9/11 and Rosh Hashanah

[Music] hi this is wlf ski welcome to the rabbi or a laugh ski show and whether you're watching on tour anytime or wherever you watch or listen to your podcast we are happy to have you with us for this pre rashanna series you know that like we did before Pesach we have a series if you've been following you know that we have two coming out every week and the usual mo tea shop isn't also on Tuesday cuz there's so much to talk about this podcast is being sponsored Lila knishmas on apparel bus hano hano by mother and she writes I lost my daughter Nancy Morgenstern on 9/11 which was almost 18 years ago she was only 31 years old we've established a Nancy Morgenson Memorial Fund which has deep roots in Ramat Beit Shemesh the fund supports a kollel lending amok we wrote a safe with her and her horse we purchased an ambulance format Beit Shemesh help build the shul in Ramat Beit Shemesh support injured soldiers and help out those in Israel that have been affected by terrorism there is this book that has been written memories of her 31 years and she gave us kale I actually have two copies of this book now because I had gotten a copy years ago when I was in gateways but it's a it's an interesting thing because HUF chemo ll is the anniversary of the destruction of the Twin Towers in New York it's seems to be known to the world more by 9/11 we Jews don't really celebrate Jewish holidays based on the secular date yeah it'll be hard-pressed so for us it's it's cuff Kim LLL manage the week before Rosh Hashanah that this tragedy took place it was doing sleepless week eighteen years ago I was hard to believe but I remember it I know many people out there remember it and and I I wanted to share some thoughts on it because it is not by chance I believe I'm not a prophet but I don't believe it's by chance that this took place just before Rosh Hashanah this was such a dramatic moment let's let's talk about it for a moment somebody said to me you know I said you know and the sake of the calendar that 9/11 is they've tragedy he said madness akin account them the Jewish calendar right on the ninth day of the eleventh month the stitch above so we have our own 9/11 and I said yeah that's true that's true but it was before ello I was living in our childhood time and when the news hit it was so unbelievable that you we went to watch any place we could the little film clip see what was happening and it was surrealistic somebody told me it looked like bad special effects from a 70s disaster movie remember the 70s disaster movies like like earthquake and towering inferno and these yeah I remember when I did a tour of Universal Studios years ago they said that the main office building there is called the Black Rock this big thing the way they did it for the earthquake is they made a giant mirror and they just shook it back and forth that's how it looked like the building was shaking and you looked at this and it was impossible I mean you're looking at this tower go down like this and I remember wondering russia shapiro spoke afterwards that he was he was as stunned as the rest of us there's no other word for it stunned and he kept going like this and he said like a candle he says no no no like a match I just went down the heat from the plane was so intense that it melted the metal frame and so then of course all the concrete and plastic just sank this is what a the basis of a modern skyscraper is built on it's interesting in fact because if you build with bricks you can only go up so high because after that the weights too much and it causes the building to collapse so they finally came up with this hop of building a frame out of metal and then just filling in around it so there was some skyscraper I forgot where where they wanted to knock it down and when they did it didn't collapse it fell over just the whole thing just fell over and did a tremendous amount of damage so after that they had to be built that if you wanted to take it down it had to be able to collapse like that but certainly nobody anticipated this happening I'm just just going down like this like like melting like a building melting was something that was so astounding and I have family living in West Hempstead Long Island and they all it was an amazing thing you know you have a show of people who work you got to finish on time people have to make a train I once dive and in a minyan I won't mention which community it was we didn't matter what was happening we had to finish by 717 because they had to make the Train didn't matter if it was a Sunday or Monday they'd matter whether it was Rosh Hodesh hell no you had to finish in service everything there was it they were out the door yet and and so when you come to sleep this week people have to get to work and for some reason they said they had a launch LegalZoom where that thing people going out of their mind cuz they had to go to work and the guys just going on they're not people don't want to cut out it was linked this week but for whatever reason the guy who was doing the slave house in the governing took a very long time and a lot of people miss their trains one fellow specifically told me he worked in his wind towers and because of this he missed it there's a story of the van coming from Lakewood I broke down a bunch of people who were working in the Twin Towers my brother-in-law who lives not far from there also he said that that they had a