ELUL: SELICHOT LIVE {Kehilat Bnei Torah - Los Angeles Weekend of Chizuk 2025}

to everyone. Thank you so much for coming. What a beautiful turnout. Shot everyone. Thank you so much for coming. Um I've been fortunate enough to have listened to the Shir of the R by Danil Gladstein for I want to say about 12 years now. Uh completely changed my life. completely revolutionized my understanding of of Torah, my appreciation for Yiddish for Msora. I also am very fortunate to have bought all of his books and I highly recommend over there in the front of the room we have a lot of his in English and ines for sale ranging from all the from toanim highly recommend mystery and the majesty. So please after after the year you can uh purchase this for him. Thank you very much. And I'm going to have someone else also uh introduce the Rabbi. Optimal evening everybody. It's a great great great honor for me to be up at this uh pulpit. I I don't you know speaking in front of the RV in front of both Raanam is honestly a little bit scary and but I really must say that um when Rav Israeli came to Westwood some years ago that was extraordinarily important moment in my life to meet somebody a RV in the neighborhood of massive Tom like him to be able to learn from him to spend literally the last several years watching him and learning how to live a proper life to be a Ben Torah as a synagogue is called appropriately And I'm extraordinarily grateful to the RAV, not only for teaching me all the time, but for including OJ LY and our program for the students and for our Yavna and our YP students and everybody with this. It's an incredible honor and I'm particularly grateful also to repar Dr. Parham uh the accident kings major is incredible. Um we no joke this year literally as the we're putting away the matzah the day after pesak we signed the contracts made sure to make sure that everything was ready for it. If it was up to me I would do it after sukis but we got to give them some space. I mean this program is barashm in its eighth year of meeting every Saturday night of this night of and it's incredible how many people over the years have gotten to meet and enjoy time with and more particularly people have said that the detra and the inspiring has made their their high holidays their yam much more optimal and that's incredible and I'm extraordinarily grateful to the rav and Dr. PM for including me and including us. It means a lot to us and um it's my to properly welcome to speak tonight. Um when I put out the flyer, I didn't expect what was going to happen next. I'm sure this happens a lot to the RV. My phone exploded. People were like, "Wow, how in the world is this happening? How could it possibly be that he's coming to Los Angeles that we're going to have an honor to learn with him?" And I got calls and texts from people throughout the country asking what what did you do? I say actually no, Rabbi Australian PM. So that's that's my business. I won't share that with you. But um it's an incredible that the RV was here for the weekend and that he's speaking to us tonight and really inspiring us for the first night of of first Saturday night of and all as well as what Ryakov said all the sum are available to buy especially 2 in the morning. It'll be a good time. You won't have to you know you won't feel bad about spending the money. It'll be good to spend after and everyone should buy the sarum. They're amazing and really it's a really great honor and co for me to welcome Dav to address us this evening. >> Thank you. Thank you very much. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you very much. Welcome everyone to Saturday Night Live here at Celot Live. I was never I have to say I never attended Selot live yet. Sleot live brought to you by accident kings injury attorneys www.acentkings.com accidentkings.com right but if you come to live Hashem should watch over you you shouldn't have any accidents you shouldn't have any mishaps you should only have good health happiness >> under the guidance of for many happy and healthy years live you know if you want to have live the first thing we need to know is what does it mean to be alive what is life what is life. We're going to be asking Hashem and remember us for life. What is life? How do we define life? What does it mean according to Torah to be alive? David says, "God, don't take me out of this world. What benefit would there be in my blood if I descend to the pit? Will the dust Thank you? Will it say your truth? David says, "God, don't take my life. I won't be able to thank you anymore." Isn't that unusual? Obviously, he won't be able to thank God. It's very hard to thank God if you're dead. You know, scientists have done many studies on this. They found that it's hard to thank God when you're dead, but it's also hard to go bowling when you're dead. It's hard to play golf when you're dead. It's hard to come to. You can't do anything when