Who Do You Think You Are? (TZAV) | STUMP THE RABBI (265)

We're back here on our Wednesday night where after some you guys will ask some questions and will get some answers will give us the answers. Who do you think you are? All of us have heard this expression at one point or another and some of us have had it u directed at them. Something that we said, something that we did. Now if we really ask this question seriously and demand an answer from ourselves, there's actually a lot of mousard that you can learn from it, especially if you're facing a very enticing forbidden act. Now, in fact, if we ask it of other people, but in our mind, not to them, because there's just simply no reason to start conflict, then we could actually arrive at some different conclusions than uh what you'd actually think. Now, what does this have to do with parashat the para of the week? That's actually what we're going to learn. years ago there was a massive amount of theft happening in uh one of the countries in Europe and the king over there wanted to stop it but what could he do that every second person seemed like he was a thief so the king was thinking what could I do what can I Well, as the king is thinking, a case comes to him and his guards are holding this young boy and they said, "My lord, we got him." Oh, what does he want? He's like, "Oh, this this thief, this thief, we caught him right in front of us. He was being nice to one of the uh women over there and trying to be cordial and and really sincere and trying to help her look at different things. But in reality, he was enticing her to become very comfortable and nonchalant about our property as he was reaching into her purse. and he didn't realize that we were staring at him the whole time. We caught him red-handed and now we brought him to you because you told us that you need to do something about all the thievery that's happening. The king was furious. How could this nothing steal under his kingdom? And he said death penalty. Okay. Of course, the boy is not exactly very ecstatic about the news, but he was a clever boy and he always had something to say, but he waited for the right moment. Anyway, they brought him to the place where they hang people. He made sure to bring a big crowd so everyone can see. As the Torah says, "Let them see and be afraid. That's why the punishments of the Torah in biblical times from the Sanhedrin were in front of not only the people but also the people that actually were the witnesses to the crime. Whether it was desecration of Shabbat, idolatry, adultery, murder, whatever it was, they actually had to be part of the killing squad. Now, the king brought a lot of people to make a whole thing out of this thing to make sure everyone sees. Everyone sees that the king is not joking. He's not messing around when it comes to people stealing in his kingdom. And he makes the announcement that this is going to take place. But to show his warm heart, he told people, "But we are going to give the young boy a last wish. We'll ask him what he wants." When the boy hears this, he knows that's his opportunity. Not just because he's out of time, but they're actually going to allow him to talk. So the king tells the boy. So what's your last wish? The boy looks at the king says, "Your highness, I don't want to die with the secret and lose the opportunity to teach the world what I have learned and what has been in my family for many generations." King's interested. He says, "What's that, young man? stealing says, "No, actually, your highness, I have the ability to plant a seed and have it grow into a full tree with fruits within an hour." Oh, this is a very useful skill, very useful magic trick. Show us. The boy says, "Sure. I need you to bring me any seed from the king's uh garden with some uh dirt and I will show your highness." Of course, they quickly get a seed. There was no shortage of that and they brought it in front of the boy. for this since this is a big deal. The king's minister, his treasurer, all of the important people wanted to watch this. So the king is watching this boy prepared the dirt carefully. Doesn't seem unusual. And then the boy says, "Okay, your highness, now that the dirt is prepared perfectly, as my family always made sure, I need someone to plant the seed." King says, "Why can't you plant it yourself?" Says, "Oh, no, no. In order for this to work, the person's hands that plant the seed have to be pure hands." What does that mean, boy? Well, it means hands that don't steal and have never stolen anything in their life. So, obviously, I'm a thief, so I can't do it. So, perhaps maybe your honor, your highness, you can plant it. The king is a little bit embarrassed. and he says, "Well, I won't be too good at it because when I was a boy, I uh I took a few things from my uh my dad and uh that I didn't really have permission to." Oh, okay. Well, perhaps it's uh something that your minister, the one that's in charge of all of the finances of the kingdom, maybe he can do it. Oh, it's a good idea. He looks at his treasurer, but his treasurer's face is red as a tomato from embarrassment. as he says to the king, "Well, your highness, uh, although I'm very honest with the king, and of course, I never stole anything from the king. Just want to make sure you know that. But still, when I was a young man, there were a few things that I took in the market that didn't exactly uh get paid for. So, I can't be the one." So then the boy says, "Okay, well why don't we try someone else in the kingdom? Surely everyone here here hasn't stolen. The king can just choose whoever he wants. After all, they all are they all work for you." The king looks around as he sees all of his ministers faces get red from embarrassment, looking down and hoping that he doesn't look at them. And the king in utter disappointment says, "No one, no one here has pure hands for us to see this." And at that moment, the young boy runs up to the king and falls on his knees and says, "Your highness, look, look at this. NOT JUST YOU, BUT ALL OF YOUR ministers have admitted to steal. But yet, I am the one that you're going to kill when the only reason that I stole was simply for survival because there was no food in my house. The king realized his mistake and of course had to cancel the hanging of the young and clever boy. Many times people ignore the fact that they accuse other people of things that they themselves do. And that's one of the things that causes a lot of animosity between people that used to be friends and in fact even people that used to be supporters. But before we get into that and see how the para teaches us this, want to make sure that everyone knows this yours for the and all of all the righteous noises that continue to support, continue to contribute and help Especially now with the Piska where we're trying to raise as much money as possible so we could help as many poor Jewish people in Israel right now that do not have food for Pesak. Some have a house but no food in it because they can't work already for weeks. They can't make panas. Some don't even have a house because of the war and unfortunately the damage that's caused from the war. Whether it was their house that was damaged directly like the 15 people we spoke to today or it's people that uh simply live in a neighborhood with someone else and the damage that happened there caused collateral damage in the neighborhood. Anyone that could help us, please do. Our campaign is already going because it's different than what we've ever imagined. Is not only a need like there is every time, every year that we do every year. But over the years, we've helped over 300,000 people get food and money for holidays and even, you know, on a weekly basis for years. But this year, there's more than ever needed. So please, anyone that can and wants to donate at bhpes.org, we've already committed to over 600 families. We're talking about thousands and thousands of people in we have 100 families alone. Out of those 100 families, 15 of them are families of soldiers that personally called us and practically pleaded with us to please help them because while they're in the army fighting for survival, their families don't have food to eat. So we have lots of families, some religious, some secular. We don't ask those questions when it comes to food. We help whoever we can help. Over 600 families we already have in our commitment. And I wouldn't be surprised if that number continues to grow because people keep calling, keep people keep needing. So if you can't help, please do. bhp pesak.orgai has a what seems to be some unrelated issues in it. But as we already know, the Torah has everything in it. As the says, Delve into it. Delve into it because everything is in it. In the beginning of the para, it continues to talk about the sacrifices that the kohanim have to bring at the at the Mishkan at the time of the desert. This was the beta mikdash of the desert. But the same thing had to happen at the beta mikdash. The first one until it was destroyed and then the second one until it was destroyed. And in fact, the laws here are not just for the people that lived it, but rather for the people of today. Just that we don't have to bring the sacrifices with animals today. We bring sacrifices through our prayers, through our deeds, by saying I'm sorry to Hashem, doing chuva, giving staka, and certainly praying every single day. But the pala doesn't just talk about the sacrifices. It gives us the different conditions that the kanim the kanim had to meet in order for them to serve Hashem properly. So much so that at the end of the parad reminds them once again these are the high priests these are the holiest people and he's told them this multiple times but he reminds them again at the end of the par chapter 8 verse number 35 and you shall protect Hashem's charge so that you will not die for so have I been commanded. This is Mosherenu telling Am is these are the rules I just told the and these are the words I just told the you must protect Hashem's charge. You must do his will or else he'll kill you. Why the fear? Why the threats? That's one of the questions someone asked me in today's shu in Hebrew. Why is the rabbi talking about me talking about punishment all the time? And of course, as a typical Jew, you answer a question with a question. I said, "Why does the government keep threatening? Why does the police keep threatening? If you could answer that, I can answer this. How does the government threaten? Well, simple. They say if you don't pay your taxes, then you go to jail. If you do insider trading, then you go to jail. Doesn't matter how much money you have. If you get caught and you're on somebody's bad list, you go to jail. Whether it be Martha Stewart who was a billionaire and still went to jail or it's Raj Rajaratnam a multi-billionaire hedge fund manager that did insider trading systematically and profited relative to his billions. It was nothing but he did what he did and he ended up spending large part of his life in jail. He just was released recently. Meaning all the money that he had was just sitting there in the bank bored to death for 10 years while he's in jail or more. I don't know how long. I think he was 10 or 20 years he went to jail. Who's going to spend me what he was saying? My owner is in jail. So the government threatens if you violate the law, you go to jail. The police force also threaten not only in your face, but they have signs everywhere. If you violate the traffic laws, you speed or you drive without a license or anything else, you could lose your license. You can get a fine. You could even go to jail. Why the threats? Why are they threatening all the time? The answer is because that's how God created us. We respond to fear much more than we respond to rewards. If there was an announcement made, whoever goes to this mountain will get a reward that's worth five years worth of income. Surely some people will go, but most people won't. Why? They're too busy living their life. They don't want to do it. whatever the case may be. But if they made an announcement, whoever doesn't go to this mountain by this date will go to jail or worse yet will get a death penalty. Certainly, the vast majority of people will go, if not everyone. Why? They don't want to get punished. They don't want to get punished. And Akad Bah did the same thing with us. the way he created us is that we have a much clearer picture of what's at stake once we understand what the risk is as far as how much I can lose much more than we do based on gains. And we respond much more to it. When someone threatens you, you're much more likely to respond than if somebody gives you a promise of good future. And that created us this way does not make any exceptions. He even tells his high priests, his kohanim, those that are the ones that work at his beta mikdash, those that are the ones that bring the sacrifices for themselves as well as for the sake of the nation, that if they don't do their job right, the punishment is the worst of all. It's death. Now when a person understands this from that perspective, it's much easier to understand why nearly half the Torah is threats of punishment. Whereby if we do what Hashem says, good things will happen. But if we don't, the Torah