Rabbi Eli Mansour Delivers Words of Inspiration at Dirshu’s Grand Event in Panama | March 2026

[applause] Momento all the way from Brooklyn, New York. We're honored to welcome one of the most influential Rabanim of our generation, Rabbi Eli Maner, the esteemed spiritual leader of the Edmund J. Sabra synagogue, who has transformed thousands of homes through his daily Shirim, reaching tens of thousands around the world with extraordinary clarity, warmth, and wisdom. He has strengthened amuna, deepened commitment to alaka, and inspired a profound love for Torah across our communities in America, Israel, Europe, and beyond. Dear Rabbi, here in Panama, we follow your classes faithfully. Your words of Torah enter our homes, guide our families, and uplift our community. You have been a dear and long-standing friend to Shevahim and we are deeply grateful for your connection and leadership. It is a true privilege to have you with us tonight. Please join me in warmly welcoming Rabbi Eli Maner Schlida. [applause] oftima balaka rabid Davidid of starter all the rabbis Rabbi Elli all the rabbis on the deis and kahal kadosh before I begin my prepared words I must say a postcript to the story that Ravit said when he came to Panama 35 years ago. Well, I haven't been coming that long. I've been coming for about 25 years, which is about a generation. My first trip, I met your grand rabbi who I have no doubt his spirit is with us tonight. Shalom. the student of the great and levy amongst many different conversations that we had. He told me, "Rabbi Eli, do you know what the word Panama stands for? The letters?" I said, "No." He said, That's what he would have said 25 years ago. However, I have no doubt that if your great Rabbi Hakamion was here tonight, he would for sure change the acronym. Panama tonight stands for porn matan. [applause] >> [applause] >> Khal Kadosh. I'm not a history teacher, but there's one part of history that fascinates me, and that's the history and the development of our holy Torah. If you allow me in the few moments that I've been allotted to go through this history and tonight I would like to reveal a great secret and I believe a great hid to begin at that is the first installment. I must tell you that though it was the first installment of Torah, it was not the most important installment because of the way we received it. We received it under duress. As was mentioned, the Gar says that God had to force us. Although it was a marriage, but it was forced. It was through coercion. God held a mountain over our heads and gave us an ultimatum. If you accept the Torah, we had a gun to our head and therefore we had no choice. I know the Jewish people said to takes care of that issue, but ultimately the original matan phase one was. However, in that same gimmar that was mentioned, the Torah tells us phase two took place after Purim. After purim, the Jewish people accepted the Torah willingly out of love. It was a different matan to Torah where the first phase was the second phase was meab. And I want you to know it was in the second phase of our development of Torah where we accepted not only the we accepted that phase one but in Purim we we committed ourselves to the study of mind you the more difficult part of the Torah the nitty-gritty theot and the habayot and theim and the and on purim and in the subsequent years of Bayi there was a renaissance period in Bal that's when the Mishna was redacted that's when the Gar was written that's when we have all the values of shasi take place and are brought to the world as a result of the that's phase two but I don't know if you're aware there is a phase three Some will say that it hasn't happened yet. My opinion actually is we are living through it. Dinbim tell us that there's going to be in the future what they refer to as I have to be very careful when I say toadasha. Of course, our enemies would like to misinterpret and use that for their own agenda. But the Torah is the Torah of when Msiah comes. Yes. The Torah is going to be enhanced to the extent that the Midrash writes that when we get to the times of Mashiach, there's not going to be a child in Israel that cannot give you the deepest reasons for the greatest hook in the Torah and there's going to be such a proliferation of Torah and Torah is going to be so expansive and there's going to be such learning on a higher level by men, women, and children and the Torah is going to be so accessible. That's the of the Mashiach. And I know this is true. I heard once from Brim Shalom. He would tell us stories about the rabbis that he came in contact with. One rabbi was called Rabaskke Shalom. And he would say, "Rabilsky would go to the court and he would pray to God with tears and say, "God almighty, send the Messiah." And then he would talk as if he's having a conversation with God. And if you ask me why do I want Mashiach? Because Mashiach is going to be a great Tamitakam. Maybe just as wise or wiser than King Solomon. And Mashiach is going to have a lot of Torah and I want to learn the Torah of the Mashiach. But God Almighty, if you don't send him, then I ask you that you have to teach it to me yourself. And then he would make the So there is a phase that some will argue that is futuristic. My argument tonight is that we have begun this process phase three. However, the says in ladies and gentlemen, you must know that nothing is free in this world. And something that's free is worth its price. It's valless. You have to pay for everything. And the price of Torah is means hardship, difficulty. Is must endure a certain measure. And after they endure the there is a there's a result. There's a byproduct. That byproduct is called Torah. Let me explain. The Jewish people were slaves in Mitim. We were