Josh Goldberg Remarks - Siyum and Seudas Hoda’ah, Englewood, NJ

just to give everyone who is in the room uh just sort of the plan from here on out the OU and the CM for the Anga Community I thought would be really appropriate to coincide with a sudas uh for me and and for my family and um for the rest of the program it's going to be about a little bit about my my story uh and I invited uh a few rabbis who are close with me to speak afterwards um in between that there will be a video uh about a group of guys here in Anglewood that have started learning together and um I would just ask everyone during the video if you have to talk or you have to make a phone call try to go outside because I think for the people that are here listening to the video would be very very powerful okay and um you know thank you all for coming this morning thank you Hashem for getting me to today I was wondering if I should sayu or not and I decided the answer was yes so thank you to the rabbis from angland have joined together today thank you to my parents for being here for my sister Adrian and Sean and their family and to all my family and close friends who are like family thank you for coming everyone here is responsible for helping me in even a small way that I'm alive and I'm thankful for that thank you to my kids Evelyn and Phillip Evelyn and Phillip I love you from the bottom of my heart I love you for the bottom of my heart I love you from the middle of my heart I love you from the top of my heart I love you from the left and from the right of my heart basically I just love you thank you so much for coming it's a heavy heart that we're here celebrating in Anglewood with what's going on in Israel and it's so palpable in our community this past week I was fortunate enough to attend a organization called The Next Step the next step is an organization Israel dedicated to providing comprehensive prosthetic care and support services to indiv idual coping with limb losses through a wide range of programs including education and other support it aims to enhance the well-being of Israel amputees ensuring that they never need to walk alone I thought about that this week about next steps how do people deal with their next steps in life you know sometimes the first step and the next step aren't the same and who's there to take care of these people and uh I I I I got involved in this or organization I think it's something that the angle community be be very proud of okay here it goes to M appropo of a Jewish Le the final asks the question of whether we assume or observe perm cutan or not for the calendar guys out there like me the Jewish leier and the secular leaper happened simultaneously is very rare the next instance is actually 2052 seven years from now seven leap years from now today is also World hearing day which we talked about before okay back to perm cuton do we have a party on perm cuton or not today we're in the middle of interestingly we know that does apply to both other Olive andon since we're enjoying Adon today and we know inama there were a few questions in the ninth per about whether you were lending for a year does that include a leap year number of months versus number of years the concludes that we just celebrate a little bit on patan just a little bit it's good for the heart to have some fun however the gamar migil says that the Jewish people were pun because they were celebrating along with why don't we apply the same concept of to if we're just trying to have fun then to Mid should apply again to the answer is is that you need to synthesize the last of the with the first and the first in the for any of you that doesn't know is negative Summit means to spend your entire life with God living with Hashem all your life without the first of the it's impossible to have the to you need to synthesize the two almost like I felt that this was the reason why I wanted to have a personal sudas Mitzvah to be connected to the community seeum the combination of the two embodies the to and the shiv AEM it's a 1+ one equals much more than two to move your life to a higher and more meaningful life as some of you know this past week I met with some doctors and I was amazed at what a doctor can tell you after you've been seeing them for years the doctor I met with today this week was a doctor Constantino safas and he asked me to say a few of these things in my speech so I wanted to share them with you today first thing he said he said Josh you should tell the people that I have as much cancer in my body as you [Applause] do second thing he said was Josh you can schedule your own follow-up appointment now for people who go through treatment you would know that the follow-ups are always right away set up you know every two weeks as some of you might have remembered and so hearing those two things were really powerful for me and my story is about resilience and is about Hope and I asked myself over the last five years what did I do what did I change how did I make myself better from this experience how did I incorporate to Mish with shivi hashemi Summit so I came up with six helpful helpful hints that I've tried to find in the last five years to make myself better the first I would describe in the Tove La camp and the last three I would describe in the shisi Hashem Leni Summit for tol the first thing I would advise for every body in this room is to get scoped and to get more healthy colon cancer is prevalent more in young people than ever in America over 18,000 people under the age of 40 get colon cancer getting a colonoscopy at age 40 rather than 50 can save your life when I was diagnosed at age 40 I told all my friends at that time to get scoped and to my surprise a handful told me that they did have PPS and if they didn't get check check sooner it would have been a big problem in the same vein I've improved