Naftali Horowitz | The Best Investment | CHAZAQ

[Music] rabbie has been trying to get us to have another successful event for a long time and then he called me he says Rabbi I have someone for you let's see do you want Mr naftali harit I said I would want want someone like him to come speak here because being a successful businessman as some people say here he made it in the world and being also true to his values so that makes it very great and I know his time is precious he's right now you know for most people that live in Brooklyn area basically summer means Upstate doesn't mean around here so he's has come from Brooklyn and he has to go to up after the speech so we greatly appreciate and thank Mr harowitz for taking his time and coming here tonight and also thank you kazak thank you kazak so thank everybody for coming I would hate to think what it would be like to sit here speaking to a bunch of empty chairs with crickets in the background in the few years that I dwelled on this planet I've been fortunate to meet and come close to some very great people I want to start tonight by introducing you to two of them you may have heard their names you may know who they are these are people that I have and had very very deep close relationships with one would be Rabbi David grman the great Rabbi who runs mdal the rabbi of MD and RAB Z why am I choosing these two people these two people have something in common something that I look up to something that I gravitate towards something that touches my inner soul these two people walked away completely from a path that was beautiful and glorious to take a path that was completely foreign different from what they were accustomed to they gave up everything to follow that path Rabbi grman grew up in Mayim the religious Enclave in Jerusalem the great grandson of generations of people who live [Music] there and he went out to a spiritual Wasteland called mnal amch where nobody had ever seen a religious Jew in their life and today he runs m LR a series of schools that has over 10,000 students he boasts tens of thousands of alumni this is besides all the programs that he runs throughout Israel in the prisons food pantries and the list goes on and on he's won every single award possible in the state of Israel the presidential honors he's known as the Disco Rabbi and I am fortunate to be extremely close to him because I serve as the chairman for migdal R International and the work that I do is worth it just to shake his hand once or twice a year and for him to plant his beautiful kiss on my forehead every time that he sees me RAB U zo Z began Life as a secular Jew and he quickly Rose to become Israel's greatest TV and film star he was idolized by the Israeli secular society he was earning millions of dollars a year in a time when millions of dollars a year was actually a lot of money and at the age of 40 he walked away from it all he became a b Chua and ultimately a tremendous he served as the head of Yim and airu organization and he has helped bring back thousands and thousands of Jews from the brink of assimilation in an interview with mishak magazine held in his apartment which I was in many times in Yim a small one bedroom 60 m apartment he was asked why do you live under such simple circumstances why did you choose to live such a radical life and I'm going to read you his words and this is what he said I don't know why you call this a simple life I live in a palace and feel like the wealthiest man in the world in a big house you need a compass and a map to get around and you have to keep running from room to room to get what you need in my castle he says the dining room and the kitchen are one and the same and the bedroom is near the front door this is very comfortable five star everything I have is within Arms Reach why would anybody need more than this besides he said I'm preparing for the day that I go to my grave there it will be much much smaller and even more crowded now I am only at a stopover could you imagine a man who lived in a villa in her Salia who had a swimming pool who had a chauffeur who couldn't walk down the street without people rolling down the window and saying URI we love you turn away from all that and in his book he talks about how people would scream at him in the street and say how could you do it to us URI what did you do why did you become that what drove these two great men to turn their lives around 180° and head off in an unimaginable Direction the answer my friends is one word the truth Rabbi grman had a close relationship with the L rabi and soon after The Six Day War the L of rabi called RAB grman to his room and he said it that's what they call him perhaps go down look around and see if there's something that could be accomplished L in M migdal ACH reab grman told me he didn't even know what country migdal amch was in when the LBI told him that and he left the room and he came home and he told his wife and his wife said where's migdal ACH he said I don't know I'm going to go to the bus station and I'm going to hope that there's a place to buy a ticket to go to migd and sure enough he got a ticket to a town close close to mdic and he had to hit a ride from there to get to mdic cuz there was no bus and he walks into a town with his drugs and his discos and his bars and there's one bet madash that doesn't even have a minion except for Shabbat and he looks around and he says this is where the l a rabbi sent me but his Rabbi spoke and it was his duty and he walked away from everything that he knew and moved his family to this spiritual Wasteland to turn it into today a spiritual Wonderland in 1970 when urri zo was 40 years old a bunch of friends decided to go to Jerusalem to check out how the black Hatters live and they walked into AET midash and there was a gathering and he walked up to the rabbi Rabbi zilberman and he was a smart he's a smart man RAB he was no fool he studied theology philosophy World science everything and he started antagonizing Rabbi zilman with his questions and zilman said to him what's your real question he said my real question is is there a God and Rabil said to him yes there is one and I can prove it to you but if I do I'm warning you it's going to AB obligates you to live as he wants you to live don't get into this challenge unless you're ready to accept the truth and RAB Zohar writes in his