abadim. We prayed the price of abdu and then we received independence. Although we became free from which is great news but the better news was we became hallelujah hallelu we just changed bosses in we received independence from but we became loyal servants and that's why the matanra was based on the price we paid. We paid a price of and therefore God treated us like and doesn't have a choice whether he wants to accept something or not. It was a concept of God the master forcing us to take the Torah and we had no choice. Well, you get what you pay for. You paid with Abdut and you get a Torah of. However, when it comes to Purim, the Garan Migilas says we actually paid a higher premium. Is that possible? What premium did we pay on Purim? Much more expensive. The Gar has a question. Is purim halw worthy? Is purim worthy of a holiday? Should we even have a hag called hag purim? Does it qualify? The Garz says, "The Gar is certainly a pes that we got redeemed that we went." The gab is telling us yes not to undervalue the pes but pes we weren't in danger of our lives our independence our freedom was taken away from us on pes we got back our freedom that's an expensive price we paid it for 210 years 86 of those years were pik Butim Hamman did not want us to be his slaves. He had planned an extermination of the Jewish people. The real definition of genocide, not the modern diluted and perverted interpretation of genocide. This was real. He had the money. He had the influence. He had the king's signate. and he had enough anti-semites to execute. The Jewish people were in real trouble to the extent we needed a three-day fast so much so Mai overrode pes that means the Jews were in such a situation of pikuish they canled pes we have to remember the 3-day fast was not in Adar it was in Nissan no mats no arbakosort No mar no hagada the Jewish people were in peril and could you imagine the stress could you imagine the agony where there's a date set on the 13th of Adar which means a day later there will be no more Jews in the world it will be the final solution the extermination of world jewelry And all the Jews were living under one kingdom. So it was possible. There was no there was nowhere for us to run. You can only imagine the anguish that the Jewish people had during those times. and made a miracle through the through the members of the Sanhedrin and the Jewish people paid a price where they almost gave up their lives and just the thought of it and therefore the matan tora after purim was a much higher level because the price we paid was much higher. We paid with our lives and we saw the power of the and we committed ourselves not only to is God's holiday God took us out so we accepted his Torah to but is the holiday of the instead and therefore we recommitted ourselves to the Torah of the and it's a great level but I didn't come to talk about the first two phases I came to talk about phase three I would like to say something tonight that I think you all know but it's worth repeating so I can add the extra caveat I'm sure You're well aware that the migil is said was written and there was a great rabbi called and he said a tremendous that I don't think is so well known this part of it at least. He says, "We know that the gazer of Haman, it never came to fruition. We always believed we dodged a bullet. We did." But he says that writes that whenever there's a royal decree that is decreed by the me says every time it says Melik and it's God Almighty. A decree that's written and signed and sealed by the melik alash that is an irrevocable decree says of in the times of Haman the decree was not cancelled it was suspended because in the hashe and the gazer of Haman would eventually come to fruition. He did not succeed in his generation but he would succeed in the subsequent generations. And the Ra went on to say when is that? Well, if you look at the migil, there's two letters that are written in a big font in order to catch our attention. The tap is written in a double font. is also written in a large font which hints to us to the year which reminds us of the great pgrams and persecution of the Jewish people in the years. said Hamman's Gizer was deferred to a later generation and subsequent to all the future deaths that the Jewish people would endure post Haman. As a matter of fact, you'll notice in your migila when it tells us about the hanging of the 10 sons of Ham, you'll notice that three of those letters in the names of Ham's children, they're written in a small font. Parandata, the top is written small. Bata, the yud is written small. Parashta, the sheen is written small. the tap and the sheen and the Zion and for thousands of years we had migil there and everybody had the same tradition whether you were or whether you're Ashkarazzi whether you live in North America or Central America it doesn't matter all the migillo were written with that tradition and if you ask the rabbi a 100 years ago why why is the written like that they would say you can't ask questions But nobody would dare to change it. We go to sleep with a question. That's okay. But we wouldn't dare to change one, even the smallest of the Torah. If wrote it that way, there must be a reason. And it's not for us to know the reasons in real time. And that's the way we've been writing Migillot for thousands of years based on the tradition. until 1946 where they had the famous trials at Nuremberg where they were holding some of the most notorious Nazi war criminals on trial. Originally there was 11 of them but Goring the night before of the execution committed suicide in his cell. And the next morning they took 10 Nazi criminals and they were executed in a very peculiar way. Death by hanging. 