you're dead. Why does David say, "God, don't take my life because then I can't thank you." You can't do anything if you're dead. I don't like I'm not a stiff guy. I got to hold it. Okay. You can't do anything if you're dead. Actually, David says, "The dead cannot praise Hashem." No kidding. You can't do anything if you're dead. You can't drink diet coke either. Why does David say that the dead can't thank you? The dead can't praise you. Obviously doesn't just mean that if you're dead, you can thank Hashem. Is defining for us the meaning of life. You know, many people know Pim of Babasali. Today I dabed in a Moroccan shul. So if you get an aliyah and you're lucky enough, they'll sing for you the pod of the Babasali. But does anybody know Torah from the Babasali? I'm going to share with you a dev Torah from the Babasali. The Puk says that after the episode with Korak and the earth swallowed up Korakato, there was a plague and Araen came. He wanted to put an end to the plague. So the Pik says he stood between the living and the dead. So the babasali is bothered. What does that mean? He stood between the living and the dead. So he literally stood there and he said death stop right here. Don't continue on. What does it mean? The meaning is as follows. What does it mean to be alive? The midrash says the wicked when they're alive they're considered dead. You know why? Because they wake up in the morning and they see the sun and they don't say thank you Hashem for the sun. So therefore they're considered dead. Which means thanking Hashem is not something we do with our life. Thanking Hashem is the very definition of life. Life means to thank Hashem. David says the dead can thank you. Meaning the definition of life is thanking Hashem. If you wanted to know to what extent am I alive? How living am I? It's to the extent that you're thanking Hashem for the benefits of life. To that extent we're alive. That is why all of the requests for life are in the blessings of thanks not in the blessings of request because it's part and parcel the definition of life. It's very interesting. Do you remember the gamarra? The garra teaches us that he who doesn't bow down fully in modim. Now I'm going to tell you my pet peeve. Sardim are pretty good with this though. I don't know what it is. All of a sudden when it comes to modim people become like these stiff the modm no you need to bend so deep until every vertebrae in your back protrudes. The garra says if you don't bow properly by the spine turns into why since gratitude is the definition of life. If you don't use the to thank Hashem then it turns into the antithesis it turns into the nash. So here we are. We're at the end of the year. I remember someone asking Rev. Miller, what should a person do before the new year, the beginning of the new year? What should we ask for? What should we pray for? And Rev. Miller would always say, before you ask, before you say, "God, give me another year of life." The first obligation is you need to thank him for the past year. So here we are live. Live means we're here to thank Hashem. We thank him for tshin payhe. We thank him for all the benefits of the past year. We're all here. We're all healthy, happy. We've had all the benefits of life. Thank you for everything you've given us. And with that, we could begin to ask for another year. May it continue. May Hashem shower all of us with good health, happiness for another year. [Applause] I want to talk about a very unusual topic. It's very late at night. Ashkanazim are dangerous after there is a lot of fascination in the last couple of years with the royal family, the queen of England, Elizabeth, especially upon her petira September 8th, 2022. Estimates are given that 4.1 billion people watched her funeral, the most televised event in the history of the world. More people watched her laa than who watched the Super Bowl, which the phenomenon itself is worthy of our attention. What exactly is so interesting about a funeral? But apparently something is very captivating about the pomp and ceremony of the queen. The queen put for many decades a demeanor of polished royalty and sovereignty. And by the way, she's said to have had a pretty wicked sense of humor. So the queen would go hiking in her uh castle at Balammore. She would go with her protection officer. And one time while going hiking, somebody noticed the queen but didn't know exactly who she was. And they say to the queen, "Oh, you're from England. Have you ever met the queen? So the queen said, "No, I haven't." But he has, pointing to her protection officer. He even spends time with her. They said, "Really? You know the queen? You spent time with her?" So he's nodding his head. So they turn to Queen Elizabeth and they say, "Would you mind taking a picture of us with this guy?" and she plays along and she takes out she uses the camera and she takes a picture of these two dumb Americans together with her