The Trump Shabbaton Built In 48 Hours

Last Tuesday, I'm driving back from Deal, New Jersey, and out of nowhere I get a phone call from someone that I have never met before, and he says, "Hi, I have something urgent that I want to discuss with you. I live in Lakewood. I have an [music] office on this and this street. Can you meet me in 20 minutes?" So, I check my GPS, and I realize that I'm literally driving right [music] past the block. So, I say, "All right." So, I walk into his office. I'm sitting across from a Yid with a long beard, very sincere-looking fellow. And he says [music] to me, "Donald Trump declared that all Jews should keep Shabbos this upcoming week." Now, obviously, we don't take our spiritual cues and guidance from presidents. But how can we not capitalize on this moment [music] for all the unaffiliated Jews out there? And then he tells me, "Listen, I live in Lakewood. >> [music] >> I don't have a cell phone. My wife doesn't have a cell phone. I'm not connected to any kiruv organizations, but you are out there. Maybe you have ideas." [music] So, I'm staring at this man like he fell from Mars. I'm thinking, "It's already Tuesday afternoon. Shabbos is in like 3 [music] days. These things take months to organize with venues and food and marketing, speakers, logistics, [music] staff." So, I tell him, "Listen, I love your passion. I'm happy to help whatever [music] way I can. Let me think of something, and I'll get back to you." I leave the office. 5 minutes later, he's calling me again. "Do you have this person's number? Do What about that person's number? Okay, I heard about this guy. Can you give me his number? Who can help with this?" The man would not [music] let it go. So, I throw him a few contacts, and honestly, I move on with my day, figuring that nothing serious is going to come from this. The next day, [music] I start seeing flyers everywhere. A massive Shabbaton for [music] unaffiliated Jews, free for the first thousand people who sign up. Food, speakers, [music] singers, the traveling Chassidim. I start getting pictures emailed to me. There's thousands of Shabbos boxes being [music] put together and handed out all over Lakewood. Families taking boxes to distribute to Jews nearby who may never have experienced [music] Shabbos before, and inside of them there's candles, challah, grape juice, everything. [music] And I'm sitting there stunned. like in less than 2 days, one man with no cell phone, no fancy [music] infrastructure, no connections basically at all, managed to ignite an entire movement because he had one [music] thing that most people don't have anymore, and that he cared enough to refuse to let the idea die. And honestly, it should be a [music] a pretty big kick in the pants to all of us because how many ideas have we all had that could have helped people, [music] and we just let them simply evaporate because the idea actually of actually doing something >> [music] >> felt inconvenient, or we didn't think we could accomplish anything because I'm a nobody who knows nobody. We don't live [music] in that world anymore. We live in a generation where one passionate person can pull anything off if he just keeps going at it. Sometimes the difference [music] between a dream and a movement is simply that one guy who refused to stop making phone calls. That's it. So, the [music] next time you have an idea that could help people, don't just let it float away into another [music] that would have been nice had I been connected to so-and-so and had a lot of money. Just do something. [music] Call somebody. Text somebody. Push a little harder. Keep at it another day because the truth is [music] most meaningful things happening in the Jewish world right now did [music] not begin with famous people or giant organizations. They began with one person [music] who cared enough to not let the idea die.