10 Nazi war criminals, BENHAM MANATA WERE HUNG. And the last of the 10 was a fellow by the name of Striker, Julius Striker, which was probably the worst of all the anti-semites. He was the most outspoken. He had a journal Dtorma that talked about the Jewish people in the most vile way, in the most disgusting way. And when they brought him up to the gallows, first he saluted to Hitler and said, "Hail Hitler." And then right before they pulled the gallows on him, HE SAID, "PURFEST 1946." People were shocked an anti-semit like this to say Purim 1946. They went to Revandel. They told him the story and he says, "Now we understand because the Hebrew date for 1946 is tapshin Zion. The three letters that are written in small font as if Mordeai was telling us that the 10 sons of Haman will be hung again. The story of Purim will repeat itself thousands of years later. And Striker caught our attention when he said Purumfest 1946. So we'll make the connection. This is well known. But I say that if this is a repeat of the gazer of Purim and this is the fruition of that gazer. So it also has to have the consequence. There was a matan but it was a matan of onim. IT WAS BETTER THAN PES because instead of going from we went from but after the holocaust we went from to IT WAS THE GREATEST PRICE WE PAID WE PAID NOT THAT WE DODGED A BULLET AND we got saved we paid the greatest price of six million jewels onethird of European jewelry that is the most expensive price, the price of Jewish blood. And in that blood was the blood of the Tamakim and the Russ. And that blood was the blood of the Ben, the Hakamim. And the Torah was destroyed probably at its lowest point in history. They burnt books. Since when are books the enemy of the state? On the night of Crystalallnak, they burnt over 1,000 institutions and they made bonfires of shas. Hitler, the grandson of Ham bin Ammedata, understood the power of Torah and he tried to burn it and he came close to destroying it and we paid a very hefty price and therefore nobody thought Torah would ever be resurrected after the Holocaust. But we knew that since we paid the highest premium, note, we paid and therefore the Torah that would follow would be the greatest Torah. That already begins the era of the Torah of Mashiach. And you know what that Torah looks like? I'll tell you what that Torah looks like. where you go to see mashes and you see hundreds of thousands of men walking with gimmar under their hands. The gimmar was a closed book for hundreds of years. Nobody could understand it. Only the scholars and today has become the book and the most favorite book of the masses. Today it has become fashionable to study the Talmud whether it's the Babylonian whether it's the mei today the study of Torah has become accessible one can study Torah in any language any of the Torah today is accessible 24 hours a day at your fingertips on every level for men and children. We are living in the Renaissance period of Torah and we are living through the wave and you must know that it was paid for through great and we are starting to feel Mashiach. We're starting to feel what it means the end of this road and the beginning of a new phase of Torah. We're at the end of one phase, but we're also living at the beginning of another phase. We are the ones that are alive, those that are here tonight. I was here 25 years ago. Should I tell you about my trip? It wasn't here in this Einstein. It was in the club. Most of you weren't even born. Kamion brought me to his house and he said, "Rabbi Yahu, we have a crisis in Panama. We need that the ladies should go to the mikvet. Please talk to them about and who did I speak to? Nobody was wearing white shirts and black jackets. There were no hats. It was the previous generation. Your parents and your grandparents. They all came to the club. There was no band playing Jewish music. There was no on the tables. They're teeing crumpets. There was nois nothing like this. It was a speech, men and women. I mean, we've been sitting together and we're trying to convince them that it's kadai to go to the mikvah. It's kadai to eat kosher. It's kadai to keep Shabbat. Who would have believed that one generation later we would already be coming here and now we have white shirts and now we have hats and now we have and now the discussion is this learning that learning now already we're dealing with different >> [applause] [applause] >> I know our tradition says that but I have a question because here in Panama we are witnessing aliat we are witnessing what the G says that the generation is getting better. It's because we're at the end of the tunnel and we're at the end of the tunnel we're starting to see the light of Mashiach and we've paid the price and that's why the are mentioned not only them but the future 10 are mentioned as well but you have to remember there was a key all the great rashas that came after the holocaust whether it was raaran cutler in America and the closen bare rebby closer burgi lost all his children. But they went on and they built Torah and they went forward. And since the price was so expensive, that's not that's look at the result. The result is unstoppable. But I must say one more thing to those that have assembled here tonight. When made the decree, the decree was that you could defend yourselves, but he also added two more words. He allowed the Jewish people to take the spoils of war. However, if you go to no less than three times does the migillat tell us they did not take the spoils. And of course, we have to ask if the king allowed us to take the spoils, why not? And I'm sure that there were a lot of needy people that could have used that extra free money. I saw from the from he said that's why we give matan of yim to compensate all those poor people that didn't take the spoils in