protection officer. She was a fixture as a monarch for 70 years a sovereign on 32 states. I remember when I spoke in Sydney, Australia on Shabas, they make they make Amisha Barra for the Queen Elizabeth because Australia is constitutional monarchy and the queen is a sovereign. Only in Australia would they be Mishaba themselves to a queen tens of thousands miles away that has no control over them. Okay, that's their own problem. Okay. Now, when she died and King Charles became the king, Charles III, by the way, it's very interesting. King Charles III actually had a brisma. He was circumcised by a Jewish moyel. Rabbi Jacob Snowman was a physician and one of the leading Moyelm in London. There's a Messiah going back to the 1700s. King George I who was born in Germany imported the custom of German noblemen having a mil from a from Moyel. But here's what I'm interested in. I'm not interested in Elizabeth. I'm not interested in King Charles. I'm interested in Phillip. That's what I came to speak about at Selot Live brought to you by Accident Kings injury attorneys. Phillip. Who's Philip? King's Charles's father. How is he to father the king? He's he and not only that, he marries Elizabeth. He's an outsider. And the share the Philip was very upset that Elizabeth's going out with like a a guy who has no royal blood. He figures, why is this guy marrying this my daughter who's a parent? You know, there must be some ulterior motive. Now who is Philillip? He has no royal lineage. Philip's mother is Alice. Alice married Prince Andrew of Greece. Alice moves to Greece with her husband. Alice is a from a religious Christian and was very unhappy with her husband. The husband became an alcoholic. He drifted into dissolution. He left her. He became devoted to a life of drinking and gambling. And Alice remained a from a Christian. She has Philillip. Philillip, an outsider, no royal blood, marries Elizabeth. How was he to marry Queen Elizabeth? This has been bothering me for a long time. This no-name guy, no royal blood. He has no reason to get into the royal family. And he is to marry Elizabeth. He becomes the father of King Charles. And until Messiah comes, all the kings of England will come from King Phillip. Halo Dhu. You got to know. You knew I was going to speak about Philillip tonight. You just knew it. And the answer to this question is going to highlight for us the most basic principle in Judaism that I think is grossly ignored. The month of l we say isn't it interesting that means the very beginning of lol the very foundation of lol is one word ani think about it you want to know how the whole yum season begins it begins with the word ani isn't that important to know it all begins with ani did you ever have this to meet kyki did you ever go to benbra you were there you were there. Okay. A couple of us were there. I was also there. What is to see the god to get a bra to speak to him for a few minutes. Did you ever go to Ben to Kyki's house and not get in? >> Yes. Me too. I went there Shabbat uninvited, unannounced, and the door was locked and I couldn't get in. But there were people who came in after me that did get in. If Maran Rabadi Ysef would have come in after me, would he have gotten in? Yes. If Rebel Yash would have come in, would he have gotten in? Yes. If Raghersstein would have come in, he also would have went in. If Aron Lee Steinman would have come and Gladstein would have been waiting on the front porch for the next week and I would not have gotten. So imagine if I would have knocked on the door and I would have said as follows. Just like you let Rebel Yoshiv in and just like you let Rabbar and Leen and just like you left you let in Maran Rabad let me in also. That's a pretty empty argument. What do they got to do with me? They're gdole. I'm just a regular person. That would be a ridiculous request. That would be an empty request. That is not a very compelling argument. Just like you let them in, let me in. And yet, friends, this is exactly what we do inot. We say and I know you have a little bit of a different God. You answered Abraham on me. You answered Isaac on the altar. Answer me. Carmel. You answered Elijah. Answer me. Did you realize that is the most ridiculous toil that anyone could possibly say? You're telling God just like you answered all of these great sadikim, you should answer us just like you answered Abraham. Abraham is Abraham. Oh, Abraham was tens of thousands of people. Abrainu was the first to recognize Godu sacrificed his life on the Msak. Yakov ainu his image is on the cavode. How do you have the audacity, the to ask God just like you answered these great sadikim, answer me as well? It's much more audacious to say what we say than if I would have gone to Abram Kfki and said you let in Rebel Yashv let me in. It's a joke. But it's not a joke and we say it. And we say it because it's true. And to recognize and appreciate how true it is. We need