What is a PEH KADOSH Holy Mouth | Torat HaChassidut (10)

We're back here starting a new week continuing our series of the Torah of the Hasidut based on the Tzetl Katan of Rabbi Elimelech of Lizhensk. Tonight's shiur is going to be uh for the zechut and I always forget the uh main thing. All right, I'll have to I forgot the paper. All right, it's going to be uh for the refuah shleimah and hatzlacha rabbah for um Rabbi Efraim ben Shulamit, Rabbanit Sarah bat Anat uh Rabbanit Levana bat Sarah Avi Mori David ben Nesria, Imi Morati Doris bat Zohara uh Sarah bat uh Levana and also uh Leah bat Hava and all of Am Yisrael and all the righteous Noahides that continue to learn with us, continue to support the organization and uh Baruch Hashem continue to uh grow closer to Hakadosh Baruchu. Anyone that wants to uh donate, wants to support, can go to bhtorah.org or you could also go to bezathaashem.org. And as a reminder, I see that some of you uh prefer to uh donate cryptocurrency since we started uh accepting it, you can now uh donate any type of uh cryptocurrency on the website bezathaashem.org. Uh of course, you could donate with the credit card and checks and all that other good stuff. Uh some of you have an easier time wiring the money, we could do that. Some of you have an easier time just sending me a copy of the check, a picture of it, that's also fine. Either way, support is accepted in many ways for anyone that wants to do it. Uh also as a reminder uh the uh AI Rabbi app is uh getting a lot of great uh feedback and uh last week we did something that a lot of you liked, which is uh that anyone that uh subscribes to the AI Rabbi for that night was uh going to get one of these cool tumblers of Bezathaashem uh that you could buy at the BH Shop uh for 15 bucks, but if you subscribe to the uh as a paid subscriber to the uh uh AI Rabbi, I offered this for free. So, well, since some of so many of you liked it and I really want a lot of you guys to actually use it anyone that subscribes this week to the uh AI Rabbi uh app as a paid subscriber uh Bezathaashem, we will send you one of these uh tumblers and um many of you I have, you know, if you've donated in the past, we have your information, so we'll just uh send it out to you. If uh you haven't donated in the past, then we'll probably reach out to you uh you know, in the next several days to get uh your information in order to send you this uh tumbler wherever you are in the world, whether you are in the US or in Canada or in Africa wherever you are, we'll send it to you guys as a token of our appreciation. Uh last but not least a few of you have already received these amazing boxes to distribute in your community, the uh Asher Yatzar posters. Uh and as I've said, anyone that uh orders a box of books to distribute in the community uh will also get this as an additional gift to distribute. These are our new Asher Yatzar posters. Uh we don't have them on the store yet, but again, you could uh consider it a given that if you're ordering a box of uh uh at least one box of books, we'll include one of these really cool Asher Yatzar poster boxes that you can distribute. Each one of them comes with a hundred of them, so uh you could do quite a bit of uh uh quite a bit of um good in your community with just one of these boxes, Baruch Hashem. So, with that being said, we'll get into our series, we'll uh start uh learning and start growing, Bezathaashem. So, the Tzetl Katan by Rabbi Elimelech of Lizhensk has been teaching us during the first seven chapters uh really what it is to be a Hasid. You know, and I have Baruch Hashem quite a few students all over the world that come from all walks of life, uh whether they're uh frum from birth, baalei teshuvah, modern Orthodox, Hasidim, avreichim, rabbis. Uh just last night I spoke to a very uh wonderful uh rabbi uh that uh Baruch Hashem has uh watched uh you know, several of our shiurim, especially when it comes to the issues of the pe'ah nochrit, the uh uh the wigs and uh it was an amazing conversation to speak with a Ashkenazi, Litvish uh rav that agrees and supports and even publicizes uh our work uh against the uh wigs because of the avodah zarah that's in it. Uh so, Baruch Hashem, Baruch Hashem, the people that are watching these shiurim come from all walks of life, but one thing that I can tell you that has really amazed me since we started this series is that the Hasidim that have uh been in touch with me and uh many of them that are new uh you know, that uh have started watching our shiurim over the last uh you know, six months or so since the series started really have amazed me the most. And the reason why is because many of them are telling me that a lot of what we're teaching here from the Tzetl Katan, from the foundation of Hasidut is new to them. It's new to them. Now again, this is not necessarily any fault of theirs, it's just that there are certain times where there is one particular point uh you know, addressed at a certain at a community, whether it's a modern Orthodox or Sephardi or Ashkenazi or a Hasidish, whatever it is, there's one particular point that the rabbi, the leaders uh really like to emphasize and many times some of the other foundational issues are left by the wayside or simply not uh uh studied at all or sometimes just simply assumed that other people are going to do it on their own. Regardless of which reason it is, we're really happy to be part of the world of Hasidut that is learning what the holy rebbe told us, what he taught us several hundred years ago uh because this is the foundation of Hasidut. Regardless of whether you are Sephardi or Ashkenazi or wherever you are if [snorts] you want to have even part of your life uh to be uh to be a Hasid to a certain extent, not even a full-blown with the shtreimel and the socks and everything else. We're talking about just simply behavior behavior of a tzaddik, behavior of a Hasid is i- is really the the most important part. It's not the clothing. So, we see that the Tzetl Katan has warned us in the last couple of shiurim about what we allow into our mind uh and being very careful with it. The Tzetl Katan has warned us also what we allow uh our eyes to look at uh even to the extent of uh being careful of uh relatively unknown halachot like not looking at animals when they're mating. Now, the Tzetl Katan is going into chapter eight and is going to teach us about what is a peh kadosh. A peh kadosh? What's a peh kadosh? Literally speaking, it means a holy mouth. But what does it mean a holy mouth? So, the Tzetl Katan starts. Train yourself not to speak to anyone. Now already, this seems like it's impossible, but again, we'll read the whole thing first or the whole segment we're going to cover and then delve in deeper into it to explain. Train yourself not to speak to anyone save out of save out of great necessity and even then you should keep your words to a minimum, weighing them carefully to ensure that they do not contain any trace of falsehood, flattery, gossip, talebearing, belittlement of others or self-aggrandizement, God forbid. Up to here is what we're going to cover today. So, here the Tzetl Katan that is making a huge difference in our lives is telling us how to acquire a peh kadosh. And of course, anyone that has learned with us the series we did uh several years ago for Pirkei Avot remembers or at the very least is going to be reminded of the famous Mishnah of the 48 different attributes one has to acquire in order to acquire the crown of Torah. One of them being to uh to have a holy mouth to uh a person must have minimal speech. Now, what does it mean minimal speech? Does that mean that you have to become antisocial? Because that doesn't necessarily seem s- like such a good thing. And it isn't. But at the same token, the Tzetl Katan is telling us, "Don't speak to anyone." So, what does he actually mean here? Don't speak to anyone is referring to mundane topics. In so many words people that just like to chitchat about absolutely nothing. What are you doing? How are you doing? How was your weekend? How was your weekend? You know, uh what are you doing next weekend? Which way did you take on the way here? Which highway did you take? All of the useless conversations that people have and worse yet is when people start talking about people. When they start talking about people, whether it's the the neighbor or the co-worker or the boss or somebody in the community or uh or or God forbid, they start even talking about people they don't even know. You know, like celebrities. Oh, you heard that this uh baseball player makes that much money and that uh investment banker makes that much money or he lost that much money. And this unfortunately is a common topic of conversation which we've uh delved into many times in the uh past and we'll delve into again today because we see that there is more change necessary. So, the Tzetl Katan is telling us, just to start off, if you want to have a pic kadusha, a holy mouth, you have to train yourself not to speak to anyone mundane nonsense, we should add. Things that are simply useful when it comes to speaking Torah, speaking wisdom, certainly there's no limit to that. Speak as much and as often as you can. That actually will sanctify your mouth. But if you like to talk about things that are meaningless, then you have to train yourself to limit it. Limit it meaning you have to choose who you're going to do with, how often you're going to speak this, and whether it's really necessary to do so. Why is this the case? Melech tells us in the book of Proverbs, chapter 10, verse number 19, below of the volume of the Pasha, the shocks of the maski. In abundance of words, offense will not be lacking. But one who restrains his lips is wise. Here Melech is telling us clearly, if you're one of these talkative people, you like to chit chat, you like to have your girlfriends over just to sit down and talk about absolutely nothing, which really means talk about everyone and everything, then perhaps you should reconsider. Because Melech says, if your life is full of a abundance of words, you should know you're not going to lack sins. Meaning, you're going to make many sins, hence the reason why I call those types of social events that often women do, but unfortunately today even men do it, where they just have the guys over and they just drink and they chit chat and they talk about this guy and that guy and this boss and that employee and this one and I I beat that guy and I won that guy and all of these meaningless conversations, sins are not lacking in those places. That's why we call them gehenom parties. Everyone that attends will go to gehenom. That's in essence what Melech is telling us. If you like to talk a lot and you end up doing it, you're going to have no shortage of sins. But one who restrains his lips is wise. Why is he wise? Because just by not speaking to anyone about these types of things, just by limiting your speech with mundane talk is going to eliminate endless amount of sins you would have acquired had you used that mouth of yours for mundane speech. Furthermore, when