gives us a whole lot more details of what would happen when we violate the Torah. So in a beginning we see wonderful things. Wow the quanim got this special job and naturally everybody says I I want I wish I was a coin. I wish I could do it. But then you hear, wait, if he violates the law that's unique to him, which is how he brings the sacrifices, then he's instead of getting merits, he has a whole lot more problems than you can possibly imagine. He has what we call existential problems. One of the things we see that the Torah tells us that the cobanote, some of them have to be eaten. Some only by theim, some also by the people that brought the sacrifice, but they have to be eaten at a specific time. Not just whenever you want. You can't just put it in the fridge and say, "You know what? I'll eat it next weekend when my family comes over to visit." You have to eat it either that night like Pesak or in other cases you could eat it that night and the next night. What if you don't feel like it? That is called noal which comes from the the root of it is the word leftover. And the Torah says in chapter 7 verse number 16, what is left over from it may be eaten. So this particular offering was allowed to be eaten. But from there the sages say this is unique to that particular sacrifice that doesn't have to be eaten on that first night like koban pes. But that's not the case with every koban. If you had koban pesak that you have to eat that night and you just didn't get a chance to. You ate some of it. You ate half of it. You ate most of it and it was a little bit leftover. You figured, you know what? I'll just eat it tomorrow. Tawa says, "No, no, that's not that's leftover. That's now forbidden to you. Now you have to burn it." Well, isn't the waste? Can't we just give it to the poor? Can't we uh just uh say I'm sorry and I don't know, kiss it or something and and eat it anyway? No. And from that really we learn that sometimes the good that you try to do is just not good enough. It's just not. And as good as you think you are. It's more likely than not that if you ask yourself the question of who do you think you are to yourself, especially when you have complaints about Hashem, you realize that perhaps what you did it's nice. It's even good. Just not good enough. It's just not. Yeah, you gave staka, but it wasn't enough. You could afford to give more. You gave $1,000. Good for you. But you make $100,000 a month. So, it's no different than someone that makes $5,000 giving $50. $50 may seem like a lot, but it's not exactly going to break the bank for this guy. same thing like it won't do much for you either. So it's good you gave just not good enough. Sometimes you hurt somebody, you offend them. Usually the people that you end up offending most are the people that are closest to you. And of course when you offend them, you said something, you called them a name, you were disrespectful, whatever it is that people do, at some point you want to make peace. So you say, "I'm sorry." And sometimes to your disappointment, to everyone's disappointment, apologies not accepted. Why not? I said, "I'm sorry. Yeah, you said I'm sorry. It's not enough. What do you want me to do? I don't exactly have a list of things to do. Wasn't thinking about what's the list that my husband has to do when he says I'm sorry. I wasn't exactly thinking like that. But saying I'm sorry is just not enough because the damage you caused is much more severe than what just a few words will make up for. So it's good you said I'm sorry. If you didn't even say I'm sorry, you'd technically be worse than an animal. But it's just not good enough. It's not The damage was bigger than the way you tried to fix it. When a person has difficulties, if they don't have strong amunai in Hashem, knowing that everything that Hashem does is for your benefit, not your pleasure, your benefit. It's a mistake that people misunderstand. They think that everything Hashem does for the good also means everything he does is for your pleasure. No. Sometimes your benefit is pain. Sometimes your benefit is a loss. You don't understand it. You don't like it. None of us do. But he knows what's best for you. He knows that you made a certain sin that you don't even acknowledge is as big of a sin as what it really is. And he loves you enough to punish you in this world rather than the next because the punishment over there is much more severe. For anyone who wants to know and see some of the details, you can watch some of my films. Gome the lecture about Kafka or the film of all different types of times we've spoken about it in detail and have provided hundreds and hundreds of sources from across all spectrums of the Torah whether it be the five books of Moses the Mishna the literally every part of the Torah any that spoke about at some point or another you would bring about the details of the punishment and many people don't realize it's standard language in the world of Torah so much so actually that in a we're going over last night, Rab Fryman and I and in a section of inf talks about people that have made sins. Now part of their uh is to fast. And the first says someone that sits there fasting if he can suffer this meaning he's able to sustain this suffering of fasting then he's called holy kadosh but if not and in fact he becomes sick and and he is not able to function then his fast makes him a makes him a sinner. Why? The whole point of the fast is not to make you suffer to the point where you're not functioning. You're not able to pray, you're not able to have schlumb, you're not able to work, you're not able to do anything. That's not the point of the fast. But then the comments on it. It says why would anybody even fast as a part of the cha says you don't know this that all the things that a person does in the Torah that he learns says all of the deeds, all of the things that he does that are good and the Torah that he learns without doing chuva meaning he is he just says listen I just committed adultery I just stole he just violated Shabbat for and he decides you know what I'm going to start doing without doing proper chuva says the just know all the you learn all those good deeds all of them are going to the all of them are going to strengthen the kipot the evil side. Well, I thought good deeds go to me. No, no, no. You're still a you're still a sinner. You still haven't done chuva. And if you haven't done chuva, then your credits are going to the wrong department. And this is the reason why people fast. But again, only if it's possible. This is also the reason why said that fasts are better if you're simply able to pay for it, donate the money to support Torah rather than fast because most people are weak and not able to fast and still function 100%. But the point is this is simple. This is just part of the is not the whole is about it. Anyone that's learned knows that is very very uh you know different than the midrashim or commentaries or anything. It's not a story book. It's a book of rules. But yet the talk of punishment, the talk of chuva, this is all standard language. When a person understands that sometimes that apology or that chuva or whatever it is that you're doing is not enough. If you understand it properly instead of having your ego decide what to do in your life then you could adjust. Because if you understand it properly that what you did is not enough, then you quickly realize, okay, if I really meant it, then I'll do more. I'll do something that is in in line with the damage that I caused. If I caused 100 damage and the apology was only five, if I don't care, then I'm just going to stop and okay, they don't want to forgive me. They don't want to forgive me. Fine. But if I did damage of a hundred and the apology was only worth five and I really do care, then I have to do something that's going to make up the other 95. I have to do something to make up the other 95. Why? Because the Torah tells us sometimes it's just not good enough. It's just not good enough. person asked me a few days ago, does Hashem still bring suffering to people that have done chuva? And the answer is it depends on a chuva. It depends on a chuva and it depends on a tikun. The page 86 talks about how different sins have different tikunim. Some simply saying I'm sorry, committing not to do it again and then fulfilling yum kipu properly is enough to fix that sin. Some it's not enough. You need more than yum kipu. And the GMA continues, "Some it's yumipu and some it's also suffering and some it's yum kipu and suffering and death. Meaning that when their life ends at some point, when Hashem decides, that's when the forgiveness will begin. Meaning that a person has to understand that every sin has its category, has its level. It's not all one basket. It's not black or white. It's not yes or no. The Torah is not a black and white or yes or no, true or false type of man-made document. The Torah is divine. Therefore, things are much different than what we would like to think. And the first thing that the Torah tells us here is that learn this. Sometimes even your good intentions are not enough. You say you want to eat this koban that was left over, but now it's not allowed. It's too late. Yeah, but it's only an hour late. Okay. Even if it's only a minute late, it's not allowed. And if you eat it, you have a very serious problem. Why? It's a sin. It's not just a sin. Oh, you know what? No big deal. No, no, no. It's a big sin. Furthermore, what about bringing in the coban? Of course, everyone realized to bring a bull is expensive. No matter when you lived, whether you lived at the time of Moshe Benu or you lived at the time of the beta mikdash or you lived 500 years ago, you live today. A cow has always been expensive relative to how much people have, how much people make. Even if you were a shepherd yourself, it's still expensive. So someone that brought a bull for a sacrifice, he just spent a bunch of money. He left his job, he left his business, he left everything. He went to the beta mikdash to bring the sacrifice. So he figures he's doing good. So far so good. He got to the beta mikdash. He's online waiting his turn to bring the sacrifice. $25,000 bull and he made sure that this bull doesn't have any defects. It's not missing an eye or an ear or or a leg or has an extra leg or has any warts. It meets all the qualifications. This thing is as good as new. But he thinks about he looks at the bull as his turn came up and uh he hears the conditions. You have to eat this within one day, two days, whatever the conditions are specific to that. And uh he thinks to himself, what two days to eat this? There's no way we're going to eat this in two days. Now I have my family is not coming here for another 3 4 days. Once they come I'll eat this. Once they come I'll eat this. I'm not going to eat it right now in two days. What am I lying? So he already thinks in his mind, "Yeah, yeah, whatever. Listen, two days. Sure, sure. Whatever. I'm taking it. Who's going to see me eat the sacrifice?" Well, better yet, the kohen himself, not even the one that brought the sacrifice. The kohen, the servant of Hashem is there. He knows he has to eat part of the sacrifice today also. And he's thinking to himself, "I'm too full. I just ate a sacrifice. I'm too full. Got a stomach ache. I don't want to eat. I don't really like this coban. You know, I'm just It's not for me. He's already saying I'm not going to do it. The guys bring it. He's saying I'm not going to do it. Either both at the same time or at different times or just one of them at that moment. Who knows what's in their mind. The Q doesn't know what the guy has in his mind. The guy doesn't know what the Q has IN HIS MIND. THEY'RE NOT saying this out loud. There's no lecture that's being given over there. There's no YouTube. There's no AI that can tell you what's in your mind. The only one that knows what's in their mind is the that's it. They didn't vocalize this. They didn't tell this to anybody else. In fact, the guy that's bringing a $25,000 BULL IS PROUD of himself. He just doesn't want to eat it in two days. He planning on eating it in four or five days when his family comes. So it's not wasted. Guess what to say? It will count for him as a pigul. What's a pigul? Not acceptable. What do you mean? The coin doesn't know what's in the guy's mind, but he still slaughters the bull. He still takes the piece for himself. He still gives to the guy. The guy goes back to the house to eat, not to eat. He figures he has done his service for the accidental sin that he made or for the kobanola, whatever the reason why he brought the sacrifice. He's proud of himself. All of his friends giving him high five. Good job. You just put $25,000 into your own. But little does he know that in Shamim, in heaven, his sin, his problem still exists. Nothing has been taken off. THAT SACRIFICE DOES NOT COUNT. It's not acceptable. Yeah, but I brought it. Yeah, but I spent $25,000. Yeah, but I I mean, yeah. Yeah. It's not good enough. Next time, have cleaner thoughts. What's a clean thought? Do what the Torah says to do. Yeah, but I just thought it. Yeah, you just thought it. Torah says that if he thinks inappropriately at the time of bringing a sacrifice, it makes the sacrifice no longer valid. It's