, "Okay, the rabbi wants to says we have to use his water. Then that's what we have to use. We have to use his water." AND THE WHOLE TOWN lined up with their buckets. Rabbi, yeah, we need to make matzah for and you said, "So we came to get the water from you." Says, "Look at how great these people are, how beautiful their were." THE RABBI SAID, "THEREFORE I DO." These are the types of people that a kadoshbu loves. And these are the types of people that survived the Spanish Inquisition and other pilgrims and inquisitions and horrible things that have happened to Islea, simple minded. They just know this what you have to do. Okay, that's what I'm going to do. Hashem said this. Okay, I'm going to do it. Hashem said that. Okay, I'm going to do it. I have a dear student that he did chuva maybe some nine years ago. At the time he was living in the kibuts in Israel and one of the kibbut seeim that was destroyed and a complete massacre happened on October 7th. But he did chuva before that. And one of the things he says that made him do chuva is when he learned what the Rambam said that before a person does chuva he is hated by Hashem he's considered to he's considered disgusting why he's betraying the king of kings but after he does chuva He's he's he's beloved. He's dear to Hashem. He's wonderful. He said, "Well, Hashem hated me before I have to do chuva. I don't want Hashem to hate me." And that simple but very critical statement changed this person's life. There are many people that try to pretend that they're more merciful than God and more wise than the sages and say, "No, God loves everyone." No, it's not really that. Wait, but that's what that's what's written. Hashem, right? Says it clearly in he he gives the cash to the his haters to their face. He calls them. He calls those people that are betrayed at Tua his enemies. Somebody you love is not considered your enemy. Anyone that's cons that's arrogant is considered to is considered disgusting in the eyes of Hashem. This is clearly what the Torah says. But some PEOPLE THINK NO GOD loves everyone. But that's not what it says. And when they pretend that they're more merciful than God and more intellectual than the sages, then what ends up happening is that they become heretics and they also destroy the amunatim, the simple amuna that many people have. They don't need you to prove to them through the complex and or different complicated mystical things that God is real. All they need to hear is simple things. Is God happy with me? Not as long as you violate Shabbat. [gasps] What you mean? God is upset at me. Very upset. Well, like upset like upset. DEATH PENALTY. WHAT? NO. Come on. But I'm alive. No, you don't understand. After if you continue violating Shabbat, you're going to go to Gum. You're not going to COME OUT. THAT'S WHAT THE SAYS. THAT'S WHAT THE SHABBAT SAYS. THAT'S WHAT SAYS IT'S NOT PRETENDING to embellish it to to tell the guy to do something. No, it's simply what it says. THAT'S WHAT SAYS. WAIT, you're telling me that Hashem is so upset at me that if I die now, he's going to put me in gone forever? Yeah. Whoa. I gotta keep Shabbat. So, HOW HARD HOW HARD COULD IT POSSIBLY BE? YEAH, EXACTLY. All right. Thanks, man. Appreciate it. Or better yet, this has happened to me countless times. Somebody that grew up without much Torah, without much Judaism, hears me saying that somebody that's a Shabbat is considered according to the Torah like 100% like a idol worshipper. That's what the Rambat chapter 30 the last number 16. He's considered like an idol worshipper. The same thing like a person that worships a mouse. Same thing like a person that prays to an idol. Now, if you tell this to the average Jew out there that has some connection to Hashem, that's not one of these lefty liberal haters of of themselves and everyone else, but rather a Jew that still has a spark of God in him. And they hear that, they're like, "What? I'm Jewish? What are you talking about?" Well, according to the Torah, as long as you are intermarried, as long as you are violating Shabbat, as long as you are not following the Torah, you're considered an idol worshipper. And guess what? That simple statement is stronger than a thousand lectures of the most sophisticated parts of the Torah for them. WHY? BECAUSE THAT'S THE PART THAT they need. That's what they need. They need you to tell them what the Torah says, not your own version of it. When people start making their own custom version of everything, they start destroying things. This is what happened with Christianity. Christianity was simply one Jew taking things and distorting them. This is what happened with Islam. This is Muhammad learning from a Jew some of the Jewish stories and simply distorting them, manipulating them and starting his own religion with it. And once the Jewish sages rejected them and told them, "We're not going to become Muslims. We're Jews." He slaughtered all of them. And that's why part of the foundations of Islam is that they have to destroy the Jews in the end of times. Now when a person has a very simple mind, a very simple connection to Hashem and you tell them sophisticated things, you're not going to move them. Why? Most of the times because they have no idea what you're talking about. And even when they do understand what you're saying, they don't know how it's relevant to them. But when you tell them the simple parts of the Torah