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What’s More Important Than Torah? Special Night In Toronto

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Rabbi Yaron Reuven avatar
Rabbi Yaron Reuven

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the Thank you very much for having me here in Toronto again. Also nice to see some new faces, some older faces come back again. So it means it wasn't so bad last time. Some people came back. and to all of you. Amen. >> Amen. So I was thinking about what can we talk about that uh is going to be something that is going to give us not just something new but also something that's going to give us really for the whole year. We just finished matraem that gave us the Torah. And the question is everybody knows okay the men learn all night. Uh sometimes women like to learn all night also but say that women should learn uh you know during they can learn all night not during sh but the interesting question is why why do we do it? Now you could say okay so the tikun for what the did that they were really sleeping when it came down to uh to get to the and that's what we're doing the tun for 3,338 years. Okay, now we can say listen, I wasn't there, but really I was there. Why do we still do it? Now the right in the beginning says learning of is as if you have fulfilled the entire Torah. learning a is against all of the mitzvot and I'm sure all of you have heard it at some point or another that is not just a big deal it's the biggest deal learning to that's why we support it that's why we learn it that's why we teach it but there is something that's less known that is even bigger Then and don't worry I'm not making up anything. I'll bring sources that we see that this is from it's not something that your own invented. There is something that's bigger than and that is the honor of the honor of Torah. Honoring the Torah is bigger than the Tawra. How so? The in page 29A says that when it comes to reading the everybody has to do it. You have to read the and but what if somebody's somebody's learning to learn day and night doesn't stop you going to tell him to leave the Torah the Torah that we got on Mount Sai to go read the migillah that we got many many generations later yes he has to stop learning Torah and go read the migillah in fact the says says that the migila is so important that you have to stop something that is considered the biggest which is learning just for that because it's the also says that if somebody passes away you have to bury them even if you're busy with learning Torah, you have to go bury the dead. If he is a Torah scholar, he learns Torah. You have to stop learning and go bury him. You can say, "Yeah, but he already has 10, 20 people. He has 50 people. He has a thousand people. Why do I have to go also? I'm learning. I'm about to finish the shas." Anyone that's ever learned the shas will say to you to finish the shas? It's like I I had to donate two kidneys just to finish it. You tell me to stop now to go for he passed away already. When he was here, I would stand up for him. I would sit for him. I would stand up for him. I would sit for him. But now he passed away. Let me finish the says if he's a unless he has 600,000 people at his you have to go. If he has 600,000, you don't have to go. 600,000 is a big lea. But then there's even more. What if he is not only but he also teaches Torah? If he also teaches Torah, not just learns it, he also teaches Torah. Even if there's 50 million people, you still have to go infinity amount. Everyone has to go. If he learns Tawa and he teaches Torah, there's no amount of that you have to give him at his why. It's all for it's all for honor of the Torah. And the honor of say is bigger than learning the Torah. the meets he brings the to which says that there's no limitation of the m when passes away and therefore even if it's a mad we still do an on which is something that if somebody it's a regular person passes away during the moed during the we don't do an but if we make exceptions why It's not about him. It's about the Torah that's inside him. Further the ask this in 401 C5 and he says that if reading the Torah postpone if reading the migila postpones Torah learning and the of postpones even the entire rules of Pim then needless to say the cavod postpones the entire Torah after I said all of this Let me explain to to you how it works in real life because some of you understood everything better than I do. And some people are regular people. How do we understand when we're regular people? Stories. Best thing to tell people is stories of says when he say stories about it's like it's like you know who runs the world. years ago we had one of Feinstein he passed away now he passed away on the 13th of Adam and there was some delays in the flights to move the body to Israel and uh it took a couple of days by the time they were ready to bury him it was already tv which was Shushan Purin 250,000 Jews showed up to the Levy to give cavote to the just passed away and among them there was an we're not talking about somebody that's a fool we're not talking about somebody doesn't know anything we're talking about somebody learns to for a living and he was among the people he wanted to give even though it's we still have to go but since it was and since there was so many people and since so much honor is needed. It took a while and started complaining. He said he said some things that perhaps he shouldn't say. He said, "So what if Moshe died? We have to go back home to celebrate with our family pull him between us. Doesn't sound like it's the Okay, so he said it. It's not nice. It's not uh proper. But do you really think Hashem cares about this? Well, he said what he said. He left. He got home and his head started to hurt. And then it started to hurt more. And then it got to a point where it was such a horrible migraine headache that he couldn't even focus, couldn't function, nothing. The next day continued. They took him to the hospital. They did all the different checks and it said there's nothing there. We don't know what's wrong with you. The guy is crying. He can't function. He can't do anything. And he doesn't know why. There's no diagnosis. There's no uh nothing. He can't sleep. He can't uh eat. He can't learn. He can't do anything. His headache will not go away. After several days of this, they said, "Listen, maybe we can go to one of the that could help you." They went to the Rabbi Rafael, the son of Raal, Shalom. And they went to him and they knew that has a from his father of how to do the gal. And the gual is something very special. A lot of people think they do it. They just open a Tanak and say, "Oh, look at the puk. It doesn't really work. It's not so simple. It's a little bit more complicated than that. There's a lot of preparation. You have to fast. It's ohm. It's not something that you just stumb because you you're wondering whether you should go to the party or not. It's not what you use for. But they came to the and they said, "Please," and the guy's crying, hysterical. Please help me do. Tell me why this happened to me so I can fix it. In the beginning said, I can't I can't do it for you. I'm sorry. We don't do it for reg for for a person. We do it for the club. We do it for you know if it has the effect on is then we do it. We don't use such a big tool for an individual. He continued crying. The Rav had mercy on him and said okay fine I'll do it for you but it takes a day to prepare. So come back tomorrow night. The Rav did what he needed to do to prepare. The next day the came with his family and the Rav opens the Tanakh has to be a special Tanakh. It's not just any Tanakh. Opens the Tanakh and he sees the puk that we see in this week's par. What does it say in this week's para says to really more to but also why did you not fear to speak against my servant Moshe now does he says does this mean anything to you this puk and all of a sudden everything came full circle for this poor. This is oi oi to me. Yes, of course it means something to me. I spoke something that I guess was not good about I said so what if he died then you know it's it's not uh you know we have to go celebrate pu says to him listen there's not much I can do to you for you because the itself says anyone that's anyone that disrespects and there's no cure to his ailment apparently in this is what you have. But I can give you an idea. I don't know if it's going to work, but they have mercy on you. He says, "Anything, Rabbi, anything." He says, "Take as much money as you have. Advertise in every newspaper. every newspaper what you did and that you're sorry and that anyone that heard your words will know that you made a mistake and what happened to you. Maybe after you do that they'll have mercy on you. He did exactly this and mamas the next day the headache gone and never came back again. Meaning that while we think to stand up for the rabbi when he walks in is like, "Oh, come on. No." Or to say that we disagree with a door says you're not allowed to do such and such. Ah, no. Come on. We think it's not a big deal. In Shamine, they think different. >> Why? It's not about the person. It's about the Tawa. It's inside him. So much so that everyone has heard about was so much so that even his name turned into an acronym for how much evil he did was the how much like everyone that was next to him and everyone that was involved with him suffered a like you know you kick the the the door or something you hear yourself a That was the first part of his name. That's because he brought every so was but then says if he was such a how come let him be a king for 22 years he's if he was I understand but he's comes and says you know a couple things he did were good one he would give the money he would give money to people to learn Tawa he was a buzzban he would give money to everything wasteful but among all the money he wasted he also gave but then there's a second thing a second thing that was a bigger test there was a king king of his name was bin Adam and he was very very powerful. Everyone was scared of him and he decided he wants to conquer is he wants to conquer is and everyone was so scared of him that everybody already gave up. They didn't want to bother fighting with him. Why fight him? He's going to kill everybody. So he sent a letter to he says your women are mine. Your children are mine. Your possessions are mine including your beloved. say, "What is your beloved?" Says, "The Torah that the Torah commands a king of of Islad, this idol worshipper says, "All the money that you have is mine. Your wives are mine. Your kids are mine. Even that little is mine. You give it all to me. I won't kill all of you." responds to everything you said. I agree. The women, the kids, the money, except