not acceptable. Another example that people may not realize the significance of it is if a person ate the kban that is not allowed. It's not allowed for them to touch it. You would think, okay, fine. They'll just say, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to. You know, he gave me a stomach ache anyway. Torah says a person who eats flesh from the feast offering that is Hashem's while his contamination is upon him that soul will be cut off from its people. Correct? Now to human logic this sounds extreme. This sounds too much because that's human logic and human logic is incapable of aligning itself with divine logic. Human logic thinks that you can do whatever it is that you did. Say I'm sorry and that's forgiven. Human logic says, "Listen, as long as I made the effort, that should be sufficient." But the truth is, if you look in the mirror and say, "Who do you think you are?" Meaning, start really looking at your acts, if you were a king, would you accept such things? If you were the one that was hurt, would you accept such an apology? If you were the one that was the victim rather than the perpetrator, would you accept what is being offered to you as a peace offering? Of course not. the more we start questioning ourselves by empathizing, by putting ourselves in the other person's shoes, or better yet, from the Torah's perspective of what right is, of what good is, of what just is, and not our own personal interest, the more we realize that we're wrong. But some people, there's nothing you can do to fix them. Why? Because they're not interested in looking in the mirror. In fact, they broke their own mirror. Whether it's wicked people like Tucker Carlson that has bought and paid for. The guy simply does not have any sense whatsoever of what the truth even looks like. Even if he himself said it in the past, he contradicts himself today. Why? He's on a mission to publicize everything that the Satan wants to be publicized. Even if it doesn't make sense, even if it's outright false, even if it's complete nonsense, he's publicizing it. Why? He's bought and paid for. I'm not talking about he's bought and paid for by Qatar or by one of the uh the uh the evil empires. I'm talking about he's bought and paid for by the Satan and so are the other people that are just like him. They're bought and paid for. They have simply removed their own free choice because they have decided to cleave to the Satan, to cleave to evil. Even if it doesn't make sense, but he's not our concern. He shouldn't be yours either. People worry too much about public personalities, the media, never again, the community, the this. No, no, no. worry about you. What you did and you refers to anyone that's hearing this, including the person that's saying it. Worry about what you did. Fix that. Not from your own personal preference of how you should fix it or your own personal opinion of how you should fix it, but rather measure it versus just to start. Look at it from the perspective of if you hurt somebody, look at it from the perspective of you being the victim rather than the perpetrator. Would you accept such a weak apology? Certainly not. So why do you think they should? If you hurt someone or some place and you sent a email saying, "I'm sorry. Do you accept such a thing? It's not enough. Why? Because the damage that you caused was major losses, was people got fired, all types of things. So, you can't just you can't just expect people to simply not care because you don't want to try harder. Secondly, which is even more important, learn as much as you can about the sin you've made, the damage you've made, the insult, the the adultery, the uh stealing, the desecration of the Torah, desecration of Shabbat, whatever it is, learn as much as you can about the sin as part of your chuva. Why? Because the more you learn about it, the more you're going to understand that what you did to say I'm sorry is not enough. It's not enough. It's not good enough. So if you still have some problems in your life, don't question God of what did I do for him to do this to me? Rather ask yourself, what did I do to fix what I did? How do I even think that my chuva is enough? Stop figuring, oh maybe my previous carnation I did it. Forget it. Don't worry about the previous carnation. Worry about yesterday. Worry about this morning what you did. Worry about now. Why? Certainly there's something you have to fix. People have become naturally nasty to people. naturally just simply like abrasive and like attacking. They have no tolerance whatsoever to anyone that's not under their command. They could have a coworker. Ask them, "Listen, do you know where uh the file is for this? How should I know? How should I know?" Okay, maybe you don't know, but you could say you don't know. You don't have to make a whole big scene about how should you know why you so nasty. Somebody tells him, "Listen, I'm working on a project and uh the boss said that you have to give me the uh the files and you decide you're not going to even respond to this." Why? Who are you to tell me what to do? Well, they're not exactly telling you what to do. They're just fulfilling their job for the boss that pays them and also happens to pay you. So your nasty attitude of not responding because who are you to tell me shows that you have an ego bigger than Mount Everest. Get over yourself. Stop being nasty. People go to the store. the clerk behind the desk happens to give them the wrong change or doublecharge them or whatever it is instead of saying, "Oh, I'm sorry. Listen, you double charge me here." That would be a normal, civilized, decent response. How many people respond like that? Zero or close to it? How do people usually respond? HEY, HEY, YOU OVERCHARGED ME. LOOK, LOOK. LIKE YOU CAUGHT THEM. I GOT THEM. EVERYBODY'S LOOKING FOR THAT I GOT THEM MOMENT. Or they GET THEIR FRIEND. LOOK, LOOK, TURN ON THE CAMERA. TURN ON THE EVERYBODY'S a cameraman these days. Turn on the camera. I'm going to put this I'm going to put this on on on X. And they record themselves. LOOK, YOU OVERCHARGE ME. LOOK, YOU DIDN'T GIVE ME BACK. LOOK. What's wrong with you? What's wrong with you? Why are you attacking everyone and anything? Why? Why so nasty? Why is everybody so nasty? You call somebody, you leave them a message, they don't call you back. Automatically, people think, "Oh, they don't call me back. All right. All right. They don't call me back. All right. You're already planning the revenge. Why? Maybe they didn't get a chance to. Maybe they didn't get the message. You know, it happens sometimes. They don't get your message. I can tell you myself. I get hundreds and hundreds of messages every day. I can't respond to everything. I can't I can't keep up with everything. Certain parts of my mailbox, whether it be emails or different things, have literally become like spam. But there's some people that if you don't respond to their message, their allimp important message, it's not only they're upset, but they turn you into an enemy or they turn into some big saga story like it's like they become some big thing. Oh, why do you hate me? Oh, I don't understand. Is it because I did this three year? What are you who remember this? What are you talking about? Is that why you're not answering me? They start sending you 400 messages telling you why you're not answering and all the possibilities after you read these messages like maybe you know what you're right. I shouldn't answer you. You're such a you did all this to me. Oh, I shouldn't answer you then. I just didn't answer because I didn't see the message. I didn't get a chance to whatever it is. But after you're telling me all these things, I probably shouldn't answer you. It's it's seriously people always think of things like they magnify things. They turn everything into Hollywood. Everything is bigger than it is. You have this entire channels, not just in obviously the the the media that's full of garbage and everything else on a regular basis. Literally, if there's a sentence that comes out of anybody's mouth without a lie being stuck somewhere in there, it's a miracle. That's just a reality. But I'm talking about people that are regular people decide to take whatever bits of information they find some hole somewhere and they make up a whole story about it. they get access or they get going to some website that shows the map or shows the weather or shows I don't know different parts of uh the uh you know how planes are traveling or earthquakes or I don't know whatever it is that's out there and they tell you look something's happening here the wind doesn't travel this way I've been alive FOR 40 YEARS I'VE NEVER SEEN THE WIND TRAVEL THIS way what are you talking about? What is this nonsense that you're saying? Of course, they capitalize on people's fears. So, when it comes to war, ah, look, major news, major news, breaking news. RUSSIA JUST MOVED THEIR SHIP 14 IN TO THE LEFT. THERE MUST be an atomic war in play. What are you talking about? What are you saying? But they make it. And of course, everyone has customers. Somebody believes their nonsense. They make everything into something that it's not. Everything becomes major news. Their coffee fell on the way to the car. Major news. The wind traveled in a way that's not according to their understanding. Major news. SOMEONE DIDN'T CALL THEM BACK. HO YO, that's breaking news. Someone looked at them and then looked away. Major news. Oh, you looking like that? I saw the look in his face. Yeah, he means evil. He means to hurt me. What are you talking about? He just moved his head while he's thinking. He doesn't even realize that you're in that direction. Yes, his head, his face was in your direction. It doesn't mean he's looking at you or she's looking at you or thinking ABOUT YOU OR EVEN KNOWS THAT YOU'RE THERE. But people make a big deal out of everything. Why? When they ask themselves, who do you think you are? Their subconscious says, "Oh, who do I think I am? I'M THE BEST. I'M the greatest. the the the world is my servant. A person that wants to at least go in the path of righteousness, in the path of truth, cannot decide to define things according to their logic. Why? As I've just given you a plenty of examples, and I'm sure some of you are laughing in the back of your mind because not only have you done it, you've done worse. You can't rely on yourself. What do you need to do? Start looking at what the Torah says. What does the Torah say about this or that subject that you are now involved in? And surely whatever it is that you're involved in, whatever it is that you're thinking, whatever it is that you're doing, it's in the Torah. Why? Because everything is. Everything is. You may not know it. You may not even realize it, but it's there. But it's there. Another example of how human logic is flawed is a story that the Benishai says in the name of Rabatanitz. Ibishitz was not just an extraordinary Torah sage, but he was also a leader. A leader of the people. He had to constantly face the the royalty of the place they were living. Many times the enemy, the church was constantly meeting with him to insult him, to threaten him and in essence threaten the Jewish people andit full of knew how to communicate with them in a way that even they respected. One time he had to go and meet one of the dukes, which is a very important person at the time. Someone that had the ability to similar to a king when you know he could kill when he wants to kill, he could throw people in jail. And when he met with the with the duke, just like with the when he was meeting with the priests and the pastors, they would always start with some type of insult. The Duke says to your Torah doesn't make any sense. system. What doesn't make sense to you? Says it's doesn't make any sense that if somebody eats an apple and the apple has to a worm in it, he doesn't get punished. But if the same worm left the apple and he decides to eat it, he gets malot. He gets whipped. That doesn't make any sense. Surely that worm was in the apple. It's the same worm as it went outside the apple. That doesn't make any sense. Now, knew that this duke with his head full of tuma, full of foolishness, it's not someone you're going to start teaching impurity, impurity, he has to speak to them in a language he understands. So, instead of addressing the verse, the commentary, he says to the duke, "Sir, let me explain it to you. would you do me a favor? And he gives him a spoon. He says, "Would you do me a favor and spit in the spoon?" The Duke says, "What? Please, please, can you please spit in the spoon?" So, as strange as the request is, the Duke spits in the spoon. Thank you. Okay. Now, takes the spoon and starts moving it towards the direction of the duke's mouth. Of course, the Duke, hey, it's disgusting. Says, "Why is it disgusting?" Cuz what do you mean spit? It's disgusting. Says, "Yeah, but this is surely the same spit that was just in your mouth. What's the difference? The Duke says, "Well, of course THERE'S A DIFFERENCE. ONCE it was in my mouth, it wasn't disgusting, but once it came out, it became disgusting." Responds to him, "Your ears should hear what your mouth just said." The Torah says that when the worm is inside the apple, it's not disgusting. Once it leaves the apple, it