Why only the crazy people are normal – Transcript

Stories of the Afterlife and the Nature of Heavenly Judgment: A Talmudic Investigation

Opening: Personal Reflections on Travel and Study

Instructor:

If anyone knows the tarot, they can tell me, but then we’ll try to learn a little bit about Aristotle. Today, an interesting thing happened. I was discussing, my wife wants to go on a trip somewhere for an event. And I was saying that I don’t have the courage to go to Italy or wherever she wants to go. And my son said, yeah, Tati just wants to take a Rambam [Maimonides] on Aristotle and he’s happy. So, it’s a good trip.

You know where Aristotle is? 3,000 years ago. A lot more interesting than Italy with a bunch of tourist traps. So, it’s very interesting, right? If you want to go to the Colosseum, there should be one more selfie. Make an AI selfie, I’m sure. That’s a different Rishir [matter/topic], right? You know that Rishir already, about the past.

The Shaagas Aryeh Story: Friendship with Seforim

Instructor:

Who was here complaining that they don’t have friends? Ah, someone’s upset with your shop, company they love my friends. I tell, look, I have a lot of friends—not all of them are my friends, but some of them.

You know the story with the Shaagas Aryeh [Rabbi Aryeh Leib ben Asher, 1695-1785, author of *Sha’agas Aryeh*] that the swim shank [bookshelf] fell on him and he said that two people were not michelin [forgiving]. I don’t remember the details. Shaagas Aryeh was a sharp lead [sharp scholar], right? He was good like on everyone. He didn’t have a problem with making his own chat [arguments/disputes].

And once he was learning at night and the swim shank fell on him, and he said, why did they fall on him? Because he’s speaking with all of them. Like one day they got there and they’re coming. So he said, he tried to ask them all of them were moichel [forgiving] in his heart for two. And he said, which two are still mad at him? And that’s why he still has that—he didn’t ever finish a line from that zet [sitting/session] because they’re kabdun [holding grudges] of those people.

So anyways, b’goshem [with the Name/thank God], all of our people are moichel. Even if they’re not moichel, then b’olem [in the world/in truth] they’re moichel, like in all the masses. You have to believe this. Nobody here has a Rebbe that there is a krik [complaint/grudge] to us.

Stories of Reconciliation in the World to Come

Instructor:

You know there is like a Masa [story], this is Tafsir al-Jatayris [unclear reference], there is a Masa with—there are a lot of such stories, like there was a B’yakefem [Rabbi Yaakov Emden], Narben Snaev [Rabbi Yonasan Eibeshitz], just like buried close to each other or something, or someone put them close to each other on the shelf and he said that with each other.

Where did that come from? Where? Apparently, I heard a story that, basically, Rakhwan Magad [the Nadvorna Rebbe], and the only spot to bury him was near Ben Zahim’s ship [Rabbi Yonasan Eibeshitz’s grave]. And many of you in the town were close enough to ask him what they should do. He said, we can’t bury them next to each other. He said, I heard, it was like a legend that goes around, he said, Shah Mubarak [in heaven] is the one who died. Ah, most of them are children. Shall I bury them together?

Really, the point is that it’s just a burial fight. That’s the point. Interesting.

Okay, this thing was good to me. And then, okay, but there’s such legends. There’s many more such legends of people that—like, but the name of these legends, like all the legends about—everyone knows that nobody was actually here and came back, like the right?

Student:

Right.

Instructor:

Someone said, whoever said—and the psalm writer said, what do you mean? You went to him only. You thought they’re asking that there’s no churis [disputes/arguments]? What are you talking about? He said, what do you mean?

The Core Gemara: Rav Yosef’s Challenge

Instructor:

So what does this mean? You ever heard from me this gemurah [Gemara: Talmudic text]? Now I have a gemurah I could talk to you. That’s this night you finish the gemurah. Very important.

This year there was someone who was by Mishav [unclear] and he said, ah, so you have a pshat [interpretation] in the Torah that makes sense. Why don’t you tell it to everyone? So maybe I should try. Everyone thinks it doesn’t make sense.

So, it’s written in the Gemurah. So, it’s written in the Gemurah. So, it’s written in the Gemurah. So, Umar Rav [Rav said], Rav was a sheep [sharp scholar], right? Umar Rav, Rav, Rav, Rav, Rav—this is the Rambam about this, right? You know.

Rav Yosef doesn’t understand Rav. Rav said that—or I mean, how do you know that Kudus [holiness/the matter] is something that—Rav Yosef means that—no, there’s a Rambam here in Makkas [Tractate Makkot] and in Saiten [Sanhedrin] another place that says that we don’t call any and Sanhedrin where Paskin’s [where they rule on] all the things you have to believe, but that’s a different Shemis [matter/topic].

So you understand the question—how do—Rav Yosef had a good question: how do you tell me what to look at? Does whatever they want, or maybe they have—but how do you know?

Abaye’s Response

Instructor:

And Abai [Abaye] told him—as Abai was the answer of Yosef Skarsgård [Rav Yosef’s student]—told him, so Abai said, wow, this is the first time we know what’s going on in Himmel [heaven/shamayim].

Rav Shimon Lavi said there were three things that Ben Shilmata [Beis Din shel Maalah: the Heavenly Court] did, and Ben Shilmata were masking [agreeing with]—famous Rav Shimon Lavi actually Rav Shimon Lavi went to the Himmel, so it’s Nishkanai [it’s a problem/difficulty].

But Abai didn’t think of this problem. Maybe he understood that if she would have walked in him all the same way, he said, we have a—we have a—in other words when I say, I just mean to say that I think that he’s correct. The Pusik [pasuk: verse] seems to agree with him.

The Foundational Principle: What These Stories Mean

Instructor:

So what do we learn from this? Very important, very important, important result. And there’s also a piece of this, but I’m going to tell you a piece shot [interpretation], for the rationalists to agree.

Everything that we—there’s all kinds of stories, the Hasidic stories, you know, the Vilna Goan [Vilna Gaon], you know, the Ming Chiruf [Reb Chaim Elazar Shapiro] said a story: When the Vilna Goan came to Shemayim [heaven], they wanted to put him in Ghanim [Gehinnom: purgatory/hell], because he was a misnagit [opponent of Chassidism]. Ming Chiruf said this story. He was a loser, he was a very rationalist guy.

Until the Torah came, and wrapped itself around him, and said he learned about the Torah, we don’t let him put him in Gehenem [Gehinnom]. And that’s how he was saved from Gehenem. Because Baruch Hashem [thank God], the building was done. And that saved him for Zavaira [the aveira: sin] of his nagdis [opposition/being a misnaged].

The Chassidic Counter-Story

Instructor:

And, I mean, you know, the Chassidim, the, you know, the Reb Nusn [Reb Noson] had a—Reb Nusn Yusuf [Reb Noson of Breslov] from Breslev. Reb Nusn, yeah? You know? What’s the funny?

Ram Nusn said, Ram Nusn had a shver [father-in-law], I forgot his name, Rabbi Chil, I don’t know, I don’t know his name. Do you know his name? This guy is a snook, I don’t know his name. Ram Nusn’s shver was a roof [rav: rabbi]. It was a very famous roof. It was a besnaged [misnaged] Litvak.

And the Reb Nachman [Rebbe Nachman of Breslov] told Ram Nusn, you know that your shver is a tzaddik [righteous person]? And he looked at him like, a tzaddik? It’s a Litvak. He said, okay, yeah, he does one of Aira [aveira: sin], so he has a besnaged. So he’ll get one more patch and get him and more than the other tzaddikim [righteous people]. Like, what’s a tzaddik? A tzaddik doesn’t get pet [patches/punishments]. A tzaddik also does a virus [aveiros: sins]. So he has one more virus. It doesn’t become a tzaddik.

So there’s a lot of stories in that story. In any case, one of the stories that’s been going on in the 90s is that we see that it’s a virus to be a litvak. But, come on, every tzaddik does a virus. It doesn’t hassle you. What’s so funny?

The Serious Matter of the Cherem

Instructor:

Me, so the same way the villain going to the big provider, you know, like the brother sold Yosef [Joseph], at least that’s because of the lighter. While you’re laughing at me, you know, made a item [cherem: ban/excommunication]. You know the villain [Vilna Gaon] literally signed a item on a bunch of Jews that you shouldn’t marry them, you shouldn’t do business with them, hit their dumb mom [hiter dumam: permitted their blood]—like the Baltani [Baal HaTanya: Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi] says it’s not a serious provider.

I’m serious now. I’ll let her do that. Even if he was right, he had good criticism—not saying all Shabbat shiva [Shabbos teshuvah/unclear], you know—say, tell your shal shida [unclear] that it’s the other way around. What’s the difference? Make a chayrim [cherem], it’s not a moment. Don’t let it do such things, to lose a vayre [aveira].

This is the same vayre as Rabban Baravot [Yerovam ben Nevat], the same vayre as Yosef and his brothers, old problems. That’s what it’s talking about, nothing new. Same problem of Ezra, of the Prishin [Perushim: Pharisees], a lot of people.

Now, whatever—oh, this is going to get us to your shal [question]. Anyways, wait, just wait.

The Epistemological Question Returns

Instructor:

So anyways, back to the story. So I’m trying to explain you something. So what was the point of these stories, all these stories? How did he know? Like if you’re a Litvak, like very cute, Khamelos de Shapiro [Reb Chaim Elazar Shapiro] made up a story, like we told him. Oh, he said that about Echeverov’s head [Bat Ayin]. Okay, and then we told about Echeverov. It doesn’t solve anything.

Let’s do a towel over there. Might help. Thank you. That is like this.

In other words, what does it mean? Like just like when it says in the Gemurah, what does—who cares? I understand it means the business is going to come to your bank account and take out the money. Means what?

Defining Dinei Shamayim: Heavenly vs. Earthly Judgment

Instructor:

Means that we think that really, really you’re at fault. It’s the opposite that people think. Means human reason, even more than, because you know we’re limited by procedural considerations, all kind of legal things. But if you ask—if you ask me, you should pay.

Student:

It does great work in torts, by the way.

Instructor:

What?

Student:

It does very good work in torts. That.

Instructor:

Chayav Adin Hashemayim [liable in the judgment of Heaven].

Student:

Oh, because of all the grommas [indirect causation].

Instructor:

You have to draw these lines.

Student:

Yeah.

Instructor:

Second of all, either something over-complicates for it or just under for that. Because it doesn’t have this idea of just like—but really, you should.

Student:

So if you want to be Yoitz Yidei Hashemayim [fulfill the judgment of Heaven], you should pay.

Instructor:

Right. Right? If you’re El Echid [an ehrliche Yid: an honest Jew], you Chayav Adin Hashemayim. So, right? Rechayav v’din shemayim [liable in the judgment of Heaven]. Very serious thing.

The Core Principle

Instructor:

So how do we know that’s dina shemayim [the law of Heaven]? Because shemayim is just a word for what we think is the real truth. In the Olam HaZeh [this world] we’re limited. Even if there’s a truth, you can’t always do it. Sometimes you have to do bad things because they’re worth it and so on. But in shemayim, that’s where they don’t have these problems. They could give you…

Chapter 2: The Limitations of Earthly Justice and the Truth of Shamayim

The Problem of Punishing Tzaddikim

Instructor: The Olam HaZeh [Olam HaZeh: this world, the physical realm] have a problem. You can’t really punish tzaddikim [tzaddikim: righteous people]. Hashem [Hashem: God, lit. “The Name”] can only punish the tzaddikim by themselves, but that’s a different story.

But we have a problem. If you’re a tzaddik [tzaddik: righteous person], you can’t—for Talmid Chacham [Talmid Chacham: Torah scholar, lit. “student of a wise person”] sins, we don’t give them a niddui [niddui: excommunication, rabbinic ban], because we have to protect the Talmid Chacham and so on. Right?

