Devastated but Determined | TheZone Fire 2020

[Music] here we are about to usher in the month of ello the month before rosh hashanah if we think about last year rosh hashanah if we only knew then what we know now what a difficult year we're going to have to live through how much we would have prayed with such strong praise hashem to spare us to make the year go well well we didn't know that last week hashanah we didn't have that extra drive push for us to do what we had to do if we only knew but now we do know now we're in the midst of a difficult year hasn't ended yet the problems so we have to keep in mind how much we have to pray to hashem on these days of order about upon us pretty soon ura in its own way has suffered greatly because of the difficult year that hashem has put upon us so many of our programs that we are so proud to uh and so special in our eyes to present to everybody have not been able to be fulfilled we uh had to shut down shabbaton many times we had during the year we have could not have pressure could not have schwarz the men's retreat the women's retweet and the tire spot all these things plus more have been canceled because of the whole situation but we have to keep in mind realize that the staff of ura and volunteers worked through the winter all these months to try to supplement what that which was not being offered through technology programs that they worked hard to present to all of our rural people to try to keep the momentum going what a great job they did to keep it going now the summer we've been again challenged greatly our grounds where we have our camp every year has been shut down we weren't having a camp this year because against the lord to have children come to camp but we're having families coming adults which according to the law is permissible under the proper precautions for whatever reason that was closed down we're thrown out of of the campgrounds even though we weren't having a camp or having families and and adults coming but not getting into details but that's been a great blow to us because uh we were keeping the book the guidelines that we're supposed to keep but this was very upsetting to us but now we've been hit with this terrible tragedy of this fire that happened in the girls camp destroying a good part of it the whole kitchen the beautiful dining room that we have for so many years for us that we've been uh for many years uh look at it great nostalgia so it's a traumatic experience to see a place that has so much uh goodness to it so much giving to others people who appreciated what we offered them all the the camps that we had there we started originally the boys and their girls we used that those grounds for camp one month boys one month to girls and uh of course we got the second place for the boys so that whole summer was for the girls and now we're using it for the adults like you said before and for families and see it go up and smoke i personally very uh upset by it all the hours i spent over there and all the camels thousands of camels i gave up to the kids asking them terror questions and seeing their great glee on their face when they won a prize and they were having a good time answering quinn's questions from the torah it's very upsetting to see that things like that just disappear through a fire but as jews we're not going to just sit back and be upset by it traumatized by it like jews throughout the generations we get up and we fight back and we share with god's help we're successful and that's what we have to do now we have to stand on top of the ashes and uh whatever has been keeping us back from doing what we have to do we're going to put all our and all our stamina and everything that we have to build back and to teach torah and to do god's work that he wants us to do and we'll come back even stronger than before with god's help so we're looking forward to getting up and uh striving to uh use what all god gave us and to help our jewish brothers and sisters and joy judaism realize you started jesus judaism and we're looking forward to hashem's help for coming here of uh of joy and health and everybody being very uh elevated in our service to have shown have a good job with everybody hello everybody it's good to be here like i used to say in the grand ballroom it's great to be here here it's not so great because we're going to talk about something a little bit down down heartening but we have to talk about it amazing we all heard about the fire in the grand ballroom the whole building not just the grand boulder so many memories are in that building but first i want to say that a lot of people say today we're living in uncertain times people say that you know at the time of the corona the virus people don't know masks are good are they not good social disease not social listening people don't know really so even though people say it's uncertain times i have to really correct that it's not uncertain times every time is uncertain we have to remember hashem runs the world hashem is he's in control he's in charge of everything me we don't know really so the virus brought it out to us more maybe that we don't know is it good to shake hands not good to check in it's good to be or not think of it but that's really the way it always is hashem runs the world and it's not up to us to we try to figure it out and we try to understand why he does things but we have to know though that everything he does is too good so there was this unbelievable fire in the whole building so many memories in that building his own shabbos in the zone that's in that building shabbos in the zone the zamirus and antis above they used to bake cookies and dainish danishes i always said how could you bake your first thing i could just walk past the building and it's hard to face such a good aroma and of course the the du and the teens they slept upstairs they just fixed up the building they fixed up the kitchen there's so much work into the world into the building the game room downstairs that's like the the heart of the of the zone that building it's amazing so many things in one building i went up just like that so sometimes we may feel a little bit down we feel bothered why we don't really know why one thing we do know that hashem arranged that the camp should be shut down before the fire happened it's amazing that we were kicked out on sunday or monday everybody has to be out by monday the families of there were there but not too many people and one day and then the fire happened right away on wednesday it's amazing actually i took care of it we shouldn't be there and the the do you slept upstairs the team slept upstairs it's amazing how champ tastes good so even though it's tragic of course and it's it but it's we have to know hashem is running it that it's not so not the end of the world everything that happens i know years ago when the world trade center was was was it was destroyed a few weeks before that here i'm talking in lakewood a few weeks before that there was about 300 or 350 families living in lakewood that their wives worked there and they supported their husbands they're sitting at learning torah and about two weeks before the destruction of those buildings these 350 all from lakewood were fired so people in lake were talking about it's something wrong with our community should we accept shabbos earlier should we do something accepting it seems like it's a punishment to the community people really were it seemed like that and two weeks later we realized that it was not a a punishment it was a brahman for the community because those people were fired and they weren't there and they all lived so everything really that happens it's hard for us to know the truth is the promised crime says an amazing thing that for those who don't believe there's no answers because whatever you can answer they're not going to believe it you have to show them they have to live they have to experience it but to give them an answer verbally they're not going to take it because they don't believe and for those people who do believe there's no questions that's really hashem hopefully he's showing us we have to be those who are living with him daily and knowing that he's involved in our life and he's with us all the time and therefore we don't have any questions about hashem nobody was hurt and okay it's a tragic loss a big building and so many memories though going down there but right away we'll rebuild the zone will be the same the way it always was it'll be bigger and better hashem shut have all of us that we should always realize he is with us all the time and through that we'll get closer to him and we'll be zach we're merit to all the brachas all the good things to come it's so nice to talk to you thank you so much for listening