is to clarify it. Once the worm is inside the apple where there's no way for you to know that it's inside, you eat the apple and it happens to have a worm in it. There's no way that you can know that there's a worm inside the apple and you ate the apple. That's not something that Hashem will punish you for. Why? It was beyond your ability to know it. Surely, he's the one that put the worm there. But he's not going to punish you for eating that worm. Would it still cause damage spiritually? Sure. You eat bugs, you eat things of not kosher, it causes spiritual damage, but you're not going to get malot for it. But once that worm leaves the apple and you choose to eat it, that's disgusting. Why? Because you chose to go against Hashem. It wasn't unknown to you. You simply chose to do it. And that's why there's a punishment for it. A person has to know that it's never okay to make a sin. It's never okay to go against the Torah. But not all things are equal here. If somebody makes a sin that is unknown to them, either because they simply didn't get to it despite the fact that they study hours every day, they just never got to this section of the Tua. Tawa is wider than the ocean. Or it's like the example with the apple. It was inside the apple. There's no way for them to figure out that there's a worm inside the apple. The apple looked perfect from the outside. Then Hashem is not going to punish you for something like that. It still causes damage. You still need to purify yourself and work on yourself. So those things are not things that happen to you on a regular basis. In essence, it's a message from Hashem that you need to improve. But it's almost like a tap of love from Hashem telling you do more. On the other hand, if a person makes a sin either because they chose to do it, they chose to commit adultery that everyone knows it's forbidden. whether they're religious or not, whether they're Jewish or not. Everyone knows that murder, stealing, adultery, idolatry, everyone knows those things are wrong. That's why it's also part of the Noahide laws. Even though they're not people that learn the entire Torah and obligated in 613 mitz, there's still noahhide laws from a Torah that are all based on logic. So, if you made one of those sins or the sin you made was because you didn't know it was a sin, not because you didn't get to it despite your studies, but because you didn't study. You just chose not to study. You chose to watch basketball games instead. You chose to, you know, go to the casino instead. Then the inh says a person that makes an accidental sin as a result of not studying Torah, that accidental sin counts as if they did it on purpose. No different than the guy that chose to eat the worm. And for that there's a punishment. For that there's a punishment. So instead of us looking at everyone else with harsh judgment that everyone is bad, that everyone means bad. It's time we look in the mirror when we say, "Who do you think you are? Who do you think you are?" Stop accusing everybody else of wronging you. start looking at things from the Torah's perspective, which is look into yourself. What are you doing wrong? Either to be somebody that has apples full of worms in it constantly that you can't see and Hashem is constantly bringing those to you or you keep choosing to eat the worm even though you see it's a worm. The point is, STOP ATTACKING EVERYONE ELSE. Stop blaming everyone else. The world is not your enemy. You are. And until a person realizes that the person they see in the mirror is their enemy that they need to make peace with, they're going to keep being nasty and get nastier over time. They're going to keep making mistakes and blame the world for it. They're going to keep thinking that they're overly righteous and everyone else is wicked. And instead of even helping people by telling them to do chuva, they'll actually make people disgusted by religiosity altogether. Because quite frankly, the way they practice it is disgusting. It's time for us to look in the mirror. Look in the mirror. Start fixing what you see. And how do you know what to fix? Simple. See what the Torah says about it. Compare it to your actions and proceed forward with the construction department to fix everything because you we all have a lot to fix and we succeed. So with that Abu Tai, we'll go to the questions and answers. But before that, answer the question that we asked last week, which is a very important question, especially in the anti-semitic society we live in today where everyone is constantly looking for an excuse to hate the Jews. Even if they're not in the story, somehow it's always our fault. So, of course, one of the main things that the anti-semites like to embellish on and be stringent on is how much the Jews according to them hate the goim, hate the nations. Well, the story is a woman came to an abortion clinic and said, "I want to have an abortion." The place it's a Jewish organization saw this happening and one of the heads of the organization saw this happening and convinced the woman to come meet and spoke to her convincing her not to have the abortion and if she has the baby then the Jewish organization will pay for it will help her just don't have the abortion. The woman agrees, but then it comes out and they find out that uh she lied to them about one small detail. What's the detail? She's not Jewish. So the question is, since she lied, since she didn't say the truth, omitted the truth, whatever you want to count, does the Jewish organization still have to pay for the baby or she lied. She uh they don't have to help her. Some of you told me yes, exactly that. She lied. She uh did what she did. They don't have to give her anything. They're a Jewish organization to help Jews. She's not Jewish. They have no obligation to help her. What about the baby that's going to die? Hey, listen. She That's her choice. Okay. Some people said, "Yes, they should help her. It's uh she's still human." Well, out of the two answers, the second one is right. But not just because she's human, because we have a Torah. And Torah says that not only are Jews forbidden from aborting, killing babies, but Noahides are too. In fact, the punishment on Noahites for abortions is much worse than for Jews. Example would be if a Jew is in a fight with another Jew and part of the fight some woman walks in the middle and he hits her accidentally which ends up causing her pregnancy to end shalom. The baby dies. Torah says he has to pay a monetary fine. But if that happened to a non-Jew, two non-Jews are fighting and a woman, non-Jewish woman gets hit in the process and her pregnancy ends as a result according to the Torah. Noah hide laws, death penalty for the guy who hit her. Yeah, but it was an accident. Accident, no accident. Laws are laws. Laws of God. meaning that the issue of the life of a human being is very significant in a Torah both for Jews and non-Jews. But there's actually harsher punishment for the non-Jews for such things. With that being said, after all, it's still a Jewish organization. Do they have to pay for this non-Jew? The answer is yes. Not only because they're not allowed to kill, but also because a Jew actually has to rebuke even a non-Jew that he sees going against the Noahide laws. The mitzvah of rebuke is of course priority Jew on another Jew. You see another Jew uh you know committing adultery. You see another Jew stealing, you see another Jew violating Shabbat intentionally, you have to rebuke them. But guess what? If you see a non-Jew violating the Noahide laws, that's also a problem. And say you have to rebuke him, too. Now again, in an anti-semitic world that we live in today, that's not necessarily so easy to do and not everybody's so accepting. But nonetheless, the final reason of why the Jewish organization has to pay for this woman not to abort her baby, for this woman to keep this baby alive, is because if they back out of the agreement, it will desecrate the name of God because it would make it look like as if the Jews actually hate the non-Jews, actually don't think that the non-Jews are considered human beings like them are simply you know like animals which is the opposite of what the Torah says the opposite of what's reality when created the world he created Adam everyone comes from Adam whether Jew or non-Jew later on he chose a select few to be the Jewish people that follow the greater law follow the bigger your law, follow the whole Torah, and in fact is an open invitation to anyone else that wants to join the Jewish people, wants to keep the laws. You want to convert to Judaism, by all means, you're welcome to do it. It's not easy, but the same token, once you understand what you're doing and you want to do it, it's it's the best. It's the best thing you can ever do for yourself. But if a person says, "No, if you're not Jewish, therefore I don't care about your life." That makes the Torah ugly. That's not the Torah. That will make people hate the Torah and even hate God or simply tell you that you're not following the Torah or God. You're idol worshippers, which of course some of the anti-semites think that Jews are idol worshippers. So the Jewish organization does have to save this woman, does have to save the baby and certainly run away from desecrating God's name. So with that, I'll ask you guys another question. Of course, we're not going to have a shir next week because we have the holy holiday of Pesak next week. I'm going to try to do a sh on uh Sunday night, but the next time we will have another one of the lectures for stump the rabbi is going to be after the holiday, but it'll give you enough time to think about it. Perhaps even talk about it with some more people that you'll see during the holiday. And the question is as follows. There was once a guy and everybody knows a person like this. We'll call him Ruven. He went to the store with his friend Shimon and he bought a candy bar. Bought a candy bar. They left the store. As he's about to eat the candy bar in his living room, he opens it up and he sees the candy bar is no good. Why? It's rotten. There's a bug in it. Whatever it is, of course, he doesn't eat the bug. He doesn't eat the uh the candy bar, but he says, "Listen, I'm gonna send a letter to this chocolate manufacturer. I'm going to send a letter to a uh uh Beast Chocolate." And uh I'm going to tell him, listen, you have to give me uh compensation for this. And he gets all serious. He uses some AI app, some chat GPT or claw to write him a letter to make it look like he's smart and he knows what he's talking about and he is ready to send this and he sends it over. Shimon watches this whole thing laughing to himself and in the meantime planting a little trick, planting a little joke. What's the joke? He knows he sent a letter. He knows how serious is about this letter. How serious he's taking this chocolate bar dilemma. So what does he do? He goes also uses some AI to write up a letter from the company. Puts their logo on there. Puts company lingo in the letter. Makes it look official. prints out an envelope that looks like it came from the company and he puts it in the mailbox of his friend Ruven. Ruven opens a letter. Shimon happens to be there when he opens the letter. He is trying to hold himself back from laughing and Ruven reads the letter. Dear Ruven, we at Beast Chocolates are very disappointed at ourselves for causing you such anguish. We try our BEST TO SATISFY ALL OF OUR customers and we are looking to make it up to you by giving you $100 or $1,000 worth of chocolates. Take this certificate to any of the stores that sell our chocolates and surely they will give you $1,000 worth of chocolates. Ruven has never felt so satisfied at himself and proud of himself than than today. Look, his letter worked. The company APOLOGIZED AND on top of it, not only gave him a chocolate bar back, THEY GAVE HIM A THOUSAND dollars worth of chocolates. He wants to celebrate this. So what does he do? He invites his friends, his family. We're going TO HAVE A CHOCOLATE PARTY. WHY? I'm going to use this coupon, take it to the store, and we're all going to eat $1,000 worth of chocolates. Okay. Everybody comes to the house. Ruben goes to the store, gives the clerk the coupon that Shimon made, but the job that Shimon did was so good that even the clerk believed it. I said, "Yeah, listen. You have $1,000 worth of chocolate. Go ahead. Buy whatever you want. Shimon didn't expect this to go this far, but what is he going to do? He sees Ruven taking all the chocolates. He gets a bunch of free chocolate, goes back to the house, and they enjoy the party. Shimon doesn't really feel right about all this, so he doesn't eat any chocolate. And even when Ruven asks him, "You like the chocolate?" He goes, "No, no, I don't feel good. I I ate meat. I eat meat, so I can't eat chocolate." All right, take some home. We have plenty. Okay. Okay. He doesn't take any home. The question is, what happens from here? Does Shimon have to tell Ruven what he did? And of course, once he does, he also has to tell the store clerk. He has to tell Walmart. He has to tell Mr. Steve that owns the local deli that just gave him $1,000 worth of chocolate. Whatever the story is, listen, by the way, that uh that $1,000, uh yeah, it's not really