Three Branches of Wisdom | TORAH FOUNDATION (3)

We're back here on our series about the to literally delve into our own hearts to understand what is in it. What's in it? What's in it? To delve into our hearts takes time, takes effort. And so tonight's show is going to be for the for [Music] and also big to David [Music] and get to do anyone that has not uh gotten from hiding under a and uh watch the movie, the Go Magog. It's time to watch the movie. Every Jew needs to watch it at least once or twice or uh you know on a regular basis because there's simply an enormous amount of information in that film, dozens and dozens of Torah sources from across the spectrum of Torah that are fundamental to our lives today. This is not just a general teaching. This is not just a uh teaching of something that happened historically and it's not something that's very far away from where we are. People that have watched item have told me that they literally cried watching it and uh and part of it you know what's uh they see they see these words of the sages that came out thousands of years ago are coming to life in front of our eyes. So anyone that hasn't watched the movie uh hasn't shared the movie are uh you know needs to do it. And even more so, people that are clever will get their synagogue, their local Jewish community to screen the movie in their ka to get their uh rabbi to agree to have everybody come and to watch the film on a projector of some kind and uh to watch it together. This is something that we've done many times over the years in London, in uh Canada, in England, uh uh I said England, London uh in uh in New York, in Arizona. We've done it several times. Many people uh have done it with our films in the past. I would say that out of all of the films, this one is as fundamental as can possibly be in some cases even more important than the others. Uh because it's something that every single person can relate to by simply opening their eyes to the world today. So watch the movie Go Magog and pay close attention to what the sages said, to what the prophet said, and look around you and you'll see the words literally come to life and you'll also have the instructions of how to survive the coming war of Gum Magog. Aside from that, as we have every year since we started nearly 10 years ago, we have our annual campaign. This is our biggest campaign of the year which is the uh high holidays campaign. This is a campaign where some of you asked me to uh do a special prayer blessing for you which we've done over the years. And of course this is the time where we rely on especially those of you that are successful that have the means to uh to support much more than you do the rest of the year. And hashem, the blessings that we've given over the years have come not only come to life, not only have been fulfilled, but literally even more than what we expected. Year after year, those people that invested into us during this time have seen extraordinary rewards. And last year, we showed you over three dozen different testimonials from the people that were receiving the miracles during the Roshashana campaign. And I'm not talking about just the average person that sent a few dollars, you know, because they wanted to feel good about themselves. I'm talking about people that actually were nephish took a big chunk of money and invested it into the ku of the Torah, the uh help the we do to help countless poor people in during this time. People that invested got extraordinary blessings and the campaign is up. You can go to bhr.org bhr.org org and you'll see the campaign over there. And uh those of you that uh are seeing the prices go up, that's simply because number one, it's working. And the people that are have invested into us, Bashem, many of them that asked for Pona made a lot of money. So that's that's one thing. And number two, uh we need a lot more. We need a lot more. We need because we need to do a lot more. Over the last 10 years, we've given out nearly $12 million back to AmI in books, in USBs, in uh in uh in in financial help, in food, in all types of things. And I can just simply tell you stories from here until next year of the amount of that the organization has done over the years where people don't realize how much each and every single thing takes, how much it cost, how much thought goes into it. I'll start off with a story. These Aayatar cards that we started years ago as one of the first physical products. We've given out literally hundreds and hundreds of thousands of these. They're made out of amazing material. They look good. They have the Ashkanazi and the Safari Nusak, one in each side. We have a new packaging for them. You can get them for free from uh uh our Kiru store. Each box comes with a hundred. So you could give it on your community or just simply put on the counter at Yeshul or supermarket and people take people love them. Now the whole idea behind this is not just to have people do a blessing and thank Hashem for uh you know allowing their body to work. The whole idea behind it is to help people do chuva. But how could something like this help somebody do chuva? I'll tell you a real life story that literally happened in the last couple of weeks. Somebody contacts me and tells me that they've been watching my films, they're changing, they're transforming, they're doing chuva. Great. Fantastic. And now they want to address the uh specific things that to help their community. And I asked this person, "How did you find out about us?" And she says to me, "Well, one day I was uh at a someplace and I had to take care of my physical needs. Outside of the bathroom, there was one of these in a restaurant outside on the wall. So, I did the blessing of I noticed that there's a little QR square on the bottom. So, I scanned it with my phone and it opened up the film. Hashem took back his millions that's about your personal life. And it's the best movie I've ever seen out of any movie. I've seen it already six times. It's transformed my life. And now literally this person is taking the kiru cards that we have that have the uh uh tikunita on them, the AI rabbi on them, the USBs, and they're literally making packages to give to every single person they know. So anar card is not only transforming this person's life, this person's family's life, but certainly is going to be transforming hundreds and hundreds of people. They are physically going to give these cards to these cards, these USBs, and it costs a fortune. We're investing thousands and thousands of dollars in each one of the people that is ordering stuff. In order for us to continue, we have to have more money. But it's not just to continue. Continuing is not enough. What we've done over the last 10 years is good, but we are running out of time. And therefore, we have to grow exponentially. So if we've given out $12 million over the last 10 years, we have to give out hundreds of millions of dollars in the next few years. And we need your help to do it. So those of you that have the means, have the ability, that want that special blessing that works, that literally cures for cancer, extraordinary wealth, millions and millions of dollars that people have made as a result of it, saved from bad business deals, all types of things. Abu Tai, all of it is online. All of it is public information. You don't have to take my word for it. It's literally on the campaign. It's on our YouTube page. It's in video. Dozens and dozens of testimonials. And the reason why it works is simply because promised to the prophet Jeremiah, if you get people to do chuva, your mouth is going to be like my mouth. Meaning when you pray for somebody, when you ask for something, it's as if Hashem is in essence doing it. Your partners with So it works especially for those people that are not just saying, "Oh, Rabbi, can you pray for me?" without really putting themselves out there. people that actually are willing to invest. And one of the greatest investments that a person can do aside from the campaign is to get as many of these as possible. I spoke to a business person that's a uh student of mine last week told me, "Listen, I I uh I'm looking for all types of things. What I should do, what I should do? I just had this sale of my business and I wanted to know what I should do. What do you think I should do?" I said, "What? Are you sleeping? Did you watch the Go movie? Did you watch some of our stuff lately? This is the greatest product in the world. Get 10, 20, 30, $40,000 together. Get hundreds of these and give them to every single Jew that you know. Why? Because every single one of them that opens it will do chuva. This is how good it is. It's 10 years worth of work. It's something that is absolutely extraordinary. And all you need to do is simply, as I always say, open it. That's it. After that, it does all the work for you. After you get a song, the first Hashem took back his millions. This is the film that changed this woman's life. She watched it already six times. I think she had a few of these. She probably watched 60 times and each time get something new out of it. This is the time where every Jew asked for prayers. Every non-Jew asks for prayers. Every single person on planet earth wants to get a good judgment on Shah on Yum Kipool. And if you want to get into the right side, if you want to get your blessings, if you want to simply start off running in into the year, this is a way to do it. You don't want to do it, by all means, don't do it. For each their own. The key is that when you are investing in this, you're not enriching me. I promise you. You're investing into yourself. You're investing into you're investing into us having the ability to help more poor people which this year we are focusing on widows and orphans because unfortunately over the last couple of years since this miserable war started. There are hundreds and hundreds of families that are now widows and orphans and we're going to do whatever we can to help them. And we're also looking to build finally build a place to have a place that is going to be our US headquarters. And we're looking to increase our impact exponentially. There's a lot of good stuff that we've done over the last 10 years, but there's a lot more that needs to be done. And those of you that benefit from the lectures, those of you that