Body and Soul 2023 What is The Jewish People’s Secret Weapon? Rabbi Tzvi Sytner

trip but Rabbi T sitner in addition to be the rabbi of the village schul in Toronto is also is also a partner of project Inspire in so many different projects and programs not to mention this weekend and the three-day trips but somebody who came as a lecturer on a three-day trip and said we have to bring the whole city of Toronto on these trips everyone needs to be on these trips went back and he has a massive group just from Toronto um torontonians in New York don't get along so ELO just doing it only for Toronto people uh in fact when I was growing up they used to tell a joke I don't know if it's still relevant today but they how many torontonians does it take to change the light bulb 100 one to change the light bulb in 99 to find out how they do it in New York know was uh I don't know if it's still relevant today but really Rabbi T sitner has like I said not only come as a lecture not only come to join the weekends but has come as a full partner in everything that we we do he started this weekend off with the spirit and the focus that we needed for this weekend and he will end it so without further Ado Rabbi T sitner any of us have H have the window into the uh shabas project the shabat tones that project inspired does but show of hands how many people have been on a three-day trip amazing okay that makes me so happy to see and to hear um first I want to give a shout out Maly staler thank you for she gave you know she told me last night I better stay I mean I was doing it any anyway but thank you for encouraging me to be here this morning Maly um three-day trips barem they're incredibly inspiring and uh I've been on I think maybe four of them already I've also been on several projects to inspire Israel trips for those of you that have not been on the Israel trips uh we got to get them going again but they were very very inspiring trips I want to tell you about one particular trip that I was on and for those of you that have been on the three-day trips you've heard this before but I can't say it enough and and you can't hear it enough and if you can hear enough too bad because I'm saying it anyway so there was one particular trip that I was on it was an Israel trip and we had people from all over the world and on these trips you know one of the things that they always like to do is to kind of get everybody together one of the ways to do that of course is vulnerability getting people to share getting people to support each other and listen and when you do that it really brings people together on the bus so you know when you get to you're on one of these bus and you've got people from all over the world on one bus like well we got to break down all the walls as quick as possible because this this uh trip is a short trip so I get up on the bus and I I do this as I often do on every trip get up on the bus and I'll say um guys all of you took off time you left your work you left your office you left your families you came here all the way to Israel for this week and I want to know why and I'll ask everybody to get up on the mic and to share and one by one on every single trip guys we'll get off on the mic and they'll begin to share hey my name is so and so I'm from this and this place I'm here because of this and it gets pretty emotional and people are very open there's a lot of sharing going on it's kind of like an AA meeting but with alcohol on a bus that was and and everybody begins to share it's very very meaningful anyways I get up on this one trip I get up on the mic I say guys we're here I'm looking around the bus it's full bus I said we are um we're we're brothers and I want to get you guys up on this mic one by one come up here tell us who you are open your hearts open your minds share with us and for the first time ever nobody like got up so I made another I said come on guys let's go who's going to be the first Courageous one to get up on the mic come on up tell us who you are share with us silence I'm like what is going on and then I realized I was on the Spanish speaking [Laughter] bus so like here we are with we're driving from like SAS down to us we got a three-hour bus ride I've got my group of torontonians and a whole bunch of Spanish speakers and I'm like oh gosh like how are we going to get the sharing going exactly on this bus this is going to be problematic I called out one guy I said what's your name spoke a little bit of English he says Pablo I said Pablo stand up for a second guy stands up he's like 65 right I'm like 4 foot2 he's saari I'm ashkanazi he eats burritos I have filed fish we're like we're like there's like nothing you know he speaks Spanish I speak we have nothing in common the two of us okay I said to him I said Pablo where's where's your grandmother from he says Poland I said mine too I said where in Poland he says ludge I said mine too I said to him you know that means that our grandmothers could have been neighbors speaking Yiddish together cooking Gila fish and really the only difference between you and me is What boat our grandmothers got on really we're the same yours got you to Mexico mine got me to New York that's it shortly after I said that guys started getting up on the mic it's three-hour trip from y from from SAS down to yam and I I'll never forget this scene where I see some guy getting up he's speaking in Spanish and