to go back to the beginning. God comes to Adam. God says to Adam, "Do me a favor. Do whatever you want. You could eat anything you want. You could eat bananas. You could eat oranges. You could eat plums. You could eat pears. You could even make kush. You just can't make a kdosh club. That's the only thing I ask you to do. Just don't make premature kush. You could do anything. You make a regular Shabbat. You sing shalom make kush. Just don't make early kush. And what does Adam do? He eats from the hadas. It wasn't his fault. He listened to his wife. She told him to do it. And he brought death to the world. If not for Adam, man wouldn't die. All the troubles, all the problems, all the challenges in life are because Adam ate from the eight had says. If you want to know the reward of the righteous in the future, learn out from Adam. He's only given one commandment, one negative prohibition, and he violated it. Look how much death he brought about. somebody who's careful not to violate sin today. If was commanded on one mitzvah and because he violated it, he brought death to the world for generations and generations and generations. Then if a person refrains from one sin, imagine the reward that is in store. Do you understand what a difficult statement this is? Kazal are telling us that if God rewarded Adam, all the more so he would reward us. Is that really a compelling argument? Do you know who Adam was? Adam Harishon. When the angels saw him, they trembled. They were aruck. Kazal say the ball of the ankle of Adam Harishon put the sun to shame in its brightness. The angels thought Adam was God. Adam was Adam was the handiwork of God. So obviously if he sins the result of his actions will have tremendous earthshattering ramifications and reverberations. But me, are my decisions that critical? Are my decisions so important? If I don't accord myself properly, will it really bring the same disaster to the world? And we learned from the ba the midrash that your actions are no less influential than those of Adam Harishan. And your choices in this world make a difference. And the choices that you make change the universe. And friends, we're about to learn the single greatest impediment to tshoua. You know why we have a hard time changing? You know why we have a hard time improving? Because you know what we don't appreciate? We don't appreciate the following word ani. We don't appreciate who we are. In America, there's a certain word that destroys everything. That word is whatever. It matters what time I come to the if I come a minute early or a minute late. It matters if I talk by the it matters if my elbow is covered. What's the difference? I'm just a regular person. It's not an earthshattering decision over here. what time I come to the betadet, how I talk to my friend, what I do with my money, what I look at, what difference does it make? I'm just a regular person. And this is the single most fundamental error when it comes to aodat hashem. And that is we have to believe that the entire world rests on our shoulders. And the way we dive in shakar, the way we dive in, the way we dive in reverberates throughout the world. The way we conduct ourselves in the way we dress, the our modesty sends shock waves throughout the entire universe. Because if you don't re if you don't appreciate that you make a difference, then why? What's the motivation to change? But contrary to what the Sahara makes us think, we are no less valuable in the eyes of God. then Moshe then Eli Yahu Hanavi you know what they had a soul and you have a soul their soul was a piece of God and your soul is a piece of God and if they sinned it would have been disappointing to God and if you sin it's the point disappointing to God and if they sinned it brought disaster to the world and if you sin it brings disaster to the world and if you do a mitzvah It guards the world. It protects the world. And if you come to the and you learn Torah and you d with if a woman is careful, it protects the Jewish people in Israel. The same way the iron dome protects your hashem me. Who am I? Who am I? says, "Do you know what the most fundamental concept in Judaism is? Are you familiar with the words of Rabeno in the beginning of Share?" Rabono writes, "The opening of Judaism, the greatest principle in Judaism, the foundation of Judaism is to recognize your value, how important you are." No. If someone steps on your toe, then you say if someone parks and blocks your driveway, you say, if someone's in your seat in shul, that's where humility comes in. But in terms of how you serve Hashem, you need to think of yourself no less than Moshe Rabenu that the entire world rests on your shoulders. Don't say the rabbi, I have a rabbi. Do you know my rabbi? my rabbis. That's true. That's not your business. It's not his world. It's your world. The world stands on you. How you pray, how you learn Torah, how you accord yourself, that is what