Rabbi Reuven Kigel - The Truth About Helping People

Hi everybody. Great to see everyone. Um so like Rabbi Roenberg mentioned uh we in our lives every time we see Hashem's guiding us and uh it's very interesting you know everyone has everyone heard of free choice? Yes. Free choice right? Very good. Free choice is very good. So free choice is thank you Eric. So free choice is something we have in in terms of what we're going to do in life. You know are we going to do the right thing or we're going to do the wrong thing. Sometimes however our free choice is taken away from us. You know when when we have to do things for other people and a lot of times we have to do things for other people since the other person needs something uh we don't really have free choice in the matter. So one time before I started working for EMTT, there was this young lady who wanted to go to Israel to learn Torah for a few months. So I told her, she came to our house for Shabas and she said she didn't have any money to go learn Torah and you know she had credit card bills and this bill and that bill and the other bill. So I said to her like this. I said, "Look, you know what? I bet you I can ask a few people I know and I can fund raise money for you to go learn Torah." Right? So, I said, "Your job. You figure out exactly how much you need, exactly how much you need, and I'll raise the money." So, I didn't know I was going to do this exactly, but you know, I I think I didn't think it was going to be so hard. So, she raised uh she told me that she need me to raise about $1,500, right? $1,5600, not so much. So, I said, "No problem." So, I went to a few different people in town, started the first guy, second guy, third guy. After a while, after maybe a week or so, I raised the $1,500. So now she So she's ready to go. And now I had to go I had to give her her check. So at that point, I was working in the city and I was working on 46th Street, right? And on uh right next to 46th Street uh and I believe 7th Avenue, there's a there's like a little Starbucks there. So I was going to meet her there. It's right up the block. And I was going to meet her there on on 46th Street and 7th Avenue. So I called her on the phone. Now I just don't want to date myself, but this is before texting, right? This was like before I started working at EMT. So this must have been 2005, 2006. Does anyone remember 2006? Well, they they didn't have texting then, right? It was like if you texted it was like so annoying. You had to press all the buttons. It was better not to text. So So I called her on the phone and I said, "Hey." And I wanted to say, "Let's meet on the corner of 46th and 7th Avenue." But instead, the following words came out of my mouth. I said, "Let's meet on the corner of 48th and 7th Avenue." Right? And after I hung up, I said, "Why did I possibly say this to her? I was supposed to meet on 46. Now I have to walk another two blocks of 48th. It doesn't make any sense. I have no idea why I possibly said this to her." So I I thought, "Listen, what am I going to do?" I told her, "Fine, I'll walk the extra two blocks." So I walk on the corner of 48th and uh 7th Avenue, get inside. There's like a little lobby there of a building. I have no idea what building I'm in. So she she comes in also to the lobby of the same building. All of a sudden she has like a very strange expression on her face and I so I said what what's going on? So she said you know 2 years ago I was working in this building right bulb went into my head. Oh you're working in this building. No wonder I told you 48th and 7th Avenue cuz I really didn't want to meet you here. I didn't express this. I just told her this. So she said, "Two years ago, I was working in this building and I decided to become Shommer Shabbat." And I told my bosses that I'm going to be show Shabbat, and they told me, "That's nice, but you're fired." And she said she was so devastated, and now 2 years later, she sees that through those efforts, now she's getting the money she needs to go learn in yeshiva for 6 months. So I thought to myself, wow, there's an example of free choice was completely taken away from me. I wanted to meet her on 46th and 7th Avenue. Instead, we wound up meeting on 48th and 7th Avenue, not for me, because she needed me to be somewhere. So, Hashem orchestrated it that I showed up on 48th and 7th Avenue. So, Barashem, I was so happy and I was so happy to give her the money. And now, thank God through EMTT, we have ways to to get you to Yeshiva. Uh, and we don't even have to meet on 48th Street and 7th Avenue. We can meet right here in Bay Gabriel. So, anyone has any inklings to go to Shiva for 1 month, 6 months, 1 year, over a year, come see me because that may be too long. Uh, we'll talk privately. So, so, so then please come see me or any of the rabbis or or our lady teachers. We'd be happy to send you and get you over there. So, I want to share that a little bit about free choice and how it's taken away with us from us sometimes. So in the before I present uh my honore uh who I'm so proud of um I want to give a background story a few years ago there was a young man that came to one of my groups and uh he came with some friends and very nice guy came to Shabbaton and you know he knew there was a trip to Israel so one summer he called me a couple times I want to go to Israel I want to go to Israel I want to go to Israel sort of worked out I I couldn't somehow I didn't call him back or I called him back it was too late or the trip was filled up didn't work didn't work and I sort of lost track of this of the of this man. And I I always thought in the back of my head, oh, I wish somehow he could come back. So, at the same time, this summer, the EMTT Baker real program was going well. But one of the things we noticed was we didn't have like a strong like like first year presence. You know, people have been here for a while who once you're with EMTT, you never want to go anywhere else. So, people have been here for a while, but we didn't really have that strong first year presence. So I said to Rab Roomberg, Rabbi Craft, I was like, you know, why don't we try to really create a strong first year presence downstairs here and we'll send the other people that have been here for a while. We can send them upstairs to, you know, what do we call the place raise the roof and we already have Shira step it up program. It was going to be so fantastic and they'll get to learn and then we'll have more level ones. It'll be very synergistic, very good for EMTT and very good for the students. So I remember grabb I remember this very well. He said, "Great idea. Go for it." So now I had a problem cuz I had no idea I was going to do this. So So the next day my phone rings and it said the name uh the name of the person we're going to honor today. And he said, "Hey, I want to go to Israel." I said, "Oh, you're back in my life. I'm so excited." He said, "But not only that, I have a couple friends that haven't been to Emma before and they want to go to Israel, too." So I was like, you know, I said before I said, "Oh, okay. Well, I have to meet them first when we come in for an interview." You know, I'm thinking like, "All right, looks like we got our level one program going." So, so they came in, I interviewed them, they were fantastic gentlemen. A lot of they're here today. They brought some more friends. Some other people came. Then other people came. Then, uh, once we had like a critical match when people came said, "Wow, there's a good program, level one program down here." So, we had 30 guys and 15 to 20 girls every week. It was an amazing level one program this semester. And really, I have my own gratitude. have a car toy toem that he put Alex for uh back in my life. And come on up, Alex. You don't have to say anything. Just this big book. Come, come, please just for a second. Just for the photo opportunity. Sarah, you here? Photo opportunity. Alex, by the way, Alex joined cuz he wanted to go to Israel. He attended every single program and but he said, "You know what? I'm not going to go to Israel yet. So, this is means he came. Lashma, this is this is a great book. Thank you. Wait, wait, wait. Wasn't ready for this at all. That's the point. All right. So, anyway, keep up the Okay. Thank you guys. I just want to thank EMTT for everything they've done to me and my friends. It's a great pleasure and soon we get more and more. Amen. Thank you. Amen. Thank you.