book that at the time he laughed and he said this oldfashioned Rabbi is going to convince me of something that I know isn't true of course I'm going to debate him he was up for the challenge well after a series of meetings and very very deep arguments and conversations he ultimately became convinced that God exists and now he was faced with a dilemma do I embrace the truth or do I walk away and ignore it and go back to my fame and fortune do I live as God God wants me to which means altering my life completely although I make believe I don't know there's a God both of these incredibly Great Men decided to embrace the truth no matter what RAB Grossman's rebi had spoken and URI Zohar was now certain that God existed they both chose to act upon that truth I used to think that there are two kinds of people in this world Believers and deniers atheists and those that have but after having Sat by the bedside of countless atheists as they breathe their last breath and every one of them said to me [Applause] naali I was wrong please help me do Chua let me say V buing me as a [Music] Jew after having seen this so many times I have become convinced that there are two people two types of people on this world those that live by the truth and those that Cho choose to ignore it ultimately every human being is created by God every human being has a soul and that Soul knows exactly who created it some people are faithful to that faith and some people choose to ignore it what is Faith what is a we don't question these things but we have to remind ourselves as as the says in his introduction every day every day in the morning we say the 13 from the r to remind ourselves of the basic tenants of am that the world as we know it had a beginning and it was created and that Creator we call AEM you can call him Allah you can call call them whatever you want there was and is a [Applause] Creator and therefore the world has a purpose you have a purpose your life has a purpose everything that we do matters nothing means nothing everything means something and most importantly this is just the whole way to a world which is eternal our existence does not one day come to a screeching halt we are here temporarily and there's eternity what does denial mean Deni means that time and space and the universe always existed or it came about from some accidental series of cause and effects and therefore since there is no purposeful creation life has no purpose nothing we do matters because one day we die and it comes to an end and the things that we do the rules the regulations they're just rules so that we don't all kill each other but if you want to break a rule when no one's looking no big deal because if you don't get caught nobody's keeping score there's no none of us believe that every one of us say sh is every one of us believes God created the world every one of us believes that God is here watching helping intervening infusing us with life and vitality but are we faithful to that truth do we wake up every morning and realize that the only purpose of life is to get closer and closer to living with that truth to feeling that truth or are we so busy working eating sleeping running stressing that we barely have time to think about it what is the definition of [Music] Truth we're we're told from when we're little children that we're never supposed to tell a lie and the Torah warns us distance yourself from seems pretty simple speak the truth and what's the Defence of Truth say things relate a story events as it occurred facts as they are somebody asks me the market went up today or down I say up and it's down I lied very simple always speak the truth Rab desler in his sa M has a fascinating essay on this question what is the definition of Truth why does he need an essay well I'll tell you why imagine a Jew living in Nazi Germany caught by the gestapo and the SS asks him Rabbi is there anybody else hiding in this house and he says of course course there's three young children hiding in the attic and there's two women hiding in the basement my my mother told me to always speak the truth did he speak the truth yes was that what he should have done no but what happened [Applause] to you're not supposed to lie your friend asks you Moshe do I look fat and you go absolutely did you tell him the truth yes should you have no so when do you speak the truth or when don't you speak the truth we have a problem we have a bigger problem say re bestler Alters facts when he speaks to Abraham right and he tells Abraham that Sarah said how can we have children I am old when he she really said Abraham is old and the gar learns from that that you can alter facts to bring peace between a husband and wife so what do we do now we need a standard we need a definitive standard right of what is the definition of truth that I'm always supposed to adhere to because if not if I come home late from hanging out with my friends and my wife says to me where were you and I say my car broke down because I convinced myself that you know I don't want to start a fight with my wife it hasem said Hashem changed the truth so I Chang your truth so now my wife's not angry at me she's feeling bad for me she doesn't know that I was out drinking with my friends but something doesn't feel right about that right I don't think that we should be justifying that type of lie so what is the standard of Truth asks R desler so listen to his words translated to English the definition of EMT we cannot use the word truth we must use the word em the definition of em is what wants us to say or do in any given circumstance words and actions that are aligned with aes's purpose for creation for his purpose in creating you is the definition of EMT and he explains there are two opposing forces in this world the power of good and the power of evil the power of light and the power of Darkness em is that which promotes the power of good and the will of the Creator and falsehood is that which promotes the power of the Satan the root of evil in this world EMT promotes peace EMT promotes love sheer promotes divisiveness and War and hatred and bigotry every time we are faced with a situation we must ask our El what is rat hasem that is em helping a gbo officer commit murder is not the will of Hashem hurting your friend's feelings is not the will of Hashem it is the will of Hashem that you apologize to