But we say to Allah [unclear reference, possibly euphemistic], we don’t make a niddui against you. It’s only making a niddui on Talmid Chacham, but that’s different. If you’re a Baal HaBayis [Baal HaBayis: householder, layperson], we don’t—

I have a theory, I was thinking about this today, that’s why—I have a theory about that, why it is. I realize that there’s a reason. So if you all get it, I’ll send it to you. It’s a nice table, this big table.

The Chad Gadya Question and Stories of Shamayim

Instructor: So the Kiddush [Kiddush: sanctification, possibly referring to ritual or ceremony]—this is a laugh. It’s kind of—the kids, you don’t know. The officer who said, why do we say—why do we say after the Seder [Seder: Passover ritual meal] so the kids are a mess? So how do we know what was in him?

All these stories, all these fantasies, all these myths about someone went to the Himmel [Himmel: heaven, Yiddish] and he saw and so on. What it means to say is that, yeah, in this world we can’t say these things. And of course we have to respect the Baal HaGaon [Baal HaGaon: the great Torah scholar, the Gaon] and so on. But really it deserves patch [patch: criticism, correction].

But l’ma’aseh [l’ma’aseh: in practice, actually] it’s Talmid Chacham. And that’s a true thing. Being a Talmid Chacham is a real thing—it protects you also.

Beit Din shel Matah vs. Beit Din shel Ma’alah

Instructor: How do you say it in Shamayim [Shamayim: heaven]? Same thing when they get murdered. This is a normal thing. All these things that we say—the Beit Din shel Matah [Beit Din shel Matah: the earthly court], the Beit Din shel Ma’alah [Beit Din shel Ma’alah: the heavenly court]. What does it mean, the Beit Din shel Ma’alah?

Sometimes the Beit Din shel Ma’alah—many, often—the Beit Din shel Ma’alah does things that the Beit Din shel Ma’alah does not agree with him [sic: likely means “the Beit Din shel Matah does things the Beit Din shel Ma’alah does not agree with”]. I know many of them. Not only—even the things that something the Beit Din shel Ma’alah shouldn’t have done at all. Something they should do, but Beit Din shel Ma’alah does not agree with him.

The Example of Age and Punishment

Instructor: Just like, for example, any time—very important—any time you punish a kid that’s between 13 and 20, Beit Din shel Ma’alah says, “Are you crazy? The guy’s a little baby.” Beit Din shel Ma’alah’s only man is from 20.

What does that mean? What does that mean? Does that be real? Well, your Rebbe [Rebbe: rabbi, teacher], the guy came out of his pampers yesterday. Doesn’t know anything. Tried to teach him something, maybe.

But in Beit Din shel Ma’alah, maybe that’s chinuch [chinuch: education, child-rearing]. Maybe we have some level of legal responsibility from when you’re 13. It seems unreasonable to me. But in any case, going to the Jewish law, it’s like that in some sense. I’m pretty sure not in all senses, of course, but in some senses.

Everyone knows that it’s not all senses, right? Elim k’man d’lesvhu [Aramaic phrase, possibly: “they are like those who are not of sound mind”]. In Choshen Mishpat [Choshen Mishpat: section of Jewish law dealing with civil matters], we don’t actually consider 13 to be of age. But in any case, that’s another idea of the same idea, right?

The “Good Kind of Shochad” – Necessary Compromises in This World

Instructor: So in the same thing, when I tell you that what’s in Himmel, I mean to say the truth. But l’idach [l’idach: on the other hand], in this world, people are limited by all kinds of limitations. And we can’t have both, because sometimes we’re stuck, and then we have to take shochad [shochad: bribery, bias]. Shochad meaning the good kind of shochad, right?

I have to respect you, because l’ma’aseh you’re still my father, or whatever. All kinds of things like that.

The “Rebbe Would Be Modeh” Framework

Instructor: So in the same way, when people say, you know, in Himmel they would make sure. Right? So if someone—or other times, sometimes people, even when people are still alive, or even without the Himmel, they say, you know, if the Rebbe would have seen now, of course he would be modeh [modeh: admit, agree].

He would NOT be modeh. But why wouldn’t he be modeh? Because he would be wrong. But of course the Rebbe really is right. The real Rebbe is right. So in Himmel, if you’re so sure about the truth—yeah, it’s really like that, of course. It wasn’t a surprise.

Return to Malkus and Karet

Student: Right, very good. So he’s saying—just quickly to push a shot on this—is he saying that he thinks that malkus [malkus: lashes, corporal punishment] is the type of thing that should get rid of karet [karet: spiritual excision, divine punishment], just like b’emes [b’emes: in truth]? That’s what it should be?

Instructor: What am I trying to say in this particular remark?

Student: Yeah, it’s a question of belief, right?

Instructor: Like, Rambam [Rambam: Maimonides, Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, 1138-1204] reframes all these questions in questions of belief. And then he has a different question: if we use machria [machria: decisive ruling] in questions of belief, maybe you’ll add whatever you want. But the question is, what does it mean to say that—what does it mean to say that you’re going to—

Just to be clear, nobody ever expected everyone to drop dead at whichever age karet is supposed to kill you. That’s not how it really works, ever. So what does it mean?

It means that we believe that—Rambam says this in Moreh Nevuchim [Moreh Nevuchim: Guide for the Perplexed, Maimonides’ philosophical work]. He talks about the levels of anashim [anashim: people]. It says that averah she’esh v’karet [averah she’esh v’karet: a sin that carries the punishment of karet] means it’s an averah [averah: sin, transgression] and we also believe that it’s really, really, really big averah. That’s what it says.

I’m sorry, it’s reading cynical, but if you don’t believe me you can bring a Gemara [Gemara: Talmud] and then you’ll see. It means it’s really bad. This is—you really deserve karet for this. You deserve it. You deserve karet. I’m not doing anything to you, right? It’s really funny. It throws you over the roof. It says you’re a really, really, really evil guy—not evil, I don’t know, out of our community, however you want to call it. And that’s all. And then they move on.

But they give you malkus. Now, R’ Chananiah [R’ Chananiah: Rabbi Chananiah, Talmudic sage] says, if they give you malkus, they give you malkus. And R’ Chananiah says, now that they have malkus, that cancels out the karet. There’s a whole logic to it, but that’s more like a different shitah [shitah: approach, opinion]. As the Mitzvah Shetl [unclear reference] was about this.

Student Question on Aveirot with Malkus

Student: How does that equate to, let’s say, an averah that you do get malkus for?

Instructor: No, you get—this averah that have malkus without karet.

Student: No, no, no, right, exactly. Because we don’t say that you have karet. The only real difference—that the whole nafka mina l’ma’aseh [nafka mina l’ma’aseh: practical difference] of karet is that it’s really, really bad.

Instructor: You’re exactly—you deserve karet.

Student: No, but I think we’re asking—so the really, really bad one gets malkus, and the really, really not so bad one also gets malkus?

Instructor: Exactly. One deserves karet, and if he wouldn’t get malkus he would get karet. He actually would.

Student: What he—

Instructor: I think that he should. I don’t know if he would, but he should. Maybe the Aibishter [Aibishter: the Almighty, God, Yiddish]—that’s his zechut [zechut: merit], right? That’s why you have to teach your daughter Torah, because otherwise she’s going to realize that it doesn’t really work. You have to know that it’s his zechut.

But the ma’aseh [ma’aseh: deed, reality], right? The ma’aseh—you deserve it. For this thing, you deserve it. You can actually die? God has his cheshbonot [cheshbonot: calculations, reckonings]. Like he says, da’at ish l’tumam da’is [da’at ish l’tumam da’is: a person’s knowledge is according to their simplicity/integrity, possibly Aramaic phrase].

Every Yid Needs a Rebbe

Instructor: Yeah. So, l’inyan al l’inyan achar [l’inyan al l’inyan achar: from topic to topic, tangentially related] is that the same thing. Every Yid [Yid: Jew] has to have a Rebbe. Every Yid has a lot of Rebbes. Now, all of us have problems with our Rebbes that they don’t agree with everything we say. Unfortunately.

That’s because they’re in Olam HaZeh [Olam HaZeh: this world]. They’re limited. But really, the Rebbe in Olam HaBa [Olam HaBa: the World to Come, the afterlife] was modeh.

Personal Story: The Dream Rebbe

Instructor: How did I start saying this? This is full circle, no?

Student: Yeah, but I was saying something about the—I was saying something about something.

Instructor: You don’t remember. This was supposed to lead into the question you were saying. The question of?

Student: Okay, this is a ma’aseh [ma’aseh: story, incident].

Instructor: So everyone has to have a Rebbe, and then a little bit of—l’ma’aseh the Rebbe’s modeh. I already told you the ma’aseh—I had a Rebbe that came to him in a dream. I asked him something that he hacks against very much, and I do. And he said, “What are you crazy? Of course you should do it.”

So I really yelled like that. It doesn’t matter. He doesn’t have the koach [koach: strength, capacity] to understand.

Student: So, now, a lot of you learned from this.

Instructor: I don’t know, I want to say something. Getting to the kasha [kasha: question, difficulty]?

Student: No, you said in the middle you said it’s going to be the kasha.

Instructor: I have a question, but why did I—I’m trying to remind myself of a story.

Student: Okay.

The Big Kasha: Why Is Nobody Normal?

Instructor: So, now, I have a big kasha that has important kasha, very important kasha on reality. And if someone—when I was a teretz [teretz: answer, resolution], they could tell me. My kasha—I like all my kashas, it’s like a whole shitah [shitah: systematic approach] explaining the kasha, really.

But my kasha is basically: why is nobody normal without being meshuga [meshuga: crazy, Yiddish]? Very simple kasha. I’m going to try to say it without too many names, so it’s going to be too much to show now.

In other words, everyone is modeh that the teretz is somewhat in the kasha, if I explain it this way. Everyone is modeh that the world is meshuga, right? Everyone is modeh. In all kinds of ways, but everyone is modeh in some way or another. Anyone, the default is not to be a normal person. Maskeh [maskeh: agreed, understood]? Anyone is maskeh?

Student Pushback: The Well-Adjusted Person

Student: Mushul [mushul: parable, example]?

Instructor: No, there is a gestalt of a well-adjusted person.

Student: Yeah, yeah, that’s—

Instructor: No, no, we don’t have to define—oh gosh, no, we don’t. Because I said, whatever your definition of normal is, nobody is normal.

Student: But to have me in headphones is part of this well-adjusted, maybe you’re not going to find—

Instructor: I don’t mean that that feels the whole world normal, no. Give me an example of what you mean, please. Give me an example.

Example: The Relativist Definition of Mental Health

Student: One example is that everyone thinks that you should be well-adjusted. The definition of meshuga is whatever everyone else says. That’s one example.

Instructor: Very good example. Most people nowadays think—are extremely relativists, and think that the definition of good, of healthy—for example, mentally healthy, spiritually healthy—is whatever you think, whatever you like, or whatever your neighbors like, which still goes back to people’s arbitrary preferences. That’s what most people actually think.

Some people have a God who is also one of the people that like things. That doesn’t save them from their main problem, right?

Student: Thank you.

The Problem of Means Without Ends: Ethics, Efficiency, and Moral Subjectivism

The Insanity of Moral Subjectivism

Instructor: That doesn’t save them from the main problem, right? Can you write an article about this?

Student: Yeah, about the one part of it. Just the ethics part, right?

Instructor: Yeah, but the Maskim [those who agree/modern people] think that good means whatever I want. And some people are very religious, so they think that it’s not only them, there’s also a Gechka [entity/being] called a god that wants things, and good is whatever he wants, or at least also whatever he wants, depends on how frum [religiously observant] he is. Right? That’s a shigaon [insanity]. It’s crazy. Everyone just thinks that this is the default.