particularly lon governing that day that's the house that somebody took a very long time and when he got there the building had already collapsed they told everybody to go back it was it was something that was so mind-boggling President Bush closed all the airports I had a friend of ours who was in who is in America I remember this is the week before Shoshana so she wanted to get back for a shuttle without discussing creature comforts and staff service and things like that because yes my leg either on every airline you know this horror stories on every airliner whoever the airline is that's perfect that there's no problems with yet I I'm not sure which one it is yeah maybe Emirates but it's not so good for from people to fly but anyway but when you're in trouble Li was the place to go I'm uh I'm a Platinum Member on United and M made my wife we're going in for our grandsons shalem's all from bris and we had a flight out Wednesday for gonna get there Thursday have a rest up you know and we were on the plane and they canceled the flight okay so they said well reschedule us to the next night we showed up the next night they cancelled that flight to that even bother telling us so we went over to them and they said okay we'll reschedule on a Swissair flight I go to Swiss Air five o'clock in the morning sorry nothing this is Friday morning nope you're not on I said United said there were nope I tried calling United to forget about it yeah all right there's nobody from the airline around that nobody to help us I said to my wife I said well that's it I guess we'll just we'll miss the bris for mr. Jones oh she says let's go to ll go to ll no problem same price hey hey got his tickets we had to fly through fly through France was a stopover luckily it was a you know a long Shabbos so we landed at JFK about four o'clock went to the car ran out there got there for Shabbos yeah and they said we'll get you seats together don't worry about you when you're in trouble li was always the place to go you know some places they they advertised the food in some places they advertised the service but it's sometimes good to fly with an airline that advertises we have an toy plane missiles which again is that always a selling point for everything yeah well it's something to be said yeah so so she contacted Al and they got special permission to get one flight out before Shoshanna and she said it was a friend of colorful and she said she got to know at the airport and it was empty the whole airport is closed there's just one little spot open and one plane and she says we were going down the runway the only plane taking off in America was this ll flight yeah I'm gonna make its way back there it's jelly yeah but but but the impact of this bridges would close the the tunnels would everything was closed people said that Lorne's were covered with papers that had been after the explosion just blown all over all over the the area amantha these were people of Brooklyn papers from the twin towers were falling on their lawns it was it was something that was so unbelievable the largest terrorist attack in American history and the largest terrorist attack in British history more Brits died in the Twin Tower than in any other terrorist attack against British citizens it's just something that so so unbelievable of course it changed everything changes the way we live to change change to going to the airport a lot of things changed mindsets changed for a very short period of time I remember one of the news magazines that interviews with many famous figures asking them about 9/11 one of the people they asked was an of immense Kariba ahead of the good he said the world will never be the same that was September 11 in November I spoke in a high school in America and I asked what should I speak about they said just not knowing 11 everyone started hearing about it the amazing thing was that the entire world was changed for less than two months then nobody wanted to hear about it anymore and today he took about 9/11 yeah talk about talk about huff gimble ll talk about this tragedy that took place and of course they were real people whose lives were changed IIIi want to share with you a story which is it was mind-boggling when I heard it and every time I tell it over it's difficult for me Afeni clay Boyd's the river of time said that when he was a child and he was still living in Europe he and his father were on a train and anti-semites fired into the train because they knew they were Jews there and they were unharmed and Randolph said my father David looks at me and says I almost thought I was ready to die Oscar a sham and he says I was I was a child I saw crying I said Tata you want to die he said no but if you understand what it means to be chosen to die a skittish a sham it's something so unbelievable so the stories of all the people who were saved in the theater - Maya that's for sure and the people who had chosen I'll never forget when the when the - bus blew up hearing Harriet's show and they put out vignettes of all the different people were on the bus and I remember thinking to myself I'm okay because of coach Brock was only taken that tsadikim ain't gonna come for me and then so you with these stories of exceptional people people who were chosen the diodes kiddush a shame and go up - environment it's a it's an astounding thing that's the only thing so so anyway we were all I told you all flabbergasted