holds up the world. Rabono writes, "You have to act in a way that your forefathers won't be embarrassed of your behavior." says Rabona unbelievable word words. He says if you if GA enters your heart to want to sin, you need to push away the gava by saying how can such an important person upon whom the entire world stands. Who's that? Me, you come to do an a. The opening, the foundation of the entire Torah is to recognize your value, how precious you are, how dear you are. And I believe one of the messages of the is we can say with a straight face, God, you answered Abraham, answer me, I am no less precious. I am no less valuable. I am no less loved than Abraham. Now, I'm going to tell you, not only are you not less loved by God, you can make the case that you're actually more important and more loved by God. You know, in Ashkanaz, we don't say in the morning. What do we say? Do you know what the word means? So most people translate it with a great love you loved us Hashem our God says does not mean greata means everinccreasing meaning even though if you ask most people you know who does God love more my great-grandparents my grandparents my parents or me most people say you know Hashem loved the sadikim of a thousand years ago and 500 years ago and my great grandparents and I'm just, you know, I'm just I don't know what I'm just related. I'm just still part of the family. No, just the opposite. God's love for the Jewish people increases in each generation. As much as God loved that sadikim 100 years ago, as much as God loved your great-grandparents, as much as he loved your grandparents, as much as he loved your parents, he loves you more. And he loves your children even more because Hashem's love for us is ever increasing. And let's try to explain why. I'm going to tell you a story. Maran Rabaji would say it's printed in the intro of Rabavaja's peranot. Rabaja says there's this beautiful princess, wise, intelligent. The king fulfilled her every desire. Everybody knew if you wanted to get the king's attention, you could always do it through the princess. The only thing is you needed to get the princess's int attention. And it was very hard to get her attention. What are you going to give the princess? You're going to give her a peanut butter, a piece of pizza. She doesn't need that. What are you going to give her? You're going to give her a peanut butter and jelly. You're going to buy her diamonds, rubies. She has everything she could possibly want. She's living in the palace. Somebody badmouththed the princess. The king got very upset. He incarcerated her. He had her thrown into a dungeon off in the forest. Her life was in jeopardy. She had nothing to eat. She had no clothing. And somebody came by to her dungeon and brought her stale bread and water and simple clothing. And she never forgot it. And months passed and her name was cleared and she's sitting on the throne again again in full glory. She never forgot the simple gifts that this man gave to her. Bread, water, and simple clothing. There were no diamonds and rubies in the world that anyone could give her that would pay that would come close to what this man did for her. says Maran Rabbi Ysef when the Bikar stood if you wanted to really find favor in the eyes of Hashem boy would you have to do a mitzvah to find favor in the eyes of God after all it was everybody recognized God's presence was felt throughout the whole world but now we're in the galut now we're in America we're in Los Angeles nobody recognizes God nobody appreciates the Jewish people in our generation says, "Every little mitzvah, every little every little strengthening on Torah mitzvot is dear and precious in the eyes of God, much much greater than the greatest mitzvot of earlier generations. There's a story that happened about 70 years ago, 1957 with a musical genius, a brilliant conductor, Arturo Tuscanini. He was a great conductor. He was a madman. He was a perfectionist. He had a raging temper, but people tolerated him because he was a genius. and nobody could lead the orchestra like him. There was a biographer that was writing his life story. This biographer came to him in 1957. Tuscanini died at 89 years old in 1958. And the biographer said to Tuscanini, you know, I want to come to your house tomorrow night. I want to finish writing the manuscript. Could you give me a few minutes? And Tuscanini said, no, I can't give you a few minutes. So the biographer said, why not? He says, "Because tomorrow night I have something very important to do. Please, please." The biographer says, "I just need a few minutes of your time." Tuscanini said, "No, you don't understand. I'm an old man. I can't conduct the orchestra anymore. The only thing I could do is listen to music. And tomorrow night, there's a very important concert that's going to be playing. It's going to play on shortwave radio at 8:00 p.m. And I want to hear it. And I can't have any