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The Yanuka’s own words in this shiur, translated into English by Lehallel · 3,165 words · 16:47. Press a time to hear it said.
0:01 I did not wait two years like all the candidates for conversion. - Basically, what he is saying about conversion — you know, that whoever goes to convert, those who want to convert, anyone who wishes to convert, they convert him; he needs to convert before a beis din, before three. Which tractate is this? Torah scholars? Tractate Yevamos. Which page? 47a.
0:32 Right, 47a: Rabbi Reuven with Rabbi Yehudah, that Rabbi Yehudah says that if a convert comes to convert, he converts before a beis din, and they convert him. If he now comes to a beis din — in the name of Rabbi Yehudah — "and you shall judge righteously", so the Gemara says. He converts before a beis din, and they accept his conversion, and after that he immerses.
0:56 He converts before three. In Tractate Kiddushin, on page 62b, there the Gemara counts, it speaks about the conversion they carry out, that Tosafos say, Yes, regarding immersion, regarding immersion, that he needs to accept the mitzvos with full force, to keep all the mitzvos, and then in practice they accept his conversion.
1:29 He does it before a beis din, he carries it out before three, he declares it before them and they accept him, he goes and immerses. And there Tosafos say that it can also be done that one is enough for the immersion, that he can even with one, if he now goes to immerse after that; three are not needed for the immersion as well. This makes a practical difference if, for example, he was before one and accepted the mitzvos upon himself: then for the immersion he will need three, you understand?
1:56 Now, whoever converted goes before three, takes on the mitzvos; so if the mitzvos were with three, here in the beis din, then the immersion is with one. For the immersion, three — yes. And when he accepts the binding acceptance of the mitzvos, then he is one of ours. Blessed is Hashem that they accept him. It is unbelievable, these are open miracles. I know many converts, and every story is an open miracle.
2:35 It is unbelievable that he would leave everything. There are converts in South Africa whose families cut them off. The converts are very great souls; they are very lofty souls. And therefore we also see that Maran the Chida writes: "a convert who converted" — this implies that he was already a convert from long before.
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2:59 A convert "who converted". You see that there are very great souls in them, that they are souls that were cast away, that go through reincarnations, and in the end kings come out of them... they merit very great levels — Rabbi Akiva... But what actually happens is that in the end they reveal a light in the Torah that was hidden, and they merited to reveal it, like Onkelos the convert, that in practice we need to read the verse twice and the Targum once.
3:32 In siman 285 in the Shulchan Aruch it is ruled that one needs to read it, because of Onkelos the convert. You see from here that in the end they return to Hashem and reveal... Who knows what will come out of it; it is a great thing. So maybe one needs to teach all the non-Jews, to teach them the seven mitzvos of the children of Noach, and they will learn the Torah and return... - Rav, there is a technical problem with the Jewish people.
3:58 In Brazil, twenty million non-Jews want to convert. The State of Israel is not interested in these things. I turned to you for this, because thousands of people turn to me. - Look, usually today — what we learned in Yevamos, on page 24, that the Gemara says that they convert for the sake of marriage — so that is a problem.
4:24 Only the Ran and the Ritva are lenient about this, that one can be lenient after the fact, but in halachah it is a problem, because the majority of those who want to convert, it is only for the sake of marriage. No, the majority — I am not talking now about everyone, but you see now that a person suddenly goes and finds a woman, or a woman who finds a Jew, so she wants, for his sake, to come and be of his people... - Rav, we are talking about ten, twenty years that they search for Judaism.
4:50 So these are great souls... But there are hundreds and thousands; I turned to the Rav about this, because the State of Israel is not interested in converts. I said, maybe we will make a beis din and save the situation. Rav, it is millions — it is not a hundred, not a thousand. It is not simple to convert. And what did you do with them? - Very great souls.
5:31 But basically, you should know: all these converts who in the end come and truly return to Hashem, to holiness — very awesome powers and strengths are revealed in them, and they have a very, very, very great closeness to Hashem, because it is a great test and great self-sacrifice, and they have much reward.
6:02 - We are talking about people who are millionaires, rich people, thousands. He said, like, he said, like, he was thinking in general, like, and needy people, he is talking about that. When we talked about the dog, When we talked about the dog in the picture, we said, ah, it's like this, bring it. Why in the news [unclear]? What is it? Why in the news [unclear]?
6:26 What is [unclear]? Why in the news? I don't understand. - Ah, "be fruitful and multiply" — excuse me, I understand. "Be fruitful and multiply" is that one can learn the Torah in a way that a person receives even a small thing, and it can give birth to much for him.