Some weirdos think that there’s beauty in the world. There’s really objective beauty. Or objective goodness. Or objective health or anything. But everyone agrees: whatever floats your boat.

The “Whatever Floats Your Boat” Fallacy

Instructor: Even boats don’t just float arbitrarily. There’s good boats and bad boats. But I don’t know what this mashul [parable/analogy] is supposed to say. Okay. This is a shigaon gomer [complete insanity]. Whatever floats your boat, it’s not true. A lot of things float your boat, but not anything. Float the boat is an exciting question. You gotta make a good boat, man. There’s good boats and bad boats. Maskim [agreed], that’s one mishigas [craziness].

Okay, another mishigas is that… I’ll tell you much… I mean, the other mishigas. Okay, now I’m not going to give you a few… I have a rule that we’re not going to give examples because we only end up talking about the examples. We should only talk about examples, but that’s another shmiz [nonsense/issue]. Now, wait, I’m going way too fast.

The Rare Exception: Believers in Objective Good

Instructor: So listen, listen, I have a kasha [question/difficulty]. Why is nobody in the ma’al [world] without being meshigah [crazy]? So the mashul, there’s a few people, like I mentioned before, last week I gave a different mashul. There’s a few people that are not against meshigah. They do think that they somehow live as if there are good things and bad things in the world for real. There are such people. Those people are neo-Nazis, most of them.

The Personal Problem: Finding Good Thinkers Who Turn Out to Be Nazis

Instructor: I know them. Almost all of them think, like, you know, that my Torah is about the Goyim Chasidim [righteous gentiles], right? I have a big problem, that I like a lot of thinkers, a bunch of people that try to explain all kinds of nice things, like, to help me understand the Rambam [Maimonides] and all the tzaddikim [righteous people], because they tell us that Aristotle and Plato weren’t totally crazy, they had some points, and then a few weeks later I found out that the guy is literally a Nazi, not even a neo-Nazi. Why? Because he got into the mesorah [tradition] with the mesorah of the goy [gentile].

The “Goy She-Litvak” Problem

Instructor: What’s wrong with the guy Litvak? Because Litvak goes with the halacha [Jewish law]. The halacha says, “Esav soneh l’Yaakov” [Esau hates Jacob]. So you have to follow the halacha. I said, yeah, I saw the halacha. Right? Traditional guys, the problem, I’m not saying that the not-traditional goyim is not a different problem. He has a different excuse. I’m just saying that there’s a problem here, right? This guy is ready to go. He’s a new tyrant now. Goyish and Litvaks.

Student: Goyish and Litvaks.

Instructor: Goyish and Litvaks is definitely universal.

Student: Exactly. Litvaks is a type. It’s not a… I’m not talking about any Litvaks.

Instructor: Who’s a Litvash goyim?

Student: No, I’m talking about a trad goyim [traditional gentile], really.

Instructor: Traditional goyim are mostly real anti-Semites.

The Definition of Anti-Semite

Instructor: The only thing is, like a different trad guy said that a Yid [Jew] said, what’s the definition of anti-Semite? Someone that hates Jews more than is appropriate. Maybe from a dad [their perspective]. So if the guy hates Jews but not more than he needs, then he’s not, then I’m out of God, no problem. I can deal with him. It’s part of, part of, right? All of ethics is about measure, correct measure. Maybe there’s a correct measure of hating Jews. Most Jews are hating them too much, right? But a guy has to do a little less. But the kid said that’s the problem.

The Universal Problem: Everyone Has Meshigasen

Instructor: So you understand the problem? And this happens to me every time. Like, I have a lot of criticism of a lot of things. It’s going to happen to you with me too. Don’t worry. You think that all, like that guy I told you, said that I have a good pshat [interpretation] in the Torah and why not tell it to anyone? Turns out that I also have a lot of craziness. At least according to him, I think that I’m right, probably. But a lot of problems, a lot of mishigasen [craziness], a lot of nonsense, a lot of naughtiness. That’s the reality.

The Uman Contradiction Example

Instructor: Every time I find someone, I’m like, wow, this guy, he sent me a video clip, and you see, he’s explaining himself well, and he’s clear, and he’s not beating around the bush, and he’s not bluffing us, like some people think it’s a big mitzvah [commandment/good deed] to bluff all day, he’s not doing a bluffing thing. Very nice, and then I look at his next video, and he’s talking about going to Uman for Rosh Hashanah [Jewish New Year], like, sheikh [look], it’s a normal event, you have to go to Uman.

You already explained me that let’s be real and the Torah doesn’t say anything about not eating the heimishe hechsher [traditional/Hasidic kosher certification]. The Torah says you should eat kosher. Pretty sure if you eat kosher you’re about to eat. It doesn’t say anything about heimishe hechsher. I know that you’re pro heimishe hechsher for a different mitzvah, but nish mitzvah kashres [not the commandment of keeping kosher].

And then the next video is like, the heilige Rebbe [holy Rebbe] said if you don’t go to Uman you don’t have a tikkun [spiritual rectification]. And I’m like, hello, does that say in the Torah? Where do you find that? Actually I know there’s more than one person that this applies to. This is very weird. What’s going on?

Last Week’s Example: The Fundraising Conference

Student: I think your example last week was very good. I don’t know if you want to say it. It was very historic from last week.

Instructor: I hate the past.

Student: I think it brought to the point a very good point.

Instructor: I’ll tell you the mashul that Eli says, or you can tell it.

Student: Last week I was in a [discussion] about people that are business understand the mashul.

Instructor: Oh, everyone’s a business here. Everyone in my shiur [class] has been business. Otherwise, come with the rabbit to me. I’m not a business. Don’t worry. Try.

The Conference for “Stealing Money from Rich People”

Instructor: So, last week I said a ma’aseh [story/incident] by the unrecorded shiur that I went to a conference for teaching us how to steal money from rich people, chas v’shalom [God forbid]. You know the Rav [rabbi] said there is good news and bad news. Good news is that there is enough money for all the kimcha d’Pischa [Passover wheat fund/charity]. The bad news is that it’s in the wrong people’s pockets.

So I was by this conference for all the people whose job it is to get their money from one pocket to the right pocket, from the wrong pocket to the right pocket. And it’s an important job. You have to do a correct allocation of capital, you know, one of the important functions of society. But I’m being very vague, right?

Student: Snotting. Fundraising.

Instructor: Okay.

The Core Problem: Means Without Ends

Instructor: So, now, what’s the problem with this conference? Like many self-help conferences or whatever you want called they’re going to and others what’s the big problem with them that they’re all evil. Why are they evil? Because they’re about means and not about ends, right? Why are they evil? Because, right, you know, this is about social engineering and about social science and about business consulting and all of that, all of these, all of like if you go to this is I told you about goals I talked about goals any self-help person that you go to is going to explain you that there’s a way to be efficient you got to have goals and you got to follow them and all of that and you have to achieve your goals and count and smart the stave is smart.

But the note that I’ve come in of the whole of this is that this is the logic of the reshoim [wicked people]. What I mean is that it’s all about how to achieve your goal. It doesn’t tell you anything about what your goals should be, right?

The Explicit Moral Neutrality Problem

Instructor: So come to kamtoz [for example] and like very explicitly, everyone, the guy that stood up for example by that camera, the guy stood up, look, I don’t care if you’re raising money for Lefkowitz, or for Schwarz, or for Satmar, or for Tzahal [IDF], the same rules apply to everyone, right? Wait, what’s going on here? Seriously? Nobody actually said that, but there’s a subtext that says all of this, right?

What do you mean you don’t care? If someone’s here raising money for Al-Qaeda, we should throw them out, we shouldn’t even teach them the tricks, because it’s really evil. What’s going on?

The Problem Goes Beyond “Tricks”

Instructor: But there’s a real problem because the tricks, not only the tricks, the ethics, the kind of person that you become, a person that teaches you how to be efficient, I’m an efficient person, then like Hannah Arendt, you can be like Eichmann. He’s a pretty efficient guy, extremely efficient. Maybe there’s some virtue in that itself, but it’s, you can be a very efficient Holocaust organizer and you’ll be doing your job, you’ll be following all Taylor’s principles of modern management. I don’t understand what the problem is.

Student: You’re just in the wrong, you’re at the wrong event.

Instructor: I have news for you. There isn’t another event.

Student: That’s your fault. It’s not my fault.

Instructor: No, but you see, there’s something evil about this.

Ancient Wisdom: Restricting Dangerous Knowledge

Instructor: You have to imagine that in the olden days, people that actually knew such a skill, if I know this skill, I know a skill, I’m Dale Carnegie, I know this skill, how to get anything out of anyone, the Sanhedrin [ancient Jewish high court] would make a big cherem [excommunication/ban] and only teach this secret to people that are 35 years old and we bring three character witnesses that you’re not going to use for bad purposes, right?

Right? Isn’t that obvious? These are really powerful tools, right? Manipulation tools, right? You can convince anyone of anything. You’re a salesperson, right? We should not allow anyone to become a salesperson. There should be a board, like some kind of control over this. We should teach it only to the really good people, like to the really vetted people that already know that they have good ends, because otherwise, what’s going on, right?

Goodhart’s Principle: What Gets Measured Becomes the Target

Instructor: And just to be clear, every time, of course everyone says this, right? We said learning tools. It’s not really true. It becomes, just like everyone knows about the Goodhart Principle, right? There’s something called the Goodhart Principle. Anything measured becomes a target. Right?

Student: Wow, he doesn’t talk about it in his course?

Instructor: I don’t think he does. He’s missing a very important thing, right? Everyone knows. Anything measured becomes the target. The medium becomes the message. Always, right? This is the reality, because like Aristotle taught us, you become what you do.

Aristotelian Conclusion: You Become What You Do

Instructor: You don’t become what you believe in, unless belief is a kind of doing, like you say Shema [the central Jewish prayer] twice a day. But you become what you do. If you work on means all day, you’re going to become efficient. You’re not going to become good.

The Dangers of Efficiency-Based Living: A Critique of Amoral Education

The Fundamental Problem: What Gets Measured Becomes the Target

Instructor: I don’t think he does. It’s missing a very important thing, right? Everyone knows, anything measured becomes the target. The medium becomes the message. Always, right? This is the reality, because like Aristotle taught us, you become what you do. You don’t become what you believe in. Unless belief is a kind of doing, like you say Shema [the central Jewish prayer declaring God’s oneness] stole twice a day. But you become what you do, right?

If you work on means all day, working on becoming efficient, you’re going to become efficient. You’re not going to become good. And you’re all day talking about this and you’re never talking about becoming good. You’re not going to become good.

Actually, they become manipulative and the definition of manipulation is I’m trying to get something from you which is not the good thing itself, is not good and it’s not really good for you, right? That’s good for me or it’s good for some third purpose. That’s the definition. It becomes—it’s a big problem. This I think it’s a really big problem. That’s one problem.

The Second Problem: Masking Evil

There’s a bigger problem. I didn’t ask him that this is the problem. There’s something else. He’s not masking. Ah, he’s not masking.

Student: No, no, I get it now.

Instructor: Ah, he’s not masking. This is a real problem. I really think that it’s—that’s the problem, too.

A Concrete Example: The Ganav [Thief] Story

Instructor: I actually know someone. I have news for you. I know someone. I have dealt in a third-hand way with someone that went to a certain course, the same course that you went to. And mazeh Shai [behold], he stole a million dollars from a Yid [Jew], playing a gambit on a young dollar. I know exactly how. There was a trick, an excuse. He came in and told you, he said, it’s a trick—I got to stick a tofes l’baal chov b’makom shechav l’acherim [a legal principle about seizing collateral]. Again, I don’t know. I heard once out of the story. Maybe he’s not. But sounds like that to me. And just deposited. The guy gave him a check. He deposited it twice. Whatever. Plain. What he did was for sure organized. Maybe he didn’t get it. He didn’t owe him. He owes him a million dollars. I don’t know. The mazeh, that’s what happened.