that I don't agree. The king of Haram says, "No, we'd go to war." They went to war and gave the power to defeat an army that was 10 times stronger than him. Why? It was all about the even though he's even though he's bringing people to idol worship he's serving idols but he had a little bit of there I'll give him the power to beat any any any any enemy years ago this probably happened I would say close to 20 25 years ago there was a a in New York I believe it was in New York New York New Jersey somewhere in the tri-state that got stuck on the highway and uh it was in the middle of the night. It was the Belt Parkway if I'm not mistaken. And uh he's hoping somebody's going to pull over, help him out. Everybody's passing whom, you know, very lives their life. Lives their life. This guy's pulled over. Who knows? He may be a criminal. He may be this, he may be that. Nobody wants to stop in the middle of the night, especially. But then all of a sudden a very fancy limo stops right by him. He says, "Can I can we help you?" Like, "Yeah, I have a flat tire." "Sure." The rich man inside the limo tells the uh driver, "Fix it for him." Take it out. They fix it. And before they leave, they said the uh the owner over here wants uh he wants your information. What information? He wants your name, your address, your phone number. Okay. He gives him the information and again it's at night so even though he sees a face he's not really sure what's happening here he just knows he has a car he go home a week later an envelope arrives with a check inside for $250,000 in it thank you for everything you do signed Donald J Trump he is the one that saved them on the highway someh It could be that all of the that Donald Trump has could very well be from why because the says in Shabbat in page 23b that somebody that honors that helps his children will become but the gi adds to it and says that even when it's not possible in some way for the kids to become whatever comes out of his mouth will become like the words of that everyone's going to listen to it sort of like a president. So we see here again another ma another thing that shows how much values when somebody is supportive of the Torah someone that's honors the Torah it's not just a book of laws or stories it's a lot more than that in fact when we learn on we learn different things some people prefer to learn a certain tikun some people prefer to learn some people learn to like to learn lectures whatever it is that uh they they have books, whatever it is. And but the one thing that most people don't understand is that what you're doing here is you're not learning because you're going to become a lot more informed as a result of you're not learning just because you're missing some information. The only reason why we're learning here is because we are fixing what was wrong 3,330 years ago when Am was still sleeping and it was came time to what was that? I mean they woke up after all. So they woke up. So what's what's the problem? The problem is that the fact that they were sleeping at that time that was a simply missing for the Torah, missing honor for the Torah. And that's what we're fixing till this day. the Rambam in in chapter 14 number 16 he says that after we do you have to cover the blood but you have to make sure that you don't you cover the blood with the uh with the uh dust but don't do with what you think you would do it which is with your feet naturally okay there's blood on the floor what do I do you know sweep it off with your feet says don't do that you have to do it with your hands. Take the dash, put it with your hands. Why? It's much easier with the foot. It comes more natural because no no that's for the mitzvah. That is disrespecting the mitzvah. And then the raom add he says and it's not about the mitzvah. It's about who gave this mitzvah. When you're disrespecting the mitzvah, whether that mitzvah is Shabbat or uh anything else you come up with, when you disrespect him, he says, "No, no, this is not for me. I don't want to do this. What? You're you're you're keeping this. No, I'm not ready." And you don't care about it. The says, "No, no, you don't understand. It's not about the mitzvah that you just disrespected. You just disrespected who gave this mitzvah. It's not about the mitzvah itself. We think Hashem needs it. Doesn't need anything. He's perfect. He doesn't need anything. How do we know that doesn't need anything? Because anytime you need something that means you cannot exist without it. So how did au exist before he gave he created he created the so now when a person starts understanding wait the mitzvah is for me whether I understand why or don't understand why is irrelevant when I respect it I'm actually respecting when I disrespect it it's not about the mitzvah that I don't care about I'm showing I don't care about him and that changes everything because once a person connects the mitzvot to everything changes. What happens especially when you're religious for your whole life or just for a long time you become used to things. You're used to waking up in the morning say you're used to doing You're used to go to bathroom you have to say before you eat you do a blessing you're a man you have to pray three times a day you have to put on you're used to these things what happens when you get used to something theod for what you're doing starts going lower and lower even if you're doing it even if you're doing all of those things, you don't respect it as much as you did when you first started. How can you see this? Look at how little kids do mitzvot. Do you ever see a little kid do mitzvah? Ever see a little kid say for the first time? There's nothing greater in the world than that. Mh. You feel like it's mount sai little kid, three years old, four years old, two years old, whatever it is. He saya and he's so he's trying his best to say the words right and he And you're seeing it. It's like, I wish I was like him. I WISH I TOOK so seriously. He does the what do they do sometimes? They like to YELL IT OUT. LISTEN, it's just an apple. You feel like Hashem is coming down to feed him the apple. He's so serious about She's so serious about just why? It's new. It's brand new. It's special. It's mine. It's between me and once we get used to once we get used to saying that you gave me back my we get used to it. We forget really what what what am I saying here? I'm saying because I'm used to saying that's what you do in the morning. We forget about the fact that wait a minute two seconds ago I was dead because really that's what the says you go to sleep says you go to sleep that is 160th of death some people they go to sleep and they go to sleep but with all of his you put my back in my body so really what we're saying is we're thanking for giving us another day another chance once we get used to it It just becomes it becomes some words that come out and we want to do it as fast as possible because we want to go to the bathroom because we got to do our stuff once we get used to we don't stand outside of the bathroom and say and you start thinking of all the what is aim oh that's these different holes they're supposed to be there and if they weren't there I wouldn't live who thinks like that the average personal let's go I'm hungry they want to finish already they want they're saying it like it's almost they're saying they're saying that while they're on the way they're on the way somewhere else that's all of us at some point or another all of us get used to the mitzvot and that lowers the for the why at some point when we get used to things we start connecting the mitzvot to us which disconnects it from it becomes about I need to do it. It's my chore. It's my obligation and almost as if Hashem is not really involved in the mitzvah in the same capacity as it was when I first started doing this mitzvah. When I first started doing this mitzvah, it was me and Hashem. Why? YOU GUYS DIDN'T SEE HASHEM WAS RIGHT NEXT TO ME WHEN I WAS saying 10 years later. I don't even know if Hashem cares about I'm just doing it because that's what you didn't do. That's what Jews do. We do it. We say when you 13 years old and you came up in a house where there's two there and you first put on there's nothing more exciting than that. I'm putting these things now. He's 23 years old. He's got a party to go to. He's got a shure. He's got he's got somewhere to go to Let's do this fast. Is there like a faster way to do can I just do a you know can I can I JUST DO AND go yeah but don't you realize that you no no come on come on come on can you have to give me a shoe all the time rabbi can you just tell me give me a faster way to do this it that's the way it is something that all of us have to work on it's not something that just comes natural to anybody even if they're learning Torah. There's a joke that uh it's like well it's the Torah world's joke where uh wife of an read this uh and the uh the the rabbi was talking about how much you have to take time to speak to Hashem. Take time to speak to Hashem. So she tells her husband listen uh honey I think this is very good. Speak to Hashem. Says speak to Hashem. In the morning I got to go pray. I got to put rashi then. Then after that I have to go to the I have my first the is very difficult. After that I have only a break for a few minutes to eat something and then I have my second then after that I have another prayer. Then after that I have this. WHO HAS TIME TO TALK TO HASHEM? And that's in reality sometimes that's what happens. We're so focused on what we need to do because we connected the mitzvot as if it's our chores, our obligations, it's ours that at some point or another sometimes we forget that's Hashem. It's not about the mitzvah. It's about who gave it. When we honor the mitzvah, no matter what mitzvah it is, it's honoring that gave it. When we dishonor the mitzvah, it's not the mitzvah that's going to cry. It's that says, "Why did I come and nobody's here?" We do the mitzvah. We go to sh we go to but did we connect it to hem or we connect it to listen this is what the ka is doing this is what we do here when shabas comes we have shabas we do kdus we do kdus why do we do kdus that's what you do before you eat it's as if the kdus is a preparation to eat not a kus is to sanctify not the kdoo is connecting to we say shalom because that's the song that comes right before the prayer, not like we're bringing Shabbat. And that's something that happens to everybody at some point or another, especially if they're not paying attention to it. Their in the first volume page 372 the says a story that he heard from the baltov where he says there was one where the talked to the and he told him something that he saw that's not of this world. He says there was one where the day after when everybody's