Rabbi Simon Jacobson speaks at the annual Colel Chabad BBQ in the Five Towns

It's an honor to be here. As you were uh emphasizing, what did you say? 238 years. 237 years. How much was it? Salman. How many years? >> Okay, do the math. it um immediately evoked something that many people don't pay attention to. Talk about consistency and longevity. They say those that um do business with the Chinese say the Chinese don't respect anyone except the Jews. Not love, but respect because the Jews are the only ones that are here longer than they on this earth. When President Nixon visited China, I don't know if anyone here is old enough to remember You all look so young to me and my eyesight is pretty good. 1971. So western journalists for the first time had access to the Chinese culture. It was a closed culture. It was after Maung died and the new premere was Chiao and Lai. And one of the journalists asked him what does he think about the American Revolution? What is his opinion about the American Revolution? And he said it's too early to tell because American Revolution are now entering the 250th year and Chinese civilization is here for two and a half thousand years. But there's one people that's here longer and that is the Jewish people. you and I and our parents and grandparents and great-grandparents. So maybe subconsciously the world including the anti-semites recognize this but it's important to emphasize because this is what we say that we have an eternal nature to us that no one has seemed to been able to master. You think about it, all the civilizations that came and went, the great Roman Empire, the rise and fall of the Romans, and before that, the Babylonians and the Assyrians and the Egyptians, and after that, the Ottomans, the Spanish, the list goes on. So when we're here together to honor a duck that was established almost 250 years ago, interestingly almost corresponding to the founding of this country which the Reb would refer to. No country in history has ever given as much charity as the United States and not just Jews which is itself quite a uh phenomenon because the nature of human beings is is the more you have the more you keep. People are not natural givers. There's a certain selfishness, self-interest. So the very concept that instituted almost 4,000 years ago was completely counter to um the society at the time and frankly throughout history. That's why he was such a threat. He was a pioneer that we're here not to take but to give. Today this has become more popular but it took thousands of years. It was only the Jews that always knew that the first and most foundational element in every community is building a sta the Torah is filled with references and we were actually seen as uh strange and even barbaric for our kindness. We were seen as naive. So almost 250 years ago, our country was founded by Christians. Almost parallel to the time when the alterba founded. It's food for thought. I think it would be a miss of me if I did not um state a very important part of our lives today and that is we're living in historic times. I think all of us know it. But I want to emphasize it in a real glaring way. I mean, every time is historic, but this is truly historic. And being on a personal level, I was able to experience something as a personal witness of some of this history in the making, I'll share some of behind the scenes that's not so publicized in the media. So, what the world calls October 7th and we call Paris and Simra was itself a major event as was pointed out in so many different ways obviously a tragic one but how it's evolved in the last six weeks with Israel attack on Iran and before that on Lebanon and still in the quagmire of Gaza. Uh there's no question that events have shifted on a geopolitical level that no one even knows where it's going to go to. However, being a nation that's here for thousands of years, we do know where it's going because it was all predicted. This is one of the we'll call it more cryptic messages that you can find in the written Torah and many prophecies and especially in the oral Torah and to midrashim that refer to what will happen at the end of days. Confrontations between whom? between the children of Arainu Ishmal the ancestor of the Arab and later become the Muslim worldsk ancestor and our forefather of the Jewish world and Yitzk had two children Yakov and Asov Asov's grandson was called what the last Rashi in Parish Remy Rome Rome western Malus Edim which was the Romans that destroyed the second temple. So you have the confrontations of these three children that go back thousands of years. They were already fighting then is playing itself out now. And this isn't my uh innovation. as as I said is written explicitly and some places more hinted to that that's exactly what Abrau Abraham was shown in the vision of the Brisbane if you read those cryptic verses in where Hashem shows him something shows him what's the future and it says that a shudder came over a tremble over Araminu it was ark and everyone asked the question, what's he referring to? So, it says Hashem showed Aram what would happen to his grandchildren, the four great empires, and they all go back to these three children, Ishmal, Yakov, and Asov. So, when you see it playing itself out today, shouldn't be a surprise. We may not know exactly the details. But if you're intrigued by this topic, I'm not going to go through all the elaborate details. I'll just quote one Zohar at the end of Parra, but I'll tell you the story behind it. Some of you may be familiar. There was a man called Vulv Greenlass. He came from Atk in Poland. Joined the Kabad yeshiva. These are some of the students that ended up