So, and that he, they said, they came to him and said, what do you mean? I went to this course. They taught me how to be very efficient. And he was very into it, like, I’m very good at this, and so on. And if not for that course, it would be less of a ganav [thief]. I hope. Maybe it didn’t make a difference. Because all these things turn out to be some horrible people. And it’s by design, like, there’s a real problem. That’s one thing.

Why Efficiency Training Enables Evil

Another thing is that people that have luck do not really be able to—it also lets you pursue it, and not in the pursuit of evil. And not to pursue being a ganav, like you’re just pursuing being efficient, right? And having to steal along the way.

Student: I mean he doesn’t realize that he’s a ganav. He doesn’t have to—he doesn’t have to confront the fact that he’s learning how to be a ganav.

Instructor: Yeah, you’re not teaching how to be a ganav. You’re teaching you something—a tool. You’re teaching you how to pick locks. It’s like teaching how to pick locks. I teach you how to pick locks. Are you going to use it to pick the bank or are you going to use it to pick your bubbe’s [grandmother’s] house when she gets locked out? I don’t care. I don’t care. I’m not about anything.

Student: Isn’t that the worst thing though?

Instructor: What?

Student: Because then—

Instructor: I’m saying exactly. You’re an immoral person. So this teaching is an immoral teaching. It really is. I think it’s a real problem.

The Immorality of Amoral Teaching

I really think that in some kind of ideal universe, with the correct structure—but the immorality can sneak the 80% evil right into God’s noses. I really think that it would be like a really good Plato’s, you know, fantasies of—

Student: But this really applies to everything in the whole world.

Instructor: No, wait, wait, wait.

Student: No, one second. Don’t sell lighters because if someone’s going to come out—

Instructor: No, no, no, no. Wait, wait, this is a nice—no, no, no, don’t let anyone drive to the—wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, let’s get, let’s, let’s move it, let’s, let’s, let’s, wait, wait, um, this is all emotional for my kashya [question]. You have to remember, these are all things that everyone here is supposed to agree with.

Student: Yeah, I hear your question, and it’s part of the brainwashing that you got from capitalism.

Instructor: Now, um, wait, but you have to remember that, um, you know, let’s try to focus, right, I’m trying to get somewhere. If you’re not asking what part of that is, you have to talk about that at a different time, because all these things, everyone here agrees with, already. Just giving you guys an example, at least I should tell you an example of, uh, something.

Plato’s Ideal: Restricting Dangerous Knowledge

Instructor: So this is one of the examples of how you can’t be a mashgiach [supervisor/spiritual guide] without being a ba’al middos [person of good character], how you can’t be a menahel [administrator] without a mashgiach. Okay, this is evil.

And in Plato’s ideal educational society, all of these tools would be hidden, just like lockpicking. I mean, nowadays also you can learn lockpicking on the internet. But just like creating nuclear weapons, for some tools we have enough sechel [intelligence/common sense] to keep them locked up only for people that we think are already good, right?

This is true, definitely true for management, for human management. Becoming a good rabbi, becoming a good anything. If it’s just a good, in the sense of being efficient, of being a good tool, it’s really dangerous and should only be taught to people that are very proven themselves to be good. Even after that, many of them are going to use it for evil, but you know, this is why we have all these secrets, all these ideas of secret societies, there’s a reason for that. It’s not crazy.

Why Efficiency-Based Living Doesn’t Work

The Neshama [Soul] Prevents It

Instructor: Now, second problem is, a deeper problem is, that it also doesn’t work, in my opinion. It doesn’t work. At least if you have a neshama [soul], it doesn’t work, baruch Hashem [thank God]. Any that was born with a neshama, in my opinion, doesn’t actually—I don’t know anyone, it’s kind of cute. I know many people, not a lot, not enough, but maybe I know a hundred people. I don’t really know any of them that manages their life that way. Any of the good people that I know. I know some people that manage to manage their business that way, also in a much more sporadic way than you think. But I don’t know anyone that manages life that way.

A Vort [Torah Insight] on Nistar and Nigleh

It reminded me of—I don’t know anyone—a vet someone told me that it says “Hanistrot l’Hashem Elokeinu v’hanigalot lanu ul’vaneinu” [The hidden things belong to the Lord our God, but the revealed things are for us and our children—Deuteronomy 29:28]. And everything in between, it’s just l’cha [for you], not the v’necha [and your children], which in between—the Negev [the hidden]—it’s not nistar [hidden] and it’s not nigleh [revealed], it’s probably just for you, don’t talk with anybody else.

Student: Yeah.

The New Year’s Resolution Test

Instructor: So I have what I’m saying. Do you know anyone that actually—I have a real question. Every self-help book in the world says have a goal and make a New Year—is doing New Year’s, make a New Year’s resolution. Do you know anyone that actually succeeded with his New Year’s resolution? With his goal?

Student: Smart one?

Instructor: Ask Marabai [the Rebbe] what’s his name if he knows anyone. I’m sort of very suspicious of this.

Student: No, I’ll explain to you why.

Instructor: I don’t know anyone that it worked for. It doesn’t work for me in that way. In some way, it does work in my opinion. I don’t know anyone. If there’s someone that it works for him, I think you should stay away from him because they’re a psychopath.

The Metaphysical Argument: Humans Are Not Machines

Why Goal-Setting Fails

Instructor: Now, why doesn’t it work? Because human beings—things aren’t actually the kind of thing, and we’re not actually machines, we’re not actually efficient causes. Machine and efficient causes, the same definition, literally, metaphysically, are things that only do ends. That’s the idea of a human being.

A human being, for anything to make sense, people talk about meaning, you know what meaning is? Meaning means doing something that has a goal. Not a goal, a fake goal, a real goal, right, the end. You call them the same, they’re the same word, there’s no real difference in the words.

When I say a goal, I mean something that in some sense isn’t itself good. But at least you very clearly see how it leads to something that is really good. But even then, what you’re going to be doing is the goodness of that thing. So maybe it’s secondarily good, I don’t think everything is finally good. Even if it’s secondarily good, what you’re doing is that thing and not something else.

The Gemara’s Principle: Do Things for Themselves

Like it says in the Gemara [Talmud], do things for themselves [lishmah]. If what you do is not good, it’s only leading to something good, you, as a human being, will not succeed to do it unless you turn yourself into a machine. Most of us have a hard time turning ourselves into machines. Some people are successful at that, and those are the CEOs. But besides for that, most people have a really hard time.

The Crucial Distinction: Service vs. System

Providing for Family vs. Serving Capitalism

Instructor: And even the people that do it well, it’s because, for example, there’s a very big difference between someone who is in service of capitalism and someone who is in service of providing for his wife and children.

Providing for your wife and children is a very good end. It’s not the final end. You don’t go to Gan Eden [the Garden of Eden/Paradise] for that. You only go to Gan Eden for what you do with that. But, according to the holy Rambam [Maimonides] at least. But, it’s a good thing. In order to do that, I have to get a job, I have to do my job well. No problem. You’re doing all this well, it’s all part of being a person that’s providing for his family, a good father, a good husband, a good part of society. I want to provide a mikvah [ritual bath] for my beis medrash [study hall], whatever it is that you’re providing. You’re part of that.

The moment that it’s separated from that, I think that that’s like the definition of evil, definition of becoming a machine, which doesn’t have a goal and that’s just what evil is, that’s a shin dalet [the Hebrew letters that spell “demon/devil”], right?

What “No Meaning” Actually Means

So—meaning the moment that you’re not providing and you’re what? That you’re picking your story, what your story is not, it’s not embedded into a bigger story that I’m a good person and I’m providing for my family, for example. I’m just running this system as efficiently as possible. That’s what I think.

And therefore I think that people—that’s why people complain that they have no meaning. And your zaida [grandfather] doesn’t understand what you mean when you say I don’t have meaning in my job. You gotta have a job. He does have meaning in his job. His meaning is to come home to his wife and bring her a check. That’s a great meaning.

Meaning just means there’s a story that ends somewhere. Meaning is not some fancy feeling. I don’t know what people think meaning means. But you don’t have meaning because your job is set up in a way that you can’t really do it if you care about coming home to your wife at night. Many jobs are sort of set up in that way. At least it’s very hard.

The Challenge of Modern Work

You have to very—now you can understand why you have to be a meshugah [crazy person]. It’s very hard to be a good whatever it is. Yeah, most people in New York City or whatever in the workplace are not—that’s not their story of themselves. Many of—most of them—I’m not talking about the high machine, the high legate—and I’m talking about the baal habayis [ordinary working person]. Most of them are not like that and it’s set up for people like the language that they talk and the way to, you know, to become successful within any society is to talk their language and to work on their concepts.

Their concepts are machine concepts, not human concepts. And that’s why it’s very hard to do it for a fewer human being. If you have a neshama left, it’s very hard for you to live in that world. And now, this is the mishigas [craziness], the maskim [those who agree].

Defining Neshama [Soul]

Instructor: Ah, so what was I saying?

Student: When you say neshama, what are you referring to?

Instructor: I don’t know. Now, I do know, but I’m far enough off my track. So, a neshama is a person that is a human being. That’s what a neshama is. He didn’t forget. Some people forgot that they’re human beings and became machines. That’s the difference. A machine doesn’t have a neshama either. I mentioned a neshama. And some people don’t have a neshama. They’re very happy being machines.

I’m pretty sure that nobody that listens to my shiur [Torah class] is happy with that, so I don’t have to talk about that person.

Concluding Warning: You Cannot Live This Way

Instructor: So this is a problem. I want to tell you, you can’t live like this. I’m telling you, nobody can live like this. If you manage to live for a long time like that, I don’t want to know about you.

Chapter 5: The Neshama Problem – Integrity, Success, and the Corruption of Systems

The Neurodivergence Exception

Instructor: There’s people that—no, what you’re talking about is not that, I don’t think. I’m talking about normal people. If you’re neurodivergent, then… I think that’s not a large part of it. Maybe. I’m not sure. I think that that’s a different thing, because I understand that. That’s different. That’s a person that has a taanug [ta’anug: pleasure, delight], and it’s making lists and checkmarks. Different. Someone doesn’t like that, right? And then that guy is virtual, making checks, Excel sheets, he really loves it. Okay, it’s a different thing. He likes—he’s like, some beauty in it. No, I’m serious, there is some beauty in it, like math, like whatever it is, like the boxiness of the world. The world is pretty boxsy. Not true that—I’m not saying you shouldn’t be boxsy, you should only be around, that’s not the point. But what I’m saying is that this is a problem, and you can’t live like this.

No, I forgot—yeah, I’m getting to that part, don’t worry. But there’s too many people have a lot of questions.

The Conference Experience: Tools Without Belief

In that conference, I was sitting there, and I don’t feel comfortable. I need all these tools. I consider myself a good person that’s allowed to use all the tools. Maybe I’m wrong. I consider myself that way. But also I feel I don’t know how to—I can’t use them if I don’t believe in them.

See, that’s what I mean when I say I have a neshama [neshamah: soul]. A neshama means that me, I have a very hard time submitting to things that I don’t believe in. Sometimes I just call it ego, but it’s not ego, it’s really having a neshama. If you go to someone and this guy says, you know, you have to beg this person, you have to pretend to be below him, because that’s how he’ll do you a favor—unless you can explain to me how that person really deserves it, or how and somehow there’s some virtue in doing this, otherwise I’m just not going to do it.

