Questions That Should Not Exist | TORAH FOUNDATION (17)

who you are. You were there, not your greatgrandfather. >> This ain't history, it's your identity. Our site, the world stood still. Mountains shook and hearts did chill. Fire in the sky, thunder in our bones. Hashem's voice echoed deep in our souls. We ain't talking folklore. This ain't no myth. Every soul stood there. Feel that shift. You think you just showed up in this generation. Now you were summoned for that revelation. The Torah wasn't just given. It was engraved. And in that moment Israel was raised. Not just with laws, not just a creed, but with the manual for what the soul needs. We were there. No stories, no spin. Every Jewish soul felt the fire was saying. We were there. It echoes inside from heartsai where truth never died. We got the Torah, we got the flame and we carry it forward in a name. So don't forget, don't drift, don't lie. You stood at the foot of that mountain sky. The ram bam said it. Teach it to your seed. Make my heart not a spiritual creed. Don't wait for shualt once a year. This memory's the weapon, the shield, the spear. It wasn't just mitzvah. It was identity. It wasn't a speech. It was heaven driven. He gave us joy, clarity, fear and grace. The blueprint to navigate time and space. The nishama changed. Transformed on the spot. Our mission began. We took the lot. The lua were heavy, but the weight's divine. Carve that truth in your daily grind. We ain't just a nation with an ancient past. We're the people who heard's voice blast from fire and cloud, thunder and flame. And we still walk in. The name of the song we were there on our music channelame. We are back here on our Torah foundation series. Tonight's sh is going to be for the and all of Isra and all the righteous noises that continue to support the organization, continue to watch our grow with us and will continue to do so. So, tonight I know that uh there's a lot of distractions out there. People are watching football games and eating popcorn and uh making uh fools out of themselves. But uh we are here to learn to that's what we came to the world for. And uh tonight is going to be one of those shuim that is always going to be relevant. It's always going to be relevant whether it's today, tomorrow, next year, year ago. It's always going to be relevant. And you'll see momentarily why. When a person or decides to start learning something, they usually have a goal. A goal of why they want to learn something. If they're learning something for school, it's because they want to pass their class. They want to get good grades so they can get to uh better school. They want to learn a certain profession. But when it comes to Torah, which is a subject that a person is supposed to learn their entire life and never finish, the goal is supposed to be different. Now, if you've already gotten to the point where you've decided that Torah is something that is extremely important in your life, it's priority number one, and you're going to learn it every day. Then certainly you should have asked yourself at some point or another, what's the point of you learning Torah? Meaning, what is your goal? Is it to accumulate knowledge? To become a rabbi, to become a Torah scholar, to ask questions that no one ever thought of? What is the goal? The takes us into a few real life situations that are all too relevant both to the rabbis that are answering the public's questions as well as those people that never miss an opportunity to ask the rabbi a question. You know those people where they always have a question even if they have to make it up in two seconds as if it's you know to not uh bother the rabbi with another question. They ask a question and before you even give them the answer they already have five ready because certainly why should they waste time and not ask the rabbi more questions? Meaning they don't really care about the answers. They just want to have some type of dialogue. They want to test the rabbi, see if they can find something he doesn't know. There are certainly quite a few people like that. But generally speaking, most people ask questions because they have an interest in the question. It's relevant to their life. It's relevant to their uh business. But when it comes to learning Torah, a person is supposed to ask themselves what is my goal? and thereby shoot for that goal each and every time they learn Torah. Whether it's learning Torah from one of these or it's learning Torah from a book or it's learning Torah with your or whatever other way you're learning Torah, that goal should always be in mind. And of course, there's always going to be these people that say, "Well, I have multiple goals." Well, just like in the business world, if you try to make everyone your customer, you end up with no customers at all. If you have too many goals, you end up achieving none of them. And the tells us a couple of real life situations of how there are certain people that ask questions that should never be asked. And he says as follows. It's told of one of the wise men that he would tend to the affairs of men until noon time. Then when he was all alone, he would say, "Let us now have the inner light." Where he was referring to the duties of the heart. So here the is in essence telling a story about somebody really when we hear the details there are so many details in the story it wouldn't be surprising if he's actually talking about himself some of the that learned's work took it to such a high level and and and really delved into it so much where they would even be particular about how you should pronounce his name. One of the great that was very very particular about saying Rabenu Baka's name Rabenu Baka rather than was Rabish Lamzar Alandri Alfandri he was kesh came down from Turkey to Israel and he was very particular about certain things. When Bahim from the Yeshiva of would come to visit him to ask the Ra questions, he would take a look at them for a moment and then decide whether to have any dialogue with them at all. And they noticed that he's not talking to some people. So, Rabbi, why why won't you talk to us? says, "You don't have a beard. You shave your beard. I can't talk to you. What difference does it make if I have a beard or I don't have a beard? You don't know the information I have or the questions." So, so would say we learned from Schlommed in song of songs where he says show um he says show me yourself and then let me hear your voice where he teaches us first you see someone and then decide whether you want to talk to them or not. After I see you and notice that you shave your beard, you look to me like women. I don't want to talk to women. And if one of the bahwim would grow his beard, he made him so happy that he would sit him right next to him. And he would answer all of his questions. Now, this may seem like nonsensical to some people or ridiculous or extreme, but those that knew knew that he's not one you should take lightly. when he was in Turkey, they tried to force the Rav to do a kupah for a forbidden couple. This two people wanted to get married, but according to Alak, they were not allowed to get married. And of course, the Ra refused and they got they were rich, they were powerful, and they got the government involved in essence trying to force him to do the kupat. So to make the look kosher to make the pig look kosher fun showed up at the wedding stood there under the kupah and then said whoever was involved in putting this together will be punished. And