a person looks at lashon hara, the laws of lashon hara, they'll realize that it's a lot more than what most people think. You know, many people have heard of the laws of lashon hara, the Hafetz Chaim, but few people really understand it because they haven't really delved into the laws. They assume that anytime you speak negatively about somebody, that automatically means it's lashon hara. If you speak positive about someone, that's okay, but this is far this is really far from the truth. If you're speaking negatively about someone, it's not always lashon hara. In fact, the Hafetz Chaim himself says in the section eight, say five, that it's a if the person that you're speaking against is a heretic [clears throat] or someone that you're trying to warn the public about because he's a pedophile, he's a rapist, he's one of these thieves, sick people that damages society and you're speaking against them, what you're doing is a not only a mitzvah, it's an obligation. You have an obligation to do such thing. But if you're speaking against someone that is not any of those things, you just don't like the person, or you don't like that they're rich, or you don't like that they're popular, or you don't like that they have a fancy car, or anything any other reason of why you don't like them, then certainly you have a very serious problem. Furthermore, it's not necessarily an issue just because of the words. Because many times you'll tell people, listen, you're speaking lashon hara. No, no, no, don't worry, everything I'm saying is true. Yes, that's actually what makes it lashon hara. If it wasn't true, it wouldn't be lashon hara. It would be slander, a much bigger offense. So, this is relatively easy to understand. What's harder to understand for people is that sometimes it is much better for you not to talk about people at all, even people that you care for. Where you want to talk to somebody and you want to tell them something good about somebody else that's not in the room. The God tells us, be careful even complimenting someone that's not in their presence. Why? Lest it'll arrive to him being disgraced. Now, how could your compliment of somebody lead to their disgrace? Very simple example, you can tell somebody, listen, I love this uh rabbi, he's great. He uh speaks the truth, he helps me, and the other person doesn't like this rabbi. Now, if you didn't know, that's okay, but if you already know that this person doesn't like this rabbi and you're mentioning it, could be a problem. Why? Cuz this person will say, "Nah, nah, my rabbi's uh much better, this guy doesn't know what he's talking about in comparison." And he starts challenging your viewpoint. So now instead of you complimenting someone and bringing them good in your opinion in your opinion, you actually brought them disgrace. So you have to also be careful with who you compliment and in front of whom, especially if the other people don't like this person. Now, the Hafetz Chaim is telling us that we have to be very careful when it comes to speech to the point where you have to train yourself. Meaning, you have to put thought into it of what are you going to do before you do it. The Hafetz Chaim in a sefer etza v'tushia, in section eight, had a prayer, had a prayer that he would say each day, that I'll repeat to you the whole prayer, but you could certainly get your own copy if you get the book. And he says as follows, "May it be your will, master of the world, compassionate and gracious one, that I guard myself today and every day from speaking or hearing slander and gossip. May I be careful never to speak against any individual, and all the more so against the entire Jewish people or any part of them, which is a very great sin. May I never cast aspersions on your righteousness and justice, for that is the most grievous sin of all. And may I never utter words of falsehood, flattery, contention, anger, pride, spite, mockery, or anything else forbidden. Let me not sit among scorners, nor become proud or angry even in my heart, nor think badly about another Jew. May I speak only about things that pertain to my body and my soul, and may my every action, word, and thought be for the sake of your name. O Father in heaven, let me guard my ears and eyes today and every day from hearing or reading slander and gossip, contentious words, trivialities, and everything forbidden. As for everything that I have heard or read that is not according to your will, please help me to forget it. Help me to never hear or read anything improper, even unintentionally, or even under duress. May my ears and eyes be sanctified to hear and see only mitzvot." Up to here is the Hafetz Chaim. Here we can understand why when the Hafetz Chaim showed, when he was already over 100 years old, showed one of his students his mouth, he said, "Look, count the teeth that are in my mouth." And they're all in perfect shape, without a cavity, without a filling, without a crown, without even a time that had Colgate or any one of these other toothpaste companies. See, see all these perfect teeth? Well, you don't say lashon hara, when you don't say gossip, when you don't say slander, when you have a holy mouth, your teeth will also be. Your teeth will be perfect. Now we understand how somebody could achieve such a thing. If you're making such a prayer every single day, and this is a personal prayer. This is not a prayer that you'll find in your siddur. This is not a prayer that you're going to find in just any book. This is a personal prayer that the Hafetz Chaim has for himself that certainly we can learn a lot from and perhaps even say to protect ourselves because if you're saying it, certainly you're thinking about and you're pleading with Hashem to help you survive the day without sins, at least not sins that are within your control, such as speech, such as things that you see. Rebbe Elimelech continues and says, "Save out of great necessity, and even then, you should keep your words to to Weigh them carefully to ensure that they do not contain any trace of falsehood, flattery, gossip, tale-bearing, belittlement. What do you mean, necessity? Well, the reality is there is necessary speech that is not Torah. Things that you need to use for your day-to-day life. You need to speak to your boss. You need to speak to your employees. You need to speak to your customers. You need to speak to a vendor. You need to speak to the uh some type of uh government official. Hopefully not often. You need to speak to the uh clerk at the shop that you're trying to buy something. You need to speak to people. You need to speak to your spouse. If you don't speak to your spouse, you're probably going to be without a spouse. You have to speak. This is all necessary. But even then, says Rabbi Elimelech, "Save your words." Meaning, be careful with those words that you choose. Don't just think, "Oh, just because I'm allowed to speak to my wife, or my husband, or my kids, then I could just talk until, you know, everybody turns blue in the face. And I can say whatever I want because, you know, after all, it's just, you know, it's just just my husband, it's just my kid, it's just my best friend. It's just my coworker." No, no, no. Even then you have to save the amount of words that you use. Why is that the case? What people don't realize is that there's a certain amount of words that Hakadosh Baruch Hu already has put onto your neshama of how many words you're going to be able to use in this life. And this is the reason why the Arizal brought an extraordinary insight. And this is also brought sefer called Anagot Latzadik by Rabbi Mendel of Linsk, where he says, "Don't speak too much unnecessarily because Hashem grants each person a fixed amount of words to use during their lifetime. Why should you shorten your life by speaking about things that are neither a mitzvah nor absolutely needed? This is what HaMelech said in the Song of Songs, in chapter 5, verse 6, "Nafshi yetzah bedabro." Which means, "My soul went out when he spoke." In other words, Hashem says, "The soul which I gave man leaves him when he speaks." Each time a person speaks, that is taken away off of their account. I believe there was some movie made years ago, it was a comedy. Now, obviously not not something that uh we could learn from, but we could learn musar from the idea because this is an art Torah, where somebody was uh I guess punished, and they told them that, "Listen, you can only speak as many words as there are leaves on a tree. And if the uh tree runs out of leaves, that's it, you die. You run you run out of words and you die." In essence, Hashem created the world in a very similar concept. It's not a tree, obviously, but it's a certain amount of words that each and every single person was decreed to have. And everyone has a different amount. If a person is overly talkative, they're shortening their life. And if they knew that that's what they're doing, certainly they'd be much more careful with the words they choose. So, Rabbi Elimelech is telling us, even in those conversations that are absolutely necessary, try to minimize the amount of words that you're using. Now, how can somebody minimize the words without having great wisdom of Torah, great wisdom of speech? First and foremost, don't say things that are just completely unnecessary. You know, they I think they call it too much information. Don't just talk about things that have no substance and no relevance, and no one is going to really be helped or benefit from this. If the conversation is about you trying to make a sale, make the sale. Focus on the sale. If the conversation is about explaining to the doctor your medical issues, focus on the medical issues, not about how your husband treats you, your wife treats you, and where you went on vacation, and the fact that you like fishing. Focus on the matter at hand. I'm not telling you to be obnoxious or rude or or or or something you know that's not good. What I'm saying is that many times people waste an enormous amount of time saying things that are unnecessary. This is, by the way, for many of you that are upset at me for never picking up the phone because many people still continue to call, and I always have the message, "Don't You know, I'm not going to pick up the phone. I'm busy. I have a lot of things to do, but I'm more than happy to help you. Just send me a short message to my WhatsApp." Send a short message to the WhatsApp, and everyone that sends me a message knows that I respond. Sometimes right away, sometimes a few hours later, sometimes a few days later, but generally I I I respond to everybody. Unless you send me one of those really long messages, which in that case, uh unless you're extremely new, that is not uh you know, not familiar with uh with uh how we work. If I know you for a long time and you're sending me one of these 15-minute messages, most likely your message is not going to be responded to because there's just too many other people that are in front of you that have 1-minute messages. But the point being is, one of the reasons why I don't have phone calls is because phone calls