your wife and that you promise her you will never do it again instead of LA lying and being deceptive as an aside R desler explains that this opens up a door to all kinds of false rationalizations as history has shown unfortunately that some of the greatest evils that were perpetuated on mankind were done quote in the name of God somebody once asked me this question I explained to him that just because people abuse a standard does not render that standard incorrect the standard is correct human beings can corrupt anything this is why it's so important to have a rabbi this is why it's so important to look at our because we cannot be Arbiters of the truth alone we must go to those whose heads are screwed on straight who aren tainted with bias and who can correctly tell usat hasem that's what rabman and RAB had in common they pushed aside their personal biases and they embraced Raton Hashem I was speaking last week in Israel for a large group of boys who for boys that are struggling let's just say and they had 45 minutes of my time and I sat down in the room and I told him I've come here to answer your questions I have nothing prepared to speak about I want you to ask me questions so the first question was what's it like to work on Wall Street the second question was how can I make a lot of money I turned around there was a sa behind me and I said I'm not going to answer either of those questions first of all you can Google them today with AI you can get everything I'm going to say in a matter of seconds secondly I didn't come here and waste 45 minutes of my time of the four days that I have in Jerusalem to talk about money does anybody else have another question and the room was silent silent and I got up and I said thank you very much it was a pleasure coming I have 43 minutes left I'm going to learn gar one boy raised his hand I said can I help you he says yes what's the question that we should be asking I said that's a very good question says if you don't want okay but at least you should want to want and this boy wanted to want so I said okay here's the first question why am I on this [Music] planet room's quiet does anybody know why they're here well one guy RS his hand to be a good Jew wonderful what an inspiring answer can you please tell me what that means you get up every morning all excited I'm on this planet to be a good Jew what does that mean what does God want from you what does he expect from you do you really believe in God who is God who is God what kind of question is that they said you can't ask that question really begins to tell you who is God the five chapters who is God who is God does anybody know who God is if we not asking questions every day how can we find the truth the truth lies in questions Judaism is a religion of questions we are allowed to question everything the tal begins with a question we're allowed to question Rashi we're allowed the question mosu we do it with respect we do with humility but a has nothing to hide it's all in there every question rabotai every single religion every monotheistic religion has a Doctrine a guideline for life why why because it would be insane to believe that something as infinite as God created a world for a purpose and new for a purpose and he didn't even give you a manual he didn't reach out to his creations and say this is what I want and expect from you and our Doctrine was given to us on har our holy Torah and it it [Applause] says I have put before you blessing and curse good and evil says please Embrace Life and blessing so that you and your children we live eternally we have two paths before us every morning when we get out of bed very very different paths One path Keeps Us rooted in this world temporary materialistic another path connects us to Eternity when we live a life which is aligned with aes's purpose and his intention we transcend We rise above the limitations of this world and life becomes miraculous rabotai we do the same thing as everybody else we drive we eat we talk we go to our offices but we are existing in a different realm in that realm nature does not apply to us our outputs far exceed our inputs regular cause and effect does not work we see things that don't make sense and life has purpose life has meaning vigorish as we say in Yeshiva I'm speaking from experience my life is we know we give charity of our money and our time and ask anybody their wealth only only increases how does subtraction equal addition we don't work on Shabbat we don't even think about work on Shabbat we don't think about it on theim we take time every day to pray three times yet our productivity [Applause] Soares we wear a k to work and sometimes we're the only one yet we rise to the top of our Wall Street firms our law our legal professions our accounting professions with that K we don't go to bars we don't drink we don't do those types of things yet we have deep relationships with our clients we take upon ourselves to do more and more and to help others more and more yet we never run out of time ever because all the limitations of this world only apply to people who live in this world people who have their feet in this world and their heads and their hearts connected to Hashem are connected to the infinite and there are no limitations when you are connected to the infinite when we embrace the the Tree of Life when we bring AES into everything that we do every day just a little bit more we watch our eyes when we're in the office we look down when we walk through Time Square we see something on our phones and we know that the same eyes that are looking up that phone are going to be looking [Applause] in the same hands that are holding this phone are going to say Al in not the too distant future that is the way you live connected to the Eternal I promise you I give you my word [Applause] guarantee if you live this way you will see everything you will have a life that is so delicious and glorious and beautiful you have to look around and see that others are rooted in cause and effect inputs and outputs calculations all built on every human being has a soul every human being can connect that soul to its mission on why it's here raot we we're we're coming to the holy days it's time to bring more purpose more meaning and more truth into our lives andem we will see things we will see Miracles before our very eyes amen [Applause]