literally within moments you started seeing people die. And over the next few days, people were dying like flies. After that, they didn't ask him to do anything that's against the Torah. This is Kodesh was particular about certain things, not because he himself was particular and but because he knew what the truth looks like and he tried to steer in that direction. The same goes, of course, with all of the when they would try to highlight a point. They weren't doing it because they were trying to build themselves a reputation or make any type of profit out of it, but rather they knew what the truth looks like, and they wanted everyone else to see the same thing. And anytime somebody would veer away from the truth, they weren't shy about highlighting that as well. What people don't realize when they don't learn Tawa is that much of their influence and their current ideology that's absent of Torah comes from the assimilated world they live in. In a world of political correctness, in a world where people are allowed to only say specific things but are forbidden from saying others, you're allowed to insult your enemy, but you're not allowed to rebuke or criticize someone that's on the same team, even if you clearly disagree with them. People have a warped version of what the truth looks like based on their society they live in. So, anytime they hear that we are exposing one of the wicked people that are going against the Torah, they're dumbfounded. Oh, how could you speak that way about another fellow Jew? It doesn't sound right, even though I agree with what you're saying and this person is not doing the right thing. You shouldn't do it publicly. Well, how do I warn people about a public speaker if not publicly? Well, why don't you reach out to people one on- one? Wait, you're telling me that you want me to find out each one of theund 150,000 subscribers or 200,000 subscribers we have across the network of all of our channels and then make a phone call to each one of them. Well, no, not that. But I don't know. The only reason why it doesn't sound right to you is because you don't learn Torah. And therefore, the influence that you have comes from outside of the Torah where it's okay to criticize your enemy like they do on the news. It's okay to be criticized if you're paying for it, like people do when they go to all of these self-help gurus that criticize them for five hours or an entire weekend. But as long as you paid the guy $5,000, that's okay. But it's not okay to criticize people where it's not appropriate because it he's your hero and you don't want people to speak bad about him or you just don't like to hear these things. If you learn Torah, you will see that all of the mentioned specific people many times other in a negative way where they would say he is wrong. He made a mistake. The Ramban is a Ramban mentions many people in there. Some of course are outright heretics like in the famous dispute in Barcelona where he insults the guy that was actually a Jew that converted to Christianity not only in the writing but he actually insulted him during the debate in front of the king in front of everyone but also he mentions other that made mistakes without sugar coating it without even saying it in what would be considered today politely. He would literally say, "This person made a mistake, a horrible mistake." He would even sometimes make insulting remarks on some things that people will say. All of the that would do that, it was not necessarily about personal. It was not necessarily what people would view as childish, but rather it was because this is the way of Torah. When you toil day and night to live the truth, to find the truth, then certainly you are willing to put your life on the line in order to fight for the truth. And therefore, anytime somebody goes against that truth, it's war. And the students of Bet Shamay and Betile, although they loved each other and would marry each other's kids off to each other, some of the debates between the students, between the would literally get to fist fights, to swords. Why? It wasn't because I'm right and you're wrong. It was because this is the truth and it would not going to it's not going to be changed. So when Rabenu is telling us these following stories, he's not telling us in order for you to get to know him. He's not telling you these stories in order for you to be amused. He's telling us in order to warn us from living a lie for our entire life. And he says that would deal with his affairs whether it's his work or it's personal studies or whatever he needs to do and then would make time to delve into what he called the inner light which is the duties of the heart. So the first lesson the Rav is teaching us is that if you're going to do self-accounting in order to inspect your heart, in order to figure out where you stand, eliminate all distractions and do it alone. Introspection is not something that's done like they do in the secular world or therapeutic world where there's intervention by a bunch of different people. When it comes to inspection of the heart, it's something that you do alone and you view where you stand in comparison to the knowledge that you've gained in the Torah and see how you compare. Now if a person starts looking deeply into things they realize that this is not just a suggestion but rather this is the way we were created. This is what's expected of us. The in page 30B says that when a baby is inside his mommy's belly, there's a light on him. He's sitting in there or she's sitting in there. The mouth is closed, but the umbilical cord is open. If it was otherwise, the baby would not survive. The baby is able to consume everything that his mother eats or drinks, but does not defecate because if he would, the mother would die. But yet, the moment that that baby leaves the mother's belly, everything changes. The mouth opens and the umbilical cord closes. All of a sudden, they're looking forward for him to be able to remove things from his body, the waste out of his body. If this does not happen, it would be a problem. And all of this is in the but then the highlights the point of what is this light? What's this light that's on top of the of the baby's head? The baby is able to see from one end of the world to the other. And the says, "Don't be astounded by this because we already know that a person can fall asleep somewhere in Babylon and see things that are happening in a distant land. So certainly if somebody that's sleeping can do it, then the baby can do it." Why? Because the baby is in a transitional stage going from completely spiritual to going into the physical. The more control the nama has, the less limitations it has. This is why they say that Moshe Rabenu got to a point where he was half angel, half man because he was able to conduct himself in similar fashion in this physical world as well as in the upper heavens. And what happens in this belly while the baby is there during those nine months is that an angel is sent to teach this unborn child the entire Torah. As Schlommed says in Proverbs 4:4, says, "And he taught me." Who taught me? The angel. "And he taught me and said to me, let your heart cling to my words, observe my commandments, and live." This is one of the lessons in the Torah. In essence, is teaching this child before he comes to the world. Every part of the Torah in this particular verse happens to be in the book of Job. And further he says, "When the company of God was above my tent, but as soon as