Why A Killer's Life or Death Depend on their Heart | TORAH FOUNDATION (12)

[Music] D. [Music] Sometimes the road feels steep and your mind feels weak and small. When the noise gets even louder and you're scared that you might fall. But it was made for rising, not for running. There's a deep inside you that can turn the dark to light. Hold on tighter. Lift your eyes. Yes, you have the long. >> Yes, this is an Art Truga Music YouTube channel and it's an amazing video. Certainly top of the list. One of the best videos we've had. >> Amazing. Amazing work. Team Hashem. A great song obviously the whole thing >> from A to Z. >> Perfect timing for >> Tun. [Music] Do I believe that Moses split the seat? >> I don't just believe. I know he did. >> He's played to 12. You have that kind of shel when the getter gets so burning. Make my heart. I'm not perfect. I'm still trying. But I'm holding on to you. And inside I hear you saying, [Music] "Yes, you have the >> such a catchy song." [Music] Yes, you have the >> keep on going just like this. >> Yes, you have the [Music] >> Yes. Safari seot and Ashkinazim say we have both Safari and Ashkanazim on our team. We have people from all over the world. Amazing. We are back here on our Sunday night Torah foundation series based on the Tonight's show is for the foravid and all of all the righteous no that continue to support the organization continue to help us publicize name in different ways whether it's through your donation on our website bezem.org or bhhora.org or whether it's you ordering the uh different books that we have to distribute in your community for free. As a reminder for everyone, many smart people ordered this in the last uh 72 hours. It's the car magnet and I'm very very happy that a lot of you ordered them. There's still more to go. If you want to put this on your car door or your store at the very least for the shaveim time, which is for the next several weeks to help people do chuva, to help people watch the film that will change their life, change their eternity, change their marriage, change their literally every good that exists in the world of Torah stands on tikun because nothing good will ever happen to someone that is unfortunately not a not someone that's so uh help people help yourself uh by getting this magnet getting the different uh cards that we have and of course as many of you as possible to order the tablets that we have the kiru boxes because this is literally the ultimate way to help people do chuva. simply give it to people and they open it and they start watching that um are going to change their life. We provide you the tools. You guys have to do your to to help us publicize these tools to help more and more Jewish people do chuva. So with that being said, we're going to get right into the sh because there's simply a very deep shy interesting lots of sources that will provide you for you to delve into further if you'd like. But most importantly, this is to help each and every single one of us inspect our hearts, fix whatever needs to be fixed, strengthen whatever needs to be strengthened. and get closer and closer to now we call this sh at least preliminarily why a killer killer somebody that killed somebody his life or death depends on his heart or her heart. Now what does that have to do with everything after the confirmed that there is a logical and biblical obligation to inspect the heart to consider everything connected to the heart when it comes to serving a now takes us into the oral Torah and whether the oral Torah actually obligates as well. In fact, what we will see here is that there's actually much more clarity that came from our sages to the point of understanding how the divine judgment of the Torah is actually decided, including the question of why a killer's life or death depends on their heart. The begins a new section by saying as follows. When it became clear to me that the duties of the heart are obligatory according to the Torah just as they are by way of reason. I searched through the rabbitic literature and found this to be stated explicitly by our sages to an even greater extent than is made obvious in scripture or by reason. So already the is reminding us of the journey that he's taken us so far of whether this duties of the heart is an obligation or recommendation. He showed us that logically if you're going to perform certainly you should involve your heart put some more feeling behind it more covenant makes all the sense in the world but just because something makes sense doesn't mean it's an obligation just because something is not good for you doesn't mean it's a sue for example somebody asked me the the other day question about the uh vaping vaping, smoking cigarettes and uh I told him it vaping has the same uh permission as smoking cigarettes, but he was under the impression that smoking cigarettes is an it's forbidden according to the Torah and it's not. Even though cigarettes are bad for you, even though it's not recommended for anyone to ever smoke cigarettes, it's terrible for you. It's still not forbidden according to the Torah because the sages that have evaluated it, that have passed over it, the overwhelming majority of it say, well, even though it's all the bad things that are said about it are bad, still it doesn't kill you with one cigarette or one puff. So, you can't say it's paish on, you know, one cigarette. Of course, excessive anything is not good for you to such an extent that even the Torah says not just excessive food or excessive uh you know women or no even excessive uh you know uh money is not good for you where the Torah obligates the the king not to have too many wives, not to have too many horses. There's a reason for this. Excess is never good. But still, just because something is bad doesn't necessarily mean it's automatically a same concept goes with vaping. Now again, it's not recommended. It's not suggested, but needless to say, to say something is is forbidden means that if they do it, they'll get punished. Now, of course, person that's doing harm to themselves is punishing themselves. But as far as divine punishment, it's something different. So the is in essence telling us yes there is a rational logical understanding here that duties of the heart should be an obligation but we can't just pkin based on logic then he brought us a Torah obligation in our last sh and he brought us many verses from the Torah just like the one We read every every day the part with its or the part before it that you love Hashem with all your heart, all your soul, all your resources or uh later on in the part that you should not follow the uh uh your heart, your eyes. So the verses themselves and many many others are mentioned in the written But now he takes us into the world of the oral Torah where everything stands on. One of the main things that the missionaries, heretics, atheists, and pretty much any enemy of the Torah hates the most is the oral Torah. And the reason for that is because that's where everything is clarified. That's where all seven wisdoms of the world are clarified. But of course, people that are too focused on hatred do not actually delve into the facts of why they hate it. So if it's the anti-semites, they just simply copy and paste what previous anti-semites took and simply pointed out a few words with their own explanation of it, ignoring the fact that the Talmud actually explains what this means, what it doesn't mean, what's allowed, what's not allowed. But again, if you hate, you're not looking for truth. You're looking for justification for your hatred, support for your hatred. And that's generally what they do generation after generation. It's no surprise why that there is these uh newborn uh anti-semites that are uh reporting every day all types of new reasons why they hate Israel, why they hate the Jewish people, why they're simply following the same script as Hitler as in M or Martin Luther uh in and all of the other hatred before. Even uh Farrakhan has a whole book about how much he hates the Jews because of all of the same reasons from previous generations, which again anyone that actually delves into the facts sees that it's all false. And if you see that something is