If You Can You Must | TORAH FOUNDATION (18)

We're back [sighs] [snorts] and we're back to our series of uh Torah foundations. Tonight's sh is going to be for the that's unfortunately a little bit extensive. A lot of people need we have the that could go to their merit and give them and all of and all the righteous Noah that continue to support the organization, continue to help us do all the good things that we're doing. uh anyone that wants to fulfill the mitzvot of Purim uh with us uh to help us uh give uh money to the poor uh we're doing a campaign. Some of you are aware of it and have already contributed. Some of you have not. Uh the makita and the mat of yim are two of the most important mitzvot of pulling aside from reading the migilla. A lot of people think that the man is something they could spend thousands of dollars on, but the and the maybe they don't have to. It's quite the opposite uh to uh in fact the Rambam writes that before any Jewish holiday a person must givea and needless to say in a holiday like this where the the core mitzvah of the holiday is to give staka. So uh the uh shekel is uh higher than it's been uh ever uh simply because the price of silver is what it's based on. It's a third of an ounce uh which the price is very volatile. It's been very volatile for the last several weeks. So when we priced it uh the uh when we started the campaign a couple of weeks ago, silver was at around $82 an ounce. I think now it's slightly a little higher. It went down below it. So we're figuring that the uh uh based on the $82 an ounce is $27 per person. So that means that if there is two parents and uh four kids, even if the kids are all babies, you still have to give makita for each one. That means 6* 27. Uh and uh if you want to do the skull, which is three times, then just triple that. Uh and of course the mat of your is for adults. Anyone that's above 13 years old for males and 12y old for females, uh you have to give matim to give money for uh food for two poor people, which is at least $50 here in the west uh per person, which means, you know, each adult has to give 50 times two, so it's $100. Uh that's considered matan yim. uh if you live in one of the uh third world countries uh that uh you know it's much cheaper over there then by all means you could calculate it based on where you are but in most of the world especially those that are watching me whether you're living in Israel or you're living in the United States or in Canada or Australia or uh England or wherever you are in the world hashem then the $50 is more or less uh sufficient to uh to give uh per uh poor person. Now again if a person is uh financially restrained they don't have even money to eat and uh they themselves are they aon then obviously uh they uh do not have to uh to give what they don't have but those of us that have hashem have to give including myself and if you look at the campaign I was hashem I merited to be the first one to give the uh uh for the campaign uh even though I run the organization and even though Uh I uh could do a lot of different things and give myself a lot of different excuses. You'll see that like every year we give uh and where else are we going to give other than the organization that we trust the most. And it was expensive. It was expensive for everybody but it is what it is. We uh we're uh celebrating the fact that we are uh we have merited to be the givers and not the takers. So with that being said, we also want to thank Bo forem having a successful surgery. Um and hashem hopefully this is the last one. It was uh not so simple. It was very painful but hashem uh we're here and uh the title of is also the reason why I'm giving this you uh which is if you can you must. What does it mean if you can you must? What does it mean? has this inspecting our heart, investigating our heart, and really measuring our heart in comparison to what we're obligated. Now it would seem as we've seen many many other times throughout the years the last 10 years of giving shulim that uh the sages no matter when they spoke whether it's a thousand years ago or it's a hundred years ago uh or anywhere in between they were always speaking to us today they're speaking to our generation and it seems like Bakya is speaking prophetically taking a shot at the leadership not only of his generation but speaking prophetically at our generation, the leadership of today. What is uh what is what's why is this happening? Many times we hear of new lenient opinions that have become the new standard in certain communities either as a result of misunderstandings or misguidance. Now, don't get me wrong, leniency is not necessarily always a bad thing. Always looks for the uh ways to uh make it easier for is to fulfill the mitzvot. But a leniency has to follow al. A leniency cannot follow feelings. A lenency cannot follow popularity. And here the Rav explains through a story of how the servant of the king will have to answer for his performance after the king evaluates the servant's abilities and choices. And this mousar is going to help us understand which path we should take in our lives and really reconsider who we listen to and who we don't. Recently, one of our dear students, nice family that boam has really uh picked up their their since they've started watching our shim over the past few years and uh they asked me as they always do. They asked me different questions and they asked me they have a makita shekel. They saw what our campaign has where the makita shekel is $27 per person. the matim is, you know, $50 per peron per poor person, which means each person has to give a $100. And then they showed me what they have in their community and they're hard for me to call their rabbi a rabbi