3 Life-Lessons from Eliyahu Moscowitz, Murdered On Simchas Torah 5779

the yeshiva dotnet good evening everybody I want to welcome all of you to this special evening in tribute to as we just heard from Raymond 'el a jewel of Chicago Aaliyah ho mask of its is a chronal of ratha last Friday the Rove of Nehru vine reveille Baroque hurts leta phoned me and asked if I could come to this evening to address you and I felt it to be a privilege to do and indeed today at a lecture in the morning in Brooklyn and following the lecture I traveled to LaGuardia Airport to take a three o'clock a three p.m. flight from LaGuardia from New York to Chicago which gave me more than enough time to stretch to relax and to attend this important momentous special evening of Actos and his work here in Chicago with you at 8:00 p.m. but as I arrived to the airport I learned that LaGuardia Airport was behaving according to its nature with one delay after another delay after another delay the heavy rains in New York I assume were somewhat responsible are fully responsible and three became four and four became five and five became six noon is go fella but then six became seven and even seven I thought knew but then when seven became seven thirty and seven thirty p m-- eight o'clock I realized I may fly to Chicago but I would arrive on time for tickets ice and despite our close relationship I don't know how long you could sit and remain in the shul for the LaGuardia Airport to get its United Airlines flight out of LaGuardia to Chicago so at some point I had a telephone conversation with Rob I heard sir I heard said go home and live live stream from your home and so I left the airport I came home here Muncie New York and I'm here in the place where I often give a lot of shittim that some of you listen to and watch and have this wholesome privilege to address you and when I was there in the airport I was sitting near a car linor stolen accosted for Mary to stroll from Israel who was also traveling to Chicago for Shabbos he had to make it for Shabbos not for Thursday night for a Chevy breakfast of a close friend and I shared with him my dilemma do I remain in the airport do I go home with his flight make it or not make it and I also felt bad the nature of the event is sensitivity with the event the dear Moskowitz beloved Moskowitz family and all my dear friends and distinguished rabbis and leaders and men and women and children who have gathered here this evening I I really I felt bad and this Colleen Acosta told me I want to tell you a word from the Helicarrier Schlemmer Kalina from the great Hasidic master rep flamer of Carlene and he once said on the plastic on the verse in Korea shmeil which we say twice or three times a day for half - Sasha Malek Arabic Allah Vovka you should love Hashem with all your heart Rashi cites one of the interpretations from this afree what does it mean with all your heart Shailaja hailey Co Co Luc Alamo Co him says Rashi quoting our sages and this is free your heart it's hard to translate your heart should not be in a McCoy kiss with Hashem your heart shouldn't be differentiate it's fragmented divided from God somehow frustrated annoyed infuriated with God where your heart and God simply don't get along somehow your heart has to learn to make peace with you by initial eylem it's it's a deep interpretation but reply my Colina gave a hasidic homolytically Terp rotational kind means hashem but as you just heard from read Mendel Moskowitz amuck him literally means the place shallow a hollow column what kami tells me your heart should never argue with the space with the place that you are presently in so often in life imply miquelina said I am somewhere but I don't want to be here I'm annoyed I'm angry I'm frustrated I want to be there I want to be there why did I end up here whether it's in traffic whether it's traveling whether it's going to an appointment whether it's spending a whole day LaGuardia Airport which I had the privilege to sit in a little seat in LaGuardia and spend the whole day there but often in life we get frustrated with our space with our maken physically and even more emotionally I want to be another person I want to be in another position I want to be in another max of I want to be in another level why could I not be somebody else why could I not have these circumstances why can't I have this home and this family and this job and this career and this IQ and this reputation and this vocation and this career and this house in this car etc Bly everybody knows about the frustrations of human life in the human condition say our sages like Oh Luca amak I'm at some point you have to embrace the place where you're in the space were you in the space where you're in that's where your soul is supposed to be that's the journey you're destined to take this is your destination this is your sluices this is your mission and he looks at me and he says it's vice Isis right so look in there I know that it's hard for me to tell this to you because you're supposed to be in Chicago but I wanted to share this with you Laurie a Lib shaka-laka-laka it was such a inspiring beautiful city of art that this is jus shared with me just a few hours ago in LaGuardia and I'm taxi the way home I realized lawyer hakalo kalamaki for whatever reason I didn't have the school I didn't have the privilege to participate with you physically in this special evening in tribute eliyahu a blessed memory but at least I could participate with you somewhat from a distance physical distance but not emotional or spiritual distance and sins by us the Jewish people the soul the spirit the Ruach rooibos Calvillo and B Russia Armour Hashem Sinatra's as the haftorah of sky of Gannicus as the Ruach prevails and our spiritual intimacy and closeness at least for me is extremely significant and valuable I responded to this car linear stolen a constant whose father was a gob a and a been bias and a Hayes Bakker by the previous Reber of Carlin and I told them that there's a void from the hot school of Kazmir rabbit Haskell of cosmas who said yog and Alayna he once said as follows it's also one of the great spiritual masters in Poland Abbot Haskell of Kuzma and he said that a true says every morning in the blessings bring us a shock our Baraka Tasha Maliki no melech haolam hemay 'then myths add a cover blessed are You Hashem the king of the universe who prepares the footsteps of a human being it's a blessing for our ability to take steps to walk which would never should never be taken for granted but of classical of Kozma gave a deeper interpretation and he said when a Jew wakes up in the morning and he makes the blessing of how may seem it's how they govern and he or she doesn't have in mind that every step that you take that day is orchestrated by the reboiler shale oil and by the master of the universe if I don't believe with complete faith that every single step of that day where I go where I end up is orchestrated with divine providence bhargava from the master of the world from our loving father in heaven Cedric at school it's a brothel of Attalla it's a blessing in vain and thus my dear friends I am here I'm sorry I can't be there with you in Banaras vain