real. And even if Shimon doesn't do that, the store is going to find out. They've been duped for $1,000. Why? cuz they're going to send this coupon to Beast Chocolate. Beast is going to say, "Listen, we're going to put this in our next video. It's really funny, but it's not true. We don't have this coupon." So, at some point or another, something's going to happen here. And when it does, who has to pay the $1,000? Seems simple, doesn't it? It's not. That's the question. You guys will think about it and give an answer and see if you could even provide a source. >> Honey, did you sell the hamtts yet? We have less than a week until Pesak. >> Don't worry, I'll take care of it at Shul later. >> Did you sell the hamtts yet? >> No, I forgot. But I'll I'll go see the rabbi later. What am I going to do now? What I'm going to do now? >> Your hammets is sold. Happy PES. So with that being said, now you guys could ask some questions and will give us the answers. Let's see. Why does Hashem always seem to punish me harder? Seems as if I step one toe out of the Torah or slip up on kosher. Seems as though everything falls apart. Blockage and employment. I wonder if I did something wrong in my past life. This is exactly what we were just talking about. Instead of worrying about what you did in your past life, worry about what you're doing in your current life. Number one, why are you failing in kosher? It's so easy to keep kosher these days. Literally any store you go to, you can find some kosher product in it. Practically everything that every taste that a normal human being would want, they make a kosher version of it. Even seafood that's shellfish that's forbidden for Jewish people to eat. There is uh soya that they make with the same flavoring that makes a person that tastes it think that they're eating really real uh real shellfish. Pork is forbidden for Jews, but there is ways to make certain foods whether it's turkey or other meats or even soy taste like real bacon. Needless to say, the already mentions there's certain animals like the fish called chiba or there's a duck in Japan that you could eat that taste like bacon. But the point is that it's so easy to keep kosher. How could that be something that you still fail at? Which means it's a choice. If it's a choice there, then certainly it's probably a choice and other things. So rather than worry about your previous life of what you did, start fixing your current life. The more you fix your current life on a steady basis, the more you're going to see blessings in your life, whether it be in employment or in other things. Let's see. If a non-Jew violates one of the laws of Noah, could question, could the court or the person he sinned against take all of his money instead of death penalty like son who came to kill Yakov? No. But not all death penalty uh is uh executed by the court. Uh there's different things but nonetheless most of them are for noahides at least is a death penalty. Uh but uh no they can't uh take his money. It's not uh it's not a replacement. Uh let me see. I'll get to the questions. I get I uh have one, two, five screens in front of me. So, if I don't get to your question, it's not because I'm ignoring. It's because I didn't get to it yet. Apparently, there are mushrooms that taste like bacon and they're called pink oysters. Okay. Never heard of it. Interesting. What is the religious significance of those white circles on your shirt? Those white circles are microphones. They have no religious significance whatsoever. This only significance that it has in the world right now is the fact that it allows me to speak in a way that you guys can hear. What is the Rub's take on Ty? My take is I have no idea what is Ty and I'm very serious about it. Ty not in my vocabulary and I'm stringent about that. How can non-Jews seek Hashem with all of his heart and with all of his soul to find him like he promises to Israel in Deuteronomy? By following what the Torah says that the non-Jew has to do. When a non-Jew prays to Hashem, Hashem hears him. When a non-Jew does good things according to Tawa, Hem sees it. Why is the cost of living in Jewish neighborhoods, tuition, food, etc. so expensive? One has to make nearly $300,000 just to get by. It's scaring young adults of getting married and having more kids. Well, the fact that there are places that are more expensive than others is simply a reality of life. It's not uh something that uh only the Jewish community suffers from. Certainly, there are some things that are more expensive in a Jewish community that uh do not exist in the secular world. But it's the opposite is true as well. For example, in the Jewish world, if you go to yeshiva, you're going to have to pay a lot more money for, you know, for tuition, for education than you do in a secular world if you send your kids to uh to public school. So, that expense exists in the Jewish world. And it's not necessarily standard in in the secular world. There are certainly people that send their kids to very expensive secular private schools or different religions, but it's a the public school obviously is the standard in the secular world. Uh but the uh the fact is that there are expenses that the Jewish world does not have that the secular world does. Especially if you are dedicated to the Torah and mitzvot and living a Jewish life, then you're not going to have the uh type of expenses that the secular people usually do, whether it be the uh uh the lifestyle expenses that they have and things of that nature. Uh but aside from that, the problem is not the cost of everything. The problem is that people do not uh live within their means. You know, people want a whole lot more than what they need. uh and even when they can't afford it, they still push themselves above their means uh because uh they have jealousy of other people. They see that their neighbors have a brand new car, so they decide they also deserve a brand new car. They see their neighbor lives in a million-doll house. So, they also push themselves to the beyond the limits by, you know, going into a million- dollar house that they can't even afford. They see that their neighbors have a brand new item and they buy themselves that brand new item, not because they necessarily need it or or because they feel they deserve it because if they have it, I must have it. And there's this constant competition with the Joneses or in the Jewish world, the competition with the Goldbergs. So that's already a flaw within the way that a person is managing their life. And unfortunately today it's becoming more and more common to such a point that there are certain communities that have already made a new ruling to help people contain themselves. Like for example, something that happened. I just heard about it recently in Lakewood where the Rabanim over there got together and they went and to all of the uh uh the hall the people that own the halls where there's celebrations whether it's a bar mitzvah or a wedding or anything like that and they uh spoke to them and told them listen from now on no wedding is going to be more than $50,000 which in itself is very is a lot of money but why why did the rabbis even care about this because this made a very big problem with people that are have means, have a lot of money. They were having weddings that are 50, 100, 200, $500,000, a million dollars, all types of crazy weddings. And then the people that don't have money would end up, you know, committing to very expensive weddings, 100, $200,000 weddings that they can't afford. They would borrow the money or they would ask for daka for a ridiculous amount of money for a stupid uh event that only lasts a few hours which again the event itself the wedding itself is very holy, very important and and and very critical. But what made it stupid is that you just borrowed money or you know uh uh got so-called donations for the money which I promise you inim they're going to have a hard time accepting that money that was given to those people as a donation as an actual donation as an actual mitzvah. Why? Nobody needs a $200,000 wedding or $100,000 wedding and quite frankly not even a $50,000 wedding. But anyway, since things were getting out of hand, the community leaders took a step and said, "No one is allowed to have a wedding beyond $50,000." And any hall, anybody uh that that does it, any family that does it is uh going to be, you know, in essence uh dealt with like uh they're excluded from the community. They're uh uh they're almost like an almost like an So there are certain things that community leaders at least some of them are trying to do to help people stop doing stupid things. But you can't do everything. People going to continue doing things and living beyond their means is unfortunately uh something that is not only happening in a Jewish world, it's happening in the world period. Especially in western society, people have gone to the point where they are of the belief that they need to have a brand new car every 3 years. They need to have a brand new phone every year because a new model came out. And if it came out 6 months later, they also need that, too. And they're of the belief that all of these excesses are needs rather than wants. And when you confuse the need to want, then what ends up happening is that you turn something that is not really necessary into something that is mandatory, which then allows a person to justify putting themselves in debt, justifies borrowing money they can't return, which is in itself a sin. You are not allowed to borrow money if you don't know how to return it. You if you have no way how to return it, you have no plan of returning it. You have no plan of how to return it. It's a sin from the minute you borrow the money, not from the time you don't return it. From the minute you borrow the money, knowing that you don't know how you're going to return it, it's already considered a sin. Sin of stealing. So people that confuse needs and wants end up violating many Torah laws. Even if they have a beard and they have a hat and they have religious and they're a religious woman or a man or whatever it is, doesn't matter. People that do not know how to uh determine how to prioritize their life make a lot of mistakes that uh cause a lot of problems. Now, as far as uh general costs of being Jewish, again, like I said, certainly there are some expenses in the Jewish world that do not exist in the secular world, but there are certain things that are uh, you know, are necessary. For example, living in a Jewish community tends to be more expensive, much more expensive as far as the housing is concerned than a non-Jewish community, but that's because there's less of us. So naturally, if there's less of something, you know, and there's a high demand for it, it's going to be a uh it's going to be a higher price. So that's not something that the Jewish people in invented. That's simply one of the principles of how economics works. There's supply, there's demand. So there's not a Jewish community in, you know, in every neighborhood. There's few of them. And when few people you know want to move into the same area then uh it becomes more expensive. Now if people really wanted to solve that problem they would join the others that also want to solve that problem which would start new communities. But to start a new community people have to know that in order for it to be a Jewish community it has to start with a foundation of Torah. Meaning there has to be proper funding for a synagogue for yeshiva for kids for a mikvet. And that's some of the things that people don't necessarily think is uh, you know, is something they want to put their money into. They have no problem paying for a million or a $2 million house even if they have to borrow, beg, and steal for the money. But if you tell them, listen, you should also commit, you know, a uh $10,000 a year or $50,000 a year, whatever it is that's within uh your your abilities to uh to fund the uh the yeshiva, to fund the kola, to fund the mikvet, people are not necessarily always jumping for it. Usually most of the big projects are paid by few people that are of means and that's a mistake. That's a mistake. So again, in order to make a Jewish community, people have to understand that Torah is what makes it a Jewish community, not the Jewish people. If there's 5,000 Jewish people in a place, but there's no Torah there, it's not a Jewish community. You cannot call the uh you know the uh the place in uh let's say if you're in Tel Aviv, okay? And of course Tel Aviv has some Jewish community with within it. But you can't call Tel Aviv in general or New York City in general it's a religious city. It's not a Jewish city. It's not. Why? Because the majority of it does not have Judaism in it. What makes it Jewish? When there is all of the things that are necessary for a Jewish life. And that's something that uh people have to understand not just the rich people not just the people that have means even the regular people you know before a person uh buys themselves the second uh bag because the the one bag is not enough for any woman usually you know women like bags. So before she buys a second bag, she should also make sure that she gave enough money to fund the world of Torah to do kiru to uh