because he dances with his wife in public. Uh and uh so this is obviously a problematic person to say the least, but nonetheless, this guy publicizes a campaign for the entire community to fulfill the mitzvot of Purim with $50 per family. That's it. you fulfill you fulfill uh I I wouldn't be surprised if you al also fulfilling the pes too with it but $50 and she said is this possible is this true I'm like I don't know which where what can you buy with $50 what can you buy with $50 can you buy a third of an ounce of silver for six people that are in your family if you do 6 * 27 7. I'm not exactly the uh you know the greatest mathematician in the world, but I'm also pretty good at it. I mean 6* 27 is not $50. It's quite a bit more. It's almost four times it. Now, if you calculate, you're telling me that with $50, you can feed if there's six adults in the in the household because all the kids are older, each one has to give two of. So, you're telling me that with $50 you could feed 12 families? if you can, please let me know where you shop because even non-coosher McDonald's is more expensive than that. Now, of course, they said, "Yeah, we knew there was something wrong with it, but you know, we always like to ask and they do." The question is, why didn't their rabbi ask before he publicized such stupidity? The reason is because he wants to be lenient because he doesn't believe that the Jewish people have the capability of fulfilling the mitzvot. For any of you that have watched my personal story, I take an issue with such rabbis that take it upon themselves to decide what the holy Jewish people can and can't do and simply decide for them that they can't do it. Meaning the rabbi can do it, but you since you grew up secular, since you grew up reformed, since you grew up modern, since you grew up in a different community, since you're not Ashkenazi enough or you're not spharti enough, you can't do it. I think that there is very few things that show greater arrogance than that. And the opposite of Israel, they choose not to tell you that you're not allowed to drive on Shabbat because they assume that if you knew that you're not allowed to drive on Shabbat, you simply will make the wrong choice and just not stop. They assume that you cannot handle a kosher business and therefore they don't tell you that your business of cash advance or any other form of stealing that people are doing today uh is forbidden according to the Torah. They'll tell you now listen it's not the best but it's allowed. What can we do? Who says it's allowed? Show me one cha that shows it's allowed. They assume that if your wife found out that the wig she's wearing is provocative and therefore forbidden according to the Torah, she would make the wrong choice and continue wearing it despite the fact that it's forbidden. So they don't tell you these types of rabbis are who the is talking about. And he says as follows. I asked one of those who are thought to be Torah scholars here. He's obviously saying it in a certain way where this is a person that is known as a Torah scholar. He's not saying that this person is a heretic shalom. He's not saying that this person is a bad person. Saying this is a Torah leader in our generation. He didn't say the name. And don't think for a moment that the sages uh do not mention names for good or for bad because they do. If you look at the uh gon from 1100 years ago, one of the translators to one of his books says that all of the books that Gon wrote, whether it is the book that talks about the uh the opinions and the uh the knowledge disproving any form of heresy that you could possibly imagine, whether it's the Christian heresy, the uh Islam heresy, atheist heresy, Darwinism, all of the different things, 1100 years ago, or it's the books that were commentary on the Torah, or it's even the dictionary of what theat the holy language words actually mean. Every one of his books was pmical, meaning it was against someone. It was exposing someone that said the opposite of what the Torah says. And there's a whole field of study of pmical work that exists in the world. But unfortunately when it comes to the Torah, people have somehow forgotten that the biggest body of work that is considered pmical in the literature uh uh world comes from the Jewish where they specifically mention a name of a person or a group and their wrongdoing. and they expose them and they disprove them and they fight against them. This is forever, you know, it's just the beginning of time till today. But sometimes there's no need to mention the name like here. Perhaps it's because this is not doing it as something that is intentional wrongdoing or better yet that this is the common opinion not only then but unfortunately today. And he says that through his investigation of fulfilling the mitzvah of to live a vote and really understanding why it's not taught, why a book has not been written about the obligation we have to inspect our hearts. He asked and looked into the written and found it. He asked and looked into the oral and found it. Thought about it logically and rationally and found it. So then he asked one of the Torah scholars of the generation why isn't it taught and the answer would be familiar to you. I asked one of those who are thought to be Torah scholars some of the questions on the science of the inner life that I have shared with you here. And he answered me that relying on tradition can substitute for independent thought in all these matters. In so many words, this [clears throat] told them, listen, although everything that you're saying is correct, you need to inspect your heart, but perhaps you could learn it from your father, learn it from your grandfather, learn it from your community, and