CHAZAQ's Torah Talks #126 Rabbi Pesach Lerner - Israel Near & Dear

who was driving and he stopped to give a soldier a ride whatever the case may be and the soldier he asked the soldier what can I do for you and the soldier said I'm not religious I don't own a p i need a p and the didn't think twice unbuckled his shirt and he gave me c it's amazing they're people who want filling they never on filling before I know that Tor M the National Association of Hebrew day schools they put out a campaign that the students should write letters to the families you can't imagine the the strength when somebody gets a letter I'm thousands of miles away I'm 14 years old I'm in seventh grade and I'm ding for you the strength is is [Music] unbelievable and welcome to Torah talks kak Tuesday night program with a special guest we have with us RAB P learner welcome thank you once again to headquarters and we're we speaking about Israel near and dear and with understand the rabbi was just there and you came back and you are uh heavily involved with eres with Israel and before we do the topic you give us a little background about yourself and the great work you're involved with me I'm a simple Jew I had good mentors my father my father-in-law my rabam who taught me that there's a sense of aus a sense of responsibility and everyone asked to do what they can do and that's the education I've received at home in yiva and bar that's the God put me in positions over the last many many years that uh enabled me to to carry out that mandate I guess for the recent past I was Executive Vice President of the National Council of Young Israel the Young Israel movement for over 20 years I retired from that about 12 years ago I had HED to uh spend some time learning and whatever and God had other plans for me we created an organization called the Coalition for Jewish values because if you open cjv if you open the newspaper you'll see Jewish values that aren Jewish and AR values and they're created a week ago and there was nobody speaking up for real Torah Jewish values so a bunch of us rabbis including locally Queens Rabbi Yol shonfeld and others we opened up the btim correct he's still writes for the queen Jewish so um bottom line is we started an organization speaking out challenging those Jewish values that were not Jewish values yes and we didn't know how deep the hole was and we were receiving phone calls from congressman and senator's office and saying why they call me this and why that I thought this was right and we answer them it is right you're talking to the progressives to the liberals who are changing creating editing Jewish values and we ended up now an organization of 2 200 rabbis uh involved in thank you for involved speaking out protecting and defending true cheers values amazing I was with that organization for 5 years and then God sent me another calling without going into the great detail in Israel there's something called Israel's National Institution M alumim which is the world zence organization the what they call kak Kay Isel which we would know as the Jewish National Fund even though they're separate okay the Jewish agency and others these organizations together have a billion doll budget and serious influence and anybody who knows a little bit about the system knows that the influence is used to towards the left liberal values not Torah values in many cases the money was used for things that we would not spend money on and I've been involved a little bit over the years 3 years ago four years ago when the the last World Zionist organization elections took place they finished PM 2020 right before Co yeah we ran a Orthodox Torah party in the system I tell people we had Miracles that's a higher level we were able to succeed we received 5% of the total delegate worldwide which is nothing but that 5% moved the pendulum from Center left to center right and we went in to do what I call get away from the bad and do good trying to bring the organizations back to the middle trying to put in a Torah objective and thank God we have been quite successful in that endeavor we just got started I don't know who how many of your audience sent their children or grandchildren to Israel during Co because ER KES was at the right place at the right time we were able to facilitate 40,000 student visas when the skies were closed um we've been doing a lot of activity fortunately unfortunately came Sim T and we were on the ground we had the basic setup also we were one day ahead of you so you were still y holiday here right in Israel Sunday was already not yff they were able to get into action we are connected contacted we have a major campaign you can go to erak does.org and it'll click click up we've raised a million and a half dollars we've spent more than that buying much needed equipment for the soldiers vests and helmets and excuse me and night vision and then we discovered if you go down North if you go down south it's hot if you go up north it's cold yeah and these soldiers left sh left the synagogue left their homes unprepared not knowing and we're Distributing long underwear it's flannel shirts and socks and blankets and and we and others right they told you walk now you'll smell a barbecue yeah people are going up with barbecue you can see Ultra Orthodox going up there delivering whatever they need okay you can't buy a pair of seat seat in Israel today in America as well in America you can buy I'm telling you we went to the local stores we have a lot of people there getting closer to T through the work ofak and we were see they said Rabbi the local stores are all because in Israel I spoke a friend of mine who is a CH one of the rabbis in the IDF rabet I spoke to him last week he says PES we had 30,000 pair of green C green bean camouflage 30,000 who needs 30,000 we never need 30,000 I need 200,000 yeah we can't buy them okay people want they want to their stories