tired from dancing around the Torah and celebrating the mal they don't really get tired. So they wanted to celebrate more the next day. So they said let's go sing in Ganed and continue the So the Malim went to Ganed. But all of a sudden they see a huge pile of shoes and socks. ripped shoes and ripped socks everywhere. They're used to seeing they're seeing shoes and socks. They start asking, "What is this?" Comes says, "Oh, you see the shoes?" "Yeah, you see you see the socks?" "Yeah, that's mine." I'm sorry. Can you please explain to us why do you have shoes and socks? we're used to seeing kesh. He goes, "There's nothing more kesh than this right now." Say, "You know why?" He says, "This is the shoes and the socks for all of those Jews that were dancing around the Torah to honor the Torah. And for the first time, I can finally make a crown out of this that's going to be even nicer than the crown that the Malakment makes for Hashem." Malik, he makes a special crown for And I'm always jealous. When can I make a crown like it? Now I have a crown. Why? Cuz this all of these ripped shoes and socks that was purely for the of the Torah. That was purely for the Torah. There's nothing greater than that. I want you guys to if you have questions and things like that, I want you to ask. But I'm going to tell you one story that happened in the last few days. In the last show that we did here a few days ago, I told people something that I've said many times in in anytime somebody donates to support Torah, they're supposed to see it's supposed to work. Meaning that if you're supporting Torah, something is supposed to change in your life. But if you see, if you support and you give and you give and still your life is there's something wrong. And I always tell people, listen, anyone that donates to our organization, if you don't see BA, if you donate, seriously, you don't see Baka in your life after an extended period of time, not if you donated one time, $10. If you donate over a period of time, at least a year, and you don't see Baka, stop donating. There's something wrong with us, not with you. And this is something unusual because usually people don't say, "Don't donate to me." Usually people say, "Donate even more. Maybe something's better is going to come next time." But this is the real this is the real thing I say to people all the time. Why? Because we believe in the Torah word for word. Whether we understand it or don't understand it, we believe word for word. That's what it says. That's what we do. So when I said it, this wasn't the first time that uh some of the people that watch my shim heard it. And one of the came to me after the shu he said, "Rabbi, I want you to publicize this story." says not too long ago and he's hashem been with us for a long time and he supports it's good and he says not long ago I got a letter in the mail says that I have to get I'm getting a fine from the government for $5,000 just out of curiosity does that sound like a to anybody not exactly a for $5,000 anybody wants the getting a $5,000 fine I don't think anybody's raising their hands. Well, that's what he got. And he supports the Torah and he learns Torah and he does good things, but he got a fine for $5,000. Okay, fine for $5,000. Well, the government, the government, what are you going to do? Wants to call the accountant. See what's the accountant disappears all of a sudden. Do not, you know, the the call doesn't answer. All of a sudden, he's not available. So, whoever, you know, the person that created the problem is gone. Disappeared. So, what do we got to do? We have to get another accountant to finish this thing. So, he finds another accountant. An accountant takes over the work. D. He looks at it. He goes, "Excuse me, you don't have a $5,000 fine. They owe you $20,000." Fills out the paperwork. Okay, here you go. Send this in. They're going to send you $20,000 in a few in the you know the next couple of weeks. If you were in the first situation and you just looked at it is I lost $5,000. Oh, see I don't have any. You failed the test. Come come here. Come. If you were just in the first you looked at things from the simple way of looking at things they say oh there's no but sometimes before he sends the he sends a test because the person was dedicated to never question the Torah says ah you passed the test now I'm going to show you what the ba looks like you were expecting either zero or losing $5,000 in reality the whole time there was $20,000 coming your that is a that all of us should want. Why? Because it's not a from a specific rabbi. It's not a bra that comes from a specific chapter. It's not a that is like a one-time thing. It's from the Torah itself. Tells us the more we give to the Torah, the more we're giving him. It's not just about being modest or keeping Shabbat or eating kosher or doing kosher business. It's about how we treat all of these mitzvot. And the one thing that I want to recommend to everybody to do is start thinking any mitzvah, one mitzvah because you can't, you know, to start with every mitzvah that you do start thinking about Hashem. What does Hashem thinks? It's it's a it's a it's too much of a jump. Pick any mitzvah, your favorite mitzvah. Everybody has some mitzvah they like more than anything else. But if it's like sukkot or something like it's coming down a few months, let's do something sooner. Any mitzvah that you do daytoday, take a few seconds and think about how does this connect me to a I'm putting on think about not just about the piece of leather that's going around your arm. I'm doing think about what is Hashem doing right now. Hashem is making a miracle. Technically, if you really think about it, you ate a piece of steak, you ate an apple, you ate ice cream, you ate whatever it is. Technically, with the way the body looks, it's supposed to hurt like hell for that thing to come out of your body. It's not supposed to be this easy thing. But everybody, normal person, the body works perfectly. It goes through all the tubes. who takes the good parts, feeds your body, the bad part, throws it out, it's even better than the best cleaning lady for free. So now when a person starts thinking, let me enjoy the food. On top of it, the body got rid of rid of all the bad food without me even helping it. On top of it all, it was relatively painless. And best of all, doesn't cost me anything. All I have to do is say thank you to Thank you for making things work. Thank you for making the openings open when they need to be opened and the closing close when they're supposed to be closed. Because if one thing that's closed is open or if one thing that's open is closed at the wrong time, we can't live even a single moment. And anyone that knows my personal story of all the different surgeries that I've had over the years, a whole collection of surgeries and over 50 different doctors Until this day, there's no diagnosis. So, I can tell you from personal experience, if your body works, you have to thank Hashem a million times a second. A million times a second. And that's still not enough. The says over a thousand years ago that even if you were to do every single mitzvah that's written in Torah, somehow you found out how to do the of the and you're not a coin. Somehow you were found out to do the and the mdash and there's no mdash. You found out to do how to do everything perfect. It still would not pay for a single second that gives you life. Why? All of the you do, you do it for yourself. It's for your own benefit. Doesn't benefit from it. Is perfect with or without. It's all of the you're doing. It's like you're scratching the lot. Oh, I won. Another scratching. Oh, I won. Scratch a lot. Oh, I won again. YOU JUST KEEP WINNING. Every time you scratch, you win. Every time YOU DO MITZVAH, YOU WIN. It's all for you. Just keeps paying. You don't want to scratch the lot. You don't want to win. Okay, sure. You lose. All the mitzvah we do for oursel. But that gives us life doesn't benefit out of it. That's why say that even if you were righteous, what could you possibly give him? You can't give him anything. And therefore the says even if we do all of the in the most perfect possible way it's still not enough to give him back for the that he gives us one breath. One breath is not even enough. But what can we do? We can at the very least respect the for our benefit enough to say this connects me to Hashem. I say thank you for making me giving me a body that works. I'm about to eat. Thank you for making things have different tastes. He could have made everything taste like tar. He could have made everything black or everything white. But he gave us tastes. He gave us smells. He gave us different beautiful things in the world at the very least what we could do before we eat that three lb burger. before we we eat like as if we've never eaten before say and say you know what did this for me connect the connect to pick one do with it you'll see how it changes your day why all of a sudden is really in your life and not just part of your life I think that if we can do that if I can do that if any of us can do that that's already more than worth it for all the trip the Toronto of all the shuling for all the last 10 years because that in itself can change an entire life. It all starts with one mitzvah and it could grow to an entire day and each and every single one of us takes one mitzvah and says this one this is the one I'm going to connect it to Hashem once you see how much you like it you're probably going to do it for more than one mitzvah and we all succeed. Now, I would love for any of you that have specific questions, anything you want to come up, comments, like, dislikes, subscribe, whatever you guys want, I would love for you guys to ask. >> Yeah, I have a question. What you mention is saying, >> okay, >> it looks like broken grammar. I try to connect words. >> Okay, it's okay. Like words somebody combining together. So that's actually a line that's in the Torah. The Yakovu says to his sons and the uh what happened when Yakovu was in his last days, he wasn't able to see anymore, but he was still able to see through prophecy. And he saw that out of his children, there's going to be some descendants that are no good. Some of some people learn So he asked is somebody he asked them are you so they said meaning here our father is and he responds to them that it's it's somebody says meaning no we're still with blessed his name forever and ever you're not talking about us these are descendants so This was this was a a uh like a conversation back and forth a few words between Yakov and his his children. >> Yeah. But when I translate to English respect his his >> huh that's actually Yes. >> like broken grammar. >> No. So that's also because the way that the