not necessarily have a special lecture about it. You'll just learn it from the behavior if you see how the Jewish people behave. This is similar to how the feedback was nearly 10 years ago when I first started teaching about the prohibition of wasting seed and immorality. Some of the people told me that their rabbis were frowning upon my teachings of immorality and wasting seed because they said, "Listen, this is not a subject we talk about." I looked, I looked, I looked and I not I did not find a single gadole that agreed with them. In fact, all of Gdole Israel from today to the beginning of time said what I said not because I made it up because I was repeating their words whether it's the forefather of American Judaism and Lakewood Kotler who famously said that we are you know embarrassed to teach the laws of morality and the teachings of you know this specific subject of tikun in public when people are making sins in public without shame and of course everyone has that has watched my film or many lectures that we've done over the years sees that there's literally countless sources of but 10 years ago when I started teaching it in the English language. I was alone in the world. Certainly, you could find some of it in Hebrew, but in English, for nearly eight or nine years, 99.9% of all the lectures you would find online about the topic were for me, which on one hand is great. We have lots of merits. We've helped a lot of people. Another add, I didn't really take much pride in it because it made me feel horrible for the generation that is relying only on somebody like me rather than all of the other big rabbis that are out there. Hashem in the last year it seems like this issue this uh reluctance to teach this subject has somehow become more permissible. They still don't teach it like the sages teach it. Everything is in a uh much softer approach. But nonetheless, it's progress. Perhaps we've softened the field a little bit over the years and people realize that it's actually helping many people. But nonetheless went to one of the of the generation and asked him why are you not teaching a sh just about why are you not writing or your grandfather or somebody writing a book about and he says perhaps it's not necessary because people could just learn from their community learn from their parents. What was the reply? He says, "My answer to him was that this is acceptable only in the case of women, children, and uneducated men who because of limited perception and comprehension cannot reason on their own. But whoever has the intellectual capacity to verify what he receives from tradition and yet is prevented from doing so by his own laziness or because he takes lightly God's commandments in Torah, he will be punished for this and held accountable for negligence. IT ALWAYS COMES BACK TO PUNISHMENT. It's amazing to me how there are countless people that are considered famous rabbis from Kabad or from other places speak not only they do not discuss punishment in an honest way but they speak against it. But yet when you look at the words of the sages throughout all of history, you see that they speak of punishment as a foundational reason to inspire you to change. The is talking about inspecting your heart in order to serve your master honestly. Meaning this is not talking to someone that's secular and driving on Shabbat. This is talking to people that are already observing Shabbat, people that are already religious. And yet he says the fact that you can inspect your heart and you don't, you'll get punished for it. And therefore he is dumbfounded by the fact that this Torah scholar says people should learn about this through just simply looking around and seeing how everybody else behaves. He says no that's not a sufficient answer. That's only sufficient for people that either are not obligated to learn like women and children. You know your 5-year-old, sixyear-old, 8-year-old is not obligated in mitzvot. He's not obligated to do yet. He's still young. Your wife is not obligated to learn Torah like you do. Even though sometimes I find it that women watch my shim more than their husbands do sometimes. And I'm always dumbfounded with that. Why don't you bring your husband to this? Your number one job should be to bring your husband to this to bring your husband to watch and not just grow by yourself. Yeah, but I asked him and he said no. So ask again and again and again. Just like you ask 500 times for a new car or jewelry or refrigerator or whatever it is that you want, you ask until you get. Same thing. Ask until you get your husband to watch every single lecture with you. Even if it's only 15 minutes a day, a half hour a day with you, you'll get somewhere. But you know that you're not obligated to learn Torah in the same level as your husband. You're obligated to bring him to learn Tawa. But the says that listen, if you're a woman and you're busy with your kids, got four, five, six, 10 kids or more, you don't have time to learn Tawra. You don't have time to do all of the selfacounting that your husband or your kids do. They're learning in Yeshiva. And guess what? Akadu took that into consideration and says you're not obligated. So don't worry. So if you are a child or you're a woman, then the rationale of not teaching them is valid because they'll learn from what they see. They learn how their mom acts and they'll act accordingly. They'll learn how their father acts and they'll act accordingly. So for them, it's a valid argument. Also, there are people that are mentally deficient. It seems like everyone is crying that they have ADHD today. It's a plague that apparently has uh reached the entire planet. At least that's what people makes it seem. They don't have ADHD when