about what God says about a person that violates his laws, you can see a person that's been driving on Shabbat for 20, 30, 40 years stop just like that. You can see a person that's been addicted to all types of heinous sins stop just like that. Or at the very least start the path to stop all of the sins one after another. How do they change once in in in a second? Simple. You told them what their heart needed. You told them what the Torah has for them. And that's what is trying to tell us. The is telling us about these people, these simple people that came to Matna with bowls waiting for him to give him water. not to insult them, but rather to praise them. If only we were like them and we'd accept what Hashem said, what our sages said, what our rabbi said at face value, life would be easier. And in fact, the amuna that they have many times is much stronger because they don't ask these sophisticated questions. They don't give these complicated conditions for God to prove himself to them. But what can we do that many people are not like that? In fact, many people are more sophisticated, more intellectual, or at least they think of themselves as such. and they ask questions, [snorts] which is good. Judaism is the only religion where we welcome questions. We're not afraid of questions. There's answers to everything. For the last six, seven years or so, maybe even longer, we have a weekly lecture that is questions and answers, live questions and answers. This whole series of stump the rabbi that we do each Wednesday night started with a group of teenagers that wanted the opportunity to ask questions whatever came up and has been merciful on us that each and every single week he gives us the answers to questions that the people ask. But sometimes a person has questions that even if you have the answer you know from experience that the question and the answer is bigger than they can handle. The stipon writes in his that if a bul that fits this description comes to the rabbi with questions that the rabbi already knows are bigger than this young man can handle. But you can't just ignore him because he'll get rattled. Oh, maybe there's no answers and he could easily lose his mind. So, how do you calm him down? The stipless says, "Do you know who Rabaka was?" "Oh, yeah, of course, Rabbi. I know Rabik is." Raaka had 24,000 students bigger than our Yeshiva. Yeah, of course. You know, one of those students was Yeah, of course. Yeah, we just heard a story about him of how he spoke to the angel of the mountain. Yeah, you know later on you know about Yeah, of course. HAD ANSWERS TO EVERY POSSIBLE QUESTION UNDER THE SUN. EXACTLY. You know about the Rambam. Of course, we have a sh every day we learn the Rambam. Oh, so you know the Rambam. So would you say that they were smarter than you or of course rabbi? What do you mean can't compare? Okay. So you agree that they were smarter than you? Much smarter, rabbi. Okay. And they were all Jewish. Yeah. Yeah. Of course. So for sure I mean the question that you asked it's not exactly rediscovering the moon or anything like that. It's it's a question that's not exactly so complicated. And surely they knew this question. Yeah, I'm sure they knew the question. And surely they knew the answer to this question. I'm sure they knew the answer, Rabbi. Yeah, sure. Okay. So, for now, continue to learn more and more Torah. Continue to learn more more to build yourself up. fill up your stomach with more of the foundations of the Torah until you get to a point where you run into this question and the answer that the sages will give and the curiosity you have right now. Settle it down with the fact that you can rely on the fact that knew it, knew it, knew it, the Rambam knew it, all of them knew it. And they all remained loyal to Hashem. They knew the question. They knew the answer. And you'll eventually catch up to them. And that is enough to settle most people for really complicated questions that again the person is not ready for. The truth is after over a decade of teaching people I can tell you that rarely does anyone come up with those very difficult questions. Most of the time the questions that people ask are very very basic that deserve and require an answer. But if there is a person that comes up with a very difficult question that again it's not that the rabbi doesn't know. It's a matter of the person that's asking it does not have the tools to understand the answer. And if you don't know what I'm talking about that means you don't have those questions yet which is okay. Needless to say, the stipon says even those people that are very intellectual, there's a time and a place to deal with them and there's a way. Now, this is also very important to know because it's the same tool that the Rambanades used in the debate against the Christians in Barcelona. In that debate nearly 700 years ago, the tool that the Christian church used to fight against Judaism was a Jew that abandoned his faith and became a Christian and thought he knew the different secrets of Judaism in order to defeat it. So he would bring up different midrashim, different passages from the Talmud in the debate in order to challenge the Ramban to challenge Judaism, which is the same trick that people are trying to this day. They try to take a passage from the from the or from the midash and they manipulate it in such a way they say oh look over here