Hebrew language is spoken is differently than the way that English and other languages are spoken which actually uh was was talking about right before this is that in Hebrew things are opposite than they the way they are in Russian or English or other languages. For example, if you want to sayim hot water is water hot. So when we say it in Hebrew, we say, but when you say it in English or you say it in Russian or other languages, it's the opposite. It's hot water. So the way that the the structure of this of the holy language is different than other languages in such a way that to us if we're translating it word for word, it doesn't work. So we have to translate it in the way that it's spoken rather than the way I'm sorry the way that it's read instead of the way that it's spoken. That's why even the the Rambam and I believe it was the Ramban uh possibly one of them or both of them said it that there's no actually it was the Rambam for sure because one of his students asked him to translate the other the Rambam to translate it to Arabic and the Rambam said that I can do it but you're not going to get the same meaning out of it because there's a certain holiness to the Hebrew language that if you translate to anything. It's not going to be exactly the same. It'll be similar. You'll understand the general idea, but you're not going to get all of the extras that you get from reading it from the actual holy language. And he says that's the case. If you translate anything from the original language to something else, it'll never be exact because the way that you speak is not the way that you write. The way that you write is not the way that you speak. So the same concept here the language itself when you're translating any of anything from if you translate it word for word there's always going to be a mixup. So what meaning? >> It's it's blessed is his is name is is the is is the is his name. Um and the uh give me a second. Let me gather my thoughts and try to translate it in a way that's uh easy to uh to say. >> I understand. >> Bless. But it all comes together though. We can't translate one. So blessed is his name and the honor of his name forever. Meaning it's it's not just but also his honor even though it's one heem. It's it's it's only one God but there's a certain significance to hem's name. And also like what we just spoke about for the last little while about the honor of his name the the when when we do and we do anything it's not just about connecting to like we said to the mitzvah itself or to to to Hashem it's also a certain significance for the honor of the honor of is when we take that mitzvah instead of just doing it just uh knowing why we're doing it instead of just let's say what the Rambam was saying before that I mentioned when you cover the blood after you do you cover it with dust. Now the Rambam says cover it with dust but make sure you cover it use your hand to cover it and not your not your foot. Why? Because when you cover it with your hand you're giving respect to the mitzvah. You're giving kavod to Hashem and and through his mitzvah. when you're covering it with your leg, it's like disrespecting the mitzvah and disrespecting the one who gave it, which is Hashem. So, in essence, when we say it's we're not only honoring Hem, but even the honored. That's why we when we say specific uh prayer certain uh we uh we say things that do it for your name, do it for uh for the for your honor. Why do it for your name? Why do it for your honor? Do it for your for your right hand. What is all of this? These are all different forms of expressions of of different ways we're supposed to honor Hashem. It's not just a a one thing. Hashem is infinite. And when one particular person tried to add to uh the part that comes after where it says and you start giving Hashem all types of uh good descriptions, he's great. He's he's he's wonderful. It's all the different wonderful things that we said about him. He tried to add more. So one of the said to him, so wait, so you added let's say another 10 words. So you think that's it? That's enough. That's all Hashem is only those words that you came up with. By you adding, you subtracted. We the specifically put those words not because these are all of the descriptions and ways that we honor Hashem, but this is what they saw from Shine. This is what's needed. Once you started adding to it, then it's as if you limited Hashem. Why? Because now you're saying, "Oh, he's all of this plus these five extra words and that's him." But it's not. Why? Hashem is much bigger than all the descriptions you could put. When we say, for example, that is merciful. Most people like to interpret that that Hashem is merciful that if you have problems, Hashem will have mercy on you and I'll solve your problems. or if you made a mistake, Hashem is going to forgive you. That's minimizing Hashem. That is humanizing Hashem. Why? Because if a person thinks that the only way that Hashem can give you mercy is by e either forgiving you or helping you, then you forget about the fact of how much gives you for even being able to say a word just to say a word. There is someone that uh comes out and says things against Hashem. His whole his whole organization, his whole makeup, he wants to speak against Torah. He wants to speak against Hashem. Who gives him the breath? Hashem. >> Who gives him the money? Hashem. Who gives him the food? Hashem. Who gives him everything? Hashem. Even though he speaks against him. That's that's one of the ways meaning that even though even knows this person is going to use the money that he gives him to go publicize things against Hashem. He's going to use the building he gives him to gatherings that are against Hashem. He's going to use the mouth and the breath and all the different parts of his body to go against the still. But who still gives him the breath? Still gives him the ability to do it. Right? There's always a possibility that a moment later that person is going to say, "I'm going to do I'm sorry. I'm sorry." That's what we say every day when we say, we say, "Thank you for giving me life because you had a in me. What am I? I can barely make it to the end of the room without saying what me what what good am I to no you see then when we went to sleep it went up to and every day goes up every day it goes every time you go to sleep it goes to shine. What does it do? It writes down all the aven all the sins you made for that day and all the mit the malik already writes it. You have to sign your name on it. The malik writes, "Wait, so you ate an apple without a Yes. Sign here. You uh ate steak. You did a Yeah. Sign here. Everything we have to sign off after the sees all the problems we made every day. Please, I don't want to go down to this body. Before you brought me into this body, I was pure. I was good. I was sadik. I was everything. Now you put me in this. This guy doesn't want to DO DOESN'T WANT TO DO ANYTHING. I don't want to go. Hashem says, "You have to go. But I but please Hashem, I'm begging you. I don't want to go. Another day with this guy. You have to go. You have to go. But please does not want to go. who says listen I have that today he'll do better today he's going to do better today's going to do today she's going to wear m's clothes today she's this today she's that I have today he can do it and he convinces and in essence forces to go back into the body he doesn't want to go into that's why we say that he has in us what that today will be the day that we'll do cha today we will do better in essence all of the things that we have every day of our life is says that once a person leaves this life, he's not going to recognize Hashem. Why? Because all of the all of the kindness, all of the mercy that we're used to in this world, it's not the same over there. Over there, there's judgment. You did good, there's reward. You did bad, there's punishment. Here, there's endless. Why? Because even if a person mash makes his life, he's like a spiritual terrorist. Hashem still feeds him. Hashem still gives him. Hashem still gives him money. Hashem still gives him whatever he he gives him. And sometimes he gives him a whole lot more. says that when it says in at the end kindness to his haters to their face writes that this is not just Hashem gives the wicked people things in this world but he gives them extra he gives them a lot why because he wants to make sure that anything that they did that's any good he pays for them in this That way if they don't do cha he's done with them he's finished he doesn't owe them any good he doesn't have to give put them in gan for 5 minutes even but what if the person does cha what if the person does go right if sees this person does chuva he could change things meaning sometimes the person could do chuva and all of a sudden he has problems he thinks what I did chuva now I have problems he goes no you don't understand the good you were getting before that's because getting rid of you now because sees that you're in the right path. He's giving you the little bit of problems for the bad you did. So that way you have good forever. >> Now you're looking at this life as if it's 70, 80, 100, 20 years. Who sees infinity? What's 5 years, 10 years, 20 years of problems in comparison to infinity of good? Infinity of good is no end. Says, "Okay, I'm going to give you a little bit of problems because you did chuva. I'm going to give you a little bit of problems because of the the problems you did. But I promise you it's for your benefit. And every day that I give you life every day was because I had amuna that you can do chuva because I still give you the free choice. And that's why you see stories like Mashe the king. He made every sin under the sun. But who continued giving him life and eventually man became not only about he became the example for everyone else that says no I did already too many things I can't do chuba says no if he can do cha anyone can do choubba he was an idol worshipper he did every sin under the sun but eventually he did cha so when we look at the of we have to look at it from our perspective in this world. Why? Because here, so long as we're alive, is going to give us many different opportunities to come back to him. Because here, it's still a temporary life that we can either collect or the opposite, but will give us a chance. Once we finished, there's no, oh, let me get a uh, you know, I'm sorry, let me start it over again. Doesn't work that because there there's there's judgment. So his his kindness, his mercy is what we see in this world. And says what you see in this world is nothing like the real world. The world that's after this. So there's we all take all of this to heart and try to take advantage of however many years we have in this world to try to