Torah Is The Blueprint for Life, Not Just The Law

You're missing the whole point. To get to the law, how how Hashem gets to the law, how the Hakhamim get to the law, get to the bottom line, that's the significant part of of learning Torah, not the law itself. The law itself is important, but it's not the significant part. The significant part is how we got to the law. Why? Because that's the blueprint, and that blueprint you could reuse. You could reuse and reapply in different parts for different laws or different parts of your life. I'll give you one example and then let you guys get some sleep. I'll give you one example. Now, anyone know what a pe'ah is? Pe'ah. Pe'ah to most of you means that it's a wig. Right? Wig. But the pe'ah really has another meaning. A pe'ah also means the end. The end of a field. Now, there are laws of pe'ah. And this is a This is a law of um how to give tzedakah. How to give tzedakah. So, the main job in those days, says in Gemara Masechet Shabbat, um both in uh 23 and also here too in 68. Yeah, 23A and 68. Um that uh couple things. That in order to Someone that has a farm, they're obligated to give tzedakah. They're obligated to give money to the poor. But what money to give to the poor? Not cash. They have to give them a part of the field. They have a season, you're growing a certain amount of fruit or whatever vegetables uh during the season, and you have to give a certain amount to the poor. You have to give. It's not like a uh You have to give. Okay, so the question is what do you give? You have to give a certain section, a certain percentage. Okay, so when do I have to give it? You have to give the pe'ah. What's the pe'ah? The pe'ah is the end. The end of the field. Why not the beginning? Why not the middle? If I'm giving, I can decide when to give. No. You have to give the end. Why? And there's a few reasons. Number one, it says that if you give the uh if if it's undetermined and you decide to give in the beginning another guy decides to begin at the end, what ends up happening is you end up being a ganav. You end up being a so a thief. Why a thief? A thief in two ways. Thief is that you're stealing the poor people's time. They don't know when they're getting it. So, all day they're going to wait. Oh, did you give now? No. Did you give now? No. Did you give now? Did you give now? You decide that you want to give at the end, but they're waiting for you from the beginning cuz they don't want to miss out. So, they're waiting the whole season until you get to the end cuz they don't know if you're going to give now or you're going to give to the end. So, in essence, what are you doing? Instead of giving them the ability to go collect from other people, they have to sit there by you like a like a statue waiting for you to give because they don't know when you're going to give. So, now you're a thief. You're stealing their time. They could go collect from somewhere else, make a good living. But now you're stealing their time. On the other hand, if you give them the uh you know, the beginning, then you end up being a different type of thief. Why different type of thief? Because if you didn't give, if you decide if you just didn't give, you skipped it, it's still going to look like you gave. Why? Because you continued doing whatever it is you're doing. No one knows what you did or what you didn't do. So, they said you have to give the end. You have to give the end cuz the end exclusively for everyone has to be the end cuz everyone knows that at the end of the field, corner of the field, applies to everyone. They know when to wait. They know that if the poor people are not collecting at that point, that means you didn't give and you have to be punished for it and so on and so forth. Even more so, even more so, which part of it you give? Do you just give the rotten part? Do you give any part that you want that you decide is the end? The Gemara says, "No, you have to give the best." You have to give the best part. But it's the poor guy. Why should I give him the best? Give him the rotten fruits like uh Cain gave to Hashem as a korban. He gave him the rotten fruits. He didn't want to give him a good korban. He wanted to say, "Why? Hashem's not going to eat it anyway. Why should I give him the uh good tomatoes? Let me just give him the rotten tomatoes. Anyway, he's not going to eat it." But what if the end is only rotten? If the end is not your responsibility. Okay. It's not your responsibility. You abide by the law. But the point is you're supposed to give the best part. Not decide, "Okay, this is the I'll make this the end because it's the worst part." You have to give the best part. So, none of us are farmers, I don't think. And none of us are dealing with all of this stuff. How could we apply this Gemara? No one's going to open a farm. You apply this Gemara because it teaches us about how to be charitable. First and foremost, you have to understand charity is not necessarily just about giving as far as giving money. Charity is also about giving kavod. The most difficult part of collecting charity, of collecting tzedakah, is the embarrassment. It's the embarrassment. Someone that collects charity, it's it's it's ramash a tikkun and a half to ask people for money. Anyone that has still self-respect in them, it's a disaster to ask people for money. Baruch Hashem, I've never had to ask people for money. I don't I don't think I would survive. I don't think I would survive. Yeah, we post it online. If you want to donate, donate and so on, but Baruch Hashem, directly, "Uh listen, we need $5,000. Please help us for more good." Baruch Hashem, Hashem never give me that tikkun. And may he never give it. I don't know how people do it. I don't know how people do it. Why? Because it's it's a disaster. What the Gemara is teaching us here is you have to know to give charity. It's not just give your money and thank you, you're wow. No, it's giving the person some sense of respect. Give the person the feeling like which is that he's doing you a favor. Not you're doing him a favor. The Gemara says, "Who benefits the most out of the tzedakah?" The one that gives, not the one that receives. Why the one that receive Why not the one that receives? Because the one that receive, Hashem's going to give him anyway. He's going to give him anyway. If he's right, Hashem's going to give him anyway. The one that gives, he has free choice. He decides whether he wants to be the tool that Hashem uses to give or not. Meaning, he's really the only one that benefits. The one that receives, Hashem's going to give him anyway. It's decreed in Shamayim what he's going to receive. It's Hayyim Mahazikim Bah u'Tomkheha Me'ushar. It says Tomkheha Me'ushar, meaning their investor