Rabbi Benzion Klatzko - Consistency and the power of Limud Hatorah

here we go we're recording lives we have the great honor of hearing from rabbi class co today today is Wednesday May 13th that's 5:30 and we have Jews from around the United States here and Canada some from Canada logging in to hear words of Torah from our thoughts go okay hi everyone it's it's I've been informed that I should be getting a actual microphone not using my Mac but can you hear this okay is so far enough okay good so who are we who are we so we are our actions we are our actions we're not our nose when out are here is the matter of fact since you were born your skin is peeled off many times you've been regenerated and you're not the same person you were born you know we're totally different the cells have died or some we are not our skin we're not even our arms and the proof of that is that if God forbid your arm was amputated amputated you'd still be the gingy Jew so you know your arm and you're not you're like cuz if God everybody lost you're like you'd still be good you're not your brain because even if your brain was not working or you'd be in a coma you would not appreciate someone who took a magic marker and gave you a mustache well you already have one but a fake one right so what part of you is you so you're your soul and that manifests in this world through our actions so we are our actions so on one hand we don't want to be judged as our actions we want to be judged despite our actions but in the end of the day we are our actions so to be a little bit crass over here if somebody if somebody lies consistent but they insist no usually I tell the truth I'm I could be trusted the reality is that you are your accident so you are a liar you're you're a politician you are you are that you are you are your actions uh if you're a giving person you believe you are but you don't really give anyone anything or much then you're not a giving person you believe you're a giving person maybe theoretically you're a giving person maybe you say that inside of me waiting to burst forth wave to jump out is a giver but the reality is today you're not a giver we are our actions and this is really important to know if somebody says um you know I'm uh you know again to be a little crass sometimes I'm a good Jew you know I'm a good Jew well we are our action so you don't do Jewish things then well whatever you whatever you're describing is a good Jew there's not the same as what the world describes as being a Jew because good Julian's I do Jewish things are a good way or I do I do Jew good I do Jew well so if I don't keep Shabbos and I don't keep kosher and I don't and I speak loshon Hara and I don't but I'd fill him well either you're defining Jew differently you maybe you're a Jew but to be a good Jew you're not doing Jewish in a good way so there's a certain reality that we have to live with which is we are our actions now the good the good thing is the the positive spin on that is if we are actually if our actions are in general positive affections then the voice inside of us that says you're not good enough or you don't but not such a giver but if your actions say you are then you could turn back the devil voice and say you know I actually am a giver or if you're if you to keep Shabbos he fight to put on your Dylan then you have the right to say no I'm a good Jew or I'm trying to be a good Jew even even if their voice inside of you is trying to put you down so we are rx now here's where it gets a little bit sticky we are not monotone we're not monochromatic we have color we have moods and mood swings we have times that were in the mood and times that were not in the mood we are inconsistent I don't speak Russian are unless I just did you know I die with qivana unless I didn't have a look oh wait we are a mixed bag and therefore when it comes to defining ourselves um we're not super hot because we're so erratic in psychology one of the great triggers to depression is inconsistency and even more internal inconsistency when we believe that a but we do be that creates a tension oh how we look at ourselves I believe a but I do be I believe it's good to do this but I don't do it or I don't know consistently and that creates a tension and that tension creates depression like I feel inadequate so we wanna we want everything to be as aligned as it could be that our actions are aligned with our belief system and we want it to be consistently so and that's gonna be the talk of of that we're going to speak about right now that's gonna be our topic I'm gonna begin with an interesting Gemara in massage that's Nidoran the Gemara says that if I I make a promise whether an Edgar or brush who are different kinds of promises on the object on the action but if I make a promise then I have to keep that promise right there that makes a lot of sense and if I don't keep the promise I have to bring a carbon so bring a sacrifice what if I make a promise that is impossible I make a promise for example that I will stay up for a week I won't go to sleep says the Gemara the person gets a