it comes to making millions in business or wanting to make millions in business. They don't have ADHD when they do anything else. But when it comes to Tawa, a lot of people say, "Listen, I can't learn Tawa because I have ADHD." is complete nonsense. But there are legitimate cases where people have mental deficiencies and the Torah took that into consideration. If you legitimately have a mental deficiency, you're slow, you have, you know, you're you're incapacitated in some way, then yes, you don't need to do the same things as someone who's not. So, Bak is saying to this Torah scholar, your decision to not teach this, your decision to not make this a priority for people to learn is only okay with those people that are either women and children or mentally incapacitated men. But anyone else who has the intellectual capacity to doublech check why we do what we do, how what we're doing in our servitude of Hashem matches what is expected of us, what is obligated. Those people they must do it. Why must they do it? Because they can. And if you can, you must. The briski the brisk. He taught that there are different types of beta. different types of we have poem coming up and the migil says that in the page 4a says that in the name of the that women are obligated in the reading of the migila because they too were part of the miracle and needless to say men are obligated to read the migila Also when they're obligated to read the migila at night, the night of purim and repeat it again in the day of purim as it uh says in Psalm 30:13 says so that my soul might sing to you and not be still Hashem my God forever will I thank you. Now the says what if the guy is in the middle of learning Torah I mean learning Torah says that if a person is in the middle of learning Tua but then he decides to watch the game instead or he decides that uh he's gonna answer one of the phone calls from his friends and he stops his learning to just to chitchat. in they'll punish him with feeding him. What's hot coals that never go out? Why? You replace the words of Torah with mundane. So now the sages are obviously questioning. If the guy is in the middle of learning Torah, does he stop learning Torah and go read the migillah? Is it not Torah? Conclusion is no, it's not to even reading the migillah is considered learning to it's part of the 24 books of the Torah. But from there the learn that there are different levels of Torah which means nullifying the Torah or or or or wasting time if you will instead of learning Torah you're doing things that are not Torah. And the Rami Brisk said certainly there's obvious which is instead of learning Torah the guy is wasting time playing with the internet or you know doing all types of things that are unnecessary. Of course, if he's working, if he is, you know, doing things to sustain his life, it's not considered to so long as he's lives a righteous life, righteous business and still makes time to learn Tawra. But nonetheless, there are people that even when they have time, they don't learn to that's Torah. And if they actually learn the significance of that and the punishment a person gets for they would never violate that mitzvah again. But there's also levels of and says there is that is called mental laziness. What's mental laziness? He has been gifted the mind that is able to go into the depths of the Torah. Learning Allah, learning the depths of Allah, learning, learning at 4:00 in the morning, learning things that will occupy his mind and will force him to at the very least feel 1% of what the briskav looked like when he would learn Torah. He would literally sweat profusely and get so red to the point that when he would finish a session of learning Torah, he would put his head against something cold, some steel pole or something cold just to cool his head from how hot it got. Now you were gifted the mind that can analyze things that can go into the depths of the Torah. But instead he chose listen I'm going to learn Torah but uh I just want stories. I want to hear nice stories of the Babasali. I want to hear nice stories. The brisk says that's him. Now of course once in a while everybody needs stories. It gives us it gives us. But if your entire world of Tawa is just stories and you're able to do more, you have a problem. Shalom showed us an example of why is his Gabby and other people that helped him tell endless stories about the amazing things they would see that the world didn't see. After giving nine lectures in one day, coming back at 2:00 in the morning, they bring the RAV into the house and they see that after nine lectures, I can tell you myself, after one lecture, I'm beat for a few hours. After nine lectures from morning to night, two o'clock in the morning, he comes home. Second, he goes home. He right away without even skipping a beat right away he sits down opens a book and immediately he's in the depths of ala immediately he is deep into the Torah to the point where if someone spoke to him he wouldn't even know he's in a different world every time he would go into the car literally it would be the car door opens he sits and as he sits he already opens a book instantly in the depth of dua that chose to be because it's always Hashem's choice. Like somebody asked Steinman who is going to be the leader after you stamman laughed. He goes, "You think that is an election? decides himself was unknown for the majority of the world most of his life until he was in his 70s when Bahu decided to unveil him to the rest of the world. But the ones that chose to be Is you see that they had this ability to not only learn Torah in the deepest parts of a Torah and the most sophisticated, the most difficult parts of a Torah, but they could literally do that despite