true, you see that it's not true like they say. So when you look at the oral Torah and you actually study it, you see endless wisdom, endless good, endless understanding of how to serve in the best possible way, which includes becoming the best possible human being. best for your family, best for your society, whether it's Jew or Gentile. But those that focus on hatred ignore all of that and in fact are ignorant of all of that. And even if you show it to them, they don't care. Why? Because why let the truth get in the way of their mission and of of being biased and being uh hateful when it comes to the heretics. The heretics like to use the oral Torah in order to distort it. similar to the anti-semites but with a different bias to prove the opposite of what something means. They have an agenda. They already have a target and they're looking for something to match their target. Similar to the idoltors, the missionaries where they simply they decided that their yoske man-made god is in the Torah and they're simply looking for what they could use as a manipulation to fool people to thinking that this is it. But when somebody actually studies the oral Torah, somebody studies the Mishna, the Talmud, somebody studies the the all of the different pkim from the beginning all the way to today. All you see is wisdom and every aspect of its teachings. So therefore the says yes we saw clear and rational reasons of why duties of the heart is an obligation. Yes we saw clear verses in the written Torah that tell us it's an obligation. But when I searched through the rabbitic literature, meaning the oral Torah, I found this to be stated explicitly by our sages to an even greater extent than made in scripture and by reason. And he gives us examples we'll delve into. The first example, he says, I found this in general statements such as what it says in page 106b, which says, The merciful one wants the heart. The merciful one of course being a now if you remember in previous lectures we brought this as one of the things to learn from. But today we'll look a little bit more what is this? What is the subject matter that this is said in? Because as Shami teaches us, we don't learn any subject from just a single place in the Talmud in the Torah in general. We don't just say, "Okay, this one sentence, this is the beginning, the end, and the conclusion." No, we see it mentioned here and then we look for any other places this is mentioned regardless of what the subject is. In order to understand something comprehensively, you have to look at all different aspects and different places that sages discussed it. So when you say the merciful one wants your heart, if the statement stands on its own by itself, it would seem like the secular mentality and even the idolatrous mentality would be correct. Oh, as long as you have a good heart, but that's not what it means. Page 106b before it says this statement says as follows. talks about how the sages are talking about the different sections of the Talmud, the different teachings in the order of Nzikin comparing themselves to previous generations and Rabuda was teaching and compared himself to I'm sorry. And he says nowadays we we teach in 13 different schools and are thoroughly proficient in it which will say is superior to what RAuda's generation of scholarship was doing. But will say that although we teach in more places, we see that there was more blessing in Rabuda's generation. When there was a drought in his days, Rauuda would merely remove his shoe as a sign of affliction and rain. A sign of affliction and rain would come immediately. Whereas we cry out profusely in our prayers and no one pays attention to us. Clearly of Yuda's generation was more favored than ours by God. This demonstrates that proficiency in Torah is not necessarily indicative of true greatness. Rather we must conclude that the holy one blessed is he desires the heart meaning righteousness as it says Hashem sees into your heart. This is in alif chapter 16 verse7. So here we see that the sages are talking. First you have the teaching of then compares which came at a later on. Compare their teaching has expanded much further than but yet the blessing that had in his generation was much greater. Why? Hashem had their heart. where Hashem doesn't have as much of our heart apparently as he did his. Now, why is this even said here in? Because the subject matter beforehand and the subject matter after it tell us of people that knew an enormous amount of Torah, but completely wicked. And says in the name of Mashia and who are both Torah geniuses did not really understand their studies though objected to this. What are you talking about? We're dealing with about him. It says where is the one who can count? Where is the one who can weigh? Where is the one who can count the towers? Meaning he was able to know exactly where everything is according to the letter in a Torah. Which letter is the 457th letter in this par this section? He knew exactly how to measure things. His profound knowledge of scripture was unbelievable. He was the head of the sun. But you're saying that he didn't understand his studies. How rather meant that when they studied it didn't lead them to the correct conclusion. And that's why it's written Hashem's secret is to those who fear him. Meaning the as much as they knew where everything is written, what is written, they did not have did not have fear of heaven. They spoke against fear of heaven like unfortunately some people that claim to be rabbis or religious do today. Like somebody sent me earlier today that apparently in the so-called shor at the sh she goes to the rabbi says that you're not supposed to be scared of Hashem only love him. said, "Well, that means he just canled one of the six 613 mitzvot. He's considered an aikos." Or another one says, "You know that the he canled already go. He canled any suffering." Well, you don't have to question the righteousness of the he was. We did a series about one of his katan. But what people say in his name has nothing to do with him. And in fact, you can prove it. Why? The nom lived before the Holocaust. If destruction and disaster was not going to happen to the Jewish people, how do you explain the Holocaust? So, lots of foolishness is spread by people that have no fear of Hashem. They may know information. They may know how to quote things, but their ultimate agenda is to give you the wrong conclusion. Why? When you don't fear Hashem, then you're certainly not going to publicize the truth. And that's why says do not die until he forgot his entire Torah learning. As it says, he shall die beereft of wisdom, led into error by great folly. Dog was afflicted with before he died where it says you cut down all who stray from you. And in fact even say that sent one of the Malim to remove any knowledge that he had because that was keeping him alive. The point being here is [Music] even though their knowledge of what it says in the book was profound, their heart was not with Hashem. As the prophet Isaiah says many in their mouth in their lips they praise me but their heart is far away from me. So the gives us a first source. The merciful merciful one wants your heart. Wants your heart. Not just oh you determine self-determined I'm a good person no good according to the Torah and therefore the brings another source number eight says and the eye uh the heart and the eye are the two agents of sin. What does this mean? Simple. When we pray every day and we get to the section of says don't follow your uh don't follow your heart. Don't follow your eyes. Now usually you would think wait doesn't the eyes come first. What you see is what you feel. Yes what you see is what you feel. But if you already have a predisposition, a preconceived notion that you want and you are lusting for something that's forbidden, then your eyes will find it. Your heart already wants to sin. Your eyes will find how. There are two partners that are the agents of sin. And then says and there's detailed treatment in the is full of teachings of the sages about this and many other subjects and he says it's so well known at least in his generation that it needs not be quoted at length but since it's not