but I am here in Muncie New York and with the miracles of modern technology we could communicate not only with shmear but also with some level of RIA I can't see you at the moment but I hope that you could see me with the help of the great technicians running the show there in Chicago my dearest friends the rubber viewers shall I am was rip small of sawant small of Solange was a great drew a great gone a great soul a great leader and he would naturally visit people sitting Shiva to fulfill the Mitzvah of nickim availab to comfort those who are mourning but his students who escorted him always realized that he was extremely meticulous to observe the halacha that one does not enter into a Shiva house and open their mouth and start talking until the oval doesn't open the conversation that's the law that still tomorrow says we wait for the person sitting Shiva to open the conversation and then you could continue the conversation and there are different reasons for it one of the basic reasons is and we can understand it psychologically and emotionally sometimes people you'll forgive me but sometimes I've seen this over and over people come to a Shiva house and they say stupid things they don't know how to be silent they don't know how to just sit everyone people come up with their hummus and nourish chitin you'll forgive me what I have heard in those places I could write a book about it why can't you just be quiet you don't just come in and start Darsh inning the hovel starts first and if small of Salons was always careful there other viewers I mean would come in he had what to say but he always remained silent until the person he was visiting began the conversation and one time he came to a shiva house and one of his students was escorting him and he sat down and he looked at the oval in the eyes and he read it we began talking and they had a warm and and deep an emotionally stirring conversation whatever time it was and he said how mocking me and asked him and he comforted the person sitting Shiva or the persons sitting Shiva he left the home and on the way out his students said Reba may I ask a question Terry he voluma than he deserves you're always so careful not to start the conversation before the Oval but I saw today you came in he just started to talk you said then he started to talk small of salon told the student he said this he says did you look at the oven when you sat down did you notice what happened he said no no I didn't see anything happen he said did you hear the sigh has to get heard the crafts did he hear the saw that the other limited when I sat down when I sat down the person sitting Shiva emitted a sigh a correct are not how we say in lausanne coitus did you hear it and the student says I didn't hear it he says well the person was communicating he wasn't communicating with words he communicated with her saw but this was a communication he began the communication and I continued it and this simcha steerer the great happy day of our calendar Chicago emitted a sigh but not just Chicago the entire Jewish community and not just the Jewish community in the United States of America but the cholesterol emitted a sigh when we might see some costera heard the tragic news that the night of some Costera a young man a young Bakr a precious jewel eliyahu Moskowitz the colonel of Raqqa was gunned down in cold blood during those precious hours when Jews the world over with dancing dancing to the heavens with the joy of some Costera when Drew's in Chicago were dancing and a murderer who we hope will be caught very soon and brought to justice for this evil horrific behavior of snuffing out an innocent life and as the police said this was the second innocent life he snuffed out will be caught and brought to justice swiftly but we all emitted a sigh on this devastating tragedy of a Jew any Jew and such a young bright person full of love person who radiated so much kindness empathy and compassion person who smile and warmth was literally contagious and when he was murdered on the night of some Coast area really tonight there are a few words but mostly açaí on Anaka we all know the verse the pasta can share I shoot him in the song of songs the yard logano arooga Zabuza Leroy's began in the lil kite Shannon my beloved has come down to the garden to his garden to the spice beds LaRussa boys him to the rows of spices that grow in the garden he came to graze in the gardens this passion in the gate tener the little crush on him and to pluck out roses to gather roses and the Madras Robin she read brings the interpretation of our sages day these a cottage vertical my beloved refers to a sham yard lagana he came down to his gardens aha eylem this is the world the tailor defines the world as hashem garden as the second famous verse in sharon bossy Lagaan e ahoy sea cow laughs come to the garden to my garden of my sister of my bride the world is a garden a garden that sometimes filled with weeds filled with thorns filled with parasite it's filled with noxious fumes but nonetheless a garden a garden with so much profound fragrance and deliciousness so my beloved came down into the garden my Ragusa boy sent and a spice to this to the rows of the beds of spices alias sir all these other Jewish people Leroy's began him to graze in the gardens a low but they can they see us about them in rushes these are the centres of learning in the Centers of davon ink where my beloved came down into the little culture shun him to pluck roses as the Midrash was soundly casat tsadikim shall be his role to pluck out the righteous ones that sadek him among the Jewish people and I think to myself the night of some Costera the world is a garden matanza Ephrata spring people hug each other and embrace each other dance with each other it's the night of camaraderie and unity and love and joy the world over it's the night when everyone is in the gardens in the but that Canisius in but timid rushes dancing and celebrating with the sifrit area young and old men women and children each one in their own way and on this sim cast area Billy Dee came and was Malacca dushashana he plucked out the rose as he allowed in his world this murder to happen and the soul of a Leo Moskowitz suddenly returned to its maker and then the meddra SH quotes the statement of revive oh ho Reba vow says hata aina has ooh this fig bisman channel ket is by Nasser yo falafel at aina Wiz mansion ANILCA tha's by Nasser Oliver a latina those of you are familiar with the fig tree know when this fig is plucked and it's right time when it's ripe it's good for the fig it's good for the tree when the figures plucked before it's ripe it's not good for the fig it's not good for the tree and he tells a story that tienes students in some say W issue and his students and some say rebbi akiva and his students used to get up early in the morning and learn and where would they learn early in the morning they found the beautiful big fig tree and they would sit under the fig tree and that's where these great sages would learn but before they came out to learn under the fig tree the owner of the fig tree would come before them and pluck all the things that have ripened that morning as you know fig tree