Jewish Student Shocks Harvard

This Torah class is brought to [music] you by tora anytime.com. My family had a neighbor in Rochester named Gordon Letterman who tragically died young of cancer. [music] And he was a brilliant guy. He excelled in his studies and he eventually got into Harvard University. He was one of the only Orthodox Jews on campus at the time and he knew that he was different but it didn't bother him. He was proud of it. Harvard has a custom that every freshman delivers a short speech at the beginning of the year about an individual who inspires them with the room filled to capacity. [music] Each freshman gets up and talks about a figure that they look up to. And so one student got up and talked about how he idolized John F. Kennedy and another talked about Michael Jordan and another person talked about how he is inspired by John Rockefeller. And after the crowd heard all about Bill Gates and Walt Disney and Martin Luther King and Marilyn Monroe and Edgar Hoover and Fidel Castro and Henry Ford, it was finally Gordon's turn and he got up and he scanned the room. And being the only religious Jew present in a room filled with the world's future politicians and CEOs and Supreme Court judges, he was acutely aware of the attention on him as he began to speak. Gordon cleared his throat and he began. I would like to talk about a man whom no one in this room has ever heard of. He lived in utter poverty in a little town in Europe that no one here has ever been to. And yet he led millions upon millions of people throughout his lifetime. His writings have been taught in every corner of the globe and has sold more copies than some of the world's best novelists. He had some of the smartest people on earth clamoring to get even a few words with him. His opinion was sought in virtually every area of life from the deepest most esoteric spiritual concepts to global geopolitical strategies. He was known by millions of people throughout the world as the greatest sage on the face of the earth. He had a steady stream of people waiting to talk to him for the duration of the day for the greater part of the over 100 years of his life. He would give as much attention to a foreign diplomat or governor as he would to a crying widow who had nothing to eat. He was enormously scrupulous, never to speak even a word of gossip and started a campaign to eradicate gossip on a global scale. He humbly led millions of people in the proper path in life, leading by example. He was the de very definition of kindness, loving, and caring. Despite having millions of people looking up to him as their leader, he lived in a one- room house with a dirt floor. Despite advising and guiding some of the wealthiest people on earth, he could almost count his worldly possessions on both hands. This man was quite possibly the most selfless and humble man on the planet. This man who you've never heard of was referred to as the Kavatayim, the global leader of the Jewish people, and he is my inspiration. And with that, Gordon looked at the stunned audience, frozen in silence, and returned to see. You've just experienced another Torah class brought to you by to anytime.com.