all of the distractions, all of the chaos, all of the difficulties that would surround them and follow them throughout their entire lives, whether it's the difficulties in their own personal lives, monetarily, family, and so on, or it was the difficulties of the community that was brought to their attention, but instantly they could disconnect from everything and go into the depths of the Torah without skipping a beat. So if somebody is not quite a GDI is but in his work he's considered an expert. He's considered an expert lawyer. He's considered an expert doctor, architect, developer. Something that requires more than just simple manual labor. He's not just pressing the buttons on a cash register at some coffee shop. He is somebody that studied for many years to build himself this position. Meaning he has the mental fortitude to achieve great things and he already did in the business world. That person to say that he should not be taught the obligations of is not only wrong but it's terrible because he will be punished for it. That's what Raenu Bak is saying. Since he has the mental fortitude, the intellectual capacity to verify what the sages said to verify the traditions, but is only prevented from it because of his own laziness or because he doesn't take Hashem's mitzvot seriously enough. You should tell him that he he's going to be punished for it. And he gives us a story of what is this like to what can this be compared to says to a servant who was ordered by the king to collect money from the servants of the kingdom and then count it, weigh it and test it for fraud. You know in those days money actually had value. Not like today where everything is paper and pretty much there's a printers that are working 24 hours a day, 365 days a year just to print more. And when they haven't printed enough money, they just simply decide to invent money and called it cryptocurrency or NFTTS or all types of other nonsense that people create just to literally invent wealth in those days. wealth actually had something tangible behind it. The coin had to be a certain weight of gold or silver, certain size. So the king ordered his servant to count the taxes that people are paying into the kingdom. Count the coins, weigh them, make sure that they're not cheating on the weight. Test it that it's really is silver. It really is gold and it's not some worthless metal. And the servant was capable and an expert in what the king had asked him to do. So far so good. This servant of the king got a great job. He is the treasurer of the king. There's hardly a more important position. He's the one responsible for counting the money to make sure that the people are not cheating the king. And he happens to be an expert in identifying fraudulent money, an expert in knowing how to weigh it without necessarily having to calculate one coin at a time. There's different ways using mathematics. He has systems in place. So he is an expert that was given a position that matches his expertise and he gets paid accordingly. Now what happens when somebody gets a position of power? I'll tell you the moment somebody has a position of power or a status that appears powerful such as a business owner, wealthy person, someone that's connected. What happens to those people? Immediately they acquire new friends. All of a sudden, everybody wants to be their friend. Even the people that used to hate them. In fact, even the people that still hate them, but they want to be friends with them. Why? If I'm friends with him, it's like I'm friends with the king. If I'm friends with him, it's like I'm connected to his friends, to his peers. So all of a sudden this important servant, this important treasurer of the king has a bunch of new friends. Who are these new friends? They're the other royal servants, but they have lower positions. And these royal servants were cunning, but through flattery, they won the treasurer's confidence. And then they brought him the money that the people paid in taxes and they assured him that this was the wholesum. Everybody paid what they owed. You don't have to check. It's perfect weight. It's perfect quality. Why should you bother yourself counting it and measuring it? We did it for you already. You're a treasurer. You're much too important to sit here and count coin after coin. It'll take you weeks. You can go and enjoy your life with your wife, with your kids, go on vacation. And he believed them. And out of laziness, he did not bother to check the truth of their words, disregarding the king's orders. When this reached the king and he found out that his loyal treasurer, his loyal servant, the treasurer is really outsourcing this important task. Immediately the king ordered that the money that was be brought to him. They brought all this sacks of money that was paid in taxes and he brought the servant the treasurer and he asked him how much is this weigh because that's part of his job. servant didn't know. What do you mean you don't know? Weren't you tasked with measuring the money which included how much everything weighs? Yes, your highness. So, how do you not know? The king found him guilty of having disregarded his command and for having relied on the words of others in a matter which he could have verified himself whereby even if the money was later found to be exactly as they told him it's still a violation. Meaning even if those cunning new friends that he has, even if they didn't cheat or they found the stolen money and thereby they made everything whole, you as the treasurer, you as the servant of the king, you're still guilty. Why? Because it was your job to count, not theirs. If he had not been an expert in the matter, he would not have been blamed for having relied on them. The