in Shanghai after World War II and that ended up he ended up in Montreal. He was known as a makub, a cabalist, a very refined and um powerful Jew. In 1980, he wrote a note to the being someone that worked for the Reb. I was a man remembering the Reb's Fabranians and Shabas and then documenting them for posterity. So I have this note that he wrote to the Reb and the Reb's answer. He quotes a discourse aimed from the Reb Marash, the fourth Kabad Reb, son of the youngest son of the where he writes that his alo Abraham prayed for his son Yeshal. He prayed for him. It was his son and he cared and loved him and he wanted him to thrive even though he had to banish him at Sor's instructions. But then the Reb Marash adds this line. Listen to this. Even though knew what would do at the end of days, he still prayed for him. So Rabbi Greenlass asked the labb in what does the marash mean? What did Abra know? What would the do at the end of days? And he suggests is it referring to the end of par which I'll sum up in a moment and the Reb acknowledged. Yes. And added look also at the Z at the end of paral. And look at the third day of just for the record is the day after September 11th where it says that is a name another name for Asov and his father-in-law. May they be eliminated. So yet another reference and the Reb adds meaning there are more sources. What does it say in Zar? It says that the sire of Yeshal, the angel of Yeshal comes to God and says Yeshal is also your son and he deserves to be rewarded. He was also circumcised. So this is an open prophecy from a says Hashem says you're right. However, since he was circumcised at age 13, not day eight days like so his reward will be limited. He will have control over Israel for a few hundred years. That's what it says in the zar. And then at the end of days, Yeshall will begin to become aggressive and attack as Edim and the Jewish people. and there'll be wars and at the end Israel will win the battles and Msiah will come. This is not the only place this is referred to. This is a note. I have the handwritten note and I remember reading it then it was quite surprising but then seeing how events unfolded. So let me share with this this with you. Some of you may be aware I'm a good friend, personal friend of the president of Argentina, Javan Malay. You've heard of him. Okay, you're applauding him or me >> or both? >> Friendship. Okay. It's a long story how I became his friend and I don't know what kind of time limit we have here and the curfew in this part of the world. Um, but I'll just cut to the point that I want to address here. I got to know him September 2023, a month right before the attack of October 7th, and he was elected in no in that year, November, a world leader. He's a head of state. We are very close personal friends. As a matter of fact, this morning I just communicated with him. WhatsApp is his favorite way of communicating and um very spiritual man, not a politician. He's very smart, savvy, unbelievable instincts, and he just naturally loves Judaism and Torah. And you may wonder from where. I have no idea. It's not from me. I'm not taking any credit for it. It's not from any rabbis, actually. Thank God. Um, it's straight from the source. He's a godly person. I don't want to exaggerate when I tell you he reads the para every day. But more importantly, he takes personal lessons, personal lessons in his life. This is not so known, but I can tell you that silently he's making a revolution, not just in Argentina, but even in Israel. And I'll share with you how. So the rumors about whether he's going to become Jewish or not, he never told me he wants to become Jewish. Once we talked about it, I told him, "Listen, we have enough Jewish corrupt politicians, you know." Um, so he says, "How do you know I'll be corrupt?" I said, you know, let's just keep it safe. Um, so six weeks ago, literally six weeks, a little more than seven weeks ago, he traveled to Israel and he invited me to come along. He came through Europe. I came from New York. We landed on Monday night. Um, the date would be when did Israel attack Iran? That was Friday. uh what was it? I don't remember the exact date, but it was that week, that Monday, that Tuesday. And he loves to hug. He says, "Come to Israel. I want to hug the wall and I want to hug you. The wall first, then me." Anyway, we have that very personal connection. It's not formal. I have no official position. So I came I arrived there and uh I spent time with him at the King David Hotel is where he stayed and he had a formal meetings. It was an official state visit and on Tuesday that's when he met Prime Minister BB Netanyahu. He gave him the picture of the Reb, a portrait that he made for him and they spoke about that. And uh I wasn't there at that meeting because that was an official uh meeting just with him there. Those two. But through the week we had maybe six, seven different events. And I'll just point out one or two that are relevant to this uh to this context. Wednesday night the Knesset for the first time honored an Argentinian president. They honored him the full Knesset seating and um the head of the Knesset Ohana he opened up the proceedings prime minister Netanyahu spoke the head of the opposition Yar Lit spoke and they're all quoting Torah and they say clearly because President Mle reads the Torah and loves the Torah they're all quoting the para one quoted para Bah was the week about one quoted I mean they're quoting the Torah and they're quoting all in his honor. So literally I was sitting there someone who said to me you know this is the first time he used the word shame shamayim in this uh in this building to this extent