CHAZAQ's Torah Talks #146 Isaac Abraham - Taking Responsibility

I think a big problem today with the youth in terms of why so many people are are down in the dumps and depressed is because the whole Mantra especially in America and the West in general is uh me me me and it's me Centric and it's um fulfillment of Person of a person's personal desires or whatever it may be and it's it's very shallow and I find that when you expand your nsh and you think for others to benefit others it becomes very very satisfying to be able to put a smile on somebody is a very very powerful um natural [Music] high and welcome to Torah talks kazak's Tuesday night program with special guests tonight we have with us a very special guest a very dear friend of kazak Isaac Abraham how are you thank you very much for agreeing to be on this I know uh it wasn't easy for you to come and agreee to this but it means a lot to us as a chairman of the board you have to sometimes jump into things and uh that's what we're going to be talking about a little bit about responsibility taking things upon ourselves but before we do that if you could give us a little background about yourself the great work you're involved with okay um I'm 40 years old married happily thank God three kids uh they're all 5 years apart I didn't plan it wow so I have three different stages at home I have a teenager a Adolescent and a toddler um I'm involved with the organization with kazak my entire married life wow so the last 15 15 years out of 18 years kak interesting yeah um I'm an attorney by trade I'm a boua grew up in Queens currently live in the five towns amazing and I know Isaac for many years and I know how much uh you care for the cloud and for the community and maybe you could tell us about getting involved and uh taking on responsibility are you jump on the vanwagon and you've literally taken things to the next level you got others to get involved uh what do you encourage how what do you say I mean early on um Perot says when there are no leaders you uh you have to get up and um I I saw that there was a certain void that needed to be filled so I I decided to get involved uh I come from a family of activists uh my uncle uh merai was the youngest member of the VOD in uh in the first bukharian SCH we had in a we call 71st but it's a the bukari Jewish Community Center I guess of faral and this is going back you know decades and decades ago my grandma my father's mother was uh very involved with uh with the ladies division everybody in the community knows her as Fatima but her real name is uh paneer and um I you know I my my mother was uh is has always been a community activist um I remember during the during the inap in the 2000s my uh my mom put together uh uh an she sent an an entire or Orchestra from the United States to to Israel to give a concert for uh for victims of Terror so I kind of grew up with it you know this we we had uh these these type of conversations at home at like you know how how to make the community a better place I'm bake of real boy I my part of my return started in in bake of real and um the whole essence of big ofel is uh don't just enjoy this Kool-Aid and uh keep to yourself but uh but go out there and um bring others bring others so that's that's my makeup my DNA yeah unbelievable and actually see your family very very much involved whether it's the cousins and the and the distant relatives everyone is bar involved doing great things and uh what what are the benefits would you say of being involved with the community I know the headaches but uh if we could look at the positive side of uh being in the community being involved in the Community well first of all it makes you a better person I me true 100% because um I think a big problem today with the youth in terms of why so many people are are down in the dumps and depressed is because the whole Mantra especially in America and the West in general is uh me me me and it's me Centric and it's um fulfillment of Person of a person's uh you know you know personal desires or whatever it may be and it's it's very shallow and I find that when you expand your n and you think for other for others to benefit others um it becomes very very satisfying yes it does 100% you know to be able to put a smile on somebody is a very very powerful um Natural High and um what's it called um that's that's one aspect the the other aspect I would say is when you're actually the one grinding you get to put in your input and I'm full of ideas God gave me a lot of creativity and um I I don't necessarily want to just be a a bystander I want to be a player in the game and I find that just like in the story of of porum RAB Kat says that hamon was the ultimate anti samite so knows how to make a where he was going to create for us this story called p and and and and the villain that he chose was the ultimate anti-semite because he had that that Russell more than anyone else it goes the other way as well a lot of times over I in my heart of hearts I I want to make serious changes and uh you don't necessarily have the means to be able to to put it all together but but hem sees your Ron and he knows how to make a and he puts you together with a team of people that can make things happen I mean you know it's funny I mentioned B of real and uh my Beginnings but my my adult life i' I've been a kazak guy and um it's a great Z I love the organization and I sometimes I feel that uh there was so much that needed to be done and and there and and and and he x-rayed my uh my rotone and and and he said you know what I I'm going to put you together with a with a good Bunch when it comes to the board the staff the the the family that we call kazak and um it's it's just a great honor 100% so you encourage others to get involved make a difference don't just sit in the sidelines but like you said be a player 100% but you have to be very um honest with yourself you you have to know your strengths and um you know not everybody's meant to be a point guard or or meant to be a shooting guard and a person has to be very content with um with doing his part and knowing his part being honest with themselves um for some it it it would you know let's say the person is a b type personality but he's he's got a mind like no other maybe for him it's it's just grab a safer don't waste time sit and learn um for someone that has a but not necessarily to be a gutsy guy to be able to speak in front of hundreds of people like RAB Pon maybe that person should you know find himself a and and give over be Masia and um that's just that's that's another thing I I I learned from reading stories of of gum um there you know bashem he he loves the individual and and the kah so it's not one or the other it's so so too by the sikim or by the gum they can sit in and and and and invest their time and energy in an individual and that that could be very gmak and very satisfying and and they could also sit and put all that time and energy in into a huge project like a like uh you know establishing a Yeshiva right so we should basically look at everything as an opportunity and there's no opportunity too small um and and that's just going back to you know everybody should get involved yes everyone should get involved but it should be within within their within their talents that K gave them this way they're um they're they're maximizing 100% 100% so you know Isaac and I