well known in our generation we'll try to use a little bit We have a whole series about we did years ago. Highly recommended for people to watch and listen every single one of them. Each sh or each Mishna is different from the next life-changing teachings that a wisdom of the sages regarding every subject matter that you can possibly think of. Now the first perk of moot we have the Mishna by Antigonos. Antiggonos is this is the third Mishna chapter one Mishna number three. Antiggonos who was the gdador in the city of Sulo received a tradition from Shimon Shimon Sadadik and he was accustomed to say be not the servant who serves the master for the sake of receiving a reward but rather be like servants who serve the master not for the sake of receiving a reward and nonetheless the fear of heaven should be upon you. So here the one of the greatest sages that ever lived is teaching you teaching all of us if you're going to do things only based on profit and loss only based on your rational reason it won't hold. It won't hold. If you're looking for a plus, if you're looking for an immediate reward for protecting your immediate reward for doing kir an immediate reward for Shabbat, it won't hold. Why doesn't dance to your tune? He will reward you when he decides to reward you and how he decides to reward you, which is always going to be better than what you think. But if you serve him based on that, it's not going to be good. This is also the same thing when it comes down to people that focus all of their efforts on a single subject in a Torah and their entire belief in a Torah and Hashem and Judaism as a whole is based on the subject that they favor not just above and beyond everything else but literally it's the subject it's the only subject they know anything about. Many times people pick the subject of Msiah and they know the different prophecies, the different teachings, the go the uh chapter 38 and uh Zachariah chapter 14 13 and 14 all the different things that uh the prophet Isaiah says. Why did Yakovu in last week's par uh was he not able to tell them about what's going to happen when Mashiah comes even though he says let me tell you what's going to happen when Mashiah comes all the different things. Now if you ask them basic questions many times they have no idea if something happens in the world they immediately think oh that's it. Oh, America attacked Venezuela. Okay, that's it. It's the end of the world. Oh, Japan attacked somebody else. Oh, that's the end of the world. Why? Because if your heart is one place and dominated by one place, your mind will follow. Your mind will follow. And many times this type of belief doesn't hold. Why? Because when the things you expect according to your limited knowledge don't happen, it weakens you. This is the reason why the Rambam says anybody that gives a timing of when Mashiach will come will be cursed upon from heaven. Why? Because if your prediction does not come true, which it will not, it's a promise from the Torah that no one is going to be able to predict exactly when Mashia is going to come. if it doesn't come true. But people followed you. People listened to you and they said, "Oh, Mashiah's going to come in the year 2000. It's going to come in the year 2005, 2020, whatever, you know, Gagorian calendar you're going to use. Oh, it's going to come on PES. It's going to come on shave." And guess what? It doesn't happen. All of those people that followed you will now use that as an excuse to abandon the Torah, to abandon everything. In fact, even if people put too much faith into a person, even if it's a great person, it's not good. We saw the many rabbis have spoken about one of the most heartbreaking things that took place after the Laberebi died was that there was some people that called themselves his that were convinced that he was the Messiah convinced that he was above Mosherenu even and I'm not just saying this literally you've asked them and they say it and when he died. Literally, you saw them simply take off their garments and stop being religious. Others did it with their rabbis. It's a mistake that happens time and time again. Now, this is not just the issue of Mashiach. It's also, for example, things like Torah in science or proofs. Torah proofs. I enjoy proofs as much as the next guy. I've taught many of them over the years. We have several films about Torah proofs. But if that's your only Torah, it will not hold water when push comes to shove. It will not hold water. Why? Even if you provide a Torah proof that's amazing. page 32b talks about the number of stars or that uh you have uh the different prophecies in a that came true all of these wonderful things there's endless proofs and if all of your belief in Hashem your loyalty to Hashem is dependent on those proofs and not on the literal connection between your heart and the moment Somebody shows you either errors in your proofs, questions about your proofs, or something that you never knew about. Your entire belief system can fall apart. There's even a someone that used to be a famous speaker that used to teach proofs. And one day he fell into the trap of the Satan and started looking at the proofs of the heretics, the atheists, and started questioning everything. And before you know it, the guy that was helping people do chuva fell off to death completely became an aos. Oh hashem, I heard that after several years of completely going off and making many many mistakes. Oh hashm I heard that he's uh doing chuva. Actually at one point it really broke my heart that when I heard it I sent him my book. I sent him some USBs. I don't know the person but nonetheless I was very happy to hear that he was doing chuva. But what happened? He himself says I looked where I'm not supposed to look. I question what I'm not supposed to question. But one thing that's missing there that I should add is that if your entire belief system is dependent on one subject, it won't hold water. The Torah is wider than the ocean. A person has to cleave to a not just with proofs and not just with blind faith because even the Rambanad in Shahul says that people that just have blind faith and ignore facts are fools. Why aren't you taking advantage of the facts that are available to us? We've been enlightened by the sages. But again you cannot depend on just one particular subject matter whether it's msiach or it's a uh uh you know any other thing that you have and that's in essence what antiggon is trying to teach. Don't be a servant who serves the master for the sake of receiving a reward. Be a servant who serves the master not for the sake of seeking a reward. and have the fear of he fear of heaven should be upon you. a couple of his own students or some say the students of his students misunderstood the teachings and theatan says it wasn't his students but rather his students students that didn't explain it as well as he did ended up going off to the Sadducees the baches because they thought it meant something else completely that there's no reward at all the only thing that Antigonos was trying to say is that served with your heart. Put all of your heart into it because no matter what you do, you will never be able to pay back a kadu for what he does for you. No matter what you do, you will never be able to understand how much he does for you. No matter what you do, is going to decide things better than you decide. As the was once overheard doing speaking to Hashem the all the details of the known because of the in the end of his days he literally begged people to go from door to door teach people that they have to do chuva before the holocaust comes over a decade decade before the Holocaust happened. He literally saw things as if they were happening. When they told him that 6 million people, I think it was six or 10 million people died in the first world war. He said, "That's nothing in comparison to what's coming." and he cried to Hashem but most people didn't believe him with the exception of couple of his close to the Ponovich were among those I think it was three or four main that he had. Anyhow, the was doing speaking to Hashem and he says, "Dear God, what have you done for me and what have I done for you? You have given me