Rav Itshak Cohen " ARRÊTE DE COURIR POUR LES AUTRES, PENSE À TOI «

No, idea. A very good month of blessing, of liberation from all our problems. Amen. May it be His will.

There we go. Alright, let's start our lesson. Blessed be God. Yesterday, there wasn't, yesterday was a holiday, you didn't have a class.

>> There we go. >> Today, we are here. >> I know with Olivier, you were there yesterday. Of course, you waited for there to be a class.

I wasn't there. And I know, I know, I know. Amen. May it be so.

I welcome all our friends on social media and wish you a month of, a month of, a month of Kislev, which is the month of light, the month of liberation. May He liberate the entire people of Israel, every man and woman who have, who have, who have needs in their life, may He grant their wishes. Amen. May it be His will, I wanted to, I wanted to speak today with you, ladies and gentlemen, about something that is very, very important, very important.

I ask you to listen to this Torah class because it is, it is fundamental in our life. You know that my struggle has always been, my struggle has always been, and please share this class, share this class. My struggle has always been the balance of the human being, because a religion that is in balance is beautiful. It is an obligation to have this balance .

But balance requires what we call pillars, fundamentals. We are obligated to have them. You will see, you will see where I am going with this. The Torah portion of the week, the Parashat Toldot, tells us that well, that's it, he is going to marry Rivka.

We finished last week's portion with Rivka just arriving at their home. He is going to marry Rivka, he was 40 years old. See was 40 years old. He was 40 years old when he took Rivka, the daughter of Bethuel, from Padan Aram, the sister of Lavan; we know this Lavan, we will see him soon with Yaakov at the end of the Parashat Toldot, a horror.

She was the daughter of Bethuel, an idolater. Sister of Lavan, the Torah specifies for us, the sister of Lavan. Just imagine the pedigree of the family He was 40 years old when he took that woman named Rivka, the daughter of Bethuel, the sister of Lavan. A completely, completely normal question But in last week's parsha, we already saw that when he left, he met Bethuel the father, the idolater, he met Lavan, a complete crook, a thug.

It is written in last week's parsha. Why did the Torah need to remind us of it once again in this week's parsha? Why, why? And there, the Midrash tells you: the Torah wanted to summarize all the praises that one can say about Rivka in a few words.

Here, all of Rivka's praises. What praise? The sister of Lavan, the daughter of Bethuel, is that praise? She was the daughter of a wicked man, and the sister of a wicked man, and the people of her city were wicked people, truly, she was not influenced by them.

I would like to speak to you this morning about something enormous. The Torah came to tell you, you know what? Do you know who Rivka is? Rivka is a person who lived in the most monstrous environment.

She did not learn from them. Rabbi Epstein says one thing, he asks a question. He was the mashgiach of the yeshiva, he says one thing: what, didn't Rivka have any other...weren't there any other praises to give Rivka? We know well how much kindness she had; we saw it in last week's parsha when she brought water to Eliezer and the camels You want more praise?

It is written at the end of last week's parsha that Yitzhak brought Rivka into his mother Sarah's tent, and Rashi writes: "As long as Sarah was in this house, there was a perpetual candle that stayed lit from Friday to Friday." "Also, there was a blessing on the dough. There was a cloud that protected the tent. When she died, Sarah, everything disappeared. When Rivka came back, everything returned." The Rabbi says, isn't that praise?

Isn't that praise? Rivka's deeds, isn't that praise? And you need to remind me that she is the daughter of a wicked man, a villain , the sister of a villain. Is that what you find to tell me about Rivka at the beginning of this week's parsha?

Rabbi Epstein says. It is the greatest praise. >> It is the greatest praise to live in a world of wicked people and not be like them. To live in a perverted world and not be like them.

To live in a world where there are no more human values and not to be like them. That is the greatest praise. Why? He says because the human being was created with what we call jealousy.

What we call jealousy. Jealousy, we will see, it is not it is not something negative. Jealousy equals one thing. We want to be like others.

You spend your life on Instagram, you want to be like like the the sick people on Instagram, the crazy ones on Instagram, you you become like them. We want to be like them. We call that jealousy. There was a man who predicted it and he had said this thing.

