Transcript
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I remember growing up as a kid. Now, I'm
not a big city kid. So, I grew up out of
town.
And you
could hit a red light and the light
could turn green and then red again and
no one's honking. And then I got a
culture shock when I came to New York
and you go to the city and everybody's
beeping and honking. And I never
understood it.
And then I got married. You have kids
and, you know, your wife is always up
before you're up. She's up an hour
before you're up. She already has got
the kids dressed and she fed them
already and you're up. She already has a
laundry list of things ready for you to
do. And you got to run to davening, take
them to school, get to work on time, and
trying to run your morning. What am I
going to eat for breakfast? Jump to get
something from the cabinet, maybe a
Nature Valley granola bar, put it in,
put in your waist. You're about 2
minutes late to work, but it'll be okay.
And suddenly, boom, that truck's right
in front of you.
You're going to be 10 minutes late to
work. You hit that horn and it all makes
sense.
So, Baruch Hashem, about 2 days ago,
Yeshiva went on a Yom Tov, they went on
a trip.
And I had a little bit of time, a little
more time for myself to take things
easy. And I woke up, you could daven,
you come home, eat a breakfast, actually
cook something up.
And I'm sitting down and eating.
And a thought comes to my mind.
And the thought was
the mitzvah b'chol d'rachacha da'eihu.
Which means, in all of my ways, I will
know you.
And the Halacha says,
eizeh gufa Torah she'kol talui bo?
Which
essence Which mitzvah, at its essence,
the whole Torah hangs on?
And it quotes this pasuk.
And it says
that all your actions should be for the
sake of heaven. For example, when you're
eating and you're drinking and you're
going to sleep.
And the thought comes to my mind and it
says, "I'm sitting here and eating."
Just one thought in my mind
that I'm doing this for Hashem, that I
have the ko'ach
changes a simple act of eating
into eternity.
Into a mitzvah which has the potential
of total eternity.
And when we read this pasuk deeper that
it says
the
azeh gufa Torah she'akol talui bo,
everything hangs on
what about this mitzvah everything in
the Torah hangs upon?
And I think the idea is that a Jew
puts a thought before an action. Every
action is not mundane. Every action is
full of meaning and purpose.
And that's really the essence of our
happiness as a Jew.
I remember meeting a student, I had a
student in Or Sameach and we met in the
dining room.
And we're sitting and chatting and
schmoozing
and discussing and I ask him like, "How
did you get to Or Sameach?" And he says,
"You know what?
After college, I went on a world tour.
I'm touring all the different countries
of the world and I I
I got to stop in Israel also and I had
some relatives. And I look at the people
there and everybody is just so happy.
And I said, "I got to come and be a part
of this."
And I actually fought my parents for 7
months. I live in Vegas and finally have
the opportunity to be part of this.
Cuz that's what a Jew is. A Jew that's
full of meaning and purpose.
I just want to finish with such a
powerful story
from the Holocaust about one thought.
There was a camp that had a certain
Gestapo Jew.
And this guy was wicked. He was awful.
He was they referred to him as the Nazi
of all. Wherever he was able to get Jews
in trouble, he would. He was terrible,
almost completely integrated into Nazi
life.
And there came the Jews in the barrack
one Yom Kippur.
And they decided that they're going to
make a minyan for Yom Kippur. And they
find a room that they could daven Yom
Kippur, and they go in the room and they
daven.
And suddenly, mid into the day, a Nazi
walks in with a big smile on his face.
And he says, "Jews,
I bought I brought you something special
today.
I know you have to work hard, and
sometimes it's important to eat. I
brought you a delicious pot of soup with
meat.
Who would like some?"
And of course, none of the Jews stepped
up, and they said, "What do you mean
you're not going to eat soup?
This is delicious.
You have to work for us. You have to
eat."
And one of the Jews told him, he said,
"No.
Today is Yom Kippur. We don't eat on Yom
Kippur." And the Nazi enraged, says,
"You Jews don't eat on Yom Kippur? I
will show you that you eat on Yom
Kippur." And he called in this Gestapo
Jew, and he says,
"Tell these Jews how Jews don't eat on
Yom Kippur."
The Gestapo Jew looked in this Nazi's
eyes and told him,
"I'm a Jew,
and Jews don't eat on Yom Kippur." Boom.
A bullet in his head.
One thought
changed him from the depths of
wickedness
to mekadesh,
sanctifying Hashem's name in public.
One thought.