he's crying and crying and I'm looking at my guys from Toronto they don't understand a what did he saying but they were crying along with him as he poured out his heart they were feeling what he was saying couple days later it's Friday night we have this beautiful meal at a in Jerusalem and then we walk over to uh to mear ultra Orthodox Community I tell the guys we're going to go I'm going to take you to AIC many of you guys have been there I take we go to mear we're walking down these dark alleys 11 12:00 at night on a Friday night and as we're walking with this group group I hear singing coming from one of the apartments I said to the guys did you hear that they said yeah I said that's what happens on a Jewish Home on a Friday night we sing Shabbat songs I said I want to tell you something else I bet although this is an ultra Orthodox Community I bet if we were to go in there and knock on that door I bet you he would invite us in so the torontonians were like no no we never do that and like the the Spanish guys were like do it do it do it so I'm like you know what fine I'm up for a challenge I walk up this CH I walk up to this apartment in Yim May in maym dark Friday night 11:30 at night and I knock on the doorish boy answers the door long pay he looks at me said sh Shalom right I'm here with a group from from you know outside of Israel and it's a mixed group of people I begin to tell him I said and we heard the singing and we want to know if we can come in and he closes the door and I look over to my guys I'm like and about a minute later the door opens up and he says to me he says the Tata says you can come in so I turned to the guys I didn't tell him how many we had I turned to the guys said all right boys let's go all of a sudden 25 guys come into this apartment and uh my job almost D dropped like my I felt like my face was going to fall off when I looked at the head of the table when we came in sitting at the head of the table is a man with a Long White Beard and a long white pis and a long gold coat and a big furry shl we had walked into the apartment of the Dian of toas Aon like the second in command like the queen bee the head rby that's whose house we walked into okay and I'm like ah find me a hole to crawl in into it was like so uncomfortable and they quickly started pulling chairs and like we we all and he was sitting around the table with all of his his his talum his students his children his son-in-laws all the everybody's together and they and and all the the men and women they start grabbing chairs for us we all crowd around and we sit there and it's really like pretty intense and he's at the head of the table and we're all looking at him and he says so where you guys from I'm like what is going on here that was probably the first English he spoke in like 70 years he left Australia like s like 60 years ago he had left Australia came to Mayar and became this big cidic rebi anyway he says okay you want me to sing you want us to sing we'll sing and all the together begin to [Music] sing [Music] I believe in mashia and they keep singing it and they sing again and again and again and we're all watching as they're swaying everyone has their eyes closed we're taking this in it comes to an end and uh he uh he says do you guys want to come for lunch tomorrow said no thank you we appreciate it we they escorted us out we go back on the street of May sharim it's dark we're standing out in the street I said to the guys do you realize what just happened and they were like no I said okay it's normal to sing on a Friday night we sing certain Shabbat songs it's not normal to sing that they said why what was that I said that tune tune goes back to the Holocaust the story behind that tune is that there was a certain cidic caner a m maid named RAB AEL DAV fastag and unfortunately when he was when when his whole Community hisle was rounded up and taken into these cattle cars on the way to trinka he was a famous caner and he began to compose that tune as the s sounds of The Wheels On The Tracks making their way in in in in synchrony all the way to to trinka he's listening to the sound and it begins to compose this tune in the cattle car and it begins to [Music] sing and The Story Goes that everybody in the in the cattle car together started singing with him I'm and all the Jews squished into this cattle car on the way to trinka and they all sang and sang and sang and they repeated it and repeated it and eventually he said whoever gets this tune somehow if you survive whoever gets this tune to the majit rebi in New York he says I'll give you half of my heavenly word half Mya there were two boys two young boys that found like a crack in in in the top of the top of the catle car and they squeezed through and they jumped from the train one of them died on the jump the other one survived and he got the tune to the ma of rebi they said that that year the rebi sang That Tune on yum Kipper in Shu and he said to that tune they went to the gas Chambers and to That Tune we will greet Messiah and so I turned to the guy standing there in May sharim in this dark night and I said I don't know but maybe although it is normal to sing on a Friday night maybe he chose that to because his message to all of us sitting around that table was look although I'm from Australia but I'm really aiic Jew living in Yim you guys from Toronto all different backgrounds reform