God bless Isaac uh we have this difference of opinion in a sense I guess we'll say where I like to always just do and let's do more and let's make this happen let's do that but Isaac has a beautiful quote it's a quote of a quote for Isaac we have to tighten the bolts if you could talk about that for the for that point I mean first of all I should just say RAB you know it's definitely a very positive thing that we have you around that that that you push growth I'm not anti-growth that's for sure um but I do believe in um not just sustainability not even from a financial aspect but uh you don't want to build and not you but in general and we're not doing this the organization thank God is uh I would say the total opposite uh we're not building a house of cards it has to have a very strong Foundation now on the on the flip end of it a person can invest so much time into the foundation that he never actually puts puts up the facade never puts up the building we've seen that manytimes yeah there there there are plenty of uh properties out there that are just uh yeah or organizations they're you know they're planning planning planning but you know with all the planning mashia will come already but uh sometimes you have to pull the trigger it should be a balance it it should be a healthy middle don't feel we have that good balance where there's sham there's arits you know we meet in the middle right so tining the bolts um is is that your quote or I I I probably got it from somewhere it's um it's it's definitely something that I that I try to live by I mean just with with all the different facets of of what we do here at kazak for example um I love to give the example of of shaping lives the Sunday schools the Sunday school program I mean the you know the truth of the matter is I personally believe we should have one in every synagogue in America we're getting there slowly there we're going to get there close to more or less 20 locations and not only that but we're we're already servicing over 300 kids a Sunday that's amazing it's and they're all public school kids and you know God willing at least 40% of them will end up in Yeshiva within the next within within the next 24 months so it's uh Ken the more the marrier but um the the way the way we do it you know before we move on to the next one we make sure that the uh that the that the original is standing on on on Solid Ground 100% definitely like uh you're saying how things are going very well but I love to quote our bless Walkin it's just the beginning he would always say that we would reach a mindstone we would be successful in doing X YZ ABC whatever it may be always tell me it's just a beginning and and I really feel that way just the beginning yeah to you forever we're in the beginning stage it's a beautiful stage so if there would be um one message that you could tell to our broad audience a final message a takeaway what would that message be the message would be don't ever accept status quo don't be satisfied um it's more than that it's uh you know when I moved to the five towns for example I could have easily said to myself they have a way of doing things this is the way it's done and who am I and just you know put my head down and Shalom Al Isel but uh I I I saw that in in my in my new community there was a certain things lacking certain things that maybe I missed from back home from back back in Queens right and uh you know I I I decided you know to make my contribution and um I would say to you as a game changer like in my SCH alone we you know I I I think for two years straight I had uh a monthly Shear for for ladies by ladies definitely helped me Implement that that's right and um all the renowned speakers and guest speakers it was was it was happening yeah for sure it was shuna right five times right and then uh you know you know that itself led to growth in terms of we started bring bringing in uh you know major rabbis uh to do uh you know you know speeches for a co-ed crowd and I think it spurred a lot of action in the community itself a lot of people started taking initiative and a lot of different programs started popping up and I mean Shon even before I came was a happening place right but but today it's very very different and um in general many people move to the Five Towns over the last 5 years especially since uh since Co and it just created this energy of like um uh you know again don't accept the status quo like all all of a sudden a lot of people just came in and and started adding and and doing and creating so I would say to anybody listening that um don't just look at let's say for example kazak and say oh this organization you know they they got it all covered um people come to to to myself and I know to to you as well all the time with ideas and you'd be surprised but many times over I'll tell the person this is a phenomenal idea and I think you should run with it and I'm going to I'm going to help you as much as I possibly can and they kind of look at me like what they weren't expecting that and I say yeah look you know certain things I believe would go really well under the kazak umbrella but certain things I I I think should be its own Standalone like somebody has an idea about how to deal with theim orphans or Alman widows it's it's it's a beautiful thing we claar could definitely use such an idea especially in the Queen's area you know in Brooklyn and Lakewood these uh these ideas are are covered so to speak but in Queens it's a little bit lacking so so I so I'll tell people you know Hashem gave you this thought and you have a passion for it so run with it it could be intimidating obviously and that's why I tell them you know I'll help you as much as I can you know through my friends and contacts um but uh again if if if a person you know has in his heart of hearts not to accept the status quo and he wants to make his input and and uh you know help the you know help help CLA get to where we need to be uh you know with G like you like like you'll say total and complete Redemption then we a lot more more needs to be done 100% I always say that up until now whatever was done everything that's done all the and all the organizations and all the good work it's great but it's obviously not enough because the Gula hasn't come the Redemption hasn't come that means you have to do more and the more people get involved the better it is and uh you know that you have a stick a pen it's easy to break when it's one when you bring 50 100 together BEC stronger that's what we're looking to B do to build an army for hasem to do more good and you have a lot of credit to all this as a chairman of the board you've done so much and you continue doing so much we are forever grateful bless you and your entire family and we want to thank everyone Tuesday Torah talks 8:30 PM Eastern Standard Time kazak org live cq. glive also special thank you to our friends and partners at Tor anytime for hosting this uh podcast and all the different podc players we get tremendous feedback from Torah talks and we're looking to B expand and to do more please reach out please get involved and a special shout out to our friends at Daily giving a dollar day goes a very far away and all the staff members and board members and volunteers and and dedicated uh you know uh uh everyone every every single person all the donors we we're forever grateful God bless you thank you [Music]