אִם יִרְצֶה הַשֵּׁם
An unscripted interview of Rav Yosef Mizrachi chlita with Rav Avishai Avrahami chlita
They come like Bilaam to curse, and amazingly, a blessing comes out of it.
In a free-flowing conversation (no prepared questions), Rav Mizrachi chlita describes what has happened in the last year in America: famous antisemites with tens of millions of followers clipping his English derashot, a surge of Jewish and non-Jewish listeners, and a hard mussar call for Elul: fear of Heaven, control of the self, hakarat hatov, and more Torah before the world forces every Jew to choose a side.
From a Friday Zohar Shiur to a Revolution in America
Rav Avrahami chlita opens with how he met the Rav. About fourteen years ago, while doing chizuk in Tel Aviv and Herzliya, a young man who partied all night began coming to Friday shiur. The host was teaching Zohar ("chemotherapy," he joked). After one shiur the bachur said he had never heard such things and wanted to keep Shabbat. Then he returned to the United States. The host thought the story was over.
Months later the young man was stronger than before. His explanation: there is a rabbi, Yosef Mizrachi chlita, who speaks much harder. "My soul desired Torah." The host later merited to marry him off; the young man made aliyah. That is how many in Eretz Yisrael still barely know the scale of Rav Mizrachi chlita's work, while about 90% of his activity is in English.
Post-October 7, and the Last Year's Breakthrough
Rav Mizrachi chlita has been speaking for 32 years. Since October 7 the mode is much stronger. In the last three years, he says, the world "changed phase": broken, despairing people conclude ein od milvado; secular seekers see the falsehood of politicians who promise and never deliver; emails of life-change rose.
But all of that, he says, is "as nothing" compared with the last year in the United States. Famous hosts began cutting clips from his derashot: Tucker Carlson, Nick Fuentes, and others with millions of followers. Antisemites and Israel-haters. They came like Bilaam to curse; out of it came blessing.
- Daily messages jumped from roughly 500 to about 1,500.
- Videos that once reached hundreds of thousands now reach two to three million views.
- A Muslim influencer who calls himself Sneako confronted him; young Muslims worldwide began writing support: "You opened our eyes; now we understand what Torah and Judaism are."
His primary mission remains Jewish kiruv. If along the way millions of non-Jews move toward the seven Noahide mitzvot and become lovers of Israel, "what did we lose? A very nice bonus."
Jews who were cut off from Judaism, who never heard anything, suddenly grasp through entertainment platforms that there is a Creator, Torah, a World to Come, judgment and a Judge.
Two Audiences, and a Sinking Ship
Today there are two kinds of listeners:
- Someone not broken: speak to the intellect. Prove that the Torah is truth. This life is preparation for eternity; invest for the future.
- Most people now: confused and shattered by war, Iran, and economic pressure. They need emunah, chizuk, hope, and a clear explanation of the prohibitions. People tell him it is better than paying hundreds of dollars an hour to a psychologist. His "psychology of the brain" series, listeners say, cut anxiety attacks, night sweats, and stress.
At a Shabbat table he sees nine out of ten who cannot sit ten or fifteen minutes: stand, leave, return. Cannabis, he insists, is a drug in every respect: it destroys concentration and balance, swings from "nirvana" to rage at parents and bosses, wrecks the ability to marry and run a family.
The ship is sinking. There are thousands on it. The question is how many we can get into lifeboats.
Drugs, Control, and Emptiness
Rav Avrahami chlita describes a severe drug epidemic in Israel: Captagon-like pills under street names, including among people who call themselves religious.
Rav Mizrachi chlita's answer is sharp. If a Jew under alcohol or drugs kills another Jew, the Sanhedrin still puts him to death. The crime is putting yourself beyond control. A person who fears HKBH is never without control for a single minute. Know your limits even with wine. The root of the epidemic is emptiness: people want to enjoy the moment (food, sex, drugs) because they were never taught that this world prepares for eternity.