interruptions. I need to hear how this conductor guides the symphony. I need to listen with full concentration. So the biographer said, "Listen, I'm going to come 15 minutes early. I'm going to sit myself in the corner. I'm going to be a mouse. You won't even know I'm there and then afterwards we'll conduct the interview." Tuscanini said, "No, you're going to be rattling around. You're going to have your phone on." No. So the guy said, "No, it's like a betakness. I don't bring my phone into. Did you ever hear that? You know that I see that their phones in the beta. All phones need to be out of the you can't bring a phone into I don't mean if it's even if it's off in the you got to be focused on the only the you and God. no distractions because either imagine this you're telling God hey God listen I'm willing to give you 7 and a half% of my concentration 92.5 is dedicated of course to my phone but I'm doing you a favor I would like to dedicate a very generous 7 and 12% of my brain to you I'm giving you 3% of my heart obviously 97% is dedicated to WhatsApp because at any moment somebody could send Another one of those very important dumb videos that people send me all day. No, no, no, no. If you want to take your seriously, the most important cabala you make for the upcoming year is all cellular devices stay outside. I guarantee you your will be on a completely different level. Your life will improve. your avoat hashem will improve and you won't have to be bothered with wasting your time watching all the dumb things that people send you 24 hours a day and then afterwards you know what you could do you could respond to all of them thumbs up thumbs up thumbs up okay it's like you know they have this chat they said yank uncle Benel he died okay now everybody write bte bte bow so that that really my such compassion for the death of this guy. You sent, you know what? Why waste your time writing BDE? Somebody should invent a nice emoji. We could just, you know, like thumbs down. Let's everybody thumbs down. Thumbs down. Or have like a smiley face with like tears coming down. I'm sure there's a nice way to do it. Take the phone, put it in the locker, leave it in your car. You'll have in one minute. It will be the best decision you ever made. Anyway, back to the regularly scheduled broadcast. Did I mention tonight's Leot Live is dedicated by accident kings injury attorney www. [Applause] >> Yeah, you'll get 5% off any if you leave your phone outside. um he's going to give you a high a percent off of any any uh attorney fees, right? Is that true? >> Yeah. Yeah. He said, "Yeah." Okay. Anyway, so the biographer comes to uh Tuesday night to Tuscanini and he's sitting there. He's trying not to move. He's he takes a deep breath. He doesn't even breathe for the full hour of the uh symphony. And after it's over, he turns to Tuscanini and he said, "Wow, that was really beautiful, right? Wasn't it?" And Tuscanini says, "It was atrocious. It was disgusting. It was terrible." The guy said, "What are you talking about?" It sounded nice to me. He said, "What do you know? There are supposed to be 120 musicians, 15 violinists. Tuscanini says only 14 violinist showed up." So, the biographer thinks he's out of his mind. How in the world could somebody hear on shortwave radio that only 14 violinists showed up? So he thought, you know, Tuscanini just said that in a fit of rage. So he decided to make a phone call and he calls up Europe. He calls the musical director in Europe. He says, "I'm here in I'm here. I'm an American correspondent. You got to tell me how many musicians showed up last night to play at the orchestra." So the director said, "It's interesting that you ask. 120 musicians were supposed to show up. 15 violinists. One guy called and sick. There were only 14 violinists. He runs back to Tuscanini. He says, "You know, please be turns out you're right. Only 14 violinish showed up. How in the world could you know such a thing?" Tuscanini says that's the difference between me and you. You're in the audience. So, what do you know? You can't hear the difference between one extra violinist, but I'm the composer. I'm the conductor. And I hear every note. I hear every tone. And when I was concentrating on the violin, I heard that the decel of violin was different than it was supposed to be. And I discerned there was one violinist missing. Sometimes we think to ourself, will God know if I come 5 minutes early or 6 minutes late? Will Hashem know exactly my level of observance? Whether in Torah and do the inches really matter? Do the centimeters matter? Does the dict matter? Is God watching? The answer is the guy sitting next to you in Schul, he might not notice. The guy in left field, he might not notice because he's just part of the audience. But God is the conductor of the universe. He knows the difference between small extra efforts. Whether you come a minute late or a minute early, whether you