PIC2024 R' Orlofsky-Purim Is Forever- Closing Keynote

thank you very much R zakutinsky for that beautiful introduction I had Theus of being in Brooklyn with the rabbi who is in charge and we went to four shes over the course of the shabas speaking to very large crowds about project Inspire and he said to me you could now do this for the next 10 shabos and never repeat the same shes because there's so much going on now in Lakewood but anyway which is apparently where everybody moved to but anyway but back then this is an old story so uh to be able to go around um uh I first and foremost want to uh thank J fredman who just keeps inviting me back in spite of all the evidence to the contrary and uh and he always says to me take as much time as you want and then he comes in and goes no stop stop no so I saidh how much time do I have and he told me I said are you sure he said yeah I said are you going to start waving in the middle and telling me to stop he goes yeah I said okay just so we have that established um and of course I would like to begin as I always do on my podcast uh whether you're watching with Tor anytime wherever you watch or listen to your podcasts but I'm not going to say that now because there is no other place to get this except on Tor anytime um Tor anytime I have Theus to be one of the top people on ter anytime thank you and um I can't beat out this guy Malik he speaks in Yiddish I don't know what to do but anyway I'm thinking of doing my podcast in yish and see if that helps but uh but uh it is interesting because you know somebody came over to me you know and uh you know they said oh we we really like watching you know your your your videos so I said you mean my podcast he goes no Rabbi sitter I'm a cartoon character for those of you who are not aware um even before I was a cartoon character I was a cartoon character but Tor live turned me into a character called Rabbi sitter and uh you know so these little kids came over and they said oh we we all watch you I said Rabbi sitter he says no the podcast my parents watch Rabbi sitter so the world is upside down and isn't that true and so I would like to begin uh the I would like to close the convention the same way I began it the third floor don't you know I just had Sten put in no that's not uh that was before the convention started I said welcome to the project inspired convention and I will repeat what I said at that time I said project Inspire has a mission this mission was started by R Weinberg which is that if I can reach a 100 non-firm people I reached a 100 people if I reached a 100 from people then I reached a 100 times that amount because every one of them was able to reach a 100 people and so he had it as his goal that was the those were the talks that he gave in the lake with yiva to try to wake up the fir community and the staff at project Inspire has taken this dream to a level that no one could have possibly imagined and that is their goal however ever it's not mine my goal is completely different I was giving a sheer every other moti shabas and harno I still am but now nobody comes but um but when I was younger and happening you know what I mean so there was a time in my life when I I was cool but anyway now I'm old but uh the um uh I I I I was so busy with so many other things I had a lot of jobs not anymore I lost them all through my Whitten personality but I had I was busy the whole day and I was going to stop this year and uh someone dragged me to Raa Shapiro and he said to me I appreciate that you're busy you'll have to cut out something else so there are two children I of mine I don't know where they are anymore but he says yeah you you and this is what he said to me and this has rung in my ears ever since if you can do anything that gives people today you are to do it because we are a door that needs this is what he said to me years ago and uh he once saidat in a gamaran g that we all know it's one of the Tis of garas that Titus takes his sword and sticks it into the peras and blood comes out an unbelievable Nace and he says I killed the god of Israel and so he says why would he be Z to such a ace and he says the gr says that obviously if there was a nce it wasn't for Titus it was for us the miracle was to teach us now listen to this because this is Harsh it's to teach us that we died at the Corbin we're dead and says the gr we've just been rotting away until there's nothing left but dry bones and when mhia comes it's going to have to be a because we're dead I heard with Pinkus on a tape 30 years ago so I don't know when he gave the she but I heard it 30 years ago and he told the story of the where he would think about theb and he would cry and he'd fill up a bowl with tears and at the sud he would dip his bread in it and with Pinkus said if I went around all J and benab this tissue of would I get a half a cup of Tears and so we we don't know what anything means anymore what's Tish Tish today is the day of videos you know every organization puts out a video and people sit home and they watch videos because how are we supposed to relate to it I'll never forget when uh I got married uh over 40 years ago there is probably no more poignant moment in your life then when you're going down to the bedc and you haven't seen your wife for for a whole week and you're seeing her you're about to get married maybe the only other moment that's as poignant as when you walk your own children down the but you you're going there and it's so poignant no need to say anything today you have to do a shtick guy brings a little Rose does a little dance has to do something because what's real doesn't have enough meaning anymore you know you buy one of these books on F when you're saying and you're and you're sitting there saying reading a book you know couple Pages another couple Pages you know and you keep reading you know because we don't know how to do it those was a there was a letter to the editor written by this Seminary girl who was back in America and she said you know when I was in seminary I had such an unbelievable R we