and that circus Hanoi circus which was few weeks later I went to see what mr. Shapiro I I used to try to go to him on call him all evening I'm poor and and I said and he would talk he told anybody who would care to listen he says this is go go go go this is this is the beginning go go go and what you're seeing here you're gonna see repeated a lot and we tell to everybody and somebody said I thought the Holocaust we go go go go so emerges says obviously not because it said you know after go go go go everyone's gonna do - so I said Abby listen you know the Holocaust so many people now have their Jewish identity in it he looks at me Jewish I entity because when gogo no gogo takes place you're going to do chuva and that trooper like we do on Russia showing Yom Kippur but sugar from the top of your head to the bottom of your feet and he looked at me and he says David how you are - oh I see - chuva I freeze their attic ain't I said Shiva he said to me we had the hunger quest did you do to ver he says after this you will do truly and not like I say not not regular truth over the truth a shame that that's it your entire life changes go go go so the next day I call Martin I went to visit alone ones that sell and who was already you know towards the end of his life he was sick it wasn't well it was it was rough and I went to see and I said Rebbe what's happening here and and he just looked biggest duggan this is go go Magog this is the battle at the end of time so everybody should bro I expect to hear from if I said so Rebbe what do we do he says there's only two things that protect the Jewish people Torah and phezzan but for the mahom is Goga Magog it's reversed and has said is more important than tyrant that's what very Bowman said to me at that time a homemade suckers after the Twin Towers went down fastened and all of us where all people have said we all do has it but do we do I said like our life depends on it that's a different type of guys yeah that's a that's a I said where it's an amazing thing all right we all know the famous statement I believe it was by Samuel Adams I'm sure I'm sure my fact-check is out there we'll get back to me if I'm wrong and gentlemen if we do not hang together then we shall surely hang separately that that we depend on each other when we say query so every Rahzel is there and everybody's responsible for each other we really mean it I'm always surprised I get this question sometimes from people and say well how come all these religious Jews who believed in God they died in the Holocaust why did just the sinners deinonychus I said because we practice what you preach you guys don't talk about Jewish unity and how we're all when people we really believe it and we're held responsible for your actions and you are held responsible for mine and every one of us needs to be able to look at a situation and say yeah I have to look at the other person and decide how we're going to relate to this I told the story I'm pretty sure I'm a previous podcast I will tell it again because a fine story is like a fine so on and Frank Sinatra the last thirty years of his life saying the same 7 songs over and over again so I figure I can - anyway the famous story with Howard Schultz now the first part of the story everybody knows because he sent out an email he came with a group of business leaders to show and they were meeting with many famous people these were not there was not a religious group but they were all rich and a successful business ladies and one of the people they met with was lesson Sri Finkel or Shiva the mere and he said to him what did we learn from the Holocaust well give answer is never again we need an army we need a stake he says what we learned is that five people could sleep with one blanket I told the story over ones and a Holocaust survivor said Holloway we had a bunch but he was obviously paraphrasing potential of its the former regime of the mere who he says that the Gemara says in the door of you who to by law II people were so poor and yet Mushaf could have come and there was so poor that five people slept with one blanket what kind of smell of it says how could five people sleep with one blanket there's only one way every time the blanket comes to you you push it to the next person to make sure they're covered I'm sleeping but my more concern is to make sure that you were covered in that I'm covered it's a it's a certain mindset he says we learned that five people can sleep with one blanket and he looked at these businessman and say you have the blanket you have to go share with other people that's the story he says the gab I said is and and Howard Schultz wrote this up in a and an email and said that there was a he says Howard Schultz came back by himself a different time and he signs a blank check the man's a billionaire he signed the blank cheque and he gives it up nothing's free and say fill it out for whatever you want now at the time the budget of the meal was two million dollars a month lessons he had to run around collecting it was very hard for him because he had very serious Parkinson's imagine if he had a month off just for his health not to mention the fact that they had to keep leaving his tell me them to be able to spend a month in the yeshiva without anything on his head and I'd have to worry he could fill out for two million dollars Howard Schultz went to blink probably he could have filled it out for