Parshat Yitro: Antisemitsm | Rabbi Eitiel Goldwicht | February 5th 2026

Good morning. Good morning. Exciting to be back here for another morning, another parasir. We are in parasro tav. If it's possible, please turn off your cell phones if you haven't done so yet. We are facing something which is not new for the Jewish people, but it's definitely felt in our generation more today than it has been felt in the last maybe 80 years. And that is anti-semitism. The rise of anti-semitism since October 7th has reached such levels and such heights that we haven't really been exposed to it in our modern era. We know that anti-semitism is as old as the Jewish people. It's been around for almost 4,000 years. It's been around even before we were fully a nation because we were enslaved as a Jewish family. And then when we left out of that slavery after 210 years which is what this story is about we come to and teach us it's called that hatred has gone down to the world and ever since then we're dealing with anti-semitism and people want to know what is the source of anti-semitism? Why do they hate us so much? How could we combat anti-semitism? And the truth is that many righteous Jews have been giving money and trying to fight anti-semitism and coming up with slogans of never again and museums and commemorations to make sure that anti-semitism won't raise its head again. Let's educate the world who we are, what needs to be done so that anti-semitism won't return. And our generation and the previous generation spent a lot of time, money, and effort making sure that anti-semitism won't come back [clears throat] and shutting down and passing laws. If you do such and such, you are an anti-semite. But it hasn't helped us. And we see in the last, it's been growing more and more, but it came out in the last two and a half years, anti-semitism on proportions that we didn't even imagine are possible. in New York City, a place where there are the most amount of Jews outside of Israel. It's rising just in the last few months. What's going on? How do we fight it? How do we combat it? What is the source of anti-semitism? Are we ever able to put a stop to it? And if we're not, so then what are we supposed to be doing? Just accepting it? That's the fundamental question that I want to discuss today. And I believe that the source of it is actually in this week's para. So many people at least they think they say the reason why they hate us is because we're the chosen people. What makes us the chosen people? Who chose >> Were we chosen by Hashem? >> Mhm. >> Did we choose Hashem? Why did Hashem choose us? What does it mean that he chose us? Is that really the source of the hatred? And many Jews around the world go around saying we're no better than everyone else. We're a little bit more apologetic about being the chosen people. We feel uncomfortable being the chosen people. I'm involved with many Jews here in Erit Israel that are living in Israel that are working in Israel. And it's very very hard the concept of the chosen people. We don't want to bear. I don't want to be chosen because I don't want anyone to hate me. I don't want to be unique. I don't want to be separate. I don't want to be standing out. So, we try to blend in and we try to give our monies to universities and to colleges and to send our kids to Harvard and to Colombia and to give all of our money for different institutions to show that we're just like you. But yet, they still hate us. And they still hate those Jews also. My wife was on a tour down in Otf Aza. Went down to go see the different villages. I'm sure many of you have been down there. There's there's what to see to hear their story. Also to give them and one of the women said, "I dedicated many years of my life giving special rides to kids who have cancer in the Gaza Strip to bring them to hospitals in Erit Israel. I I love humanity. I want to see the Arabs and Palestinians and the Jews all living together. I believe that there we're just human beings and we could put all the differences aside and let's just help one another. And if only we could give them a regular healthy life so then we could be as one. And she said it all hit me in the face when the same people that I'm spending my time and energy helping are coming out to kill me, my friends, my family in the most horrendous type of way. So we try to deny the fact that we're special, that we're chosen, that we're unique, and then it comes to hit us in the face much worse. So what's the right way to do it? Are we the chosen people? What is the source of our choseness? How do we actually explain that to ourselves, to our children? How do we explain it to the rest of the world? What is our mission? So in this week's para is finally after leaving, they arrive at this is the beginning of chapter 19. On the third on the third months, they come to the desert of Sinai. They're all there as one. They're ready. There's something that happened the moment they arrive. Moshe goes up and it's the first conversation where Moshe is up in Shim. Moshe has had conversations with Akadesh Baru, but this is the first conversation of Moshe up in Hari talking to Hashem. And in the first week of Hari, there's a lot of times going up and down making sure that there is a conver a clear conversation in preparation for the greatest mass revelation of godliness in this world that only happened once and only will happen once on this level. And this is the prep the the first thing that we need to accept upon ourselves. And Hashem tells him you should say this to the women to the base of to tell that also to the men. One question that we need to discuss. Why is it the women first? Is it like ladies first? You know in we always think ladies first but in when you open the door it's actually the men are supposed to work because that's that the man is walking