spent a whole month of el preparing we were learning we were learning it was unbelievable and now I'm back and I got a job and I'm going into Y and I'm not prepared what am I going to do I go to SCH and I see these alter bubbers with their old and they're crying and I said they never saw they never saw but they had something real on the inside now it's so hard for us and this is what I said at the beginning at my opening in my opening talk and I repeat it now at the end there is no event in the Jewish World more important than project Inspire because the people who come here walk away with their lives changed now mem that will inspire us to go out and change other people's lives but the that we get from a I'm talking about myself it's project Inspire we are in we walk away inspired what are people doing up at 1:00 in the morning on a Friday night listening to me and a bunch of other oh by the way I have a note here I was asked to read please mention me rev gav anyway me and some other rabbis it's not important who but to be to be able to to to see a room full of people to see a Hava like that was going on all these things that are happening it's because we want that that that we want to come back to life we need that said to me anybody who can give today with and no one no one in clel gives like project is [Applause] fire and that's why whatever we're going to do out there comes from us I used to teach in a rical training program and I used to say the hardest question to answer is the question that you yourself are stuck on so I would tell these rabbis I said in your heart of hearts if you are a male chauvinist don't answer women issues questions because they'll know that you're a phony you understand you have to answer the question for yourself if you're not secure then everybody else will know it so the the the Starker we are the greater is our ability to go out there and have an impact on clel and this is the end we're in the end game yeah everyone knows it you can feel it a friend of mine took his talim Toki five years ago and they said you know one of the boys said rebi is mhia coming says coming he's outside knocking on the door that was five years ago it's it's everything is so closed we feel it you look at the world today and it doesn't make any sense what what a what a great title project Inspire on the front lines because we're not just on the front lines of cir on the front lines everywhere that's clusel who's fighting over there my son-in-law who uh unfortunately is in a very tough division in the Israeli Army his job is to collect people who NE you know get killed in battle so he spent the first part going from Village to Village collecting the people who were murdered and he says he says in a way it's worse because you're on the battlefield okay you expect casualties but you walk into a house and you see it set for for shabas and and and you see everything there and and the devastation the difference is just is just devastating and he said and he and he he he was his division was the one had to clean out alifa Hospital you know he's from Georgia so he's pretty you know even Keel you know people from down south they're like very sedate you know I remember one years ago in ncsy one of the kids from Southern Region would come over and it took them like two minutes to say hello hi Rabbi or lski I said I need a shorter name I just can't this is taking too much time you know I'm a New York guy would have already read the New York Times by now you know I mean amount time it took him to say hello you know so he's very sedate but I never heard him like this he says imagine the worst thing you can imagine then double it by 10 and then double that by 100 you know so we're with them and and and I and I cannot stress this enough you do not appreciate your own power and that is one of the biggest problems that we have you don't appreciate your own power the aahar is very busy he's very busy he the gamar says he's the he's the he's the Mal right as the he tempts you as the Satan he prosecutes you and as the Mal he carries out the sentence he's also the Mal he's very busy he's not running around telling you say some Lush and Har you know forget to make a braa no his job is much more important he wants to convince you that you don't matter that's his biggest job his greatest weapon I had a girl in seminary second year she says to me we get these list of people to D for and I D for them sometimes they get better sometimes they die has nothing to do with me she's sure of it so why should I DAV think of K cares you think it makes a difference if if uh if if you know I DAV if I make a if I do something who am I more than anything wants to make you believe that you don't matter had a tremendous Insight we blow one last te rashash why he hears that and he thinks it's the chauffer of Messiah and he said 2,000 years he's fooling for the same trick by a look it up say oh they do this all the time and he said so poignantly theur is not stupid we are because we don't know how close we are at that moment to turning it into the Sher of mashiach but we don't appreciate it I went to in 1975 was I never forgot he told this story he says when I was a little boy I went to the zoo and the lion roared and I got frightened and I said to the Zookeeper can he break out of that cage the Zookeeper said yes but don't worry he doesn't know it he looked around the room and said that's every one of us the reason you don't believe that you can change the world is only because the sutan tells you it you you if you understood I don't forget you know shade said this once he says you hear people say what do you want from me I'm only human only human that means you're greater than the malim mean you have a that's all the way up the Elon what do you mean you're only human you understand the power that you have my friend of Victor freed came to see me and he says I don't know I feel like in America everyone's gotten used to it okay it's human nature human nature I remember after 911 11 uh it was either new week or time they took quotes