help me all different things that are necessary. Same concept goes when uh when it comes to uh the other side meaning the yeshivot the yeshivot are obnoxiously expensive but there's not enough people that are questioning the system of where the money goes. We keep building more buildings. There's new campaigns every other day to buy another building for the yeshiva for that yeshiva for this one. that one. Um, which again, if necessary to get more people, fine. But we're not questioning where does the rest of the money go during the year. Where does the $1,500 a month per student go? If a guy has three, four, five kids, he has to have 10,000 a month just dedicated uh to tuition. Again, that's a lot of money. At the very least, if you're going to spend that much money, you should at the very least question what is being done in the financials. Who who's behind it that's not biased? That's not part of the people that actually have control of the money. So because if you ask the people that work in Yeshivot, the rabbis, the rabbitins, they don't make much money. So it's definitely not going to the teachers, especially since some places the the uh the uh uh the teachers are becoming uh more and more non-Jewish, meaning more yeshivot hiring non-Jews as teachers uh than ever before, which is a problem in itself. So, if it's not going to the teachers, where is the money going? Not enough people asking those questions. Not enough people are doing something about it. Either because they're scared that if they ask, they won't accept their kids in yeshiva or uh other reasons that people do. Point being is is that people have to uh be a little bit more proactive both in the giving as well as on the other side in making sure that the people whatever people are giving whatever people are paying is being utilized the right way. So it's a it's not a one-sided pointing a finger problem that it's you know it's that there's a lot of things and of course it's not it's not an easy thing to to to resolve. Uh but hopefully more and more community leaders do what they can to uh to help people. Uh one thing for sure is that uh the education system that we have in the yeshiva world is uh not just not meeting the uh the requirement in the eyes of the anti-semmites or or the people that hate Judaism even if they're Jewish themselves uh where they say it's not enough uh curriculum or education. That's not really uh the only issue. The the the issue is the fact that we have a uh a systemic problem where there is a system of rejection. A system of rejection that is much more developed than the system of acceptance. What do I mean by that? Many parents, especially young parents, are scared of doing anything that would possibly make them not uh you know their kids not accepted by the uh by by the yeshiva. Why? Because everyone is familiar in Israel, in America, everywhere, everyone is familiar with the rejection system where if you don't meet all of the guidelines that are usually in the air, no, they're not published anywhere. Uh then they won't accept your kidney yeshiva. And now if you would say, yeah, well, there's five yeshivot in the community. They could just go to a different yeshiva. No, no, no. It doesn't it's not like that. There are places where there is there isn't five Yeshivot. There's only one school that's appropriate. And some of these yeshivot would reject the kids knowing that the only other option for the parents aside from moving somewhere else and hoping they accept them there, which is an expense that most people can't afford anyway to just move the house just for, you know, one kid. But the only other option is sending the kid to public school. any yeshiva, any rabbi, any Jew that is in a position to accept or reject a Jewish child and chooses to reject them for any reason under the sun without getting a direct permission from is a criminal. You reject the kid because he's sphartic and not akinazi enough to for you like you are, you are a criminal. You reject a kid because according to your blue shirt is unacceptable, you are a criminal. you rejected that kid because uh you feel like uh you already have more than enough kids and uh if you accept this one more, it's going to be uncomfortable. And knowing that the kid's other option is going to public school, you're a criminal. You rejected a kid because they can't afford to give you $1,500 or $2,000 a month. You're a criminal. Why? Our obligation as Jews is to make Jews to stay Jewish. The reason why our organization's motto is to make Jews more Jewish is exactly that. So one of the main things is Jewish education. So anyone that is whether it's a uh administrator, the head rabbi, even the secretary chooses to reject someone that's Jewish for any other reason other than one of told him reject this kid, they're a criminal. Not according to surely according to me, but according to the Torah. And I'll even there's endless stories about this. I'll give you a new one. And I've given you already several of them that I've told you in the past what happened with Ra Frame. Most recently there was uh you know the Rabanit went their to put their daughter in a seminary. Now anyone that doesn't know who Rabime is quickly could learn he's a he's written over 50 books. He just published another one uh two days ago about Pes you know about 300 pages about endless details about the Makotam. He's a very very wellestablished dianam sadik. Uh so there's no problem with the father. Certainly there's no problem with the either but there's no problem with the kid either. Kid's very smart. But they rejected her. Why they reject her? For the same reason they rejected Rabbi Dei's uh daughter. Same reason they rejected uh another rabbi that we know. His uh why? Because they're sphartic. Because they're sphartic. Another one rejected them. Why? Because Rabime's wife, she wears a like. She wears a No, no, no. You have to wear a wig. You have to wear wig. If you don't wear a wig, then then you're not you're not uh uh you're not Jewish. What do you mean? What's wrong? No. Maybe it goes somewhere else. Lumi Shalanu. You're not from us. This Lumi Shalanu is a crime. Is a crime. new story that is really unbelievable. A woman takes her daughter to sign up to seminary. She goes there. Seminary says, "I'm sorry. We're packed already. We uh we can't accept anyone. We already have more than enough." Okay. You know what am I going to do? I don't know what I'm going to do, but okay, fine. The woman and the daughter, of course, disappointed, but uh you know what can they do? Three weeks later, see, we're not talking about the day before, 3 weeks before, three weeks later, she sees her friend and her friend asks her, "So, what are you doing about uh school for uh for little Sag?" He says, "I don't know. What do you mind? Why don't you go to the same seminary where we signed up for?" "Which one?" She tells the name. "Oh, no. They rejected me." She says, "What do you mean they rejected you? Why would they reject you?" "I don't know. I went there three weeks ago and they told me there's no more room." And her friend says, "How is that possible?" "I signed up my daughter yesterday. Yesterday I signed her up. Now you would say, "Oh, maybe some room magically appeared in the last three weeks." I would love to believe it. I would love to give them kavoot. Unfortunately, that's not the truth. Why? Because of what the rest of the story is. Her friend is a clever Ashkanazi woman who knows the reality of the ugliness within that is happening even inside our own communities. She tells her sphartic friend, I know why that he rejected your daughter. Because you wear a kis, if you put on a wig, they'll accept her. Take my wig. Go try to sign her up again. She does it. She puts on the wig. She goes to the seminary the next day. She gets accepted with no problem at all. All of a sudden there's room. All of a sudden there's room. Another guy sees that there is a sign to buy houses in this apartment building. He calls say, "Yeah, I'm interested in one of the houses." The guy says in Yiddish something and the guy's safari. He doesn't speak Yedish. He's not the who spoke uh Ashkenazi also spoke Yiddish also even though he was a safari because his mother was Ashkenazi. So the guy I'm sorry I don't understand. He goes, "Oh, you don't understand? No, there's no more. We ran out already. We ran out. Everything sold." Okay. Sold. Sold. The next day he sees his friend in a synagogue and his friend says, "Yeah, listen. I'm uh I think I'm going to buy another one of those apartments." Cuz what are you talking about? Those apartments, there's a few of them. I think I'm going to get uh some people to invest with me, maybe get another apartment. He goes, "No, you're wasting your time. There's no more." Goes, "What are you talking about? I just bought one yesterday and they told me they have five more. They're looking for buyers. Goes, "What are you talking about? There's five more." I called yesterday. The guy told me no more. He says, "I don't know, but uh there's five more. What time did you come? What time did you come?" Surely the guy lied. Safari guy says, "Okay, do me a favor. How about this? Let's call the guy. You talk. I'm just in the background. He calls, says, "Hey, listen. I want to buy an apartment." The guy speaks in in Yiddish. He speaks to him back in Yiddish. And the guy says, "Sure, we have five more left." Now, what is that other than what is that other than the reason why the betas was destroyed? What is that other than complete and utter prejudice against each other? So yes, you're saying as a problem that things cost a lot of money IN JEWISH COMMUNITY. YOU'RE RIGHT. But that's not our biggest problem. Our biggest problem is that we are enemies of each other. We hate each other. That's the problem. We hate each other. The stupidest thing in the world. People hate each other because of their color, because of uh their ancestors heritage, like all types of stupid things. Why? When people do not learn mus, when people do not have commitment to the Torah, the real Torah, they do all types of ugly things. Even if they consider themselves religious, they can be religious in one aspect and a complete criminal in another. That's why the Torah constantly tells us to do chuva in every single para. Every para somewhere in there, Hashem is telling us to do chuva. If we actually do it, will come in a good way. What you're saying is happening in the chat right now. People are hating each other for no reason. Yeah. Okay, there you go. You see some of the people watching the lectures are the criminals that uh I was talking about even without knowing who they are. I think the rabb is over exaggerating. I am a rabbi and I've never seen anything like you've said. Oh, have you seen electricity? But you still know that it exists. So just because you haven't seen something doesn't mean it doesn't exist. These are real stories. I'm not making them up. I'm not an entertainer. I'm not creating things out of my imagination. These are legitimate stories of people I know. These are real people. Just because you have not seen something doesn't mean it doesn't exist. I'll tell YOU ANOTHER STORY. HOW about that? A real story. And how do I know it's real? I'm in THE STORY. I'M IN THE STORY. We took out an ad. Somebody called me. They have a magazine. Please, if you want to advertise in our magazine. I said, "Sure, why not? We have not only the organization to help people learn Torah and so on, but we also have the AI rabbi which is something that's amazing, but we need more people to find out about it because it's really a great product and it could also ultimately in the long run, you know, help the organization. So part of what we do, we advertise. So they called me, they uh offered, I said, "Fine, no problem. I'll do it." We signed a commitment to advertise for a uh I don't know for a year a year worth of issues. I know there's like maybe four or five issues they come out or 10 issues however many issues this this magazine has to commit. Okay, one ad goes out, two ads go out, everything is good. Third ad goes out. Everything's good. But I get a phone call or first I get a message. We have to cancel your ads. Why do we have to cancel my ads? What did I do? What what crime have I done? Do you have to cancel my ads? What happens? Simple. some rabbi who's not sphartic decided that uh the ad is not appropriate for a Jewish magazine. Why? You're advertising businesses. You're advertising all types of things. What's wrong? Am I Am I Am I publicizing idolatry? No. Am I uh advertising pornography? No. Am I advertising anything that's against the Torah? No. So, why is it not appropriate? Oh, I don't know. He didn't explain. Okay. Well, explain. You can't just decide to reag on a deal. Well, I can just give you your money back. I'm like, I don't care about the money. I want to know why. What did I do? If I did something wrong, then not only will I be happy to cancel the ad, I'll cancel the product itself. I'll lose all the money that we have and I'll shut down the product. Tell me what I did. Okay. So they come back. Well, they uh said that uh maybe AI people are not familiar. It's AI rabbi. Said I find out who the rabbi is. They tell me who the rabbi is. Within literally