is not all harvested in one time that's why it's exempt from pea the famous mission Empire the rambam in hostess madness Annie in a fig tree you don't harvest in one shot today one fig or a few figs tomorrow another few figs the next day a few figs next week so each morning he would come down and check if there was a fig and he would pluck it and when rebbi akiva and his students came to the fig tree they realized that this person was here ready and they asked a question Shambo who caused a No why does he wake up so early does he suspect us does he think that if we come first we're going to eat his figs we're going to steal his figs so what they do they don't want to be in a place where somebody suspects them of theft they change places they go somewhere else so he comes to them and he says here a boy say I don't understand I had one Mitzvah I had this who's that you learned tired under my fig tree why would you embarrass me and they said well we thought you suspect us that we steal and he said no no no when he appeased them in he apologized to them and they came back to the fig tree and the next morning he didn't want to make them feel bad so what did he do he didn't take the fig he slept in a little later or he got up but he didn't collect the figs and what happened the Sun rose and the Sun became stronger and strong and the Metro says berserk Oliver , the Sun started to shine on the fig and the fig got spoiled and got rotten from the intense heat and they all looked and they said you gotta trust the owner of a fig tree barlata a no idea a Maasai he oh no sir shelter Anil ilkka the leichter the owner of the fig tree knows when is the right time to harvest the fig he just knows it you have to trust the owner of the fig tree and the Madras says I could is borrow who you idea a messiah I know some shots a dick enlist Alec minute eylem God somehow knows the right time for it Sadiq to go away from the world God knows but we don't know we will never know after you a day arouse the oil um you know the secrets of the world Cedric Marshall obsess over the secrets of Tyra there are also Jews who know there are the great ha ha Meem the great going in the great Napoleon the great Sadiq him the great Tommy they have home him the going a hador who know Roz a Torah they know the depths of Torah but Rossi olam the secrets of the world how the world runs how the world works the time allotted to each person after Yuri daya Rosa ulam only you know the secrets of the world nobody else knows and on that night the beloved one came down to the beautiful garden of some coast area and plucked this rose a mystery forever a mystery we cry we saw tonight we come together to grieve tonight we come together to unite in solidarity and love and tonight we also come together to remember to the dear parents Reb Mendel and honey we just heard your words about your son to the dear and beloved siblings of eliyahu tamashii and Benza to Nissen and mushki to Yossi and Leia to mooshka lab2 Mordechai mayor Shimon at3 R'lyeh to the dear beloved grandparents rebuff ryeom and severe bubbie and Zayde II Moskowitz mrs. Miriam lemon of and of course to all of the close friends all of the relatives the entire community tonight we say to you we have no words but we say we're here you are in our minds you're in our hearts you're in our prayers I'm a community masca Bashara of a lead CMB yerushalayim as Elio went to join in alum as his brother lei vu passed away just a few short years ago and I for one am moved to be here with all of you remembering and connecting to the neshamah of Elio I want to remember him tonight I did not have the source of knowing him personally but over the last week I had the privilege of speaking to quite a few people uncles siblings relatives friends teachers community members who have known Elio some better than others and have shared with me such precious insights that I want to share with you this evening and I want to be honest with you that everybody appreciated Leo Moskowitz you know that the answer is no not everybody appreciated him and the reason not everybody appreciated him sometimes it takes a special soul to know a special soul you had to be a very open person to be able to get him you had to be a type of person whose energy is transparent whose energy is open somebody who's not blocked somebody who's not stuck I hope you understand what I'm saying you had to be what I would call a fluid a fluid person in order to be able to experience him the passage says ash Lima Melek says in clay Allison Ecclesiastes gamma Shah Alam nas unbeli bomb the whole world he put into their hearts Elio was a type of a person who allowed the world to flow through his heart his heart was open to the vibrations of the cosmos of the universe of the planet and of everything in the planet people's larval animals bushes and trees and flowers and roses and everything in our planet he allowed it all to flow through his heart his heart was open his heart was open to the energy that was flowing it wasn't fixed it wasn't rigid it wasn't locked up many of us lock up our hearts and we only allow a few things to enter and to come in and we lose the experience of life in such a powerful way we lose the experience of diversity the experience of people elio his heart was open it was a channel it was at scenery it was a candle that allowed all the energy could flow people's energy could flow through him he was open to what he experienced it he allowed himself to be a conduit for energy wherever he was this is a deep characteristic and if you don't get it you couldn't get him which is why not everybody could appreciate him not everybody is open to this type of life not everybody is open to this type of energy but I think our duty this evening is to learn from this soul to learn from this person raha hai ye attain that Li by the living shall take to his heart and I want to address three unique characteristics that Elio moskowitz personified in such a powerful way throughout the two decades and another few years in which he graced our planet and this great soul walked among us and these three characteristics were shared with me by one of his brothers and by many others in different words and different ways number one his incessant search for truth this boy would ask and ask and ask he was not afraid of anything and he was not afraid of questions very often at some point in life we just accept the status quo and we make peace with it some of us are frustrated some of us are angry some of us make believe we're happy some of us ignorance some of us are clueless and some of us somehow make peace with the reality that we live in in some form or fashion Elio did not stop looking for truth he was a man of integrity anybody who ever saw him or hurt him in yeshiva or rabbi hurts remembers together with his Shearer that he made four youngsters here in Chicago this boy would not stop asking questions and some of these questions were challenging some people would even call them strange questions or if somebody told me interesting questions you know what interesting questions means interesting questions is a nice way of saying that's like where do you come up with these questions