collect, you know, collect as many as we possibly can. And even when we make a sin, even when we make a mistake, I'm sorry, I did it. let me try again. And we have another chance tomorrow to try again. We fixed it. We yelled at somebody. We stole from somebody. We could always return it. We could always say I'm sorry and do it that way. But again, as far as the uh back to your original question in regards to how the words are spoken and things like that, it's a uh it's simply the way that the language is spoken and read. Um and I think that one of the uh biggest experts we've had in that world was Muz was the world expert in language and I believe he's written many things about it. If you want I can find out a book of different things of of uh the uh and all the different things. There's a lot there's it's a whole world of Torah that talks about why specific uh words are used. For example, every time there is a sentence in the Torah that starts with a vav, there's a special significance to it. It's not just saying and something. There's the fact that the sentence started with a vav has a specific meaning. Uh sometimes there is a nikud that sounds the same but it's different. Instead of seeing let's say two dots you'll see three dots or you'll see five. Each one of those things has significant meanings completely different teachings. I'm by no means an expert in that world but I could get you uh some names of books if you are interested in the the language. There's specific books that talk about it and things like that. So I'll be happy to do it. >> Okay. >> Thank you very much. >> Oh, thank you. It's good to see you again. >> Thank you. Thank good. >> Anybody else? Any other questions? >> Question. Yes. >> Mentioned before with King Manasha. >> Manasha. Yes. >> I was under the assumption that he was so wicked. >> That's it. He was dead. >> Yeah. >> That's it. There's no >> Oh, yes. Yes. the uh there's a uh whole segment in a that initially had a does he have share of the world to come because he did all the bad things and say no he definitely has there's even a story about it where the malim when he was doing he was doing cha inside while he was being cooked alive there was a uh what happened with him is that he went against the chem for many years over 20 years and uh in fact he is the reason him and his brother were the reason why his father did not want to get married and uh he didn't want to get married because he saw in prophecy uh or I'm not sure which one it was that uh he's going to have wicked kids they're going to go against Hashem so he says why should I have get married and have kids if they're going to go against Hashem made all of even six-year-olds knew by heart in his day so now I'm going to have kids they're going to go against Hashem I might as well not get married. Hashem made him very made very very sick to the point where he was dying. So when the Nave came to says, "Okay, this is your end." He says, "But why? What did I do?" He says, "Because you went against Hashem by not getting married." He says, "I did it because I thought that's for Hashem. I thought I was I was honoring Hashem by doing it. So I don't want to break." Goes, "No, no. Hashem did not give you these tools to start playing with free choice to start making decisions that are against no you have to get married." He says okay if I have to get married give me a daughter I'll marry her and that's what happened he married he married his daughter the prophet now obviously fast forward he has kids both of them so much so that says that when uh one day he was carrying both of these little kids on his uh on his shoulders and the manasha and his brother were talking to each other he's like look I can bring a sacrifice to the idol right on top of Abba's head cuz he had a bald spot apparently. I can bring this. I can put the sacrifice right at his head and we could bring it to the idol. As soon as he heard this, he threw both of them off his shoulders. And some say that one of the kids died. Some say that he later on he was uh he was actually alive and he became uh the uh the one that uh that joined Salivak was saying that Shak was actually son. Long story short became king and he was a very very wicked one for over 20 years. One day the enemy captures him and they were uh cannibals. So they put him in a nice big pot and they wanted to make chulent out of him. They wanted to make chulent out of him and wanted to eat him. As they're cooking him, he's in the pot cooking him alive. He starts praying to his false gods. He starts praying to all of his idols. The god of spears, the god of stars, the god of all types of that he made up. And nobody answers. And then he says, "Okay, Hashem, if you're real, you'll save me from this. And if you don't save me from this, then you're just like all the other fake gods." When the malim that are servants of aosh heard this, they tried to block's prayer. Like look at this. Look at this obnoxious person. Not only he prays to idols before he prays to Hashem, but he even gives Hashem conditions. Bahu says Bahu opened a special opening under the to let his chuva in to let his prayer in. He saved the pot that he's being cooked in all of a sudden became a UFO. It started flying in the air and it flew all the way to and of course after that he did cha and from there the say that opening that hashem made was a super miracle because he changed in nature and that became the opening to every buba meaning no matter what you did if you say I'm sorry to you change your ways you're back on the right path and the ra says there are few steps to cha First, stop doing the sin. Stop stealing. Stop raping. Stop killing. Stop whatever it is that you're doing that's against THE LAW. STOP. THAT'S the first step. You can't continue stealing and say, "I'm sorry, Hashem. I stole again. I stole again. Sorry." No, you have to stop. Stop the sin. That's the first step. Second step is to make offense, not to repeat the sin again. What is fence? Not literally build a fence around yourself and not let yourself out of the house. Like some people think that if you become religious, you have to stay inside the house and never leave. You're not going to be you're allowed to leave. Don't worry. What is offense is to not put yourself in the same situation that you were in when you made sin. So if you knew that every time you hung out with certain people, they would bring you to nightclubs and bars or places that would make you sin, don't hang out with those people anymore. Just like an alcoholic, if he really wants to stop, he can't drink anything anymore aside from water or basic drinks that are sugar. He can't drink beer. He can't drink wine. He can't drink vodka. Can't drink scotch. Not even a little bit. Why? He's an alcoholic. Yeah, but I stopped already 10 years ago. 10 years ago can stop in 2 seconds and you're back to where you were. If you really want to stop, you have to make it extreme. Why? Because you were extreme on the opposite end. You're extreme on the opposite end. You have to take an extreme measure on this end. Same concept with this. If you know that every time you hung out with specific people, they will bring you to sins, you can't hang out with those people. If you know that every time you went to a specific place, it brought you to sins, you can't go to that place anymore. And aside from that, it's learning about it. The more you learn Torah about that specific sin, the more it becomes a stronger fence. Why a stronger fence? Because the more you learn Tawra about it, the more you realize why it's not good. Not just according to the Torah, why it's not good for you, why you shouldn't do it, what's the consequence, what's the reward for overcoming it, and so on and so forth. So this the fence that you have becomes stronger. That's the second step. The third step is to say, "I'm sorry. Simply say I'm sorry. Now logically we would think wait shouldn't the first step see be saying I'm sorry then stop then don't go then build a fence says in the code called oh is even though logically we think that we should say I'm sorry first if we really say I'm sorry first it's words in the air it's meaningless. Why is it meaningless? Because when we first stop making a sin, we're not stopping because we think it's bad. We still like it. We just figure, let's do something better. He likes stealing. He likes not working. And he still has a million dollars coming every month. He likes cheating. He likes getting stuff for free. But he heard it's better not to cheat. He heard it's better not to steal. He heard it's better you'll get a, you know, reward for not doing it. So in the beginning when we stop making sins it's not because we think what we did is ugly. When a woman walks around not modest and you tell listen Hashem says you have to be modest. No. If she says okay you know what I'll do what Hashem says. I'll start wearing clothes. No. If you tell listen you still like this dress that's really you know you could pretty much only wrap your head with it but you used to wear it for your whole body. You used to like she still likes the dress. She still likes the way she looked in that dress. So why are you wearing modest clothes? because you said it's better not to you better not to wear these clothes. So in the beginning when you stop sinning it's not because you don't like the sin anymore. The sin still tastes delicious. You still like to go to the casino. You still like to eat pig. You still like it but you stopped. Why? Because you found what you think is a better way. Now after you did that for a little while you start building a fence not to go back to that sin. And after you stayed away from that sin for long enough, you started realizing why it was bad. In the beginning, you don't realize why it's bad. It's like going into a public restroom. Go to a public restroom. First time you go in, it smells terrible. But the guy that works inside the public restroom, he can eat his lunch inside. He can eat his lunch. He's whistling. He's eating his lunch. He's having a good time. Why? He's used to the smell. When we are infested with sins, we get used to it. We get used to the stench. And it's only after we left the sin for a long enough time, we stopped, then we built a fence to stay away from it for a few months. And the longer we stay away from it, the more we start realizing, wow, that was terrible. That was stench. I didn't realize the smell was coming from me. So that's why sorry is the third step because you could only say I'm sorry that's meaningful after you have something to say I'm sorry for. In the beginning you don't even know why you're saying I'm sorry. You just say okay Hashem says not allowed to gamble. I'm not going to gamble. Fine. But you don't realize why it's