seven seconds, I tell them, "Wait a minute. This rabbi, he works for an organization that has been doing AI for at least five years. So he uses AI. In fact, HE HAS A PRODUCT HIMSELF FOR THAT ORGANIZATION. So that's not the real reason. Okay, let me find out. Now, I already knew the reason before the first call, but people think I have I'm a conspiracy theorist, so I don't say anything. I just let people come up with their own conclusions eventually. She comes back, she goes, "Yeah, well, I don't know. I'm confused why he said what he said." I'm like, "Well, listen. I'll tell you why he said it. He said it because he is friends with Goldberg, the heretic that invites uh missionaries to to the synagogue. That's why I don't know he's friends with him. There's a whole article about how he's best friends with him. And don't worry, you're not going to find out who it is and what it is anyway because there's many articles like that with Goldberg. He's best friends apparently with everybody. That's the reason. No, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I'm like, "Okay, well, listen. Give me a legitimate reason of why and I'll be happy to take out the article, but tell me, call me back." He said, "Actually, there's no need to take it out because technically you didn't do anything wrong and there's nothing wrong with the product." Don't tell me this garbage is not happening when I'm living it. I'm seeing it everywhere. Not just for my own life. Not just for my own life. People tell me all the things they go through. All the hell they go through. A woman just sent me a message crying yesterday, literally yesterday, that they rejected her child from school. Her child is four years old. WHAT COULD A FOURYEAR-OLD KID do wrong that you would reject him from a Jewish school? WHAT COULD HE POSSIBLY WHAT COULD SHE POSSIBLY DO WRONG AT FOUR YEARS OLD? NOTHING. NOTHING. They didn't do anything wrong. They're cute little thing. What' they do wrong? The family is not of the same level of Ashkenazi as Ashkinaz. Meaning he's Ashkenazin. He's Ashkanazim, BUT HE'S NOT ASHKENAZI enough for him. meaning the school is a certain type and the family is a different type. So it's even prejudice against each other. It's not just a against it's against it's obviously more more withadim and the unfortunately are much more uh uh aggressive AGAINST THEIR BROTHERS. BUT IT ALSO HAPPENS between too. THEY REJECTED A FOUR-YEAR-OLD KID FROM A JEWISH SCHOOL. WHY? WHY? Another mother has been sending me messages nonstop for months. None of the schools want to accept our kids and actually told us send your kids to public school. Why? You don't have any money. If you don't have 6,000 a month, 10,000 a month to pay for all four kids, send them to public school. You have a school. You have a facility. You have the ability to accept four Jewish kids to your school and you choose not to because the single mother cannot afford 6,000 a month. You are a criminal. These are real stories. And if you still don't believe, I'll give you the names and the phone numbers of every single person in that number. Just privately, not public. Go call them yourself. What benefit do I get inventing stories? Do I look like a like a a book salesman? Am I looking to make a movie of my stories? I already made enough movie. I made Hashem took Back His Millions. That's the story of the horrors that I live through. That's my life story. And I said it in order to help people be inspired to change. Other stories are real stories. I don't tell fake stories. So to go and say, "I didn't see it, therefore it doesn't exist." Come on. Come on now. There's a lot of things we don't see doesn't mean they don't exist. People have to stop making themselves think that they are the center of knowledge. That if they don't see it, I love it when people tell me, "LISTEN, YOU SAID something and you're sure that the said I never saw it." So are you in all of you know all the you know all of the you know all of every book that exists in the world. So what if you didn't see it? So what if you didn't see it? I didn't see something. Show me where it is. Show me where it is. You don't need to invent stories anymore. Why? We're all living it. There's literally new horrors happening every single day, which unfortunately make make the juiciest stories, but they're happening everywhere. They're happening everywhere in every community, Jews and non-Jews. There's non-stop stories. You don't need to invent stories anymore. The stories that I get are from the people that are dealing with it. And if we do not do chuva as individuals and as a nation, we are punishing ourselves much more than the goim can ever punish us. People are scared of Iran, scared of this, scared of that. Why isn't anybody scared of the horrors that I just said? Just because your kid hasn't been rejected from the yeshiva shouldn't mean that you shouldn't care. Just because you haven't been rejected by a certain kaya because you're not a convert, that doesn't mean you shouldn't care. Just because you don't have a problem paying $100,000 a wedding doesn't mean you shouldn't care about the fact that it's ridiculous that people feel the need to fit into society by having some crazy uh six figure wedding. We should start living with some empathy for the rest of the people around us. I'm not saying that everyone should act poor. If you have means, Hashem gave you the blessing, enjoy, have good things. You want to have a nice car, nice house, whatever it is you have in my book. But the level of excess and arrogance that's out there is you have more and more people trying to emulate Hollywood than they have trying to emulate the sages, emulate the and I'm not even talking about the secular people living in uh in uh in uh Manhattan. I'm talking about the religious people that live there. I'm not talking about the secular people that live in Miami. I'm talking about the religious people that live in Miami. So, we have to start reflecting, not project. Enough with the projections. It's the Iran's fault. It's it's uh it's Saddam Hussein's fault. It's uh it's Taliban's fault. It's September 11th fault. It's Obama's fault. It's Biden's fault. It's the new Osama bin Laden, the New York fault. Whatever his name is, Babami, Adami, whatever he is, it's nobody. It's our fault. IT'S OUR FAULT. IT'S OUR FAULT. The fact that THINGS ARE GOING ON and we are in this situation is our fault. They're not the problem. The goim are not our problem. We are the problem. We have to do cha. We have to fix ourselves. WE HAVE TO STOP hating each other for no reason. No reason. People literally destroy 5, 10 year friendships over a text message. He didn't respond. She didn't respond or they did respond but not to my likings or whatever it is. Just harsh judgment. Everybody's mid and yet they call me midatin. I'm just telling what's in the Torah. Nobody can tell them, "Oh, listen. I I I hurt them personally. I show me. If I did, I'll say I'm sorry." But that's the thing. People are blaming. They're committing the crimes, but they're blaming everybody else. Tucker Carlson and the other yo-yos out there that are talking bad about us said it best. Even if there's a tsunami in India, that's a message from Hashem to AmI. If Hashem is allowing Tucker Carlson to turn from somebody that was so-called pro-Israel to being the next Hitler, at least the way he presents himself. Guess what? Hashem is letting that happen. Why? As a rebuke to us. As a rebuke to us. You hate each other. Okay, I'll have the goim hate you also. I'll have the goim hate you also. You're not safari enough. You're not aazi enough. You're not this enough. You're not that enough. Everybodyalas everybody's more righteous than thou. Oh, he uh he doesn't eat. Okay. So, he doesn't eat. So, so what? That's He eats kosher drinks kosher milk. He drinks kosher milk or he eats pigs milk. What does HE DO? NO, NO, IT'S KOSHER. OKAY. So that that means that what in your eyes he's pul he can't be counted as a witness in a Jewish ceremony. OH, HE'S NOT EATING. OKAY, BUT HE EATS KOSHER. YEAH, BUT IT'S NOT. OKAY, SAID THAT. I understand. It's not But he eats kosher, right? HE'S NOT EATING PIGS THAT HE HASN'T have a big lean pig open with the mouth and the apple coming out, RIGHT? HE DOESN'T HAVE THAT. He has kosher food. So tell us relax, relax. You want to keep what you want to keep. You want to take on some stringencies, send them, but don't make everyone into a uh a uh nothing into a zero because you're doing one mitzvah better than them. And by the way, it's not necessarily always better. It's not necessarily always better when it comes to people that have investigated the issue. They said that kashut in western society especially in America the regular oh you milk is not less than kalav is it's not less why the laws in place the all the different things that are part of the regulation make the fear of having somebody that's in a factory put pig milk in there or or or or or camel milk in there it's not a concern Why? They would first of all it would cost them more money. They would lose money on it and second of all they could lose their entire business go to jail. So there's no concern of that. Now again you want to eat drink but don't call don't don't start looking at someone that's not drinking is as if they're drinking as if they're eating uh pigs with with uh with shellfish on it. People exaggerate things. Why? Ego is what we follow. You want to take on a stringency, but don't look at everybody as if they're not taking on stringencies. Don't look at everybody. You want to be a certain custom. You want to be sphartic. Don't hate everyone that's not sphartic. Yeah, but they hate us. That doesn't matter. Even if they hate you, doesn't mean you're allowed to hate them. He's a Jew and you're a Jew. You're obligated to love him and he's obligated to love you. And even if he hates you, you're still obligated TO LOVE HIM. WHY SAID IT? NOW, if the person is an enemy of God, it's a different story. Then it's avat. But we're not talking about enemies of God here. We're talking about people that are kosher people within a community. a Dian, a rabbi, a kosher Jew, and you're hating him. Why? Because he's doesn't meet one of the requirements you have in your customized portfolio. So, Abu Tai, this is what's happening. Tucker Carlson and the other yo-yo, what's her name? The girl that used to work for uh uh what's her name? whatever our name that one these people used to be a uh pro-Israel it seemed like. Now they're promoting Nazism. They hate everything about Jews to such a point that they'll even say things that not only contradict what they said, they say things that are simply not even like just complete uh disconnected from reality. And a lot of people are worried about, oh, they the the media hates us. I'm telling you. They're not our problem. They're not our problem. They're zero. They in in the world of problems, they're considered zero. Zero. Like a ne negative zero. Why? They're bringing on a lot more horrors to their own life than anyone can by doing what they're doing. Our problem is ourselves. How we treat each other, how we hate each other, how people go to extremes. Either they judge everyone or they judge nothing. It's one extreme or the other. Either everyone is wicked in their eyes or everyone is righteous in their eyes. But that's not what the Torah says. That's not what TASA is. So you don't need to make up stories in the world today. They simply come just like problems. People sometimes ask me, "Oh, you said that suffering is good for the maybe I should pray for it." I always tell people, you don't need to pray for problems. Why? They come by themselves. Suffering comes by itself. You don't have to pray for it. So, let's start looking in the mirror and ask who do you think you are? Why? Because hopefully we'll get some uh sense back into our minds as a as individuals and also as communities. Well, I went on a rant over there for a while, but uh that's what came out. I'll try to answer one or two more questions. It's kind of late. Let's see. Uh is there any mitzv is there any reward for a mitzvah in this world? Uh yes and no. So the answer is is as follows. The Rambam says on commentary of when it in the Mishna it says that the reward for mitzvah is another mitzvah the uh punishment for one sin is another sin. over there he explains that um whatever Hashem gives a person in this world it's when he did a mitzvah is not because what he gives them is because he did the mitzvah as if it's a reward for it. He didn't give you a car because you did the mitzvah of let's say gift taka rather he gave you something that you can use to do more of that mitzvah. He saw that you got married. You made the mitzvah of getting married. Then he also gave you the opportunity to have children. He gave you the opportunity to build a ban is or a house full of he gave you the the ability to do more things as a result of you fulfilling one mitzvah. So that's one aspect of it. But the Torah does say that there are certain mitzvot that you do get rewarded for them in this world. For example, honoring your parents. It's a Torah specifically says that you live a long life and it's not just referring to a uh eternal world of good. It's also talking about