my health considerably I've maintained a pescatarian diet I've lost 60 pounds I exercise I exercise at least twice a week with somebody unnamed and I try to walk 10,000 steps a day improve your mental health as well therapy visits or meditation breathing exercises or just clear your head it goes a long way get scoped and get healthy the last thing in my health Journey was to try to focus on regular doctor checkups as doctors as kids as guys get older they forget to get checked up every year and before you know it you're 233 PBS eating spicy fries every night that was me in July 2016 number number two in tol is to live live a great life when Dr sophocleus spoke to me this week he told me the following Josh today is the youngest you'll ever be again life is about living I think the song says something like I have high high hopes for a living shooting for the star when I couldn't make a living didn't know how but always had a feeling I was going to be that one in a million go away somewhere you never thought you would take that once in a-lifetime trip buy front row tickets to a game or even splurge on first class for the first time there's a saying that the two most important days of your life is the day you're born and the day you realize why you are born live for today I've tried to do this more in my own life number three free in the toe wave is never give up when I was told in May 2017 that my illness was worsened I was focused on winning and beating this disease I was maniacal on how to get a better role model to my kids and how to be a better role model to be strong and stand strong my dad after my first meeting with the doctors told me Josh I raised a strong son none of these things will happen to you might as well give it your best shot great things do take time what we don't realize or at least I didn't realize is that we are all a statistic of one there is nothing you can't achieve or as Ray Lewis told me during my treatment Josh Goldberg kiss your babies and let them know you're in this fight for the long run that quote is hanging in my office and I look at it every day I think it's appropriate to think about that with pum Katan even though there are two adars we don't have a plan a and Plan B in life everything is plan a those are the three ways I've done to improve my lifestyle my health here are the three ways I've done to get closer to Hashem and they're all pretty simple it's pray more it's give more and it's learn more pray more I've tried to increase my prayers since uh my illness and I think I've doing about 50% more than I did before if you're a 15-minute Doer add another 5 six minutes if you're a two-minute doer add another minute it can't hurt and pray more means pray with more intense meaning have a conversation with Hashem remember that your prayers have no expiration date you never know when we or how Hashem will answer give more I have tried to give more staka over the last five years it's known that staka is T but if that's not enough for you staka has many more Powers as well if you aren't in the right place right now then give more of your time I've tried to go to the funeral in the middle of the day to visit someone or visit someone you've never seen in a while or just give in more in an argument be M on things that you've held back let it go it's a better feeling to give more as one of my good friends would tell me all the time takers eat better but givers s sleep better I have undertaken the aloff as one of the most cherished stuckas of mine and I hope you will join me as a partner to continue to raise funds for the aloff please see red privately for every information takers eat better but givers sleep better okay I do sometimes help myself to go to sleep take one of these medicines and stuff but the final item the final item the last thing I wanted to say and this is really why why I'm here today is what I changed in the last 5 years is that I wanted to learn more and the past few years I've been lucky to give the do Sunday morning here in angle New Jersey with some of the best guys you will ever asked for thank you to my kids for letting me sneak out sometimes without breakfast and when I wake you up at 4:30 in the morning and you see me studying the do I have tried to improve my learning because learning is what makes you grow as a Jew the learning is what drives change and Improvement I'm here today because of the improve in my health and the Improvement in my yish kite it's my combination of tol and shiv Hashem L thank you Hashem for giving me this opportunity cancer popped by now it's time to tell it [Applause] goodbye I want to introduce the the video we're all about to watch there's an amazing example of the angood community coming together it's been a privilege to be here during this growth spurt and I want to introduce the upcoming special video which will highlight one of the DFI kabas in Anglewood this group this group was an outgrowth of the Band of Brothers I just realized I didn't look up once in my speed jump sorry uh otherwise known as the grumberg minion it's really special to spend time Lear learning and studying with some great friends these interviews were conducted over the last few weeks and 15 students were interviewed with how learning has changed her life in the last few years I thought it was especially appropriate they were doing this seeum along with the OU Al off since it's actually been a big plus for the KRA one of the guys showed me his app usage and he told me that the aloff recently overtook Instagram as his top usage app another guy said I wish I met Rabbi Rosner 5 years sooner before we start the video I'm going to ask anyone that needs to talk or make a call to leave the ballroom so that the families that are on the video can pay proper attention thank you really all for coming for me and for my family today and enjoy