It was in he said "I have seen all of I have seen all of life. I have seen everything. I was a billionaire. I have seen all of life.

And I saw that life was based on only one thing, the jealousy that one human being has towards another. We spend our lives doing that. The other person's house, I want a house like that. The other person's car, I want one like that.

The other person's wife, I want one like that. The the the the the other person's physique, I want one like that. We spend our whole lives like that. And he says this nature we have in us, we have it in us, to resemble.

We want to resemble others Dress like them, enjoy life like them. They go on a trip to such a place, we have to go there. We have to go there. I remember, there is a lady who told me uh uh there is a lady who told me" You don't understand, my husband doesn't want to take me to Thailand.

"She told me" You don't understand that for my children, if they don't go to Thailand, they will be scarred for their whole lives not to You will be scarred for your whole life not going to Thailand. You will be scarred for your life not They all went to Thailand. They come back, they tell you "We saw the betrabad you see a better one in front there like Thailand. A better betrabad Thailand because everyone does it, you have to go, you have to go.

They went, they said it was good, you have to go." And there, he says, bar for the one of Moshe David, he says : " In truth, why did God put in us, Richa, this idea of wanting to be like others, to do as others do? It is a form of jealousy, doing as others do. Why, Olivier, why, why?" He tells you: "In truth, it came for only one thing." this this force that was put in us, it came for only one thing. Careful, Meller tells you, it is everything that synthesizes the world.

There is nothing to be done. You are sucked in, you are sucked in by the world in which you live. Sucked in, you don't even realize it, you go crazy, you are sucked in by the world you live in. I He said, it is a force that we have in us.

But in truth, this force, it came for only one thing. God put it in us for only one thing. It is to be jealous of people who chose another path, a parallel path. A parallel path of life.

There is a parallel path of life. The path of the soul. The path of the soul. The path of the neshama.

Of the neshama. You live. You are not a body. You are not a body.

You are not a body. You are a soul. When your soul is sick, your body is sick. When your soul is sick, your head is not right.

Anguish, problems, they are in the neshama. And you came into this world to take a bit of spirituality that can balance your neshama. And you went to look, you went to look for madness because because you lived in a world where you were shown that there is only madness. He says one thing, even a man, even a man who has great values, if he puts himself in an environment that is bad, there is nothing to be done.

He will be sucked in by that place. When you want him to fight, it is very hard to fight. He brings here, by the way, an extraordinary thing that the Rema, the Rema is Rav Moshe Isserles. He is the one who is, let's say, the Halachic decisor.

We had Rabbi Yosef Karo and there is the Rema, Rabbeinu Moshe Isserles, who was the decisor for the Ashkenazim. Look at what he says in one of the first halachot. Look at what he says. Velo yitbosh min ha-adam.

You must not be ashamed. You must not be ashamed of people who mock you because you have chosen a good path of Torah and mitzvot. Oh, where are you? Oh, you go to the synagogue?

Really? Oh, you study the Torah? Really? Your children, they’re religious, huh?

Really? Oh no, you’re not like us. And you’re ashamed of that? He tells you Lo Yevosh, you must not be ashamed.

Ma'am, he says if you find yourself in a place where people, where people have nothing left, their only value is Instagram. There you go. And TikTok. Two rabbis.

Instagram and TikTok. They have two rabbis. They’re there, their thumb—they’ve scrolled so much that their thumb has become this big. It’s become this big.

They said that soon thumbs will grow so much from being developed that they will reach, we’re going to, we’re going to see mutants. Mutants, I’m telling you, we’re going to see mutants. They’re already mutants. This man must not say to himself when he is in such a place: Must I be the only righteous person of the generation?

I’m ashamed. I’m ashamed to stand out from all my friends, from all my buddies who are acting crazy, hanging out at night, doing who knows what. I won't be like them. He says, above all, don't be ashamed, and you must do the will of God.