the child emerges into this world, the angel comes and strikes him on the mouth, causing him to forget the entire Torah." As it says, loss crouches at the door. This is init. Now, some people think this is a nice myth, an interesting story. But that's also why from time to time makes some of these stories come to life where if a person investigates, they see that this actually happens. The Zoad mentions the term Yanuka. Yanuka is a child that's born where in essence has the angel skip this one and not hit him. So he's born knowing the entire Torah. And the moment that he speaks, he can recite to you anything and everything that's written in the Torah. years ago, there was a child that was born this way in Natana. And the father brought this child in front of the and the asked him different questions. And this little boy was able to a answer not only answer their questions but literally repeat word after word every book no matter what page. Now they say that the rebels spoke to the father and then did something to the baby to make him forget. But I recently discovered from one that actually knows who this person is. His name is Is Mandel. He lives still in Natala. He's certainly not a baby anymore. He's older now. And he says he did not forget the Ta. It's just that in order to avoid in order to avoid all types of problems that come from such fame, the Rebels simply told him, "Don't speak about this to anybody else if you want to have a good life. Because if people discover that you really know the entire Torah, your son's life will be ruined. It'll become like a circus show for people and they will never actually allow him to learn the Torah and live a Jewish life." So literally his entire life he's been hiding the secret and he's the real Yanuka, not people that just decide to call themselves that after they're already a teenager or a 35 year old person because it sounds cool. And the GMA says that before the angel hits the baby, before he leaves the womb, it makes the baby swear allegiance to Hashem and his Torah. As we say in for before me every kneel shall bend to me every tongue shall swear. And then asks what is the actual oath that's administered to this unborn child. And it says become a not a wicked person. And even if the entire world says to you, you're a sadik, you're righteous, be in your eyes like a wicked person. Be aware that the holy one blessed is he is pure and his heavenly servants are pure. And the soul that he has placed in you is also pure. And if throughout your journey on earth you guard it in purity fine and well but if not I shall take it back from you. So the question that's supposed to be asked here is why is the angel telling the baby look at yourself as if you're even if everybody tells you you're because we all know that if somebody views themselves as a wicked person this generally does not help the person become righteous. In fact, it's the opposite. They start losing all hope and they say, "Listen, since I'm already wicked, I might as well make all the sins." So, the explain certainly the angel is not telling a person to view himself as a loser, as a wicked person because that would be the tool of the Satan. Rather, the angel is specifically telling somebody, "Be righteous and do not concern yourself with all of the compliments that people give you because you're righteous." Meaning, even if you succeed in being righteous and therefore people say, "Wow, you're so righteous. You sadik, don't pay it any mind." Why? In your eyes, when you are alone, investigate all of your actions with a fine tooth comb, with a magnifying glass, and see where you could fix. See what you could fix. Don't settle on everybody's opinion of you being righteous enough, that you're doing enough, you're already learning enough, you already know enough, you already giving enough, because they're judging you based on where they are, but you could certainly do more. And in fact, just like someone that is an expert diver, he likes to dive into the ocean and look for different types of species, fish, treasures, whatever he looks for. The more hours he spends under the uh in the ocean diving, looking for things, the more experience he has, the more accustoms he be accustomed he becomes to how to look for things, where to look for things. And you see that he doesn't waste much time looking for things. He knows exactly where to go. The same concept goes with someone. The greater a person is in Torah and and the more capable they become in investigating their heart and seeing where the flaws are and what they could fix, the deeper they're able to get to. When a person is unaware of any flaws that they have, the indication is that they're not aware of much Torah either. Because the more a person learns Torah, the more they see how much more they can do in order to serve their master, which as I said in last week's sh is the ultimate goal of the Talmud. All of the debates between the are not debates where one wants to push his view and the other one wants to push his view, but rather both of them are fighting for the truth in order to show you what is the perfect way to serve the master. What is the best possible way to fulfill all of the mitzvot? Because every single one of the 613 mitzvot that we have is discussed in detail in the Talmud without exception in each one of the debates that you will find in different places about the same because you'll find some debates about blessings in but you'll also find it Shabbat and you're also going to find it in and in many other places. We don't look at subjects in just one place. We don't learn an entire issue from just one place. Needless to say, from one specific line. We have to gather all of the different messages that are and teachings that are mentioned throughout the entire Talmud in order to understand the entire issue in a comprehensive way. Why? Because once a person understands the whole issue, he will know how to fulfill this mitzvah to serve his master to serve a in the perfect way. So the debates between the sages are to show you not only the best way to serve the master, but also why all of the other ways that you could possibly think of are not the best. and they ask all types of questions and bring up all types of issues that the average person would never even think of. You see how the Torah brain works. And from there, from that thought process that you see the sages ask all types of questions that you would naturally not get to, people tend to try to replicate that mentality without having that mind and ask all types of complicated questions. in essence trying to emulate the and they call this pilpool. The problem is when you see the questions that are asked by the sages in the Talmud, you see that the ultimate goal of every single one of their questions is to arrive at a relevant truth. meaning the truth that will actually affect your life, the truth that you could apply to your life, the truth that is relevant to the Torah, the truth that's applicable. But when you see much of the people that young minds make, you see that it's not necessarily always the same goal, but rather it's asking a question in hopes that nobody asked it before. And the reality is that if nobody's asked it before, there's a reason for it. And therefore, Abenu Bak says as follows. One of the sages was once posed a bizarre hypothetical question relating to the laws of divorce. He answered his questioner as follows. You who ask concerning that which brings no harm if one