bad. When you see a poker game you still want to play. Still looks cool. Ah come on. It's only going to be between friends after you're away from it for extended period of time and you start realizing wait I remember I won that hand. I took 5,000 from that guy. He wasn't able to pay rent. His wife divorced him. His kids don't want to talk to him. You start realizing all the damage you DID FOR THAT. YAY, I WON MOMENT. That yay, I WON MOMENT RUINED THE GUY'S LIFE. And that's why I tell a lot of people that unfortunately we have this Makkah in this generation. We've had it in every generation. In this generation, it's called cash advance. In other generation, it was called loan sharking. In other generations, it was called highinterest loans. It's unfortunately a disaster that Ammy said has repeated time and time again. And I told all the guys that come to me from that business, I said, "Listen, you just made a million dollar deal, $2 million deal, you got a $200,000 commission, all that stuff. That sounds great. But when a kadoshu eventually shows you how much damage you caused to that customer's life, you're going to cry blood. Why? He just borrowed a million dollar from you. You just got a $200,000 commission. You just spend $200,000 on some stupid watch that tells you the same time as the phone for free. For you, it's nothing. WHY? BECAUSE YOU'RE GOING TO MAKE ANOTHER deal for another million. You're going to make another couple hundred,000. You're going to buy yourself another watch or another house or another. YOU DON'T THINK MUCH of it. What you're not realizing is if you fast forward 6 months, 12 months, the guy can't pay the money back. Why? Cuz you're charging him 2 3 4 500% interest. And what ends up happening? The guy now has to declare bankruptcy. The business that he built over 20 years is gone. The employees that have been working with him for all of those years, they don't have jobs anymore. They have to start all over. They have to start working at Walmart. They have to start working at the local deli. They have to work at some, you know, minimum wage job. Even though this is like supposed to be the highlight of their career, they were planning on retiring THIS YEAR. NOW THEY HAVE TO GO BACK to work. Some of them will end up getting divorced because of you. Some of them will commit suicide because of you. Some of them their kids will never talk to them again because they'll look at their father as the biggest loser in the world. Why did you ruin our life? DID YOU HAVE TO TAKE THAT LOAN? As if he knew that this was going to happen to him. So now you got your $200,000 commission and you destroyed dozens and dozens of lives. And that's just one customer. How many customers you get every month? I don't know, Rabbi. 30, 40. Okay. So, just multiply that. If every customer is 10, 20, 30 lives, multiply that. That's how much you're doing every single month. And every single guy that actually had even a 1% truth in him that's been in the business for at least a year told me, "You're 100% right." Right? You're 100% right, but I don't know how to get out. Like, what do you mean you don't know how to get out? Stop going to work. He goes, "YEAH, BUT WHERE ELSE YOU CAN make make a quarter million dollars a month? I don't have any skills. I don't have any talents AND NO ONE WILL PAY me this money." I said, "I don't care. You're ruining lives with every transaction. There's no customer comes unscathed. Every customer is destroyed. Whether you borrow 10,000 or 500 million doesn't make a difference. You're destroying everybody's lives." And the only time they start realizing this is once you start showing them the picture. This is what happens. The same concept with everything else in our life. A lot of times when we do mitzvot, we only have only part of the picture. Why? Because we're only thinking about how it's relevant to me at this moment. I need to do a because right now I just went to the bathroom. I need to do because I want to eat bread. I need to do kdoo because I want to eat. And there you have to do koo before you eat. We start minimizing things. We start minimizing Hashem. And that starts to disconnect. The same happens with with sins. We minimize things and it becomes easier and easier to do it. It's easier to do with something that's not that's against Hashem when you don't even think about Hashem. When you don't think about Hashem, it's easier to be non modest. When you don't think about Hashem, it's easy to eat non-cosher. Listen, I'm hungry. There's a burger here. What do I care who killed this animal? I'm hungry. If Hashem wanted me to eat kosher, I'll bring me a cow and and a already from Shim and I'll eat it. But I don't have it. I'm hungry right I want to eat. When you start disconnecting Hashem from the mitzvot, it's much easier to do whatever you want. That's why when it comes to cha requires three steps. First step, stop. Even if you don't understand why, even if you don't agree, even if you don't like it, stop. Why? Hashem said so. Second step is make offense so you don't go back to it. Don't do it again. Third step, say I'm sorry. Why is third step saying I'm sorry? Because it'll take you a while to realize why you stopped in the first place. Why it was good for you to stop. It wasn't good for Hashem. It was good for you. Only after you're out of the stench that comes from sins do you start realizing, ah, wow, I can't believe I was doing that with every transaction, Rabbi. Every transaction, with every rel, every relationship, that's what I was doing. And even worse, once you had I'm sorry says, "My son, my daughter, YOU'RE BACK. NOW YOU DID CHUVA. NOW YOU DID CHUVA. NOW YOU'RE CLEAN. And guess what? As a reward for being clean, I'm going to give you one final test. The same sin, the same girl, same spot. You pass that one. It's as if the sin never existed. In fact, if you elevate yourself, I can even turn the sins into mitzvot. So that opening that Masha made for us through his cha is what saying if it was open for him it's open for the rest of us cuz he is like held up there that he's the guy that did cha in a impossible situation. He was a king. He was powerful. He was rich. He was every every excuse under the sun. And he already did all the sins that none of us will ever even think of. He killed his own grandfather in the most vicious way. The prophet is he killed him. He chopped him up into pieces. He made literally every sin under the sun and he did chuba and he became a sadik. So the say naturally we would think if we were humans, if Hashem was a human, if Hashem thought like us, there's no way I would forgive a guy like that. But Hashem doesn't think like us. Hashem doesn't think like us. So Hashem says, "You said, "I'm sorry. You made the fence. You passed the test. You're the prime example of what I want for my kids." Because Hashem did not create robots. He created us. He knew that we're going to sin. He knew we're going to make mistakes. And that's why in the Torah, we have the mitzvah of Chuva. And mitzvah of Chuva is not just like something. Mitzvah of Chua is one of the 613 mitzvot. It's an obligation on every Jew. No matter if you were born religious or you started becoming religious or you're just starting now, doesn't make a difference. All of us could do chuvine, but it's not the same. We all succeed. Anything else? Any other questions? >> Okay. I just wanted to know every suffering that you go through in life is a >> you brought it on yourself. >> Okay. >> Okay. So as far as Yeah. So there's there's a there's a concept of now since there's which is the part of the Torah talks about reincarnations that tells us that none of us are here for the first time wasn't like a regular person like us had all of the namot inside him all of the nashot all of us were at different parts of his body the more righteous or in the higher level of the body the less we're in the lower parts of the body. Point is that all of the started with now throughout the generations Hashem spread out those everywhere and in Mount Sai all of us were there even if somebody's a convert that they have were at Mount Si even if somebody was just started becoming religious now was a mount sai even if somebody was born religious and he's coming from the biggest in history is a mount s all of us were mount sai but all of us messed up at some point meaning that during that lifetime we were at Mount Sai we lived but we did not complete our tikun and therefore either the whole nisha or part of the nama had to come back into this world to fix what was messed up in the previous life. So every time that a person has any type of difficulty in this life it's not necessarily because of what you did just now. It could very well be that this is part of your tikun from your previous life. So, for example, if somebody is born stingy, they don't have a problem buying themselves a Ferrari. They don't have a problem buying themselves a $5 million house. They don't have a problem buying themselves a $5 million watch. But if their wife asks for an extra $100 for groceries, they start yelling and screaming and why do you want a job? You have millions. What do you care? They're stingy. They're stingy for everybody else except themselves. That person was born that way. He didn't make himself that way. Even if you tried, you can't make yourself that way. He was born that way. Why was he born that way? Why would Hashem put because this is the problem that he had in his previous gener in his previous life. And he came to this world with this problem to fix it. He has to overcome this difficulty. The same concept with somebody that's born angry. Some people are more hotteered. Some people are very very mellow. Some people are very hottempered. The person that came into this world very hot-tempered their big part of their tikun is to stop being that way to stop to learn more and learn more amun learn that is the one that runs everything. So the more a person reviews their own issues and if you don't know how to fix your own issues just ask your wife ask your husband whatever they complain about usually it's your problem. If she complains you're stingy I promise you she's probably right. If she complains you're angry, I promise you you're probably right. If he complains you're angry, he's definitely right. It just is what it is. Now, that doesn't mean that you have to start feeling bad about yourself. That means that's telling me I have to fix this. I have to fix this. How do I fix this? Through like this. I have a whole series about it's called it's a 19 lecture series. You can watch it online for free or on our app. This is one of those serieses that I have students that have watched this entire series maybe 20 times. They just keep watching it over and over again. Each time