it's talking about the mashiach will suffer. So you see IT MEANS THAT he suffering and they try to take whatever they can find in order to match their distorted picture to that. The Ramban said what we still say to this day. You can manipulate the words of the sages as much as you want. But the truth is everyone that has a little bit of a a little bit of IQ knows that if the sages, if the Jewish sages meant what you say they meant, they wouldn't stay Jewish. They wouldn't still be called Jewish sages. They would have become a heretic, idol worshipper like you. If they would have meant that this is representing your man god, then they would have become like you. But obviously they didn't become like you. They remained loyal to Hashem and the Torah and they remained Jewish, which clearly is the biggest proof in the world that they didn't mean what you say. It's important for a person to know that the Satan will always use your weak point to challenge your faith. He's not going to choose your strong point. So if you're good with one aspect of the Torah, Satan is not going to send someone to attack that point. What is he going to send? He's going to send your weak point. And for many people it's simple amuna accepting what God said because he said it. When a person over complicates things, they literally make themselves a vulnerable person. At the same token is saying if you are simpleminded, if you are not so sophisticated, then you don't have much to worry about in regards to asking these big questions, delving into your heart too deeply because you don't even understand what it means. So, you're not going to be charged with it. But what can we do that many of us are more sophisticated than those simple-minded people are able to understand what delving into the heart means. Therefore says Abinubakia, if however you possess intelligence and insight and through these faculties you are capable of verifying the fundamentals of the religion and the foundations of the commandments which you have received from the sages in the name of the prophets. Then it is your duty to use these faculties until you understand the subject so that you're certain about it both by tradition and by force of reasoning. What is trying to let us know and quite frankly alert us is that the more intellectual you are, the more sophisticated your mind is, the more Hashem gifted you, the more you have an obligation to inspect the Torah, to understand the intricate parts of it both by tradition meaning the simple amuna as well as by using your intellect. You have no permission to simply be oh I believe just because he said it while you have a very high IQ a very developed mind. In fact, he finalizes this point by saying, "If you disregard and neglect this duty, then you fall short in the fulfillment of what you owe your creator." In so many words, if someone has a developed mind and they choose to be mentally lazy, they don't want to open and read the entire parasa. They want a short summary. They don't want to ask big questions. They just want to listen and see what the guy has to say. They don't want to delve and toil into the Torah. They just want simple, okay, I'll just do it. Says, you'll be punished for misusing the gift that Hashem gave you. Why? What do you think? Hashem gave you this brilliant mind for no reason. He gave you this mind so you can use it to serve him. So you can use it to get to know him. So you can use it to glorify his name. That's the point of why he gave you this mind. Now a person that may have a good mind but falls for the trap falls for the trap of the Satan falls into the trap of their desires that good mind that's combined with simple amuna can also bring them back and I'll give you an example. The Benishai tells a story there was a once a Jew his name bar was barren and he was a very very wealthy Jew and he was also connected with the king. He was one of the main ministers of the king. And because of his very you know uh big dealings for the king in the name of the country that he was living in and associating himself with other royalty and other political people. This led him to ignore his responsibility when it came to the Torah and mitzvot. One day there was a meeting among several different kings and Baron had to come. Unbeknownst to him, the French king didn't like the fact that this Jew has to come. So he arranged for a few people to cause some commotion on the way and get in his way. So Baron got into his very fancy carriage, horse and carriage. He was always carrying a lot of money with him for different business deals that he would have to do both for himself as well as for the king he represented. And he went on his way to this very important meeting. As he got closer to the palace that this was held in, suddenly he saw a commotion of people coming out screaming, "Jew, JEW, JEW, A [screaming] JEW." He told the the guy the uh the the the carriage driver, "Stop. No, no, they were going to kill us. Stop, please." He stopped the carriage and of course all THE PEOPLE COME. JOE [screaming] JOE. Baron got into his sack of money and took out a bunch of gold coins and started throwing it towards the crowd. These poor people never saw so much money. Never saw so much money thrown at them. They quickly stopped screaming JEW AND STARTED BEING HAPPY. WOW. LOOK, MONEY. YES. YAY. YAY. THANK YOU. THANK YOU SO MUCH. Thank you so much. All of a