out there okay so everybody's working yes we had kazak has have been extremely busy as well many communities wonder you know whatever you whatever you're doing if everybody does 10 times more we don't need it the soldiers need things listen they're soldiers their family sitting shiv unfortunately 1,400 families and their families who can't sit sh because they don't know whether their kids are their family is captured or they're one of the bodies that are burned so badly they can't identify it's it's it's an impossible situation but the Jewish Community is doing we are doing everybody's doing okay and uh so I was going to ask you where where you know for those watching for that are not in Israel uh many people feel like you know we're not there you know we're not the soldier one of the front lines what can we do uh first of all I'd like to suggest become educated very important yeah become educated figure out where's Gaza where's the north where's the South okay figure out what communities Nim others are within the quote unquote Battle Zone okay get an education when somebody tells you they're 8 th000 families that have been told to leave their homes okay what does that mean what I mean can you imagine I come to you if you have a home right it wasn't destroyed already I come to you you're in the you're in the range of the Rockets you got to get you got 20 minutes to get out okay you got to pack up your family okay whatever you've got where you going a lot of these people don't have a place to go so they're going to rent a one room sub basement okay now imagine if we at least understand they get an item of the geography and we can figure out 80,000 people have to pick up and go how many kids is that wow how many kids is that well tell you some stories and they have to go friend of mine I spoke to a friend of mine milins on the way here my partner my partner and he said yester they put on an event and one of the kids was wearing was wearing slippers so he asked why you wearing slippers okay he says because I have no shoes my house was hit with a rocket we got out in time I have no clothing they have no clothing okay we're talking about feeding 3 4,000 meals every day just so that the kids okay the adults also the kids should have one hot meal a day imagine for a moment you're you're a CO member you're sitting and learning you're working in any cities Ashan maybe as and then go up go up go up north right and they tell you get out so you go you're not working now your wife's not working now your kids are not in school right now imagine I don't know what your kids saw back at the ranch right there were there the Rockets if you could have been down south God forbid and you saw the terrorists in the neighborhood so you're having nightmares these kids so you have seven eight people in one room there's no structure there's no fruit first of all if everybody can learn about it read about it find the website okay follow then we then if we know so two things will happen number one when somebody SES a comment we can respond int intelligently I'm not saying to go see all the pictures and all the videos of what they what these animals I I'm insulting animals what these whatever they they did okay but at least we have to know enough to be able to respond we have to know enough to be able to really feel we have to know enough and somebody ask you how are you oh I'm great it's not an answer anymore right because we can't be great because our brothers and sisters and er the SC don't know where their kids are their kids are in the Army they're nervous we have to change call all is responsible each other we have to feel it okay we have to feel it so number one you have to be educated if we're educated then we can respond and if we're educated then we'll begin to realize that maybe we have to to give a little more money to tadaka find the charity find the community okay when Queens I have to assume that in a mile radius from where we are in kazak their families whose children are in the IDF okay do we know who they are by the way do we know what that idea member needs right have we reached out I apologize I'm not giving anybody a lesson over here but I'm giving you an example have we reached out to those families and said talk to your kids what IDF equipment do they need and if you can't buy it we have to put together be know that we had a collection over here at theak Pantry a few blocks away and saw the amount of things people brought and was shipped and sent right we have to about we have to adopt these soldiers if every Community adopted their kids number one the the support the strength that it would give to the soldiers is one thing number two excuse me maybe they need things yeah you know uh a night flashlight a night vision okay there's something called a letterman I'm learning the language a letterman is a pocketknife has a knife and has a screwdriver and has a scissors I mean simple things but I'm being told that in a case of emergency one of the pieces on this knife can save somebody's life okay maybe we should get the schools the schools should adopt another school and wherever those kids are we're going to help do for them we're going to do for them we're going to raise money so these people can we can send them money for food yeah you can't imagine you know you hear in the radio in a country in South South America for 19 cents you can it's real yeah for 19 shekel $5 you can provide a wholesome meal for a couple kids unbelievable okay so it's it's it's it's it's what website again Aires aes.org AET e r TZ Hodes h a k o d.org and that'll lead you to the to the match page and you can donate and uh I want you to know the money's going my people are not we're not taking anything out of it even the even the matching page is not taking they're not taking the commission crowfunding unbelievable and by the way we're not the only ones give toak give to others