The Sales Book Principle

Love it. In his book on sales, in the beginning of the book, he basically says, like, chapter one is basically explaining why you have to believe in what you sell, and the two is, let’s say you don’t believe, how to believe? Okay, yeah, many, most people don’t believe. For the matter, then you’re not going to get what you want to get.

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

The Central Problem: Neshama and Functionality

Ultimate nut story. We can down the showman, so go on and down the egg. Ah, I know. You see, you see this, but you realize there’s something crazy here. We have to solve this problem. My biggest belief is that we could solve this problem. There are nuts. We don’t have to be stuck. We don’t have to be oifgevafn [given up] and not get anything done because of this. “I have a neshama, therefore I can’t work.” No, nonsense. You could work, of course. You have to figure out how to, how it’s going to work. There is a way. That’s my biggest belief, my biggest hope. And I think it’s true. There’s a way. There’s a way. But we have to understand what the way is.

Now, I am very uncomfortable. I can’t do that. It’s very hard. I just can’t do it. In reality, I can’t do it. And to the extent I could do it, it’s because I’m corrupted. But I think that people that can do it are the good people. That’s my opinion.

The Absurdity of Success at the Cost of Humanity

Now, at that thing, I’m telling you a story. Now we have to find a way. This is niche normal. It’s not normal that everyone has to become oys a mentsh [cease being a human being] in order to be successful. That’s crazy. The only reason I want to be successful is because I want to be a successful human being. Tell me no, be mevater [give up, forgo] for your whole life, right? Just to be clear, for your whole life be mevater on being a human being because let’s be real.

Autobiographical Digression: The Yeshiva Years

Yeah, I know. Like, you go—okay, I was a rebellious, I don’t know if you call it rebellious, but like, and I used to have, you know, they learn in yeshiva, it learns too slow, too fast, too low, too high, whatever it is, and I used to go to my rabbis, like, what kind of—and none of them ever said anything different. I mean, depending on their mood. But for the most part, you go to people and they understand. They say, look, yeah, you’re right.

Some of them are just lying. They don’t think I’m right. It’s not—hello, get out of my life, you’re a liar. But some of them really think that. And then he says, but look. How does it go? There’s always a push-off. Like, you know, you’re a bachur [yeshiva student], you’re in yeshiva. You have to start with yeshiva until you get married and you’ll go on kollel [married men’s Torah study program] and you’ll be able to do whatever you want. So then you go on kollel and they tell you the same thing until I don’t know when you’re able to actually live. True story.

The Response: Polite Noncompliance

Now, I always told them thank you so much for your advice and then I woke up in the morning and I didn’t do it. I wanted to do it, it just didn’t work because I have a neshama and I can’t.

Critique of the Advisors

If you would try to convince me how this—they’re so stupid these people, they think—even the ones that are really like this, okay, they’re stuck in the same place. The ones that are just manipulators are really dumb because, again, maybe they’re manipulators because they know that this is the best manipulation, but if someone comes to you and says, look, yeah, the system is corrupt. I know the system is corrupt, but look, you want to win, right? Try to win the system. You just corrupted a guy morally. You did the worst thing. There’s one guy that at least is not corrupt. He doesn’t just want to succeed. He doesn’t just want to win anything. No, let’s just win. What do you mean?

If you would be sincere, you would say, no, even a better manipulator would try to convince me that the system is correct. Then you should believe in it, okay? Then I can understand. Of course, maybe he knows that there’s no good arguments so there’s no—he has no way to explain it to me. Then he’s stuck. But this is a big problem. Mask him, it doesn’t work.

The One Drusha That Made Sense (But Was Also Crazy)

So the kid said there was one yid [Jew] over there that said a drusha [homiletical discourse] that I understood that made sense to me. The only problem is that his drusha was toyt meshuge [completely crazy].

The Content: Schnorring as Mitzvah

That’s why one yid stood up over there and besides all the eitzos [advice, strategies] that he said, he also said you should know that it’s a mitzvah—it’s not a mitzvah to make a lot of money. It’s not a mitzvah to fal far di gevirim [fall before the wealthy]. It’s not a mitzvah to nothing. A mitzvah is to do it. If this is your job, whatever, whoever you decide that if you’re a mitzvah. It’s not a mitzvah. Therefore, if you don’t make money, if you do make money, if you do succeed, if you don’t succeed, it doesn’t matter. You should wake up every day, say hineni muchan umzuman [I am ready and prepared], and go do your mitzvah. That’s what this guy said.

Why It Resonated

Now, I’m telling you the reality. This guy, I felt goodbye to drusha. Because I know how to do things like that. I know how to do mitzvos [commandments]. By mitzvos, I mean things that are good. Correct things. I know how to correct things. It’s hard? Yeah, I know that. Sometimes it’s hard to do the good thing. I could work with that. It’s difficult. It’s hard to do the good thing. We’ll work on it. Sometimes we’ll succeed. Sometimes we won’t succeed. Sometimes we’ll be frustrated. But I know how to live with that.

The Alternative: Incomprehensible

Everyone else says, you just have to win. I don’t know how to live with that. And they also say it’s hard, right? But you have to be mezakeh [purify oneself, work on oneself]. But what does that even mean? I don’t know how that looks. Work on yourself to not take yourself seriously, to be a better slave for something else. Like, what? You know, if you freely force me, I’ll be forced. No problem. I want to have money. I want a mortgage or whatever. I want to have rent. Pay the rent. I’ll go do something for that. I’m nothing. I’m above that. But you’re really giving me chizuk [encouragement, strengthening] like to be that? That doesn’t make any sense to me.

The Virtue Framework

So this guy is the only drusha that actually made sense. He was talking about a certain virtue. You’re a schnorrer [fundraiser, collector]. Go and be a good schnorrer. Believe in… It’s not about believing in it. I don’t even believe in it. Just do it. It’s a mitzvah. It’s a mitzvah. It’s a mitzvah. Whatever mitzvah it is. Enjoy.

The Problem with the “Good” Drusha

It’s not shiny. You must understand that this guy is only a normal drusha. You understand this? Everyone knows how to do that. Everyone knows. Do the correct thing. Who told you this is your tafkid [role, mission]? Maybe someone else. No problem. Today you’re doing this.

Now I’m such a—and this guy’s drusha was whacked, like seriously. What do you mean my job is to make money? It’s not to knock on people’s doors and get thrown out. Like, that’s not the mitzvah. It’s such a weird—it’s also nuts, right? It’s nuts to do things that don’t have a goal. He’s also in some way living without a goal, right? Because like, I’m just doing things. What do you mean just doing things? There’s—you want to win, right?

Critique of “Hashem Will Provide” Theology

And then, oh, Hashem [God] will send you the money. No, Hashem doesn’t send nobody money. I don’t know anyone that Hashem sent money. I told you the drusha already, right? I want to tell the drusha: you should rely on Hashem sending you money? Ask him how he’s going to send it. What’s his post office address? Because I don’t know anyone that Hashem sent money yet in my life.

The Grocery Store Anecdote

I know so many people that go around—I listened to last week someone, you know, yeah, I was in the grocery. I went to the grocery. I filled up my cart. I had no idea how to pay and I borrowed money around the register. You could have thought of that before. It’s just a low life. Like, oh, der Oybershter hot geholfen [the Almighty helped]. He said, you really don’t have what to pay? Okay, and he gave me the money. Because some yid gave you the money. Der Oybershter didn’t give you nothing. Der Oybershter didn’t give you this. Der Oybershter didn’t give you that. No difference.

The Logical Incoherence

What do you mean der Oybershter didn’t give you money? He’s just drying me a cup. What’s it got to do? You have a lot of picture. Your picture of the reality is totally not in sync with how God actually is. Right? You believe in some a-causal world where things have nothing to do with their effects. Of course they do.

Why did you go to the grocery store? Why did you fill up your cart? Why didn’t you just sit home and wait for the fridge to fill up? What’s going on? Who are you fooling over here? Oh, you have to do that. Okay, you also have to go work. Or maybe your plan is to borrow money from people. No problem. Mucho of people say my life—I like the mucho of people and so on and I don’t have patience to work. I’ll just say it, tell him all day, wait for people to give me money. No problem. That’s your plan for life. Your plan is not Hashem. Hashem can’t do it. Not only you’re talking nonsense—like, what do you mean Hashem? How is this more Hashem than—

Chapter 6: The Problem of Normal Advice – Why Sensible People Seem Crazy

The Shnorrer Example: Virtue vs. Manipulation

Instructor: Everyone knows that everything is Hashem [God]. People, I think the reason people say it all the time is because they don’t really believe in Hashem. So they have to say it all the time. It’s like, “I’m doing it for Hashem.” What does that even mean?

Because everyone understands what this guy said was total nonsense. That’s the only reason they said something normal.

So now here’s my kasha [question]: Why can’t there be a normal person that can explain to you the virtues of a shnorrer [beggar]? A shnorrer has to—I’ll tell you one of the virtues of a shnorrer. Not because it happens to be that it helps you make money also.

If you’re a shnorrer, you should brush your shoes. You know why? Because it’s not respectful. You go to a person, you ask for money, and you’re like, “I’m a shnorrer, so I’m allowed to have ripped shoes.” It’s not nice, right? People don’t like it. It’s a small action. That’s the virtue of a shnorrer. A shnorrer has to dress the part. You’re asking him for tzedakah [charity].

That would be a very reasonable drasha [sermon]. Part of a middos toivos [good character traits]—if there’s a correct middah [character trait], a shnorrer has to wear a normal rekel [coat] and he has to make his payos [sidelocks] and comb his beard. Otherwise you come to someone, a guy is just giving you money to get you out of his face because you’re ugly. True story, right?

So now, this is the same actual factual advice as the other guy that says, “Look, you’re going to go to the gvir [wealthy person]. Look, you have stuff in your phyllin [phylacteries]. You have a special man. He doesn’t like people that are chnyokish [slovenly]. Some people do like that’s chnyokish, okay, so dress up chnyokish. But go be a normal person, figure it out. It’s going to cost money to buy a new rekel, but you’re going to make more money, it’s worth it.” No problem.

That’s the manipulative way of saying the drasha. You can say the same as the drasha, as if it’s a mitzvah [commandment]. And it’s not a mitzvah. Because this is a good—now, is this the final good? No. The end is to give money, and then you’ve got money to go to yeshiva [Torah academy], and then someone in the yeshiva is going to—somehow it’s going to end up in Torah, this money, I don’t know how.

But you understand my point? Why is the only normal guy a nutcase?

Student: You don’t like speaking well. It’s like, one way is to speak well, manipulatively, and one is to speak well because you should present yourself well.

Instructor: Right, exactly.

The Maggid Shiur Example: Proper Preparation

Instructor: My job is to be a maggid shiur [Torah lecturer], and everyone has to do their ma’aseh b’emunah [act of faith]. My ma’aseh b’emunah is to prepare a shiur [Torah lesson], and I don’t have to follow the shiur. I don’t hold that you have to follow the… but I did prepare a shiur today. It’s over here. If you don’t believe me, I even have notes. It’s not what I said, but you have to appear. It’s ma’aseh b’emunah, right?

“Oh no, you have to prepare so people should be impressed.” My job is not to impress people. I mean, it’s to impress people, but that’s just what it is. It’s not just, right? If I can impress you in a fake way, I’m doing my job wrongly. If I impress you in the correct way because I did the correct preparation and I got a nice room to impress you, all of that, no problem. That’s part of the job, doing it correctly.

Now, why are the only people that even go out of this totally manipulative frame the ones that tell you that God somehow is doing it directly? Do you understand the kasha? It’s a very good example of the kasha, and there’s many hundreds of other examples. Do you understand the kasha?