but somehow this boy was curious he was inquisitive he understood what so many of us need to understand that the ultimate definition of God must be truth ms:i like sharing a sad anecdotal story about this this young girl who was on a search for truth and she turns to her father her uncle who was considered a very holy holier than thou type of person you know those types of people he considered himself more religious sometimes then then the most holy and religious and she turns to me and she says uncle if you had to choose between God and truth which one would you choose and he looks at her and he says what's the question of course I would choose God and it's that response that sometimes conveys in such a powerful way the tragedy of what often happens to a religion to an institutionalized religion where God and truth are not synonymous how I saw Mary sherlach others borrow who ms as the Gemara the seal the stamp of the rabona shillelagh ms truth action or sangha new Tyra's ms Vashem la Kim ms as the Rambam analysis is Sonia Toyota chapter one so eloquently explains that post second-year Mia an ER Shama location we absolutely lost on the Khayyam and the other 15 expressions if he didn't get it the first time around vennett Mon for over the definition of Judaism definition of life definition of God is truth the first Jew of Rama V knew who were going to explore next week is the man who had the courage to smash the idols of deception and falsehood in a search for one thing in a search for truth but sometimes the truth is messy the truth gets us exhausted the truth gets us in trouble the truth gives us headaches the truth challenges us the truth makes us Restless the truth is an invitation for an endless quest because truth is infinite truth transcends my comfort zone truth transcends my finite structures but a Leo wouldn't stop he want the truth and it seems like that in every fiber of his being he sends those words of the Gemara and miss after humor the sama Tessa midbass about the Neel and year Mia meet Alicia Duchamp et who like a zoo boy they could not lie about the urban asylum and say words that they felt were inaccurate and inauthentic because they knew that above all God equals truth and truth equals Hashem lie Keeseville boy Elio couldn't tolerate a lie not within himself and not within the world around him he traveled everywhere I mean I just hear about the places he was I'm I'm quite a seasoned traveler you know sometimes I don't make it there but where this kid ended up a 22 23 year old kid 20 year old kid he went to places frightening places some dangerous places I would never go there fate he dies in Chicago in Rogers Park he went to some very dangerous places this kid he wasn't afraid of meeting new people he wasn't afraid of in County new circumstances he wasn't afraid of it exploring everything sometimes to a fault let's admit it but tonight I want to learn from him I want to learn from them about a search and a commitment for truth there was something else about this boy and this is what everybody said and tonight his uncle one of his uncle's who was with me on the phone said these words and I quote and he knew him very very well intimately and he said you know when I think about my nephew I have to say he could not live in the world which he felt was so selfish he felt out of place in a world that was not vibrating and pulsating with love now we used the word love and kindness and Hesed as a cliche because it's a popular and good and nice word but everybody knows this is the truth this boy simply was a conduit for love he was so open he was so filled with with passion with kindness with grace somebody writes to me that he went shopping in the supermarket and jewel supermarket I think what was robbed by bookid who shared this and he's schlepping his bags and elio was doing his own thing and he sees an older person struggling to get his bags into the car and without blinking he runs over and he just tacks up the car for him this is the story of his life all of his years in yeshiva in Chicago his principal tells me he says every boy he knew you needed a favor you had a challenge he had a problem he was that dress he loved loved helping people he has what we call in Yiddish had got a hush in toy avataan I Eden in telethon I mentioned he had a special sensitivity a skill to do a favor to another Jew and to do a favor to another person it brought him life he felt the essence of life was love the essence of life was was unity he wanted a unified world a world in which the wolf lies with the lamb you know they tell the anecdote he like humorously you'll forgive me if I share this anecdote there was this Jew who owned the zoo and it wasn't gaining traction people weren't visiting it and he needed they needed a crowd so he he put up a sign that in this zoo mushiya came already the Messiah has come and he brought the verse he quoted a verse from you Shia you Dolloff Isaiah 11 regards a theme kvish the wolf shall lie with the lamb and in the cage you had a wolf and you had a lamb and everybody heard about this that in this zoo you already have messianic days you have the Messianic utopia and people came in the thousands and the hundreds of thousands and this booed rule I tell you made a mint Christians evangelicals people from everywhere were coming to see the place where the Messiah has arrived and the wolf and the lamb live in peace and then one day to his muzzle a Jew came and the Jew looks at the cage and he knows there's something up here up this man's sleeve and he comes over to me says listen the ankle I know you you somehow did not manage to generate this miracle how in the world do you manage to have this wolf and this lamb lied together in this cage he says oh it's not a problem I just exchanged the lamb every day that's the world were used to the world of competitiveness a world of rudeness a world of I win and you lose or you win and I lose that's the consciousness were used to Elio lived in a different consciousness he really saw the world the way it is conceived in the womb of its mother in the womb of the Shiina where were all really one we come from a place that transcends divisive eNOS and fragmentation that's the world he wants to inhabit that's the world he expected to live in that's the world he tried to create and he created among all the people who merited to see his smile to sense his glow to feel his touch and to experience his radiance empathy and compassion but there was another special characteristic about this young man he was somebody who built bridges it's hard to find somebody who is so non-judgmental of people like Elio Moskowitz Hashemi in kendama somehow he connected with everybody he was the embodiment of the words of Shammai have a macabre last color other miss save upon him your face he didn't live in his back so many of us we become comfortable in our comfort zone we're comfortable with a certain type of person you dive in mind no sir you believe what I believe you're part of my my my Mahalo my hellos my hefter my gatherer my Felton shank pro-trump anti-trump programmer no pro for whatever it is pro the Supreme Court judge Pro 4th we're not getting into politics tonight but