the privilege of writing the and many others. What have I done for you? Nothing. Please, dear God, give me an opportunity to do something for you. When somebody says that they believe that God needs us, that means that they believe that God is lacking. Now whether a person wants to fall into that trap or not is their choice but everyone should use simple logic. Does anybody in the world today know more than no? So if the who wrote more foundational books than anybody else you could possibly imagine in his generation. There's not a person who doesn't know who the is says to when no one's listening but somebody actually heard this. Meaning he didn't have to fake it. He didn't have to pretend. This is between him and Hashem. What have I done for you, Hashem? Nothing. Nothing. All the Torah teachings, writings, mitzvot, that's what I have to do. That's what's expected of me to do. It's not deserving of any reward. It's not something that you b you you you're benefiting from. So antiggon tells us you need to make sure that your heart is in it because if you have a different agenda, if your goal is to be famous, if your goal is to get credit, if your goal is to get recognition, if your goal is to make money, if your goal is something else other than connecting you to Hashem, it won't last. It won't last. In fact, the Rambam writes in chapter 9 number one that the reward for the is in the world to come. And anything that you get in this world is simply to entice you to do more. The reward for a mitzvah is another mitzvah. Meaning that you get more money after you give ma not because that's the reward but rather because since saw that you like to donate money to publicize Tawa he'll give you more money so you can publicize more Torah. Hashem saw that you married a woman so he you want to marry a woman he gives you a woman but if you are you saw that you want to have kids I'll give you the kids. The point being is when a kadosh sees that you want to do a mitzvah, he he enables you to do more of it. And of course, different tests for different people, different ups, different downs, different circumstances. But the point is that gives you things in this world in order to enable you to get closer to him. And so if your goal in prayer, in Torah learning, in Torah teaching, in giving staka, in uh pretty much everything that you do, working, marrying, raising kids, being a kid, whatever it is, if your goal is not to use that as a way to get closer to Hashem, to sanctify Hashem's name, then the says then there's no purpose for you to If you did not sanctify name today, the says for what were you created? What's the purpose of your life? Furthermore says the Mishna in chapter two Mishnah number one in name of which is the proper path that a person should choose for himself. Whatever path is a credit to himself and earns him an esteem of his fellow men, be as scrupulous in performing a minor mitzvah as in a major mitzvah. For you do not know the reward given for the respective mitzvot. So first makes it look like wait, you should do things based on how people look at you. Oh, see look at this guy to impress people. No, no, no. This is to be kash to be kosher in the eyes of a bahu, but also in the eyes of other people. Why? Because number one, if you're a kosher person, people are not going to suspect you of things that are not what you do. They're not going to suspect you of stealing. If you're constantly giving staka, if you're very generous, if you're a uh not a person that touches other people's money and so on and so forth, they're not going to suspect you of being a womanizer if you are loyal husband, loyal uh uh uh wife and so on. They're not going to suspect you of those things. There is certainly going to be as the uh baltov says just like Mosheenu he was strong when it came to not taking it you know not taking money from anybody where he says to Hashem I didn't even pay for my donkey but yet the wicked people said he's a thief look he how did he become so rich and also he was the only one that left his wife in order to get closer toadu Yet they said, "Oh, look, he's uh he's going with our wives." Why? The BM says that in the things that he was the best at, the wicked people accused him of the exact opposite. Why? Because it's a very difficult test. But in general, if you do things that are the proper path according to the Torah, then your fellow Jews will respect you and will follow what you do. Meaning your behavior will entice other people to also be good. If you are righteous, people will want to be righteous like you. If you are generous, people will want to be generous like you. If you're a loser, people will be want to be losers like you. Whatever good you do, people will follow. Everyone has their audience. Whatever good you do, there is going to be some people that follow. Whatever bad you do, there's always going to be people that follow. That's why a person always has to consider the fact that right now is a time of person has to do chuva for all the immorality, but it's also an opportune time to do chuva for all other sins. And the sages gave different tikunim different tikunim the number of fasts or money that you need to donate in order to do tikunim. Whether he made a sin of immorality with a woman with himself with a man with a non-Jew Jew. But some of the later sages also gave other tikuning that a person can do whether it was stealing or it was Shabbat or it was uh and they said this even for idolatry there's a tikun but for causing the public to sin no one has found a tikun for it. No one has found a ton for it. So when a person looks at what Dana Cisc says at just by based on the words in their own logic, they're going to arrive at the wrong conclusion. They're going to think, "Oh, look good in front of people. Maybe you should wear nice clothes. Maybe you should uh, you know, impress people." No, no. This all has to do with following the path of the Torah. And how does he qualify this and clarify it? He says, "Be scrupulous when performing a minor mitzvah as one as in a major mitzvah. For you don't know the reward given for respective mitzvot. Calculate the cost of a mitzvah against its reward. In order to do this, in order for a person to treat a small mitzvah like they do a big mitzvah, of course it depends on the heart. Your heart has to be in it. If you're only doing mitzvot in order to impress people, in order to get recognition, in order to get a reward that you think you're going to get or you deserve, then your heart is not going to be in it. And therefore, you're not going to be able to follow a bud's guidance here, which is to be scrupulous about the small mitzvot and the big mitzvot. Why? Because you're going to think if it's dependent on the reward, let me just focus on all the big mitzvot, what kind of uh reward will I get for saying with keeping Shabbat, I'll get a big reward. So, let me put more on Shabbat. Now, it's good. Keeping Shabbat is very important, but so is washing your hands. So he's saying in fact one of the things that our sages teach us is very important to have blessing of health is saying the with kavana and only a person that has seen sickness or gone through sickness knows the value of good health. Furthermore, many times people skip through the prayer. Why? They want to get to what they think is the most important amid the end. But anytime you ask people, if I can give you a baka, what baka would you pick? 99% of the time people say panasa. I want more money. Now, if you want, why did you skip the section of the prayer about the Well, I know it's, you know, it's a uh Well, do you know how many gates in heaven you're opening when you're saying the pumak like you're supposed to with your heart in it? Endless blessings come from the including parasa, including zeug, including schlomite, including children. Literally there's a book by uh one of the of our generation that's nearly 800 pages full full of different details about the greatness of praying the of saying the properly. So a person that does not have their heart in the prayer is going to miss what's good for their heart, what's good for their connection with Hashem. And that's why says be scrupulous with minor