behind the ladies. So we always say ladies first. So we give but here in the Hashem says first speak to the ladies. Don't speak to the men first. Speak to the ladies. What is the the few sentences that Moshe needs to tell? You have seen what I've done to me. I have lifted you on the eagle wings and I brought you to you. Meaning you've experienced you saw the 10 plagues. I have brought you to you now to this mountain and now is that I'm telling you the first one is you've experienced and now two more now if you listen to my covenant you will be for me a uniqueness something that is special that is extraordinary from all of the other nations Because the whole world is to me. I own it and you and you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the things that you should speak to Ben Israel. Is there a mrocados over there? Paul, can I charge you mcrossos? >> Thank you. So, so says what what is the sentence that asks Moshe to tell us? Thank you so much. The sentence that asks us to that Hashem is telling B is number one you've experienced and I took you out of Mitz. Number two, number two, if you listen and keep my covenant, you will be you will be extraordinary from all of the nations cuz all the nation is to me and you will be a great nation for me. These are the things not more and not less. This is it. Rabbi Wine asks and all of our sherm our leuish Rabbi Wine what does it mean I everything Moshe says is Mosherenu changed from what he ever from what Hashem ever told him Hashem is telling tell him these lines not more and not less what does that mean and then additionally Rab quoted the sofur, the son of the sofur. And he said, "What does it mean?" He should have just said, "And you should be for me from all of the nations and just say it straight." But it gets broken up in the middle. You should be for me standing outstanding from all of the nations cuz I own the land and then you should be for me. Just say it in one sentence. You should be as what's going on here with the break in the middle. And I want to add another question. What does it mean to be a kingdom of priests? Are we all priests? I I thought there is ley and within the ley there's kohhan. Sometimes there's a minion. We look for a kohhane. I'm not a cohen. But in the entire nation is a koim. What does it mean that we're kohanim? Is it is it and it's speak to the men. Speak to the way. You're a kohanim. We're all kohanim. I thought it was very unique to to the kohanim to the men who are serving in the base of we're all kohanim. What's going on? And what does it mean to be a kad a holy people? We use around the word kadosh kadusha. There's a student who came here on birthright. He said, "I came because it was a free trip to the Holy Land, but I've been here for 10 days. I didn't see anything holy about it. What does holiness look? What does it look like?" We went, we saw this. We even went to the Western Wall. We even went to different synagogues. What makes something holy? What does holiness look like? What does it mean to be a god? And what does it mean to be an amsula? So these are questions that we need first and foremost to answer for ourselves because if they're if we're being charged as being the chosen people, we might as well know what it means to be the chosen people. Are we able to own up to it or are we scared? Are we shy of it? Are we embarrassed that we are the chosen people because we don't know how to explain it? What does it mean to be the chosen people? And finally, if you look at the dibbros, you look at the ten commandments, there's a difference between the way they appear over here and the way they appear in paras >> and who points this out the I mean all the speak this out but the clear has a beautiful explanation and the clear wants to know what is the difference between and he goes through all of the differences that you have in the lash between this and that and he gives 10 different changes between this para and why does it say and over there it say it says sham why does it say and over there it doesn't say >> here's the Russian name. Now I'm quoting the wrong one. Have to come with my own. Uh it's a long clea and this is a different turf. That's where you have to come with your turf. Okay. So the the the cleakar I highly recommend you look through the clearity the answers it's already the answer. Oh, and the reason why I'm quoting the more than the other because he's looking for a one universal explanation, one fundamental explanation that will explain each and every one of the differences cuz he quotes 10 different differences. And he says from the different we find a lot of different answers of why there's a difference here, a difference in this dber and this mitzvah. Each mitzvah has a different explanation, but the cleer is looking for a singular explanation. And he says, In the first one, it doesn't say like Hashem commanded you. But in the second one, specifically in it says like Hashem commanded you. How come there's a difference? A third difference. In the first one, it says you should keep Shabas. Why? Because Hashem created the world. But in the second, it says you should keep Shabas because you were a slave. and you were taken out of so what what's the reason explains how come the difference of here so you should have a long life but here it says there's differences in each one between the first the first lucos and the second and he lists 10 different explanations. Here it says he wants to know what is there one answer one explanation to the difference between all of the first and second why it was said differently how was it actually said how was it heard it was all kum with one voice or was it said like this or was it said like that I don't understand what's going on that's our third and final question we want to know what is the source of anti-semitism? How