6:53 This is called being fruitful and multiplying in Torah: that the Torah is fruitful and multiplies with him — new insights, or understanding of everything. Torah that a person learns in holiness, as it is written, "And Hashem said to Moshe: Write this in the book, and put it in the ears of Yehoshua." We see from here the proof and the source for this, that one needs to go and hear from the mouths of the wise: "Write this in the book, and put it in the EARS of Yehoshua" — that one also needs to hear from the mouths of the wise.
7:17 The Torah that a person receives from the mouths of the wise, from the mouths of tzaddikim — that is a Torah of being fruitful and multiplying, that it is fruitful and multiplies. When you learn alone, then the Torah — what you grasp, you grasp. But Torah that is said from the mouths of the wise and tzaddikim is Torah that is fruitful and multiplies, that you receive it, and it can give birth, in a person's mind, in his understanding, to much wisdom, holiness, Torah, purity, fear of Heaven, blessings; and this Torah also goes on dividing and multiplying.
7:47 It may be that after some years there are orchards and plantations and gardens in his understanding, and this will be only from one seed that a true tzaddik planted in him. So this is called a Torah of being fruitful and multiplying. So therefore, when Rabbi Shimon received from Rabbi Akiva — what did he receive from him? The secret of the crowns of the letters. So these secrets of the crowns of the letters were in being fruitful and multiplying; it was only from one moment that he receives... So this was all the being fruitful and multiplying.
8:11 So may it be His will that we merit this, and that we all merit being fruitful and multiplying, amen, that Torah increase in the Jewish people, that everyone have good blessings flowing to them, that you have a good life, amen. Fortunate are you, Torah scholars. I very much enjoyed being with you, hearing you, seeing you. Continue to make the Torah great. There was, this week — there were earthquakes shaking the world.
8:35 What does the world need to learn from this? What does Hashem want from us? First of all, we know: "He looks at the earth and it trembles; He touches the mountains and they smoke." When the Holy One, blessed be He, looks at the world, it is a sign that there is something that has already filled the measure. It may be that people are doing severe things; it may be that there are bad things being done in the world, and the Holy One, blessed be He, shakes the world, because people think that this whole world is theirs, and they do whatever comes into their minds.
9:06 And then the Holy One, blessed be He, shakes the world in His way. This trembling causes fear and dread, so that people understand that the Holy One, blessed be He — He did, does and will do all the deeds, and fear and dread and trembling and terror fall upon them, and through this they fear, and they lift their eyes to Heaven. But the Holy One, blessed be He, hints to the world, hints to everyone that they should begin to fear Him, to be afraid of Him, and to lift their eyes to Heaven, and to remember that He did, does and will do all the deeds.
9:36 As we see in the Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim, siman 227, it is written what is brought in Tractate Berachos, on page 49, where the Gemara says: on comets, tremors, winds, thunder, earthquakes — on all these things we say the blessing "Who does the work of Creation". And what is "Who does the work of Creation"? That His strength and His might fill the world. Why? Because when we see it, the Holy One, blessed be He, shows everyone: "I am the Master of the palace.
10:00 I rule over the world. If you think that it is you, then you are mistaken, because I can do — everything you built for a hundred years, in one light moment I crumble it all." Then fear falls upon them. But the moment one sees such a dread of judgment that the Holy One, blessed be He, carries out, then the created beings need to understand that the Holy One, blessed be He, is looking, and He wants a change of deeds. We must change our deeds.
10:26 We know what to do, but the non-Jews need to know what to do. The non-Jews need to do teshuvah. The non-Jews need to do teshuvah. The non-Jews need to keep the seven mitzvos of the children of Noach; it is upon them to keep them. And this is the message for them, for the non-Jews: that the Holy One, blessed be He, does such a thing in the world — He hints to the non-Jews that they need to keep the seven mitzvos of the children of Noach and to return to Him, blessed be He.
10:54 The time has come for them to stop doing whatever comes into their minds, and they need to keep the seven mitzvos of the children of Noach. And only through their keeping the seven mitzvos of the children of Noach, and this spreading among them, then they will have protection from Heaven. And if they truly merit to keep them — not because it is written and it seems right to them according to religion, but one needs to keep it because it is the Torah, ours, which the Holy One, blessed be He, commanded through Moshe Rabbeinu — then they merit to also be people of the World to Come.
11:22 And so the Rambam writes in Hilchos Melachim, chapter 8. When they keep mitzvos, when they will keep the seven mitzvos of the children of Noach, through this they will return to Him, blessed be He. And these, at least, are the mitzvos they need to keep. They need to do teshuvah for this: they do not keep, they do not even observe the seven mitzvos of the children of Noach; they do whatever comes into their minds, and they live in the world and they have no justice and no righteousness at all, and through this you see everything that is happening.