learn something new. Why? Because it's practical for everyday life and it applies to everybody. Different things of what happens to your day-to-day life and they use it. Also the series a lot of people like it because each is part of the uh uh Mishna but each Mishna is a world of learning. It's completely life-changing. It's better than any coach. It's better than any uh self-help guru. It's the biggest most righteous most perfect human beings gave us the teachings. Each one is a world of of of of Torah. So when a person starts taking those things and starts applying it to their life, it becomes easier to overcome anger. Why? They now have a reason. They now have a way. They now have a system. When somebody has to overcome their whatever other difficulty they have in life, these are all tuning. So now when a person has difficulties in this life, sometimes it's because of Hashem directing them into the better direction like I the example that I gave before where the person got a $5,000 fine and then he got a $20,000 refund. Why? Because Hashem says, "Listen, I can't give you the five. I can't give you the $20,000 as long as you have this accountant. I can't give you the $20,000 as long as you don't pass this $5,000 test. Once you pass the $5,000 test and you don't start questioning Hashem, $20,000 is yours. But he didn't tell him in advance. What did he give him? He gave him Torah in advance. If you use the Torah that you learned, then you'll know how to pass this test. He passed the test, he got the money. And I have no doubt there's another few hundred,000 on the way also for this. Why? because he does a lot of good things. He probably supports, learns to does good things. The key is to know that every difficulty we have in life, it's directing us. Even if it's a he's directing us into a better direction. It's all kindness from Hashem. Everything that Hashem gives us, it's good. What does it mean? Everything it's good. It means that out of all of the possibilities that we have to go from point A to point B picks the best way and I'll explain this in a very simple and easy to understand way. Imagine I want to go from here back to Florida. So what's my choices? I could take a plane, private jet, a public jet, whatever it is, right? Different types of planes. Technically I could take a helicopter too, a boat. Uh, I could drive there if I'm bored. I want to listen to myself talk for 500 hours. Or I could if if my legs suddenly become supernatural, I could run there. I could walk there. I could swim there. Theoretically speaking, there's a lot of ways that you could go from point A to point B. Right now, if one person wants to go from point A to point B, all of those options are available to him. But now, what if he lost all of his money? Once he lost all of his money, he can't buy a plane ticket anymore. not a private or not even JetBlue, not not Air Canada, nothing. He has no money. He also can't get a helicopter. He also can't get a boat. The best he has is to drive his car. But what if he also gambled away his car and he lost it in a poker game. So now he doesn't have a car either. He has no boat, he has no chopper, he has no plane, he has no car, he has no bicycle. His only choice that's left is to walk or swim. That's our life choices. He can STILL GET FROM POINT A to point B. It's just much more difficult, much longer, but he can still get there. That's our life. Every time we do something says in the beginning, you had all the choices. I wanted to get you from point A to point B. I wanted you to get from where you are to a better version of you. What's a better version of you? a better servant of Hashem, more honest, more uh generous, more modest, more uh connected to Hashem and so on. I want to get you from here to here. In the beginning, you had all the choices. But after you made some bad choices, there was less options for you. Now all of a sudden, there's no plane, there's no helicopter, there's no boat, but you can still get there with a car. Now, if a person continues doing bad things, now there's no car. If a person continues doing bad things, there's no bicycle either. But what happens if he does cha, he does chouva, all of a sudden, ah, you did chuva, now I'll give you the car back. Now you have a new choice that you didn't have before. You hadn't originally, you lost it, but now you did cha, you fixed it. I'll give you the car back. And now you have new ways, faster ways to get from point A to point B. So that's why even though a person in the beginning when they hear about reward punishment they can start becoming hopeless never become hopeless. Why? Because there's always a way to fix things. It's never going to go back to what it was originally. Once something gets BROKEN IS BROKEN BUT you can fix enough to still make the ride much more pleasant. You can still fix it to be make it much easier much smoother and less time consuming than it would have had otherwise. So all of those that a person gets those are things that is giving you as an option not just to fix the past of what you did in the previous life but also to help you get more options here to get you from point A to point B faster. Without the tikun it'll take you a thousand years to get from point A to point B. With the tikun now all of a sudden it's 20 years. So in the grand scheme of things, it's worth it. And that's why every night before he went to sleep, he said, "Come my beloved, come." What come what? All the sicknesses in the world, he asked them to come on him. And every night he had so much sicknesses, he had all types of absesses and things like that coming out of his body that he would have to change the sheets 60 times a night. And then in the morning, okay, now you can go have go learn to what? He became completely healthy. When his wife found out, you're doing this to yourself if you don't stop him divorcing you. He said, you could leave. You could leave. This is my between me and Hashem. She says, "But you're wasting all of my father's inheritance on this." Says, "This is between me and Hashem." She left. And he continued, "But doesn't forget. There was a ship in the middle of the ocean, a bunch of merchants, and all of a sudden, there was a tornado in the in the uh in the ocean. The ship was about to break. These three merchants said, "Hashem, if you save us from this, we're going to give enormous amount of money to the biggest in town." Of course, stopped the storm, got them right to the shore. Who's the biggest sadik here? Oh, it's son. They run to his house with treasure chest. They open the house. They see it's a complete mess. The wife and kids left. Nobody's cleaning the house. They see blood on sheets. What happened here? God, what's here? We have to fix this. They brought all the cleaning people, the whole cleaning crew, and they committed to pretty much making sure that he has everything. Short while later, his the wife missed him. After all, he's a husband. She loves him. She says, "A son, tell Abba that if he stops, I'm still willing to forgive him." Son came and he sees that his father is living in a palace. There's servants everywhere, much better than what it was before. Uh Abba Ima says she's willing to take you back. He says tell Ima I'm willing to take her back because when she wasn't there sent me uh said he came he said he sent me other things to help me. When the son came to the ima he said uh Ima um he's doing pretty well right now even without us. He's got servant all over the house. She came she realized okay so obviously my husband is a bigger Sadik than I know. And of course she came back and even after he passed away when Rebia Kadosh wanted to marry her Rebi was a big sadik and he wanted to marry her. She's a widow now marry her. She says even though you're a big sadik Rebi but you can never compare to my husband. Why? You're you're like a uh someone that's uh you know a starter in comparison to my husband. And Rebe agreed said you're right. She was a m she was a but uh the point is is that from this story one of the things we learn is that the big they don't just understand what tunim are. They even got to a level that they ask for them. Don't try this at home. This is not advice for anybody to ask for tikuni. They come by themsel you don't have to ask for them. Problems come by themselves. You don't ask to ask for them. The story is just to teach us how far we are from the tadikim, how great they are, how wonderful they are, why we learn from them, why we honor them, but not to try some of these things at home and start asking Hashem to give you problems. Don't worry, you don't have to ask for problems. They come by themselves. Longer life, longer your life is, the more you'll see the problems by themselves. Hopefully, no. But that's just the way life is. The point is when it comes to tikunim, tikunim are hashem's kindness to us to make our path to make our journey shorter because without them the journey is very very long because of choices we made with them is trying to cut the journey and we have all a very very quick and easy journey. So we could serve with all of our strength, with all of our heart, with all of our existence. So we could give honor to the give honor to and connect to connect everything to I know that some of you need to go, but anyone that wants to get some of these uh tablets, I know some of you guys like them. I don't have any more left, but anyone that wants to get one of these, you could speak to David. He's uh I'm going to send him some. You can order it from him. These are very, very cool. Anyone that is not familiar with it, this is 19 hours of the best films we've made over the last 10 years. It has some movie. It has some music in it. No commercials. It's very cool. No commercials. No internet needed. It's 19 hours of films. We made Torah films. My personal story and other things. So, this thing is available online, but I'm going to send some to David and he's going to whoever wants it can get it from him. And of course, these cards are should be in every single house. If you haven't seen this in restaurants and supermarkets and the grocery markets, just look near the bathroom. It's pretty much everywhere. We've distributed literally hundreds and hundreds of thousands of these for free. I'll send some of these to him also. You guys can get it from him also. There's some books. There's plenty of different things. Most of the stuff is free. Some of the stuff you get like this tablet cost a few dollars. It's not an arm and a leg. But I'm hoping that all of you guys enjoyed it enough that you can invite me again. >> Okay, come back again. >> Thank you very much for coming. >> You're always welcome. It's an open door. >> Thank you very much for coming. We'll have a lot of Yes. You have a question. Last