sudden, this Jew they hated momentarily just a few seconds ago. All of a sudden, thank you. THANK YOU. GOD BLESS YOU. Thank you. The driver didn't understand why Baron did this, but apparently it's his money. Baron told him, "Okay, now we can go." When Baron came into the place, he sat down. Of course, the French king that arranged this whole thing says, "Uh, I heard that you had a little uh a little bit of uncomfortable uh experience on the way here." Baron looked at him. He goes, "Uncomfortable? I don't know why you call uncomfortable. I was very very happy for all of these wonderful people calling me Jew. The French king and some of his friends are looking at what what do you mean? He says let me explain to you. He said you see there was once a very rich man his name was Hinrich. And Hinrich was so wealthy that he bought a diamond that was 100 carats that was completely flawless. Something the world have never seen. It was priceless, something unbelievable. And before he passed away, he left all of his possessions including this 100karat diamond to his son. And it was known as the Heinrich diamond. His son wasn't clever like his father in business. And before too long, he wasted a lot of the money, a lot of the wealth to the point where he ran out of money. And the only thing that he had left was the Heinrich diamond. So he took the diamond to uh the bank and he said, "You know how much this Hinrich diamond is worth? lend me 50,000 gold coins, please, and you could use this as collateral. The bank, of course, knew this diamond is worth a lot more, said, "Sure, no problem, Mr. Henrik." And they gave him 50,000 gold coins. But of course, he continued with his foolishness and wasted this 50,000 and came back to the bank. Please lend me another 50,000, same collateral. and the bank was all too happy to give him another 50,000. And this repeated itself a few times until he got to a point where he owed the bank over 200,000 gold coins. And he had really no way to pay them back. So one of his friends told him, "Listen, why don't you just sell the diamond to the bank? Not only will relieve you of all the stress of owing them 200,000 that you have no way of paying them back, but on top of that, they'll probably give you at least 500,000 gold coins. So, you pay them back the 200,000 plus you have 300,000 left for yourself. That is certainly going to be more than enough for you to manage the rest of your life. The son said to them, "No way can I ever do that. Why not? He says, "So long as this diamond is owned by me, it'll always be called the Heinrich diamond. But the moment that I sell it to the bank, it won't be called the Hinrich diamond anymore. They'll call it after somebody else." [snorts] How could I lose such honor? Says the Benishai. Baron was telling these French kings and his friends when these people were screaming at me, Jew, Jew, whether they meant insult or not is irrelevant. You see, I know that because of all of my dealings, I have fallen. I have fallen to the trap that I'm not really following my holy Torah and practicing my Judaism as I'm supposed to. Sometimes I'm even questioning whether I'm really still considered a Jew anymore. And it makes my heart really hurt. But when they started screaming at me, JEW, JEW, I SAID, AH, I'm still considered a Jew. Okay, so I make some mistakes, but I CAN FIX THOSE BY DOING CHUVA AND RETURNING BACK TO MY God and returning back to my faith and practicing everything. That's all fixable. But if I were ever to lose my Judaism, I would have nothing to ever replace it with. So they reminded me that I'm still Jewish and therefore I was so grateful to them that I threw a bunch of gold coins at them. You see, this man was obviously an intellectual, but he also had simple amuna. The combination of those two can bring a person a lot of good. On the other hand, when a person does not utilize the gift that Hashem gave him of intellect, his mind will want other things. He'll have to occupy his mind with something. He'll have to occupy his mind with different things. And not a week goes by without me getting at least several messages and calls and all types of requests from people for me to help them with their addiction to Instagram, with their addiction to some other part of social media. Now, many times they don't realize that it's their addiction to social media. They just tell me they have a problem. They have a problem that they're not happy with their marriage. They have a problem that they're not successful in business. They have a problem that uh they uh they're not sure why they can't understand or you know what they're reading when they're trying to learn Tawa or they're too bored or they don't like it. And many times I asked them different series of questions. What do you do with your time? Do you watch TV? Do you watch movies? Do you watch, you know, pornography, immorality? do you uh what do you do? I ask them about their life and each person tells me different things about their life. The more I know, the easier it is for me to understand how I can help the person. And I can tell you that literally no less than 75% of the time you find one common denominator among all of these people that are confused, that are miserable, that are questioning even their existence. which is they waste an enormous amount of time on social media watching other people live their life. They watch people that