is the one that's Me'ushar, that's benefits. Why? Because he decided by his own free choice to be the tool that Hashem uses to give to his children. So, first and foremost, we learn from Malchut from this pe'ah, this whole thing about farming and giving to We learn how to behave ourselves with with poor people or people that need or with organizations. Don't wait for them to ask. Many people say, "Listen." They always tell me, "Listen, if you need anything, just let me know." And in the back of my mind I'm saying, "I'm never ever going to let you know." It's never going to happen. I'm going to die before I'm going to let you know. Why? I'm never going to Listen, it's not Baruch Hashem. I don't have that tikkun. I'm never going to ask you for money, ever. It's never going to happen. I'll die before I ask you for money. Why? My ego's over here. It's never going to happen. It's never going to happen. I'm never going to ask you for rent money. I'm never going to ask you for more It's never going to happen. I'd rather Hashem kill me. Why? It's person has self-respect. He's just not going to do it. Hashem knows Baruch Hashem he didn't give me that tikkun. He knows. He knows I'm a weak person. I can't do it. He knows in this regards I'm a pencil. Can't do it. But But I don't have tikkun of money. What's the tikkun? I like to give. So, you have to decide who you're going to give and so on. The point being, Abotai, is that some people say, "Listen, if you need something, let me know." That's the wrong approach. The biggest part of your of your tzedakah is that you give before whether they need it or not is irrelevant. Whether they need it or not, obviously, is irrelevant. You want to give, you want to be the tool that Hashem uses, give. You want to be part of kiruv, give. You want to be part of building Sephardic Torah, give. Don't wait for somebody, "Hey, listen, we're so poor. We don't have. Please." Why? Why are you waiting for them to to embarrass themselves? Why? Why are you waiting for people to embarrass themselves? Why? Gives you better pleasure? And that's what they're teaching us in this Just basic. I'm not even telling you the whole sugia. This is the beginning. Just the beginning. Learn how to respect the needy. The needy you have to respect, not the rich. People respect the rich. Respect the needy. Even the way you give, you have to give them respect. So, that's one. Two, what do you give them? Do you give them just the change that you have in your pocket? You know, some people like to say, "Oh, say you have something? Yeah, they look Hold on." They take out all the bills. No, not the bills. Hold on a second. The other pocket. They look for coin. Oh, no, that's from Canada. I'm not going to use that. That's from Australia. That's from this. Finally, they find 87 cents of quarters and then say, "Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, guy. Hey, hey, good luck to you. Good luck to you. Hashem Hashem will bless you. Hashem will bless you." Here's the guy saying to himself, "Hashem is blessing with you, Hashem yerachem." 87 cents. He took out all the bills, $500, nothing, but the 87 cents he gave him. Gemara says, "What do you give him? Give him the best part." Instead of spending $3,000 on a navigation system, why don't you think about your your brother and sister? That's why the Hakhamim never wanted to be rich. They said, "You know how difficult it is to be rich? You have to be responsible for everybody." If somebody that's connected to you is is is is suffering under your watch, you have to pay for that thing. Says you have to give the best part. You can't if you have a guest you have a guest you have to give him the best. You have a slave. People ask about slaves all the time about Judaism. They believe in slaves. First of all, the slaves in the Torah are very different than slaves of today. Slave of Torah choose to be slaves either because they were criminals or they were thieves or they owed a lot of money. But to finalize it all, it says if you have a slave you have a boss. Why you have a boss? Why you have a boss if he is he is a slave? No, no, if you have a slave he's a boss. Cuz if you have one pillow, you have to give it to him. You have one steak, you have to give it to him. Well, he's a slave. That's Torah slave. You have to give him the best. So, these are just small things that you learn from Torah that you think is completely disconnected from our world. But in reality, when you look at the intricate part of the world, you see it's very much connected. If we could all apply just what we learned at the end of this year. Forget the first 3 hours. Just the end of this year to our day-to-day life next time you see somebody that's needy, say, "Oh, hey, come come come into the house. Come, I'll show you." You give the guy instead of making the guy feel like he's homeless and give him 87 cents you get the guy sit down. Say, "Hold on, you're probably tired you're walking all day. Sit down, let me I'll give give the guy a drink." Even if you still give him 87 cents. IF THAT'S ALL YOU HAVE, THAT'S all you have. What can you do? But you give the guy a drink. You give the guy potato chips or something. You say that ask the guy, "How you doing? How you making out?" Give him some sense of like respect. Some like Don't make him feel like he's he's he's he's he's a disease. He's tzaraat. For some reason people don't feel like they don't feel like they even need to worry about the needy. Like, "Oh, yeah, you know, here here here here take care." Like they're the pet. Give them a treat. Here here. Go. Here here. Good luck to you. Yeah, good luck to you. These are small little things. This is midot. This is character traits. You always say, "No, I'm a good person." Yet you do this? Last time you gave, did you give 87 cents and tell the guy, "Good luck." or you actually ask the guy how he's doing? When was the last time you asked the guy that need that the homeless guy, average guy, you never met him in your life, or came to you at the Knesset asking for tzedakah, "How you doing?" How are you? Do you ever ask him, "How are you?" Once in your life, once. Can you say, "Ah, you know what? There was one homeless guy or one guy that I said, 'How are you?'" You didn't ask one time? ONE TIME, "HOW ARE YOU?" DO YOU EVER care how are you? That's what Torah teaches us. That's Torah Hashem. That's the difference between logic that's human and God. God says, "How are you?" We are meant to be a [music] light unto the nations. Not to follow their misguided practices. [music] Remember, every Jew has to remember that he's a Jew and she's a Jew. We don't celebrate non-Jewish holidays. Even if they seem harmless. It says [music] zilzulin, disrespect to the Torah.