11:50 In Tractate Sanhedrin, on page 56a, the Gemara there counts the seven mitzvos of the children of Noach: "Our Rabbis taught: the children of Noach were commanded seven mitzvos." The first is idol worship — that they are forbidden to worship idols, and they worship idols: a statue and a stone, wood and stones, and all these things they worship, and this causes burning anger in Heaven, and the Holy One, blessed be He, is angry about it. In all the generations, never — no one betrayed the Holy One, blessed be He.
12:16 The non-Jews and the nations of the world also knew that the great G-d in Heaven is One. No one looked for wood and stones to worship them; everyone knew that He is the Master of heaven and earth. Even the sun and the moon — everyone knew that they are the servants and attendants who work for the Holy One, blessed be He. But the Holy One, blessed be He, cannot be grasped at all; we need to serve Hashem. And because they act against the will of Hashem, and they worship idols — and they have upon them "blessing Hashem", a curse, said the opposite way — they have "You shall not murder", that they are forbidden to murder one another, and they increase murder in the world.
12:52 There are terrible murders among them, and atrocities — they murder one another. They do not care about it; they transgress this G-dly command of "You shall not murder". And their adultery — they are forbidden to have forbidden relations: they are forbidden to be with a sister, or with a married woman, which is forbidden to them, or lying with a male, or with an animal. All these sins are sins that are common among them; they do it and they do not guard against it, and they transgress it, this prohibition.
13:20 And therefore these things are severe, this prohibition of forbidden relations that they do. They have the prohibition of a limb from a living animal. A limb from a living animal is also something common among the nations of the world, that they eat foods like this: they take a monkey while it is still alive, and they eat it alive, the monkey. There are those who eat such things while they are alive.
13:47 These things are forbidden things, for we are forbidden to eat a limb from a living animal. You know that education, So it was ruled in Yoreh De'ah, in siman 62, about the prohibition of a limb from a living animal, what they learned in Tractate Chullin, on page 101. There the Gemara teaches about the prohibition of eating a limb from a living animal. The Chinuch, in mitzvah 452, teaches the reason for the prohibition of eating a limb from a living animal. He says: so that there will be no cruelty in our souls, so that we do not come to cruelty, and we will not want to do criminal and cruel deeds.
14:15 And this, to our sorrow, the nations of the world do not know, and they eat a limb from a living animal; they eat like this. These things are severe, and they need to be careful about it, and they are not careful about it, and they do not know these seven mitzvos. And they also need to beware of robbery, and this too is something common among them; and also to set up judges and a justice system for themselves, and a court that will judge and rule on everyone for all the seven mitzvos of the children of Noach.
14:42 According to the Rambam, they need to enforce all the six mitzvos we learned; according to the Ramban, in practice it is to set up justice that will judge them for robbery and damages and all these things. And if they do not have this, they are not keeping the seven mitzvos of the children of Noach, and they need to be careful about this. And when the Holy One, blessed be He, sees that the nations of the world do not guard the seven mitzvos of the children of Noach, then "smoke went up from His nostrils, and fire from His mouth devoured".
15:07 The Holy One, blessed be He, is very angry about this, and brings fury and wrath into the world. And therefore one needs to teach all the nations of the world today the seven mitzvos of the children of Noach, so that they know to beware of this: to beware of robbery, to beware of a limb from a living animal, and to beware of adultery, to stop going with a married woman, to stop the bloodshed, to stop the murder, to stop all these things.
15:33 And then the Holy One, blessed be He, will remove the burning anger from the world. And all these things are severe and forbidden things that they transgress, and they do whatever comes into their minds, and the Holy One, blessed be He, strikes from Heaven for this thing, and all these things — that you see disasters in the world. True, we have the Torah, and the Holy One, blessed be He, gave it to us, but they too need to take upon themselves the seven mitzvos of the children of Noach.
15:59 And you know that if there were a beis din today — what the Rambam says in Hilchos Melachim, chapter 8 — what I am not saying; whoever knows, knows. But this is what one needs to know, and this is what one needs to do and keep. And if, with Hashem's help, they do this, then there will be no earthquakes, and everything will be all right, and everything will be calm. And this everyone needs to keep, all the nations of the world, all of them: to keep the seven mitzvos of the children of Noach. And may it be His will that we merit the complete geulah, that the Holy One, blessed be He, redeem us with a complete geulah, and reign, and that the created beings give satisfaction to Hashem, blessed be He, and that they respect one another and keep the seven mitzvos.
16:34 And if they keep the seven mitzvos, they are people of the World to Come. This is what they need to keep, and we need to keep our mitzvos. May it be His will that the Holy One, blessed be He, grant us the complete geulah, speedily in our days, amen and amen.
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