Hatzalah Air Event - Rabbi Joey Haber

Thank you very much Elliot. Thank you very much for opening up your home and your home should be full of and engagements and verses and Amen. >> So we're different as Jews. We're different as members of this community. We're different. We're just different breed and a different type. In fact, our first forefather has a title. His name is Abraham. And what's his title? His title is not sadik. His title is not his title is not his title is not the one I love or my servant. The title that God gives Abraham Au is Abraham, the man from the other side of the river. How in the world is that an appropriate description of the first member of our nation? Why is he called? The answer is that what made Abraham Abraham is the willingness, the courage and the conviction. the conviction to stand alone. The rest of the world could be on one side of the river. I stand on this side. You could have your standards. I have mine. You could have your places. You live. You could have what you worship. And I alone can have what I worship. And our nation since that day till today have always been we've always been the one that stands alone. And I'll tell you where I saw this in the most glaring way. When my father shalom wasn't well and thank God we never had to fly. But when he wasn't well many times during the journey the doctors would say there's not really anything else you could do or you know what the truth is I don't think you should be doing this. It's not going to be good for his quality of life. And I remember so many times my siblings and I would we'd be looking at each other and say he doesn't get it. We're we live different. We have life different. The way we expect, where we cherish life is just different. We don't just do it like everybody else. So for normal people in normal societies, the local paramedics is fine enough. Maybe they get there in time, maybe they don't get there in time, but that's kind of life and that's what it is. But we're not like that. It's why hat was invented in the first place. Halah was invented because you can't get to my mother or my brother or my son in 2 minutes. You need to get here in 60 seconds. You can't get here by waiting until you call this one that calls that one and you get here four and a half minutes later. No. I want my kid in the hospital by four and a half minutes later. And that's why Hatalah was invented. Hatalah was invented because we are different and the local hospital is not good enough and the local doctor is not good enough and whatever the lo local life expectancy also isn't good enough. Joe mentioned the story before of the woman in our community, an older woman who woke up one night and she fell and she was bleeding. She was a mess and hater was able to help her fly to the right care and the right safety. I remember having a conversation with that woman who close to her and her family and she said to me, "Rabbi, I'm old." like that's it. Like I I Why are we trying so hard? And I said to her, "Do you understand? You're a Jew. Do you understand the family you have, the children, the grandchildren, what you stand for, what you mean to your family, what you mean to your community? You have to keep fighting. If it's for another month or another year, that's what we're here to do." And the truth is, the story happened about a year and a half ago. And mashallah, she's doing great today. Surrounded by dozens and dozens of grandchildren and many, many great grandchildren. She's great because we're different. We fight for something more. We live for something more. I'll give you one last personal story. Again, it didn't need a flight. But most of you who know me know that my son had a stroke about 10 months ago. He's 25 years old. And he was taken to the local hospital. And I arrived about an hour later because I was far. When I got there, the doctor said, "Yeah, this is what we do for the stroke. This is the right thing to do. We're taking care of him." And we looked at each other and we said, "No, no, no, no, no. We need more." And by that night, we were able to get him to a hospital. And the hospital that was one of the best in the world said, "You did nothing for him today." They did a three and a half hour surgery in the middle of the night on his brain in order to prep to repair some blood vessel that had ruptured for no reason that only hospitals like this with professionals like this could care for. And that's why we need Hat Salah air because we're we're a community. We fly all over the place. We go to Brooklyn, deal, Florida, Mexico, Aruba. We're all over the world. Israel, and wherever we are, we're not comfortable with let's go to the local hospital. Some guy in a station wagon is going to drive us to a house on the corner, and that's going to be the care. No, we need the best no matter where we are because we are Jews and we live different and we way we treat life and the way we value life is different. So if it requires someone is on vacation in Mexico and there was an injury, put him on a plane, take him to New York and from New York he has to go to Cleveland. Take him to Cleveland. Take him wherever he needs to go, wherever the best care is going to be because we need to do everything in our power to make sure that man or that girl or that woman lives as long as possible because we value life, not like everybody else. Because we're the grandchildren of Abraham. We live different. It's why we need Hat Salah. And it's why when need be like 500 times this year, literally 500 times this year, 10 times a week for 50 weeks. 500 times a year. When need be. I don't care what everyone else would do. We stand apart. and where even willing to fly. Thank you.