take an enormous amount of time. I know because I used to do this for a living. When I was on Wall Street and and and had clients and had to speak to them on the phone, each conversation would take no less than 40 minutes. That's just the way it is. It's not just about the investment at hand, it's about everything around it and everything around what's around it and everything around what's around the the the people that are around it, and it just takes an enormous amount of time. People like to talk, which is good, but if you're busy and you have stuff to do, that time is very could be very very costly. So, if I can in that 40 minutes or 1 hour of conversation, I can help 40 people, then certainly I prefer to help 40 people than one. Now, sometimes it's not possible. Sometimes there are certain cases that you have to talk. You have to meet with somebody. But those are exceptions. But many times people send me a message which they usually do not get a response for, which is the message which people send, "Hello." Or, "Hi." Or, "How are you doing?" Those types of messages typically do not get a response because again, I know those types of messages are opening up for some type of social link type of conversation, which I'm unfortunately not uh for for the person, I'm not interested. Why? Because I have other people to help, I have other things to do, and there's just not enough time to socialize. Plus, I don't want to fall into the category of someone that speaks mundane things. I don't want to make sense. So, you have to limit. So, Rabbi Elimelech is telling us, you have to be careful not just with the mundane, but even with the necessary conversations. Even then, choose your words wisely. The Hafetz Hayyim used to speak to people often. He would have conversations with people just to show others that you can have a conversation without saying lashon hara, without saying slander. Meaning, just to show to to These conversations were for the purpose of not just giving people chizuk and and teaching them something, but he would literally have a mundane conversation with certain people just to show them that yes, you can have a decent conversation that's not always about Torah without talking about people, without slandering anyone, without showing off how great you are. You can. But the problem is that many times people are not so careful with their words. And as HaMelech said, "An abundance of words will have an abundance of sins." And what is he referring to? If a person is free with their conversation, free with their words, they like to talk a lot. And even if they're not necessarily talking to friends. You know, some people say, "No, I don't have any friends." Okay, so you must say three words a day. No, no, no. I like I talk to people. Who do you talk to? Oh, she talks to the clerk at the uh market. She talks to the uh banker. She talks to the lawyer. She talks to the other clerk. She talks to the officer. She talks to uh all types of people, but you know, again, none of them are friends. Most likely she still has the same problem. Why? Because she talks a lot. Or he talks a lot. So, if you're talking about things that are mundane, that are that are purposeless, then many times it's going to lead you to problems. And what are those problems? Rabbi Elimelech gives us some of the major ones. You have to weigh the way the words carefully to ensure that they don't contain any trace of falsehood. This, by far, is one of the things that, on one end, is most common. Another end, it's the easiest one to fix if you really want it. Simply, don't lie. Don't say anything that you know is not true. Simple. It's a simple fix. In the world of business, this is almost like impossible for people. People have accustomed themselves to lying so much so that they already build it into the sales pitch. They already build the exaggerations into the sales pitch. We are the best in the world. We are the greatest in the world. This is the best thing ever. And once you have accustomed yourself to exaggerating on one thing, before you know it, you are now bored of this little embellishment. You now want to take it to the next thing. Oh, yeah. We're not only the best. You know that Google is calling us. They're asking us. They're begging us to to join them. But we're not sure if we want to do it. In reality, they wish that Google wouldn't even know who they are. They wish that anybody know who they are. They're still looking for their first customer. No, no. We have a service that beats everybody in the market. It does? How come you're not the biggest company in the world? I mean, there's so many other competitors out there. And quite frankly, all of them are bigger than you. You're saying you have a better service. You can provide all of those things to everybody? And you're still like some hidden gem? How is that possible? No, no. You don't understand. We have figured out a way to do what everybody is doing. But in a more cost-effective way, right here in our little shack. Right here without any overhead, and we could offer it for peanuts. You'll pay over there four, five, 10 times what you would pay here. And here you get much more. People have accustomed themselves to the exaggerations. And then, they're already outright lying. In the business world, it's literally just standard. Someone recently asked me for some advice. They're having some difficulty with business. And I told them, "Listen. In the world of business, you have to know a couple things. One of them is that whatever people tell you, do not expect them to give." Wait. So so so wait a minute. So why would I do business with them? Because no one else going to give you what they say. Okay. So how do I do business? Whatever they say, cut it by 50 to 70%. If they're really good and they want to help you, that's the 50%. 40% if they're really amazing. Standard, 70% of what they promised they're not going to be able to do. If you're not willing to accept 30% of what they're saying, don't sign a contract. Don't sign a contract. Why? Cuz they're just not going to do it. And then you already paid the money. You're aggravated. You're upset. You're losing sleep. I can't believe they lied TO ME. THEY'RE LYING TO EVERYBODY. They're lying to themselves. In fact, when they're telling you this, many of them have lied so many times, THEY ACTUALLY START BELIEVING IT. So they're as surprised as you THAT THEY CAN'T DO WHAT THEY SAID THEY WERE WILLING TO DO. And many times, the salesman has nothing to do with the product. He just knows how to sell. He never used the product for a single minute, aside from the, you know, uh showing it to a customer just as a part of his sales pitch. In reality, he has no idea how it actually performs. So when you tell him, "Listen. You bought me you sold you sold me this lemon. I PAID YOU $20,000." "WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT, SIR? We I sold you I I gave you everything we agreed." "What agreed? The only thing we agreed to is the piece of paper. Everything else has been false. You said it's A B C. It's not even A, B, or C. It's something else. Let me look into it. There has to be a confusion." And they're looking into it, and they waste three, four, five weeks of time. There's another monthly bill coming in. You have to write the check again. You have to make the wire transfer again. So if you expect 100% of what people are offering you, you are, my friend, going to be in for a disappointment. In the world today, you should be happy they're not a fraud outright fraud. Because outright fraud has also become standard. When I was still on Wall Street, we had a crisis in the year 2008. The whole world collapsed. And during that crisis, there was protests. They called it the the 99%ers. All of the people that claimed to be that they are, you know, uh the average person were going and protesting against all of the rich Wall Street people. Now, reality is it's the whole thing was one big sham. Many of the people that were actually pushing this were actually part of the 1%. But that's a different story altogether. Now, back then, people were crying foul about the fact that Wall Street people made a lot of money. It's not fair that some of them have planes. It's not fair that some of them have million-dollar houses. It's not fair that they have $50 million deals and $100 million deals. It's not fair. It's not fair. Boohoo boohoo. Now, I'm not a big fan of any protest. I think they're all generally a big waste of time. But nonetheless, this was the protest back then. The world, against in America specifically, against Wall Street. Why? Because a lot of people lost money, and the Wall Street people made money. What about the people that lost their money also? Or lost their job? Or lost both? What about them? No, no, no. The other people, the executives. Oh, so you mean the few that actually made money out of it, they represent the whole? No, but you don't understand. They made money off the mortgage. But so did you. You bought a house. You got a house even though you couldn't afford it. You benefited out of it also. You sold three, four, five houses on the way. You benefited the whole thing, the whole scandal that was happening in the entire country, in the entire world also. No, but it's not fair because he made $250 million, and he's Okay, fine. Everyone was crying foul about how Wall Street put the wool over everyone's eyes and got bailed out by the government and blah blah blah. Fine. Solution. Fast forward 16 years. Cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrency with all of the other rabid puppies that it breeds, that the NFTs and all the other scams out there, has literally made Wall Street look like tzaddikim. LOOK LIKE RIGHTEOUS PEOPLE in comparison to what's happening in the business world today. Frauds in cryptocurrency and all of this other digital craziness that's happening today literally have become such standard that stories of scams, of outright fraud, of outright cheating people in front of their face without any shame are being reported every single day. To such an extent that it's so easy that just recently someone showed me a report of a 13-year-old kid 13-year-old kid went on a website, got the permission to have his own cryptocurrency. In return for their the the the the uh I guess the clearinghouse or whatever it's called in the terminology of cryptocurrency, the fraud house. In Wall Street in terms, we'd call it the chop house. But anyway, whatever it is that's giving him the permission, this 13-year-old kid the permission to have his own cryptocurrency to fool people. But of course, he's not saying I'm going to fool people. They sold it to him. They get a bulk of whoever buys. Let's say he has a million of them, a million of these cryptocurrencies that are currently uh worth zero. He's, let's say, going to sell them for $1. Now it's a million dollars. People buy this let's say people buy a million dollars worth of cryptocurrency. A big percentage of it goes to the creation company, the the chop house. And a portion of it goes to the kid that's marketing it. Okay? Oh, it sounds good. So he tells people, "Listen. I got my cryptocurrency." And unfortunately, at least $35,000 worth of fools' money goes into this kid's pocket before he sells out everything and gets the cryptocurrency that he created go to zero. Meaning, whoever bought it for 30,000 now has zero in return. Now, in the world of the stock market, Wall Street, this would be called insider trading. This would be called fraud. This would be called jail for 25 years. All types of other nice nice names. Anyway, if this was it, then I wouldn't even mention the story. Shortly thereafter, and I mean shortly, like a week, two weeks after, the same 13-year-old kid makes another cryptocurrency. Apparently, he liked making $35,000 in 5 minutes. He calls this one I'm sorry. Oh, no. He called this one this one's for my dog. Like he needs cryptocurrency to take care of his dog. And fools fall for this also. Anyone that buys a cryptocurrency because of somebody's dog deserves to lose their money. but again, it's still not right. 