conservative a group from Mexico sapharic group but we all come back to one point and he just brought us back to the Holocaust with that tomb same people different boats in fact the closenberg rebi who unfortunately lost his wife and 10 children in the Holocaust kenberg Reby said there's one thing that I actually miss about the Holocaust something I miss about the Holocaust he said when we were on these death marches he said my hair was shaven my beard was shaven we all wore the same black and white striped uniform and nobody knew who anybody else was you didn't know if the person next to you wasid or L LV litvak you didn't know if the person next to you was religious or not we just stood arm in- arm to keep warm and to keep each other warm he said that's what I miss about the Holocaust really we're all the same we're all the same one family brothers and sisters different boats you know we never know why God does what he does but I think at the same time while we have no idea why things are happening in Israel the way they are we also can't ignore the fact that the greatest pain that we've seen in our lifetimes to the Jewish people happened at the same time as the greatest divide that we've seen in the Jewish people in our lifetimes we don't know why God does what he does but we can't ignore the fact that they happen at the same time in fact it actually bothered me a lot I'm sure many of you have seen the burning of his flags all around the world I saw one that really like opened my eyes just 10 days ago they were burning Israeli Flags in Iran now you say okay that makes sense but where in Iran were they burning the Israeli flags at the tomb of morai and Esther incredible 2500 years later here we are we think you know it's us and Kamas it's us and Iran right that's what it is it's not a new war this war has been going on for thousands and thousands of years different names different people different enemies and if we go back 25 200 years incredible to see here they are burning our modern day Israeli flag at the tomb of Mori and Esther you have Kamas burning Israeli flags at the same spot where the Kamas of the day hamon was doing what he was doing to us and how did it start back then how was it how could it be that if we have a people that we're all just brothers we're all one family how do we get to where we are today go back to that war where hummon tried to destroy us and it answers the question of What's Happen happening to us today because ham theas of the day turns to and he says orur he says there's one nation that's spread out now this is his pitch to to to destroy us he's making a pitch we have to destroy the Jewish people and what's his pitch there's there's one nation that's spread out so what what he was saying was yes there's a nation that's there's a nation that's one and only one whose power comes from their Oneness there's a nation that's that's impenetrable that is so powerful when they're when they're and we are one and so powerful number we one but right now they're right now they're spread out they're divided there's divisiveness they're arguing they're cutting themselves up they're fighting among themselves and so Now's the Time to destroy them the history the Jewish people shows us that when we're divided we are susceptible to the greatest anti-Semitism you know many of us at the pace of seder we'll lift up our cups we all sing right right everybody sings that not just me staring at me like I'm okay great right just me okay thanks thanks brother right we lift our cup and it's actually a funny thing to sing if you look at the words but not only one nation destroyed us every generation they stand up to destroy us and we're like singing this likey imagine like you know and every they try to kill us right it's actually a little bit weird but but the has such a beautiful explanation he says when we sayal it means not only one not only one nation tried to destroy us every generation they try to destroy us sh can be understood as not only one nation tried to destroy us or shal when we're not one bil vad that alone a is when they stand up to destroy us every generation we see this time and time again when we're United we're powerful when we're divided we're attacked yeah we're all the same we're brothers and sisters so how do we end up where we are now right now in the world again I'm not a prophet and I'm not saying this is why God does things but all I can tell you is that when we're divided historically we're attacked and boy were we divided a month ago and boy were we attacked so what unites us what brings us together that makes us that impenetrable all powerful Nation how can we come together once again I think there's two things that bring the Jewish people together one of them is something that we're seeing now you know about uh I think it was I don't know last May last May I was asked to speak uh in the in Toronto at this event this Unity event it was when there was uh some attacks happening in Israel uh some rockets and I was speaking at this Unity event they had they brought together every fifth grade class from every single Jewish school across the city so you had like hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of kids alt together talk about unity and I said to them you know I saw this video it was a video of a bus stop in B shemes the bus stop it was a Friday afternoon some of you may remember this it was May 