do we combat it? We want to understand what does it mean to be the chosen people? We want to understand how come in the Torah the way it's described the luos were written one way in the first l if you look at paras and safer they were written a different way 10 differences between this the first lus and the second l brought down in the kakar. Is there one explanation that could wrap and explain all of them so that we understand the difference between them? How do we understand it? Still trying to figure it out myself. This is why I love our shear here [laughter] cuz this year she is where things unravel for me also. So I think theod is like this. They sort like this and something that I'm trying to to work on and to understand myself. What does it mean to be the chosen people? What does it mean to be the aman? See, people think that anti-semitism comes because of all of the things that that we think that we're unique or that we feel that we're different. And the truth is that we are different. It's hard for us to understand that we're different because what are we different in? Are we smarter than other people? Are we better than other people? There have been many geniuses that are not Jewish. Are we disproportionately smarter? The answer is that we're not smarter. The answer is that we're not better, but rather that we've been chosen and that we choose every single day to take on the responsibility of being chosen. Now you have to go a little bit deeper because you have to understand why people feel and there's a Jewish complex around the Jewish world that we feel that we are to blame that we are the problem with anti-semitism. Imagine there's a kid that goes that his parents send him to one school and he gets kicked out of there. So they bring him to another school and he gets kicked out of there. Now they know this kid is a good kid. He's a bright kid. He's a smart kid. But he keeps on getting kicked out of school. They send him to a third school to fourth school to fifth school. At a certain point, some of the principles are saying, "You think your kid is a good kid, but he's been getting kicked out of five, seven, 10 different schools. Maybe the problem is with the kid and not with all the schools." The Jewish people have been kicked out of multiple nations and countries throughout the history. We come to this country, we get expelled. We come to this country, we get expelled. We got expelled from this school, we got expelled from that school. We're constantly being kicked out and expelled. So, at a certain point, people are saying, "You're the one that's the issue. You're the one that's to blame." And many Jews, unfortunately, throughout history started believing that and saying, "We must be the problem. What are we doing? Are we too rich? Let's try to hide the fact that we're successful. Are we too poor? Let's go and and join the workforce and not Are we too separate? So, let's integrate. Are we too integrated? So, let's separate. Should we become like the communists? Let's let's be the leaders of the communist movement. Are we too communist? Let's be the leaders of the capitalist movement wherever we were. And we always tried to think we we believed that we were the problem. So, we always tried to do the opposite. But they kept on hating us. They kept on running after us and expelling us because we bought into the fact that we might be the problem. Maybe we're doing something wrong. But there is no greater ria than what happened on October 7th to say that we are not the problem, but rather our problem is different and that's why we keep on being hated. But we're not the problem. We're not doing something bad to those nations and to those countries because what happened on October 7th is the most horrific footage. And for the first time, maybe you could see the footage. There's a little bit of footage from from World War II that you could see in Yadvashm. You could see how horrific that was. But there's horrific footage of the atrocities of the barbarism that they came into Israel and they slaughter juice with their bare hands. And you would think that the world that speaks about rights and about values and academia and all around they would be at least have a moment of compassion of how could this be? This is so antihuman there. It doesn't matter what the fight is about. This can't be right. It's It's just wrong. But there's so few voices who said that. There were there were some. But what we saw on campus, in Harvard, in Colombia, in all of the greatest minds, there's suddenly a rise of anti-semitism around the world. It's true, it came a lot of it from the Muslim world, but it it engulfed a lot of the West as well. And they're hating us for being attacked even before because it took us like three weeks till we started fighting back. But already in those as it's happening, they're already coming out against us. It can't be that is not the reason because we fought back. Even before we fought back, they were coming out with the with the violence against the Jews. So where is it coming from? What is our job? It's not that we always need to do because it doesn't matter what status we're in, they're always fighting against us. We're always the ones to blame. And we have to make a switch in our mindset to understand what does it mean to be the chosen people in a certain way. It is our responsibility because what it means to be the chosen people is that we took upon ourselves an a responsibility of sort and that's what it mean. What does it mean? What does it mean to be a cohim? There's two different theim they describe it differently. The rashbam calls it uh kohanim is like you're priests you're elevated. I think it's the raan who calls it the kohanim. They did the avod. The avod means that they're servicing the people. They're there for the people. They're there to