20-something thousand dollars goes into this kid's pocket before he sells everything leaving them holding the bag of worthless cryptocurrency aside from maybe the digital picture of his dog. He makes the money, they're on off. Now, if this was it, I wouldn't even say the story. Why? Because the first two scams has happened so many times in the last year or two that literally it's it's already standard. But this one was really breezy. This 13-year-old no shame whatsoever. He belongs perfectly perfectly in the time of the Tower of Babel, the time of Noah, at the time of Sodom and Gomorrah. Perfectly fit. In fact, I actually think that the people of the generation of Noah, they used to steal one seed at a time until the guy had no more seeds. Or say, "Wait a minute, what are you talking ABOUT? HE'S MUCH WORSE, THIS KID." IT'S VERY possible they're they're complaining in Shamayim about what I just said that this kid's much worse and all the other people that are doing are much worse. So it's possible. So if it is if he is worse, I'm sorry to uh those resha'im, he's worse than you. Anyway, rabotai, he comes up with a third cryptocurrency. Again, he has the same followers on TikTok or X or whatever it's called, whatever social media has a bunch of people with extra money they want to lose. And he calls the last one, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. That's what he calls it. I'm sorry. And they send him more money. And he does THE SAME THING AGAIN. FOR THE THIRD TIME. HE GETS THE MONEY, THEY lose everything. He even videos himself mocking them. Meaning, rabotai, that what the Gemara said nearly 2,000 years ago that the Messiah is not going to come until money will be worthless is literally happening in front of our eyes of how this could be. How could money just become worthless? We always thought perhaps the value of the dollar will just go down 100% like it did in Venezuela, like it did in Argentina, like it did in many other countries. No, no, no. You have people from all shapes and sizes, from the billionaires of the world, hedge fund managers to the average Joe Schmo that never even had a job but has a little bit of bar mitzvah money. Throwing [snorts] their money into this fake money cryptocurrency that is not reputable or at the very least something that has a history. I'm talking about they're sending it to just anybody, to this I'm sorry coin, to this feed my dog coin, to this I'm going to scam you coin, to this all types of coins that literally take 5 minutes to do. Assuming this is going to do the same thing like Bitcoin did, which in itself is ridiculous. Hence the reason why we accept cryptocurrency as a donation, but the way that the operation works is that as soon as you donate the let's say you decide to donate one crypto one Bitcoin, as soon as you donate it, the system sells the coin and baruch Hashem sends us the money a day or two later. We're not holding it, we're not trading it, we're not interested in it. We're interested in the donation. But here, rabotai, people want to invest in these things, fine. I have nearly two decades of market experience and I've always been against it even though it looks like I'm wrong so far where cryptocurrency has gone up, but time will tell. The part that I'm wrong about has been let's say on a couple of them that have gone up. The part that I'm 100% right and have been right and will continue to be right is that 97.8% of all of these cryptocurrencies being created by nobodies create 100% loss. This is a statistic that was actually reported on the site that helps people create cryptocurrency. Nearly 100% of the people that invest in them lose. Why? But everybody is hoping for the best. What is this what does have to do with everything? It means that unlike Wall Street where at least the guys that were scammers, the guys that were beating the system, some were outright thieves, some just simply wanted to get ahead without necessarily involving everybody else similar to how you do in real estate where for example insider trading is not against the Torah, it's against the law, you go to jail for 25 years, but it's not against the Torah. In every other business insider trading is allowed. If you're let's say if you have a piece of real estate that let's say that you know about that your grandfather wants to sell and before it hits the market you tell your friend about. Listen, my grandfather's going to wants to sell this property for you know half a million dollars. If you come to him right now before he puts it into the market, he'll probably sell it to you for 400. You go in there and you buy this the real estate for $400,000. You made yourself you could sell it a day later for $500,000 if you want. But the fact that you got this insider information benefited you. In real estate it's allowed. In regular business it's allowed. In the stock market it's not allowed. In cryptocurrency, it's the standard. That's how cryptocurrency is evolving where pretty much everything is based on insider information. Oh look, this guy is in it. He knows something. Look, he even tweeted about it. He said that he's investing in it. While he says he's investing in it, people that know how to do it track that he's actually selling it while he's selling people to to buy it. This would be illegal if he was doing with stocks. But in the Wall Street days, the scammers, whether it's the ones that literally had a Ponzi scheme, that were outright thieves, OR IT'S THE GUYS that had some insider information that they paid for. Everything they did, they had some sort of sechel, some sort of common sense, some sort of shame even to do it behind closed doors. Didn't flaunt it to the whole world on social media say, "Listen, I'm going to scam everyone." No, they wanted to do what they were doing without being discovered. In the world we live in today, you have people literally robbing the public in daylight. Literally broad daylight. They're telling people, "Look, I'm investing you know in this uh garbage coin." He knows he has 5, 10, 20 million YouTube followers or whatever other social media followers that are many of them are going to jump on the ship. THEY JUMP ON the ship, the coin goes up, the value of it, the fictional value of it goes up while he sells it. So he makes all the money. And then as he finishes selling it, all of a sudden the thing drops 99%. Everyone that bought it loses everything or vast majority of what they invested. And he does it once or twice or three times or four times and this has become standard, especially by people that are famous on the internet promoting these garbage coins, this fake currency literally without any shame. Without any shame that they're robbing people. Without any shame and they're always blaming, "No, no, the developer did it. The the the the this one did it. I didn't really know. It was somebody else's account even though it has my name. I don't really manage that account even though it has tens of millions of dollars. I don't really do it and no one is responsible. No one is held accountable. No one's going to jail." No one is even getting a a hit like this. Nothing. THEY JUST DO IT AGAIN A WEEK LATER OR A MONTH LATER TWO MONTHS later and they keep making printing money. While they're literally robbing the the the the public. They're robbing the people that are actually helping them. This means, rabotai, that in the world of business lying has become so standard that whether it is you selling your service as a plumber, as a lawyer, as an accountant, as a some type of developer, or even as a advisor of investments, or even as a influencer, lying is standard. Now, we all have to do business to a certain extent to survive. Whether it's to pay for fixing your air conditioner or it's to buy a house or it's to get a car or whatever it is. Everybody has to do business to a certain extent. Know this. If you expect the people that are pitching you their product to provide you 100% of what they say, do not sign the deal. Why? They will not do it. I've been young and I've been old and I've dealt with thousands of people and I've done thousands and thousands of transactions in my life and I've yet to find a single person, a single business that I could recommend to you and say to you, "This one is honest. This one does what he says." I've met some nice people. I've met some people that meant well, but as far as actually doing 100% of what they say, not a single one. In any aspect. Whether I was a rabbi or wasn't a Wall Streeter? It doesn't make a difference. People have accustomed themselves to lying to such an extent they believe the lie. I know that you think that you are honest businessman. But I would say that you should test yourself. I don't know who you are. I know how honest you are. But from now on, as a result of this video that you're watching, this lecture that you're watching, take this to heart and test yourself of how honest you really are. You don't have to prove me anything. You have to prove it to yourself. This is your life, not mine. See if you actually deliver what you sell, what you preach to people. You promised them ABC. See if you actually deliver ABC, like you promised, consistently, not one time. Don't tell me, "Oh, listen, I DID A TRANSACTION TODAY, AND I DID EVERYTHING HE SAID. He he wanted to buy a piece of candy, AND I SOLD HIM A PIECE of candy." No, no, no. That's not talking about something that is on a consistent basis. And I hope you are an honest person. We need more of them. But the reality is, about time, honesty is much easier to find when people are poor than when they are rich. But either way, lying has become standard across the board. So, anyone that wants to have a holy mouth already eliminates their ability of ever having a chance of having a holy mouth if lying has become standard in their life to the extent where they're not willing to change it. They're not willing to change their pitch for their business, they're not willing to change their ideas, they're not willing to change anything, and they know it's a lie, that means that their