Shnayim Yomi - Shemini - Rabbi Yosef Palacci - DVAR TORAH

Welcome everyone. Today I'd like to share with you two most fascinating stories. One, personally that happened with me, and the other that happened with one of the boys in the community that came specifically to our show the Derek Torah Center and said this story publicly. So, I'll share that one first and then I'll give you my own personal one. And that is this boy he's about 25 years old. The young I should say young man. Should say young man, but it happened when he was a little younger. He was like 18. And a few of his boys friends come on, come on, let's eat, let's eat. He went ahead and he was pressured, but he ate non-kosher. Real, real non-kosher. Real treif. After he ate it, he tells his story that Rabbi in the Kahal. He says that he got something called stomach flu. I never heard it in my life, but the bottom line is he couldn't eat for 2 days straight. Throwing up, he couldn't He said he tried drinking water and that that didn't even could he couldn't hold it. And and he said the reason why is because Hashem's Hashem doesn't even want him in couldn't be in the system. He got punished on the spot for eating non-kosher. That person is a very big warning. My I'll tell you another story. One of my relatives over here. One time, many years back, I'm talking about 50 years ago, right? She told me the story. She was in her 20s and she personally told me the story. She said, "We were going out with my friends and they they asked uh they asked me to come out with them. I went out with them. They went to this non-kosher place, restaurant. I said, "No, I'm not going. I'm They take me home. No, no, I'm not going." Says, "No, just come with us. Come with us." So, I'm not going. So, they they forced her to come. She wasn't driving, so she sat. And they put They asked What What do you want? They all her friends like, "Get the chocolate uh uh uh uh uh jello type of some some crazy dessert." It was a chocolate I forget exactly what it was. A Danish or a chocolate jello some chocolate dessert. And they're like, "Yeah, get it. We get it all the time. We get it all the time. We get it all the time." She says, "Okay, one second." She asked the waiter, "Could you find out what it's made out of?" Comes back and the waitress says, "I asked the chef. It's 100% lard." You know what that is? Fat from the pig. Like 100% no questions asked. Fat from the pig. And all the friends like GOING CRAZY. "WHAT? I can't believe it. What are we eating?" They're going crazy. And a lot of times people ask me, "Rabbi, but it's only this. But it's only that." You never know. Make sure you look at something and it has the right hashgacha. The right The right hashgacha, that's what it is. At the end of the day, you have to eat kosher. I said earlier it makes me want to live. You want purity. You have to eat kosher. You are what you eat. And now, the final story I'm going to leave you off with. And it was by the way, it was a pleasure learning with you this week. I really enjoyed it. Hopefully I come back again on the Shaim Mikra Yomi. I hope so. It was not a shame. I was very honored to to be part. And I hope you enjoyed as well. And here's the final story. Here's the final story. Pesach night. I go ahead. I'm eating by somebody's house. Before I do that, I call the hostess that's hosting everybody. I say, "Listen, you know, for the romaine lettuce, I'm always careful um to make sure that there's no bugs in in any of my green green leaves. Green green green leafy food, there's a lot of them like broccoli, there's sometimes infestation. You don't even know. Broccoli you got to check and and romaine lettuce got to check and all the leafy greens you got to check extra special to see with the light by the whole nothing. So she says, "Do you mind if I go ahead and get my own?" So I said, "No problem. Get your own." She says, "Do you mind if I get for everybody else? I mean, I don't know." So I said, "No no no problem. Get get whatever you want." I go to the store that day and I literally wiped the shelves of a brand that's triple washed triple triple checked green washed grown the whole nine yards like 15 you know those like things like 15 kashruts. Everything that there's no problem of no no kashash tolaim. There's no kashash. There's no kashash. Hey, greenhouse one of these very very religious uh uh companies. I go ahead. I buy it. I buy it. I buy like 15 bags literally 15 bags. I go before I go to my the hostess and I give it this is for you. She takes it. Oh, "Thank you very much." Puts there. Comes the seder night. True story. With me this case happened with me. True story. That night I'm waiting everybody's waiting bring out the romaine or the romaine lettuce. And one of not the hostess but one of the ladies helping out, she starts about to bring from the kitchen literally an entire tray of romaine lettuce. Literally like like a mountain. And she's bringing like this. I said, "Wait. I said, 'Is that the one that I specifically bought 15 bags? I bought a whole thing triple checked. Everything is good.'" And she looks at me and she says to me, "What are you worried about? Do you really think this is fresh romaine lettuce over here? Do you really think there's a bug over here? Do you really think come on. Stop it already. Stop it already." And she puts the tray down with the romaine lettuce. She picks one up and she says, "Look at this. Do you see any bug on this leaf?" Right there. I could promise you there was a big fat green juicy bug right in her face. She looked at it and I'm looking at it and I'm like busted. And I'm like what? She's going crazy. Oh my goodness. She's flipping out. She dropped everything on the side and she went and she used all my bags that were triple checked greenhouse grown no kashash of the life. Just be careful out there whatever you eat. Just be careful greeny leaves. Make sure make sure there's no bugs. Do the right thing. Get the right ask a call. Right and know how to how to check it check it correctly. This is a great lessons that we learn from this week's parashah of the kashrut. Have a wonderful wonderful Shabbat. Shabbat shalom to everybody out there and a wonderful to everybody out there that still knows which is like says a person that does shine is guaranteed long life. This is the everyone should be blessed with that and only have have a great Shabbat.