He says here one thing, the pay attention to the language of it doesn’t say you must do the will of God when you are ashamed. If you are ashamed, you are ashamed. He tells you that you must not be ashamed. I repeat, Rabbi Moshe Serlich didn't say , "You will be ashamed and your life is a disaster." He tells you, "You must not be ashamed of having chosen a good path." How is it possible to ask a human being not to be ashamed when everyone around us is all about money?

It’s only about money. It’s only gyms, it’s only the pleasures of life. It’s only the body. The body.

Nothing else. The body. The body. The body.

There’s nothing you can do. You can kill yourself trying to keep that body. Every morning, it ages by one day. Hey, it’s true, it ages.

It will age. You can do all the bodybuilding in the world. It will age. I have never seen, I have never seen a guy who worked out, who is 70 or 75 years old, looking like a young man.

It doesn't exist. There isn't, there isn't. At 75, your heart is aging too. Your liver, your kidneys, everything is aging.

What are you going to do? And there, he says one thing: For that, you have to understand one thing so as not to be ashamed. The Rama tells you that you shouldn't be ashamed to be in the Torah. You shouldn't be ashamed to educate your children in the Torah.

You shouldn't be ashamed to take your children to learn the parsha at the Beit Midrash. You shouldn't be ashamed that you live in a place where there are normal people and you say, "Well, I'm leaving you." Oh really? You're leaving to go live where? In such and such a place because there is a Rabbi.

Well. Well, if you want. Don't be ashamed of that. He tells you why you shouldn't be ashamed.

He brings here a teaching from Rav David of Brisk who said: "Lama hadomei." You don't know , when I tell you these words, how much I think it's true. He says it's like one thing. You want to know why you shouldn't be ashamed? But I'm even ashamed about the Rabbi.

I'm ashamed, you know. I made, I made my friends from the jet set. I'm ashamed. How do I change today?

And it's like a person who one night cannot sleep. Olivier, he goes to the window. Look at the story he tells. Hey, it's not a real story.

It's so you can understand things At 2 a.m., he sees two people running down the street. He hears some noise. He doesn't know what is going on. He sees those two people grab a big bag and throw it into a large trash can.

You know those huge trash cans they had back then. They throw the bag, and behind them comes the police running after them. He understood that those two people got rid of that bag. Everyone runs, they leave, there is no one left on the street.

He goes down in the morning, 6 a.m. Ah, he is troubled. What did they throw in there, eh Olivier? You want to know what they threw in the trash can?

He opens the trash, a shock. He sees 500-euro bills stuck to the side of the trash can by the dozens. He dives inside, he starts picking them up. 7:00 a.m., people walk by, they see him inside the trash can.

What do the people say? Poor Simon, what is he doing in a trash can? The horror, the smell, the smell. And him, what does he do?

He keeps on picking them up. He picks up, he picks up, he picks up, he picks up, he picks He's picking up dirty bills. He says, " I'll wash them, I'll clean them, it's not a problem." He keeps picking them up and picking them up. And the people passing by say, "The poor man, what a situation!

He's in the trash can." Oh! Oh! Simon, for € 500 bills in a trash can, and people pass by, they see you, are you ashamed? What do I care?

As long as they leave me alone, don't come near the trash can, and let me pick up all the bills. Do we agree or not? Rabbi David de Brisque says, it's you, you understand. Rabbi David de Brisque says one thing.

He says that we didn't understand, we didn't realize that for our life in this world, those bills, those bills, we had to have them at any cost. These values of life, we had to have them at any cost. You have to fight to get them. Even if it means changing locations?

Even if it means changing friends? Even if it means changing. Even if it means what people will say about you. Even if it means what people will say about you.

But, but, but who is that guy ? And that's that guy. I always make a habit of saying it. I always make a habit of saying it.

When we're 50 or 60 , we'll take stock of our lives. We'll take stock of how we raised our children. We'll take stock of everything We'll take stock of our balance. We'll take stock of our relationship.

We'll take stock of everything. Yeah. Yeah. But you know what?

When I was young, I was like a sheep, I walked behind the others. I wanted to do like the others. And besides, I was ashamed not to do like the others, even though there were bills right in front of me. Maybe you just had to get into a trash can.