are selling jewelry and how they gamble on every transaction or they watch people selling sneakers and clothes or they watch people playing soccer or they watch people buying and selling I don't know trading cards or uh they watch people play video games or they watch people do all types of things and literally they live vicariously through other people's lives while ignoring their own life. Now why would anybody do that? because their mind needs something. It needs to be occupied with something. They have a developed mind. They don't have a dull mind. They have a developed mind, but they don't use that mind the right way. So instead, it has to be occupied with something. The easiest choice for the Satan to send a person is some interesting video. Especially today since you have all the shorts, the one minute or two minute clips or 30 second clips of different people telling showing you different things that they're doing where they're beating each other up or they're buying or they're selling or they're showing off their cars or showing OFF SOMETHING ELSE. IT'S EVERYWHERE. IT'S literally like a plague in the world. And then you hear about how much this guy made by having this uh Tik Tok profile. Now he made $50 million and this guy made $20 million. And you think, "Wow, maybe I can learn something from him." And the reality is before you finish that doom scrolling for two or three or four hours, you realize that you've just wasted all of your free time. You've wasted all of that time that you were supposed to designate towards learning Torah, designate towards spending with your family, designate towards even working on your business. You've wasted all of it. Many times it leads to sleep problems. People keep telling me, "Listen, I can't fall asleep till 3:00 in the morning. So what do you do? You work till 1, 2:00?" "No, no, no, Rabbi. I come home usually at 6:00. So, what do you do between 6 and 3:00 in the morning? Let's just say you start work at 9. You finish work at 5. Okay? So, you have 8 hours there. Takes you an hour to get home, eat, drink, whatever it is. You finish everything by 6. 6:00 till 3:00 in the morning, you're talking about 9 hours, meaning you have just as much time after work as you do at work. What do you do with that all half of your life? Honestly, Rabbi, sometimes I try to study a little bit for like a half hour, maybe an hour. I'll watch a sh I'll read something. Okay, great. Let's say you read an hour every day or you watch a shure an hour every day. Fine. What do you do with the other eight hours? It's a whole life. [snorts] What do you do with it? You watch TV? No, Rabbi, I don't watch TV. I don't want You watch movies? No, not so much. So, what do you do? A lot of times I'm on the internet. What are you trying to learn on the internet? Are you trying to learn how to become a developer, an architect, an engineer, a scientist? Uh uh what are you trying to learn? No, no, usually it's just stuyot nonsense. I'm watching uh this guy the jeweler and this guy the ar the uh the the car salesman and that guy. So in so many words, you're watching videos of people living their life or at least what they want to show you out of their life. And you're living vicariously through their life as if you are in the car dealership buying the car or selling the car. As if you are in the soccer stadium kicking the ball. As if you are in the jewelry store. as if you are, you know, buying a a flight from this private jet company, as if you are doing all of those things, but in reality, you're not doing any of it. In fact, you cannot even use any of the things that you've learned from those videos. Meaning, it's not EVEN APPLICABLE TO YOUR LIFE. So it's you're living vicariously through their life while at the same token ignoring your life completely. All because your mind that Hashem gave you needs something to stimulate it. And instead of you stimulating it with something useful, something productive, you're stimulating it with the worst possible thing, something that has nothing to do with your life, but it's purely making your brain into mush, numb, just to pass time, just to burn time. And we've all fell for it for a certain amount of time. some more than some less obviously. And the reality is that's not happening or causing that much damage to just people that are simple-minded. We're talking about people that are very sophisticated, very intellectual, could burn not just hours of their day. We're talking about years of their life, years of their life. [snorts] doom scrolling they call it but in reality it's living through other people's videos while ignoring their life ignoring their life. Now with that time you can do so much. Now, of course, the best answer would be instead of you wasting eight hours or six hours watching some guy sell cars or cards or whatever it is that they do on these videos, you could learn Torah for 6 hours, but that's also not realistic. Why? You can't just go from zero Torah to learning six hours. It's just not going TO HAPPEN. YOU DON'T have the mental and spiritual prowess that's required for you to learn that much. But that still doesn't justify you wasting that much time. So what can you do? Let's say you have four hours, 5 hours a day that you're burning on social media. Take an hour, take two hours, as much as you can watch one of our shueta. Not only will it help you spiritually or help you with other parts of life. As you can see, we don't just talk about the different aspects of the Torah, the stories that happened 3,000 years ago. We talk about things that are relevant to today. But again, let's just say THAT 2 HOURS OF my is all you can take. That still leaves you with at least two to four hours more. WHAT DO YOU DO WITH THAT TIME? To say learn more is not realistic. So what can you do? Take that time and realize that it's not just four hours a day that you're burning on nothing. It's 28 hours a week. 28 hours a week is considered enough time for a second career. 