that's where I remain I remain in that zone and I'm nice I'm on calling then I could connect the people who somehow tune in to my song tune into my my look tune into my way of life and you're either you're in or you're out Alejo Moscow woods didn't understand this he was a bridge connecting all types of people from one extreme to another extreme with such ease with such comfort some of us are afraid of meeting new people we have social anxiety I don't know what he did with her social anxiety some of you are very well familiar with social anxiety some of you are in therapy for decades with social anxiety but it wasn't just he didn't I don't know if he had social said he didn't have social anxiety I don't know but what I do know is that in his world there was space for everybody he could have a conversation with everybody he was open to the energy in every single person and in every single creature he knew the truth of what the Baal Shem Tov always taught that the divine is every where that there is a soul there is a spark there is idealism there is goodness to be found in everything and everywhere it's you and I you have to be open to it and he was open to it somehow he was the embodiment of that beautiful interpretation on the mission and pre-clovis the Mishna says in pre-k over summer dub Jakov how my how looks but there if somebody who takes a hike rashon and he's learning on my super mission NASA and he stops learning for him and he says Mahanoy you know Nizam I know near say how beautiful is this tree how beautiful is this landscape my love a cost of killer must have been a fishery the terrier considers it as though he endangered his life and all over the commentators struggle with this a guy takes a hike some of you love hiking Elio loved hiking he loved nature your hiking and your learning maybe your learning you have an mp3 in years and you're listening to a share from the yeshiva dotnet or you're learning DAF join me or you're learning you're a shallow me you're learning a missionary or learning Holika whatever you're learning miglin mister time now if you're learning you're schmoozing with somebody and learning and then you stop learning and you say wow take a look at this world take a look at this tree take a look at this landscape take a look at this forest you're endangering your life but why who are you praising you're praising the master of the world Bubba Tamela how many times in tehilim does he extol the virtues of nature we say it every morning more rabu masahashi cooler macaque mercy sir Millar is king and magog Loomis Akasha there are brushes there are blessings that the unshaken Asura's have knowingly instituted when you see certain phenomena of nature bittle Tony should be learning and one of the powerful interpretations of this mission is you have to listen to the words mahalik but there if you're hiking you're walking on the road with shine and you're learning oh Moff Sigma mission Lhasa and you interrupt your learning and you say how beautiful is this tree in other words for you the beauty of nature represents an interruption of toriel there are two separate universes there's the world of Tyra that belongs at the base mad nourish and then there's the world of nature there is the real world out there and in order to celebrate the world I have to stop learning but the Junos that's not the case a knight Malvado a sane belt it's a divine world the tree the landscape the bush the insect the fish the mammal the star the planet the amino acid the protein the cell the DNA are all a continuum of Terror a reflection of terror an embodiment of terror a manifestation of terror there's no fragmentation there's oneness this boy loved the world he somehow felt felt connected connected to the world a few hours before he was shot dead with Sweeney at Terrace and as we just heard a few moments ago from his father at Mendel's anger zone tremendo Moscow was slit I heard it over the phone he spent Sweeney at Cyrus with the family and with the community he danced the mimic by him any stood that by mimicked by Sommers to dance her covers the night of wish many had saris and he danced with all of his might and Sweeney had Cyrus II went to visit various friends relatives community members in their in their locations in their sook is those who eat in the souk essentially at Sarah's as the gomorrah says mitosis Youssou via Swindon burrow Gila River Hin on sook I think mom has and in one of those circus he was speaking to a friend of his a resident from Chicago this is dish Minnie at serious afternoon just a few hours before this boy was shot dead and not long ago he took a trip to Australia and to Malaysia and some other interesting locations and this friend of his turn to me said Elio in one sentence could you tell me what did you learn on your trip in Australia and to Malaysia what did you learn there but one sentence and Elio responded with these words he says I learned there that a pure soul needs to have a pure body a pure soul needs to have a pure body and his friend responded Wow but it's also the other way around a pure body needs a pure soul and Eliyahu said that's true that is true a few hours later this pure soul and this pure body because that's what he was he was a pure soul and a pure body was plucked and returned to heaven after this vicious ruthless and barbaric murder in Rogers Park last week he was a pure soul but he was also a pure body and he also understood that his soul in the body are always integrated the soul in the body must work in unison there are those of us who invest in our souls in our minds we neglect our bodies and those who nurture their bodies we almost mock them and there are those of us who know about our bodies we don't know about our souls elio understood those famous expression of the Baal Shem Tov also a thousand emoji serious memory circle we cut out the massively Ravens taxes my cervical doubt them as a thousand be my the morale says comers say Nakamura the donkey from the word climber your materialism your material body so as we look at our body as the enemy the enemy of you described the enemy of spirituality myself said no lawyers bazoo out there if you should can retire the terror will not do well in you if you mock if you negate if you neglect if you abandon your body also positive in my spirituality and physicality ultimately at the end of the day in the divine equation make whatis by mo ya shemesh my Akkad a pure soul needs a pure body and I think what he meant was I assume that on these journeys he realized that if you want to appreciate the depth of you despite the divinity of Yiddish light you have to also take care of the body the body has to be a Kaylee the body has to be a vessel if you want to appreciate the spirituality of the world you have to be able to see it within the physicality of the world and indeed if anybody observed that vigil that took place shortly after his death we're hundreds and hundreds of people literally came out of nowhere nobody knew where they come from they had one common denominator they all loved them Jews and non-jews religious people and secular people right-wingers and left-wingers people from all types of persuasions and walks