It doesn't smell very good. It's not the, it's not the place. It's not the best place for you. You would have preferred somewhere else But you, you don't know.

But you, you don't know that picking up the bills is the most important thing. Except, except you know what? We are jealous. We are jealous.

We are jealous of others. Jealousy has taken our lives. We want to be like others. We want to resemble others.

We want to resemble others. Olivier, the others, they don't know that in the trash, there are bills. No one will go into the trash. It's just you, and you know even better than that, when you see them pass by, leaving you alone, you say good riddance , let them leave me alone while I pick up my bills.

I don't need anyone. I don't need anyone. I have to collect the whole stack. It's it's scattered in the trash, in the filth.

I pick up, I pick up, I pick up, I pick up my life, I pick up my children, I pick up my relationship, I pick up my wife, I pick up my husband, I pick up, I pick up everything. Bravo. But jealousy, jealousy, Rabbi Amir Cohen , I'll let you appreciate a few words. Rabbi Amir Cohen says jealousy is one of the great strengths.

Jealousy, jealousy isn't just he is jealous, he is jealous . Jealousy is normal, it is one of the great strengths of a human being. The other person has it, the other person has it, I must have it. Or Rabbeinu.

He says one thing, the only problem is that jealousy has never led you to build your life. On the contrary, all the time , you are in pain. What do people say about you? What do people think of you?

Why do others have better than you? Why do they have more than you? He brings up here a thing that is fundamental. It is a jealousy, it is a nature that is found in us, in a human being.

He says for example, I am going to get to a very important idea. He says for example, among angels there is no jealousy. Why among angels is there no jealousy? Why?

Besides, we know that Moses our teacher , when he went to get the Torah, the angels said to him, "Why are you going to take the Torah?" He told them, "The Torah was made for men. It is written in the Torah, do not be jealous, while you do not have jealousy. So it is not made for you." He says one thing because an angel already knows, unfortunately, he knows, he knows his purpose for which he came into this world. Each angel has a purpose.

So no one is jealous of the other. Do you know why? Because each one is so focused on his purpose that he knows he must fulfill his purpose. I'm going to explain one thing to you.

Someone who is a fighter jet pilot and there is another who is a tank driver. Is the tank driver going to be jealous of the fighter pilot? They are not in the same universe. They are not in the same universe.

Each one has his own job. He tells you the angels know their job. Why they were created? They know their mission.

They don't look at the other's mission. He doesn't look at why the other has more money than them. And you will see where I am going with this. He says instead of us taking this jealousy.

The Rabbi says. He says it like this, when it is for spiritual values that caused you jealousy. There, it is positive. It is positive.

You want to be like the other person. You saw the other's marriage, they worked on it. You saw the other's children, you saw all that. To be jealous of that, it is very important.

But when you take your jealousy for material things, it will never bring you , never bring you happiness in life. Do you know why? Because God gives to every human being "o machon lefill." These are the words of the God will give you in your life what you need to fulfill your own mission for which you came into this world. He won't give you more, he won't give you less, but he won't give you what the other has.

Because what the other has is what he needs to fulfill his own mission. Ah, I thought it was a question of God's blessing that I have a lot of money or not much money. No, no, he tells you that has nothing to do with it. There are total idiots who have a lot of money .

There are "hamarim"(donkeys) who do nothing. Lounging around all day, they have money. There are others who kill themselves working and earn minimum wage. It has nothing to do with it.

There are people whose "mazal," what we call the "mazal," their path, their journey must be done through poverty. Which means that it is his best situation to fulfill it. You see, you are getting into something else. We are entering into something else, something much higher.

Why did I come into this world? The real question: why did we come into this world? There, ask yourself a real question. There, get up one fine morning.

What am I doing here? I don't know, I came because my parents , they brought me, they brought me into the world. No, if you weren't meant to come, if your neshama wasn't meant to come, your parents wouldn't have brought you into the world. Why?

When I say why you came into the world, Olivier, it's not you. Who is it ? It's your soul. Why did it come?

The neshama, you know the neshama. When our father's neshama departed, how do we pray? How much do we remain connected to that neshama? How much do we think of him?