does not know it. Do you know all that you are obligated to know of commandments which may not be ignored or neglected such that you have time to think of strange questions which will further you neither in Torah nor in amuna and which will not help you overcome the faults of your personality. So here you see the Rav rebuke the questioner. The questioner asks a bizarre question about the subjects of guine of divorce, but it's like one of those questions that it's like, what happens if the guy wants to give her a get, but she keeps running away from him. And really, he's not sure if he wants her to give the get. and perhaps all types of convoluted things that he adds into the question just to make the most complicated hypothetical question. So the Rav instead of answering his question rebukes him. Says this question that you're asking, how is it going to help you get closer to Hashem? In fact, if nobody ever knew this question, it wouldn't affect them. If you never asked it, nothing would change. But yet you have found the time to spend your mind's efforts on developing this question. So I must ask you, have you already become accustomed to knowing all of the questions that are relevant to your life that are supposed to affect your life? Because if you have time to ask and come up with these strange questions, then certainly you should be an expert in all the things that you are obligated. And then he says something else to further the rebuke. I swear that for the 35 years now that I've been working on what I need to know of the Torah's commandments. You know what great effort I put into my studies and all the books that I have access to. And yet I have never had time to think of the question which you have just posed. And he carries on at length in admonishing and deriding this questioner for this question. In today's world, people ask questions with such expectations that if you don't answer them the way you want they want to be answered, they not only would take it offensively, but they turn you into an enemy sometimes. meaning that you could literally answer their questions for years, but one time they ask you a question and you give them an answer they don't like, they nullify all of those years of questions and effort and help that you've given them and judge you as if everything is null and void. You have just become public enemy number one to them. As painful as this sounds, this is the reality of helping the public. There was one time a couple that were helping for many years. Not only helping them do chuva, convert at least one of them, transforming their life, helping the family, all types of things beyond your imagination. Questions at all hours of the day with no exceptions. every single thing you could possibly think of, personal, business, relationship, anything and everything. One time, the person told me, "Listen, I don't want your shim anymore." So I said, "Okay, so you need to find a rabbi that you uh are connecting to their shim even though my shim has transformed your life and everything until now. Apparently if you don't want to watch them anymore for whatever reason or another, certainly fine. I can't force it down your your your throat. You could watch whatever you want, but at least find somebody that can inspire you, that could help you. Now, sounds like a perfectly reasonable answer, doesn't it? Well, it is, but they didn't find it that way. What was their response? Are you cursing me and telling me that I'm going to have a terrible life if I don't watch your lectures anymore? What? What are you talking about? Who said this? When did I ever say such a thing? And literally they transformed this same guidance that was given them for all of the years into a war. Why? Because what I was trying to explain is that if you're going to ask questions from somebody, it needs to be somebody that inspires you, somebody that you receptive to, somebody that you're going to listen to what they say. But if you're not going to listen to what I say, then what's the point of asking me questions? You should ask somebody that is inspiring you, that is helping you, that is motivating you. And putting my ego aside of don't listen to me. It's just simply find somebody that you are. But they took it in such a way that as if I just killed their whole family and they literally turned me into enemy number one. Now I wish this was the only story such a thing happened. One time I uh had another couple where they were asking questions all types of things. They had a lot of schlumb problems and I was trying to guide them trying to make sure that the husband doesn't kill the wife. He was a very violent person and boashm we tried helping them helping them helping them for for a few years. and they looked as if everything was on a straight path to heaven. And one day something happened with their computer and the husband blew it out of proportion of how I can't believe da da something like that. Why is this happening? So, in my response when they asked me this, I said, "Well, there's no need to be a baby about it. It's okay. Things break and uh we pray to Hashem that we'll succeed." That one word of sarcasm saying, "Don't don't no need to be a baby took years of answers and guidance all for free, of course, and turned me into enemy number one, two, and three. So much so they literally spent their efforts trying to take down my websites and all types of crazy things. A lot of crazy stuff happens behind the scenes. The truth is though, the closer someone is to thereof could be seen if they are willing, able, and even expecting rebuke. If your relationship with your rabbi is all based on compliments and only good things, then it's a very limited relationship. Why? Because in essence, if nobody's telling you you're doing anything wrong, then how are you going to know to fix something? So, of course, you can't do that personal one-on-one with every single person, but that's why there's shim. That's why there's lectures where you're supposed to learn from the lectures. And of course, some people will watch lectures for two, three, four, five, six, seven years. Tell the world you are their Messiah. But one time you speak about a subject according to that's not in accordance with their logic, their assimilated logic, their limited knowledge. And guess what? They turn you into enemy number one. But what about THE THREE, FOUR, 5,000 lectures that you've watched until now. Everything is deleted. Reality is we see from Baka that this Rav saw a student ask a question that should not be asked. Why should it not be asked? Not because there's no answer to it. Not because it's overly complicated. If you look at the responses of the you'll see the most complicated possible subjects that exist in the world. everything from the mechanics of different levels of technology to different things about the universe and the stars to literally the uh the things that are happening inside a person's body. Everything and anything is in a Torah and there's endless complications. So the difficulty of a question is never not a reason to ask a question but rather the RV saw through the question that this student was asking and realize that this question is just being asked for the sake of asking not because it's going to get anyone closer to Hashem. Not because it's applicable to the person. Not because it's applicable to anybody that they even know or will ever be applicable to anybody else, but it sounds good. It sounds intellectual. It sounds