punishment like in actually get you get malkos which are lashes and you can go to sleep right away because we know about stuff that you can't accomplish it right it's a promise that is impossible okay so there's different kinds of promises now let's say someone makes a promise to do a mitzvah let's say listen if someone says I make a chinois I promised I'm going to put on tefillin is that promise valid let me let me put this out on the table you could unmute everyone just we make it a little interactive what do you think can I make a promise to put on tefillin and you already promised upon the phone like didn't we all who said that who said I can't see gingy's you nailed at home run home run I cannot make a there you go that's a that's that's a swing that a roid swing anyways you don't know what I meant that's okay let's take more fire there Barry Bonds there we go Canseco anyways so if I make a promise to keep something of the Torah the GU Mario says var moosh Bob the homemade main rc9 that promise is not valid because I've already promised at Mount Sinai that I'm gonna do this so I can't reap Ramon a promise got it we all promised that Mount Sinai I have a either really interesting painting at home to come to my house it's the national revelation at Mount Sinai it's a beautiful painting I had custom made but what's interesting is the artist hid in this painting faces that you can't see when he first glance at it in people's clothing in the scenery faces and the idea is supposed to be that besides the people who were there physically spiritually we were all there our faces or our souls all there so we you me Eric Johnny Aviv we all promised a shepherd on we're gonna put on so on so the Gemara uses another example mara says the example oh good the come I ask asks a question and the Gemara says what if I promise to learn Torah that it does is that promise then is that promise valid so the Gemara says maybe that is a promise because I can technically fulfill my duty of learning Torah by saying Shema chakras and harvests I could fulfill my duty by saying come on because Shema is actually words of Torah that's why before I say Shama you know there's a time to say SH my every morning right think it's like 9:20 something this morning the later time 922 or something to look it up and mais mon him calm good you've seen that right Mizar a really good website so before I say smart let's say I would eat up in a in a in a huff oh my goodness it's 918 and choir's 922 before I go BAM I say the percocet or because I have to make a broke up for a study clerk and schwozzam the door so the Gemara says maybe I can fulfill my duty tis to lauren torah simply by learning by st. amant the morning in the night i think Amara says no because really a person is kai of lille my hundred - a person has to learn all the time with all the strength and when you're not doing something else something else could be sleeping or eating or baking a pie no sir making a living that also counts but otherwise you know it's it's it's you know again this gonna sound very fair ad very lightweight but it's a whether you could just veg out in front of Netflix because you have to figure out those flowers I could have been studying Torah now you could answer which I think today is totally down a person can say my mind is gonna explode I need this badging time so then I can study Torah and I think certainly for today where our minds are cuckoo with with stimuli that we do need some time to go and walking good yeah Johnny yeah I had a question not to sound too yeshiva SH but don't we learn in Mishnah Moustakas pea that there is no pan there's no limit no maximum no minimum certain mitzvahs and including with him that is is learning Torah Talmud Torah so we couldn't answer the gomorrah back and say that you know we can still we could fulfil it by saying Shama yes yes so Johnny I'm gonna be speaking about that Mishnah and pea soon yeah here we go so really a person like Mars has an obligation to learn all the time so there's a there's a Ron now who's run as that was robbed a new Neeson he was a reshot and he was a Rishon that wrote on all of the Talmud and at the side of the moussaka normally you'll Avaris after Lebaran she on the inside and toast was on the outside that Rashi was the grandfather of a lot of the Balika those flows some there were about fifty major ballet toast was and there was Rashi who was their grandfather you've got Rashi until Swiss Rashi explains the shot the simple explanation and toast was is very complex and ask questions on Rahu your questions on the Gemara okay but if you look at most sectors in the Dharam has anyone here ever learn massage dusted arm besides the Dharma instead of Rashi and toast was on either side you'll see Rashi on the inside but instead of toast to us on the outside you'll see the run now they're still as close for some little letters on the side but there's the run and when we learn receptors the Dharam we don't learn Rashi usually instead of Rashi and this miss after we learned Iran and the reason why is because we say that Rashi is