one. >> I have many questions. >> Many questions. So any questions you ask me personally because if everybody wants to go, I don't want you to have >> Yes. Go ahead. Um, >> how do you um how do you connect the uh mitzvah to Hashem? Exactly. >> You think about every mitzvah that you do before you do it or while you're saying the think about Hashem made this mitzvah for me. So for example, eating let's say you want to eat something. Before you do the before you eat, you're going to do a blessing. So before you do the actual blessing itself, think about wait, Hashem wants me to make a blessing because I'm supposed to thank him for giving me food. Why should I think of a food? Well, this food is tasty. He made this food tasty. He could have made this food taste like dust, but he made tasty not because he benefits, because I benefit from it. So I that's another reason why I should thank him. when a person is uh going to do any type of mitzvah if he starts thinking about how much kindness Hashem did for us by giving us this mitzvah that we have to thank him for it that's one step closer to connecting Hashem to the just simply thinking about what you're about to do and seeing how Hashem did kindness for you by giving you this opportunity when we say thank you it shouldn't be just thank you because I'm supposed to say thank you thank you because look I'm really benefiting from I'm benefiting from being able to go to the bathroom. I'm benefiting from eating. I'm benefiting from drinking. I'm benefiting from taking a break out of the work week and making it Shabbat. You know, instead of being like the nations where there's no Shabbat, there's no nothing. Every day is the same. Every day is the same. Why? Because they don't have a Shabbat. Every day they can work Shabbat, they cannot work Shabbat. Doesn't make a difference for them. For us, we have a special day. where that day we spend with family, we pray to Hashem, we eat special food that's has special taste just on Shabbat. If you taste the Shabbat food, if you make the same exact dish on Shabbat, but you make it on a Tuesday, it doesn't taste the same. Same ingredients, test it. You want to test it yourself, same exact ingredients you make on Friday night, you eat on Shabbat, you take those same exact ingredients and you make it on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, doesn't taste the same. Why? Shabbat food tastes different. It's a known thing. So we have this special day. The going don't have that. Once we start thinking about all the wonderful things that Hashem did for us without him benefiting at all, it's much easier to say thank you. It's much easier to say, "Wow," and actually have a real meaning in it. So that's that's one way to do it. >> Yes. >> I had something with commentary by Rob Miller >> Miller and I found that that's a especially of reflection. It's he who takes things you can be appreciative about and it takes it he it makes it very real and I found that to be something just focus on some of those things just it's amazing >> book. No. >> Well, >> oh, also this, by the way, for anybody that doesn't have this is a anybody who have questions, we have an app called AI Rabbi. Download it. It's a great app. I use it myself, even though I'm the rabbi behind it, but it's I use it. It's really, really cool. It gives you legitimate answers to Torah questions, life questions, and so on. And uh it's based on real sources. Like when you ask regular chat GPT or Google or things like that, they simply use whatever is available out there, which means whatever good, whatever bad, whatever is heresy, whatever is true, they jumble it all together, one shakshuka, and hopefully you get something that's kosher. This is all kosher sources. Why? Because we vetted, we made sure that we only use specific things. Some of them comes from my lecture, some of them come from books that we put out there. So, it's a highly recommended app. this. You could just scan this thing or just go to the website uh and uh download the app. It's a very very useful app especially when you have either a lot of questions or questions but just once in a blue moon but you need the answer right away. >> Usually people have either a lot of questions or they need they have questions but only they need them right away. They need yesterday. This is perfect for that because sometimes you can't get the rabbi on the phone. Sometimes you can't get somebody to give you an answer or you're not sure if the answer is right. It's a very very useful app. Yes. Cover. >> You're on the same subject as AI. I was just going to ask you, I know it's a vast question. >> Sure. >> Um, how is AI connected to Judaism in a sense? Not just what you're offering, whatever, but how is that working in our >> in our life? >> In our life. >> So AI is like any other tool that we've had throughout the developed world. It could be used for wonderful things and it could be used for horrible things. on the one, the way we've been using it over the last few years. I I believe that we're the first Torah organization to really implement AI to the capacity we have because we've already been using it for several years. So, we used AI, for example, to take all of my lectures and dub them into 16 different languages. So, if you feel like hearing me speak Russian, you could find that. you feel like hearing me speak Turkish, Chinese, German, French. I don't speak all those languages, but I have channels with tens of thousands of subscribers that watch me speak their language. And that's one way we've been using AI for a few years already. Another way is we uh take AI and we use it also for a we made a kids channel. So, we take some segments of my shim or different parts of the Torah and we take turn them into little cartoons. So, it's more digestible, enjoyable for kids. So, we have a BH kids channel. uh we have also this AI rabbi. So we took 10 years of lectures that I've done along with some books and we put it on our own uh our own AI. So now anyone that asks this this AI that we have a question they not only get an answer but they also get a link to one of my lectures where I specifically talk about that question at a specific time. Meaning you ask a question of let's say who is Rabia? It'll give you the answer, but it'll also give you a link. If you press on the link, it'll take you to a, let's say, a two-hour lecture at 1 hour and 34 minutes and 11 seconds, which is exactly where I'm speaking about it. So we used AI to magnify Kadosh Mahu's name to publicize his name and that's in essence why brought all of technology out there whether it's electricity or cars or weapons or AI whatever it is all of these tools says himself in uh it's also in the prophet everything that I created I created for my honor meaning that we're supposed to use everything that's in the creation to honor On the other hand, if a person doesn't want to do what Hashem says, they could use the exact opposite. And people use AI for the most horrible, wicked, disgusting things out there. Who gave us both options with one gate to go to Ganed and the other gate not so nice place. So definitely a person that wants to uh use it to publicize Hashem's name, they should. If they want to use it for their own personal benefit, let's say in business, and it's a kosher business, they should. In fact, I've said this in many lectures, especially since my background in business for almost 20 years being on Wall Street. Anyone that's not that's in business that's not using AI is going to become obsolete. No different than people that refused to get websites back in the 1990s. Why? Because they were used to people knowing where their shop was. Why should I get a website? I have a store. Well, guess what? If you don't have a website, you probably don't have a store anymore. So technology is something that we should use but just use it according to the Torah. Use it you know in an honest way ethical way. If you do that if if a person wants to close their ears and their eyes and as if technology doesn't work I think that uh they're they're setting themselves up or their kids up for a uh bad surprise because even though I understand the customs in certain communities where they don't want their kids to have certain things and phones and so on. I think putting everyone in a bubble as if things don't exist is is is is more dangerous to a certain extent because at some point the kids will grow up. They're not going to be kids anymore. They're going to be 20 years old and they're going to get a job and that job is going to show them the world and if they don't have any defense mechanism of what's right and wrong and how to use it, they're not going to know what to do. So the reason why we get let's say for example antibiotics it's not because our body can't handle things our body can handle it but the antibiotics helps us adjust that later on when a person gets a little older when the viruses get more dangerous we have a defense mechanism same concept with teaching kids right and wrong now I'm not saying by any stretch of the imagination to just give kids open internet do whatever you want no obviously everything in its measure every person in his You know it's it's every age and so on. But it's very important to acclimate ourselves to the society we live in and understand this tool can be used for good or bad. We are going to use it only this way. So if you give let's say for example if the kids want to watch a something okay we're only going to have a you know channel that's a kosher Torah channel. We're not going to just roam the internet and and look for stuff. we're going to this is something that's we're allowed to subscribe to this is something we're allowed to watch. You know, usually there's websites that have stuff that's censored and so on. The point is that infatuations or things like that with certain things, they need to obviously be more restrictive on themselves than someone that's doesn't have those uh those issues. But overall, I think all technology, all tools that are in this world could be used for good and for bad if we use the Torah as our guide. Huh? Oh, m can people anyone that wants to pray with us or as my dear to the >> I'd like to introduce you to your new best friend. We did it. AI Rabbi is here. It's an AI model that is based on kosher Torah sources, 30 different languages that are available to you. So if you want to ask it in Spanish, in Chinese, Portuguese, whatever you want to do, it's available for you. Can you tell me about the so it's timestamped to the shield? You press this green button. AI rabbi on your WhatsApp. You'll have the ability to ask questions at will. You'll be providing sources and most importantly, you'll be able to know the truth and be able to rely on the sources.