We think of our father's neshama. It is the neshama. It is not the body. The body, itself, is in the cemetery.

It's not the body, it's the soul. Every year, we hold the ascara Everything we do, we do l'ilui nishmato for the elevation of his soul. So your soul came. Why?

Ask yourself the real question. I don't know, I'm just here, I had children, I struggled, I worked my whole I reach 70, 80 years old, I'm an old man , they toss me to the side in a chair and my life is over. That's it. Well, I'm asking a real question.

That's it. That's it. It says in the Zohar, every human being came into this world to fulfill their mission. By the way, you will notice that our children don't resemble each other.

Why don't they resemble each other? Why? Why are you not like your sister? Why are you not like your brother?

Why? Why do you look like my mother-in-law, my father-in-law? No, no, you look at a child. Me, I look at children in wonder.

I mean, wanting to know what mission they have. What mission will they fulfill? We came to fulfill a mission. Come on.

The truth is, I don't know. I don't know what it is; I hope I will fulfill my mission. You have to hope to fulfill your mission. And there, he tells you one thing and he says the Zohar.

That is why We will have trials and we will have qualities, we will have flaws, we will have shortcomings, we will have deficiencies, we will have extraordinary things, but all of this will be in accordance with the mission for which we came into this world. It is necessary to pray and ask God to guide us toward our mission. I don't know who guides us. On the other hand, the first thing is that jealousy will do one thing, it will take you away from your mission because jealousy is wanting to be like others.

So there, it will take you away from I repeat, this jealousy was meant for one thing, for you to be spiritually jealous of people who have succeeded spiritually. Do you know what that means , spiritually? They have raised normal children. They have a more or less normal married They have a more or less normal Sabbath at home.

The house he returns to in the evening is more or less normal. Ah, the Shabbat is more or less normal. The holidays are more or less normal. He has managed to stabilize a family.

He has managed to understand that a house is not just for sleeping and eating, but that a house is a place where I must take care of the generation to come, that is to say, my children, not just feed them. He is—this morning at 7 a.m., one came out of the elevator, 12 or 13 years old , obese, with a poodle in his hand, at 7 a.m. to take the poodle to pee. That little 13-year-old who is obese like that, he is sick.

He is sick. His soul is sick. That, you must know. His soul is sick.

You aren't obese by accident. It is the soul that is sick. Do you see how he was? 13 years old.

He goes out with the poodle. You are at the end of your rope. You say, if this is what humanity is today. This is what humanity is.

The poor things, the poor things. Really, the poor things. It's not that I'm criticizing them, the poor things. This is what humanity is today.

And we have been jealous all our lives of what? Of others, of this, of that, of what they did, I don't care. Do you not care? Accomplish your mission.

Take care of your children. Give them the tools. Give them the utensils so that they too understand that material things are not life. Material things are not life.

I have this memory from when I was young , I was studying in Marseille, there was a very rich man who passed away and his children took what was in the house. This house was so big that they rented it to us, we were supposed to run the yeshiva. We entered the house and we were young, and they told us, "Come on, we’re going to clear everything out, we’re throwing it in the trash." And I saw black and white photo albums of this gentleman who passed away, with his wife on boats and all sorts of things. So, there are some who will tell you, " Oh well, he enjoyed life." Enjoyed life just to die?

I didn't see the point. He did some extraordinary things in his life. He did good. Surely this gentleman did good.

That stayed. Spiritual things remain. Material things disappear. What are you doing?

What is this? What is this life? What is this life? We took everything, we threw everything in the trash, all the photos, everything.

That was it, I think his son didn't even want to keep any of it. His children didn't even want to keep it. They took his money from the bank. They took it and said goodbye.

Alright, next. That’s the life of a man. Even the photo albums didn't remain. That’s the life of a man.

Is that what we're fighting for? And we’re going to die because we have less money than before? We’re going to die because we don’t earn much money? We’re going to die because we’re not like the others?

At some point, ask yourself the real question. How are you going to continue your life? Until 60 or 70 years old, will you continue to be a money producer to have a certain standard of living for you and your children? And your children will do the same thing.