not the real Rashi we don't have the Rashi on the door and actually according to some opinions the Rashi on most actors in the dorm was written by Rossi's daughters they were quite scholarly by the way and you know to say that we don't like women who are scholars but even we print in our dad I'm okay but that's not that's not the point over here but it is it is there but Raj's daughters as great as they were we're not considered as great as Rashi and what makes it even more difficult is when we learn Rashi Bueller Marashi as compared to every Rashi in all of Shas that's how we learn by comparison or or what I like to call hyper linking every Rashi hyperlinks to every other Oishi but you can't hyperlink if it's oh there's an author so what we do is we learn the run and the ron on ad arm is one of my favorite words are all of the yiddish it's a very good you know that we're get shocked right it is like eating the most perfectly done steak i am obsessed with iran in a dorm iran and darn you read it and it tickles your brain it's logic is just so clean it's fun it's it's literally wanna know what fun is in torah learning learn the dharam with run and it's just breathtaking I can't I can't stop anyways so the run writes on that piece of the Talmud where it says a person has an obligation to learn day and night so the Ron says these words should I'm a color the new mob called keiko young vilela toilet Kadikoy fight that a person has to learn day and night according to their strengths as a great rabbi of mine one said you know what it means to learn consistently it means that when you come into the Beit Midrash or we'd like to say the best mattress the comment database managed you know you expect to find the ark the Armco dish the Bema the benches and Johnny and Eric and gingi like as as much as I expect the Orang to be there i doing like if the aren't suddenly went missing I'd say wow we stole the arm who stole Johnny who stole Jarrod Jarrod's good yeah consider the bench the Bema and like dad called consistency now in Hebrew something that is consistent is called tum meat coming and we have this word all over the place there was a carbon that had to be brought every morning and every night and their carbon was brought in the weekday it was brought on Shabbos it was even brought on Yom Kippur and that carbon actually kept a base on Victor's going when the Romans discovered that this carbon keeps the best Victor's going and they had blocked off the walls of yerushalayim so the Jews were sending a buckets of gold so that they can get the sheep for this carbon and this Cartman was called the carbon Hamid the constant carbon of course when a Jew who was a turncoat told the Romans you know you're messing up because as long as you keep supplying sheep even though yeah they're giving you lots of gold for it you'll never be able to destroy them so the next day they sent down a pig and that ended tumin that ended their sacrifice then eventually the was destroyed Tommy Tommy means consistent the fire that we have that is burns in the base at McDuff and that time actually riding behind gingy he's reminded me of it that that little image that fire it's sort of what looked like actually was it was was actually settled exactly like a it's funny out that's called a stomach and if you go to a any shoe they'll have a fire by the Armco dish and that's called the near tummy common means consistent what about a person who studies torah consistently they are known as a mas mid my smith from the word comet i went to yeshiva the greatest title that you could earn the great his title was not the biggest scholar now that wasn't it it wasn't the person with the with the greatest brains wasn't the person who had the most farm it was rabbit hurt which will tell you the exact same thing it was the Mosman the Mosman the Mosman was the greatest badge of honor that was the person who was always there studying they are they were the ones that today I'm 52 years old I could still name you every monster in the Shiva I better have I heard what you could do the same just name the names because those were the ones we looked up to the consistent ones now let's speak so that that's Mossman corollary let's speak about in general the power of a smile of consistency and then we're gonna go back to tutorial learning and mention pay like Johnny said my father is about Shuba I grew up religious and he was a doctor went to medical school very brilliant man and you know after he did the math he said okay this stuff is true no time like the present to make my move and he did and eventually married my mom who was an F F p.m. you know dad me and I hope they're okay with that so one of the things my dad taught me which was what he grabbed from his journey as about Trouville is the beauty of tomatoes he used to say I'm not gonna tell you what to do Mia grew up as a Jew but you may want to take things on as life goes on you may want to take on a custom you may want to decide you know you know you wanna only stand during Torah reading you may want to decide I'm gonna be very careful in