Kumzitz at the Oorahthon 5779 - Feat. Moshe Storch [Part Two]

you never know [Music] you never know you're never you never know [Music] you never know you now have just once more thieves just once more smile just once more call might go the extra mile you never know you know you never know but there is one organization out there that does know the details they don't know but they know that you never know so when you know that you never know you think that you do things that usually wouldn't do why because you never know you never know you never know you never know thank you again to Shannon a buyer who is here the first segment and a friend of his another one another in a Shama another story another inspiration is here with us tonight his name is Ruben Ruben Tyler now before I call him up just in your eyes picture a 12 year old boy from Sharon Massachusetts public school really know their Jewish picture that boy and then tell me if you believe me that this is him when I call up come to the stage Reuven Tyler you never know you never know we'll make my chills going through my body right now thank you so much for being I get to vote good luck thank you for having me thank you thank you do run so Ruben tell me where did it begin for you so it began the summer when I was in seventh grade just before my bar mitzvah there was my family didn't we knew we were Jewish but we didn't really know what that meant didn't really know me and my brother were in a Daytona Sunday school at a local synagogue I won't call it a shoal we learned to read Hebrew or at least what sounds the letters made we didn't really know how to translate the words so Reuben this is a very limited this is the minimal Jewish education possible yeah we we knew that the name was Judaism and we knew how to read the olive base from what I know there was one from person in your life yeah there was a role what did she do to change your life so there was one rabbi and his wife the his Robertson so what she did is that she called up Aurora pretending to be my mother and signed me and my brother up for camp one summer you never know [Music] what was her name rabbits in Brasov frolic ruffle further Wow I'll shake them do they realize they know where you are today yeah they know so they called who are pretending to be your mother yeah they uh they said you know we have two boys that want to go to camp and learn what Judaism is like now and your mother never told you that she has two boys that want to learn about Judaism well they knew that my mother had two sons but we never expressed any interests until they sort of pushed us towards it so you go to camp and when you there what happened for you well that was the for anyone who knows that was the hotelier for anyone who knows what that means there was uh it means that it was a lavish hotel stayed for two weeks with waiters and understand by yeah yeah that was it doesn't mean that you were in a different place every single night not knowing where you're gonna sleep yeah we bounced around different hotels for the first couple weeks before we managed to get to the new campus so that was degrees of judaism yeah that was definitely experience and you still look amazing yeah so what happened for you in camp though what was it like to uh at first I wasn't actually enjoying it the it was too much I was actually ready to go home by visiting day that first summer why'd you stay there was uh one one staff member he knew that I wasn't enjoying it and he took a special interest he made sure to befriend me make sure I was happy convinced me to give it a shot stay the next two did he like try to push you to do like mitzvahs and did Judaism no the connect nothing nothing to do with Judaism just and he's any specific stories that stick out to you yeah there was there was one story I was from being from Sharon in Massachusetts was a Red Sox fan he was a big Yankees fan so he actually had a bet over a pool game and the loser would have to wear the other team's hat for a whole day [Laughter] yeah so who won I won so he wore a red sock he wore a Red Sox hat for 24 hours commitment so what did that do for you that's virtue it's a connection that's yeah it wasn't even anything about Judaism it was just someone who cared if I was happy or not and convinced me that maybe if I stayed the next two weeks I would actually have a good summer so let me fast forward a little bit so you stayed in other two weeks stand to another two weeks you went back to regular life went back to public school and back the next year I did I came back the summer after eighth grade at this point I had already had my bar mitzvah it was somewhere in between not Furman from we were doing some of them it's us but willing to look the other way if there was something we really wanted to do we weren't we hadn't quite committed yet if I remember correctly at that time you had learned a lot about Judaism it was very hard for you because you're in a place with people that weren't from so you wanted to go to from school we didn't have the motivation right there was yeah there was a bit of a push from the some of the family friends some rabbis in my life they were you know maybe you should look at it it'd be a place where there'd be people like you so it was in the back of my mind but I wasn't really considering it but when eighth grade ended but when he went to the zone for the second year did that change that yes so when I was there my tour mate that year started shifting me towards smash Nyos a little bit of Gomorrah and just one point casually mentioned