from everybody they considered to be a major leader and one of them they quoted was the Nova Minsk rabba who I had this of hearing once at a project Inspire convention and um and uh he said after 9911 the world will never be the same that November I was speaking in a girl's high school and I said what should I speak about said anything icept 911 people were tired of hearing about it I said the world was a different place for two months and now everything's back the way it was so he said to me I know at the beginning everybody was so moved and now you see people were walking out for the tah you know they they're not they're not saying it like like we're in trouble and we have a group of soldiers that went into a booby trap building two of them got killed you know three of them got killed you know and and and these these are our children so why aren't we doing it only one reason we don't believe it makes a difference because you don't think when you say that capital to you stop the bullet when my son-in-law went into uh went into the army they called him up on simyra um they didn't have enough flag jackets they were sending them into battle without bulletproof vest which I should point out is pretty important when you're in a shooting situation so we started a group we raised money to buy his people Flack jackets that they should be able to have have unbelievable to to go in on this so what saved people when that bullet shoots off you're Capital to Hill him what stopped that bomb from going off you're Capital to Hill but you don't appreciate it cuz you don't think it makes a difference like this girl said to me we get a list of people for ding for and they get better and sometimes they they they die and has nothing to do with us there are times when I get up to speak and when you're a speaker in the from Community you can't help but become a social critic it's part of the job you point out the problems and people say why isn't anybody doing anything I said I am if I have to save the world by myself I will if you want to help me there'll be two of us you understand this project Inspire I don't have to do so much anymore you know what I mean but uh but I can't save the world why not because because I'm just an average guy so what somebody came to my M shabash and he says to me I love coming to you because you're so ordinary and I feel like if you could do it anyone can and I appreciated that cuz I where it was coming from you meet these unbelievably inspirational people and I'm just like well I'm out you know what I mean I'm not starting T any time and I'm not starting any major organization and I'm I'm not doing any of that kind of stuff you know but I can do what I can do and if everybody does what they can do we can change the world and my FAS can't change it I'm I'm going to I'm going to point out something that's uncomfortable to hear little uncomfortable I used to ask from audiences do you think Hashem loves you so nobody could say yes but hasem P conspire has been around long enough so we know the right answer do you think Hashem loves you yes Hashem loves me do you think he likes you do you think he's impressed with you I haven't met one from jwad who can say yet and I'm sitting in a room full of people who are sh in mitv after 2,000 years of GIS who are dedicated to everything that goes into wants us to do and you took a weekend that you paid money for to come to a hotel and and listen to speaker after speaker day and night and you think you in not the most important people in CL you think you're not the most impressive people that there are you think you're not the ones who are going to be Messiah only because the Yar tells you that eh you're nothing in the eyes of a KES there is no group in CL Israel more important than the people in this room right now who spent their shabas together and and and I say that from my heart because anyone who knows me knows I don't like to say nice things you understand but I mom believe it and that's the that's the scary part we need you the soldiers on the front line need you at Fus those Jews are waiting for you I was speaking once when I was in ncsy had a leadership shabbaton and I said you know there are kids we come from and then they become like Morano you know like they keep they keep Judaism Secret in their house and when they go to school they don't even would know you know hey you want to go out Friday night nah my family has got something you know what I mean I got to study for a t they make excuses and I said but all you guys are great you're going to get up to shamayim and uh you'll get on the express line of course because you're the tadim you know and you'll pass some kid you knew in high school and he grabs you by your Celestial sleeve and he says you knew about all this Torah Andes and all this stuff he says yeah he says that's what you were doing all those Friday nights says yeah says why didn't you tell me about it I thought you'd laugh at me I thought you'd make fun of me and the kid says maybe I would have maybe I would have and maybe I would have come and maybe I would be from today and maybe I would have a family I can't say for sure but wasn't I worth the risk what would have been the worst thing I would have said get away from me you idiot rejection okay so you're back inim what's the big deal yeah so okay so so so but look at I put myself a Mega Millions because it was 250 million the power bowl was only 100 million it wasn't worth my time anyway if I'm going to lose I want to lose a lot anyway and uh and I'm always surprised when when I lose I don't know why I'm pretty sure K who knows it's a very difficult n to be very wealthy and he doesn't think I can handle it and I've really tried to convince him that I'm ready but he doesn't seem to think so you know but I always buy it I'm spending two bucks on a chance that I'm more likely to get hit by lightning than I am of winning this thing and I'm spending two bucks so can you imagine I go to a firm person and I say hey would you like to come for shabas hey would you like to you know