"When we get to the bridge we'll cross it" means you are already drowning. In America hundreds of thousands die yearly from drugs; synthetics like fentanyl are lethal.
Many who call themselves "religious," he says, are far from it, including those who effectively worship a deceased rebbe instead of Hashem. Even inside the frum world, ignorance of basics can be terrible: a bachur who knows Shulchan Aruch and a few sugyot may not know the Thirteen Principles, the Prophets, or what Chazal say about the End of Days.
Soft Kiruv That Erases Din, and Why Yirah Comes First
He attacks approaches (he does not name organizations) that tell every Jew not to worry: Hashem loves the wicked exactly as He loves the righteous; there is no real punishment; everyone is already fine. That, he says, falsifies one of the Thirteen Principles (that HKBH rewards the righteous and punishes the wicked) and contradicts the daily blessing against the wicked, which asks three times in one beracha that it happen meheirah.
Preference is always teshuvah first. Many of today's tzaddikim were once public sinners. But if someone will not return, Chazal's prayer stands. Soft messaging that "cools down" people whom hard mussar just woke up is, in his view, destruction.
Love of Hashem appears in the Torah about nine times; fear about eighteen. Since Creation, Hashem has "nothing but the four cubits of fear of Heaven."
Love Without Dread: the Air Force Story
In 1986, drafted to Air Force technical school, Rav Mizrachi chlita bonded with his squad commander. No chores; air conditioning; Shabbat food from home. The first time the commander needed a real task done, Rav Mizrachi chlita performed it half-heartedly. The commander: "You disappointed me badly."
Years later he sees the Torah in that moment. You can love Hashem, feel gratitude, even die rather than bow to an idol, and still sin casually, saying "It'll be fine, He loves me." There was no dread. Soft teachers who promise Gan Eden next to the Rambam and the Vilna Gaon produce slapdash religion: drugs slapdash, Shabbat slapdash, dress slapdash.
The Chofetz Chaim, about a hundred years ago, gathered darshanim for one message: return to reward and punishment, Gan Eden and Gehinnom, the core of Sefer Devarim. Nobody changes until he believes he will pay a heavy price. Singapore's welcome note threatens death for drugs and produces near-zero crime. Dread works because that is Hashem's method, not a personal invention.
Free Torah, Hard Mussar, and Collateral Damage
Rav Mizrachi chlita does not take money for lectures. Moshe and Shmuel opened their life-speeches by saying they took nothing from the people; therefore they may give mussar. The moment you are paid by the audience, you risk becoming a laborer installing cables: you lose full power to influence.
He does not condemn darshanim who need parnassah. He and those who have other income simply have more freedom. A popular soft darshan: a girl listened every day for three years and took on only Shabbat candles. Rav Mizrachi chlita: he would retire ("the peak of bankruptcies"). There is no time to stroke people for years. Cut into the flesh.
Complainers are the midbar murmurers. "The dogs bark and the caravan moves on." In English: collateral damage.
A rabbi that everyone loves is certainly a bluff. A rabbi that everyone hates is also a bluff. A rabbi that some love and some hate, and who has results, there is a chance he is the truth.
The Rambam writes (introduction to the Mishnah): to bring one Jew out of a maze, speak the truth even if ten thousand fools scream and leave. The job is to sow seeds. Show the sources (Torah, Rambam, Shulchan Aruch), including the severity of public Shabbat desecration. Walkouts and cries of "extremist" often mark the people whose hearts are burning and who change first.
Spontaneous Words for the Local Disease
Neither host nor guest prepared talking points. Rav Nissim Peretz zt"l (student of Rav Sharabi) taught: a fully prepared derasha lacks siyata dishmaya; Hashem puts in the mouth of an ish emet what the listeners need. Decades ago Rav Mordechai Neugroschel told a young Rav Mizrachi chlita he would succeed because he was not a "cassette darshan."