12th Friday afternoon at the bus stop you see different groups of kids different ages different types black and white some colorful shirts whatever all different different ages different types some maybe more academic some Maybe more cool and sporty whatever all spread out some standing on one side of the bus some inside some outside suddenly you hear this red alert right that that sound that none of us want to hear and the kids realize they weren't expecting it wasn't like now the kids realize there's a rocket that's about to hit any second and you watch this video you can probably find out you watch this video and you see the kids and they're all scrambling and they start running around the the bus stop but there's nowhere to go there's nowhere to there was nowhere to hide so they they they were trying and then all of a sudden you see they all go into the bus stop together all them under this one B they squish in and then you hear Boom thank God nobody was injured but I said to the boys look at this before that alarm went on you had all these Jews all these different kids different types I'm going to stand with my friends cuz I'm that type you stand with your friends cuz you're that type also the older kids young kids we don't really talk to we don't hang out with each other we're just very different we're all different you know you're not my you're not really my type and suddenly all the types and all the clothing and all the labels and all the ages and all the stages and all the religious things disappear when we hear that siren and suddenly they're all together arm in arm because one of the things that brings the Jewish people together is when we're scared I was telling my kids a story the other night I was telling them a story and they they every night I try to tell them bedtime stories and they say TTI could you record it could you could could you record it make it a scary story I said okay fine I'll make it a scary story so I start telling them a scary story and as I'm going through this story and I'm building it up and it's getting more and more intense and the kids are like listening and it's getting to that point that you know climactic point in the scary story and then all of a sudden I said Bo and you see the two of them my kids jump and they grab each other and they grab on to me and like I I just had that reminder of what it means when we're scared when we're scared we grab each other we grab our father that's what they did they grabbed each other they grabbed me when the Jewish people are scared we grab each other we grab our father one of the things that brings us together and brings us back to our Judaism is anti-Semitism it's when we're really scared right now you look around the world I don't know about you turned on my phone after shabas last night looked at the different rallies around the world seeing tens of thousands of people screaming wanting to see Israel weped off the face of the Earth in in to me that brings fear and that fear makes us come together makes us come back to Hashem and I look back at my notes from what I said to these boys last May and at the end of what I wrote to them last May was guys what message are we sending to Hashem if the only way that we're going to come together is if you send us Rockets the message we're sending is Hashem you want us to unite you want us to drop our differences and come together you got to send us a lot of rockets give us something really bad and so I said to the boys we don't want that we don't want that and although that is one way that brings the Jewish people together it doesn't have to be the only way you see every single we say the one who did miracles for our forefathers and who redeemed them From Slavery to Freedom we say whoo May Hashem who redeemed our forefathers From Slavery to fre may he do it for us tooo very soon may he end all this this pain and suffering may he end the chases of the world and bring us to Freedom together May AR from all the four corners of the of the world and how is that going to happen That's How It Ends Hashem we want to see this Redemption we want to come to we we want to see this end we want to see that the slavery and the pain and suffering the Jewish people are finally going to disappear may it be soon may you do it and how's it going to happen when all Jews are friends that sounds nice but practically all Jews are F you know it's sounds like a Kumbaya you know kind of like uh let's all just be friends let's be friends right come on what does that mean when the Jewish people all become friends together then we're going to see that Redemption From Slavery to Freedom you know I was thinking the word friend the word isore that's the word is means connection how do you bring two things together how do you make two things connected I don't know a lot about construction but I do know that when I see someone laying bricks they have all these bricks each of the bricks are pretty similar they're not exactly the same but each of the bricks are pretty similar and you want to connect them one to the other you put cement you put some type of glue something to Bond the pieces they're already pretty similar but you want to bond them together so use some cement are we all going to be friends no but we can all be bonded together in some way by finding the glue that attaches that makes aore that makes that makes one connected to the other and if you