can I send you a shalak Manus from uh from Project inspire you know hey would you be interested in having a conversation about this or about that what are the what are the odds better than winning the lottery trust me I know because I've done both and I've spoken to people we became from and I never won the lottery the odds are better but it's because you hear that voice in your head saying you're no good no one cares about you m burer tells a story where he goes to this secular businessman and he says anytime I see one of your religious Jews I always hear the same thing saying Harry you're no good Harry you're no good he says Harry do you hear that voice now he says yeah he says well there's only two of us in the room and I'm not talking that voice comes in from yourself and the suan says you're nothing you're nobody there one person who can change the world I have rebi Riva of mine who said to one of the people I was working for he goes is olavi effective says yeah he goes I never thought he'd amount to anything now again I understand I have dyslexia and I have Ed and I focusing problems and I have retention problems and I have an obnoxious person it and it makes sense that I never would have done anything but a said you have something to do in this world if you want to do you think there's anybody in this room who doesn't have the ability to change the world and do great things of course you can but the suan tells you no one wants to hear youus nobody wants to hear you toyra nobody wants to come to your house nobody wants to answer your phone um so it's it's a that's the add anyway so uh I I embrace these things I mean they are limitations I had a bumper sticker that said dyslexics untie anyway that's a subtle one take your time anyway I do remedial humor also so I don't have to worry about anyway all this is my way of introduction to our topic because I'm supposed to speak about PM speak about pm and that works out very well because it's an the whole time you you're going through the perm story and you're sure the Jewish people are going to all get wiped out completely destroyed and as M pointed out once anything that's signed with the king's Ring can never be undone which means the gazer m is still on us there is a death sentence a sort of damle hanging over the Jewish people it's never been removed the only difference is there was another decree that says we can fight back you're reading this story and suddenly at the end everything turns around it's not a happy ending Esther can never go back to her husband she REM remains married to this anti-semite who the gamorra says hated the Jews more than hon did you know um the bdes still isn't being rebuilt a still wouldn't allow it so it's not exactly the happiest of endings but we didn't get killed which by the way is a very good thing I'm going to go and wreck it with that but it was there was nothing you could expect that's why it's it's interesting suus ISU but purm is the holiday of laughter when do you laugh when it's unexpected you always laugh on the unexpected you you you don't laugh on what's expected a guy walks into a bar orders a drink not very funny a guy walks into a bar says ouch also not very funny but at least it's a joke because you didn't realize he walked into an actual bar you thought that he walked into the bar right bar right and that's every joke every joke is based on unexpected it's that's what makes you laugh is that I didn't see that coming Woody Allen says when I was growing up I had to wear my cousin's hand-me-downs and it was embarrassing cuz she wasn't my size okay it's unexpected you don't see it coming you know that's what that's what every joke is B the base of every joke right that's why uh as Rabbi feldheim pointed out since his name is yit yit means laughter now let's be fair there's probably not a less funny guy in all of Tanakh than y yeah in every pole he's voted the least funny of the AOS and you could check this yeah why is why is his name laughter because he lived in Den you can't live in din wanted to create the world in D he saw it couldn't stand he mixed in ra y's in din that's funny not if you're in DIN and you can't handle it but for was funny and that's why our mouths will be filled with laughter when Messiah comes there will be nothing funnier than Messiah coming it's hard for us to even imagine it in the situation we're in but imagine msia actually comes and with modern communication everyone knows it all around the world and uh they say okay uh we cut to the Vatican Pope I was wrong what I was wrong take off the white one put on a black one okay done go go to Mecca we were wrong we were all wrong forget about the rock you know we were wrong you know go to go to you know uh Washington you know and say uh we want to congratulate the Jewish people on turning out to be right this entire time we're sending the Army Corps of Engineers to build housing and every plane is now being diverted directly to Israel to take all of our Jewish Brethren to is Israel and do me favor and bring a corbon for me we're going to laugh the hardest cuz we don't expect it we don't see it as many a fir Jew has said to me I know there's a God I don't believe it because it's hard imagine you're doing and there he is oh my God I mean that's you he says yeah who' you think you were doing to nobody I didn't know you were really there yeah no but but it's suddenly going to be so obvious I burst out laughing how do we get there says there was a greater cab on purm than there was at Hari astounding har they were on this prophetic level they hear heard speak they they saw the sounds and they heard the sights it was otherworldly it was unbelievable perm was a political drama that took place yeah this one this this one that prime minister switch that and that led to a greater [Music] say we became one people says the is a prerequisite for which means says that if there was a greater it's because there was a great um I was at a uh I was at a kasna once with uh MTI burger and the question came up Abraham was ding say 50 Jews 40 Jews 