mitzvot as well as major ones. And clarifies this is referring to your heart because you cannot be scrupulous with mitzvot if your heart is not in it. Calculate the reward of the mitzvah and the cost of it. Calculate the reward of a sin and the cost of it. Think about what you're doing. Meaning, don't just think about the mitzvah. Think about what goes into it. How much is going into it? The more difficulty, the greater the reward. Don't look for easy mitzvot only because the also says that the greater the toil the greater the reward. So if you're sweating doing a mitzvah you should be happy about it. Why? You're going to get a bigger reward as a result. you're going to get a bigger blessing as a result than someone who did not toil his heart. The same concept goes with sins. The says, "Think about all of this. Put your heart into it. Okay? So, you're going to enjoy yourself for 5, 10, 20 minutes, a half hour with this prohibited act, but do you know how much you're going to suffer as a result? Do you know how much you're going to suffer as a result? Yes, you benefited. You enjoyed. But if you actually put your heart into it and understand what the Torah says about wasting seed, about immorality, about Shabbat, about desecrating Hashem's name, no good in this world will ever make it worth it for you to make even a single sin. This cannot be something you thought too much about if you're doing it because if you thought properly about it, you put your heart into it, you would never make the sin. That's why they call when your person makes a sin like the spirit of foolishness unless the person is completely evil which we've had throughout history. And therefore completes this particular Mishna and says consider three things and you will not come to the grip of sin. Know what is above you a watchful eye and attentive ear and all your deeds are recorded in a book. Meaning if delving into things is hard for you, how much is the mitzvah worth? How much effort? How much is the sin worth? How much effort? The go says that not only a person is going to get punished for the sin, but they'll also get punished for how much they enjoyed it. All this is hard for you. You forgot. Don't forget Hashem is watching. Don't forget Hashem is listening. DON'T FORGET THAT everything you do is written in a book. Meaning you're going to have to pay for it. There's no discounts in there's no discounts in. Now, of course, we can go through the entire Mishna and get one after another more and more proofs of the oral Torah's clarification of the duties of the heart just like the said. But then he brings another source and he says, page 27b we have another proof where it says on what merit have you reached such a ripe old age. Now if somebody just reads this and is not familiar with they have no idea what this has to do with the heart. That's why you have to look in if you haven't studied the even more so what does it say in the page 27b on the bottom middle bottom the disciples of zakai asked him he was older And they wanted to know why did he get this blessing of living such a long life. And he said to them, "In all my days, all my days," he gives him different things that he's done. I never urinated within for a month of my place of prayer. Now this may not seem like a big deal in our days because there's bathrooms and toilets so on but this were different times 200 years ago and permissible to do so just like said in a different place in the zakai took upon himself to be more stringent when than the letter of the law when it came down to respecting the place of where he prayed and this is not just referring to the synagogue even If he was traveling somewhere and he had to pray and then later on he had to relieve himself, he would not do it so close to where he prayed. Even if he prayed by a a tree or some, you know, something else, he would stay away from it. Furthermore, I never coined a nickname for my fellow. You know how people say instead of, you know, calling their uh their friend their name, they'll call them a different name. So they'll call Ruven, Ruby, or they'll call uh you know, you know, they'll shorten different names or sometimes they'll give them nicknames. Shorty, Rocky, I don't know, uh Tall Joe, whatever. All types of nicknames. Many times people don't realize that the beginning of those nicknames is an embarrassing story. And even if the person you know tolerates it, accepted it and even started calling themselves it, the sages say do not be part of this. Do not be part of this. And you say well how come the is they call you know everybody knows him as or the you know many of the other sages the balatana all you know obviously they called them by because this nickname was not a nickname it was the name of their greatness of what they the Torah that they wrote the Torah that they publicized has nothing to do with physical attributes has nothing to do with rich or poor, tall or short or the skin color they have. It has to do with their Torah greatness, something that they themselves publicized. But when people give each other nicknames, they don't realize that they could be either embarrassing a person a new or simply reminding them that they've accepted to be embarrassed on a permanent basis because of their nickname. So Abiz Zakai says, "I never took part of this." Meaning that even if somebody else called somebody Chucky instead of Charles or told Joe instead of Joe, I still never took part of I never called Joe Tolljo. I never called Charles Chucky. Called him by their name. I never neglected to recite kadush on Shabbat day over wine. meaning that I always made sure that I set aside the funds needed especially in the days that he lived with there was poverty was the standard but he made sure to always put aside money so he would have kush with wine today obviously for most people this doesn't seem like a big deal because there's a surplus and many people are much more well off than their grandparents were but in those days getting wine was a big I had an elderly mother one time and I when I lacked funds to buy wine, she sold the veil that she wore upon our head and brought me wine for the kadouch of the day which she purchased with the proceeds of the sale of our veil. And when his mother died, she left him an inheritance of 300 barrels of wine. And when Rabiz Zakai died, he left his children 3,000 barrels of wine. What does all of this mean? Zakai is telling his disciples, "Yes, I learned Torah. Yes, I did mitzvot. I did what commanded me to do. But if you're asking me why was my life so blessed that I lived so many years and even on my last day on earth I'm still completely competent clear sharper than ever despite being many many years older than you could even imagine because I cleave my heart toad and made his will into my will and perfected different midot different character traits to take everything into consideration whether it's the mitzvah of kush to give enough honor of the Shabbat that I'll always have wine even if that meant selling possessions so much so that even my mother recognized that it was so important to me to have wine everyone knew how I honored the Shabbat it wasn't just I honored the Shabbat in private I honored the Shabbat to such an extent that everyone KNEW TO SUCH AN EXTENT that my mother made sure to prepare an inheritance for me for the only thing that she knew I cared about that she could give me as a physical possession which WAS 300 BARRELS OF wine and I made sure to instill this care of Shabbat to my children and left them 3,000 barrels of wine. If you're asking me why I got a long life, it wasn't because I did what I was obligated to do, but rather I went above and beyond. I never made fun of people. I never took advantage of people. I never followed the crowd. I did above and beyond to perfect myself to the best of my ability. Just like the Mishna says, make his will into your will. And if you do that, the Mishna continues says, "And he will make your will into his will." How can you make his will into your will? by putting your heart into every single part of your life and seeing how you're serving Hashem with everything you're doing, whether it's with your career, your business, your