Contemporary Examples: Rebbes, TikTok, and Modern Avodah Zarah

Instructor: All the way down to the kasha, why—everyone in ma’aseh [deed/action] is talking about it. What’s my other example? Something with the Rebbes. What about the Rebbes? No, the same thing. Is it normal to—this is a good example. That one I a little bit understand. It’s easier to explain why.

But is it normal that every person that already understands that you don’t have to worship whoever was the idol of the—whoever first guy that was the idol of another guy—is also believing some dead guy in Ukraine? Most of them do. Like Sharikas [reference to Rebbe Nachman of Breslov]. Of course, that’s easier to explain.

But is it normal that every teenager has spent like seventy years of their life watching TikTok? Because that’s contemporary avodah zarah [idolatry]. The other avodah zarah is that TikTok was created directly, but that’s actually true. But the other avodah zarah is that the whole internet was created directly by the Sitra Achra [the Other Side/evil forces], so that we should have nisyonos [tests], bnei yeshivas [yeshiva students], or something.

Now, this guy’s a little normal. You have kids, you should put a filter on their phone. No question, on their whatever. Nobody ever argues—I mean, people don’t live like that, but that’s because they’re nuts or they don’t have a choice, whatever it is. But their society is nuts.

And the only guy that’s normal is like what? You know that the Sklenener Rebbe gave the best drasha by Cedrifield and everyone was laughing at him? Sklenener Rebbe got up—and this was it, twenty years ago almost—got up and said—this is a beautiful thing that he said—”Amen. Amen.” He doesn’t say “Amen.” Amen literally says this so you get your neshama [soul]. Amen. A ba’al hayim [animal] walks bent over. Amen walks upright. So if you walk around like this, you’re a ba’al hayim.

Now he said the most normal thing, but what does it mean? Therefore… Hello. You got my problem? Why is it only normal people in this way?

The Well-Adjusted Fallacy

Student: No, but people also do think that there’s—back to this well-adjusted thing. I think people do very often think that, okay, so like, you know, well-adjusted person—obviously if you say you shouldn’t go on social media at all, you must be—taking thirty minutes a day is when you can do that.

Instructor: No, but that’s not really thinking the problem. I think that’s a getchke [idol/fetish] of well-adjusted.

Student: Yeah, yeah, like of course, like yeah, exactly, exactly. Everything like I can engage with on perfect terms and like, of course, we can like craft this like perfect human experience that doesn’t fall—

Instructor: I agree, I agree with that. That’s another mishigas [craziness], right? That’s another thing.

Both Sides Are Meshuge: Modern Orthodox vs. Haredi

Instructor: The normal people—you’re mad at Modern Orthodox people. Modern Orthodox people are—there’s one, but both sides are mishigas. That’s what I’m trying to get at. Modern Orthodox people have a different mishigas. They just don’t believe in the yetzer hara [evil inclination]. They just don’t believe in him. The Haredi people don’t believe in the yetzer tov [good inclination]. But both of them are mishigas.

Like you go to—I just re-read because of this thing that I did last week. I re-read some discussion that I had with a lady that wrote a whole book about the correct sex education that we should give our kids. And she basically told him it’s the both. It’s like, you know, this is a really powerful destructive force, also for good. But she’s like, “No, it’s like holy and if you do it correctly,” yeah, thank you very much. You just missed the problem, right?

This is a thing that is really, really worth—you should respect this shit. Just doesn’t have any respect for this yetzer hara. No respect. Like it’s really, it could make a whole—it could make a mabul [flood]. No. Chazal v’Shalom [God forbid], we shouldn’t be Puritan, we shouldn’t teach our kids because then they’re going to hate their body, so we should teach them that there’s a right—I agreed with the conclusion, but there’s just like a certain disconnect with reality. Chazal v’Shalom, whatever. I’m not going to get into the details of this.

But you’re right, that’s another—she’s right in a certain sense. These people are right. He’s like normal, very good. The other people are crazy because their solutions don’t actually—their solutions don’t actually solve the problems. And also they’re crazy because they don’t believe in the yetzer tov. They don’t believe in any kind of derech hamitzvos [the way of the commandments] and all kinds of mishigas that we said last week and so on.

But the other people are also crazy. They’re just living in a fantasy universe which is like, maybe it’s true in like three blocks of Teaneck for people between thirty and forty or something, but other than that it’s not the real world, right?

So what’s going on? Why is everyone meshuge? Same question. So you like—the same thing. You meet this guy like, “Yeah, he says that we should go to his—we should become a chossid [follower].” Then you see that the guy is—no, another some other way he’s totally missed the boat. I think that started—I’ll miss the boat is in that’s a good amount of business.

The Rebbe Nachman Connection: Why Can’t the Chochom Be Normal?

Instructor: This thing against—against the chochom [wise man] is fucking retarded. Why can you just say it’s the same thing? It’s the same thing. It’s just a formulation. It’s true by the theory that I said today, but it’s a better question than an answer. In other words, it’s not a question, it’s like a request more of a request than a question.

Toward an Answer: The Instability of Individual Articulation

Instructor: I think that there is a way to do all of this, at least to some extent. I also do think that you have to be meshuge in reality, unfortunately. Why? Actually, I don’t think you have to be meshuge. I don’t think we should say that’s true—it shouldn’t be meshuge.

But I think that there’s a reason why everyone that’s normal a little is meshuge. And the reason is that in this world, it’s very, very hard, at least for one person—maybe, you know, but for one person—it’s very hard to make anything, to write anything without tipping over the boat, right?

So, for example, if we’re—I mean, I could talk about mass education as one way in which this happens. I think it happens with people by themselves.

Chapter 7: The Necessity of Being “Meshuga” – Creating an Anchor Outside Society

The Fundamental Problem: Going Against Social Reality

So, for example, if we’re, I mean, I could talk about like mass education as one way in which this happens. I think it has happened with people by themselves. Myself, if you have to go against the reality, like against the reality of society, it seems to me that it’s very hard to do that without some very strong backbone, without some very strong support. And for this reason, I think that… Or alternative social infrastructure. And full social infrastructure, but nobody actually has that. I mean, nobody that I know.

I think that you need like Archimedes’ pole. You need something to actually take you out of the default. And that thing is by definition meshuga [crazy/insane].

The Rambam on Leaving Society

This is really with the discussion of the Rambam [Maimonides]. This is really my response to this. The Rambam has the discussion of going in the desert and becoming a desert father or mother and leaving society. And the Rambam is very against it. He says this is not ideal. But he also agrees that it’s sometimes needed.

And we have to understand that going to the desert is an aveira [sin]. It’s not like the Rambam explicitly expresses it this way. Leaving society is a sin. Why is it a sin? Because the correct way of being a human being is to live within a society. And even more than that, the correct way of living as a human being is to live within your society. That is the correct way, you could say healthy way. But that’s the correct way. That’s how God made people. That’s the nature of humans.

The nature of humans is not to do lech lecha [go forth – Abraham’s departure]. That’s a very nice romantic drasha [sermon]. The nature of humans is to stay where they are. I don’t know, stay where they are. The nature of humans is to live within the society you are. That’s the nature of humans.

The Trap: You Cannot Be Good in a Bad Society

Now, this also means that if they’re in a bad society, you’re going to be bad. You are going to be bad. If anyone tells you they’re going to be good in a bad society, like this is the main contention of modern orthodoxy, that’s nonsense.

You could be the good person of that society. Every society has an ideal of a good person. You could be a good person relative to that society or not relative, like according to what that society defines as a good person. But you can’t be a good person, a really good person. If you agree that whatever the definition of this society for a good person is incomplete at least, you can’t really be more than that. You can’t. You can’t be that.

The American Example

In America, there’s something called being a good person. By the way, that includes going to church, so you could switch synagogue for church. It doesn’t make a big difference. At least it used to include. I don’t know if it still does.

And a modern Orthodox, or a modern anything guy, it doesn’t matter, is a guy that does that. No problem. You’re a very good American Jew. No problem.

But if you think that being a Jew, the claim of being a Jew is that the whole shtikl Torah [the entire Torah], kol zeh achnes [all this is nothing], being an American good guy, the best guy in America is still not good enough, if you believe that. I don’t know if you believe that. I think that as a Jew you have to believe that. You have to, enough to nothing. But you should.

Then, or especially if you believe that, like I seem to believe based on whatever nonsense I read on the Internet. But if you believe that in 2025 there is no such a thing as being a good person in America. America doesn’t have an ideal of good people and there are no good people in America. As Americans there are good people. Then you have to believe that, you have to go out of that and then you have to say you have to do a very big bad thing.

The Solution: Embracing the Meshuga

Let’s just be against your society. It’s a big huge sin. I’m just doing that makes you meshuga. Or there’s like good ways of doing it. Not like saying like I have a Rebbe, I have a Torah, this absolute truth. What are you talking about? Since there’s no such a thing, you’re living on olam hadimyon [fantasy world].

No, this is what you have to say. You have to say look, we are the only people in history to know the truth. In Lakewood, the 30 people that live here, we are the only ones. It was given to us. I don’t even know how we discovered it. And just to be clear, not to the Hasidim in Boro Park, not to the guys in Five Towns, not to the guys in Freehold. We got, we try to teach them but it was given to us. The whole complete full truth, 100 percent mezukak [purified], distilled, pure distilled.

Now, that is it. Anything else is nonsense. Even the people that try to go there, they realize themselves that it’s nonsense. And because we have one meshuga that came back and said that it’s nonsense and it proves to us. And this is the one that we’re going to create a whole thing. We’re going to teach basically only this. We’re not going to teach anything else. We’re not going to teach nothing. We’re going to teach this. One thing.

We have received for free the extreme absolute truth, including how to tie your shoelaces. It’s as true as the existence of God. Everything is absolute truth. And this is going to be what we do. This is all we do. We spend our days and nights saying this. And then if you do that for 70 years, no, if you that whatever, for as long as it takes, the race generation, then less than seven years, only like 10, 15 years, then you end up with people that have a, how do we call it? Like an anchor outside of America.

The Anchor Concept

This is what is needed. This is just the creating of the anchor. It’s not the actual good thing, in my opinion, because most people are messed up. It’s not the actual good thing. But this is all creating like a separate pole, like the multipolar role that some people are about. Like, you have to have another pole. Otherwise, everything you do, even the Yiddishkeit [Judaism] that you do, is according to the sar [angelic prince] of America.

Remember, there’s shiv’im sarim [seventy angelic princes], there’s the sar of America. He actually conquered like 15 sarim, and he’s 15 of them. And, you know, right? You know their names are also anyways. And the sar of America, he’s telling me, oh my pshatim [interpretations] is from him.

If you want to be a little bit outside of that, like not in golus [exile], right? You want, because this golus means you’re living within a bad society. You want to not be in golus, you have to have, you have to have a really strong anchor. You have to something to actually give you, you need some place to stand outside of it. How do you stand outside the world? You need a lever long enough, right, to stand outside the world. How do you do that? You have to be meshuga.

I don’t know of anyone that succeeds without being meshuga.

Choosing Your Poison: Practical Examples

Therefore, I had a friend that told me that he became a Bianer Chassid [Hasid of the Biana dynasty]. I don’t think his family is Biana. He became a Bianer Chassid. So I asked him, I believe him, like, what do you see in the holy Biana that this is like the thing? He’d become a Breslov, a Chabad. I see this guy, he was in all the places. He became a Biana.

So he told me, look, I don’t know if this was an excuse, but this is what he said, and it’s just a good idea. He said, I looked in Biana, he has some family, of course he’s like close to it socially somehow, that’s why he’s able. He said, look, in Biana there’s the least Chassidus. I need a Chassidus, I want to be a Chassidus. I need a place for my children, I need a shul to daven in, a Chassidus shul, and so on. I need to be Chassidus.