of lives and backgrounds where do you see that a 23 year old young barker should ignite such unity such camaraderie what type of soul accomplishes this only somebody who's completely open to see the goodness and the divine energy in every single person so tonight my friends as we grieve his untimely passing and murder as we unite together as a community here in Chicago and as we remember this great soul perhaps we could learn from him and we could learn from him in all of these three characteristics number one his search for truth my father all of our Shalom was a very good friend with Elie Wiesel all of our Shalom Elie Wiesel as you know was an Auschwitz survivor but he was born in sigit he grew up in the community of sigit with visits a cinema came from a strong vision it's a family and he retained some of that relationship throughout his entire life he had a special feeling for vision it's and other Hasidic groups he writes about them a lot and Elie Wiesel who was a Nobel laureate and a world renowned activist and peacemaker and author and and spokesman for the Holocaust and and the survivors and those who were killed once shared what I thought was a it was a classic Elie Wiesel story but it was a deep story the deep story I was thinking should I said these stories should I not but I think Elio would appreciate the stories I'm gonna share the story Elie Wiesel said when he was young in sigit there was this young bucker who was very idealistic and he always had the same question why am i alive why am I here why was the world created who needs it why why why why why some of us frankly are not perturbed by the question just pass me another spare rib a little more sushi and another shwarma wrap and I'll be fine with the purpose of creation but some people are just are driven by this question and this boy was bothered and he asked everybody every mother and every father never eat each and every Russia Shiva never yet but never eat something and whoever traveled and came through the city he would run to them please please answer this question and elie wiesel says one time a great sadiq visited sigit and this boy made an appointment and he came in to him and he was already a teenager and he said you're everybo all my life all the year since I'm a child I've been searching for an answer to this question they say you're a great sage we have penetrating wisdom you have Keenan said please answer this question there Emma says what's your question my son what's your question my question is why why am I here why was the world created what's the purpose of all of this and the rebus smacks him in the face what's this why smacking me in the face and he says why would you want to ruin such a good question with a flawed answer you see he said it's the questions that unite us it's the answers that's so often divide us why would you want to ruin such a good question with a flawed answer and I think what he meant to say was and what Elio personified was I don't have to know everything what did your men will just say what did he tell this new fellow this new illai in the store when you don't know you could smile and tell people I don't know it's not just in a store it's not just in drew where you're trying to serve food the customers are often frustrated but it's about life the search for truth is the true requisite knowledge that I am ignorant in so many areas that somehow in the biggest questions I don't know and it's the answers that so often divide us it's the questions that keep us human it's the questions that keep us humble is the questions that keep us authentic and real dibala tanya the alter rebbe the ballot Anja was making a husana and he had a baton a kebab custard it was a bad note about king of the mountain is a joker he comes to the wedding and you know he does poems and a good name and jokes and the babkin was a hospital about a tiny but he couldn't speak in front of the bow Latonya so what did he do he took some luck I am to be able to lose him up Nicholas and yachts aside and then he started his mouth corners and he turns to the ballot Annie and he says remember tonight I want to say that there's not such a big difference between you and me we're more or less the same and I'll tell you why happy he says and everybody is stung where is this joke gonna go and he tells about tithing I'll tell you why and I'll say it in Yiddish and then I'll translate he says the smus face may steroid thus was a vase niched Vesak I finished knew he was in diapers Alchemist a raised diminished says you and I are more or less the same whatever I know you also know whatever you don't know I also don't know so what's the difference there's a few things that you know and then I don't know Sakurako that's the difference and they say the hell tada well he smiled he really appreciated that one the base you saw the hey look at Gary ever screw suyog and Elena would say over a vort he said that he heard it from a literature of I heard it from Reverend Wright from Lakewood the son-in-law of repression area caught Lisette saw Andrew Barton told me who did from a guerra hustler automata the basis straw that he said this over a few times he said he heard it through my Luther Wayne Ian from a literature of in their special um of today Thursday we saved in tehilim 81 pay Aleph angels be hosts of somebody but says shall ere its mature om smash lawyer dot the edge mock what does this mean para appointed Yosef to me the prime minister of Egypt he said the language I don't know I hear what does this mean smashley adapter eeschema so the basis role said over from a literature of I don't know the name and he said as follows pyro he was used to that whoever he spoke to about anything they always knew he had a dream the heart um the experts always knew what the dream means suddenly he met a man named Joseph and he turns to Joseph and he says Sumati I heard that you know how to interpret a dream and Joseph said one words below die sorry not me hello Kim Jana slim para God can help you I can't interpret your dream for the first time in his life the king of Egypt the superpower of the time heard somebody say three words I don't know Sam you felling 'var and he like swats lieth at the expo for the first time I heard Laird aathi vanished it's a new language somebody should say I don't know somehow we live in a time where everybody thinks they know this one knows why tragedies happen this one knows why people die young this one knows why people are murdered this one knows why this this one knows why that this one has an explanation for everything this one knows everything about everybody swass lawyer - MA and Leo Moskowitz was a person who appreciated the art of mystery because ignorance is often far more closer to truth than knowledge if the ignorance is not ignorance for the sake of ignorance it's ignorance that comes with toil and with sweat and with effort and not with cynicism but with a healthy search for truth tonight I say to myself and I say to you let's learn from him let's learn the value of truth the commitment to truth the search for truth the ability to be open to truth the ability to say maybe I really don't know fast lawyer dot the eeschema to open