ability to acquire a holy mouth already ended there. Secondly, says Rabbi Elimelech, flattery. Flattery sounds like a nice thing to some people. Oh, you see, every time I come there, she always compliments my dress. He always compliments your suit. They always compliment our kids. Yes, that's nice that people come compliment you. The question is, is their compliment with a bias, with an agenda, or is their compliment purely because you are such wonderful people, like what they're saying is true? Many times, and I would even dare to say the vast majority of times people are giving you a compliment and flattering you, it's because they want something from you. Oh, I know you're you're you're really busy, but you're special, and you're amazing, and whatever all the compliments they want to give you, but I need XYZ from you. Oh, you're so smart, and you're so funny, and you're so this, and you're so successful, and you're so this, and oh, but I want such and such. Flattery usually is a something that people have accustomed themselves to do in order to request something. So much so that they even teach this in different seminars that you have to know how to flatter people, how to kiss up to people, but without it sounding like you're kissing up to them. Compliment this tie. Compliment this car. Compliment is whatever whatever you think he's going to like. Why? Because people like to be complimented, even if they know it's a lie. But in the world of Hasidus, Rabbi Elimelech says, if you are a flatterer, if you tell people that are wicked that they are righteous, if you tell people that are ugly, you tell them that they're beautiful, if you tell people that are known to be liars and thieves that they're stand-up people because you're trying to flatter them, because you're trying to be on their good side, perhaps you'll need something from them down the road or even today, you are a flatterer. And Rabbeinu Yonah writes over 700 years ago in Shaarei Teshuvah, one of the types of people that will never see the Shechinah, will never see Hashem, even after death, are flatterers. Hashem detests people that are flatterers. But even if a person thinks about the next world, whether it's Gan Eden or Gehennom as something far away they can't even relate to, think of it this. If you want to have something that's called a holy mouth, flattery has to be removed. That means that if you're complimenting someone, compliment them properly. Now, as a disclosure for the fools, because there's always a fool somewhere that's going to take this in a wrong way and say, "Yeah, that's why I'm brutally honest. When my wife GAINS A FEW POUNDS, I TOLD HER, 'HONEY, YOU'RE FAT.'" NO, YOU'RE an idiot. She may have gained weight, but you have are an idiot for sure. Her weight can go off. Your idiocy, perhaps not. Being brutally honest is not necessarily a good quality when it's used in the wrong places. There's a difference between flattery and being honest. So, telling them a compliment that they look good, or that they did good, or that they are good, is not a problem as long as it's what you're saying is true, and it's not coming with some type of an agenda. But to tell somebody something bad about them is never going to have any type of positive thing come out of it unless that person wants to hear that from you. As a side note for the fools of the fools, meaning the ones that are in the next degree, your wife never wants to know if you don't like the way she looks. She never will ever want to know. Even if she tells you, "Tell me if I don't look good. I want to know." She doesn't really mean it. She never wants to know if she doesn't look good. She never wants to know if she gained weight, she lost weight, if the eyebrows are this way, if the lipstick is that way, if the dress is too long, if it's this She she wants you to say, "Honey, you're the most beautiful." That's what she wants. You want a happy marriage? Learn how to do that. Her, you're allowed to flatter. Why? She's your wife. Everybody else, not so much. When a person doesn't have this type of clear instructions, unfortunately sometimes they'll misinterpret some of the things that I'll say. So, see, honey, the rabbi SAID TO BE HONEST. THAT'S WHY I TOLD YOU YOU'RE FAT. NO, HONEY. You see, you weren't listening. What I was saying is that she may have gained weight, but you probably are going to be single soon. Like this other fool that told me that he told his wife something I don't even want to repeat. And I told him, "You know that you're probably going to be divorced." "Nah, come on, Rabbi." Few months later, he was divorced. Why? He's an idiot. Sometimes people are idiots. So, you have to know who to compliment, who not. And if you're going to criticize, if you're going to say anything negative, make sure that the audience is someone that you're close enough with that they'll accept it from you, and not someone that you know will automatically reject it. Many times people get into these debates online. I've already said this time and time again. Anyone that debates on the comments is an idiot by default. Why? You're completely wasting your time. Completely wasting your time. You're commenting, "No, this is the truth." And the other guy says, "No, this is the truth." And they start cursing each other out, and then they he brings his sources, she brings her sources, and guess what? No one is reading it. The only one that's reading it is the guy that's writing it. The other party cares less about what you're saying. No one is reading it. No one cares. Everyone is just looking to prove their side. They don't care about changing their own opinion. It's a complete waste of time. So, if you want to use your time properly, learn how to give compliments to those that you need to, because they're important to you. Learn how to give honest compliments without being a flatterer, and also learn how to keep your mouth shut. Because these are just a few skills that will not only allow you to potentially have a trajectory to maybe one day have a holy mouth, but at the very least you'll have a decent life. Even if you don't have a holy mouth, at least you'll have a decent life. Because if you're one of these people that only knows how to criticize his wife or a husband or the kids, it's very likely everyone's going to hate you. Now, the next thing that is really abhorrent that people have accustomed themselves to is gossip. Gossip, says Rabbi Elimelech, is one of the things that a person has to be very careful to ensure before they say a single word that there's not a single word coming out of the what they're saying that is gossip. What's gossip? You're talking about other people. Do not talk about other people. Unless it's for the sake of helping them. If you're going to help this couple that is about to get divorced or wants to get married or whatever it is, doing a starting a new business, you want to help them, by all means. There obviously there's a purpose. There's a purposeful purpose for you mentioning them. But if you're just going to talk about people and talk about their stuff and count their money and count their problems and count their kids and count their issues, then you are acquiring yourself more and more years in gehennam without even realizing it. For each word of gossip that you're mentioning about other people, you're acquiring yourself more time in gehennam that you're literally going to regret the day you were born. The best thing to do, rabbotai, is to simply never speak about people. Which people? Anyone. Don't talk about the celebrities and how he's getting divorced and she's getting remarried and how this one is cheating and that one is lying and this one makes x amount of money and that guy just signed a deal for $200 million and the other one just lost $200 million. Perhaps they made an exchange and this one is this and this one is that. Don't talk about people. You can talk about things but not people. Why? If you talk about people, it's only a matter of words before you're going to start talking gossip. Before you're going to start saying things that you're not supposed to say. And if you're really really foolish, you're going to start slandering people. Not only tell people, "Oh, you hear? You heard Steve just bought a house? $1.5 million?" Yeah, yeah, I heard Steve bought a million dollars. Nice house, really nice house. So that already you have a problem. Why? Who told you to share that Steve bought a million dollar house? Did Steve ask you, "Hey, listen, do me a favor. Anybody you talk to today and for the next few weeks, let them know that I bought the house and by the way, look at this receipt, a million and a half dollars. So make sure they know it's a million and a half dollars. So they don't think that it was more and I over and I under, you know, no, no. I want them to know, here. Maybe I should make a copy for you. You could tell people I bought it for a million and a half dollars." NO, STEVE DIDN'T DO THAT FOR YOU. STEVE DIDN'T ASK YOU to publicize and market his new house. Steve didn't ask you to publicize that he just got married. Steve certainly did not ask you to let people know that he just got fired. He definitely didn't ask you to do that. But you decide to take the initiative and tell whoever is in front of you, whether it's the guy behind the the the cash register at the deli that happens to know you both or maybe not. Or it's somebody that just came over and wants to have a coffee with you or some guest that you came over for Shabbat. And you don't have any divrei Torah to say, he doesn't have any divrei Torah to say, so you figure let's just make sentences instead. And you decide TO TALK ABOUT STEVE AND HOW HE BOUGHT A MILLION DOLLAR HOUSE. OH, NO, NO, million and a half dollars. Now, that already is a problem. You know what's a bigger problem? The next few words. What's the next few words? Yeah, million and a half dollars. Where do you think he got the money for? Ah, no, he has rich parents. You now have crossed the line from the lashon hara, the gossip, to the slanderer. Now automatically you've let people know that Steve cannot buy anything on his own. Certainly he is incapable of doing it. Certainly he needed help from somebody else. Some other way. Or perhaps you're even more bold. When the guy said, "No, no, his parents don't have any money." As if he knows what's in their bank account. Oh, so maybe his wife's parents. Or maybe, you know what? Listen. I always heard that Steve is I don't know, last I heard he was a plumber, right? Yeah, yeah, he's a plumber. Did he fix anything in your house? Yeah, HOW MUCH DID HE CHARGE YOU? NO, ONLY A FEW HUNDRED DOLLARS. So where is he getting this money from? You think maybe that contract he has with the public school? Maybe that little bit of extra little bit of extra lubricant in those pipes that he's giving? Maybe there he has a friend on the inside that's giving him $80,000 for every screw like they did on the news to somebody else? You know, instead of selling every screw for 80 cents, they sold it for $80,000 because it was