following dollars than Howard Schultz went to boil the lessons he looked at him and said I can fill it out for whatever I want he says yeah so he filled it out for twelve hundred dollars and he hands it back to him and he says take it across the street to that store and buy yourself a pair to fill it and put it on every day that's what you can do for me because of lessons she realized that he also had a blanket here the blanket quarter in Mitzvahs and instead of looking at you to say what can you do for me I say what can I do for you I don't remember if I said this in a podcast before but it's one of those stories that always moves me it's in the first Chicken Soup for the Soul book this guy has a new car and he pulls up to a little store in a sort of rundown neighborhood and he sees a little boy we're enclosed that a too big for him clearly hand-me-downs from all the relative and he's looking at the car and he comes and he says you like the car kid and he says yeah where'd you get it he says my brother bought it for me and he said wow I wish and it looks like because I wish I had a brother like that because I wish I could be a brother like that so he says you want to go for a ride he says yeah could we go by my house the video wants to show off to all of his friends that he's got a car you know so sure gets in the fancy car and he drives to his house he says just wait one minute mister and he runs into the house and he carries it out his younger brother who can't walk he says see Billy his brother bought him this car and one day I'm gonna buy you a car so won't be so hard for you to get around because most of us wish we had a brother like that instead of wishing I was a brother like that you have an opportunity to help somebody else I look at this person and say what can I get for him I met with this very high hey history they don't remember what I say where anymore Gazoo gosh am i speaking a lot of places so if I said this before I don't really carry on telling it again you know it's not like you guys are paying for this you know I was in London I was speaking at a dinner for a lord of the House of Lords I have never been to upper crust English society before now I am so completely awkward in social situations most people don't know this because they figure that you know I'm a skater when I made a public place doing a public persona kind of thing I'm fine but I by nature I'm a very shy quiet person by nature when I go to a bar mitzvah like when nobody knows me you know like when I go to one of those Samoas you know and you know and you know really my wife is there and I'm the tag along you know I'm the I'm the one the one plus you know and I go to the men's side I look for an empty table I sit there they bring me my little plate with my breca and my you know and my rice and boiled vegetables you know now I sit there and I eat it by myself if nobody was who I am I just sit there by myself I need my food and you know and when the time comes yeah so I go over and I said mazelTov you thought I leave I I'm not by nature a social person in fact in America it's much harder to make a hasana because you have to also do the table seating and as what we don't we said here the here are the seats here are the people you know if you find one fine you know when the music stops everyone sits down and okay you know but but in America you know you have to place go idea to the table city so this Hawkman's to table seating one of them is you need a live wire at each table yeah so I'm a good friend Johanna Stella I went to one of his classes in America I happen to be an American it's like your neighbors - I didn't fly in special you know but I haven't beat him so he sits me at the table thinking I'm the white wine and I'm not I just sat there quietly and ate all the pickles and he comes home and he says like you know you know talking to anybody I was like no way I don't talk to people if people talk to me I'll talk to them but but I'm not like a hi are you doing well you know hey that's great yeah hey hey waiter come over here get your blades and none of these people would somewhat I just not that kind of person I think I am I had this when I was dating used to set me up with these you know really live wire is you don't these loud girls and things you know and I thought I guess they thought I was working for de Ville and I needed a partner you know you mean like you know come overhead McCain you know I'm really not I'm a very quiet person even temperate and good-natured whom you never hear complain who has the milk of human kindness by the court in every vein anyway so so there I am at this dinner for a really upper-crust Society and I mean really there was a guy that called the colonel with a walrus moustache and a monocle like right out of clue and he was like like just upper crust English society now I'm awkward under the best of situations and so I did what I always do when I'm in a social situation I went to the bar I got myself a drink and I think was the screwdriver I leaned against the wall and I put on my my forced smile face and I just said there like that in case anybody would come over and talk to me but it was no problem nobody did and I just leaned against well during the entire cocktail hour part of the program and every now and then I would actually drink this now I don't drink alcohol by nature and then I had like a second one maybe that was about well how