want to have an extraordinary year, this is the place where you are have to push yourself extra. With that being said, we have our lecture at hand and this lecture of the is going to give us some new insights about wisdom. When people speak about wisdom that a person possesses, they usually are implying as wisdom is something unified. As if if he's smart here, if he has wisdom here, it's as if it's all-encompassing. But this is really not true. The begins to clarify the branches of wisdom and how a person can utilize them in this world. And in this sh we'll see the words of the early sages also and his son the Rambam meaning the father and the son as well as modern science. They all come together to bring the words of the to life in order to get a step closer to understanding the meaning of the degradation of the generations that we've heard so much about over the years. What is the difference between us and not just the early sages Noah? Why did Hashem wait 26 generations before he gave the Torah? Didn't they need it before? We'll find that out. Now, to start off, we're going to start off with simply understanding what is Torah. As I've said years ago and I continue to say today, if you look at the world around you and you see how degeneracy, perversion, and just outright evil is becoming standard. In the past, doing chuva was simply something to save your eternal world. today doing chuva and following the ways of Hashem is to save not just your eternal world but your world here because if you're not doing chuva then you're simply part of the degenerates around the world and this is actually what the father of the Rambam who was one of Is himself benfan said nearly 900 years ago in a letter where that I have some excerpts of and he says as follows. The rope of the Torah init hangs down from heaven to earth and any hand that grabs onto it can have hope and confidence. The heart has faith that gripping the rope will save one from absolute drowning. He who lets go of the rope, however, loses the connecting bond between him and God. The waters will then be allowed to prevail, causing him to drown and perish. According to the degree to which one grabs hold of this rope is the degree of one's hope for survival. He who grasps the rope with his entire hand is undoubtedly more has more hope than one who merely grasps it with a part of his hand. He who grabs the rope with the tips of his fingers has greater hope of survival than one who lets go of the rope altogether. A person cannot be spared from the suffering of the exile unless he engages in the study of Torah. He must resolve to follow it in its ways and to cleave to it to meditate over it day and night as David says in Psalm 119 verse 92 had your Torah not been my delight I would have perished in my affliction. What he meant by these words says is that had your Torah not provided satisfaction for my soul, I would have perished in my period of exile. The verse prophetically describes how the children of Israel would become captives in a foreign land and be degraded. Only through their exertion in Torah would they be saved from their enemies torments. in so many words tells you what I said but in obviously much better way that the Torah is not just something for mental stimulation or tradition or culture but literally it's to save you from becoming part of the animal na nature of the world and we see that happening the Torah's wisdom is something that you can apply to your day-today life. But first we have to understand what is wisdom. So the was written about a thousand years ago by writes as follows. After he has explained to us that what is one God means, how he is the ultimate good, he's now going to break down the three branches of wisdom. And he says as follows, wisdom can be divided into three parts. First, the science of created things namely natural science which deals with the natural and accidental properties of material bodies. Mathematics which include arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music. And three, theology, which is the knowledge of God, may be exalted, and the knowledge of his Torah as well as of other subjects understood by the intellect, such as the soul, the intellect, and the spiritual beings. These fields of study with their various divisions are gates opened for man by the creator may he be exalted through which one can come to understand the Torah and the world. Some of these sciences are more vital for understanding the actual Torah whereas others are more vital for worldly use. Those which are more vital for worldly matters are the lower sciences, natural sciences and the intermediate science like mathematics. These two sciences teach us of all the secrets of this world of its uses and benefits that we may gain from it as well as the different skills and crafts which are necessary for meeting physical needs and for the acquisition of various worldly goods. So, so far the in essence is number one telling us that wind that wisdom is not a all-encompassing thing but rather there are parts to it. You can find someone that is brilliant in the natural sciences but a complete fool in mathematics. You can find someone that is brilliant in mathematics but knows nothing about the sciences. One thing that you will find though is that someone that is brilliant in Torah, they're not going to be ignorant of the other sciences. Nowhere near the level of ignorance that the scientists and the mathematicians are as ignorant of the Torah, needless to say, of each other. Why? Because as the says that all of these tools, all of these different branches of wisdom are tools that gave us, gates that gave us that will help us understand not just the world we live in, but even the Torah. And that's why anyone that is not familiar with the Torah, when they see certain things in the world, they have questions about it. For example, somebody asked me, "How would somebody that learns Torah all day know how to manage in business?" I mean, don't they need to learn math? Little did this person know is that you learn the most complicated aspects of math inside the just go into try to figure out the and all the different types of measurements you need to know calculate and many other parts of the Torah have mathematics in it. People think that the Torah is just yes, no, allowed, not allowed, a debate between a couple of sages and then letting us know what to do. No, no, no. All levels of wisdom are inside the Torah. In fact, there were principles of Torah. Principles of mathematics, I'm sorry. principles meaning these are found fundamental teachings in mathematics. They were published by the go. They were published by Shalom just left the world recently. many were absolutely brilliant in the sciences, in mathematics, and anyone that's been watching my lectures for the last 10 years perhaps may remember when I explained to you some of the chuvot, some of the answers that my own dear Rav had in his many books. Bashem, another two are getting on a ship this week. and two new ones and the investigations that have to take place in order to actually write a chuva. Whether it's a chuva about different mechanics in regards to dishwashers or the different things having to do with the army, different things that have to do with medicine, life and death, uh, literally all types of things that you would never think are anywhere close to the vicinity of a bet mid, but that's because most people don't really understand the world of Torah. They don't realize that the Tua encompasses all aspects of life. And before writes a chuva, they have to not just read up about it over the internet and hope that they could give a nice video about it. They have to investigate the subject inside out, become literally an expert in it in some cases. That's why there were certain doctors that for years would call the Kazones for medical advice of how to perform surgeries, brain surgeries. Never went to medical school, but he could tell them exactly where and what to do in every part of the brain. So the beauty of a Torah is that the more you learn it, the more you understand that it encompasses everything. But if you just read it superficially, watch a lecture here and there perhaps read about the weekly parah whenever you get a chance, then you're never going to truly have the sweetness of a Torah, the wisdom of a because to become a takes a whole lot more effort, takes a whole lot more toil, a whole lot more years. You're not going to become a even if you have the greatest memory in the world within a few years. It just doesn't work that way. The wisdom of the Torah is gifted to a person after they earn it. Hashem has to give it to them. But the is in essence trying to tell us that these three levels of these three branches of wisdom are not completely separate from each other. Of course, anyone that wants to understand the creation will have to understand some some basics in mathematics. Anyone that wants to understand mathematics will have to have something to calculate. They'll need to know something about the creation. But anyone that wants to become a Torah scholar, whether they want to or they don't want to, they will inevitably find out a whole lot more information about mathematics as well as the sciences because it's all included in the Torah. Even though the Torah is not taught in your local science uh school and it's not taught by your calculus uh professor. Now these were all provided by a because they're all tools that can help a person understand the Torah. The reason why the goa or mazuz or other spent some time learning these other subjects is not because they were trying to become professors in some university but rather because they knew that it's necessary to learn certain principles. It's necessary to learn certain information in order to understand the complicated issues that are within the Torah. Now, the is saying that the ones that are having to do that most people spend their time on is the natural sciences and mathematics because these have everything to do with everyday life. for people. And if a person wants to develop a certain skill, don't need it. One or the other or both, wants to do business. If you don't know how to do math, you're not going to be very good at business. Why? Because somebody pays you. You're not going to know if he's paying