reason why I tasked you with this important task is because you're an expert. You're an expert at counting money, verifying whether it's legitimate. You are an expert. That's why I PUT YOU WITH THIS JOB. and the fact that you gave this task to somebody else and simply relied on whatever they say, you're guilty of violating my command. And from there says Abenubakia, it is the same with you. Who's you? You. You that are listening, you that are reading, you that are alive today. If this subject of the duties of the heart were something you could not fathom intellectually such as the reasons for the commandments which have their origin and the revelation alone, then you would have a good reason for not investigating the subject. Or if you were too limited and slow of mind to understand a subject, you would not be punished for negligence. Rather, you would then be like the women and children who accept what they receive from tradition. If however you possess intelligence and insight and through these faculties you are capable of verifying the fundamentals of the religion and the foundations of the commandments which you have received from the sages in the name of the prophets. Then it is your duty to use these faculties until you understand the subject so that you are certain of it both by tradition and by force of reasoning. And if you disregard and neglect this duty, you fall short in the fulfillment of what you owe your creator. Here the puts everything in perspective. What are you obligated to do when it comes to fulfilling the mitzvot? Whatever you can, you must. Now, of course, every Jew is obligated to keep Shabbat. Every Jew is obligated to eat kosher. Every Jew is obligated to do business dealings in a legitimate way. Follow the law. Not just the law, the law of the land. So long as the law of the land doesn't violate the Torah. Every Jew has to be moral. In fact, the goim also have laws from the seven nohide laws. Morality is one of them. But further than that, to measure how much you need to push yourself to serve your master, the creator of all creations, how much you must push yourself to pray better, to learn better, to give better, to do better is all based on the capabilities that kadosh gave you. And if you can, you must. You cannot simply rely on someone telling you, "Nah, you don't need to." In fact, in the world of Torah, in the Yeshivot, there's a common teaching where they say that if you see that when you're learning, you see the commentary by the Tfoot who tell you their explanation based on a page such and such somewhere else. Don't believe them. Why don't believe them shalom to think for a moment that the sages are lying? No, no, no. Don't believe them. Rather, go check check the source they brought. Don't just believe someone that mentions a source. Even if it's a dustfoot, go and check that source. See that it says it there. Because not only is it going to solidify what they've said and will make a bigger impression on your heart and your soul, but also it will result in you becoming sharper and with better memory because you have now accustomed yourself to toiling in Torah and not just simply relying on somebody else spoon feeding do as the sages teach. If you've acquired that, which is the ability to decipher right and wrong from different situations, extrapolate what would be the outcome of certain actions. In the secular world, they call it common sense, but it's quite a bit more than that. If you've acquired that, then you already have everything. Nothing else is more valuable than that. But if you don't have that, then what do you have that's of any value? Why? Because if a person understands the significance of that, they'd realize that you need that in order to fulfill your purpose in life in every single aspect. Without you, you will make wrong decisions on a regular basis. You can do all of the right things and get punished for them. Why? For example, you can say, "I eat kosher." Yes, but you eat on yum kipoo when you're supposed to fast. So, yes, you ate kosher, but you ate on a fast day, you'll get punished. I do business and give charity. Yes, but your business is corrupt and is stealing from people and therefore both your business and your charity are against the Torah. I got married and I'm bringing kids to the world. Yes. Although the Torah says poo, but you married a woman that's forbidden to you and therefore the woman and the kids are problematic. Meaning a person that does not have do that can do things that theoretically are right. But if they did not use the diet of the Torah, they will literally get punished for the things they do. Whether it's their business dealings, their marriage, whatever it is, person can say, "Well, listen, I I put on every day." Well, you have a problem. Why? You're not supposed to put on Shabbat or you're not supposed to put it on at night. So, yes, putting on is a mitzvah, but at a specific time. Eating kosher is a mitzvah, but at a specific time. Getting married is a mitzvah, but to a specific person, everything you do has to rely on this dot. And without having dot, you could literally be a criminal, without even realizing how big of a criminal you are. This is also why Moshe Feinstein Shalom said that the reason why drugs that are recreational they call it recreational drugs meaning drugs that you don't need for survival or for for cure of some ailment drugs like marijuana or all the other hallucinagens and so on these are forbidden from the Torah and The reason why they're forbidden is because they alter your dot. They alter your ability to decide accordingly and therefore you are not capable of serving your master properly. And in fact just to have an understanding of the value of that