the times of where they had permission. So we compensate them forever by giving their descendants every year. But the question is why did they take the money? When we left Egypt, we took the money. I'd like to say a novel interpretation in your honor. And it's based on a story that happened with me many years ago. I took a Syrian man from New York. He asked to go to to Edis is. So I took him. I said, "What do you want to do?" I want to go to see Rafim Kvski. Of course, I know where he lives. I was by the rabbi many times. I was by his father, the stipler. I bought my set of kilak from the stipler himself. So, we go. He's a wealthy man. He has everything. And we walk up the steps and he's holding on to the banister and he has rust all over his hands from the rusty banister. And the steps are creaking like a like a haunted mansion. And you walk in, the door squeaks, and you walk into a very, very austere, very humble, modest abode. The light bulbs are hanging, no fixtures. And the Rebbit comes out, says, "Come, let me show you the kitchen." And you see a small little hole in the wall with a Bunson burner with a skillet with some scrambled eggs and tomatoes, the the rabbi's lunch. And this rich man can't believe what he's seeing. And then we walk in to see Rafim. is sitting was a spring day. He has his jacket off his seat over his gar his his shirt. The window was open. He's learning and he has a smile for me at the ear. And we got of course on the way out. The fellow started crying and he said, "Rabbi Eli, this man has nothing. He has no physical or anything material. How is it possible that I have everything? I have planes. I have helicopters. I have all the money in the world, but I don't have the I don't have the joy. I don't have the contentment that this man has. How is it possible? I said, please don't feel bad for him. He must have something that is more pleasurable than what you have. That's all it is. HE'S NOT SACRIFICING AT ALL. As a matter of fact, he thinks you're making the ultimate sacrifice because you haven't found yet something more sweeter. And therefore, what you're involved in, your addiction does not bring you to the same bliss and the same joy. So therefore, you don't have to pray for his quality of life is perfect. said this 400 years prior when he said in that if the people would only taste they would only taste the sweetness of learning they would go crazy or like we say in the vernacular you'd go out of your mind they would run after it nothing would mean anything to them Not money, not kf, not gold, not jewels. Not because they're making a sacrifice. You shouldn't think that those that study have to make a sacrifice. On the contrary, those that don't learn and haven't tasted this sweetness and this they are making a great sacrifice. They're sacrificing the greatest of all pleasures. And therefore my theory is after the miracle of Purim when the Jewish people renewed their commitment to the study of they started to taste it again. SO SAID YOU COULD TAKE THE MONEY AND THEY SAID WHAT'S MONEY they said we don't need this m money. It didn't even register to them because they were involved in a higher pleasure. they were enjoying something on a much higher level, on a higher degree. So, you're not doing anybody a favor by making any commitments tonight to learn. You're doing a favor to your quality of life. You're do a favor to yourself. Our ancestors have paid the price for this Torah. They prayed a price with their blood. But on them, we say, That blood was not spilled in vain. Brings the brings the Torah of when the Jewish people left. God said, "And we followed God in THE MIDBAR BECAUSE WE KNEW HE'S GOING TO TAKE CARE OF US. God's not going to tell us to go to the midbar unless there's going to be man and the well of we knew it but in the holocaust to where to we got nothing after the 2,000 years of galut we still came back to God and said we want more TORAH WHAT DID WE GET WE ONLY GAVE OUR LIVES God broke us. Used to say when they were walking in the concentrations of Dao, God took us to Dao. It's on We got something. We accepted the Torah on. We got something. We accepted the Torah in the 2,000 years of galut. We gave our lives and nobody had any claims. We still go to the daff and the and we're still plugging away. We're still learning. That's the highest level, the highest level of commitment that already ushers in the new level and the third and final level, the level of mashiach. And it has begun. And I'm glad because Mashia's coming very soon. I'm I'm not a prognosticator. I have no information, inside information more than the sadikim that are here tonight. They could probably tell you more what's going to happen. I just know from the basic facts, what I read in the Talmud, what I read in the holy books and looking at the world events, I don't think you have to be a forecaster today to know that we're very close. All the already came true. including putting aim in prison. That was predicted as well in the Gim. All the signs are there. Even when the said that Mashiach will not come and President Trump stopped printing the US penny now there will be a time where there will not be a perutabis all the coming coming together and I'm glad that Panama did not miss the boat. I'm glad that you didn't miss the train. Bar Hashem, you got in before it's too late. Not only did you get in, but you're doing very well. You caught up a lot. [applause] And I could testify of the miracle. This is not a sh in the club anymore with your parents and grandparents. It's a new generation. And my blessing is Your great rabbi was a his great sacrifice planted on emptyow ground. And today we're starting to reap the benefits of and I say on events like tonight we can say amen. Amen.