you the right price or the wrong price. you're not going to know what the basics of supply and demand are, when you should increase your price or instead when you should increase your marketing. Sometimes people think that if they lower the price enough, they'll get customers only to realize that yes, they lower the price they got some customers, but now they're out of business because they're losing money on every transaction. Price is not necessarily the main thing you need to concentrate on if you want to succeed in business. On the other hand, if you overpric your items to the point where it prices out people, prices out everyone in the market because they can get everything that you're doing for cheaper, then you may have a good product, but people can get it for cheaper. So, they're not going to buy from you. So a person that prices something needs to know math, needs to know supply and demand, needs to know not just what their personal feeling is about how much hard work went into it or how much they like it, but rather what is the public perception of this. One of the fantastic examples of this that we saw in the last 20 years is a transformation that took place in the world of technology where I remember when I was a young guy. Getting a phone became standard. Getting a cell phone became standard. Everyone that you know is a teenager or you know older would get a phone. And phones got to a point where they became very cheap. You can get them for free. You get them for $100 if you sign a subscription for a year. And the whole industry became commoditized. And then comes Apple with their leader at the time, Steve Jobs, and tells everyone that he has something new that's also a phone, but he's going to sell it for $1,000. Now, initially, anyone that's old enough to remember, many people, although they were impressed by the technology, many people said, "This is certainly going to fail. Who is going to spend $1,000 on a phone? Why would anybody spend who has all this extra money going to spend $1,000 on a phone?" Well, the rest is history because millions and millions and billions have been spent on phones and now they continue to spend even more where the phones now are $1,500 and $2,000 and there are even some phones from different companies that are sold in5 $10,000. All different types of technologies. Why? Why would anybody spend that kind of money? Aside from people that are fools that just like to waste their money because they have it. If the product is good and it has a way to earn its value, then there's no problem to sell it for a premium. What about the fact that people are not used to it? Well, they'll get used to it. And you have to step out there and make a bold move and put everything on the line because if you're just going to do what everybody else is doing and sell everything like a Coca-Cola bottle, you might as well not get into the business because Coca-Cola already has it. The big companies already have it. You're never going to be able to outpric them. You're never going to be able to make profits like they do. So there's no point of even getting into it. So unless in today's world things have changed in such a way since there is online marketing and there's pretty much you know having a uh a an actual physical store is becoming more and more meaningless. People don't even want to go to stores anymore. They just want the products. So today there's more competition for products than ever. There's more competition for customers than ever. There's more money than ever. And there's more consumerism, meaning people that are spent thrifts waste a lot of money. People like to buy new stuff constantly, but there's very little customer loyalty because there's so much selection. How do you get customer loyalty? You got to produce results. You got to give something that they can show off about. You got to make a blessing that actually works, but not works like, oh, he had a nice year and everything is good. No, he became a millionaire from being nothing to being a millionaire in one year. She was trying to have kids for 10 years. The doctor says it's not possible. There's more of a chance of your dog having people as babies than you having kids. And then she ends up having two kids. Stuff like that sells. And that's what happens Abu Tai. When Apple came out with what they did, they brought something new to the world. And because they delivered on their promise, they became Apple is what they are. And the same thing with other companies. There are a lot of companies out there that promise a lot of things, but unfortunately they underdel and many times they go out of business. So the is telling us that this mathematical science uh information this mathematical knowledge wisdom and the wisdom of the natural sciences are things you're going to need in order to conduct yourself in the world. Now all of this is essential to learning Torah. But before we get to see how it's essential to learning Torah, we have to go and see what the Rambam has to say. the Rambam and in chapter one number 10 brings up the question that everyone should have. If Hashem does not have a body, which we already learned in the last lecture from the Rambam, Hashem doesn't have a body, the likeness of a body. Then how do we understand what Moshe Abenu was referring to when in Exodus 33:8, he asked Hashem, "Please show me your glory." If there's nothing to see, then what is Mosheu asking for? says the Rambam Rabenu asked to know the truth of the existence of the Holy One. Blessed be he to the extent that it would be internalized within his mind as one knows a particular person whose face he saw and whose image has been engraved into his heart and thus this person's identity is distinguished within one's mind from other people. Similarly, Moshe Abenu asked that the existence of the holy one blessed be he be exting distinguished in his mind from the existence of other entities to the extent that he would know the truth of his existence as if uh in its own right. In so many words, what the Rambab is trying to tell us is that if you met somebody and uh more than just a casual cashier, you say, "Hello, thank you." You get the coffee, get your keys from the parking, and you saw somebody, you had a conversation with them. There was some type of connection. You did a deal with them. Whatever it is, from that moment on, that person's image is engraved into your mind. Meaning that even if you don't see them for another five years, when somebody says, "Oh, do you remember Steve, the guy that you met and you sat with? You were talking about the business deal and you guys did a few things together." Now, you haven't seen him in five years. Perhaps you talked to him here and there, but generally speaking, you haven't seen the guy. Immediately when you hear his name, his image is already in your mind. You know what he looks like. Even if you didn't see him much, but it becomes an imprinted image within your mind. What Moshe Rabenu wanted was to have the truth, the absolute truth, the uncensored truth of the reality of everything that exists in this world imprinted in his heart in order to literally not have any capability of even looking in a direction of falsehood. He wanted to know Hashem's existence and everything without ever having an opportunity or giving the opportunity for the Satan to steer him in the wrong direction. And Akadhu replied to Mosheenu that it's not within the potential of a living man that has a body and a soul to comprehend this matter in its entirety. He still revealed to Mosheu matters that no other man had ever known before nor will ever know after. Meaning even the Messiah or Schlommo would not reach the level of wisdom that Moshe Benu got to. But yet it's still not the absolute level that he got to after he died. Something that is not possible so long as a person has the limitations of a flesh, a body. Now here the Rambam is telling us that out of all the things that Moshe Renu wanted, he wanted the wisdom of the creation, the wisdom of the creator, the absolute truth more than anything else. He could have asked for money. He could have asked for all types of luxuries. He could have asked for anything. But we see that asked for this one thing that's unreachable for a human being because it's literally above and beyond everything else. So from there we could understand at least how much more wisdom would mean to each and every person. None of us are going to get to Musher Rabenu or even close to it. But certainly there are levels of wisdom. There's zero, there's one, there's two, there's three, there's four, there's five. And it keeps going up and up. The more wisdom a person has, the more transformation follows in their life. Now the rabb in chapter 2 of tells us that we have a commandment to love Hashem, to fear Hashem. These are two different commandments. But the question is, how do we get there? How do you get to these very very important levels of loving Hashem, fearing Hashem? Now you could easily say the solution is to learn Tawa. Yes. But what about the other stuff? What about learning math? What about learning the sciences? Is that supposed to impact you? Depends how you're learning it. If you're learning it in order to become a bigger enemy of a Torah because you're trying to see how you could fool people with the manipulations of scientific information and certainly it's not going to get you to fear God or love God because you already are starting with a base of hating God. But if a person is unbiased and looking for the truth, even learning these bits of information can help them if they if it's coupled with learning to and the Rambam says what is the path to attain love and fear for him for Hashem when a person contemplates Hashem's wondrous and great deeds and creations and appreciates appreciates Hashem's infinite wisdom that surpasses all comparison. He will immediately love pray praise and glorify Hashem, yearning with tremendous desire to know Hashem's great name. As David said in Psalm 42:3, "My soul thirsts for the Lord, for the living God." When this person continues to reflect on these same matters, he will immediately recoil in awe and fear. Meaning the more you understand about the creation, more you understand not just something as incomprehensible like the mechanics of your eye