I looked around all the Chassidus, where do you have to do the least? In Biana, you have to come every time, every time you have to come to Yerushalayim [Jerusalem], to the Rebbe. I don’t think you have to do anything else basically. They don’t have what clothes you wear, nothing. Perfect. It’s how hard it is for me to travel two days a week a year. I’ll travel. I wear the, I get into, what’s the name, since we have to be, we should try to, to find the least meshuga thing that can take us out of reality, right?

The Principle: Minimize the Meshuga

So the trick is to find something that’s less destructive, right? If you’re like, I’m meshuga, I’m going to be in a cult, like I’m going to, we’re going to talk all, do everything, whatever. But it’s not necessary. I was reading a whole thing about the Amish yesterday. It’s not actually necessary to be entirely meshuga. Don’t read, because you only need one thing outside. Like you need one point, some anchoring point. You need, exactly, you need some, but it has to be real and somewhere else. It can’t be the American version of Judaism, because then it’s not anything.

You need something to say: In this, we think entirely different than everyone. And everyone is just brainwashed, nebuch [unfortunately], there’s nobody to talk to, it’s totally messed up. You need one thing. You need one, for now, Avraham HaIvri [Abraham the Hebrew] is not in a lechatchila [ideal] situation, but since we’re in the world of Moshiach [Messiah], you need one thing that is really crazy.

So everyone has to choose their poison, I think. I don’t know if this is really a choice that you could make because that’s the real, but my ideal would be you have to choose it.

More Examples: Breslov and Lubavitch

That’s why Lemush [?], a lot of like these, for example, it’s not such a bad poison. I mean sometimes it is, but like, okay I have this one thing, this is what really separates me from everyone. I think that this is Moshiach, that’s it.

Something with Lubavitch. Lubavitch has too many meshugaim [crazy people], but they don’t need most of them. One or two of them is enough. And this allows them to do a lot of things because they’re free. Now you’re free. Now maybe I’ll decide to do most of the things like everyone else, but I’m free, right?

The Sufficiency of Simply Being Jewish

Student: What about, what did he say?

Instructor: Yeah, yeah, in a very messed up way. It’s very the opposite of that. But we have to have something that’s different. Something very far. And then we can hold on to that.

I think that just being Jewish is more than enough. That’s really what I think. But that only works, that only works for people that realize how crazy it is to be Jewish. If you only talk with Jews your whole life in a serious way, I’m not saying everyone talks with goyim [non-Jews], but like seriously, like if you don’t talk about God with Jews, then you don’t realize how crazy Jews are. You got to talk about the true things with other people if you could. And then you realize that just being a Jew, like I’m committed to Judaism, this is meshuga. I don’t care.

We are the guys that put on the tefillin [phylacteries] twice, two tefillin, twice a day, or whatever, once a day. That’s where we are. Why? We’re the Parah Adumah [Red Heifer] people. That’s all. That’s who we are. Now, everything else could make sense. That’s why we have that Parah Adumah, because that’s like keeping your head above the water. There’s still a Parah Adumah. It’s saving us. It’s going to purify us from all the shtussim [nonsense]. That’s the thing.

Student: And he put on, so it doesn’t have a ta’am [reason/taste], it can’t be a Litvak [Lithuanian-style Jew] though.

Instructor: He doesn’t wear the…

Student: Yeah no, at that point Litvak nebuch thinks that that’s true.

Chapter 8: The Poshut’e Yid Solution – Jewish Identity as Minimal Meshugaas

The Proposal: Being a Simple Jew as Anchor

Instructor: The film, twice, two films, twice a day, or whatever, once a day. That’s where we are. Why? We’re the Poshut’e Yid [simple Jew] people. That’s all. That’s who we are. Now, everything else could make sense. That’s why we have to have Poshut’e Yid. Because that’s like keeping your head above the water. There’s still a Poshut’e Yid. It’s saving us. It’s going to purify us from all the shtusim [nonsense]. That’s the thing.

And the problem is that it doesn’t have a ta’am [reason/rationale]. It can’t be a Litvak, though, because it doesn’t wear the veil that comes with it.

Student: Yeah, no, that’s not the point. Litvak nebuch [poor thing] thinks that that’s true. If you think that it’s true, then…

Instructor: No, but he’s meshuga [crazy] for that. It’s, again, too much meshuga. You started off that you were going to go on vacation and the masa u’matan [give and take] is an aveirah [sin] and it’s multiple days.

Student: Yeah, the main thing is that this is what I think.

The Paradox: This is a Sin, But Necessary

Instructor: You can go much further when you have that… You have to understand that it’s wrong. This is all wrong. We shouldn’t be meshuga. Even just… Like a masser [informer], like a mesira [informing].

Student: Yeah, even just… Exactly.

Instructor: By the way, it’s a great thing. I’ve tried this thing. I know people have tried this and I’ve tried this myself in certain things. It’s very important. It’s a chet [sin]. It’s a chet. It’s 100% a chet. You’re not allowed to do it. If the world would be good or to the extent that the world is good, you’re not allowed to. It makes you a bad person. At least in the sense of an unbalanced person which is the definition of bad. It makes you a bad person.

But if you are in a situation where you’re trying to bring in some kind of truth, some kind of pole, like a base of reality that is not in this one, you’re going to have to do something to get yourself out.

America vs. Russia: The Liberalism Problem

How do you get yourself out of society? It’s very hard. In America it’s extremely hard because it’s such a free society. In Russia it was easy to be a yid [Jew]. People think in America it’s hard to be a yid, in Russia it’s easy. People think in America it’s easy to be a yid, but in Russia it’s hard. It’s the opposite.

In Russia you just have to make a bris [circumcision] for your son and you’re a yid. Because this is like anti-communism, anti-whatever the communist ideal of atheism. In America, no, you make a bris. Everyone has their mishigas [craziness], you have your mishigas. Then you’re not a yid.

Student: You’re not.

Instructor: Everyone is crazy, we’re crazy in this way. You have to have some point that’s outside of that. This is why liberalism is like some people said the most dangerous thing for religion that subsumes it. Look we’re all crazy, well let’s be crazy that way, no problem. Maybe in part of Israel, but in some sense in your mind there has to be something: No, not really. And this is because we need… this is the reality.

The Wedding Example: Empirical Proof

I think this is an empirical explanation. This is why the only people that actually have the courage… like for example, okay, everyone agrees—I don’t know if everyone agrees, I don’t agree—but most people that I spoke to agree that doesn’t make any sense to rent a hall for $30,000 and make a wedding for your son that’s 17 or 18, makes no sense. It doesn’t deserve it. Then do nothing and didn’t even meet his kallah [bride]. That’s like why would he get a $30,000 wedding? Everyone agrees. No, just the hall. Otherwise everyone agrees that this is crazy.

It’s interesting that the only guy that actually just… you know that it doesn’t cost anything to not do it. Actually, you save a lot of money. Nobody’s like… it’s crazy how little, not even social pressure. People, most social pressure is imagined. I’ve tried it out, I’m telling you. You could do, you could just do it. Instead of renting a hall, call everyone here and make your wedding. Nobody, people did it in COVID, remember, it was so easy? It just happened. Look, there’s no social pressure. The social pressure is overrated. You could just do it. It’s your choice.

Student: You’re the guy, there’s two people left, that’s okay. Two mechutanim [in-laws] have to be on the same page. It’s so hard to find one more.

Instructor: Everyone agrees that it’s meshuga, right? I promise you you can do it. All of these things together are not worth anything.

Society as God: Why People Don’t Resist

The reason people, the reason people don’t do it, I’m telling you the truth, the only guy that actually does it is a meshugene [crazy person] that worships a dead grave in Ukraine [reference to certain Chassidic practices]. How does it work? Why? Because he actually has something to tell them: I’m not one of these people. I’m really, really, my religion is a different religion. Know that we’re whatever. Chassidish doesn’t say that, but like really, really, what makes me tick is something else.

Okay, now maybe he also is more than sometimes. He’s good. The kallah is making a problem. I’m not saying he’s not gonna understand everyone else. I have to understand the reason everyone’s does not because they have no… Nothing in the name of which to really go against. You have to remember that society, when people say society, it’s not with society. It’s their God.

Right? If you say how do I decide how to do anything? How does anyone by the way? It’s very hard. Most of the things you delegate to society and you’re correct for doing that. That’s how the world should work. How do you know how a wedding looks? Oh let’s sit down and learn, let’s learn and find out. You’re crazy. You’re not going to find anything out there, right? It sort of says that, yeah that’s long, this is red. You’re turning me back. But you can’t do that.

So what are you going to do, right? You don’t really have… or you could say I’m sitting down myself. I think it should be cheaper. By the way, I think it’s wrong. I think a wedding should be expensive. I don’t think it should be cheap. I’m asking with this whole shtus [nonsense]. But that’s a different thing.

But now you understand that there’s a real issue because you have no other god. You have no god but what everyone else does. You could complain against your god. Everyone complains against their god. Nobody is happy with their god. That’s why he’s a god, so he should be able to be against you. Otherwise he’ll just be you.

But that’s why, if the only way that… if it’s true, assuming that it’s true that it’s crazy, the only way to act in the name of something else is to actually have something else. And you really have to have something else. How would you act in the name of something else if you don’t have something else?

This is the basic empirical reason why the only God that actually does something different is the guy with a different God.

Student: Chassidish for me doesn’t have a different God, yeah, and he’s not my moshel [parable/example].

Instructor: A different middle God, at least.

Student: Yeah, a different malach [angel]. A different tzar [trouble].

Instructor: Chassidish for me is the Chazon [Chazon Ish], and the same for everything. The only people that could resist the internet, or could resist Chassidish because they resist birth control are the people that believe that God himself told them to have a bunch of babies. It doesn’t matter. It has to be something different. God never said that, by the way. But it has to be something. Otherwise, you’re just going to… You’re not going to have what in the name of who to be to be misnaged [opponent]. You have to have something in the name of something to live. And it’s the real problem.

And the real yeshua [salvation] is going to be when we make our own everything. But whatever. That’s just a fantasy from a shiach [conversation]. But that would be… it’s important to have that ideal to realize that it’s not an ideal situation to be against society because it’s very destructive if you become a sheigetz [non-Jewish boy/derogatory] and also you become even more of a sheigetz because of that because then you lose everything and it’s a problem.

The Rambam’s Midbar and the Haredi Solution

Student: Just to be clear, when the Rambam [Maimonides] says you should go to the midbar [desert], it means this moshel that you’re talking about?

Instructor: The Rambam means literally going to the midbar.

Student: No but it doesn’t mean this moshel that you’re saying.

Instructor: The Rambam literally means going to the midbar.

Student: Become this like a little weird…

Instructor: No, no, not a weirdo. All Jews have… like the Chazon Ish famously told us about whatever he was understanding, right? Jews have made this collective… not Jews, what’s called Orthodox, whatever you want to call them. Haredi [ultra-Orthodox] Jews have made this choice to go in the midbar. The literal desert doesn’t make a difference. They actually did this. And it’s a big sin that makes them crazy. They’re all nuts and they’re all evil in some sense because of that. Because you get unbalanced, and when you’re unbalanced, a lot of things, everything is open in some sense. But also in that world you don’t have a view from anywhere else, right?

Student: Yeah, that’s… then it’s not even… then it’s the opposite, right? You need to have… you need to be a little frei [free/secular]…

Instructor: You’re not answering the question.

Student: No, I’m diagnosing the problem.

The Proposed Solution: Least Destructive Mishigas

Instructor: I don’t have… the answer is an empirical question. I asked why I can’t find any normal Rebbe [rabbi/teacher]. So the Torah says that if it would be normal I wouldn’t want to be my Rebbe because normal means evil. So therefore you have to be evil a little bit.