uh sleeping pattern, your learning pattern, your marriage, your child rearing, your uh shopping in stores, your business deals, everything, every aspect of a person's life should be connected to. The more you connect to Hashem, the more you'll be able to understand what needs to be fixed and you'll be capable of doing it. But if a person just lives like the animals of the fields and the forests as if there's no nobody watching them like a wild animal, then of course all of this sounds bizarre to them. What? I have to connect going to work with with God. Why? Maybe if I want more money, I'll connect it to him. But if I'm just doing a business deal, what does he care? What? I have to connect my relationship with my wife to God. Why? It's I mean, like people that are not connected to Hashem are simply confused at why you have to connect to Hashem in every aspect of what you do. But the reality is the is telling us yes it's clearly logical to work on yourself when you're serving Hashem when you're living in this world to know what's in your heart in comparison to what's the will of Hashem it's clearly in But it's the most clear when you look at the words of the sages. Now in fact if a person wants a combination of how the oral Torah explains the Torah. You could see what writes next. Anyone that reads the written goes to chapter 35 verse 11 that's the book of numbers we'll see that Torah says he who kills a person accidentally is not liable to death penalty. But we know that in the ten commandments says do not murder. And if somebody murders, we already know at the time of no or at the time of even the no laws says anybody that murders it's a death penalty. But yet the same says that if somebody kills a person accidentally is not liable for a death penalty. How does the oral Torah explain this? Says the I found this in scripture that one who kills a person accidentally is not liable to death penalty. that he who inadvertently violates one of the negative commandments is liable only to a sin offering, a kurban or a guilt offering even where its intentional violation would have made him liable to premature death or to one of the four types of execution which the course court passes a sentence on. Meaning if he would have killed him intentionally, everyone knows it's a death penalty. If he would have driven on Shabbat intentionally, cooked on Shabbat intentionally, everybody knows it's a death penalty. Now, today there's no, so there's no death penalties by the no today, but there's still a heavenly death penalty. What's a heavenly death penalty for Shabbat, for uh adultery, for uh all the other things? Lots of things. It could be person dying before he's 60 years old. It could be person uh seeing his kids die during his lifetime. She person losing a lot of you know all of his money. Today he has $20 million $25 million. Next week he has negative a million, 2 million, 3 million, 4 million. This is a form of death penalty. But if it's accidental, then there's no death penalty. He just has to bring a koban. Why? If he threw an axe at at his at his fellow and killed him, it's a death penalty. But if he threw an axe at the wood, but it slipped and ended up killing his friend, it's not a death penalty. Why not? What we see here, says the is that there are major grounds for punishment only when both the body and the heart participate in a forbidden act. the heart with its intent and the body with its activity. Meaning it all depends the punishment of the killer depends on his heart. if he intended to kill the person like the Nazis just like one of the haters that's constantly saying anti-semitic statements he intends to hate he intends to kill they intended to destroy their punishment just like this person's punishment is endless the world will endom will be shut down except their chamber. Why? They wanted to do evil. He wants to do evil. There are many goim that were good and helped the Jews and continue to help the Jews till this day. And unfortunately, there are many that are bad and evil. But the same is also there are many Jews that are good and do good all the time in every opportunity they have. And unfortunately there are some Jews that are terrible people. Which mother you were born to is not going to determine whether you're good or bad. Your own heart is going to determine that. WHAT YOU DECIDE TO DO, which desire you're going to follow, whether it's your lust, your desires, your personal preferences, or the will of Hashem. If you follow the will of Hashem, you will do good because he's the ultimate good. You follow your own animalistic instinct, you will be evil, much worse than you could possibly imagine. A cute baby could easily turn into an Adolf Hitler. Now says what we see here is that the punishment on the killer, the punishment on the Shabbat, the punishment on the adulterer, all depends on what was the intention behind it. If you knew it was Shabbat, you knew what that it's forbidden to drive on Shabbat, you knew what the punishment was and you still did it, then the punishment comes. The punishment comes. This one guy came to my shimi years ago, grew up reformed, deformed. I tried to help him do chuva as much as I can. invested even money in this guy whe it's books and so on. But of course everything that I tried to help him with he had and rabbis destroy it and influence him the opposite. And then one day he tells one of my other students that uh not only is he not keeping Shabbat anymore, but he also ate on Yum Kip. And later that day, he got hit by a car and broke his back. He thought that God's not watching. He's watching. When you violated the word of privately and nobody knew about it, it was horrible. It was evil. It was terrible. But it wasn't. When you started publicizing your complete disregard to the mitzvot, your hatred of the mitzvot, you desecrated Hashem's name. Hashem responds. But apparently this guy has some merits in Shayim or some sadik is praying for him in Shayim because he's still alive. But nobody lives forever. Everybody's given a chance. He's either alive because he's and he's going to turn into much more evil than imaginable or apparent or one day I'll do cha who knows there was one guy that was causing trouble in the yeshiva of theamu and they wanted to kick him out was overlooking and decided he's going to kick this boy out. They asked the rabbi, "Why? Why did you decide to kick him out?" He said, "Because I overheard a conversation between this boy and another one of the women." He didn't know I was listening. And this Shimon said to one of the other bahim, "So, you're coming for uh dinner tonight? We're going to have a meal. That's why. What's the problem with saying you're coming to dinner tonight? Says tonight is Shabbat. If you call the kdush of Shabbat dinner, if you're coming for a meal, certainly you've been infected by the heretics, by the enlightenment movement. Certainly there is heresy in you and nothing good will come from you. If Shabbat, the holiness of Shabbat has gone down in from your perspective to such a point where you just consider it, we're going to have food. Meaning, there's no holiness in your Shabbat. It's just food. And certainly, you're not the right fit. And that's actually what happened with this guy. He ended up becoming one of the horrific heretics of his generation causing a lot of damage complete apical. Now, of course, you can't decide things like that today because we don't have a in the world. Even if your rabbi is a big rabbi, you can't decide things like that. He himself will say he's nothing in comparison to the but the point being is that our sages looked at things that the average person would never even consider. What he called Shabbat kush dinner that's a big deal. Yes. in those times. Yes. Why? You've removed the holiness of Shabbat and you simply have turned it into an opportunity to eat. Your heart is not in it. Your heart is not in it. And that's why the says similarly our sages have said that if a person performs a mitzvah but has no intention of doing it for the sake of heaven he receives no reward for it. Where is this said in Ala the Rambam says it in multiple places but one of the particular places that he says it is