30 Jews 20 Jews 10 Jews yeah couldn't save anybody and lo says listen soya is not so bad we leave this place alone I'll go to that City soberg asked he said how is it that Abraham couldn't save anything and load saved soya so he says because people who are in that world say listen you know I may not be religious but I'm more religious than him I know Abraham is looking for sikim I'm looking for the better I can find those that's that's what he said over and MTI said I have a different answer I don't know who's a sadic I don't know who's a Russia but I know I'm tired and therefore I can't go so far so save this town because the best way that we are effective is by self-interest worry about yourself don't be a martyr save Claus F because it's better for you in the words of General Patton I'm not looking for people to die for their country you don't win Wars by dying for your country you win Wars by making the other guy die for his country and so when we understand that when we save it's better for us as a rash says if you keep the toyra yeah so it says the pic says five of you will chase a 100 and a 100 of you will chase 10,000 so says rashi's off if five of you are chasing 20 then means each one of you uh excuse me if five of you chase a 100 each one of you is chasing 20 of the enemy but if a hundred of you chase 10,000 each one of you is chasing a hundred of the enemy and he says that means forget about everybody else out there in the world you if cly Israel is not keeping the T only a you're at 20% capacity and if you get everybody to keep the Tyra there Samson said you know not most of them all of them you get every body in you'll you'll be at 100% capacity do it for yourself do it out of self-interest do it because as we saw on when we're all together we will reach a higher level of we ourselves will be greater my friends this chabas is up in shamayim one of the most important dates that A's got on his calendar because he says I'm bringing together an enormous amount of from Jews and I'm giving them and we're going to go home I speak for myself and I'm sure many others we're going to go home from this shabas and our doing will be different and our learning will be different and and and our voter to Hashem will be different for ourselves and the stronger we are for ourselves the more we will get that courage to say when I D I'm saving lives when I do things I'm the one who's going to be attacking the world and bring messia and that will give us the strength to go over to a fellow Jew and say I'll take a chance mayy I could touch your life and there are many many people in this room who could tell you I tried it and it works it's unbelievable how many times I've just tried to have a conversation with somebody and you don't know so uh I was running an swne Long Island and uh and I uh I wanted to uh stay and learn I got married I took off a year stayed and learn I wanted to sit and learn and uh I went through a shinberg I was there for a half an hour he says how important CL is how important learning ter is how important back and forth for a half an hour and finally he said to me you have to go back so because I was learning he says look I can't pass the sh because I you know I I really want to uh I want you to stay so now we'll go to Rebel yosbel Yos I was in and out in three minutes he says if not then you have to do it says you have to go back okay so that P we were having the sudin yiva and they had just come out with kosha with with kosha French wine now we take it for granted that there's nice kosher wine when I was growing up there was only one wine extra heavy Malaga came in a gallon jug you would take a knife cut out a piece put it in your cup remember Yehuda said you know I would drink the Arosa and of a headache till shuis it was extra heavy Malaga you know so they came out with this this this these French wi that were kosher that you could drink and I had never drunk wine in my life and I didn't realize that I had drunk more than I was able to handle and uh reric the the mash calls me over because apparently I had tears rolling down my cheeks and he says D what's the matter and and I said I said why do I have to go back he says you're lucky usually GD Torah don't answer questions like this they tell you you decide you're lucky two G Torah told you you this is what you're supposed to do and I said just because I can help other people why can't I take care of myself and he says to me I'll tell you a story now I know this story I used to tell it over when I was in ncus why but I sat there very patiently till he finished and he says to me at the aura convention in 1929 said everybody has to go out and do kirv 1929 in Europe and later in the convention he asked if he could speak again okay wants to speak please step aside you know tell the we'll get to you later you know he gets up he says I heard people saying the doesn't mean me I'm not firm enough I'm not smart enough I'm not good enough he says I'll give you a marshall there was a nobleman who had a very large tract of land with many villages and he was going around to The Villages and he comes to one Village he drinks the water he spits it out he says it's Sandy he said well that's how the water is here he said well you can't use it you know so he says I'm making an edict you have to boil the water here before you use it fine weeks later one night he's looking out he sees a fire in the distance he gets into his Carriage he runs down and the village is burning down and he says why don't you put out the fire he says we will we're waiting for the water to boil and the nobleman said that's for drinking that's for washing but when there's a fire you take whatever water there is and you throw it on so I knew the story already I had my rejoiner waiting as he was talking and I said but rebi the water is still not fit to drink but canar uh escaped with the mirror out of Europe yeah he spoke with a strong Yiddish accent and he looks at me and he says Ravid Hali we just put out the fire my friends Hali we just put out the fire thank you very much