think about looking around this this room are we all friends I mean hopefully we are but one thing's for sure whether we're friends or not in the sense of the English word we're connected because what we've been talking about and doing this whole weekend it's all been around the glue that connects us around our Torah our chabas the chabas project we find things that glue us that Bond us together around the world today you see people of every background coming together finding ways to bond what are they bonding over Sedaka volunteering doing some act of kindness because even if we're not exactly the same but we're similar enough we can work together we can find ways to bond things that bring us and connect us one to the other this is something that we all have in this room and that really what practics Inspire and what we've been doing here over the shabas is each of us has a little something to share something to give and each one of us is trying to share it with the next person it's that glue I heard this amazing story I read it in it was an article written by Howard Schulz who's the former CEO of Starbucks and he writes I'm going to read it to because I can't say it better he says when I was in Israel I went to May sharim the ultra Orthodox area within Jerusalem it was along with a group of businessmen that I was with I had the opportunity to have an audience with Rabbi nus and SFL the head of the Yeshiva there finally the doors opened what we didn't know was that Rabbi thinkle was severely Afflicted with Parkinson's disease he sat down at the head of the table and naturally our inclination was to look away we didn't want to embarrass him we were all looking away and we heard this big bang on the table boom gentlemen look at me and look at me right now now his speech Affliction was worse than his physical shaking it was actually hard to listen to him and to watch him he said I only have a few minutes for you because I know you're all busy American businessmen just a little dig he was giving us then he asked who can tell me what the lesson of the Holocaust is he called on one guy who didn't know what to do it was like being called on in the fifth grade without even without having the answer the guy said something like uh we will never forget never forget the rabbi completely dismissed him I felt terrible for the guy until I realized that the rabbi was getting ready to call on someone else all of us were sort of under the table looking away you know please not me he didn't call on me I was sweating he called on another guy who had such a fantastic answer we will never ever again be a victim or bystander the rabbi said you guys just don't get it he said gentlemen let me tell you the essence of the human Spirit as you know during the Holocaust the people were transported in the worst possible inhumane Way by rail car they thought they were going to going to a work camp we all know they were going to a death camp after hours and hours in this inhumane uh Corral With No Light No bathroom cold they arrived arrived at the camps the doors swung wide open and they were Blinded By the Light men were separated from women mothers from daughters fathers from Sons they went off to the bunkers to sleep as they went into the area to sleep only one person was given a blanket for every six the person who received the blanket when he went to bed had to decide am I going to push the blanket to the five other people who didn't get who didn't get one or am I going to pull it towards myself to stay warm and Rabbi thinkle says it was was during this defining moment that we learned the power of the human spirit because we pushed the blanket to five others and with that he stood up and said take your blanket take it back to America and push it to five other people one of the things that bonds the Jewish people is when we share with one another we have we have a little bit of of Torah as nober always used to say if you know the olive teach the olive around this shabus we all came together different backgounds different types but we all want to share with one another want to share my Torah with you I want to share a story with you I want to share my inspiration with you I want to share how much I've grown with you we each of us inspiring each other from every background when we find things that Bond us like bricks we're all pretty similar just different boats but the glue that connects us the Torah theed the inspiration the kindness that's one thing that can bring the Jewish people together but you know there's another way and as I said I don't know a lot about construction but I see another way that you can take two separate things and bring them together you see some things you use cement or glue you can Bond them but then there are other things that kind of click together like a puzzle you don't need glue and perhaps you can look at all of us maybe not in this room but think about some other people who are not in this room and imagine we're like puzzle pieces you know when you first look like look at a puzzle piece you go you see two pieces one has got holes like this and then it's got other parts that are sort of uh you know uh coming you know converging out and some parts that are going in and concaves and and you look at these two pieces you go I I don't see how these are going to come together I mean they're just so different looking and I think there's a lot of