And my solution, my halfway joke solution for today is that you should try to find the least destructive mishigas to save you.

And my proposal is… My proposal is that we should just be Jewish and it’s more than enough meshuga. We don’t realize how meshuga it is. It’s connected to last week’s thing. It’s more than enough meshuga to just not eat pork. That’s meshuga enough. But you should realize that it’s meshuga. It’s not normal.

Like everyone has their dietary preferences and I have the kosher preference. No. It’s not our dietary preference to eat kosher. Okay? It’s a meshuga. The Chabadniks [Chabad Chassidim] are good at saying this, right? We don’t have… No dietary preference. It’s a meshuga.

We believe that our God came 5,000 years ago and ever to a mountain and told us: Please my dear Jews, don’t eat pork. Don’t ask me why. It doesn’t make any sense. I promise you it makes no sense. If anyone tells you that it makes sense, he’s lying.

That’s what you have to believe. And that’s more than enough to be meshuga. Now you could be friends with a goy [non-Jew]. You could do everything. It doesn’t matter. It’s not going to hurt you because you’re already totally out of it. Understand?

Or since in reality maybe it’s not enough, so everyone should find some other thing personally that works. But I think that this would be a proposal.

The Practical Problem: Visibility of Jewish Practice

Student: It’s so crazy it’s actually hard to be friends with a goy.

Instructor: Well because you’re meshuga.

Student: Even someone honest with yourself, either can be two-faced because you pretend you don’t put on tefillin [phylacteries] in the morning. That’s one option. You can’t do it. Like being the person who puts on tefillin in the morning, you just can’t say it.

Instructor: No, I think the ideal way of saying it is this: like where everyone has their weird things and they have this weird thing. We have too many. You also sit in the room and you also go out. You don’t tell them… Oh that’s a problem because it’s discrimination if only they didn’t…

Student: No, no, you can’t say it because it’s so crazy. I didn’t even know at the beginning.

Instructor: What’s crazy about davening mincha [afternoon prayer]?

Student: It’s pretty, it’s pretty…

Instructor: No, it’s, it’s, it’s… nobody does this. We have, we have, I work in a, I work in an entirely, pretty much 80% secular workplace. There’s nothing weirder than mincha. Right. That, by the way, if you want to know my… literally you see a bunch of people coming into the conference room. You think it’s weird, right?

Let’s do it this way, these people literally on their computers, 10 feet away, amud [standing], feet to zeman [time], whispering to the wall, 10 minutes, and come out like nothing happened, nothing happened.

Student: My mincha is in a frum [religiously observant] firm, the partners are frum guys, it’s much less of an aveirah [sin].

Instructor: Partners are also frum guys.

Student: No, no, no, but there’s not so many going around.

Instructor: It’s even worse. You would say if they would believe that they’re talking to God, there’s one thing, but they’re not even talking to God. They’re just talking to mincha.

Oh, by the way, if you talk to your kids, this whole thing gets lost. It’s very normal to whisper a prayer in the corner. We’re not even going slow. It doesn’t look like we’re taking it seriously at all. We’re not even going slow. Out loud everybody. Oh, quiet.

What was that?

Chapter 9: The Paradox of Frumkeit – Choosing Your Meshugaas

The Problem with Private Prayer

Instructor: You would say, if they would believe that they’re talking to God, there’s one thing, but they’re not even talking to God, they’re just davening milche [davening: praying; milche: Yiddish for “dairy,” here meaning superficially/without substance]!

By the way, see, if you daven b’yechidus [b’yechidus: in private/alone] this whole thing gets lost. It’s very normal to whisper a prayer in the corner. When you go into the Kesubah [Kesubah: likely referring to a specific prayer or section], we’re not even going slow. We’re not even—it doesn’t look like we’re taking it seriously at all. Out loud everybody! Oh, quiet.

Being Outside Society as the Root of All Evil

But today I’m speaking about this specific kind of ketanus [ketanus: smallness/narrowness] about being outside of society, which is really the root of all evil, because you remember that Shulchan [Shulchan: likely Shulchan Aruch, the Code of Jewish Law], all the maalos hamiddos [maalos hamiddos: character virtues], all the character virtues are really about creating a society that works. That’s their end. Then that society has to do something. But that’s what it’s all about.

Cutting yourself off and calling yourself off society is the worst thing you could do. You deserve death for that.

The Zionist Example: Creating Society from Scratch

Like Zionists have the fantasy of creating society. Problem with their society is it’s just a likkut [likkut: collection/gathering] of all the messed-upness that you could find in Russia and in America and in England.

The two, three guys that are really hardcore that come in that don’t care at all, right? They don’t feel the eyes looking at them and they’re doing it anyway, right? These guys have nothing to gain from it. They come in because—if you think that it’s normal. And he doesn’t understand. He looks like a freak. Me? I go every day. I know. I’ve been a freak. Yeah, too bad. I’m here. I’m whispering to the wall. You don’t like it. I don’t know. Yeah, I’m out of my mind. Yeah, it works.

They made some society, and then once they’re somewhat successful, all the leeches come and start selling soda cans in Tel Aviv. Like there was a billion soda cans selling in Tel Aviv, hocking whatever. Like, so all the racist things come to mind. It’s because like, no, we’re trying to make a good society.

Student: Yeah, yeah, no, no, I agree.

Why Zionism is Meshuga

Instructor: In other words, but the reality is, firstly just to be a Zionist is crazy. I don’t know if you know that. It still is, I think. Maybe people were reminded that it’s a bit meshuga [meshuga: crazy].

Student: Why it’s meshuga?

Instructor: I don’t know. Because the—I don’t care why it’s meshuga.

Student: No, ask it. I think it’s critical to live in America, be a Zionist. I think that’s—

Instructor: No, it’s meshuga. I’m not saying it’s outside—because there was all this work that went in to try to make it a normal idea, but never really managed to become a normal idea. Like every nation has its place, and you have to go to some Palestinians like, hello. This is weird. Nobody ever did this. It’s normal what it is.

I mean, it’s only not meshuga like the Free African State. It’s not really normal. There’s actually no successful people that actually just picked themselves up from one place and went to the other place and claiming that it’s their homeland and made a homeland there. Nobody ever did that besides for the Jews.

I’m not saying they’re wrong for doing it, I’m just saying they’re the only people that ever did that. It’s normal when it just is that way, but it’s not normal to make it be that way.

Student: Yeah, no, very good.

The Success of Forgetting Zionism

Instructor: As part of the project, that’s why there’s a Yid [Yid: Jew], I have to stop my video, but there’s a Yid that claims that the fact that people are not Zionist in Israel is the biggest success of Zionism. Because we’re just here. What do you mean, why are we here? I don’t know. My father was here. My grandfather was here. My great-grandfather—I’m not sure. I don’t know. I don’t remember anymore. But that’s it. Zeh ma yesh [Zeh ma yesh: Hebrew for “that’s what there is/that’s all there is”].

I feel just like the Palestinians—their great-grandfathers, they don’t know where they’re from. So he says he met the young people, they feel like that, many of them. Just like, he said, oh, we finally became natives. Like, ah, Mazel Tov [Mazel Tov: congratulations]. That’s whatever. That’s a different tradition.

The Problem with Total Societal Autarky

But yeah, if you want to become—yeah, but it’s true. But that’s—I don’t know, it does seem to me that, I mean, like this ideal of making your full society and take responsibility for everything also seems a little meshuga to me. I don’t think that’s the correct ideal either. You know what I’m saying? Like you can’t be autarky. You can’t have moral autarky. It’s not going to work either.

Student: Very good.

Instructor: So we’re back to this picking our poison of where we want to be meshuga. Make sense?

The Amish Paradox: More Frum, More Frei

I was reading this thing yesterday that the Amish—there’s like seven different levels, seven different levels of Amish. And the more frum [frum: religiously observant] ones are actually more frei [frei: secular/non-observant]. Very interesting. Because it’s after the modern ones that have more chumros [chumros: stringencies] about driving certain things, not driving cars, certain things. And because then a bunch of modern people came and they said, look, we can’t do this, this is crazy, everyone has to believe in God or whatever. And therefore they asked for a bunch of things. And now they’re struggling more.

Student: Like in our society, in some sense.

Instructor: Yeah, there’s a lot of kullas [kullas: leniencies] from being a chassidishe [chassidishe: Hasidic] yeshiva also. It’s not only in chumros. People don’t realize that the amount of people think that being a kat [kat: sect] is being machmir [machmir: stringent]. It’s not really, right? It lets you do more things underneath it. It lets you—yeah, exactly. You gotta pay a certain thing and—

But that’s enough. By the way, it’s also too much. A yarmulke [yarmulke: skullcap] is more than enough crazy. You have to wear a yarmulke and a hat and everything. This is just overdone. But you do have to—you understand what I’m saying? Because as long as there’s something strong enough—

The Techeles Digression: Ancestral Practice Without Reason

Where are the people that don’t wear techeles [techeles: ritual blue thread on tzitzit]? It’s not a good example, the Jewish context. Where are the people that do? You know who are the frummest people in Yiddishkeit [Yiddishkeit: Judaism/Jewish practice]? They do a chusn mol [chusn mol: unclear term, possibly related to wedding customs]. They don’t do it correctly anyways. They do a mitzvah tanz [mitzvah tanz: traditional Hasidic wedding dance], okay. Everyone knows what that is. They do a mitzvah tanz because their elders did it and they don’t know what it is. Oh, it doesn’t make sense. I don’t know, my Baba [Baba: grandmother/ancestor] did that, I’m going to do it too.

And there’s people, right, because they wear the same socks as their Baba, they also like to do the same aveiros [aveiros: sins] as their Baba. If you wear different socks, then okay, then you have to do the mitzvah.

The Satmar Paradox: Most Chumros, Most Americanized

My point is just that it’s not correct that the more things you add, the more separated you become from society. It’s not actually true in certain ways.

By the way, I’ve noticed—there’s another drasha [drasha: sermon/lecture], but many of the—I’m making a close-up of Not Satmar people—but in certain ways the Satmar people are the most Americanized people there are around. And Not Satmar people are the most Yiddish people there are around. Because Not Satmar shul in some sense is just the hamshach [hamshach: continuation] of the shul in Europe from 10,000 years ago, whatever, however many years ago. And the Yiddish shul is totally American shul.

Satmar is probably like the first one to create actual modern-style American shuls in Lakewood. Okay, go to Satmar Shul 9, the new one. You’ll see that they basically bought modern fixtures like this one for their shul.

Student: What’s going on with you?

Instructor: No modern Orthodox shul would do that. If they would do that, it would be in a messed-up, a different way. Not in the same way, not with such courage, not like with such familiarity. It’s reality.

And that is because there’s not anything else—because there’s other things making them meshuga. So everyone chooses where to be meshuga. It’s not entirely true that the more frum are less—least are less assimilated. Just everyone choosing where to be not assimilated. This dichotomy—

Student: I cover what you’re saying.

Instructor: Yeah, this dichotomy used to live in—what’s that shul by that weird massive intersection that’s a hundred streets coming into it?

Student: The old shul?

Instructor: Yeah, that. Exactly. Now there’s nobody there anymore. They modernized like one fixture and you can feel the dissonance for miles.

Student: Yeah, you could see, right?

Instructor: There’s no—it’s slim. There’s no shul in Lakewood that has like the panels on the walls still from how they used to make shuls in the olden times. Everyone is modern. We have chairs and tables that look like this.

Conclusion: The Calibrated Meshugaas

So that’s the nekudah [nekudah: point]. But kids, what I’m trying to say is that everyone should try to do meshuga, but not too much meshuga.

Student: That’s right.