interesting. And the RV is not there to be your entertainment. And therefore, he rebukes this person. He rebukes this student in order to help him. But he rebukes him in such a way that he will be remembering this rebuke for the rest of his life. In so many words, it's a trauma. Why so harsh? Why not just tell him don't ask stupid questions? Ravski once wrote a seph about the even though it's not applicable today, but anytime that they find a uh someone that was murdered in between two cities, there's a whole procedure that they do. They bring a uh a sheep or goat and they chop off its head in the uh border and the Rav cover the issue and then he asked the uh if anyone can find a subject uh a question that I didn't answer in this book. Please tell me and I'll give you a reward. I'll give you a present. So, one person says, one of the says, "Oh, I know there's a question you probably didn't answer. What which question is that? What if the what if the goat has two heads? Which head do you chop off?" Says, "No, no, that's over there also." Over here, he shows him in the book. even that that question is even asked and answered. Sometimes a person asks a question just to hear themselves talk and theim are aware of that and there's a time and a place for everything including pilpool but ultimately we see that the RV here is very very harsh on this questioner and rebuke rebuking him to the point of literally traumatizing him. How could you ask such a question? Literally, the guy is supposed to regret that he was even thinking of this question. Why so harsh? If he saw that the person is sinning, you would rebuke him, but certainly not this way. If he saw that this person made a mistake in his understanding of something, he'll correct them softly, nicely, kindly. But here he gives the student a harsh rebuke. Why? Because as the Rav is trying to explain to us, such an ideology is so flawed that it could be a destruction of the person's life altogether. Why? Because to the average person, it's either you learn Torah or you don't. And therefore, if you're learning Tua, you're doing good. You're going in the right path. If you're not learning Tawra, you're not doing good. Which means that as long as you're learning Torah according to this logic, you're doing good. And the Rabb is saying, "No, that's not true. There's two types of ways to learn Tawa. There's learning Torah in order to serve the master and there's learning Torah in order to serve yourself. Learning Torah in order to serve the master means that you are learning things you could apply to your life that you are applying to your life that you will try to apply to your life. Things that are relevant to you. Things that are applicable to you. things that are transforming you and getting you closer and closer to Hashem with each and every single day, each and every single word, each and every single book. But then there is learning to serve yourself. Learning to serve yourself is simply learning more information in order to tell yourself that you know a lot. In order to tell other people you know more than them, in order to look smart, in order to appear as if you've done a whole lot more than people could even imagine. And therefore the RA says this type of learning where you're asking questions that are not applicable to your life will make you believe that you are doing good because you're learning Torah and therefore it could ruin YOUR WHOLE LIFE BECAUSE YOUR WHOLE LIFE YOU COULD BE learning irrelevant issues but thinking that you're doing fine even though you're not changing your life. You know everything there IS TO KNOW ABOUT MSIAH, but you don't know anything about. You know everything there is to know about reward and punishment in gum in kafela. But you don't know anything about making a blessing. you know everything there is to know about all types of but in reality you don't even know what it takes to protect your so a person can learn all of these subjects that certainly are interesting certainly are applicable but above and beyond the necessity to the point where they think that they are welllearned because they know one or two things told to his yeshiva in one of his I have a kush for you. Someone comes and looks at for a little while and comes up with two, COMES UP WITH two complications, if you will, and concludes that he knows. The koo says just because you have a couple of questions about you have or any doesn't mean you know the there's over 100 IN THE JUST BECAUSE YOU know a few good questions doesn't mean you're knowledgeable. Many times people think that if they ask a good question therefore they're smart. This is like the fools that study the dictionary instead of studying from books. Why do they study the dictionary instead of studying books? Because they study big words and they use them in conversation to make themselves appear smart, appear sophisticated and learned. In reality, they're morons. Why? They don't even know how to use these words. instead of actually reading books and learning how to speak, learning information, they just want to appear like they're smart. When it comes to Torah, one of the worst possible things that a person can do to themselves, men or woman, Jew or Gentile, young or old, is learning Torah. that is interesting but not relevant to their life. They're going to learn about the spir and all types of supernatural things about the upper worlds and not even know the basics of modesty or the basics of how you're supposed to have a Jewish ideology. Many times you see this people think that they are religious enough because they've learned some interesting issues but yet they ignore the fact that all of all of the went against the teachings of public teachings of teaching cabala and all of these elevated issues. Jews. Why? Because number one, the overwhelming majority of the world is not fit to learn these subjects. And number two, this is a mitzvah from the Satan that makes people think that they're much more knowledgeable than what they really are and much more righteous than they really are and thereby giving them a sense of comfort to ignore everything else. They'll call themselves. They'll call themselves cababalists. They'll call themselves all types of foolish things in order to make themselves appear like they're some type of overly righteous person. And they'll even be able to hold some type of conversation and they'll tell you, "No, the reason why this is is because the and the upper levels and because all of the types of things, but in reality, you still see them failing at the basics. Not because of desire, but rather because of simple ignorance. ignorance that is self-inflicted wound coming as a result of studying things that are not relevant or applicable to them. And therefore the RV admonishes and derides the student for asking a question that is not relevant to his life that is not applicable to his life much more than he would rebuke him on violating the Torah in some other way by making a sin. Because while making a sin is not good, I could simply teach you why you shouldn't make it and that would fix it once, twice, three times, five times, 10 times, eventually you'll get the point. But if I ignore the fact that you're learning things that make you feel righteous all the while you're staying exactly the same that you were when you first started 10 years ago, 20 years ago, then in essence, what I'm saying is that you're going in a path that's the wrong direction with no chance whatsoever of ever