in this world. Same thing with but the biggest thing that very few people know is that the sages tell us that the mitzvah of supporting ku supporting publicizing Torah to help people do chuva gives you the biggest reward in this world and the next world out of all of the mitzvot. meaning that a person that makes Kiru their priority in this world whether they're a businessman and they're donating uh you know a something significant to Kiru on a regular basis whether it's the time resources and so on whoever makes Kiru a priority in their life they get rewarded for that in this world as well as in the next world but even relative to other mitzvot the reward is bigger Why? Because when you help another person do chuva either directly or indirectly, directly meaning you help them do chuva, indirectly meaning you help somebody else help them do chuva, then all of the mitzvot that that person will ever do also go to your account. Meaning all of the rewards. So he keeps Shabbat from now on. So now every Shabbat you get the rewards for your Shabbat and for another person's Shabbat. He gets married, his family keeps Shabbat, his kids keep Shabbat, you get the merit of all of their Shabbats, their grandchildren Shabbats, their grandchildren's uh Torah and so on and so forth. So the reward that a person gets in this world and the next is greater for Kiru. But most the reward for them is in the next world. But that doesn't mean that Hashem is not going to give you things in this world. But the Rambam explains that whatever Hashem gives you in this world for most of those mitzvot are not as a reward for what you mitzvah that you did, but rather it's as something that will help you do more of that mitzvah because the reward for mitzvah is another mitzvah. Meaning that you did a mitzvah. Let's say for example, you give a mitzvah of giving to support. Now Hashem is going to give you more money. Not because the more money is the reward for giving m but rather once Hashem saw that you give uh m a tithe to support he is now going to give you more money so you could support more Torah. So that's in essence the uh the way that works. Can you invite me? You're invited to watch. Can you come on live? No, I don't have uh the only person that I do the live with is with my Ra, Rabba Fry, and we do that in Hebrew. As a reminder to people, even though what I say is entertaining to some people, I'm not here to entertain you. I'm here to educate you so you get inspired to become better versions of yourself. If you're entertained while you're inspired, fine. If you're not entertained, that's also fine. As long as you change and improve, that's the goal. So having a uh different things that are entertaining to people is not my uh it's not in my uh recipe. Are we supposed to try refuting the allegations recently made against the Orthodox communities? If yes, how? Uh yes, we should refute them by doing chuva. If we do chuva, if we become better, then Hashem will take care of the problems. But if anybody thinks that you're going to debate one of these anti-semites, and that's going to yield you uh anything uh positive, you're mistaken. I mean, even recently, there was some some uh YouTuber that has a big following. I don't know what his name is, but uh he made a couple of videos against uh the Jewish community in um in Lakewood and also in Muny. And even though he claims that he just is asking the same type of questions to other people, anyone that looks at what he says and compares it to normal statements shows that it's uh it's clearly a bias. But nonetheless, there was a uh a nice Jewish man uh that uh wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt and invited him to have an interview, have an interview with him so he can give you all of the information, answer all of his questions without any problem and he could include that in his next video. Now, to his dismay, meaning the Jewish guy in the Jewish community's dismay, when the next video came out by this non-Jew YouTuber, it was worse than the first one. And what about that interview? The interview was 4 hours. He took only a few moments out of it. Now you would say, okay, SO MAYBE HE TOOK THE best moments out of it that are going to present the Jewish people in a positive way and help people see all the truth, the facts. No, he didn't. In fact, he took things that could be misconstrued or simply ignored because if he actually took the real content, the real information, then it would he wouldn't have a reason to make another video. You understand? So, um, people have been fighting against this, you know, whole thing of anti-semitism. There's billions of dollars that have been donated to support this never again movement or whatever it's called of how the Holocaust never going to happen again. And okay, well, October 7th happened and if they could do a Holocaust again, they would do it again. So, this never again thing is not working. Anti-Semmites are more anti-Semitic today than they have been in 80 years. So the never again billions of dollars are not working. And speaking against it, we're speaking against it as a people more than ever. And it's getting worse. Why? Because the Torah clearly tells us, the Torah clearly tells us that the moment that we receive the Torah at Mount Si anti-semitism came down to the world which Hashem uses as the stick when we don't follow the staff. When we follow Hashem's staff, there's no need for the stick. So, as either ignores us or even likes us, but usually ignores. When we don't listen to the staff, we don't listen to the Torah, what does Hashem do? He simply takes away his hand. Obviously, this is not a real hand. This is, you know, a figuratively speaking. And he allows Asaf to look at the Jewish people, no different than how Bilam looked at the Jewish camp and become jealous, envious, and hateful, and try to curse and try to destroy. So all of the podcasts in the world that are trying to plead with the anti-semites, rationalize with the people to ignore the anti-semites, say never again. Never again. I hope none of these podcasts are ever aired ever again. That's what I hope. Stop fighting anti-semitism with their tools. We have a tool. It's called the Torah. The Torah is what we use as instructions. And the Torah tells us clearly if we do chuva, hem protects us from everything. No one can hurt us. In fact, we can even get to a level where the goim are scared of us. Not because we want them to be scared of us so we could hurt them, but rather because if we are righteous, gives us such protection that none of the nations would even want to mess with the Jew just like at the time of just like at the time of so fighting anti-semitism with podcasts fighting anti-semitism with more billboards fighting anti-semitism with trying to rationalize with the anti-semites is a complete waste of time it's denying the foundation of the Torah which is simply telling us the only reason why anti-semitism exists in the world is because Hashem uses it in order to encourage us to do chuva before he sends ham. That's what the says that is will do chuva and the mashia will come. If they don't do chuva, he'll send them ham. Meaning he'll send them a leader like Hitler where we now are forced to do chuva. We're forced to pray to Hashem. Why? Because we realize that all the money, all the uh uh never again movements, all the podcasts, all of the uh uh rationalizing didn't work. didn't work. So what do we do? We pray to Hashem. So either Hashem's going to help us do chuva by simply giving us Torah that we can follow or he's going to send us that will give us a Torah that we're going to follow. Either way, we're going to do chv. So we just have to choose. But as far as arguing with them or any of that stuff, it's a complete waste of time. Doesn't make a difference what you say. They're not listening. They're not listening. They don't care. They don't care that you're right. They don't care that you have an argument. Why let the truth get in the way of a good lie? Their lie works for them. It gets them ratings. It gets them fans. It gets them money. Why they Why would they care that you have the truth? Why should they acknowledge it? Since when do the enemies of the Torah care about the truth? Show me one example, not two, not three, one example where an enemy of a Torah actually cared about the truth. Doesn't exist. Debating online isn't to convince them. They will never be convinced. It's to convince the people online watching the debate that are on the fence. You want to do that, by all means, but the reality is you're not helping those people either because people that are on the fence are not going to look for the truth from a debate. They're going to look for truth based on facts. Facts you can find in books. Facts you could find in the Torah. Facts you don't need for it to come out in a debate. A debate is really the the the purpose of a debate is if both sides have some sense of truth and or one side has the truth, the other one has falsehood, but both agree that they're seeking the truth. Which means that if the side that has falsehood is proven that they have falsehood, they would adopt the truth. But the debates today are not like that. None of these liars care that they lost the debate. They fight again to try to prince somebody else. Why? Because they don't care about the truth. They care about their agenda. They care about their own predisposition that has nothing to do with the truth. It's like one of the stories that the Benish says was a king that liked to shoot uh some uh uh uh bow and arrow and he got good at it and he got overly confident and he asked for the top archer to come for a uh challenge. So they put out the trees, they put out the uh the uh the signs on the trees and so on and the uh top guy shoots and he hits next to the bullseye, but not the bullseye. The king shoots on his end and he hits the bullseye. Next one. The archer hits again. He misses. The king hits the bullseye again. After a few times, it's convincing that the king has won. King is proud of himself. Once the king and the top archer are alone, the archer said, "Your highness, for your honor, I want to show you what I did." So, your honor, your highness knows the truth. If you look at all of the times that you shot your uh you hit the bullseye, but each time it was a different parts of the tree, whereas all of my arrows missed the bullseye, but they all went to the same exact point, showing that I missed on purpose. Whereas the king, let's just say somebody helped him get to the bullseye. We have a beautiful Torah that gives us the instructions. I have a whole series that we did based on the teachings of called the era of Msiah. And then after that we did another series based on his writings called the war of Amalik. In that series you not only have all of the history of what happened in the past when it comes to anti-semitism. In there you have the clear and only solution of how to fight anti-semitism according to the Torah and all of the great sages. Not a single one of them mentions these arguments or podcasts of today or even of what it would have been like in the past. Not one. Why? Because not the Torah way. Anti-semitism is a tool Hashem sends to the world. If somebody wants to go in line with anti-semitism, there's nothing you can do to stop them. If somebody's looking for the truth, Hashem will give them the opportunity to see and accept the truth. And if they really want it, they'll take it. You don't need to be the person that is the one that's saving people off the fence. You simply don't need to be. Why? Hashem runs the world. He doesn't need any help from us. What does he want? He wants us to do chuva. And if we do chuva, the world around us will change to such an extent that says that that when the deeds of a man are good in the eyes of Hashem, even his enemies will come and say I'm sorry to him. It doesn't say it about if you're a good talker, your enemies will come and say I'm sorry. Doesn't say if you're a good podcaster, they'll come. Doesn't say if you're a political donor if you come. Doesn't say if you're a influencer. So, what does it say? that when Hashem is satisfied with your actions, even your enemies, he's going to come and make peace with you. That's the solution to anti-semitism. Trying anything else is simply not a you're wasting your time. Why waste? We have a lot of work ahead of us. starts off looking in a mirror and saying, "Who do you think you are?" Thank you. I appreciate all of you that learned with me. We continue to learn together. Next week, anyone that wants to support and help us publicize name and help more and more people do chuva can donate on our website bhour.org or bzashem.org. And certainly everyone especially the Jews that are obligated to help the poor help the needy during this time of the year as the raam puskins the first mitzvah of the holiday is to help the poor before the holiday which is the and this is also in so anyone that wants to do one with us can donate on the campaign page bhp.org bhpsac.org og. And by the way, even if you're not Jewish, you could also donate to help the poor, to publicize Hashem's name, everything that we do, uh, because it's to your benefit as well. Call to We'll learn again next week. Thank God.