myself up to the infinite truths of existence or as one rapper once said initiative is design a mere a life in ignorance we are all wealthy you want to be wealthy you're already wealthy when it comes to ignorance I think there's something else tonight we should run familiar and that is simply a commitment to love and kindness each one of us in our own way let's learn from this boy just to be kind to people just to say nice things to people just to embrace people strangers are not strangers not to get stuck up not to be uptight not to become smug and complacent and arrogant especially in the name of religion in the name of holiness to really be open to people just to be there what does it cost to smile to embrace and to tell somebody you're not alone never should we allow in the chicago jewish community or in any community a child a boy or a girl a teenager a young adult or at any age to feel alone let's learn to be there for people and simply to be kind to be gracious it doesn't mean i have to always agree with you it doesn't mean we can't have disagreements it does not mean that there can't be issues in which we part but it does mean I can always be gracious and simply sweet nice loving the art of simply being nice you know when you're nice and kind and warm it can change lives and it could certainly enhance lives but I think there's one more thing that we have to learn tonight family all and that is how to build bridges how to stop judging how to be able to look every person in their eyes and just see them for who they are even if it's not the mold that we're accustomed to and that we expect and that we're just comfortable and when I think about ilio I remember that haunting Talmud you rashon me that is so appropriate to say tonight in Paris DC sir the Book of Numbers chapter 32 the Jewish people create a golden calf and chaos breaks out in the community do his murder there was adultery there was frivolousness there was absolute there was an absolute moral breakdown and Moshe Moses was on top of the mountain together with his disciple yahushua Joshua was on the bottom of the mountain waiting for his master and when Moshe comes down with the lookers with the tablets and your shoe I hear is this strange sound in the camp and he tells Marcia Coyle Mahama by machina I'm hearing from the camp the sound of war and moisture says in : Agora the aim coil a noise Kalusha coil a noise unofficial mayor no I do not hear the sound of war not of people triumphing and out of people who are defeated I hear a voice a sound of pain of affliction of a noise says the you shall be amiss after tynus Moishe turn to your shoe and I'm going to quote this verbatim Marsha says Misha acid Lahani Shara al sashimi boy ain't no URI day Allah hath him Ben Carla Coyle the man who's going to succeed me and who will one day rule 600,000 male between 20 and 60 he cannot differentiate between different sounds moisture is startled my shins disturbed you you're going to be a Jewish leader you're going to lead this people and you're not going to this thing you can't don't have the capacity to distinguish between different sounds you call it a sound of war when it's really a sound of pain what if she can't deal with this what was going on here what do you want from your schewe he's a young man he's sitting by the mountain he hears what's going on here's Kay us and he mistook he made a mistake about the source of the sound what what's the book what was the big deal what was the big deal I once saw an insight of reprimand Schwab's at South from Washington Heights and he said as follows he said yahushua heard everything was going on yeshua was a wise man he heard the intoxication he heard their new bri a ssin he heard the frivolousness he heard the chaos he heard the breakdown of morale the moral fabric of caduceus kanessa cicero but you know what he thought he thought it was a malcolm against hashem carmel hama by makhani this is a declaration of war on Almighty God this is a declaration of war on Moshe Rabbeinu this is a declaration of war on Tyra and Moshe responded and said mighty area issue Allah know like Allah knows guruvar like Allah knows cachaça but like : I think Alana is Kalusha unofficially I'm not hearing a sound of war of victory or defeat what I'm hearing is : noise I'm hearing a sound of pain people who said ich Moshe Loredana Mahal you're like a lonely nation came out of Egypt without anything vulnerable in the desert they had one leader they relied on and he never came back from heaven and they're lost they're panicking there's a mass hysteria because they're afraid they're afraid for themselves they're afraid for their spouses they're afraid for their children and they're full of pain and worry and fear and anxiety and they're trying to numb it and they're trying to replace it with some false idol and they're getting drunk and they're taking whatever they're taking today you would call it whatever they're taking it's coming from pain and when people have pain they need a numb their pain and they find so many different ways to numb their pain but they're really really really suffering inside so moisture tells you sure if you're gonna be a Jewish leader you have to be able to be mouthing been coil the coil you can't just write off people you can't just expect people to live in your mold and we don't live up to your expectations and they don't fill into your box they just become outcasts if you want to be a rubber if you want to be a rove if you want to be a receiver if you want to be a father a mother I'm a jia amar spear any form of Manik any form of leader and who today is not in a position of leadership in our little corner of the universe our sphere of influence it's not enough just to have a great mind and have a great IQ and know a lot then have a cerebral capacity which is which is of course great and awesome but you have to be able to have that emotional empathy and sensitivity to be able to look every child in their eyes and to see who they really are who God sees them who Hashem sees them to be when he created them to be able to see their full depth their full neshama their full beauty it doesn't mean they're not struggling maybe they're struggling maybe they have made mistakes maybe they're confused maybe they're heading down a path of uncertainty maybe they have made wrong choices which I may be pained by but I can't just write this person off without being sensitive to their journey to their needs to their yearnings to their veldt i'm shaoling to their loneliness I have to be able to come down into their world and the first thing is I have to distinguish between a calm L comma and the coiler noise between a sound of war and a sound of pain because only then can I hope that the shove of onam Lagavulin each one of these children will return to their boundaries to their borders my dear friends tonight and finally when I think of eliyahu so kernel of raha I reflect on the scene that we're all exploring right now this week the week of Shiva the end of Shiva for this neshama fella yo mascots a flood ends and Nayak wants to know if the world is a place to live in and he sends out the owner of the Raven and the posix says the Raven goes