Whatever an organizer begs you not to mention, that is usually the disease of the place. Working for the organizer is a business. Working for HKBH means saving souls. Chazal say: hate those who praise you with hollow compliments; love those who rebuke.
The Status Flip of Teshuvah
Rambam, Hilchot Teshuvah 7:6: yesterday, hated, detested, distant, an abomination; today, beloved, desirable, close, a friend (yedid). Rabbeinu Yonah adds: even one who has only taken his stand on the road of teshuvah already changes status in Heaven.
A secular person driving toward Be'er Sheva when the destination is Haifa gets farther every minute. One or two derashot can make a U-turn. He may still be in the "minus," but he is heading the right way. A person who accepts Shabbat on Thursday afternoon at a seminar and dies that night is judged as one who took Shabbat upon himself.
Calling the unrepentant "beloved diamonds with no punishment" is, in Rav Mizrachi chlita's words, a fraud that destroys the world. Appetite sins (questionable kashrut, a cigarette against venishmartem, a forbidden glance) are not the same as brazen denial. Hashem knows each person's weakness. The main complaint, from Yirmiyahu, is saying "I have not sinned."
Only Pikuach Nefesh Overrides Shabbat
In San Diego, a wealthy man protested: without driving forty-five minutes to shul, his children in public school get no Judaism. Rav Mizrachi chlita's answer: Shabbat is a sign with the Creator; a public Shabbat desecrator is treated like a gentile in severe sources. HKBH gave one exception: pikuach nefesh. It overrides Shabbat until the danger passes. There is no permission to desecrate Shabbat for money, not for a burning villa of any value.
If communal prayer were meant to permit riding to shul, it would be written. Hashem wants Jews living together near shul, mikveh, and Torah, not scattered among the nations. Egypt's troubles intensified when they left Goshen and filled the land among the Egyptians.
War Miracles, Then Collapse
They describe the early war: catastrophe, unprepared reservists, then Tanach-level miracles (leaders of the enemy falling, strikes that seemed to rewrite the map). Then everything flipped: no clear victory, a torn nation, hatred returning.
Rav Mizrachi chlita's stated explanation: the campaign of miracles stalled when they seized and jailed Torah learners. The Satan prosecuted; merits were lost. "We will weep for generations." Elul, he says, means increasing Torah and mitzvot and refusing to let haters of Torah keep doing damage.
He compares today's social-media antisemitism (instant, unchecked, "the Jews, the Jews") to 1933 propaganda, measure for measure for how some Jews speak about lomdei Torah.
When the Megaphone Starts Agreeing
Antisemites mine the Talmud through rabbis on YouTube. Search "Rabbi," and Rav Mizrachi chlita often comes up first. Tucker clipped lines to paint Jews as dangerous messianists. Then Fuentes, Sneako, and others. Clips reach millions.
About a week and a half before the interview, as related there, Nick Fuentes (described as a leading Jew-hater) said he had no reason to debate Rav Mizrachi chlita: "I agree with you on everything you say." Later he posted another clip and said gentiles waste life on sports and gambling while Jews invest in learning: "We're idiots; maybe we should learn from them."
Rav Mizrachi chlita's point they echoed: who should run banks, medicine, and government, street fools, or the most educated people? Even secular Jews, from time immemorial, treat study as a supreme value.
Alex Jones and others beg for confrontations. Rav Mizrachi chlita wants truth on record but will not expose his audience to constant cursing and crude talk. Why sit with "clowns"? For the tens of millions who watch (including perhaps a million Jews) and for Noahide outreach on a redemption scale.
He does not divide the world into Jew versus gentile. He divides tzaddikim versus reshaim. Righteous gentiles who keep the seven Noahide laws have a World to Come (Sanhedrin; Rambam). Wicked Jews and wicked gentiles he wants nowhere near his children.