28 hours a week is enough time to learn and become an expert in a certain subject. 28 hours a week you could start another business. 28 hours. You can actually do so much in that much time that literally you could have a business during a day or a job during a day and enough time for a second career with this other 28 hours. So instead of burning that time watching all types of nonsensical videos, learn a skill. Learn a skill. Learn something that could help you start a business. Learn a skill that could help you with with your uh with your existing career. Whether it's elevating you to a higher level in your existing career so you can make more, you can do more, or to start a second job, whatever it is, use that those four hours at least. If you're going to do nothing with it, do something that can actually help you learn some type of skill. today since literally there's a video about everything. Whether you want to learn development, you want to learn artificial intelligence, you want to learn how to be a better person with tools, better with architecture, better with science, mathematics. There's literally tools for everything. Someone has made a bunch of videos about every subject. So, of course, I can tell you just use those six hours and just watch my dua. Within a year, you're becoming your own rabbi. That's just not going to happen and it's not relevant to most people and it's not necessary either. So take a couple of those hours, learn some Torah with us and then the other four hours learn something that could expand your abilities in this world. So if you have a business, learn some skill that can make your business better. Learn better marketing skills, learn better hiring skills, learn something that's going to help you. Or if you don't really want to be in this business, you always thought about maybe starting SOMETHING ELSE. USE THAT time to learn more about that something else. Use that time to start that something else. WHY? IT'S A LOT OF TIME. YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT HOURS AND HOURS EVERY DAY. You don't have to be 9 to5 in order to start something. You can start something 900 p.m. till 2:00 a.m. if you're going to be up anyway. The truth is Abu Tai, the more Hashem gifted us with intellectual, with IQ, with wisdom, the more we are obligated to utilize it. We never have the permission to ignore Hashem or his Torah. We're always obligated to learn Tawa in the morning and at night. But at the same token, like I said, a person that doesn't learn anything, for them to go from learning zero to using all of their extra time that they're wasting to learn Tawa, it's just not going to happen overnight. You have to elevate yourself. Go from zero to something, then zero from a little bit more than something. You get to an hour a day, two hours a day, three hours a day, and little by little, you get to more. Eventually, at some point, a person hits a certain plateau and unless they push themselves through that plateau, they will stay where they are and sometimes even fall back. So, you have to constantly push yourself. But the same token, you could also do other things alongside with learning Torah. Just because a person learns Tua doesn't mean that you have to do nothing with the rest of your life. Most people that learn Tawa in the world also have some form of a job, some way to make a living, some way to do things with their mind. While the haters, the anti-semites, the anti-Trat people always personify the the the religious people as people that don't have anything, that don't know anything. But it's quite the opposite. It's quite the opposite. The bigger the in Torah, the bigger they are in knowledge about a lot of other things too. And some of them utilize it for different things. A lot of people don't know that, you know, some of the people that helped save this country, not just in past generations, even in recent generations, Orthodox Jews, for example, Ben Bernani, the former Fed chief that bailed out the United States and quite frankly majority of the world out of the biggest financial crisis we had in the last century. He's an Orthodox Jew. So a person that learns Torah doesn't mean that they can only learn Tawa. They can learn other things, but again make sure those other things are useful, are useful. So if you're already going to work, at least be the best at it. If you're already going to be in a certain field, at least be the best at it. Don't just waste your time away watching other people's life [snorts] because that's one thing you'll never be able to get back. You can watch all of the car videos and soccer videos and I don't know all types of dancing videos and whatever there is on the internet and you will never benefit even 1% in your life out of any of it. If anything, it'll ruin your life. you will