getting into the right direction without this strong rebuke. And it appears that the Rav was not only a real Rav, but the student was a real student because he accepted the rebuke. Many times people complain about their rabbis not telling the truth. Although that is a problem that many rabbis are afraid to tell the truth to their community. Many times it's not because the rabbi doesn't want to tell the truth, but rather because anytime he tried telling people the truth, they fought with him tooth and nail rejecting the truth to the point where there was no point. So it's not enough for the rabbi to be a person of truth, but the student has to be a person of truth. Meaning not only looking for the truth that is relevant to everyone, but looking for the painful truth that is relevant to you. If you're not capable of inspecting yourself and addressing your own flaws, then that in itself is a foundational flaw we must work on. There was once a fool that thought of himself as smart and he came to And he said, "Rav, I HAVE A GREAT KUSH." OKAY, SURE. Tell us. No, but this is so good. It's amazing. NO ONE'S EVER THOUGHT OF IT. AND HE STARTS complimenting his of how amazing it is and powerful it is and it changes everything to such a point where the Rev and his students are like, "What is he going to tell us now? the the Torah of Mashiach. What's this? Okay. Okay. No. And then the guy starts saying this complete nonsense and he says to us, "So what do you think? Isn't it amazing?" And Evan says to him, "Well, certainly it's amazing in the eyes of Rashi. who doesn't say the same thing. And then of course the Rambam actually said the exact opposite. So this would address that. And the Ramban went in a different direction. And also if you look at the more modern pushkim whether it be the ga or we look at some of the that followed the teachings of the they also went so your answer your addresses all of them and the guy like wow see yeah exactly I knew it. And he walks out of the bet midash with a smile ear to ear. And the students of the say for the what? He said it's complete nonsense. Why didn't you tell him? And the says I did. No, for the he said is nonsense and you said uh you know that it doesn't agree but it's it's going to and the ruff says no I was trying to hint to him in a nice way that his kush no one agrees with it. Rashi says the opposite. The Rambam says the opposite. The Ramban says the opposite. The say the opposite. NONE OF THE EVER said this. So obviously it's wrong. Obviously it's nonsense. If he doesn't understand that if none of the went in that direction, if he doesn't understand that it's wrong, then you know there's no help. I can't help such a person. If he thinks he could find something new under the sun, then certainly I can't help such a person. Many times people are looking for something new under the sun. But says nothing new under the sun. If you are coming up with some type of new insight in the Torah, in order for you to know that this new insight is going in a direction of the truth, you have to find yourself what's called a what's a it's one of the other that spoke in the same manner. Doesn't necessarily need to be the same exact answer as yours, but it has to be something that agrees with your answer. But if what you're saying is contradicting all of the sages that came before you and are much greater than you, then certainly you're wrong. If you're studying Torah in order to get closer to Hashem and thereby in order to get closer and closer to the truth, then being wrong is simply a fact of life. It's simply part of learning. But if you're learning in order to serve yourself, you won't accept being wrong. You'll end up even saying foolish things like I don't agree with the Rambam or I don't agree with the uh bal I don't agree with this one. As if you are on the same level or even in a level that could even agree or disagree. So the RAV is in essence telling us that this ideology that was a problem nearly a thousand years ago and certainly a problem today is a much bigger problem than people could imagine because it makes you believe that you're going in the right direction because you're learning and consuming more information and you're feeling like you're becoming more righteous even though you're staying the same as when you started and if you're staying the same you're not achieving the proper goal and therefore the Rav elaborates further and says another wise another one of the wise men another one of the said I worked for 25 years on refining my conduct Just imagine a person learns Torah day and night, writes books, reads books, learns from rabbis, teaches students, certainly dedicating his entire life to serving Hashem. And he says, "My number one mission for the last 25 years was to refine my conduct. Not to accumulate all of the information in the world and tell everybody I know more than them even though I learned very much. Not to write more than everyone and therefore say to everyone, look, I published a book even though I did publish." not to appear IN EVERYBODY'S EYES AS IF I'm rather my number one objective was to refine my conduct. And another one said, "There is wisdom that is secreted away in the hearts of the wise like hidden treasure. If they would choose to conceal it, no one would ever discover it. But when they reveal it, no one can deny its truth. This is what is expressed in the verse in Proverbs 20:5. Counsel in man's heart is deep water, but a man of understanding can draw it out. The meaning is that wisdom is implanted in man's nature in his character and in his powers of perception like the waters that are hidden in the depths of the earth. The intelligent and discerning man will try to tap into his own inner potential for wisdom, uncover it and bring it to expression, drawing it out of his own heart. Much like the search for water in the depths of the earth. Here the is in essence telling us if you have overcome this lust for knowledge for the sake of yourself, for your sake of your own honor. And you're not asking meaningless questions, irrelevant questions, but rather you are learning with a goal. And the goal is to perfect and refine your conduct, to perfect your servitude of Hashem, then you are on the right path. Now, if you are in the right path for long enough and you toil endlessly, you could truly get to an exceptional level. no matter where you started. But this requires a person to investigate inside their heart in order to constantly see how they can get closer to Hashem. And if they do this on a constant basis, they can even become something great. but so great that Hashem knows even though everyone else doesn't. What does that look like? It looks like a person that is there to serve Hashem. No matter what other people say, no matter what other people do, no matter what it looks like, they're simply doing everything that's within their power to serve the master without any concern of anything else other than doing better than yesterday. at the time of the Sufel was an extraordinary story that shows you this particular point in the most extraordinary way. Theam was not only a giant in Torah but was also a R of A and he was also Mel did the and one of the students that he hadim Zukurandel after many years of being childless He finally had a boy. Now, he was so excited about this miracle, about this amazing thing that happened to him that he shut down his entire factory for a whole month in order to celebrate the birth of his baby boy. On the