Shnayim Yomi - Shemini - D'var Torah- Rabbi Yosef Palacci

[Music] Welcome everyone. Today I'd like to share with you two most fascinating stories. One personally that happened with me and the other that happened with one of the boys in the community that came specifically to our Torah center and said this story publicly. So, I'll share that one first and then I'll give you my own personal one. And that is this boy. He's about 25 years old. They're young. I should say young man should say young man. But it happened when he was a little younger. He was like 18. And a few of his boys friends, come on. Come on. Let's eat. Let's eat. They went ahead and he was pressured, but he ate non-coosha, but real real non-coosha. real tariff. After he ate it, he tells a story that Rabbi and the Kahal he says that he got something called stomach flu. I never heard it in my life, but the bottom line is he couldn't eat for two days straight. Throwing up, he couldn't. He said he tried drinking water and that that didn't even it could he couldn't hold it and and he said the reason why is because Hashem Hashem doesn't even want I couldn't be in the system. He got punished on the spot for eating non-coosher. That person is a very big warning. My I'll tell you another story. One of my relatives over here one time many years back I'm talking about 50 years ago, right? Uh she told me the story. She was in her 20s and she personally told me the story. She said, "We were going out with my friends and they they asked uh they asked me to come out with them. I went out with them. They went to this non kosher place restaurant." I said, "No, I'm not going. They take me home." "No, no, I'm not going." Says, "No, just come with us. Come with us." So, I'm not going. So, they they forced her to come. She wasn't driving. So, she sat and they put they asked, "What? What do you want? They all her friends like, "Get the chocolate hell type of some some crazy dessert." It was a chocolate I forget exactly a Danish or chocolate jello some chocolate dessert. And like, "Yeah, get it. We get it all the time. We get all the time. We get all the time." She says, "Okay, one second." She asked the waiter, "Could you find out what it's made out of?" comes back and the waitress says, "I asked the chef. It's 100% lard." No, that is fat from the pig. Like 100%. No questions asked. Fat from the pig. And all the friends were like going crazy. What? I can't believe it. What do we eat? They're going crazy. And a lot of times people ask me, "Rabbi, but it's only this. But it's only that." You never know. Make sure you look at something and it has the right the right the right that's what it is at the end of the day you have to eat kosher I said earlier it makes you want purity you have to eat kosha you are what you eat and now the final story I'm going to leave you off with and it was by the way it was a pleasure learning with you this week I really enjoyed it hopefully I come back again on the I hope so I was very honored to to be part and I hope you enjoyed as And here's the final story. Here's the final story. Pesak night, I go ahead. I'm eating by somebody's house. Before I do that, I call the hostess that's hosting everybody. I say, "Listen, you know, for the romaine lettuce, I'm always careful um to make sure that there's no bugs in in any of my green leaves, green green leafy food. There's a lot of sometimes broccoli there's a problem sometimes a festivation you don't even know broccoli you got to check and and romaine lettuce you got to check and all the leafy greens you got to check extra special to see with a light thing says do you mind if I go ahead and get my own get your own says do you mind if I get for everybody else I mean I don't know novel get whatever you want I go to the store that day and I literally wipe the shelves of a brand that's triple wash triple triple checked greenwash grown the whole nine yards like 15 you know like things like 15 kash everything that there's no problem of no there's no kash there's no hey greenhouse one of these very very religious companies I go ahead I buy it I buy it I buy like 15 bags literally 15 bags I go before I go to my the hostess and I give it this is for you she takes oh thank you very much. But there comes the sad night. True story. With me, this case happened with me. True story. That night, I'm way he's wearing bring out the raar the romaine lettuce and one of not the hostess, but one of the ladies helping out. She starts about to bring from the kitchen literally an entire tray of romaine lettuce. Literally like like a mountain. And she's bringing like this. I said, "Wait." I said, "Is that that the one that I specifically bought 15 bags? I bought a whole thing, triple checked, everything is good." And she looks at me and she says to me, "What are you worried about? Do you really think this is fresh romaine lettuce over here? Do you really think there's a bug over here? Do you really think? Come on. Stop it already. Stop it already." And she puts the tray down with the romaine lettuce. She picks one up and she says, "Look at this. Do you see any bug on this leaf right there? I can promise you there was a big fat green juicy bug right in her face. She looked at it and I'm looking at it and I'm like busted and I'm like, "What? She's going crazy. Oh my goodness, she's flipping out." She rubbed everything on the side and she went and she used all my bags that were triple checked, greenhouse grown. No, just be careful out there. Whatever you eat, just be careful. Greeny leaves, make sure make sure there's no bugs. Do the right thing. Get the right know how to how to bode check it check it correctly. This is a great lessons that we learn from this week's paras of the gash. Have a wonderful wonderful Shabbat. Shabbat shalom to everybody out there and a wonderful everybody out there that's doing which is like says like says a person that does is guaranteed long life. This is everyone should be blessed with that and only and have a great Shabbat. [Music]