challah for shovel goes back and forth back and forth until the water dried up until the land ride up we would expect the story to be over he sent out the raven it kept on coming back and forth back and forth back until it disappeared great The Raven found a nest the raven found a foothold but that's not the end of the story somehow Noah feels now I have to send out a dove who needs the Dove he sends out a dove and it gets dramatic he sends out the Dove and the Duff comes back the dog doesn't have with a rest and he waits seven days and he sends out that Dove again and this time the Dove comes back with an olive branch she plucks out an olive branch Ola Terabithia comes back and no yaja waits another seven days and send it out the Dove once again from the ark the Dove never returns and knoweth knows the coast is clear it's time to exit the TAVR and come back and civilize once again planet Earth why didn't need for this stuff and this whole drama with the Dove after the Raven and three times and one of the deeper explanations in this story my dear friends is the Raven and the Dove represents represent completely opposite characteristics the owner of the Raven is black the bay mayim chayim says or europe makes up the words rob boy there is negativity in him the gemara calls the owner of a cruel animal we say into hell him every day live nay or you river shall you crow the children of the Raven who call out that God why say the commentators because the Raven is the one preacher that does not take care of its young something that's genetically embedded in every creature take care of your offspring besides the IRF every animal understand this you sacrifice yourself for your children and even if you have to challenge yourself and you have to transform yourself but for the sake of your children you do anything not the earth if you go to the London Tower you'll hear the legends if you ever been to London tower you'll hear the legends the black legends about the Raven they tell you don't get too close because instead of eating the carry and he may decide to take your finger instead for lunch the Ravens somehow has this dark reputation this bleak reputation the joiner ah the Dove represents love and peace and whiteness in fact it's one of the few birds the Gemara the Madras says that has a monogamous relationship she assured him is always comparing the Jewish people to the Dove peacefully ahoy seriousiy Yuri nasi some Aussie ain't never yo in him your eyes are like the eyes of the Dove because doves they're the male the female look at each other for hours and the Madras says once they mate they don't go to anybody else once the Jews recognize that sham they didn't go to anybody else despite the scream of the nations Shueisha rehash the lamas but we were like uranium loyal loyal connected the Ori represents guevara sternness strength discipline harshness and the euro represents acid love and loyalty and bonding and connection the flood finishes and Noah knows it happened the cause of corruption it happened because there was no accountability it happened because there was promiscuity came Aloha or it's Hamas or Hamas the earth was filled with fever II the earth was vahini nish casa it was filled with all types of moral corruption it was a hopeless world and it was destroyed and no ya asks himself the question what is my calling after the Corbin how do we rebuild civilization and the natural answer is the oi is the Raven Vora harshness discipline strength don't be compromising the or if that's the way crater is car if as if it was an area skyress yes be tough and harsh uncompromising and unforgiving if you want to save a world from a second floods doesn't this happen to many people they experienced a flood in their life and the way they respond to it is they become tough harsh strong and they don't let anything move them they don't let anybody get close to them they don't want to feel pain they don't want to cry they don't want to be vulnerable they protect themselves with layers and layers of bulletproof vests because I don't want anything to get close to me I am going to remain rough and tough I have had disappointments once in my life I had a flood but then Nayak realized the Raven you need to be hila Fiats I've arrived on the peripheral you always need the or if one always needs guevara we need bow injuries we need moral bow injuries discipline is not a bad thing discipline is a good thing discipline is a loving thing but you don't build a world with an R if you rebuild the world with a Yona the firstly after the first one to go settle the world has to be a dove you have to rebuild the world with love with brightness with light with whiteness with kindness with an embrace that's how you build the world yes you need an iris every person needs boundaries every person needs discipline human nature is very vulnerable to all types of forces and we need that discipline we need that structure we need that guevara that the order of represents but the guiding light division must be of the owner and during his short life elio represented that vision in such a powerful way a true dove to the point that who were the ones who felt ilio a Navi was the or even even the Ravens when it came teleo on Navi somehow they became sweet and they brought him the food as cuz I'll say on these pursuit camp that there are a that the Raven the oi I've had a different mission fella Yohan avi our Elio also managed to sweeten even Ravens you can hear the downpouring here in New York I don't know the weather in Chicago but now you understand I didn't make up the story about LaGuardia Airport if you hear if you hear this downpour we're now in a tent outdoors you can understand what's going on in New York by Elio even the Ravens were transformed into a moment of sweetness and so my friends brothers and sisters Tyra headon Kovarian Kaveri Maveli o relatives of Elio community members and the whole Chicago community Chicago today has become an ear vein Bistro it's one of the great centers of Jewish life one of the great centers of Terrier life filled with terror filled with here filled with heroes shamayim a visage and a versatile avasara filled with mazda cetera vested in the legendary history of Chicago already for more than a century and tonight Chicago comes together and we remember this great soul search for truth be really kind and let's build bridges let's stop judging people let's cut people slack let's look everyone in their eyes and know that they need a dove then they need somebody to hold on to them to believe in them to embrace them and to lift them up until that great moment when the world that Elio envisioned will indeed come to fruition a world of oneness a world of lair rayou vallée sue become our Kochi no corruption in my entire Mountain the wolf will indeed live with the lamb Kamala Horan's Deus Hashem Kamiya Muhammad Hassan because the world will be filled with divine awareness like water covers the sea Ben hey Robby I'm a new or main Kazak Kazakh Venise Kazakh thank you very much this class is brought to you by the achieve Annette please help us continue the classes make even a small contribution at triple w dot they ueshiba net / donate