Miami groaning the water water that we wash our hands before eating bread or I'm gonna put it on a jacket before where I want to wear a guard coat or whatever it is you me as we grow we take things on right we all have done that my father told me is brilliant truism he said I'm not gonna tell you what to take on you know you your relationship with Hashem is your unique one but I am gonna advise you to follow it whatever you take on make it consistent don't be a yo-yo dieter you know yo-yo dieting is today I'll do it tomorrow I won't because it is demoralizing and like I said earlier it's depressing so before you take something on think about it do I want this to be part of my life and then you embrace it and absorb it into your very essence into your being into your practice adapt becomes you now of course are times that we drop things because of circumstances but be in the habit of only taking things on if you're gonna do it for the rest of your life and I absorbed that lesson in a very big way and what it does is number one before I take something on I think about it very carefully at once I take it on I don't think about it again it's just me now in a a there is a there's a it's not an expression there's a way to illustrate this they say that between who we are and who we want to be there is a ravine and we're on one side of the cliff and in order to make that great change we got to get to the other side of the cliff and as long as we're on our side of the cliff even if we're not touching alcohol even if we're not overeating or whatever our struggle in life is we are still on the wrong side we've got to get to the other side and say you know what there's this cliff I am here now I'm no longer that person and that's called two meters we absorb we take on and it becomes part of us and then we grow and this is how we grow we keep on adding different Mitzvahs different men hugging different character trades to our repertoire so when when it comes to dining we say you know what I'm not gonna die to lose 10 pounds I'm gonna change my relationship with food you know what I'm saying I'm right I'm and this way if I lose that weight I'm not losing it and then getting it back this my relationship has changed a to me this right Hashem to say to be able to say about us let's see what gingy says I'm just I get so curious he says gotta die you have to come off the diet yeah but the point is not to diet but the point is to change the relationship in the first place it's hard very hard but that's why you know that's why any change that we make especially the characters is a momentous feat which should be applauded okay let's get better so that's when it comes to every Mitzvah and we get into their mindset that this is going to be me so for example if you say I'm gonna wear it census you don't put them on one day and take them off another day don't put them on okay I would I don't put them on til you're ready to make this you because if you do it becomes an optional thing I want it's optional so all the things are optional today where they are McCabe tomorrow don't davon tomorrow don't absorb those things now it's true we are inconsistent beings and there will be times that at the moment I say it's forever and then I slip but remember what the commitment was now let's get to learning and our dear friend Johnny here mentioned hey I want to do a little math with you if I may I'm not a math guy I don't like math but this man you could do it I don't have my calculator on me but you could help me every Mitzvah that we do is huge and the reward for that mitzvah is something that we cannot fathom so much so that any reward that a shun gives us in this world is just like it's a taste it's it's what we call perros it's just like extra fruits the extra but the actual reward for that closest watch em we don't have the physical ability to absorb that reward and if you think about it it makes a whole load of sense because think about the greatest pleasures in this world and when you think about it hard you'll realize that they're all pretty anemic it really aren't a steak I love roasted okay I have a steak i I work III I go to the store I make my dishes dirty I wait I defrosted and then all for what offered two seconds on my tongue two seconds and then it's gone it's in my stomach and I got a stomach ache I got dirty dishes and I've less money in the bank and all in order to repeat that cycle what an anemic sense of pleasure a steak is honestly it really it doesn't mean I don't enjoy a steak I do but our minds have a way of romanticizing pleasure in a way that builds it up but earthly pleasures are a guaranteed letdown they really are they are so is sex so is rollercoasters for a kid you know the kid roller coaster they're waiting for Six Flags for an hour and a half for that triple oh boy two hours two hours finally it's their turn and in 90 seconds the whole shebang goes over 90 seconds I'm you lost your hammock on the ride so you not spend the other hour trying to get the guy to jump over the fence to risk his life to get your yarmulke because you didn't