when it comes to noahides. The noahhide laws everyone knows there's seven noahhide laws but they break off into a bunch of other things as we talked about in last week's shield the clarified that the seven noahhide laws are simply the foundation that many other things break off of it but nonetheless even though anyone that's not Jewish is considered a noahide to be a righteous nohide or a wicked noahhide requires your heart. Why? Says the Rambam, even if a non-Jew performs the seven noahhide laws, he observes the seven noahhide laws, but not because God commanded it. Rather, BECAUSE IT MAKES SENSE TO HIM, makes sense to him not to steal. Makes sense to him not to kill. Makes sense to him not to commit adultery. Makes sense to him. He does not get rewarded for being a righteous Noahide. And in fact, instead of being considered in heaven righteous among the nations, he's considered a fool among the nations because he did all the work without getting any of the reward because his heart wasn't there. Meaning it's not enough to just not steal or murder. You have to have your heart in it. Since the very basis for an act and what it revolves around depends on the intention and inner life of the heart. The knowledge of the duties of the heart should come before the knowledge of the duties of the limbs. In so many words, the is telling us that once we see that the written Torah obligates it, common sense obligates it, the oral Torah obligates it. But in each part we get more and more clarity that it's not only a obligation. It's a something that if you don't do it, it's as if you've done nothing and the consequences are dear. He says it's more important to know what your heart has to do before your body. The obligations of the heart, the duties of the heart are more important than the mitzvot that you do with your body. Why? Because if your heart is not in it, it's as if you've done nothing. Perhaps as Rim told me today, this perhaps is what it means in the Naz page 23A where says in of that in the verse by the prophet chapter 14:10 where it says says translation for the roads of hem are straight the righteous walk in them while the transgressors stumble in them. Banan says that it may be understood by way of a parable where two people roasted the kurban pes the pesak offering to f you know for the purpose of fulfilling the commandment. But one of them did it to fulfill the commandment while the other one did it just to make a barbecue. The one who ate it for the purpose of fulfilling the commandment is what the prophet Hos is referring to. The righteous walk in them. The one who ate it gluttonously just to fill his belly. He is considered the push, the transgressor who stumble in them. The rest wanted to give another example because he said, "Well, why are you calling him wicked? I mean, just for that example, if he ate it, I mean, technically he still did a mitzvah. I think there's a better example to clarify what the prophet is saying because that's the whole point of the debates the it's always to clarify clarify clarify more and more what the truth is. It's not that the first one wasn't true is that he says there's another way to clarify it by giving another parable. says there's two people, two men. One had his wife and his sister with him and the other one had his wife and his sister with him and they were going on a trip. During the trip, the one guy, we'll call him Ruven. During one of the breaks, he was together with his wife. The second guy, we'll call him Steve. He ended up being with his sister says Lakish, the wife of the one who fell to Isladhu sent him. The one that that's referring to the righteous walk with him. The one that is his sister fell to his lot. That's exemplifying the transgressor stumble in them. How come? Because the righteous guy, he never looked at his sister in an inappropriate way. He was only looking at the woman that's permissible to him, his his wife. That's it. HE NEVER EVEN THOUGHT IN his wildest dreams that anybody other than his wife is what he's allowed to look at, what he's allowed to be in. So, Hashem saw his heart is on the right place. So, HE SENT HIM THE right woman. The second guy, HE WAS WICKED. IT WASN'T ENOUGH FOR HIM TO HAVE his wife. He was even looking at other women. And of course as the Ramban says and of breast also says many years later that when a person follows his lust he's always going to want more. Just like says there's a small member in a person's body someone that satiated satiates it meaning fulfills its lust will always be hungry for more. Someone that starves it will always be satiated. A person that follows his lust will always want more. His wife will not be enough. He'll want more. He'll want a girlfriend. He wanted this. He'll eventually go above and beyond. The Ramban says that a person that lets all of his lust out of control will do the worst possible things eventually, whether it's pedophilia or it's a uh beastiality, all the disgusting things that are out there. So the guy in this example, the righteous one, never thought about these things. He looked, this is what Hashem sent me. This is good. This is a mitzvah. That's what I look at. Whatever is forbidden for I'm not even looking at. The other guy said, "No, I'm not going to follow my heart. I'm just going to look. I'm going to look. I'm going to look." You looked, your mind thought, and eventually when opportunity presented himself, he fell. That's what the verse says. says where the righteous ones shall walk in the uh with Hashem and the wicked ones the transgressors one will stumble in them. Another example is the daughters of Lot that we have in the Torah. The daughters of Lot thought that the world ended. So they wanted to reproduce so they could populate the world just like Adam did. And at that time at the time of Adamishon there was no prohibition between a parent and their daughters since they thought the whole world was destroyed. They thought that it's a mitzvah for them to populate the world. didn't care about populating the world. He followed his lust. The first night he didn't know, but after that he did know and he still did it. So that's what the Torah is referring to that the righteous ones shall walk in them. Meaning the daughters of Lot are considered as if they made a mitzvah. That was their intention. But Lord is considered as as if he transgressed. He stumbled in them. The point being here is that just like the says it all depends where your heart is. If your heart is there to fulfill the will of Hashem, Hashem will guide you on the path of how you could do it. How you could turn his will into your will. If your heart is after your own lust, after your own ego, after your own desires, certainly those desires are not going to be the will of Hashem at all times and most of the time. And guess what? That's the path you'll be going on. That's the path you'll be going on. Everything is in your heart. And that's why when it comes down to the duties of the heart, it's not just common sense according to logic, a Torah obligation according to the written Torah, a Torah obligation according to the oral Torah, but it's also the reason why we are here today. You see in last week's para at the end of the para ysef sadik tells his brothers if you want the gula to come the ultimate salvation to come you're going to have to remember me even though there was obviously a troubled relationship, ups, downs, difficulties. You will have to remember me if you want the salvation to come. You can't be like that in this week's par forgot who Ysef was. How could you forget the one that built your entire country? You can't be like the Germans that forgot that the Jews were the ones that built their economy. You can't be like the Spaniards that forgot the Jews built their economy. You can't be like the anti-semites in the world today that forget that the majority of the technology in the world and many other good things in the world today, the recent developments were developed by the Jewish people. You have to remember me, says Ysef, because that will lead to your salvation. How so? He says eventually Hashem is going to send a guil a Messiah to take you out of Egypt. But how you going to know it's