of how there's literally something that is thinner than a balloon. Do you ever pop a balloon and see how thin a balloon is? The lining of your eye is thinner than a balloon, but is more sophisticated than all the cameras in the world can ever be. is a device that's unlike anything else. It cleans itself. It protects itself. It records everything. And it's more fragile than anything you could possibly imagine. Yet, in most cases, it is stays safe and sound throughout a person's entire life. But even if you go into something that's smaller, like the cells within your body, the protein cells, years ago, I explained to you guys what the protein cells in your body are, where each protein fold that's within your body is not only something that's good to have or necessary. If one protein fold out of the trillions and trillions of proteins you have in your body, if one protein fold has a moom where it folds the wrong way, instantly the person loses the ability to see, to eat, to breathe. One protein, we're talking about trillions of them. One protein fold folds the wrong way. Like, you know, sometimes you do laundry, then you realize you folded it when the shirt's inside out and you don't like it that way, so you unfold it, take the shirt, put it right side up, and then do the whole thing all over again. Well, this is just one shirt. You have literally endless amount of protein folds. They all fold in a specific precise way in specific precise places within your body. If one of them folds the wrong way for argument sake and just a simplify things inside out that person loses a major ability within their body and could even die. So the more a person understands the intricate details within the creation says the Rambam the person will recoil in awe and fear appreciating how he is a tiny lowly dark creature standing with his flimsy limited wisdom before he Hashem who is perfect knowledge. As David Melik said in Psalm 8:es 4 and 5, "When I see your heavens, the work of your fingers, I wonder what is man that you should recall him." Meaning you're so awesome, so extraordinary, so amazing. Why you like why would you even remember a manal? We're such a nothing that and you're everything. It's simply miraculous that you even care to remember our existence. But of course is there for every millisecond of existence in every single of the one of the creations whether it's you or I or your spouse or or kids or a fly or a dog or somebody in the middle of a jungle or whatever it is. Every single creation has to be given the right to live to exist every so second it does. One of the ways we could see that from the creation is when they discovered the a little bit more about the mechanics of atoms. Everything is energy and you have the proton, the neutron, the electron and in so many words in a simple way to explain it. Your science teacher is going to show you a ball and then another couple of balls. And they're all spinning really, really fast. So fast that they look as if they're solid, as if it's one piece. And next to them there are endless amount of other balls also. electron, proton, neutron also spinning really, really fast. And they're all spinning really, really fast. Even though the if you actually put them under a microscope, you will see that there is a big separation between one ball and the other. If this is one ball and this is another ball and this is another ball, it looks like okay, so they have separation, but it's not a big deal. But in reality, if you put it under the microscope, the separation between them is much wider. In fact, scientists have said that 99.9% of the atom is empty space. 99.9% of the atom is empty space. Which means that all of those balls, all of those atoms that are spinning that make up the body, that make up the universe, that make up everything that you see, whether it's this amazing cup that you can get from the BH shop store or it's the keepa or it's me or it's the uh screens in front of me or anything else. All of us are made up of these little balls that are spinning that are mostly empty space. But they're spinning so fast that just like the fan that spins on top of you, if you have a fan, when it spins slow, you could see that the fan has two or three or four or five blades. But when it spins really fast, it looks like as if there's one blade. You only discover that there's multiple blades when it slows down. So it looks solid be when it's spinning really fast. These atoms look solid, look like they're all together, one piece, because everything is spinning so fast. But in reality, it's mostly empty space, mostly nothing. What's keeping them spinning? Who keeps them spinning? So much so that the leading scientists that have delved into this were simply amazed at the fact that people are not aware that if these atoms would cease to spin for even one second one second the atoms of your body stop spinning the atoms of the universe stop spinning even for one second there's no explosion like the movies with fire because that's more atoms What happens if it stops spinning? Everything just disappears as if it never existed. Everything disappears. Why? Because the moment it stops spinning, it exposes the reality of empty space of nothing. Another reason why the sages called this the world of lies. It's all a lie. It's an illusion. It looks like everything is there, but in reality, it's all nothing. So the more a person understands the mechanics of the great world and universe and creation that akados created the more they realize how much of a nothing we are how much we depend on hashem if not for keeping the atoms spinning it's keeping the eyes Seeing most people are focused more about keeping the cash flow coming into the pockets and the bank accounts. They don't realize how much more they have to be grateful for than just the money. So the Rambam tells us that the more you actually delve into the creation understanding everything the more you'll be in awe of Hashem. Now, if you are studying it by itself and not studying Torah, then you're not going to become in awe of Hashem most of the time because you're going to think that, you know, it's like some of the heretic scientists say that everything came from some foolish explosion or it's just a uh maybe you came from a monkey or a lizard or or a parrot or a penguin or all of the above. Like when you go to the zoo, you're going to see your grandparents. But if you actually couple your worldly knowledge with the Torah, that is going to actually help you fear and love Hashem. And the Rambam goes on into saying in the third al of this section chapter 2 by saying as follows. Everything which the holy one blessed be he created within his world is divided into three categories. First creations which are the combination of matter and form. They're constantly coming into existence and ceasing to exist. For example, the bodies of man, beasts, plants, metals, they come to life, they die. to creations which are also a combination of matter and form but don't change from body to body or from form to form like the first category. Rather, their form is permanently fixed in their matter and they don't change as others do. For example, the spheres and the stars which revolve in them. the matter from what they're composed of is different from the simple conception of matter that we described earlier. So the spheres, the globe, Earth, Mars, all these planets, although the movies and the simplistic scientific explanations make it seem like it's just a bunch of sand in a uh in a spherical shape. The Rambam has explained to us. No, no, no. This is a different form of matter. The fact that there is a globe that is able to contain anything in it and is spinning at 1,600 miles per minute, I believe, or per second, some ridiculous speed, in order for things to function that if it were to slow down, you have a very, very serious problem. If it were to speed up, you even have a bigger problem. In fact, if it were to move one degree closer to the sun, the whole earth would burn up one degree. If it goes one degree further from the sun, everything would freeze. But the fact that this globe that we call Earth or other planets, other stars contain whether it's human life on Earth or even simply sand and and moons and whatever other things are in other planets. This is not because it just happened to be a bunch of sand come together and uh no no this is a different type of creation that a kadosh created. All of the stars, all of the moons, all of the planets, they're all there for the sake of earth, which is there for the sake of the Jew that's learning Torah. All of those planets are there in order to keep the earth spinning the same exact speed, remaining at the same exact distance from the sun and the moon and everything else. Literally everything is hanging there, positioned there as if it's stuck to something. But as the prophet Job says, the world stands on what? On nothing. What's keeping it spinning? What's keeping it from going further or closer to the sun? What's keeping the other planets from moving closer further? All of it is for to learn to. And a third type of creation says the Rambam have form but no matter at all. There's nothing. There's no flesh. There's no matter at all. What is it? Angels. Angels do not possess bodies or corporal being but rather are forms which are separate from each other. This is similar to the souls. And later on the Rambam gives the names of the different types of 10 different types of angels. There's theim, uh, Elohim, sons of Elohim, and Ishim. So, we see here also certain words that you hear that most people think is God. It's not. There's angels that are called Elohim and also there's called sons of Elohim. And he gives examples in the Torah. Where did the Rambam get all this information from? About the spheres, about the planets, about this is all. This is all of it is in the Torah. Delve into it and delve into it because everything literally everything is in it. Now the midasha in last week's para had some interesting things about ants. Ants when we were kids we used to play with ants and uh it was fun to play with ants. Put them in a little box. Put some sand into there. play with ants. When you grow up, for whatever reason or another, you start becoming scared of ants or other bugs. We were kids, we didn't have