want to go to you didn't want to take it off even though he says dig let's not go there bottom line the pleasures are anemic so clearly when I shed had in mind great pleasure it was on things that can be satisfied with this and that just not interestingly enough the Muslims and Islam when they promised pleasures in the Quran they're all earthly pleasures which makes me laugh you get your virgins your streams of wine because it cannot fathom greater pleasure than stream like it's like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory like Wow streams of chocolates let's like stuff like come on that's the whole pleasures just like how much chocolate your your your stomach can only take like two handfuls of substance like how much chocolate can you eat you know buffets a Jew Etta buffet oh my goodness ah you don't think it's a tacit a - war can't come you know you come late to a wedding you know it's coming coming late coming ladies come for the Clipper because you missed the best part thank you didn't get those little 40 boys right anyhow the pleasures are anemic but the pleasure for doing a mitzvah oh my goodness this world anemic 70 years 80 years now you don't get Corona you got 80 years God well eight years 82 84 if you you know you go walking everything right that that's the great pleasure next world knit skiers forever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever every part of infinity is infinity right like that like like a mantel bright design for those of you know like right you just keep going it's just every part of infinity like a we we got a got a man the break yeah okay thanks me happy so well so when I Shannon promises pleasure it's not this world it's the next world and every moment of that pleasure is infinite and the time is infinite so every moment you're experiencing infinite pleasure and you're gonna experience that infinitely while it's a total mind blur right so you can't compare a state to in its in a pleasure and it's the kind of pleasure that it says in the kazaaam it says Dora I obsess there I am Laura soil it King Zulu second and I can't see we can't fathom now due to lack of time oh fractal math I love it okay there we go so due to time I would love to share with you a few stories but we don't have time but the bottom line is that for every small little act I'll share with you a 20 second story there were two ladies we used to go collecting and one of the ladies said to the other is to collect money for charity not for themselves for a charity and one of the ladies said to the other you know what let's make a deal when we die whoever dies first should come to the other one in a dream and say what is the reward for us collecting water them died first and she came to the other the one in a dream and first off she came a year later so the friend said friend said I'm so glad you kept your promise why here and the friend who died said you know why because you don't know how painful it is for me to leave all of my body come down to this world we know from seifish well that in order to come to this world like she'll enough you have to actually leave the next world to come down to this world to appear it's like complicated but not getting into it but the ladies that it took me a year just to pull myself away from this pleasure and then the lady said you know I'm great our pleasure the pleasure is in the next world the the greatness of that pleasure is such that this lady said once you and I went collecting and we came to the house of a miser a well-known miser and no one ever went to collecting from him but you looked at me and you pointed that house and said hey maybe let's just try to go to that house whatever happened whether the miser answered or not this lady said you don't understand you cannot fathom the reward that you're going to get for lifting your hand to point at the house just the act of lifting your hand to point let's every action is so full of connections watch them they're just lifting at the point is gonna give you a reward that you cannot imagine let alone collect any let alone giving to the board people and so on so it's a mind-boggling amount of reward every mood so now it's that as impaired getting to Johnny Town matura can I get a Coulomb if I studied Torah I get the reward of all the mitzvahs now what does that mean so I heard from the great Sadiq Rebbe president it was a great orator he was about muster and he was very close to her family or brethren and he used to say it means and I'm gonna use a yeshiva expression shoot I can wash my it's simple explanation is just the way it sounds when you learn Torah it's as if you kept Shabbos kosher filling didn't speak loshon hora fasted on Yom Kippur just got a bris Mila on and on 613 commandments just by learning Torah right now you listening to Torah 613 but let's continue the chuppah time says one second how much Torah do I actually have to learn to get the 613 commandments worth of rewardin says the grade cut but I am ready for this Jared you ready eric says the cup of time one word one word of Torah you get the reward as