never benefit even a little bit from it. Quite frankly, I'm sure that even the people that hate me right now that are watching can say that the little bit that they watched of me right now benefited them more than all of those videos they've ever watched combined in their life. Why? Because simple, these are words that are actually going to help you in your life no matter where you came from. Whereas the soccer video, the boxing video, the sneaker video, the hand cards, all that stuff is useless. You need to buy something, go to the website, buy something, leave. You need to post something for your business, for something, go post, leave. Don't start commenting on things and debating people. It's a complete waste of time. And needless to say, the people that are watching all these short videos that are about nothing, you're wasting your life. The reason why you keep going back to it every day is because your mind needs something. Your mind needs something. The reason why you can't go to sleep is because your mind needs something. And instead of satiating it with something that's going to actually stimulate your mind in a positive way, you actually gave it poison. You gave it nonsense. So now the mind is even hungrier, but it's already later at night. So now you can't even go to sleep instead of using your mind to serve Hashem. Instead of using your mind in order to build yourself in this world, in order to become a better quality person, in order to become a better servant of Hashem, in order to become a better husband, a better wife, a better son, a better daughter, A BETTER BUSINESSMAN, SOMETHING BETTER FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE. WHAT DID YOU DO? NOTHING. NOTHING. You became another view on somebody else's statistics. That's it. And none of it will ever help you. No one will ever care you watched it. No one will ever reward you for it. You can't even utilize that knowledge in anything that you have. And you will regret every single minute you wasted watching those videos. Why? Because if you gather all those minutes together, you start realizing it's hours. And once you start gathering all those hours together and you realize, wow, it's two hours there, four hours there, six hours there, another hour here. Before you know it, you start realizing, wow, I'm wasting 15, 20, 30 hours a week on nonsense on nothing. I could do A MILLION THINGS IN 20 HOURS. I COULD START A SECOND BUSINESS. I COULD START I could literally build anything you want in 20 hours. IT'S A WHOLE LIFE. IT'S A WHOLE LIFE. And most people do not utilize their time properly. They simply waste it with nothing. With nothing. Whatu Baka is telling us if you are one of those that are simple minded your brain doesn't doesn't develop much but you're honest you're righteous if the rabbi says you do rabbi is telling you what God said you listen you don't question he saysanu you come with the bucket I want the water no problem you won't be charged for not having a sophisticated mind because that's not what Hashm gave you. But if you're one of those people that was able to get good grades in school, that was able to make a good living because you were able to figure something out, you were able to figure out how to market, you were able to figure out how to sell, how to buy, how to do something, your mind is more developed, then you need to know that the more developed your mind is, the more is going to charge you if you don't utilize it the right way. The right way is finding a way to glorify Hashem's name. One way is of course learning his Torah. But until you get to the point where you're able to learn in every single moment that you're awake, what do you do with all that extra time? Develop yourself. Find a way to gain more knowledge that benefits you, that helps you make more so you can give more in order to publicize Hashem's name where at least if you can't learn more about Torah, you could at least help other people find out about Hashem and therefore they'll learn and it'll be to your benefit as well. Either way, utilize your time properly because you will never get it back. And when you do, you'll be more productive, you'll be more successful, and you'll even be more righteous. On the other hand, those that waste their lives live a life full of regret, full of questions, and more often than not are more likely to become heretics. because they have plenty of questions but have never exerted their time to find out what the answers are. These are the answers to help each and every one of us at least start a new beginning starting today. Thank you very much for learning with me. For anyone that wants to help and support, they can donate on our website bzashem.org. And of course, those of you that want to be part of our Kima Piska campaign to help poor Jews in Israel can donate on the campaign page, bhpes.org. And of course, it's going to be in the comments. It's going to be in the website. It's going to be everywhere. Try to help as much as you possibly can. And we will learn again later this week. Call to We're finally here. The new Kiru box opens up. A nice little cushion here. I got Let's see if it's charged. >> Isn't that amazing? Still bust your life. >> Now available at those.com.org. >> [music] >> org. Get yourself 20 of them, 30 of them, 50 of them. distribute them to all the people that you care about and you get people to do the chba.