ford is Jacob Kamitzki was one of Israel. I had the merit to speak to his son a couple of times, Bashem, and he helped us with the whole situation. We were fighting against the uh community that was bringing a rabbi to their ka bringing I'm sorry, they were bringing a Christian missionary to their ka and he helped us with it. But nonetheless, his father is known as a giant in giant inshaf. In his later years, he suffered horrific pain. And pain is just a word to people that don't understand and haven't lived through it. I can assure you when somebody says somebody is defined as someone that suffered through pain for a period of their life, you already know this is not your regular everyday pain where they broke a finger or they broke a hand and they have pain for for a few weeks. We're talking about someone is suffering pain on a regular basis 24 hours a day and pain that is unimaginable for the average person. They gave the Rav some medicine to help him with the pain. He took it one time and never again. The next day when they came to the RV to give it to him, he says, "No, no, absolutely not." "What? The Rav is not in pain?" "No, no, I'm in pain." "We see your the r is in pain. So why don't you take He says, "No, no, this helps the pain, but it fogs my mind. It fogs my mind. My mind becomes foggy and therefore I will never take it again." Meaning that someone that understands the value of that will prefer constant chronic horrific pain rather than to lose even part of the clarity of mind that allows him to have that. A person that wants to fulfill the word of Hashem has to understand that your obligation what expects of you is based on the gifts that he gave you. So if [snorts] you have chosen to make your path in life follow the wicked teachings of the idol worshippers manis and uh yonyi is uh is is telmid muak is criminal muvak that teach you that not only are sins not relevant to anyone in this generation but God will ask you for an apology. and you choose to rely on these lies, then not only will you be punished as an idol worshipper and heretic just like them, but you will have an additional punishment because gave you the ability to rationalize that what they're saying is a lie. to learn that what they are saying is a lie. Simple ability that everyone has is to take one thing from another. their entire premise and what they build their entire world of lies of saying that sins are no longer relevant and there's no punishment and uh all of the other nonsense they say all of it was built on the original lie which is that they believe God needs you and it wasn't enough for them to say God desires good for you they said no no in his essence he needs you all types of nonsensical things. And in essence, they try to impress upon the public that they're teaching that is teaching cabala, that is teaching about the but in reality they're teaching idolatry that explains by separating into this is no problem. But when you separate that his will changes based on the where here he needs it here he doesn't you have just developed multiple gods because his will and him are the same thing. It doesn't change from but nonetheless their entire world of lies is based on their false teaching that we've been fighting for at least six or seven years which is that God needs you. Initially, people thought this is not a big deal. But today, people that have followed this story and have not fallen for the trap realize how horrific this heresy has gotten to. Where he literally says, "God needs you. God's out of has an arm." All types of idolatrous beliefs worse than Christianity. Now, if you had the test presented to you by God to listen to one of those lectures, that means that God also gave you the ability to pass that test. Meaning that whoever fell for the trap or whoever was presented with the trap was also given the ability to get out of it to save themselves. Hashem does not give you a test you cannot pass. Which means that all of the victims of manis freedman or any other type of heretic whether it's Palmanov or the other ones cannot claim that oh we fell for it because he fooled us. No, no, no. You had been given a test after you were given the tools to pass the test. The same goes for people that believe in idolatry of Christianity or the heretical teachings of Islam. Everyone that's given those tests has the fortitude to pass those tests. And therefore, no one can go up to HEAVEN AND SAY, "OH, I didn't know. They fooled me." Uh, no, no, no. You were given the ability to pass any test you were given. In one simple way, just to show you what a clear mind, how a clear mind resolves this heresy in a second without providing you the countless sources that I've brought over the years. very simple of sad 1100 years ago says for anyone that says that God needs you or anything that he depends on it, he benefits from it. How come he waited so long to create the world and people if he needed it? Meaning obviously God was around forever well before he created the creation. He did not come into existence at the same time as creation did. He preceded the creation. So if he needed you and your mitzvot, why did he wait so long to create you? You see that? You see how a clear mind thinks without even providing all of the sources which are countless to disprove the argument. Simple. IF A KADOSH needed anything, why did he wait to create it? Even a microscond, but it's not a microcond because he was here forever and he only created you 20 years ago, 30 years ago, 500 YEARS AGO, 5,000 years ago. How could he hold himself back from something he needed? So you see the deeper you look into the words of the Torah, the more you will see clearly and in fact the more you will see the lies that are out