obviously God's name has been mentioned but not to that on that level. So there's right there an influence that he's having. If he was Jewish, I don't know what kind of influence he would have had. In middle of Natanya's speech, I noticed he was speaking in um in Hebrew or was he speaking in English? I don't remember now. But suddenly he says, I want to cite a verse. I don't know how to translate into Spanish. I'm sure they'll translate it for the president. And he silently cites the verse in parabolik bum who's supposed to curse the Jews ends up blessing them. And what verse does he cite? Hen kiloviasa. Behold a nation arise like a lioness and be exalted like a lion. I was wondering why is he why this verse of all verses. And then he says, "Malay is called a lion in Argentina. The Jewish people are called lions." Okay, this was Wednesday night. Thursday night, there was an event at the King David where they both signed a memo of agreement about peace and democracy. And then a very few small group went to the Kaiso from King David. I was honored to go along. only six people. The president, his sister, who's the head of chief of staff, uh the ambassador to Argent, the Argentinian ambassador to Israel, say his name is Axan. And this kisel was completely empty, locked down. There was no one there. And literally, you drive right up to the wall, all the way to the wall. There's no walking at all, in case you're interested. Um and um and in true to form, the president gets out, President Malay, he hugs the Kaisil, stands there a good few minutes praying and then he hugged my me, he hugged the ambassador and a few minutes later, I knew this was all planned. Prime Minister Natayo pulls up and the is completely empty and he comes out. They embrace and then they both go over to the wall and we all sat together and again I noticed that Netanyahu when he said the verse he said it out loud especially the word that the protector of Israel does not sleep or slumber and they translated for the president Malay the Next thing and I'm literally standing there. The next thing I notice is Natanyao says to Malay, he's asking him permission. He wants to stand. He wants to pri pri want wants to pray privately. Can he have a few minutes on his own? And of course, Malay says yes. And he moves over to another side of the a few feet away and begins to dav. And then he asked for a talis. And all this was like I realized something's going on here. I didn't fully comprehend. I had no idea what that this was just for the record. If this is like dine, it's a few hours before the launch against Iran. That would be 2:00 a.m. We're now around 7:30, 8:00 p.m. Thursday night. Okay. He asked for a talis. For some reason, he didn't like the first talis. They brought him a second talis. No, it wasn't a kabat talis for those that are interested. Um, and then he takes out a note from his pocket and he puts it in the wall. Later we would find out what that note said. It was the same verse that he quoted in the kessa the night before Wednesday night. I went over to after a few minutes and I said maybe it would be nice to have President Malay come over and you could both like and I just felt it was like so he said sure absolutely and that's where you'll see some of the pictures of Malay and him. I'm in that picture as well in case you're wondering. Um right by the Kaiso and nobody's rushing anywhere. It was all seemingly just part of the From there we go for a tour to the tunnels. You know the tunnels right near the wall. And so the one of the rabbis connected to the tunnels gave the Torah. Again, a small group of us and we go in and we see the remnants of Bay Sheni, the second temple. Then the first temple they dug even deeper. They pull out a coin that they discovered that says Natanyao Ben um I forgot what it said Ben not another name and so proudly says that's his name. It's a coin from the first B mikdas from the first temple. Malay asked if he can take it. They said no we have something for you. This stays here. Um just for the record. Anyway, this tour went at least 30 40 minutes. No rush. We're already now 8:30, 900 pm probably. And then finally it came to an end. Natanya goes off in his car, Malay in his. I went back with Malay to the King David because we all had a flight that night. I was flying to New York. My flight was after midnight, 12:05. And Malay was flying to Madrid, but it was approximately the same time. And we left the hotel also the same time around 1000 p.m. He went with his uh police escort. I went alone with my wife and um come to the airport. Everything again seems like business as usual. The flight takes off. There were three flights that night. I was on one flight. I forgot the name of it. It's one of these new uh flights connected to Italian Airlines. Anyone knows the name? Whatever. Aria, right? And there was a United flight and an LL flight. Our flight was the last one around 2 am flying to New York and we have Wi-Fi. And I look at my phone and I see war broke out. Israel attacked Iran and the airport was closed. And I start looking when was it closed? We were literally the last flight out. So there's no question they waited till MLE would leave. I don't know if they cared if I left or not, but Malay for sure. Um, but and I'm looking at it and then I look, what is the name of the operation? Rising lion kilova yakumar nasa. And everything came back to me. I said, one second. What's going on here? Just a few hours ago, we're standing at the hotel and we're visiting the remnants of what? Aba Vishna Bay Sheni. And here we have the president of a western Roman country. Argentina is a Catholic Christian country that comes from