the right one? THERE'S ALL TYPES OF FAKERS. There's a code word. He has to say a a code word which is that these few words that Hashem will remember and bring you up out of this land. Now if the brothers would have forgotten about Ysef or disregarded his message, certainly this would have been catastrophic results because the kids would not remember. The grandkids will remember even less and eventually they'll be forgotten. But how do we know they remembered? Because when Mosheu was sent by Hashem to tell Am that he is the one that was chosen to bring them out of Egypt in chapter 3 verse number 16 says The same exact words, the same exact code that Yusf Sadik said needed to be said by the real Mashiach, by the real go, the real savior. That's what Moshu said. Meaning that the duties of the heart is not just about your own personal servitude of Hashem, but rather the duties of the heart is what all of Am is depends on in order to know how to deal with what's coming. How to know who the Mashiach is going to be. If you don't know the requirements of the Messiah, you could easily fall trapped to all types of fake Mashiach, false prophets, people that do all types of things in order to manipulate people to think that they are Mashiach. Aside from Yoske, we had Chaki, Jacob, Frank, and many other throughout history that have pretended to be the Messiah. And it's unfortunately happening today as we speak. There's dozens of them that pretend to be Mashiach. How would somebody know who Mashiah is? Your heart has to cleave to. You have to turn your will into Hashem's will. You have to turn your will into will. That's the only way you're going to know what the truth is and what's falsehood. Now if a person's heart is not there, they're not going to be able to serve a with big or with small things because it's going to be missing ingredient when it comes to applying this to I thought of a interesting clever way. Obviously, there's many other ways to apply this, but I thought of this by the Yavitz that I read where the says that a couple of the sages were uh in communication and one of them sent a messenger to the other to give him a message and spoke to him and he saw that the messenger doesn't speak. He says, "Ah, you're raasm go back to dust." And he uh turned to dust. Many years later, some students asked the Yavitz, this is 1500 years later or more, is a gulm considered a uh someone that um is part of could be part of a minyan. And the Abbottz writes, he says, "My uh grandfather, the the uh Balm, the Balm, he actually made a goulem. He was keshim. He made a golem, not the Balm to Balm, different he made a golem to help the Jewish people in those times. In fact, you could say he was everywhere with them, protecting them, doing whatever they needed. It's like a real life, flesh and blood uh robot, but they don't speak. So, on one hand, you can say technically, is it like a Canaanite slave that if you free him, he becomes a Jew? converts automatically becomes a Jew according to the Torah. Technically, if somebody has a child, he created him. Therefore, he's the same thing as as the mother. Is the Gollum the same thing? Gol is something that through the different teachings of the Torah, they're able to use the Torah in a unique way to create from dust a living person. Of course, they put the name of Hashem on this person and that's how they have life sources, but they don't they're not able to speak. But there this is only allowed and permissible in order to uh help the public. There's a public need for it. It's not something that you're allowed to do for your own personal needs. And at different times throughout history, the Jewish sages have done this. So the Yavit says that his grandfather did it and one day he noticed that this golem was getting too strong and apparently it became dangerous. So he decided to kill it. Now how do you kill something that's has no end to their you know they're extremely strong big He had to take off the name of Hashem that was on him. As he tried to take off the name, the golem apparently had a desire to live, which is strange and unusual, but nonetheless, he had a desire to live and fought off the rabbi and scratched him, gave him a scar, gushing blood and everything. But in the last second, the rabbi succeeded in taking off the name of Hashem off the golem and killed it. From there says the Yavitz, we know that this golem cannot be counted in minan. Why? If he was considered like a Canaanite slave, then you're not allowed to just kill the Canaanite slave. And we see that not only my grandfather killed the golem, but the sages killed the golem. You can say that my grandfather killed the Golan because he was protecting the people. You can say, but you can't say that about the the story in the where one sage noticed that the guy that the guy that's coming, the messenger is really a golem and he just said, "Go back to dust." And he destroyed him by just simply saying the words his mouth was so holy that simply the golem was destroyed simply by his words. You can't just kill the the uh the a person that way. In so many words, how does this apply to everything that we're saying? It's a clever interesting way. So, it's not it's why I left it to the end of the show. And uh is that what's the difference between the golem and anybody else out there? The golem has no possibility of having heart behind what he does. He's a golem. He doesn't have the ability to put his heart behind what he does. He simply follows instructions like a robot. But you regardless of where you started in your life, regardless of whether you started as a Jew that would grew up in a fume family religious and your father and mother are are rabbis and raanit or you grew up in a secular household or you grew up in a middle or you grew up as a non-Jew or you grew up AS AN ANTI-SEMITE LIKE SOME OF MY STUDENTS GREW up as anti-semmites and today some of them have converted to Judaism. And some have simply become righteous Noahites. MEANING IT DOESN'T MATTER WHERE YOU START. It matters where you bring your heart after that. If you utilize the heart that Hashem gives you to follow the words of Torah, ultimately you will be good. You will do good. you will get good. But if you don't, it's not only that you will get evil and deserve evil, but you already are evil. You just don't realize it. The duties of the heart are for all of mankind. Everyone can apply them to their level, to their position, to where they are in their life. But needless to say, it's clear to us that the Torah obligation written Tora, oral Torah, logical are simply a seasoning behind something that is as clear as day for anybody that puts their heart to it. It's an absolute necessity. And that's why we'll continue to learn more and more about the duties of the heart together in the coming lectures and see how this applies to each and every single one of us. And the more you watch it, the more you learn, the more you will see how it applies to you, including those anti-semites that like to make nasty comments throughout the entire shure on Tik Tok and other uh social medias. Continue coming, continue watching. Perhaps enough of the holy Torah teachings will break that stone heart of yours and turn it into something closer to being flesh of a decent person. Call to anyone that wants to support could donate on the website.org. And of course, anyone that wants to get some books and USBs and so on to distribute in their community for free can go to kofstore.org. Over there, you can order the things for free. we'll ship it to you even that for free as long as you're living in the US. And of course, anyone that wants to order the uh Kiru boxes for uh for themselves, for their community, you can buy that on the uh website um that we have business.org or BH shop and many many other things. Either way, most important thing is to learn this, learn the Torah and share it with as many people as you possibly can. So, at least the one thing we can do to thank Hashem that he gave us more Torah to help us is to get 10 people that we know to watch it as well so we could help them. Thank you very much and we'll learn again 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 sources.