eighth day they had the brea where theam was the m and it was purim and they noticed that even though the katam was a m and many other mil this one was different. He was extraordinarily happy and joyous. Perhaps it was that it was puim, a little bit of wine. After he did the bleet, he took a little bit of wine on his finger and put it in the baby's mouth and said, "When wine comes in, the truth comes out. This is a famous statement. It's very said very often on pulim, but it looked a little unusual to say that to a little baby that's 8 days old. So they asked the Rav, "What was the meaning of that?" And the Rav didn't answer. The father of the baby asked Rob a few more times but to no avail. They named the baby appropriate for the day that he had being pim as we say at the end of the blessed Modai cursed his ham. So this B Modai grew up into a strong young boy, tall and very strong and had a exceptional midot and was also very dedicated to learning Torah. Had a lot of respect for but there was one problem. He didn't understand anything he was reading. Everyone looked at him and they compared him to a chicken that they use for kaparot on yum kipool that doesn't know what's coming. They would see him learning out loud. But anytime he would be asked a question, confusion was the only thing they heard. Literally, it seemed like the only thing he knew was the alf bit. But because he was such a nice boy, such good midot, people treated him well and really felt bad for the boy that really didn't understand anything. But he was constantly learning when he was a teenager. was on his way to the bet midash as he did every day. And it was that day was pouring outside and it was huge puddles everywhere and he saw that the Su was walking in the rain and he was already older and he saw that the is getting wet and he was having a tough time because he was about to hit get into these big puddles. ran towards the the lifted him up in the air and started running to the bet midash. He brought the to the midrash, put him down softly and says, "Thank you, my dear son. What blessing do you want?" And said that I always have and don't become arrogant. Someone else that overheard this blessing was confused. Harrogant. W this kid's really more confused than we even think. But anyway, life went on. And continued the passed away got to nearly 20 years old and he was looking for a shid but no one wanted to marry this ignorant boy. So he came to theamu's son the kafu who took over the community and asked him for guidance and he knew the boy already from birth. He knew his whole story. He knew the complications that nobody wants to marry an ignorant person and he told Modai, "Leave Presburg and go to Yushim. Over there you'll have more mazal." And of course he always listened to the he picked up his stuff and left and went to when he got to he found out where the bardi lives and he went to his door knocked on it gently and asked if the rav could host him. The Rav was impressed by his manners and he said, "Oh, this this boy must be a big that he has such good manners." But quickly he found out that he's not only not a he doesn't know anything and it's going to be very hard to find this young boy a shid or even a job. So had a mercy on him. He said, "You know what? you're going to work for me. You're going to help me with the synagogue. Clean up and take care, be the gabay, be a helper. Of course, Modai was very happy. And he continued to learn, learn, fix. One time the young boys tried to have some fun and when they would hear him saying the words of the with excitement but not understanding anything and then he stepped away from the and during the that time they switched the to a different and they saw that he sat down and continued as if nothing changed. They realize this guy doesn't know anything. He doesn't even know what he's reading that he's reading something else altogether. And again, it was very difficult to find him. But found a poor young girl that was willing to marry this ignorant and they got married. Time went on and also passed away. And since he was the way that Ba Modai made a living, now he had to find a way to make a living. So after speaking to his wife, he said, "Maybe I could uh be a water carrier. Who doesn't need water?" There were already 12 in the city, but Modai started being the water carrier and people liked dealing with him because not only did he have good midot, he's a very nice person, but he was extraordinarily honest. So much so that each year right before he would give all of his customers free water and they would ask him, "Why? We want to pay you." He says, "No, no, no, you can't pay for this one. This one is free." And they would say why? It's because I don't know how much of your water spilled throughout the whole year. And of course, since the judgment day is coming, I need to make sure that I don't steal from anyone. So to make sure that I don't steal from you and that you got everything you paid for, here's the water for free. this extraordinary truth and seemingly naive type of personality was very very nice to see. There are certain people like that that they have they're very tamim very simple people continued and one of his favorite things was to bring water to he loved serving the he loved helping in any way that he can. He respected the rabbis the in such a way that everyone saw this as a very exceptional person. so bad that he doesn't know any Tawa, but he's dedicated and every day he sits in front of the books and he tries and what can we do that he doesn't understand anything. One time there was a big kam that came to town and moved there. It's one of and as soon as Modai found out that the moved in, he quickly went to Miskin's house and asked him if they would accept him as their water carrier. The Rabbanid quickly agreed. Sure, we need a water carrier and of course. But Raiskin interjected looked at Modkai for a few moments and then said Modai will never carry my water. Turned around and went back to learning Torah. For this Bodai was heartbroken. He started crying. He went home, started reading taim crying. And his wife asked him what happened. And he told her. He said, "I don't know what I did. I don't know why the Rav doesn't want me to carry his water." And even the wife who knew that her husband doesn't know much to but she knew he wasn't a wicked person. So why doesn't the Rav want him to carry the water? She took it really personal herself. And one day when she saw the Rabanit Ravdiskin's wife, she saw her in the market and she said, "I'm sorry, Rabanit, but I have to ask you something. Surely my my husband doesn't know much Torah, but he's not more wicked than any of the other water carriers. He's a really good person. Why isn't he good enough to carry your water?" The Rabanit said to said to her, she said, "Listen, no one is has ever been able to fool my husband. If he looked at your husband and he decided that he's not going to be his water carrier, certainly he has a good reason." And she left it at that. for this. The wife of Modakai was even more confused and both of them were very hurt by this. But life continued and he continued carrying water for everyone and doing whatever he could. And on his 70th birthday, it was pulling and Zman of Lublin gathered gathered the Ka for Purim to celebrate. There were different there. Many scholars were there and of course attended as well. wanted to see the he went everywhere to give water, to learn, to do whatever he could just to