My Lev L'Achim Parlor Meeting Speech

This Torah class is brought to [music] you by torahanytime.com. >> Shalom Aleichem. My name is Hillel Eisenberg. It's an honor and a source to share a few thoughts [music] with you about the unbelievable work of Lev L'Achim. I'd like to share with you a story that my friend shared with me not too long ago, which I think captures [music] everything Lev L'Achim is all about. One of the many fantastic things that Lev L'Achim does is that they arrange for young light all over Eretz Yisrael to learn with children, boys who would otherwise have zero [music] exposure to Torah and Yiddishkeit. So, there was one such Lev L'Achim Yungeleit who would learn with a sweet innocent [music] Chilani eighth grade boy. And one day while they were learning, the boy looked a little sad. So, the Yungeleit asked him, "Why?" And the boy said, "Well, we've been learning for so long and we've been coming to so many Lev L'Achim events and I want to grow in my Yiddishkeit, but at home Shabbat and next year I don't think my mother's going to agree to send me to Yeshiva and I'm just nervous about what's going to be with me." So, this Yungeleit [music] he looks at this sweet boy and his heart just breaks for him. And so, he says [music] to him, "You know what? I think I'm going to call your mother and ask if she'd consider sending you to Yeshiva, as simple as that." The kid almost starts laughing. "Call my mother? Are you crazy? My mother is a hardcore Tel Aviv liberal CEO feminist [music] powerhouse. She runs a billion-dollar investment firm. Nobody tells her what to do. The second she hears the word Yeshiva, she's going to hang up on you." But the Yungeleit he was undeterred. He says, "Well, I'm calling anyway." So, he calls her. And exactly [clears throat] like the boy predicted, the second she hears the word Yeshiva, she slams down the phone so hard that the phone needed therapy afterwards. And the next day the Yungeleit he says [music] to the boy, "Yeah, I didn't go exactly as I thought it would. So, I think I'm going to go meet her in person. And the boy says, "Are you out of your mind? My mother is the CEO of a global finance company. She works on the top floor of a skyscraper in Tel Aviv. I am serious, she will throw you out the window." The young man, he comes up with an idea. >> [music] >> He calls the company and says, "Hello, I'd like to schedule a meeting with the CEO for tomorrow regarding an investment." The secretary says politely, "I'm sorry, she has no availability." The [music] young man says, "No, no, you don't understand. This is the largest investment she'll ever make in her life." And the secretary says, "Um she only deals with investments over $100 million." The young man says, "This investment [music] is worth 10 times that amount." Now, at this point, the young man literally could almost see dollar signs in the eyes of the secretary through the phone. She's already planning on how she's going to remodel her kitchen if she gets a a bonus from this investment. [music] And so, suddenly, miraculously, the schedule opens up. Okay, it seems like tomorrow at 2:00 p.m. just opened up just for you. We will see you then. The next day, the young man, he arrives at 1:55 and sits [music] down in the waiting room of the billion-dollar investment firm in Tel Aviv. Now, just picture the scene. He's in this room with floor-to-ceiling glass windows overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. And he's sitting next to investors from Korea. There are high-profile bankers from London there. There are venture capital executives from San Francisco there. There's a CEO from Paris sitting there with a $15,000 Prada handbag. And in the middle of all of them is this Yeshiva shingur man with his payos flying in every direction with his Borsalino sombrero perched on top of his head. He's wearing what looks suspiciously like his bar mitzvah suit jacket. He's sitting next to a Swiss banker whose cufflinks cost more than this guy's entire life saving. The banker is holding a leather briefcase he bought for $5,000 in Venice. And this young man is holding a Osem brand shopping bag with cucumber sticking out and Bamba spilling everywhere and two bags of milk poking through the top. And so the secretary walks out, she scans the room and says, >> [music] >> "Okay, who's here for the 2:00 p.m. investment meeting?" Up jumps the younger man. And she looks at him, looks down at the shopping bag, looks all over him >> [music] >> and says, "You're the investor?" Yes, he says, "That is me." The secretary is just [music] shocked. She says, "You You're the one I spoke to on the phone yesterday with the billion-dollar investment?" "Yep, that is me." So, a little surprised, she walks him into the CEO's office. He walks in holding his Osem brand shopping bag with Bamba spilling up everywhere and she sits down across this woman. The mother looks up in shock. "You're here for the billion-dollar investment?" The younger man he [music] smiles and he says, "Yes, I came to speak to you about an investment more valuable than anything you've [music] ever handled. It's an investment with greater returns than any stock on Earth, an investment that will bring you more happiness, more meaning, more satisfaction than every business that you've ever closed." The woman is staring at him >> [music] >> like he landed from Mars. Finally, she says, "What in the world are you talking about?" The younger man he leans forward, he says, "I am talking about [music] your son, Yiddishkeit, sending him to Yeshiva, giving him a life with meaning, with depth, with purpose, giving him a backbone, giving him eternity. That is the greatest investment you will ever make in your life." The room goes [music] silent. And then this powerhouse Televis CEO, this woman who had spent her life closing deals [music] and commanding boardrooms, she let out a deep sigh. And she says, "You know what? I give you credit. [music] I don't know if I've ever seen passion like this before. You got me, I'm in. Cuz I've seen how happy my son is, [music] I feel how refined he's becoming. I see how sweet his soul is. I want it. Fast forward several months. The boy is in Mitzi and Yeshiva. The mother with the help of Lev Avrohom has transformed [music] her home and that once fiercely anti-religious CEO is today [music] living a life filled with Torah and mitzvahs. That is the work of Lev Avrohom. That is what this organization does. It fights for Jewish souls with passion, [music] with stubbornness, with heart. And tonight every person here has the opportunity to become part of that investment. Not an investment [music] in buildings, not an investment in markets, an investment in the salvation of the entire Jewish people. You see when most people see a kiruv [music] organization hosting an event, they tend to just keep on walking. Ah, another parlor meeting. Ah, I'll try to make it if I have the time. [music] Here in kiruv, that's nice. It's just not really my thing. But when you pause for a second and think, what does that even mean? Kiruv is not your thing? Saving your brother from drowning isn't your [music] thing? Pulling your sister out of a society that's slowly ripping her soul out of her isn't your [music] thing? Teaching a sixth grader that there's someone once named Avrohom or Yitzchak or Yaakov, that that there's Shabbos and Pesach and Sukkos and meaning and identity, that's not your thing? Since when did rescuing Jewish souls from death become a niche interest like pickleball or sourdough baking? If there is anything in the world that should feel like it belongs to [music] every Jew without exception, it is this. Lev Avrohom isn't a hobby. It's not a preference. >> [music] >> It's not a social wellness non-profit organization started by retired people who needed something to [music] do with their lives. It's not a side project for kiruv people. Lev Avrohom is saving your brother, your sister, saving the 80% [music] of klal Yisrael that nobody seems to care about. And when something is that real and that urgent and that eternal, [music] there's no such thing as it's not my thing. You see, there are moments in Jewish [music] history when Hashem opens a door that is so wide, it's so obvious, it's so full of possibility that all of heaven seems to hold its [music] breath waiting to see who will be the one smart enough to walk through the door. I'll give you an example. After the destruction of the first base Hamikdash, after we are crushed, then we go into exile, and then we go through the trauma of Haman and the terror of the whole Purim story, [music] the Jewish people built pretty comfortable lives in Persia afterwards. >> [music] >> Businesses were thriving, families were settling, life was for the most part stable again. And then suddenly, out of nowhere, came the announcement that nobody could have imagined. Koresh, who was the king of Persia, gives permission for the Jews to return to Yerushalayim and rebuild the base Hamikdash. Now, can you imagine that moment? The kelim of the base Hamikdash are taken out from the royal treasury where it was placed. [music] The dream of generations suddenly sitting in front of them. Ezra, [music] who was the leader of the Jewish people at the time, he excitedly he runs into the town square and he breaks the news to the Jewish people. He says, "Rabbosai, I have an announcement. Rabbosai, I have an announcement. We have been given reshus to rebuild the base Hamikdash. Rabbosai, let's go, let's do it. The time we've been waiting for has arrived." And so with [music] Purim, the story is still fresh in their minds, and the threat of like complete annihilation of the entire Jewish people, it's still pretty much on the forefront of their minds. You would think there would have been a natural like outpour of excitement back to Yerushalayim and rebuild the base Hamikdash. There should have been an ecstatic stampede to go back, but there wasn't. >> [music] >> Not even close. Out of the millions of Jews, a measly 42,360 got up and went. That's it. The overwhelming majority stayed behind. Of course they supported the idea, of course they believed in rebuilding the Mishkan. Of course, they spoke passionately about Geulah, about Yerushalayim, and returning home. Conceptually, everyone was on board. But when it came time [music] to open your wallet, when it came time to get up and move, when it came time to leave comfort behind, when it came time to stop talking and start building, 95% of Klal Yisrael stayed right where they were in Persia. Because belief is very cheap when it costs nothing. The question was never if you agreed with the dream. The question was who was willing