a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend of thieves. Maybe that's the reason. And all of a sudden you have turned this poor guy Steve that for all you know it got a good deal at the house or saved his money since he was born or whatever other reason, you have now made Steve into a thief. Not only a thief in this house transaction, but in his business, in his dealings, in everything else, you have now become someone that slandered another person. To fix that is so difficult, it's almost impossible. Almost. And this is one of the things that people do on a regular basis, rabbotai. Regular basis. So much so that the Sefer Sumi Ra writes as follows. A common problem today concerns people who are overly pious in regards to being strict on certain halachot such as eating glatt kosher meat or only eating the shmura matzah or avoiding cooked or fried matzah. While some of these people deserve praise for this, others that are more superficial individuals imagine these acts to be the essence of piety. When in reality, they lack pi they lack piety altogether. For not only do these people fail to do teshuvah, to repent over the sins of their youth, meaning wasting seed in immorality, they don't do teshuvah for that, they don't even think they need to, even though they sinned endlessly. Not only do they not do teshuvah for this, they continue to transgress the Torah by speaking libelously about others whose greatness they cannot even touch. They mistakenly think they can tell the difference between good and evil and that they are smart enough to discern truth from falsehood. Now here, this is something that seems like, oh, it's theoret theoretically. No, this is a reality. One of the primary examples that we've highlighted that this happened by the masses is over the last few years when it came to the whole issue of the vaccine, coronavirus vaccine, all that craziness. Where literally the Satan put the wool over the eyes of not only the world, not only specific, but put the wool over the eyes of the frum Jewish community in order to get as many of them as possible to turn themselves from being righteous to wicked just like that. How? As soon as they heard that one of the lay said one of the big rabbis, whoever it was, said something that is the opposite of what they read in the media or they investigated on their own or they and their friends concluded, as soon as they heard that the rabbi said something else, immediately they insulted them. Said they don't know what they're talking about, they're old, they're senile, THEY'RE BEING PAID OFF AND literally they destroyed da Torah and any faith in da Torah that they and anybody else around them had. Just like that, they destroyed their olam haba. It was better off for them to die from the coronavirus or from simply being hit by a truck than the amount of punishment they're going to get for what they said publicly about gedolei Yisrael. And they themselves will testify to that once they go up to shamayim and they realize the punishment they're going to get for what they said about gedolei Yisrael. The amount of animosity that religious people had towards their rabbis because the rabbi had a different opinion about them. Right or wrong is irrelevant. Oh, you see, I was against IT AND NOW I'M PROVEN RIGHT. YES, you're proven right. You were against it, but you're still going to go to gehennam for what you said about the rabbi. Like, yeah, you're right about the the vaccine, but you're still going to go to gehennam. In fact, it was better off for you to TAKE THE VACCINE TWICE. TO DRINK IT, TO EAT IT, TO PUT it as a spread on your pita bread, than to say all the things you said against the rabbis. But unfortunately, many of those people have destroyed their connection to God to Allah, so much so that they're not willing to listen to anything or anyone. They just assume they know better because they know about the vaccine, therefore they know about Torah. And this is actually what the Hakham is saying here. They mistake that they can tell the difference between good and evil. And that they're smart enough to discern the truth from falsehood. In fact, says the Sum Mirah, even if THEY ARE CORRECT, WHO gave them permission to transgress the prohibitions of Lashon Hara? Whose punishment is more severe than the three cardinal sins of idolatry, adultery, and murder. The fact that they think that they can speak badly of others only reveals their attachment to their own transgression and immature desires. Their bad words about others speak only badly about themselves. And the worst yet is that the others that we're talking about is other righteous people. Because they disagreed with you about the vaccine or disagreed with you about other topics, you simply label them into bad people. Now again, if somebody speaks against the Torah and they're a heretic, it's a mitzvah. The Torah itself says it's a mitzvah to insult them, to mock them, to decrown them. But if it's somebody that is righteous and has a different opinion than you about something that is not Torah related. It's not Halakha yes or certainty yes, certainty no. They're pro this versus that. You disagree for whatever reason, fine. You could just disagree quietly. There's no reason for you to say the things you did. And if you're alive and watching this, you should spend the rest of your life fixing it. And the rest of your life hopefully may be enough. Hopefully may be enough. Why? Cuz the Gemara says, someone that insults a Hakham, ein terufah le-makato. Someone that insults a Hakham, when Hashem hits him or her, there's no cure to their ailment. No doctor can heal them, no potion, no segulah, nothing. Nothing can heal them. Khavuta, I have literally, not just stories I've heard, I've stories I've experienced of how foolish people can be when it comes to this. Literally, I had one story where somebody spent months, months speaking against a certain Hakham. GATHERED THEIR FRIENDS TOGETHER SPEAKING AGAINST A CERTAIN HAKHAM. Didn't matter what anybody told them, "Stop doing it. It's not good. You shouldn't do it. That person actually is a good person. They even helped you." No, no, no. They don't know. That it is. That it And then, in another circumstance, they returned a few paper plates. A few paper plates to a person, said, "Listen, I don't want it to be gezal cuz you left this by me and you know, I I I I don't have I don't have the right to take it and certainly I can't throw it out. It's your stuff. So, I went out of my way to return these paper plates that if you combine all of them together, maybe they're worth a few pennies." Wait, so murdering a person in front of other people day after day for months, no problem. But you're making sure you're not going to steal a few paper plates? This is a person that's righteous in their own eyes. That's what the Sum Mirah is saying. There are people that are so connected to their sins, they don't even realize it's a sin. It's like the same thing I said about liars. They lie so much that they start believing the lie. They start believing the lie. The Teteh Ketan is warning us about these types of things. Because as the Gemara in Masekhet Pe'ah in Yerushalmi, in Perek Aleph, Halakha Aleph, at the end, says a person that has more uh uh mitzvot than sins, he has mostly mitzvot. And he has some sins. The way the judgment of heaven works is that Hashem punishes him for those few sins in this world in order to leave the next world full of reward. While a person that has mostly sins and a few mitzvot, Hashem doesn't punish him in this world. In fact, he rewards him for the few mitzvot that he has in this world. So, he has a $200,000 car, a $20 million plane, houses in five different countries and 20 different states. Gives him a lot of reward in this world for the few mitzvot that he or she did. Why? So, the next world is only punishment. Endless punishment. That's what the Gemara says. Rav Daniel Zeir sheyikheh said years ago an analogy about the mouth. He says, "Imagine you have a machine that prints. You have two buttons on it. One button is a green button. Every time you press it, it prints out $100 bills. And you can print out as much as you want. The other button is a white button. And every time you press it, IT PRINTS OUT TOILET PAPER. NOW, if somebody spent an entire week with complete freedom and access to this machine, a normal person, what would they do? They would just press the green button the whole time. As many times as they possibly can. As often as they can. No one's going to spend any time pressing the white button. Even as practice, even to see what it looks like. You just want to press the green button. Why? Cuz you know, this is the greatest thing. He says, "This is the mouth. You have an opportunity to use this mouth for holy things. Every opportunity for you to speak is an opportunity for you to print much more than money. You can make mitzvot with your money. With your mouth. You can make mitzvot. You can pray to Hashem. You can learn Torah. You can teach. You can help somebody. You can say a kind word, a compliment that's appropriate. You can do good things with your mouth. You can SHOW GRATITUDE. WORST CASE SCENARIO, if you want to just say nothing, okay, so you press the white button." That's the mouth. The problem is that Rav Daniel Zeir was only giving us one of two options. Either us do something good or nothing. Rebbe Elimelech of Lizhensk says, "No, no, no, no. There's a third option. There's a third button. It's a black, ugly button. And every time you press it, something explodes. A house explodes. People die. Every time." You may not see it, but it's happening. That's Lashon Hara. That's slander. That's lying. You may not see the impact of your words, of lies, of of of slander, of saying bad things about people unnecessarily. But you could be sure that one day, Hashem is going to show you the destruction that you have made. And your greatest regret is not going to be only the damage that you've caused, but also the lost opportunity when you had the ability, the time, and even the knowledge to press the green button and use that mouth for good or at the very least nothing. Be a mute. David HaMelekh alav ha-shalom the Gemara in Masekhet Bava Metzia, page 59a, shows us how these issues that we're discussing is not a secular people problem only, but in fact, is even a bigger problem sometimes among the religious people who think they're religious enough. David cried out to says the Mara. And said master of the world of them. When my enemies study the laws of leprosy and tents meaning they're studying Torah. His enemies were religious were rabbis. Heads of the Sanhedrin in some cases. When my enemies studies the laws of leprosy and tents, they jeer at me. They make fun at me and they say, "Tell us David, what is the death penalty for one who seduces a married woman?" Death by strangulation. I reply. Meaning they're trying to make fun of him. That he took but Shiva. And she some people thought she was still married at the time even though she was not. There was a law at the time that they had anytime people go to war they would