Knowledge First, Then Bitachon
The Torah's primary language is knowledge (v'yadatem, da et Elokei avicha): dozens of verses. Faith that is only superstition collapses under trial. Hashem has no body; knowledge comes from what He left: design in creation, the human body, galaxies that do not collide, a Torah that knows what only the Creator could know, and prophecies fulfilled.
Knowledge makes mitzvot rational. Then comes bitachon: believe the promises when the wicked prosper and the righteous suffer (Moshe's own question). Devarim teaches that Hashem pays haters their few mitzvot in this world to their face; the righteous are often cleaned here for the World to Come. The Texas pigs parable: the fattened pig is not the loved one.
Rav Avrahami chlita tells of living this: car break-ins while bringing merit to the many; thanking Hashem; forgiving thieves; a second insult the next day, and still forgiveness. "We merited to live what we teach."
Stories of Rav Moshe Fish (refusing to pull a bachur from Torah under donor threat; asking Heaven not to refund what he lost for Hashem) and Rav Aderet (telling a young darshan never to sue: if the money is yours it returns; if you "win" what was not decreed you lose it elsewhere) sharpen the same point: you cannot lose from doing Hashem's will, and a teacher of bitachon must not live like someone who has none.
Hakarat Hatov: Judaism in One Word
Ingratitude is Satan's deep pit. The Vilna Gaon's joke: when someone smears you, "Interesting, I don't recall doing that Jew a favor." The whole Torah rests on hakarat hatov. Judaism in one word: modeh (admit the truth, and give thanks).
The yetzer works hardest against those who helped you most. Of a hundred people you bring back, maybe one gives back to the one who made him frum, and that one is a tzaddik, foundation of the world. Rav Ben Zion Abba Shaul's warning (via Rav Shmueli): nightly kiruv that destroys shalom bayit is a mitzvah through an aveirah, and that is not a mitzvah. Limit the nights; a wife's full-hearted consent matters.
Basics before Kabbalah. PaRDeS in order. Get a rav. A person with no rav, Rav Shmueli is quoted as saying, shows gaavah and broken yirah; treat the warning seriously in a generation that dismisses chachamim.
Elul: Don't Miss the Train
Closing, with roughly three weeks to Yom HaDin in the conversation's timing:
- This month can erase aveirot of this life and of gilgulim.
- The world is critical; a larger Middle East / Gog uMagog catastrophe is coming.
- One ask: double or triple daily Torah. Shabbat learning x2-3. Weekday hours expanded. Headphones on the road: not sports, news, or comedy.
- Free app "Rabbi Yosef Mizrachi" and his Hebrew YouTube: Torah & Science for weak emunah; psychology of the brain; Orchot Tzaddikim; Mesillat Yesharim; Avot; the 613 (nearly 8,000 talks).
- You cannot stay half-half forever. Hashem will force a choice. Some half-half become tzaddikim; some become reshaim. Do not perish in what is coming after you already saw the truth.
Don't miss the train.
Practical Mussar from This Chiour
- Restore yirat Shamayim and reward-and-punishment to the center of teaching; love without dread does not stop aveirot.
- Never normalize loss of control (drugs, excess drink); emptiness is the root; give tachlit.
- Prefer free Torah when you can, so you remain mashpia and can give real mussar.
- Sow hard, sourced seeds; do not stroke for years while lives burn.
- Speak to the local disease; stroking reshaim is hatred dressed as kindness.
- Prefer teshuvah; do not lie that the unrepentant are already beloved.
- Own appetite falls; never say "I have not sinned."
- Live near Torah community; there is no heter to drive to shul on Shabbat.
- Practice hakarat hatov, especially toward those who helped you most, and toward your own home.
- Knowledge first (proofs, learning), then bitachon when the world looks upside down.
- This Elul: more Torah, every day, before the train leaves.
🔨 Kindly partner with and support Rav Yosef Mizrachi chlita's efforts in kiruv, kollelim, and avrechim in Eretz Yisrael and Torah lectures worldwide: https://rabbimizrachi.org/?donate=all