as long as we know it's going places is doing things and this excuse me this war is not over and the consequences of this war is not going to be over because they are people that lost everything okay that the mental the mental health of many of these people are going to be affected the kids the parents um ability to go back to school ability to to go back to normal to build your houses again there's going to be a need and we in America and we wherever we happen to be need to be aware that we can't let them go they're fighting our battle and these our brothers and sisters literally and figuratively and we have to be there for them politically I know you're connected very well connected politically we have to make sure politically we support it and we have to make sure that financially support it spiritually spiritually I know that Tor M the National Association of Hebrew day schools which many of our day schools have joined they put out a campaign that the students should write letters to the families okay you can't imagine the the strength when somebody gets a letter that I'm I'm thousands of miles away I'm 14 years old I'm in seventh grade and I'm doing for you the strength is is unbelievable so you're just anes in Israel and any stories or that could stick out of uh you know how amazing Amy is or something that in the beginning days of the war nobody was prepared right nobody understood what was going on the government wasn't prepared the Army wasn't prepared nobody was prepared okay but the stories stories of people emptying out the shelves in supermarkets putting them in the car and driving where you going I don't know I'll find soldiers I'll find the base okay um there's a story in a video of Aid who was driving and he stopped to give a soldier a ride whatever the case may be and the soldier he asked the soldier what can I do for you and the soldier said I'm not religious I don't own a p i need a p it and the didn't think twice unbuckled the shirt and he gave me S it's amazing they're people who aren filling they never want filling before right the soldiers understand okay people are ding I was in Jerusalem I was in raote right after Shabbat right the W steps went out yeah there at the hill and Gathering and so and so if you came 20 minutes late you couldn't find a spot yep and it was a mix right thank God Theus the unity is fantastic that's a positive the negative you had lone soldiers that had nobody there they were died there was a lone soldier from France right he had no family they went to bury him it's difficult to be straight pH the word went out on WhatsApp groups thank God for what's that maybe right he's a lone soldier his parents are not making it we need a Minion for the levia for L 7,000 Jews showed up in that L wow you couldn't get near okay there's a website put together on who's sitting shiva where because a lot of these families the sitting shiva they don't have where the sitting shiver people should go unbelievable unbelievable people are coming I don't know you but you're one of us such they are good stories and they're emotional stories mentioned to you before I was in Yeshiva in Israel during the UN keep War so I remember 50 years ago 50 years ago I was it Yeshiva and Yesa was near asod and there was an Air Force Base uh couple miles away but you know in the middle of shakas middle of mus you hear jets flying over you know something was happening buses came to the Yeshiva there a lot of Israelis there buses came to the Yesa to grab the boys from the from the Sho to the Army into the army we know know what's going on so I have memories one of my guys because we're in the National institutions they were able to coordinate funding for some of the these that had to leave Gaza so last week we went to visit a kib m to be that was moved completely evacuated they weren't they didn't lose one family member on Sim because they had locked they're all surrounded by big metal fences Gates they locked the front gate because it was shamas nobody can get in so they didn't lose anybody to begin with eventually they opened up the base Mish and they turned it into a field hospital and they were getting anybody else so they were evacuated afterwards and they ended up in a hotel in ban so a bunch of us went to visit so first of all the number of men is limited because they're all but I want you to know I walked in and I started to shake L start the shake and my said what's you WR are you okay said not okay tell you why I was active when I was at the Young Israel we're active in the families of gtif we went to visit we rais money and gush katif as you remember I went the uh people that took gush katif out spent more time and trying to figure out how to get them out not figuring out where they're going to go and they ended up at hotels and I went to visit them hotels right kids all over un organiz you know what if you want to take your family for a nice weekend to a hotel right they'll jump at it but stay there for weeks no structure no school kids aren't going to sleep you eat what you eat when they want you to eat not what there's no laundry there's nothing nothing you lose your self resect it doesn't work so I walked into this hotel and I saw gush in front of me gka they were healthy they were kicked out but they were okay here right they were kicked out because of physical danger right but I want you to know while I was there and meeting and talking there were people there were people coming in from out from nowhere just bringing food and presents me the Jewish people nobody's stay home unbelievable the stories were very very very very inspiring RAB learner let me share with you something because this is Torah talks yep Torah talks so let me share with you something which is so appropo you audience man you know you'll know the name of Mayor Shapiro of course mayor Shapiro creat thei his y site was last week yeah so may has a