be glued to the Torah in some way or another. And of course on Purim people have some wine. And of saying a few and people would ask him things. And if they ask a good question or they would do something good, you would give them a glass of wine. And everyone tried to get to the RV and B Modai pushed himself in there to get in front of the RV. And he says to the Rav, you know, today is 70 years after I had my one of the people that knows Modai and how he's in essence the village uh village fool say, "Ha, it seems like the water carrier had a few uh a few too many drinks." But Zman of Lublin took the matter much more seriously than anyone thought. And he looked at Mod and he says, "You're right. So you deserve an exceptionally large cup of wine." And he pours him out a huge cup of wine and he gives it to him. Of course, Modai with all of the respect that he has for has never said no to any. So he drank the whole cup which is much more than he would typically be able to handle. And after all of that he jumped on the table and started dancing saying and everyone said ah come on take him down take him down this fool. But the lublin said no leave him. And I saw he sees and says enough START SAYING enough with your nonsense. Say and is there and everyone says what the RV knows the guy doesn't know anything. Why is he embarrassing him? And then says what does the RV want to know? TELL US ABOUT pim purim. Okay. Well, we have and he starts RECITING THE ENTIRE BY HEART and start going into deep secrets within the m enough. TELL US ABOUT and he does the same thing with reciting the whole going into extraordinary levels of mentioning different the different commentaries the world has never even thought existed in his mind more we want and he does the same And he does the same with and he does the SAME THING WITH ONE after another. People are dumbfounded. They cannot believe what they're hearing. And after he finishes, he collapses on the table from his drunkenness and falls asleep. And when he wakes up, he realizes that his secret is out. Modai remembers what said, "When wine comes in, the truth comes out." All this time, for 70 years, Bodai has been hiding the fact that he was a Yanuka, that he knew the entire Torah. And in fact, after he passed away, the cabalists said that he was one of the lame sadikim, one of the 36 that the entire world stood on. But he hid this for the majority of his life. Many of the that reach extraordinary levels of extraordinary levels of wisdom, they do it in a path that no one is even familiar with. And in essence, what the is telling us, you hear this one wise man that said, I worked on refining my conduct for 25 years. This is not something that's supposed to be viewed by you as an exception. This is supposed to be you too. And in fact, if you go in that path, you could reach very high levels. such high levels that there will be secret treasures within you of the extraordinary levels that you got to that no one will know about. But you will do everything you possibly can to perfect your character. Not because of recognition, because you hide from it. Not because of honor, because you don't want it. Not because of money, because you have no interest, but rather because your ultimate goal in your learning Torah is to perfect your character traits in order to serve the master the best possible way. Did just that. Is did just that. And what is trying to tell us is that we can do just that. And the only way each and every single one of us can achieve this goal, can achieve this ultimate purpose of learning Torah is if we're constantly inspecting and investigating our hearts to make sure that what we're learning from the shim, from the books, from the rabbis, from the world and life we live is with one main purpose, to help us find better ways to serve the master, to perfect our character traits. And if we see that what we're learning is not getting us there, even if it's gaining us more knowledge, even if it's getting us recognition, even if it's getting us money, but it's not getting us to the path of serving our Hashem better, then it's simply missing the whole point. And we have to let it go. Why? Because the point of Torah is to get closer to Hashem. And if we're not getting closer to Hashem, we're missing the whole point. This is the ultimate goal of to help us become more comfortable with inspecting our heart with accepting rebuke and in fact with being our own biggest rebuer. where the more we're doing, the better we become at inspecting and fixing oursel. And may it be as will that we live a life that is constantly on this path in order to achieve perfection in our servitude of thank you very much for learning with mem. We will be back to learning with you guys after the recovery of the next surgery coming up this week. Anyone that wants to pray for us, the surgery is going to be on Thursday. It will be a success. And of course, anyone that has questions, get the AI rabbi app that we have, a rabbi.org. It's an extraordinary app. We're actually launching a huge upgrade in the coming days on the app, but it's already more than good enough already now. It has just become better. And the reason why this app is exceptionally better than anything else you'll find in the market is because it's not only going to give you what the books are going to show you, but it's also going to show you the sources which include lectures where I asked and answered those same questions that you're asking and gave more context to each and every single question that you're going to ask. And if it's not me being the source, it'll be one of the other that we included, whether it's Ra Mutafi, Ravikd Miller, of course, our own dear Rabime, this gives you answers to all of the relevant questions that apply to your life. And if you're finding yourself asking questions where even the AI rabbi is saying to you, why are you even asking this question? You should take that as a hint that you should be asking questions that are relevant to your life because that's in essence what we just learned here from the aiab.org. You could download the app and if you subscribe for a full year in advance, you'll get a big I think almost 20% discount. And either way, it's something that you should be using on a daily basis because a day without questions in regarding to is a day that shouldn't even exist. Every day we should be asking questions because that in itself is an indication that we are learning more Torah and therefore we're growing and therefore we have more questions. And of course life life has a lot of questions questions about different subjects for different people at different stages of their life. Try it out. It's an extraordinary app. And of course, continue watching the many lectures we have online because each and every single one of them answers a bunch of questions that are relevant for everybody. Call to We'll learn again together soon. >> I'd like to introduce you to your new best friend. We did it. AI Rabbi is here. It's an AI model that is based on kosher Torah sources, 30 different languages that are available to you. So if you want to ask it in Spanish, in Chinese, Portuguese, whatever you want to do, it's available for you. Can you tell me about So it's timestamped to the shield. You press this green button, AI, Rabbi, on your WhatsApp. You'll have the ability to ask questions at will. You'll be providing sources and most importantly, you'll be able to know the truth and be able to rely on the sources.