give a get to their wives. But still this looked a certain way to some people manipulated a certain way in the eyes of certain people that hated King David. So they make fun of him and say, "Look, what is somebody that went with a married woman? What does he get? Oh, it's death by strangulation." King David said, "Yeah, it's death by strangulation. Yet one thing I do want to add he says is that such a person still has a share of the world to come. Even though he did such a thing with a married woman, he still has a share of the world to come. But a person who shames his neighbor in public, he does not have a share of the world to come. Here we see the tiger king. That King David literally even as a king had to deal with such horrible people that thought themselves more righteous than thou. says [snorts] says that if a person sins against his fellow and then does over he still has to appease that person in order for that forgiveness to be complete both in this world by the person and in my. This is what the and the second one says page 85 B. Comes the higher. And by the key. And says despite the fact that you are brothers asked him for forgiveness. We don't find a verse in the Torah that says that he actually forgave them. Even though it says that you comforted them and spoke to their hearts. It doesn't say that he actually forgave them. Which suggests that they died still guilty of their transgression. And that explains why the says that the 10 tribes the 10 brothers of of of the king David had to be reincarnated as the king of the generation and were the martyrs the 10 martyrs at the time of the Roman period. Because they still had to suffer for what they did to the king their brother. Now the video says lead me in your truth and teach me. For you are the God of my deliverance for I have hoped in you. This is chapter 25 verse 5. I'll be of the gents rights in normal pressure kids. The video prayed to the king who never to become conceited in his service of God. Rather he asked the king to help him understand how everything is really from is really from him. And that is the one in his compassion who led the video to the path of truth. And that's the meaning of what he says in this verse, "Lead me to your truth for you are the God of my deliverance." Meaning that you have helped me in all of this for you are the God who helps. What the video says was teaching us there is the ultimate route to success in serving which is attaining humility. Why is this important? Because many times people waste their life not only belittling others but also self-aggrandizement. Talking themselves up. How they are great. Oh, you see the thing I just bought? What do you think I paid for that? Ah, I got a good deal better deal. No, I you got the same thing. What did you pay for a thousand? No, I got mine for 500. You always got a better deal. I want you to do this. He always did better. Whatever he did is always better than you. I just got a promotion. I just got this. I did. I I I I. Everything is I constantly. People like to talk themselves up. Says the king. These types of people that like to talk themselves up and in essence get people to give them a round of applause at all times just standing ovation walking around them at all times for all of the wonderful things they imagine themselves doing, they're never going to attain holiness. Why? Even using your mouth to speak yourself up to show off. Even the things you actually did. It's still not a good thing. Why? [clears throat] If you're saying, "I did this and I bought this and I like this and I I I." Where does fit in? That's that's my hands my power did this. And that's actually one of the things that punished for at the time of and other times. When we thought that we don't need God. But but but HAD SUPERNATURAL STRENGTH. Literally the to the point where entire armies couldn't defeat him by himself. Yet the moment he showed ungratefulness to him. Telling him, "Don't bother me don't and I won't bother you." As if it's his power not power that gave him. He killed him in the most embarrassing way while he was going to the bathroom. While he was going to the bathroom he died. When a person shows off all of their good and all I did this and I bought this and I did this and I I I. That type of speech is also forbidden speech. There is no valuable purpose for you to show off. If you're trying to motivate your employees, certainly you can tell them of good things you can you've done. But there's a limit of how much is necessary and how much is just too much. How much is just too much? In fact, many times people share their achievements with people that they don't need to impress. There's absolutely no reason for them. There's no benefit for them. In fact, most of the time that they're doing it, they're doing it as a form of belittling the other people of how other people are not as good as them. Meaning it's not only self-aggrandizement, it's also belittling the other people. It's a double offense. And the normal says humility is the root and source of everything that's holy. It's the foundation of everything. That's why the king writes in the book of Proverbs chapter 22 verse that the reward for humility is the fear of him. Also means the heel of the foot. For the foot supports the entire body. And therefore it should be an element of humility in everything that a person does. Meaning that even though the foot the heel carries the whole body in essence that's the one that physically allows the person to do everything that there is that they're doing that they're proud of. Still says if you realize that while it carries it's still humble you should act in that way that even though you've done you should realize that who's you're not carrying yourself. Is carrying you. There's nothing for you to be so arrogant about. Now about time. What is the benefit of having a holy mouth? Really there's no end to the benefit, but I'll give you a couple of examples. First of all if you only speak the truth with no exceptions you will certainly be more noticeable than the liars. Why? Liars are a dime a dozen. Virtually everyone is a liar. When you're in business, when you're in everywhere you go, there's literally lying has become standard. Today, and unfortunately throughout history, it's always been lying. But today, lying is literally so common to find someone saying the truth is like a shock. And unfortunately, it's also in the religious world. One of the things that people that watch my lectures for the first time and over a period of time see is the sense of truth. I don't have to say I am telling you the truth. They simply compare it to what they've heard, to what they're hearing everywhere else. You don't have to tell people I'm telling you the truth. It's noticeable by itself. It markets itself. Why? Because it's so rare. And that's the signature of Hashem. Hashem's signature is emet, it's truth. So if you're going to be a person of truth in any aspect, not just in the aspect of of Judaism and Torah and mitzvot and saying the truth in what you heard in the shiurim or what you're learning from the books, I'm talking about even in your day-to-day dealings with your students, with your followers, with your uh uh employees, with your boss, with your vendors, with your customers, with your doctor, with your lawyer, with your spouse, with your kids, if you're going to be an honest person, people will take notice. And certainly, they will treat you differently than everybody else. Automatically, the type of respect that people will have, even if they are opposing you, even if they don't agree with you, is going to be different than anybody else. Why? They know they can't catch you in a lie. They'll have to catch you on truth. Which simply means they don't believe the truth. So already, we see that the benefit of telling the truth at all times is profound. Further, you're not going to have any trust issues in your relationships. Unfortunately, sometimes people will send me a question of how do I gain my spouse's trust? Well, if you have to gain their trust, that means that you've lied to them. That's what it means. Or that they are a pathological liar, but they're pinning it on you in order to put the pressure on you so you don't pay attention to their consistent lies. So the if you know that you're an honest person and there's really no reason for them to distrust you, then you have nothing to worry about. You only have something to worry about if you're a liar. WHAT'S THE SOLUTION? STOP LYING. IF YOU SAY THE TRUTH ALL THE TIME, you don't have anything to worry about. There's no trust issues. IF YOU DON'T GIVE them reasons to distrust you, they won't distrust you. And if they still distrust you, THAT'S BECAUSE THEY THEMSELVES are untrustworthy. Because that's what the Talmud tells us. Someone that nullifies others is themselves nullified. Meaning if they don't have a legitimate reason to cancel out people, they say, "No, no, he's he's not good." Why? "No, I don't know, he's just good." Well, why? "He just looks that way." Oh, so you don't really have a legitimate reason. You don't actually have any proof of why he's not good. So then what does that mean? That you're not good. That you're a liar. So speaking the truth is going to help you in an enormous way in your life. But again, be reminded of the disclosure that I said earlier, in case you just tuned in now. This does not This is saying the truth is not the same thing as being brutally honest at the wrong time. Like if your spouse is asking you if she looks good, or if your spouse asks you if you believe that they'll succeed, or if your kids bu- you know, ask you if you really like their drawing that they worked so hard on. In all of those cases, it's a mitzvah to lie or change the truth as they say. Why? For shalom bayit, to help them, to encourage them. If you tell your wife that she's fat, or you tell your wife that she looks horrible, then guess what? She's going to lose her self-esteem. And that's going to hurt your your marriage. That's going to even hurt your chinuch with your kids. If your kids try hard and they give you some drawing that they drew or some assignment they did, and it wasn't perfect or even near perfect, but they YOU KNOW THEY TRIED really hard. Your only thing that you're supposed to tell them, "Great job. You did amazing. It's beautiful." And every compliment you come up with. Why? Because they're using their full potential now. And at their full potential now, this is a perfect job. Because the hardest thing you can get from a kid and the most valuable thing you give from a kid is hard work. Like to really put their effort into something. If they put their effort, that means they succeeded. Even if the drawing of a dog looks more like a drawing of I don't know, something like a some different species from a different planet. It doesn't matter because their hard work went into it. So brutally honest is sometimes mistaken for a good thing. It's not necessarily always a good thing. Or people say, "No, no, I told this guy that he's an idol worshiper. Yeah, yeah." Okay, well, did