Torah thought on this week's portion okay we all know the story Abraham's complaining to God I have no children what's going to be and God says you have no children don't get nervous go outside look up count the Stars you'll never be able impossible right they're millions and millions of stars and the Torah tells us God says to Abraham you have no kids no children no grandchildren take a look that's the simple answer but mayor Shapiro says another thought which comes to mind the medas says God told Abraham go count Abraham's a loyal servant what do he do starts County started counting God says to him what are you doing it's impossible Abraham says you told me to count I'm counting but it's impossible you told show me to count I'm counting God says that will be your grandchildren they'll do the impossible beautiful they won't they impossible won't stop them they'll do the impossible very clel we went through terrible times that day 1400 1500 1600 people butchered family show butchered burned you can't imagine trust me people can't imagine okay what they did some of the videos coming out are unb okay we're missing the two 200 and some individuals missing they should have Rua and Yeshua because they're not in some normal jail they're okay there many families who can't identify that they're dead um we went through terrible times um as we all know the unity of the Jewish people before that was an All Time Low the right it was an all-time low on the other hand I think the unity of the Jewish people in Israel is alltime high over years well over alltime high right everybody's for it politics are gone only one concern now is the IDF destroying Kamas taking care of everybody else uh doesn't make a difference if you're wearing a yam not wearing yam wearing a hat not wearing a hat what color you are it doesn't make a difference anymore there a there there's a alter and I pray to God that that Unity continues afterwards but the bottom line is life can't be the same and each of us has the ability to do something we can DAV a little slower we can learn a little more we can hug our kids more often right appreciate what we have cuz can't take it for granted anymore find the extra couple dollars to give to charity um if there's a family in your neighborhood that has somebody in the Army right give them the extra support as as much as they're going to say they're okay right they're always nervous where my kids are what are they doing what's the status right yeah in Yim it's a lot more back to normal right but if you get closer to the North and to the South it's not back to normal for those families it'll never be back to normal so we have to participate to do and we have to stand up strong that's another that's another old agel question and this is what AES and the cjv stood for it says the voice is the voice of Jacob and the hands the hands of as do make sense if the voice is the voice of Jacob we're promised that ASA will not be there if we're strong in our Torah and our and our belief why how do you have it that at one time the hand you have the voice of of Jacob and the hands of Asa how could it be so I saw normally when you spell the word coal voice is spelled k v lamid okay for the sake of English translation k l in that sentence is spelled k lamid you're missing the V it's like you spelled Cole k l you're missing the the syllabus okay if our voice isn't strong then the the hands of as are going to be strong so you can interpret it in many ways you can interpreted our ding our praying has to be better our learning has to be better right you can interpret it our political activity has to be stronger you can interpret it we got to stand up for what we believe in okay if there's a newspaper that says something we don't like don't sit there and complain write a letter pick up the phone if a member of Congress or assembly whatever it is is not doing the right things call the call has to be strong we have to do everybody has an ability everybody could do something nobody could do everything okay you know what everybody do something but we have to go to sleep at night knowing we did something 100% we did something and get up the next morning and say we're going to do it again and we're going to do it again until we get to the point that the God is listening in mem and the politicians have are listening and we're listening right and the arus that we have and the respect that we have and the doing has to be different everybody can do something as you said everybody must do something and it's got to be that we start thinking of the other in this case the other is the soldiers the other is the displaced people the other is the kids in Israel that didn't have a lot to eat to begin with right so now what do you have you have even less so there's so much we can do 100% Le Israel near and dear we see it through the passion through the words things that come out of the heart into the heart we want to thank you for all they do for cl of je people we want to thank everyone for joining us for yet another episode of Tor hopefully we can come back soon and talk about the activities of er KES in a positive sense we can talk about what kazak is doing right in a I can't say normal more normal situation and the war should be over and God should look over our as soldiers on the front The People Under the rockets and everybody inel who needs some type of some type of help thank you thank you very much R learner thank you for everyone for joining usak T talks Tuesday nights 8:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time k.org live special thanks to all the podcast players that are holding on to our podcast special thanks to Tor anytime.com thank you very much to daily giving a dollar day goes are very far away thank you very much to Nar behind the camera and the entire te and we shall only share in in happy occasions only here about only good news until next time r