fear of anything, playing with all types of things. And the midrash says in the name of go to the ant see its ways and become wise. So the mid asks what's so wise about the uh ant? Why uh see its ways? says first of all you should know that the ant doesn't have a very long life. So of whether it has six or 12 months worth of life. Here the mid says six months and other places in the Torah says it's as much as 12 months because it's a invertebra page 58 and it says and doesn't live for long but yet it works so much that it has already enough food for the rest of its life on its first few hours in But it continues working. And once they asked, one of the sages asked speaking ant language when they found that the ant has gathered so much food. It was like 300 coup, an extraordinary amount. Something ridiculous. Literally could feed a household of people for for for years. What does this little ant have all this food for? So they ask the ant, why you have all this food? And the ant says, perhaps the holy one, blessed is he, will decree more life for me. So by collecting all this food, I have a provision that I need to eat. Meaning perhaps unlike my cousin and his brother and my sister and my mother and my father and every single aunt that I ever heard about that lived only 6 to 12 months, perhaps Hashem is going to decide that I'll live for uh 6 to 12 years instead of 6 months. So in case he does, I'm already prepared to have all this food. Meaning that the ant has such a nature that it's preparing for the future that it knows it may not even be possible. But then they ask the the midash ask okay but what okay we see it's very it's unlike many people especially today that are very lazy don't even want to do their own uh b take care of their own basic needs. They want somebody to take care of them. The ant works hard but When he said, "Look at the ant and therefore you become wise." He's not referring to be hard worker. That's not wisdom. That's uh in Egypt we're working hard. We're slaves. Says wise meaning wise with something having to do with Torah. How can you learn from the ant to uh become wise in Torah? Says look at its nature. The ant will never take another ant's food. So much so that says that there was once an ant that uh dropped a kernel of food of wheat that it was carrying. And all the ants, those hundreds or thousands of ants that were on that level, let's say the ant that had the wheat was on the uh top floor, it dropped a kernel of wheat to the bottom floor. So, it couldn't just go get it. On the bottom, there were thousands of ants. All of those ants came close and smelled the wheat and who made it part of his life to investigate nature and has other stories about ants I'll tell you in a second and other animals. He said every ant came, smelled it, and then walked away. Smelled it, walked away. smelled it, walked away until the ant that owned the ant that had that carried this kernel finally got down to that level and collected its wheat kernel and left. He says, "Look at the behavior of the ant without having a leader overseeing them like a king, without having rules, without having anyone that forces it to act in a certain way. It knows inherently not to touch other people's stuff, not to disrespect other people's stuff, not to steal other people's stuff. Look at how praiseworthy the ants behavior is. That's what was referring to. Now this is one of the things that said but there's another place in where it talks about where he saw what said and he said I want to I want to know where uh Medik got this uh idea. How can we prove this idea? I'm sorry. How can we prove the idea that that said that ants don't have a king? How do I know it doesn't have a king? How could I prove? And I asked the ants, how I know. So, what did he do? Said, we know that ants, they don't like the sun. they rather work in the shade. So what he did is he took some type of uh cover that he put on top of the uh of the ant hole. So it looked like the sun is down. one of he was waiting for an ant to come out to see that there's a uh the sun is down, there's cover, there's shade, and then go back inside, tell the rest of the ants. And he quickly and he followed those that ant to see, can I pinpoint which ant it is? And we'll find out later how he was even able to do that. He covered one ant came out then went back into the hole and quickly a bunch of other ants came out and then he took out the shade and exposed the sun and he saw that all of those ants weren't exactly very happy with that single ant and started attacking it and from there says ah now I see the words of who says at the learn from it. It's wise, but it doesn't have a leader. Now, I understand why what what he meant by they don't have a leader. They don't have a king. There's no king. Why? Because had they had a king, they wouldn't just listen to somebody that uh told them to go outside. They would have to get some type of command. And they wouldn't just kill another ant just because they uh the ant gave them wrong information. So, they don't have a king. The point is, Abu Tai, these simplified stories that I'm telling you, they're much deeper than that are different ways that the utilized to learn from the creation, to learn about Hashem through his creation. Now, where is this or at least some of the examples of this inside our Torah, inside the Torah itself, the Torah. Years ago, I did a uh film called Torah Science and Ancient Wisdom. And in there, we included many different interesting scientific facts that prove the Torah. Some of the information came from this book that we've distributed hundreds and thousands of copies of over the years. Uh some of it have come from other places. But in the book by uh Rabbi Zamir Cohen called the coming revolution or science comes of age has multiple names but it's the same book and now they actually translated the other editions of it uh to English as well in other languages. He has in uh page 179 a few interesting things. says in our world there are constantly medical papers and scientific papers that are published about different things. For example, a German medical journal called in volume 7 page 30 there's a Dr. who notes a case where there's a skin disease that left a red mark on the forehead of a child. The child's mother, who was pregnant at the time, was concerned that if she looked at that mark that her new baby would have it as well, meaning one child has a mark on his head. and she's afraid that if she keeps looking at his mark that the new child that she's pregnant with will also have it. Several months later, she gave birth to twins and both kids have a red mark on their head. In another place called the commenter d uh zubarez a doctor van vitton in volume 3 page 406 describes that there was a pregnant woman who was startled when a large worm fell on the back of her neck and when her daughter was born a few months later the child had a birthark in the same shape as the warm and the color of the worm that fell on the mother's skin. Meaning what the first mother was afraid of a mark on a uh happened with the other kids. The second mother was afraid of a worm that fell on it. Creepy, disgusting. No, no, no. That's not enough. It actually imprinted that physical that emotional feeling had a physical impact on the baby that wasn't born yet. Same color, same shape. In another uh place called Miracles of Will, it's a book called Miracles of Will. A Norwegian author, Bernson, he writes that when his wife was pregnant, she was terrified when she saw a man with big ears, fatty ears, and she told her husband, "I'm afraid that our kids will ever have such a thing." to his dismay when she gave birth. Her oldest son had the same unusual growth in his ears. Years later, they had a guest and the guest that came over their house had cross eyes where the eyes are coming together. And the wife again, she apparently had a staring problem. She kept looking at the guy's eyes just like she looked at the guy with the big ears. She was looking and then when the guy left, she told the husband, "I'm afraid that uh the next kid we have is going to have that also." And she was pregnant at the time. And that's exactly what happened. The child was born with a serious case of crossey. Dr. Matson M writes in a journal called maternal impressions and the influence upon a fetus of an experience where arriving at a house of the William family in order to treat a gunshot wound to the head of Mr. William that was caused by a stray bullet from a hunting rifle. There was an accident and Mr. William got shot in the head. He survived, but obviously this was a horrible injury. But when he got there, he saw that Mrs. William was hysterical, screaming, "Okay, he's going to be okay." "No, no, you don't understand," Mrs. William said. She was sure that the baby that she was pregnant with would be born with red marks on his head. Now, and just moments before while treating her husband, Mrs. Williams noticed that she had smeared blood on her hands and face. and the instinct told her that this blood that she has in her hands, her husband's blood will reappear as body marks on her unborn child. Two months later, Dr. Mun returned to William to the Williams home to deliver the babies. In those days, the doctors would do multiple things. Not like today where they can't even do one thing where usually they have assistants, nurses, replacements, and they're very, very good at going to play golf. In those days, the doctors actually went to houses, delivered babies, healed wounds, surgeries. They were literally real doctors. This doctor came to deliver a baby. The baby seemed healthy, appeared healthy, except large red spots in the exact place where the father had been injured. And the injury happened when the mother was only 52 days pregnant. Meaning she still had most of the nine months left. Now all of this is very very interesting. But how do we know that this is also in a Torah is quoted in a midn chapter 9 where the king of Arabia summoned Raba because he was about to kill the queen. Why was the king of Arabia about to kill the queen? He says to Raaka, "I'm dark-skinned and my wife is dark-skinned, yet she just gave birth to a white baby. So, she must have cheated on me, committed adultery, but she cries that no, she's not cheating. She never cheated. She