that in the Jewish people where we go I'm a piece you're a piece we're not similar enough like bricks that you can just lay some glue and connect us and from far you look at the two of us you go honestly I just don't see the two of us ever coming together I don't see ever thisor this connection and I think we all of people in our life like that we're just so different the interesting thing is is that when you do put them together although from far it looks like I don't see how these are going to come together they actually click like puzzle pieces and they come together it's not natural for us unlike bricks that all look the same and say oh yeah this is perfect just a little bit of glue and that's it find the things that that connect us puzzle pieces things that click together you look at them you go they click together but they're so different yeah but that's what makes them click together sure it takes a little bit of uh courage takes a little bit of effort but you'll see they make up for each other's kronus for each other's lackings we can help each other in ways that each of us need I have to share a story with you this was a huge eye opener for me huge you know during Co yes I said the c word during Co trying to run a Sho a center in a community which is a shared space for everybody is very complicated some people are prask some people are anti-mask some people are Prov vaccine antivaccine but it's a and Everyone's entitled to their opinions but it's a shared space which means there needs to be something in this Shar space that we all agree on whether we like it or not so a community center like we have very hard to run it and we have to make some decisions that we're just going to work for most people but some people it won't work for and I had some people who were so angry they said to me uh at the time they were F furious with the rules that we had to make that everyone just needs to abide by in this space so much so that they left and they said I'm never coming back to this place and I would see them on the street I would see them on the street and for five four years three years whatever it's been every time I see them they look at me turn ahead I say hello they'll ignore me really good people like really good people but like puzzle pieces when it came to co we were just not aligned one of these guys particular person will call him David because that was his name we'll call him David he's a really really good guy I see him all the time and he wouldn't talk to me and I remember on Simas Torah night that harrowing day of October 7th he showed up to sh and you know I kind tried to say hi and nothing to talk about there was a lot of opinions that night on what should happen should we dance should we cancel s Torah and every single opinion in between we started off S saying no we're going to dance we're going to dance we're going to fight back by dancing and we started to dance but didn't really you know Feel So Right In fact one guy said to me he Rabbi I just don't like this it's just does not feel right and he left he left and he went upstairs we changed from singing and dancing to some really serious arm in-arm singing of a together as soon as we started that very serious heartfelt everybody closed their eyes everybody's singing I ran upstairs like I got to catch the guy who left and I ran upstairs and I see him he was on his way out the guy who was not happy with the the way the dancing was and I just I didn't say I didn't say anything I just took his hand I brought him downstairs I he he walked in the room he saw what was going on huge circle on the men's side huge circle on the women side everybody's arms around each other and I just made I broke into the circle the guy who I had brought down from uh from upstairs he was on my right I put my arm around him I didn't even look to who's on my left but I just put my arm around the other guy and we all closed our eyes and we began we began to sing [Music] I the whole place together with singing it was getting so emotional it was so heartfelt people were crying where arm and arm was really really intense finally the singing and everything comes to an end I take my arm off the guy who I brought from upstairs and I begin to take my arm off the guy on my left and as I had my eyes closed and as I take my arm off I hear a voice a familiar voice and it said who said you can take your arm off me and I look and it was that guy David who said you can take your arm off me we're like puzzle pieces and although some sometimes from far we look so different we're really not that different we just have to push the pieces together and realize that we really can click I believe wholeheartedly I believe wholeheartedly that one of the main reasons if not the reason that we're facing the anti-Semitism that we're facing today is because we were so divided it's not my own idea you just see it throughout Jewish history and it's easy for us to say you know K we'll come together let's do a little together we'll pack some duffel bags and send them to Israel look how we're all good friends come on that's not Unity after I had this experience with this guy I realized you know what there are other people who don't talk to me too and I started to text them and I said you know it's been years but just want to make sure you're okay and their responses to me were hey at a time like this you know we should really make