They will fight like dogs to feed their children at such a high standard of living. And that was life. You came into this world to feed children. You came into this world to...

I am ashamed to say these words. You came into this world to be a breeder , bring children into the world, and feed them. Tell me, are we dogs? And you, and you, and yourself?

And yourself? When is it? When is the moment that you take care of your soul? When is the moment you start doing your mission?

And I was jealous, I couldn't. I kept you busy. I was busy with the move. The move, do you know the move?

Walking according to the move on Instagram. Some sicko tomorrow morning will invent a new trend. We want it. We want it because it's Instagram, it's TikTok.

The Chinese, the Chinese, the Chinese, they restricted TikTok for kids to the bare minimum for school. There's nothing , they don't have TikTok. Take someone, take someone today at the synagogue who doesn't pull out their phone. But we can't, we need to be aware of what's happening because when you're aware, you get jealous.

It's a force that is within you. Become aware of other things. Become aware of other things. Become aware of beautiful things.

Become aware that, Baruch Hashem, your friend married off his daughter. He married her to a good boy who studies Torah in a yeshiva. Be jealous of that. No no no no no no.

I don't have time. I don't have time. I was a provider. I ate , I fed my whole family.

My children must also eat and feed their family like that and perpetuate these eaters, these loafers. There you go. That's life. That's life.

There is one who showed us the, there is one who showed us the most beautiful thing in the world. Do you know who it is that showed us the Torah? It tells you Rivka, Yitzchak married Rivka. Start of this week's Parashah.

The daughter of Bethuel, the idolater, the sister of Laban, the idolater, the crook, the thug, and she is a flower. How do you do that? Either, either, look, it's simple in life. Either you only look at others, you look at others, you look at your brother-in-law, your sister-in-law, you look, you look, you look, you look, you look at others, the friends, the neighbors, the things, the community, the people.

Or you look at yourself. I am very certain that if she looked at others, she would have said, "I have to do like the others, my faith, can't do otherwise." Do you know what she did? She said to herself, "Me, what am I doing with my life? Me, what am I doing with my life?" Well, look at what happens next.

She is going to marry Isaac. She is going to become the mother of the people of Israel. Do you realize what her chances of survival in that environment were? Zero!

Once again, let's just take our jealousy one fine morning and focus it on something else. I want to change. I want to change. I want to study.

I want to learn. I want to be jealous of spirituality, not material things. I'm fed up with material things. How long will I be jealous of material things?

It will kill me, because, what's more, is that when you have some, when you reach one stage , you want the next. And the worst part is that if your friends reach the same stage as you because you succeeded, you're sick that they have it too. It's even worse. It's another form, it's pathological.

It's a pathological form of jealousy. I can't stand that others have things. I bought the latest Porsche, he went and bought the latest Porsche. Do you understand?

I can't ever be, I can't be more than him for once. That's life. That's life. Can I tell you something?

You, you come back. You come back. >> And I'll tell you the best part, you have a wife who will admire you like she has never admired you in your life. Because let me tell you, our wives admire us.

They admire us when they see good character traits. Ah, they love that. When they see principles, ah, they are in awe. When they see a man starting to get a little bit into religion, they revere him.

They revere him, they respect him. They respect him. It's in the, it's in the human nature of a woman, that. You have to know that.

And when a woman sees a husband who's a zero, nothing. She doesn't even have respect for him anymore. She doesn't even look at him. Over there, way, way, way over there.

You have your mission. You are the best in the world. The, the, the lowest can become Rabbi Akiva. Why?

Why do you do that? Why? Why are you going to stay in this state? You get fed up at some point .

Get out, get out. Do you want me to tell you the worst part? And I'll finish with these words: when you reach 60 like me, you'll see that you'll have almost no friends left. You know, the high-society friends, the high society you used to have.

You have your family, you'll have your children, your grandchildren, you'll already be tired. You'll you'll enjoy your you'll enjoy what you have you have built. You've built something, what else do you want? Alright, I wish you a beautiful day.

Share it, share this lesson with me. >> Share this lesson with me, I beg you.