there. And the best part yet is that the more you look in the Torah, the more you will discover your abilities to do much more than what you're doing. This is what the is trying to impress upon us. Don't try to look for a shortcut. Don't look for only the hard way either. There are alik permissions to do certain things that are perfectly fine, even if they're lenient. But don't look for something that's easy for you and then try to manipulate the text in order to fit your agenda. That's what heretics do. When somebody came to me trying to fight for the honor of their rebi Palanov, they said, "Look, when he was talking about the Quen Gad getting high, he was using this as a source." What is what are they referring by this? The article that he wrote. I said, "Exactly. The article is full of heresy. He comes up with his conclusions that are against the Torah after not after quoting the sages, but rather after quoting heretic scientists and his own heretical opinion. That's where his conclusions come from. So the heresy of the scientists, the heresy of the his own opinion is only masked by the truth of the sages. So he puts some truth [snorts] around the falsehood. But you know that it's falsehood when you see clearly because you know what the conclusion is supposed to be. The Torah is not impossible. It's not impossible. I'm not saying that you need to be stringent on everything. In fact, you should not be stringing on everything. There are things that you're allowed to do that are easier than things that you can do that are more difficult. And if there's an permission for it, no problem. But to go and manipulate the Torah in order to serve your own personal preferences, you'll get charged for it. You'll get charged for it. You'll get punished for it. And in fact, is telling us much more than that. Whatever you can do, you must do. Which means that not only are we going to be measured, evaluated, and judged based on what we were supposed to do according to the law, but also what we were capable of doing based on the gifts that a kadosh gave us. If a kadosh gave you the ability to give us you and you chose not to, you'll get charged for it. Yeah, but I don't feel well. I know you don't feel well, but you still have the ability to give a shield. Whatever you ha, whatever you can do, you must do. That's the path of people that want to get to Ganen. That's the path of people that fear Hashem. That's the path of people that love Hashem. That's the path of people that at the very least want to serve Hashem. Anything else is simply shortch changing yourself and guaranteeing yourself a very very bitter end. Why? What do you really benefit out of the shortcut anyway? It only got you to the wrong destination. This is some of the things we learned and we merited to learn together with you. There's much more that we're going to learn together with each and every single sh and every segment later this week will give us the strength to do the stump the rabbi on Wednesday Wednesday night where you guys can ask some questions and will give us the answers. There are things that we'll uh go over the para also a little bit of preparation for pim give you a few especially ones that have come from the new book that Rabb just uh published uh we're distributing uh thousands of copies of this book uh in Israel just because the it just literally was printed in the last 48 hours or 24 hours and um so there's not enough time to get it to the US to distribute it here, but at least we'll get it out there in Israel. Uh, but of course, anyone that wants to read it, uh, you'll be able to download it on for free on our website, mezashim.org, whether the Hebrew website or the English website, it's over there. You can download it and read it over there. The goal of the book is to show you how every single verse in meat distale has miracles attached to it in the verse itself without exception. Literally amazing amazing things that you would never even think of where you have literally not just the open miracles that we're all aware of. If you've read the migila once in your life, you know the open miracles. But we're talking about endless miracles both open and hidden in every single verse in unbelievable wisdom and that our own had to write this book. So anyone that uh wants to read it can download it but will also go over some of it uh later this week when we uh learn uh the uh weekly para as well as the uh uh a little bit for the migila. Thank you very much for learning with me and will bless each and every single one of you that especially those that are taking this and the other that we have to heart to apply to your lives and toem influence you in a better way. Anyone that wants to contribute and donate can donate on our website bzashem.org. You can also donate through YouTube or Facebook and of course you could send checks, wires and so on. and anyone that wants to fulfill the mitzvot of pulim with us to help us feed and help more uh uh people in Israel uh during this pulim then you could also do that on the uh website and the campaign page that we have. Thank you very much and we'll learn again soon. Cou I'd like to introduce you to your new best [music] friend. We did it. AI rabbi is here. It's an AI model that is based on kosher [music] Torah sources. 30 different languages that are available to you. So if you want to ask it in Spanish, in Chinese, Portuguese, whatever you want to do, it's available for you. Can you tell [music] me about? So it's timestamped to the shield. You press this green button. AI rabbi on your WhatsApp. You'll have the ability to ask questions at will. You'll be providing sources and most importantly, you'll be able to know the truth [music] and be able to rely on the sources.