learn with 60% concentration or 61% concentration, God detects because he's the conductor. And the conductor pays attention to every detail. And every detail makes a difference. You know it's very interesting according to Mishnabah you'll ask your rabbi but according to Mishnabah the main definition of dvening is starting with the some people they open up the sidor they say they sayd they say they sayim to and the is up to and they're still up So they're good Jews. They're just not praying with the minan. Praying with the minan means you start with minan, which means that if you need to skip, you skip. You have to know what to skip. But you need to say a barebones minimum of if you have more time, you should say the last halleluah. If you have more time you say according to rashi the third halaluca. So the question is what is so significant about the third halaluca? You see the purpose of saying the halalucas is you want to finish every day and the last halaluca is the last chapter of tahhimm. But what is so important about the third halaluca? The third halleluah we're not even praising God. We're talking to nature and we're telling nature to praise God. says of Isaac Shar, that's exactly the importance of the third halaluca. You know what the third halleluah is? It depicts man as the epicenter of the universe where man is the conductor and man says, "Hey angels, hallelu angels, praise God." And the angels say, "Hey man, you're telling me what to do." And we say, "Yeah, yeah." Because we're the center of the universe. We're telling you what to do. And then we say to the sun, "Halleluh she the sun that sends energy down to the world at 186,000 miles per second. It releases 384.6 septilion watts of energy per second. The sun takes commands from us because we are the center of the universe and we tell the sun what to do. We then turn to the kings and the rulers er like a conductor. We point to Trump. We say Donald praise Hashem. We point Kim Janun. you know, let's go praise God. And he has no choice. He has to listen to us. We're the center of the universe. So, we're not only musicians who every note is significant to the conductor of the universe. God has appointed man, the conductor of the whole universe, where we turn to every entity in nature and we say, "Praise God. Praise God. You know the choices that you make today, minor choices. Should I take upon myself this mitzvah? Should I put in more effort in this area? It will reverberate until the end of time. You know, look no further than safer Yona. Do you remember the story of Yona? Yona goes to the city of Ninveet and he tells Ninveet to do tishua. You know, it's so interesting. We have many examples in Tanakh, Yeshael. They're constantly telling us to do tou. But there is no nation in the world that ever received prophecy from a Nav'i that the nation should do tisha because only Jewish people could do tusha. The gift of tshoua is not given to the nations of the world. And yet ninve was given the opportunity to do tshoua. Does anybody know why was Ninve given the opportunity to do in paras? It started over a thousand years earlier. There was a man by the name of Ashure. Ashur lived in the times of Dha, the generation that built the tower. And Ashure didn't like what they were doing. But there was nothing he could have done about it. So Ashure ran away and he built his own city. He said, "I'm not going to be an innocent bystander." He ran away. I'm out of here. I'm not going to participate in Mikdal Bavl. So God said, "You stood up to the pressure." I'll never forget that the tower was built in the year 1996 of the Jewish calendar. Over a thousand years later, in the year 3085, God said, "Okay, Ashure, now it's time to reward you." The city of Ninve had sinned egregiously. If any other city would have sinned like that, God would have turned it over instantly like he did to Sadd. But Hashem said, "Not this city. not inveate for our children, our grandchildren, our great grandchildren until the end of time. So you say, "What does this have to do with Philillip and Queen Elizabeth?" I'm going to tell you what it has to do with her. You think it's a coincidence that Prince Philip, who doesn't even have royal blood, married Elizabeth and became the father of King Charles? No. No. No. No. No. Philip's father, Prince Andrew of Athens, was a shiker. He was a gambler and he ran away from his wife. All of Philip's siblings, all of Prince Andrew's children, all his three sisters became fascists and they all married Nazis. But Philip believed Nazism was wrong. So he ran out of Greece and he moved to England and he fought in the British Air Force and he fought the Nazis. He ran away like Ashure and be just like Asher who made his decision. Philip was chosen for greatness. So while he was in the air force, he met Elizabeth and the father didn't want the shid. But in Shidukim, there's nothing parents could do about it. But it