I Went To Einstein’s House

A Torah anytime original series. >> [music] >> I'm standing here outside the house [music] where Albert Einstein lived and it's worth pausing for a moment to realize something that >> [music] >> if not for this man the world you live and I live in today would look completely different. In fact, it's pretty safe to say that no single human being had a greater physical impact on the modern world than the quiet man who lived right in there. You see, >> [music] >> Einstein didn't invent gadgets. He didn't build machines. He discovered the hidden rules [music] underneath the reality. Before Einstein, people thought time was fixed. He showed us that time can slow [music] down. Before Einstein, space was just empty nothingness and he showed us that space can bend. Before Einstein, mass and energy were [music] thought of as separate. He showed us that they're the exact same thing. Before Einstein, the sun was [music] the sun and he showed us that this power lighting up the sun is really hiding inside matter itself. This is not some abstract knowledge that he brought into the world. >> [music] >> Without Einstein, your GPS wouldn't work. Your phone wouldn't know where you are. MRI machines wouldn't see [music] inside the human body the same way that they do. Solar panels wouldn't turn sunlight [music] into electricity. Modern electronics and lasers and communication systems wouldn't exist as we know them if not for Einstein. In other words without Einstein, the world we know [music] would be slower, darker and far less connected. >> [music] >> It's not a coincidence that when Time magazine in the year 2000 was giving out the award for the most influential man of the century, [music] they gave it to Einstein because virtually every modern day advancement is traced to him. Now, here's the part that people get wrong. Einstein didn't change the [music] world by inventing things with his hands. He didn't have some major factory where he was churning out gadgets. [music] He changed the world by teaching, by thinking, by sharing ideas often with [music] just a handful of students in a classroom. He didn't have millions of followers. He didn't fill stadiums. Most days [music] he was speaking to a very small audience and yet the ideas that left those rooms reshaped the entire world. And perhaps that's a lesson for us. Most of us aren't teaching the world. [music] We're teaching our kids or neighbors, a small group, a class, a table, a circle of people who know our name and it's easy to think what impact could this possibly have. I'm not going to give I'm not going to give it all because I'm a regular guy with a few kids who occasionally listen to my advice. Like what am I already? But history says otherwise. Einstein didn't start with the world. He started with whoever was listening and from there everything changed. The same is true near this guy. You don't need a platform. You don't need a title. You don't need to build something massive. You just need to take the people Hashem put in front of you seriously. Because the way you teach your children how to [music] live spiritually the way you bring spiritual energy into a room that's going stale, the way you model passion instead of habit, that doesn't stay small. [music] It spreads. It multiplies. It outlives you. And yes, Einstein was a genius. There's no question. But here's the part that should shake you. Everyone is a genius somewhere in our own way, in our own >> [music] >> little corner of the world. Maybe you're a genius storyteller. Maybe you're a genius baker, the kind who somehow knows exactly when a family on the block could use a fresh babka and the subtle message that someone noticed them. Maybe you're a genius listener who knows when to push and when to pause, who knows how to bring calm into chaos. You might not [music] be inventing physics. You might not be building institutions or writing swaram, but you're shaping people. You are setting a tone. You're teaching others how to live, [music] how to care, how to take Yiddishkeit seriously and joyfully. And that kind of [music] genius changes lives, not loudly, not all at once but permanently. So, never underestimate [music] your reach just because your audience is small. You're not responsible to change the world. You're just responsible to change your [music] corner of it. And history has shown that at the end of the day that's how the world really changes.