if you did 613 of the hardest and easiest most timely mitzvahs it's as if I brought a carbon hotness and the carbon awesome and ash lemon and an Inca and a toda it's as if I mean you name it every word of Torah is equal to 613 commandments and every one of those Commandments have a reward that lasts forever that is infinitely pleasurable says the soffits I am one second let's do the math how many words can I say a minute so how many words do we say a minute so about 200 words a minute if you think about it people think I say a word a second no I don't if I said it worked a second then it wouldn't be one 1000 two could that serenity three words in one second but if the other way I speak I'm speaking more than at least four words a sec I mean you understand what I'm saying so you're listening to Torah at a rate of about about 200 words in a minute so now if you do the math and you're listening to Torah and whatever the calculator on them 200 Mitzvahs 200 words times 613 commandments so how many mixels the reward of how many missiles am i getting per minute of this Torah class I cannot see because it's like you know 120 2,600 not bad for a minute's work learning to are also a mitzvah yes itself 613 squared every time yeah yeah well you just broke my mind but yes very good so Wow so I'd say so I learned Torah for five minutes so then can you just click times five to that ah si six six hundred thirteen thousand on the dot that was all planned by the way no it wasn't that just that's just like coolness squared okay there we go well that makes sense and then what about an hour of learning you don't have to do the math what about a day in yeshiva Wow that's why at the end of our lives the great judgment will be won and lost through torah learning you know how the rabbi's of your campus and I know them all how they push you go to yeshiva got it rabbi I can do it at home but I'm feeling no no no that's not the point every word 613 mixes connection to Hashem in the sweetest way we say Louisa Roscoe Joshua went out Torah I'd be lost do you know that the Jewish people instead of being smacked around by covet 19 we're jumping on zoom' we're learning on the phone my kids are studying the Torah is the lifeline you know we sing a IME or it's caii me y'all know it what is a chiming it's kind means what the pay of life terima what is it what's a tree of life what's your tree Allah so we picture oh well in the Garden of Eden there were two trees and this is the Tree of Life what does that mean from time Veloster says it's not what you think you may think it's a tree of life because tree that you know in the Garden of Eden says archival as you know you should be picturing something else you should be picturing that we are in a raging river and we are powerless and we are being swept downstream and maybe maybe we're not such good swimmers and we're gonna be sucked under we may drown and all of a sudden as were gasping for air a tree a big trunk of a tree comes drifting down that river and I grab onto it for dear life says I'm convolution that's what I should be it's a tree of life it's a tree that I hang on to for dear life when I feel like I'm drowning when I feel like I've lost it so I finish there's much more to be said but I finish with these words of physic we all have the ability to learn Torah on our own it's better do it in your Shiva you're surrounded with other people who are inspired and enthusiastic when you're not in the mood they're in the mood and a little bit of Jewish guilt gets you back in your seat you have great teachers who are not just willing but they remove to transmit the beauty and intricacy of Torah and it's just a wonderful opportunity um rabbi Hurwitz can I ask you a question sure the the shower goes from what Howard to one hour each day the earliest class starts 10:15 in the morning Eastern okay and the last class ends at 10:00 p.m. Eastern and it's going on all day the entire day I mean this breaks like for lunch and supper but there's opportunities on different tracks morning afternoon and night plus one on one covers is fantastic um okay okay this is wonderful I I think we're living in an amazing time I'm looking at your faces on a phone and you're all very serious burning Torah and I'll give you the bracha you should be become mass medium which means people who love being consistent and you show up and learn and I sham says this so much so much you have to gain my chef says I will make it worth your while um um where cyanine second Matheny who blesses people yeah can I see nine okay um where are you all you are you once again yeah no you're right here um yeah okay we we can talk you'll know more about it if you look in them and say force well Severson well that that would be the great source for it when shrim well as the witches there just which lady to crawl down the soul of Shalom Alec so we see how much pain Sean was in and maybe next time next Wednesday I'll begin with a story that will relate to this and note you'll continue to be inspired I think the rabbi I thank you all for opportunity and thank you thank you