amends why don't we get together when this is all over don't we all have people in our Lives who I haven't talked to for years a brother a sister a cousin a friend someone we had a falling out with the Jewish people are bleeding our hearts are torn open and everyone's hearts are open right now to mend the deepest wounds that's our job our job right now is not just superficial Unity but deep Unity to come together and to put those pieces together that even look like they don't go together to really Bond and you'll be shocked to see when the person says who said you can take your arm off me because they want to come together with you this is what project inspires doing we're bringing all of the Jewish people together around the things that are shared it's our Torah but that's just the glue then there's the puzzle pieces where we're really different where we've created divides over years family friends people in the community now is the time to reach out to really pull us together as one because when we are one we are protected that's our job right now you know one of the things that I've said in my community numerous times I told people I said you know there's hundreds of thousands of soldiers that are right now on the front lines I said so many of these soldiers are reserves which means all year long they're walking around in regular clothing they're doctors they're lawyers they're in finance they're just regular people having regular families regular jobs but suddenly they pick up a helmet they pick up a gun they put on a uniform and they're dressing differently and they're doing things differently every single one of us are soldiers we're all in the reserves and we're all being called up right now and even if all year long you don't do certain things I won't talk to that person that's fine but now it's war and in war we do things differently we act differently we dress differently we do things differently as reserves we're being called up we all have to take something on and do things different L you think it's comfortable for the soldiers to go out to Gaza heck no it's scary it's scary to take on keeping shabas at first a whole shabas could I do it scary to pick up the phone and ask someone forgiveness or try to make a m someone you haven't talked to in 10 years guess what soldiers do scary things that's what makes us great by doing the things you think you can't and bringing us together this is our job number one we don't need to be scared into Unity because we can do it by finding the glue that connects us the Torah the and likeo said share it with someone else back in your community share what you've learned with someone else reach out to someone else bring them to a shabat home bring them to a three-day trip offer to study with them and like the puzzle pieces even if it seems like we can't come back together you'll see you might look very different but they want your arm around them I'm just going to conclude with one story the story about this teenage girl in Poland 1930s her name was Marisha Kowalski Marisha Kowalski as a teenager she left home and she began to work uh for a Polish family a Christian family and as she worked for them she would she really became part of the family she fit right in she would go to church with them every Sunday she she uh she was really part of the family part of the community the one thing this polish family didn't know about Marisha Kowalski is that she wasn't Marisha Kowalski she was really henah yehudis gruny a Jewish girl who had escaped the ghetto of ludge and she Blended in with his family and got a job working for them as a nanny and when the war ended Hannah yudis her entire family was killed out she had nobody she came to America as a young girl and she had a choice the choice that she had was look I have the paper it says I'm Marisha Kowalski I know how to talk and act like a Christian woman I know all the prayers I can continue to live safely like a gentile under the radar or I can get rid of this identity and re-embrace my Judaism go back to being hen yehuda's gruny it's risky but she made a choice and she decided I'm getting rid of Marisha Kowalski tore up those papers and went back to becoming a Jew brought chabas back into her life brought kosher back into her life and she became H yudis gruny and what I love about this story so much is that I shudder at the thought of what would have been like if she would have decided to be Marisha Kowalski I know one thing's for sure I wouldn't be here today cuz this is my bubby it's a scary time we're living in but the choice that we have to make is not to stay safe and hide but to be proud Jews to be proud Jews because the only reason we sit here today is because at some point in Jewish history we had Parents grandparents great-grandparents who face the same choice and the instead of Disappearing they remained strong that's why we're here today my blessing to us all is that we stay strong we stay united we reach out to those it's hard for us to reach out to we bring the Jewish people together so that we have that Divine protection and we stay true and strong to our Judaism so that we together as individuals as our families as our communities as a nation are strong Jewish people and that all of the things that have happened in the world and all the pain and suffering only bring us together with each other and with our father in Heaven thank you very much