to carry it? Who was willing to leave behind convenience? Who was willing to build with dirt under their fingernails and exhaustion in their bones? Who was willing to place Hashem's vision >> [music] >> for the entire Jewish people on their shoulders and say, "If this needs to be built, then I'm going to be the one who builds it." And you know what happened to those 42,360 people? Jews, ordinary people whose names would have otherwise vanished into history. Hashem does something almost never done in all of Tanakh. He lists them name by name, family by family. Go check it up. They were They got a shout-out in Tanakh. Because when history called, they were the answer. They understood something that most people spend their entire lifetime missing. That there are rare moments when Hashem opens [music] a door in history and says to a generation, "Who wants to help me build?" And the people who step through that door do not merely live through Jewish history, they become part of it. I believe that the time we are in right now is one of those [music] moments. There are millions of Jews in Israel right now who are searching for meaning and identity and truth. Jews who are not anti-Torah. They're simply They never encountered encountered it. They never tasted [music] it. They never saw its beauty. If They They They never had someone fight for their neshamos. And the question is who will? Who will stand up and reach out to their neshamos? [music] Who will be the 40 the 42,000 of this generation? Because let's be honest, there was once a time when Klal Yisrael was almost impossible. When the Jewish people had to battle intellectual giants, stukim, krayim, pseudo-messianic movements, haskalah, bundism, these were powerful ideologies led by brilliant minds who wrote long manifestos. You could barely get near some of these people. Half the time they knew more than you did. But those days are long gone. You know what we're up against nowadays? We're up against Mickey Mouse and the New York Knicks and [music] TikTok and Taylor Swift. It's pathetic. That's what's going to steal millions of Jewish neshamos? That's what's going to decide the future of klal Yisrael? A nation that beat Hitler and Stalin and Khmelnytsky and the Cossacks and the Crusaders and the Inquisitors and we're going to suffer our biggest fall to Instagram? That's what's going to take us down? A dolphin water skiing in Hawaii? Are we serious? It's absurd. It's pathetic and honestly, it should inspire us. Because this generation is not running away from Torah after reading 12 volumes of philosophy. They're just being hypnotized by distraction. They're just being out-entertained. [music] And if Jews are getting pulled away by emptiness, they can absolutely be pulled back by truth and depth and warmth and purpose and people who actually care. Because underneath the distractions, underneath the cynicism, underneath the scrolling and the numbness and the noise is a Jewish neshama. A Jewish neshama remains a Jewish soul no matter what. And every single day in Eretz Yisrael, L'eilui Nishmas is proving it. Jews are reconnecting, >> [music] >> families are changing forever, children are growing up with Torah because somebody cared enough to fight for people they don't know. And one day, after 120 years, Hashem might ask us an uncomfortable question. Were you part of the problem or were you part of the solution? When my children were drifting, where were you? Did you stand on the sidelines analyzing the problem and talking about the problem or did you build? [music] Did you try to solve the problem? Did you stand by while neshamos just drifted away or or did you become part of the army bringing them home? This generation does not need more spectators. We have enough of spectators. [music] It needs more fighters. This is your opportunity to say to Hashem, I refuse to sit comfortably [music] in Persia while Jewish souls drift further and further away from you and from their inheritance. [music] I will get up with the Ezras of our time and rebuild the shamans that we lost. So when I look at a room like this, >> [music] >> I don't see supporters of a cure of organization. I see the difference between a Jewish future being built or a Jewish future being lost because there really isn't a neutral position here. Either you're part of the chain that brings Jews closer [music] or you're part of the silence that lets them drift further away. And who knows? Perhaps because of the money you give today, there will be a boy one day who grows up religious and will make videos for the next parlor meeting of lucky Yidden lucky enough to support Klal Yisrael's most precious organization. One day there will be people sitting in shuls, raising families, learning Torah, living with Yiddishkeit because someone in this room decided not to walk away. So the question I leave you with tonight is this. When the story of our generation is told in 100 years [music] from now, will you be part of the reason Hashem's children return or part of the people who sat by and did nothing? Klal Yisrael has more than enough spectators. [music] Now is the time to be a doer, to stand up and join Lev L'Achim declare that you're not part of the problem, you're very much part of the solution. >> [music] >> You've just experienced another Torah class brought to you by torahanytime.com.