never even looked at anything. Please spare me. So, I want you." They say that you are the wisest among the Jewish people. I want you to tell me, is it possible for a black woman to have a white baby without missing a beat tells him in your room in your bedroom, do you have any pictures or statues that are white? And the king of Arabia says, "Yes, Rabbi, shall we do?" Why? He says, "She must have looked at them." And that impacted the baby. What's the proof? We learn from the Torah Sephashit. Genesis 30 verse 37-39. Yakov Ainu makes a deal with Lavan and Lavan keeps changing the deal, keeps cheating him. So Yakov makes a deal. Listen, you have all of these sheep. There's only a few that have spots on them. So whatever comes out, like the majority, like what you have is yours. If there's a few, anything that's born that has spots will be mine. Sees he has a million sheep. They're all white. They're all solid colors. And there's a couple of them, two, three, four, five, that are uh have spots. He says, "Oh, that's what he wants." Well, how many babies can they possibly have? Even if he if they have a new baby every year, by the time he gets uh to have a herd, it's going to be he's going to be a thousand years old. Sure. Deal. Deal. No problem. Just keep working. You're the best worker. I like your deals. Jacobu does something that only knowledge of the sciences that is only being discovered by the medicinal world. You know, later on only that knowledge could tell him. What did he do? Torah tells us he takes rods of green popppler from the almond and plain tree and peeled white streaks in them. And he made the white within the rods appear. Then he set the rods that he had peeled in front of the flock in the gutters of the waters uh of the water throws when the flock came to drink. So in so many words, every time the flock came to drink, they would see these sticks with spots on them. And that's usually when they would meet. And the flocks conceived before the rods and brought forth streaks, speckled streckled, and spotted cattle. In so many words, what the Torah tells us there is that it didn't matter whether the sheep were spotted or streaked or solid colored. The knowledge that Yakovu had of how certain things influence what somebody would look like. pretty much rigged the game where the even though there was only a few to start off with, the majority of the new sheep being born would have streaks and spots and all the things that Yakov wanted. So he got this information from an angel that sent him. But we see that the Torah has information that the scientific world is only finding out in recent years. This scientific information, you can always find it in the Torah, but you have to know what you're looking for. If you're learning the sciences and the mathematics in order to understand how Jacob Ainu did what he did, how uh you know Lavan didn't know, how uh you know a uh Mosher Rabenu did what he did, how Arau did what he did, all of the different things the different sages, different of our forefathers did. If you're learning it for the sake of understanding more of the Torah, you're understanding the uh the different uh things that our sages taught us, then that science is going to make you appreciate and have more awe and fear and love of Hashem. But if you're learning the sciences and the mathematics independent of a Torah, meaning you don't care about the Torah, you're against the Torah, then it's not going to help you. Now the finishes this section with this with the following words. Says but the field of study which is essential to the Torah is the most lofty of all sciences namely theology. And it is our duty to learn this wisdom in order to understand and realize the Torah. To study it in order to attain worldly benefit is forbidden as our sages have said to love Hashem your God to obey his voice and to attach yourself to him is what tells us in this means say the sages that a person should not say I will study Torah in order to become a scholar and I will learn it so people could call me rabbi and I will learn it in order to be one of the authorities the yeshiva rather the Torah is telling you learn it out of love and in the end honor will come. So out of all of the fields, out of all the branches of study, he says science is good, mathematics is good, but their main purpose is to help you function in the world and also to learn more Torah, to understand the Torah. The one part branch of wisdom that you must do whether you like, you don't like is to learn Torah, to learn theology. But don't learn Torah for the sake of making money. Don't learn Torah for the sake of getting honor. Don't learn Torah for the sake of being called some type of respectable position. Learn Torah out of love for Hashem. And if you do that, eventually all of those honors will come anyway. And the continues and says, "Cry out the words of a Torah for the sake of the deed itself. Study the Torah for its own sake. And don't make the words of a Torah a crown to win fame with or an axe to cut with. As David says in 112 verse1, happy is the man who fears God, who takes great delight in his commandments. And Lazar says, what does it mean take takes great delight in his commandments? He takes great delight in his commandments and not the reward of his commandments. Meaning that he is not fulfilling the commandments because he wants some special reward from Hashem or he wants some special reward from people that he's so righteous. No, no. The actual commandment itself is the reward because we are supposed to be as the devote says be like servants who serve the master on a condition of receiving uh don't be uh servants that serve the master on a condition of receiving a reward but rather be like servants who serve the master not on the condition of receiving a reward. And let the fear of heaven be upon you. Meaning if you need a clarification of what should motivate you to serve Hashem, Lazelle says it should be simply the fear of Hashem. How should one arrive at the fear of Hashem? Number one, the more Torah you learn, the more fear of Hashem you have. But even if you're not at a point where you could say, "Listen, I can go from nothing to learning enough to fear God." No. Even if you just simply pay attention to the creation, you pay attention to the things that we said, whether it's the atoms or it's uh the different things that impact babies or it's uh the the universe, the planets, all of this scientific information that you're aware of and how much it impacts our frail little body, you have to understand all of that is in the control of Hashem. It's all in his hands. He decides whether you will make no money or millions of dollars this year. He decides whether you will get married or stay alone forever. He decides whether you will try to have kids and fail year after year for 10, 20, 30 years or your whole life or you will have literally a kid after a kid to the point where it's like people are swearing maybe of some type of gene of puppies or something. What's going on? What are you giving? You're breeding like six at a time. How are you having so many kids? What a blessing. What is it? You're back to you have the uh the uh the blessing AmI had in Egypt. Six babies at a time. The same one God decides that one woman he decides nothing. Another woman, one baby after another. He decides whether a person will get a raise at his job or get fired. He decides whether you'll get accepted at the bank and get a loan for even more money than you need or no bank in the world will even want to talk to you even if you have money in the accounts. He decide everything whether you will get to your meeting on time or get to the meeting at all. He decides every single thing. The more a person understands how many things rely on a kad whose decisions every millisecond that they're alive, every breath you breathe in or out, you're supposed to say enough thank yous to Hashem that there would not be enough time to breathe anymore for the rest of your life for a single breath. He decides if that breath is going to come in or come out. He decides if the blood clots or doesn't clot. Why does your blood clot? Why does it clot? Well, I mean, if you bleed, you explain. Oh, you had a cut and therefore after you got a cut, then the blood clots. It solidifies in order to uh close the hole. Right. Yes, you're right. That that's an outcome. But why does it clot? Who told it to clot? How come it doesn't clot inside your body? Do you know that if your blood clots inside your body, it solidifies inside your body, you get a heart attack, you die? So who told it to clot? The second it left your body, it clots. And you say, "Oh, well, you know, as soon as it hits oxygen, wrong." Why? If you take a bunch of blood and you pour it, it doesn't clot. Doesn't clot on the floor. Doesn't clot on the table. Doesn't clot in a petri dish. Doesn't clot. Just stays liquid. But if it's still connected to you, you have a cut, the blood that comes out immediately goes to work. What does it do? To protect the body from bleeding out. So all of it gathers up. One blood cell tells the other one, "Yo, come on. Let's go. We got work. Why? What are we doing? We're clotting. Oh, go. Go. Bring the other guys. Bring Joe. Bring Steve. Bring all the guys. Bring everyone. What are we doing? We're clotting. Why? Got to save this guy from dying. Why is a small cut?" Yeah, but the small cut, if it's not shut, all of the blood of the body is going to leave. He's going to die. So, all the blood cells come go, go, go. Everybody brings all their tools, everything. All the blood clots within seconds. Within seconds, the wound is closed. Who told the blood to do it? But if you took that same blood and you put in a cup, doesn't clot. Nothing happens. The more a person understands the pure genius of creation, the more in awe of Hashem he is as far as how I love him. But the more he realizes how this affects him, how much I need Hashem to make sure the blood clots, to make sure that the atoms spin, to make sure my eye can see when I open my eyes, to make sure that my lungs work when I want to breathe in and breathe out, to make sure that I everything functions. Needless to say, that money comes in so I could pay the bills and I could feed my kids and I could do this and I could do that. The more