Rome. And we have Natano representing and they're attacking the country Iran is called Paras Persia. Persia was conquered by uh were the ones that conquered Babylon. Bville that destroyed the first Mesa Mikdash story of Purim. And here we're all standing and Israel's attacking Iran. And now I'm here six weeks later and I'm thinking about it. We're in the nine days which are marked by the fact that the Babylonians and the Romans destroyed the first and second temple respectively. The shalah writes that the month of of of isolate you know what edim Rome and Babylon and where is modern day Babylon Iran Iraq Paras that area and then remind myself the note to Rabbi Greenlass and the other sources and tell me this is not history unfolding. And then we see the miracles of how the war was won in Iran. How Levi should be that way in Gaza. Whatever God's plan there, I don't really know. But we know the end will be good. And how they miraculous not one casualty 1,400 miles away from Israel and able to pinpoint and kill the nuclear scientists and the military leaders. Yes, we had unfortunately even one casualty is more than that enough in but relatively speaking such miracles literally the fulfillment and all this is happening with one more thing just to throw in if you want to have another the middle of this war is also the 23rd of Civ which is mentioned directly in the migilla that this is the day when the king of Persia called Akash said to the Jews and gave them permission to destroy all their enemies and that we say every Shabas is on the 23rd of Sivven. That's when it happened. The actual victory over the enemies was on Purim, but the decree came on the 23rd of Sivven. And here we are honoring of all things the center of the universe. The place that Yakov said, "This is the gate to heaven." Do you ever wonder why everybody's fighting over the same little piece of land for thousands of years, Asov, Jacob, Eritis, because it's the center. It's ground zero. It's the place where heaven meets earth. It's the place of the bas mikdash. Every time you go to the old city, you may reminded. Yeah. The Jewish quarter, the Christian quarter, the Muslim quarter. They have and how the Armenians get in there, I don't really know. That's another story. How they smuggle themselves in. And right there on the Harabias, you have the whole story. You have the Harabas today a desolate wilderness but they the Muslims stuck their mosques there and then you hear the bells ringing every Friday or Sunday or whatever because this is whether the know or not this is the center of the universe everything is around that. What does Iran have with Israel? Can you tell me rationally why Iran wants to destroy Israel? Is it a threat to them? Do they want the resources they want? What do they want? It goes back to primal battles that go back all the way thousands of years ago. And here we have the opportunity all of us to make that difference because the end of the day our response to all of this is like we'll say in the this Shabas After all the negative events, we always look and see the positive that the end of the day we will rebuild with and the captives the hostages. How do you redeem hostages? The PK says clearly but it's da and it's da not just but it's da connected directly to that goes back almost 250 years and here we are in another country connected to edim you connecting the dots you see a bigger picture emerging so it's not just and I don't want to say the word just that's really not appropriate every kindness every act of zuck is is as as powerful as it gets. But you see also a global narrative unfolding and we have this and the merit to be here today and to be part of this process because exactly as Rab Zman pointed out we take initiative. We don't wait. My father, some of you may know, my father was good friends with Shalom Dman's father Islam to come home to to D to to to the meal, but they were busy talking on some corner wherever it may be. Right? So my father as a journalist often would say, tell me there are three types of people. people who make things happen, people who watch things happen, and people who ask what happened. The Jewish people were always people who made things happen. Proactive. We didn't wait. And here we are, each in our own way. The opportunity to tip the scales. That's exactly what a misa does. A good deed, as the Rambam writes, and a time like no other. I mean every time as I said was special but now it's very clear is right the center of things it dominates every headline every day now it's the UK yesterday it was France and Canada both the anti-semit like a lightning rod or they call the miners canary the Jewish people just simply are the center of everybody's attention and hopefully only for the And that's how we have to see it. So our actions are not just isolated but they affect the entire world. So as I said I could not ignore the is the divine providence of us coming together in the nine days when the whole mission of the nine days is to see the vision that the end of Maka says where others saw destruction he saw the rebuilding of the B mikdash. He had special eyes that here we are together as Jews in the nine days on the fifth of should add the yard of the yet another force inas. So we have the opportunity to do our part to really make things happen and cause true change because the end of the day every battle is fought on a physical front but also on a spiritual front and says it clearly. Hashem shall bless us all. Bless entire team. All of you are all partners and initiators. We should quickly see how these days are not just eliminated but transformed into holidays and celebrations even before. Thank you.