cool never had my life you know and then when I get to the when I get to the meal so I'm sitting with a group of very wealthy people and and they serve wine so they said oh those certainly you have to have some wine does that but no it's a finite supply so I get up to speak and everybody pulls out cigars the room fills with cigar smoke there Bernie had over two drinks and all the guys book I'm holding on to the Sten de and the room is spinning around and I don't know how I got through that speech and I was totally out of it and these people said that was the most enthusiastic they're like yeah anyway so this one fellow is intrigued and he says you know remember asking maybe you could make some time you know to come and speak I'll send my rolls-royce to come and pick you up well I was intrigued he gave me his personal number you know I was staying with the Franco family at the time in Hendon who I've had this host many times of staying at my my London stays and and I told him about this when I came home and so he says are you kidding he says everyone's trying to get that man's number was it him you know I already made a range bridge he's gonna pick me up so sure enough he picks me up in his rolls-royce he thanks me to his office and he starts talking and he tells me about his wife but he tells me about his kids and he tells me about his you know extramarital liaisons and his different activities etc and I finally I'm listening to this I say what is wrong with you you're gonna lose everything you're gonna lose your marriage you're gonna lose your kids you're gonna lose this now he was actually a Sephardic descent so you guys I met through I've admit I said don't tell me I meant write your business man action plan what are we gonna do how we gonna change your life around what do we how we gonna rebuild this I don't know I said no no that's not an answer and to take out a paper and a pencil and what's write down what we're going to do that your life changes he does a double thinking he says you know no rabbi talks to me like this and I said that's because they all want your money I don't need your money I get paid speaking trucks come by and dump it I don't know what to do with it over me I'm starting to burn it for fuel I don't know what to do with all the money I've never been enjoyed now this is not to be fair okay I've never been able to raise money my life my parents brought me up never they ask anybody for anything I can I can't when I was running NCS why I had money that I had to raise the budget you know and people would say to me I believe in what you're doing come by and I want to give you a check I couldn't do it if they put the check in my hand but to go knock when someone's doing it I couldn't do it my parents brought me up never day that's gonna be ready I'm 60 years old and if I'm staying someplace like a mile away and I don't have a car and no one offers me a ride I'll walk I can't go over to somebody and say could you give me a ride I can't I can't that's for anything you know so maybe I should be called the Bailey relationships with rich people and maybe that would be a good thing to do you know I've always had this dream to start a yeshiva and I've never done it because I'm terrified by the fundraiser I've been I've worked for institutions where they didn't pay me you know and and I can't I can't sleep at night doing that to somebody so sighs and I don't have raise money I had to do it so when I meet a rich person I'm not looking at them thinking what can I get out of them my only thought is what can I do for you I want to be a brother like that I don't want to have a brother like that it's a beautiful story about a person who did a lot of Fassett and did a lot of good things one of the one of the greats who were taken in this terrible terrible tragedy and and the world's a little darker because of it and if anything it requires us to fill in that lack with lesson and like if boomin said that comes first I knew a guy who was in the Cure of organization and after well he had to raise the money he says I couldn't I was incapable of having a real relationship I'd meet somebody and think how much can I ask this person for that that's all I could say if nothing's free looked at Howard Schultz and thought what can I do for you because I want to be a brother like that not have a brother like that when we think about what we're able to do that's what we have to do during these days and the fact that this took place during the week of slickers just before Rosh Hashanah it's because comes Rosh Hashana the books are closed and now you're gonna be judged based on this past year that's all you have you have this this time left and opportunities for head pop up all the time small ones I'm not talking about starting major organizations small ones opportunities to be able to do good things and to be able to help people animator Shem and the source of the head and the tyrant that we do so the acts of kindness and Tyra animates our Shem all of us of Isaiah fair to exceed scimitar but that's it for this week if you want to find out more about the show you can go to regulation calm you can make comments you could contact me you could find about upcoming events and you could sponsor an episode and help us continue to do this program just go to our llc.com slash podcast and click on sponsor an episode I'm Deborah Orlowski and this is the very last show [Music]