a person understands how many things he needs or she needs from that literally their life is on the line every millisecond. Every millisecond your life is on the line pleading Hashem for approval. Please give me another second to breathe. Another second to breathe. Okay, I got the second. Give me another second to breathe. Please another second. The more a person understands how much they need Hashem, then certainly they'll be afraid. Certainly they'll be afraid. If they're not afraid, they're a If they're not afraid, they're worse than a chimp. That's what the are telling us here. Yes, you have sciences. Yes, you have mathematics. Yes, you have theology. Everything is important. But there's a priority list. is a priority list to learn how to do business. You need to know some mathematics. You need to function. Even if you don't become a big businessman, you're in a you still need to know how to pay the bills. Need to know the basic stuff. So, you need math. You need science to understand the ways of the world. You need But don't think for a second they're priority. No, learning Torah is priority. Number one, because the mathematics and the sciences are inside the Torah. Number two, because if you're learning Torah, then the mathematics and the sciences that you also learn will help you learn how to use the Torah in the way you're supposed to use it to fear God, to love God even more. But if you don't learn Torah, then certainly the mathematics and the sciences that you use will end up corrupting you worse than what you were before you learned them. And therefore says the literally these three branches of wisdom are things that everyone is aware that they're necessary but if they're not coupled together you're not going to have an outcome that you want. Now if you ask the question, how did Yakovinu and the rest of our forefathers manage to know this information like I explained with the sheep or other things if they didn't have the Torah yet? Then we got it at Mount Si which is hundreds of years before what happened with Yakov. The says towards the end of the book in the gate of abstinence in chapter 7 and I bring it to you now because it will take us years to get to the end and he says as follows something that puts everything into the right perspective. The difference between our ancients and ourselves in regards to abstinence is as follows. The ancients for example, Noah, Job, his friends, they had pure minds and weak inclinations. And their souls followed the dictates of their minds. powerful minds understood things beyond anything we could even imagine and their inclinations desires for for food for for intimacy for for luxury for all of those things were very weak. So their minds were too powerful for their inclinations. So they were able to serve God without distraction. They were able to understand the truth without distractions that people have. How so? says a small number of precepts suffice them in order to serve God perfectly given the faithfulness of their hearts to God as it says of of Abrau and you found this heart faithful before you. These forefathers did not need the abstinence that departs from the balanced from the balanced uh uh way prescribed by the Torah. So many words. They didn't need the Torah to tell them they're not allowed to do certain things in order for them to stay pure, in order for them to stay holy, in order for them to stay loyal to Hashem. But this changed when their descendants went down to Egypt and lived there for 70 years during the peaceful times of Yusf Sadik. Their desire became strong and their passion increased and their base instinct prevailed over their reason. Hence they required a form of abstinence that would be the ant antithesis of their desire and that would counter their base instinct. Therefore the creator gave them more of the commandments whose origin is in the revelation alone. Commandments which serve them instead of the abstinence appropriate to them according to uh according to and even below their capacity. In so many words, Noah, they were in such elevated state of of intellect while coupled with a very low level of desire that Hashem did not need to give them many rules in order for them to be loyal, in order for them to be willing to die for Hashem at any given moment. Ainu Kados Mahoot tested him by telling him to sacrifice his son. And Abramu was so dedicated to it that he ended up going to do it first thing in the morning. 4:00 in the morning. Hashem didn't tell him go do it first thing in the morning. He didn't even tell him when to go do it. He could have done it a 100 years later. But as soon as he heard it from Hashem, he went first thing in the morning without a second thought. And even after I told Hashem told him to stop, said, "Maybe I should cut a little bit at least so I could fulfill your will." A little bit. And he agreed. Yeah. Yeah. Go Aba. A little bit. A little bit. No, you have to stop him. That's why it says to stop twice. But their elevation of intellect, of wisdom was so superior because their base desires, their attraction to money, attraction to lust, attraction to all types of other things was very very limited and very weak. So their intellect would constantly win over their base desires. But as soon as they their descendants theatim the tribes went to Egypt their they were also elevated but their kids were the next generation they started living the high life in Egypt and what does it say in the beginning when they first get to Egypt Ysef tells the brothers tell per that you're all farmers so he doesn't ask you to come and be part of his army part of his counselors and That's also why I made sure that you guys sit here in the city of Goshin. Don't leave the city of Goshan. What does the end of the par say that they started buying property in places outside of Gan? Meaning their desires for money increased. Their desires for material increased. And therefore had to bring more rules in order to make up for this increased desire. Even though their capacity was just like their their parents, they could have been like Jacobu. They could have been like Abrahamu. They had the wherewithal. But since they started connecting more and more to materialism, the the the elevation was now being pulled down by the materialism. That's why a person can elevate themselves when they in in in spirituality when they're fasting and they're learning Torah and they're fasting they'll learn much better Torah than if they're learning while eating a hamburger. Why? Because again the the uh the more a person connects to materialism the less capability their mind will have. Now when am conquered the land of Kanan and settled in it says the they began to enjoy the bounty and they pursued not only their basic needs but also extras. Extras in food, drink, sensuality, building, materialism. The more the land was built up, the more their minds degenerated. As Moshe Rabbenu tells us already prophetically in chapter 8 verse 12 of the book of Deuteronomy, lest when you have eaten and are full and have built fine houses and lived in them and your herd and flock will have increased, you then become proud and forget Hashem your God. The more their desires increased and intensified, the weaker became their minds. which were then less able to perceive the proper course and now they required in order to withstand this desire now a more intense form of abstinence in order to elevate themselves that's where it became the becoming a nazil a nazerite or the pro which was the uh uh different p practices of the prophets and the disciples of the prophets. And so it was in subsequent generations. Minds were getting weaker and weaker and desires were getting stronger and stronger. Whenever they would engage in matters of this world, they would be distracted from the matters of the next world. Hence, they required abstinence in order to free themselves of this world when performing work leading to the next world. The ancients, however, with their strong minds and pure souls were able to engage in matters of this world and the next without having one impede the other. As the prophet Jeremiah says, "Did your father not eat and drink and yet do justice and right? Hence, it was well with him. It is best that you hold on to the one and not let go of the other says. So in so many words says the while everyone is focused so much on materialism. Don't imagine for a moment that did not work. They worked. They were shepherds. They had employees but they didn't make work their life. They didn't make materialism their life. In essence, what the is trying to tell us is that the primary reason of why there is a degradation of the generations is not that Hashem all of a sudden gave us smaller brains. The capabilities of a person in essence, theoretically speaking, you're talking about the capabilities weren't supposed to be changed. People in the scientific world speculate that you only use two or 3% of your brain. This explains it. Our forefathers were able to use their entire mind in ways that they were able to literally create stuff like was able to create a a cow on Shabbat. All types of things that Zakados talks about. Prophecy is is not something that you do. It's not magic. It's it's something that requires a spiritual elevation unlike anything else that you could possibly imagine. How were there prophets back then? How are they, you know, people that were able to change nature? The Ariza was able to take out the soul of the of the impure woman that a person committed adultery with out of the person. Cuz now once they make that sin, the goya in the in the Jew, the soul is connected. He took the soul out of him. That's now it's connected and he showed it to him. How how is this is only 500 years ago. How could all of these supernatural things happen? How can have conversations with people of the other part other side as if he's talking to you to a regular person in so many words says the capabilities are there. Hashem created Adam. the traits of Adam passed on to all of the descendants. The reason why there's a constant degeneracy, constant degradation, every generation is worse, every generation is less, is because every generation becomes more and more addicted to materialism, more and more addicted to fulfilling their own lusts, more and more connected to the science