wasn't just Philillip. Philip's mother, Alice, abandoned by her alcoholic husband, defied the Nazis. While she was living in Greece, she invited a Jewish family, the Coins, to move into her apartment in Athens next door to the Gestapo headquarters. And she was brought in for questioning. That one turned off. She was brought in for questioning and they interrogated her and she would not divulge that she was hiding the Coins. And after the war, Alice was named by Yadvashem. And she left in her that she wants to be mar buried in the land of Israel in Harazim and the family did not honor her request. In 1969, she died and they did not bury her in Harim. In 1988, Charles said, "We need to honor her mom." And they went and they took her remains and they buried her in the most coveted burial spot in the world. She is buried today in Harazim. And she merited in the zus of saving a Jewish family that her son Philillip married Elizabeth and in her zus all kings of England will forever come from this woman who risked her life to save a Jewish family. And you could be sure if the decision of a gentile reverberates until the end of time, you could be sure that every deed that you do will make a difference for your children and your grandchildren until the end of time. But I'm going to tell you one last story. I heard this story years ago. I could never remember where I heard the story from. This is not about Elizabeth. This is not about Philip. This is about Haravago Rav Matio Solomon who is the Mashiaak of the Lakewood yeshiva and I heard this story many many years ago and I I couldn't summon the details. I knew it had something to do with Ramatio Solomon's mother. I asked around. I asked his talidim. Nobody remembered it. Someone of his tamidim said ask his oldest son-in-law. I called his oldest son-in-law. His oldest son-in-law says, "You know, it sounds vaguely familiar." I said, "Okay, I don't do vaguely familiar because I'm not a big story guy. I need to know what happened, not like about what happened." So, he said, "Call my younger brother-in-law." I called the younger brother-in-law, Halprin. Halprin said, "Yeah, this is what happened." Ramatio only said it one time when he was honored by the Lakewood Yeshiva. And for some reason, they had videos and every Shia has hashka. The r will know sometimes shirim the battery dies the camera dies and then there's no record of the shir like this one this this one died this one we're still going so I called halprint halprint said you should know that for some reason this story became hidden from mankind because there is no record of the story but I remember the story and when I told my father the story my father said Danielle where do you think you heard the story from I was at that dinner. I told it to you. Story goes like this. Matthew Solomon was honored by the lake yeshiva. He gets up and he turns the whole thing on its head. He says, "You think they're honoring me tonight? It's not in my honor. It's in my mother's honor. This whole dinner is in my mother's honor." He says, "Without a doubt." You think it's my that I became the mash of the biggest yeshiva in the world? No. In 1941, Ravarin Cutler who was the Russa of Kletk, he had was running away from the Nazis and he ran to VNA and the Vad Hatalah had a deal in place to save the life of Rabar Cutler, but they didn't know if it was going to be through England or through America. Now, this was during the Blitz where the Nazis were bombing England every single night, but they needed someone to stand by the phone on a particular day in case the call would come in from VNA that to save Rav Aaron Cutler through England. The only thing is it was shabas. So they needed someone to volunteer to stand by the phone for 24 hours in case the call would come in to save the life of Aaron Cutler. Nobody wanted to volunteer, but a young girl by the name of Etal Solomon, a young single girl volunteered to stand by the phone for 24 hours without sleeping in case maybe, just maybe, the call would come in to save the life of Ravarin Cutler. 75 years later at Solomon's son got up at the lake with yeshiva and he said without a doubt the reason why I am za to be the mashak of the lake yeshiva is because my mom like Miriam Hanova who waited by the wide to see what would be the fate of her brother Moshe my mother waited at the phone on Shabbat maybe maybe she would save the life of Aaron Cutler so 75 years later her son is rewarded to be elevated to the position of the mashki of the lakewood yeshiva. You see, because the choices we make in this world make a difference until the end of time. Life matters. What you say matters. What you think matters. What you look at matters. The way you behave matters. It will matter for you. It will matter for your children. It will matter for your grandchildren. will matter for the entire Jewish people. The entire world rests on your shoulders. Simova, thank you very