you know in a day school there'd be people who can help you learn this more you would understand it you could get a real Jewish education and learn what it's like so now you go into ninth grade so you want to go to yeshiva or something so I was going into ninth grade and I for some reason made the decision that if I'm gonna do it I'm gonna do it right rather than just go to a day school I said I want to go to a yeshiva I'm gonna do this let's do it the whole way so let's just stop for a second so this can they say he he found a boy who didn't like what he was being told everything he was being taught but he said he no one's forget about the telling you to wear a yarmulke and sisters let me just let me just connect to him what do you like sports and connected you on sports made a bet with you and that made you stay for another year and now you're going to yeshiva for high school but it's not that simple for a boy with no background the Hebrew a background to go to regularly Sheva so how did that work yes so we look checked out a couple places and they all gave the same response the crowd wants to see you oh what a story they all give the same response you know we're sure you're a lovely boy but we can't take someone who's coming out of high school can barely read Hebrew can't read Aramaic has never learned the Gemara and doesn't even know what hoorah she was much less how to read it so imagine you're a boy have imagine everybody is in imagine you're this boy 14 years old you want to connect the Yiddish guys and you go to this high school go to the Tsushima but you have no background they're not gonna accept you but you try anyways you walk into the office for a fair hair [Music] you never know ha you walk into the office vote for her and what happens you get accepted so the first couple places didn't but uh after I was ready to just say right I guess this isn't gonna work go back to public school from high school when uh the same Rabbi whose wife had pushed me towards this shorts the game for the first place so him and his co-worker who was another rapping in the kollel they convinced me to give it one more shot check out a place in Baltimore called tell me you to Cole Academy so I went to Baltimore to have another parent I was expecting the you didn't know the regular no yeah I was expecting the same response what happened so what do they say what was the final result so the mush kapha hired me and at the end of the pair he looks me right in the eye he says rabbi Mintz gave me a call the other day he said you're a good boy if rabbi mints thinks you're a good boy I want you in my yeshiva you never know you never know you never know so Rumi what I'm hearing you say you're a little boy 12 years old all these little instances that happen a little reaching out here and there do you know that there's somebody here tonight what was the name of the counselor that had that pool game with you that connected to you it was a Shia from Allah yeah I heard she a my beer good could we get she up here we just had Sheila Mike for a second she had just figured to share with us for a second just to vomit in three words more than three words I have no words but I want to know have you seen him since then I've heard about him since then I have seen his actually seen his mother why kept in touch with since camp and I've seen his parents by summer events and I've talked about you a lot so what he walked in here tonight than you see tonight and pay us tonight he came over to me and asked me do you recognize me and I it took me like 30 seconds I'm like Steven Rubin so I can't believe it everything can't believe it and I was listening to the story now and I don't know if it's time to tell you it's been a long time but actually your mother called me then when you were in camp that you wanted to leave and she really wanted you to have this one experience to learn as much as you could that summer and and to try to connect and she told me you know what can we do it's visiting day he's gonna want to come home I'm gonna be there to visit and and so we came up with this idea with the with the pool game like we said the bet so there's one part of this story that you think that you might not think is true but I actually I I was losing he scratched on the April he lost and right away we called it a best-of-three and I actually had to lose the next two game so will you if I tell you now that I lost the games on purpose I don't know if you'll believe me but it's it's part of the truth and it's amazing and I did not realize that's gonna be part of this tonight but thank you and it's amazing to see you yeah another thing one more thing about Xie before you leave Xie if you don't mind I I was told by the aura I know we don't have much time left before the next segment but they told us that there's a song I should sing tonight a shop is song why because this year dried here started keeping Shabbos because of the zone but do you know that the zones Amira's has a song in it that's so popular the most popular one that he actually sings it on the CD this is one person here so if I'd like to invite you if you could just grab the mic I'll start you off for join me a song to our master chorus and verse you created all of this wonder this world can be home in destroy its race you shall be gone [Music] [Applause] Oh [Music] pearls are [Music] she'll take us to the experts the words are right here if you need prepare rhenium praises all day and night you who created - my lucky beasts of the field and birds of the sky our Creator on let's master [Music]