and the math of this world without coupling it with the third branch, the most important branch which is the Torah. When you learn the science and the math, these other branches of wisdom with the Torah, you could elevate everything. When you learn just the sciences and the materialism, then you're assured to be another continuing part of the chain of degeneracy and degradation and in so many words things that are the opposite of what you would want for yourself if you actually knew all this. So this is another opportunity for us to take the holy words of the and inspect our own hearts. Where do we stand? How much have we thought about money in comparison to today? Don't tell me about your whole life. Nobody could remember their whole life. Today, today, this past few days, this past week, how much has a person spent thinking about getting a new refrigerator, a new car, a raise at work, a new diamond ring, whatever it is, materialism versus what am I doing to prepare myself for Allah? What do I have there? Do I have any diamonds in Allah? Do I have any palaces in Allah? This is a time where every person has to analyze where am I investing all of my energy. Am I investing all of my energy into a temporary world that's here today, gone tomorrow that no matter how rich you are, at some point you turn to dust. At some point you're gone. or am I investing at least just as much in the next world as I am in this world. This in essence is the point of this is the duties of the heart. This is a introspection into your own heart. That is not something that you do in two minutes. You have to mash delve into your own heart. Where do I stand? What am I concentrating my efforts on? Is it really just this world? How much did how much time out of 24 hours that a person's is alive every day? Even if he's sleeping the whole time, how much of that 24 hours did he think about chocolate? Do you think about with the next dinner, lunch, clothes he's gonna wear, the car he's gonna drive, the car he wants, the house he wants, the show he wants, the toys he wants, the how much time did he think about materialism that's in this temporary world in comparison to preparing for the next world. We see that the difference between us and our forefathers is not that they didn't work. I can assure you they probably worked harder than everybody. Why? It's different world. Less technology. There's no AI. There's no robots. Lots lots more manual labor. But unlike us didn't make work and materialism their purpose of their life. Work is something you do in order to live not live to work. Work is something you do in order to live. And by live doesn't mean live go on vacations and go cleave yourself to more materialism so you could go back to work and make more money so you can go spend the money and give somebody else the money that you worked for and and and it's okay to enjoy yourself. No problem. You need to enjoy yourself here and there. But when your life is constantly revolved around material material material material, you're constantly I want this. I need this. I want this. I need this all for this world. How do you expect to have any time to have have a brain have a that thinks about how can you possibly make a decision without going to distress and anxiety because you're afraid you're not going to have the toy or the money or the house or people going to look at you or people going to see you. That's what happens to people. They're so glued to material, to physicality that everything in their life is constantly attached to it. If they want to get something, well, what people going to think if I get it? If they can't afford something, what people think if if I can't if I can't get it? If they want to go somewhere, who's going to be there? If they need to get a car, what does everybody else have? How much could this? How much could that? It's constantly the the decisions that are necessary in life. You need to get a car because you need to go places. You need to eat food cuz you need to live. Yes, those are all things you need in your life. The problem is people turn that into life. They turn those decisions into life. Their life is comprised of getting more stuff in order to get more stuff in order to have more stuff so they could show more stuff and eat more stuff and excrete more stuff and think about more stuff and breathe more stuff and dream about stuff. It's all about stuff and at the end they die with nothing. Nothing in this world and nothing in the next world. what the is telling us. Yes, you need to work. Yes, you need money. Yes, you need all of those things that the mathematical, the scientific and n natural parts of the world talk about. But if you do not couple it with the learnings of Tua in order to know how to utilize those tools to elevate your soul, then all you're doing is in so much words reversing your nature to almost match what the scientists say which is humans came from monkey. What's happening is not humans came from monkey, it's the people turning into monkeys. People are turning into monkeys. That's what's happening. Just like at the Tower of Babel, Hashem punished the people, turned some of them into monkeys and some of them into elephants. That's what's happening. People are literally beginning to act like monkeys and elephants, animals. All they can think about, breathe, dream about is just more stuff. Everything has to do with stuff. No purpose. Go enjoy yourself, Khabibi. Go on a vacation. Buy yourself something nice. Uh, eat food. No problem. But don't turn that into your life. It shouldn't be your life. It's just something to do. It's something to do in life when you're actually living. What's living? It's here. What's here? What's in your mind? What's in your heart? What what's what is it? What's What's there? What do you do? Are you constantly stressing? Are you constantly worried what they're going to think, what you're going to have, what you don't going to have? If you're living on material, happiness is impossible. This is the reason why tells us this this this teachings is not for the new person. It's not for the old person, it's for every person. And he says he writes it for himself. He says why? Because in order to live this way, the duties of the heart, the inspection of your own heart to get to the truth that only a kadosh knows even more than we do about ourselves. But at least hoping that if we learn enough, we're going to investigate and find out the truth about ourselves. This needs to be done all the time. All the time you have to inspect. What am I doing? Why am I doing what am I doing? What's the purpose of what I'm doing? What happens if I get more stuff? Then what? So I have the stuff. Then what? What's the purpose of all of it? The difference is you can live and use stuff to elevate yourself or you can use stuff to simply drown yourself. Theot used stuff, used materialism, used the sciences and natures and everything else to elevate themselves further and further to get closer to Hashem, to get closer to the truth to the point where Moshe Abenu felt perfectly fine that the only thing that would matter is if he knew the truth without even considering any aspects of lies. He simply wanted to know the truth and only it says it's not possible while you're still in this world. Why? Because then there's no purpose for a person. There has to be an evil inclination that is going to give you a few things to confuse you, a few things to stumble you. Why? Because if he doesn't stumble you for, what am I going to reward you for? So yes, Hashem created a certain system that there's a stumbling block in front of us and not just a stumbling block, a specific type of angel that is there to entice you to go and rat on you and to get go kill you. Who says he's more powerful than you, he's smarter than you, he's older than you, there's no way you can beat him on your own. But I gave you the holy Torah because that destroys him. That destroys him. How does it destroy him? The more you cleave on to the Torah, the more you'll comprehend the purpose of why you're even here, the purpose of why you have money, the purpose of why you live at certain places, why you have a house, why you have kids, why you don't have kids, why you have a job, why you don't have a job. The more you cleave on to dua, the more you'll understand the ultimate purpose behind everything, the more you become disconnected from all of the traps of the Satan. He can't do anything to you with his tests of money or women or or or all types of other things. You're not connected to it. You're connected to something beyond something beyond. So is the only cure and we will continue to learn and teach and cleave to and separate ourselves from all the things that pull us away from him. Thank you very much for learning with me. May bless each and every single one of you that's watching it and sharing it with as many people as you have on your phone that they can learn this and learn more and more about what gave us the ability to do gave us the ability to do. If we cleave on to if we literally investigate our own hearts, all the answers are there. All the answers are there. Anyone that wants to support, wants to sponsor next week's lecture, you could go on to our website.org in the shop over there, there's different opportunities to sponsor. And of course, everyone that uh wants to uh become part of the new campaign to help us feed poor orphans and widows in Israel as well as expand the organization and and many other things that we want to do to help Am. Please donate generously at the new campaign that we have at bhr.org. That's our holiday campaign. We'll be doing special prayers for uh those specific types of donors. And of course, everyone is appreciated. But uh the ones that push the most, we push the most for them because if they are willing to sacrifice to help us for the sake of Israel, we're willing to sacrifice for them for the sake of their benefit because in essence, we all become partners. Anyone that wants to do it is more than welcome to call to learn again later this week. We're finally here. The new Kiru box opens up. A nice little cushion here. We got Let's see if it's charged. >> Isn't that amazing? It's the buck. [Applause] >> Now available at.com.org.shim.org. [Applause] Get yourself 20 of them, 30 of them, 50 of them.