he ask you any questions? Did you try to help him get out of idolatry or you just mock him for no reason? Why? Isn't it a mitzvah to mock him? It all depends. If he's preaching his beliefs and mocking the Torah, certainly it's a mitzvah to mock him. But if he's coming to you for help and he wants to know the truth. He currently is an idol worshiper. She's currently an idol worshiper, but they're looking for the truth. They just don't know. You mocking them is not only not helping them, it's a sin. It's a sin. You're not allowed to do that. And that's one of the things that a person has to sometimes use their common sense in order to know how to use the guidance of the Torah. If you're not going to use common sense, or if you don't have common sense, then get a friend that has it. Get a rabbi. Just get somebody that's going to help you before you do anything. Don't speak a single word. Don't type anything before you actually double-check everything. If you don't have common sense, then you need somebody that does. Why? Cuz you'll be a a danger to society. You'll have a miserable life. Many times people think that they're really righteous by just rebuking everyone and anything. It's not necessarily always the right thing to do. More times than not, it's the wrong thing to do. So a person has to know when to use their common sense, when to use guidance, when to know that they're wrong, when to admit that they're wrong. So to acquire a holy mouth means that you're telling the truth, but you also are not becoming a hazard to society. It also means that you no longer have to waste any of the air in your lungs flattering people for the wrong reason. It also frees up your schedule from all of these gossip parties, these gaynom parties. It also frees up your conscience from all the slander that you've said. Because now you're in a path of fixing it rather than continuing to create more damage. It also removes you from the competition of competing with the or keeping up with the Joneses and showing off all the great things that you do. You no longer have to show off. Why? It's not good. Aside from it being bad way of using your time, it also brings ein hara, brings problems, brings jealousy, makes you a target. There's nothing good about it. All of the people that are show-off, you see that their trajectory up and then a collapse, one after another. Without fail. So already we see that there are real-life benefits to acquiring these traits, even if your ultimate goal is not going to be a holy mouth. Just simply trying to do this already makes you success. Now, if somebody does acquire a holy mouth, what are the possible outcomes? I'll give you two stories and we'll finalize it for tonight. One of the great tzaddikim that lived among us over the last few hundred years, one of the forefathers of Hasidus, was the Baal Shem Tov that everybody knows. Rabbi Elimelech was one of his talmidim. And they say that whether it was Rabbi Elimelech or one of the other talmidim of the Baal Shem Tov, the real talmidim of the Baal Shem Tov were holy tzaddikim, miracle workers. And the miracles that were done in the hands of Rabbi Elimelech were beyond profound. One of the stories is written is that there was a couple that came with their son of five or six years old that still hasn't spoken a single word. Nothing. No aba, no ima, nothing. Zero. No speech at all. Communicates like an animal. Nothing. And they came to the holy rabbi. Please, rabbi. Pray for him. And the rabbi says, No. I will not pray for him. This of course surprised everyone, including the rabbi's Hasidim that are there. They are They're always looking forward for the rabbi's prayers, maybe even a miracle. But here they're seeing something unusual. A young couple with a cute little 5-year-old kid that unfortunately has inability to speak, and the rabbi won't even pray for him? So they started pleading with the rabbi. Please, rabbi, WHY NOT? PLEASE, PRAY FOR HIM. HE CAN LEARN TORAH. He can say good things. No. I will not pray for him. And the people continued, continued, and the rabbi saw that they're not understanding the message. He says, "Okay. You want to show you something? Here." He grabs the kid. Softly, and he looks at the boy. And he says to the boy, "Is it true that if you were to speak, you would one day grow up and become an informer against the Jewish people, inciting the to go and KILL JEWISH PEOPLE?" To everyone's amazement, the kid speaks. "Yes, of course I will. I am looking forward to that day." And stops. Obviously, to everybody's amazement, no one has a single word to say. And the rabbi says to them, "You see? You see why I told you I'm not going to pray for him? You see WHY HASHEM DID AM YISRAEL A kindness by not allowing this boy to speak? And that's the way he should remain." And he left him that way, without speaking. The only few words that he said in his entire life was what he said in front of the rabbi, his parents, and the other Hasidim that were there to witness it. In another story, there wasn't a few hundred years ago. In fact, it was during almost everybody that's watching this lecture's lifetime. Rav Mordechai Eliyahu, one of the great tzaddikim that lived among us in recent years. The holy kadosh, zealous for Hashem, tzaddik, mekubal, yirei shamayim. There's literally unbelievable wisdom and ahavat Am Yisrael. One day, a couple comes to the rabbi. With literally same story, unfortunately. A little 5, 6, 7-year-old boy that hasn't spoken a single word since he was born. And they come to the rabbi crying to him, "Please, rabbi, give him a blessing that he should speak." Rav Mordechai Eliyahu takes the kid softly with his holy hands. As he takes a sefer Tehillim, a book of Psalms, and opens up to the psalm that every single Jew that prays knows. Chapter 51, verse 17. Adonai s'fatai tiftach u fi yagid tehilatecha. Hashem, open my lips, and my mouth will say will praise your uh name. This is what we say every day before amidah. But as mo- Rav Mordechai Eliyahu said this, Hashem s'fatai tiftach u fi He touches his mouth, and then he touches the boy's mouth. Or maybe it was just the boy's mouth. Regardless of which one it was, fi yagid tehilatecha. And then he tells the boy, "Go ahead. Tagid. Say. Speak." And the boy started speaking. Of course, when the parents saw this, this is beyond any segulah, beyond any prayer, beyond any miracle they can possibly imagine. Their kid is speaking as if he has been speaking his whole life. The students of Rav Mordechai Eliyahu that are watching this, IF THEY'VE SEEN OTHER MIRACLES, but you can never get used to such things. And Rav Mordechai Eliyahu says, "When a mouth is declared as a holy vessel to say the praise of Hashem, then it has the merit to exist. It has the merit to speak. Now that we've declared this mouth as a mouth that's going to speak praise of Hashem, now it works. Now it works. This, rabotai, is how far a person can get if they literally sanctified their mouth to never say a lie, to never say anything false, to never flatter, to never be a gossiper, a slander, to never be a show-off, to never make fun of people for no reason, to literally sanctify their mouth. On the other hand, if they're going to be a big mouth, constantly talking about things that are mundane, about things that are not holy, for sure they're going to acquire endless sins. And the one assurance that we have that this will indeed be the case is not only the words of Hamelech, but many other times in the Torah where the Ateret Paz by Rav Zevichi, shlita, brings it. Where in Sefer Bamidbar, chapter 19, verse 15, where it talks about the different vessels, where it says that any vessel that's open without a cover acquires tumah. And the chachamim say, "Another way to understand it is any vessel that is left open without cover acquires tumah, that's the mouth. If your mouth is constantly talking, and you don't know when to stop, for sure you are acquiring tumah, for sure you are acquiring sins, for sure you are acquiring impurity." And may it be Hashem's will that we will overcome all desires to slander, to gossip, to lie, to be involved in anything resembling a lie, and always have the strength to stay away from the ugly and even what looks ugly. And be'ezrat Hashem, we will succeed. Thank you very much for learning with me. May Hashem bless everyone that's watching to continue serving Hashem and elevate themselves to acquire a holy mouth, and abandon all falsehoods in this world as soon as possible today. Anyone that wants to support and help us continue doing all the amazing things that the organization is doing, including the film that is being released this Motzei Shabbat, Or Ganuz, years in the making, and baruch Hashem, about to be released in just a few days. And many other projects that we have, such as the Ashrei Yotzei campaign that we have. We want this literally in every single Jewish community out there. These projects cost literally millions of dollars, and we certainly need your help. If you want to donate, you can at beezratashem.org, b e e z r a t h a s h e m, or bhtorah.org. And many other ways, if you want to, you can contact us. Thank you very much for learning with us. May Hashem bless everyone, and be'ezrat Hashem, we'll learn again later this week. Kol tuv u'vracha. I tried to warn them. They didn't want to listen. One of the things that I've been speaking against over the last several years is cash advance, lending money with high interest. Some of those rates, legally, are as high as 1,900% a year. People are not searching for the truth. What they're searching for a quick way out of my problem. One of the things that the Talmud teaches us simply how to behave. [music] Social media is discussed extensively in the Torah, in the oral Torah, in the written Torah, in the halacha. God wanted [music] to give you a chance to follow the Torah, which is something you were against. You disagreed with name, the amount of punishment you're going to suffer, you're going to get. It's literally going to be endless. [music] Every single second you stay friends with your old Christian friend, with your old missionary friend, with your old atheist friend, with your old friends that are anti-Torah is a life risk. You have to get rid of a lot of the stuff that triggers you. If you want to progress, that means you have to abandon the past. By being modest in behavior, in clothing, makes the person a vessel that is able to accept a certain amount [music] of holiness in the world. Pornography is no less addictive [music] than the hardest drugs in the world. Experts say there's another pandemic, children exposed to pornography on the [music] devices we give them. [music] The last thing after you make the same twice is not knowing what to love. Here we see that the Kadosh Baruch is not just a fairy tale that sometimes people would like him to be. The majority choose to be evil. Before Messiah arrives. Today they look like they're a millionaire. Today they look like they're living large. Look around the corner and they're gone. I tried to warn them. But they didn't want to listen.