be I'm here to service the people and to be a liazison between the people and I'm here to serve you. I'm here to help you. I'm here to help you connect. So on one hand we are elevated and we are we are priests and that's how we naturally translate this a kingdom of priests. On the other hand, we also have a job to do. We're servants. What is our job to do? And you should be a kadosh. We're a nation that every single person really has a job and a mission to accomplish. See, Judaism is different than all the other religions in the world. Traditionally, before Abrainu in the first 2,000 years of humanity, the first 11 chapters of Safer Bacius, the world was a pagan world. In a pagan world, there's many, many different gods. What Abrau taught the world is that there is one universal God who teaches the whole world who runs the whole world who controls everything. It was a new revolution, a new way of understanding. A universal God that loves the entirety of humanity, wants to take care the entirety of humanity. But only Abraabu and his family believed in it and they started teaching the whole world. And then eventually we get the Torah. So we have a connection with this God. It's a living God. He's here to guide us. And we took charge of his mission in this world. Eventually Christianity comes out of it. And eventually Islam comes out of it. Christianity and Islam which are offshoots of Judaism. Each one said if there's one universal God, there must be one universal religion. And therefore, the whole world must become Christian and we're going to have crusades and we're going to kill anyone who doesn't believe in the we're going to have the Inquisition. If you don't believe in Christianity the way we understand it, so then you're an infidel and you must be killed or you convert. That's how they ran Christianity for many, many years. Islam is the same way. We have now a better understanding. We have a new prophet. We have a better understanding of the covenant. And therefore, if you don't believe in Muhammad, so therefore you're an infidel and you're going to get killed unless you convert and therefore we're going to take over the whole entire world. Judaism is unique. We were never into a universal religion. We never said that everyone needs to be Jewish. We were into a universal Hashem. Everyone needs to believe in Hashem. But you don't need to be Jewish. Everyone is going to believe in Hashem. That's what we came to bring to the world. And in a certain way, that is our mission. Means you have a mission. You have a you're also servants to humanity to connect the world to be a god. You will be unique and holy so that you could bring the godliness and holiness into into humanity. That is your mission and just like any anyone who ran a company. So you know there's different jobs for different people. You need the the employer, you need even the janitor, you need everyone. You need the the technician and you need the CTO and you need the marketing team and you need the finance team and you need the tech team. We need everyone. What's the job of the C CEO? How come he gets paid more? What does he do more? Is he doing more jobs? He gets paid more because he has taken upon himself a bigger responsibility than everyone else. He doesn't need to do all the things but he has the responsibility to make sure that the mission of the company is completed. What does it mean that we are a chosen people? It means that theos chose us and he said I want you to be the CEO of the company. I want you to take full responsibility for this mission of bringing godliness into the world. It doesn't mean that all your employees need to be like you. They're actually all going to be a part of the bigger process of bringing godliness into the world. And the vast majority of them, 99.9% of them are not going to be Jewish. But they will still be bringing godliness into the world if you take the right responsibility for it and do it the right way. That's what it means to be the chosen people. And when you have taken upon yourself more responsibility, you're the one who needs to answer to the board of directors. You get a bigger salary. But if it flops, you're going to get it over the head. And if it flops, the employees are going to be so upset at you for not doing the right job and for not accomplishing the mission. And they're going to write and they're going to say, "Our CEO stinks. He doesn't know what he's doing. He doesn't know how to guide us in the right direction. We have a mission to accomplish and he's not guiding the ship in the right. We should fire him. We are going to take over the ship. We're gonna take this company and we're gonna navigate it in a different way until the CEO is ready to come back and do his job properly. Rabbi Wine explains what does it means who says I am the one who created the world and I am the one who chose you and because I chose you you were nominated you were chosen and in a certain way we were coerced into it at Hari we accepted it partially at Hari we're going to have Shabasesh next week and we're and that's when we accepted upon ourselves. But at the end of the day, says, "I'm the one who chose you. This is your job. This is your mission. You're my people. You are my adus in this world that I am a living God. That is your mission to organize the entire world in that direction." And therefore, and Rabbi says, "What does it mean? You can't go down from this means you think you could go down from this responsibility. You can't. It's your responsibility. And if you don't remember your responsibility, you know who's going to remind you? The rest of the world is going to remind you. And when do they get upset? When the world is not operating properly. When the world is not operating properly. where grown men are upset cuz they can't get a job or if they get a job they're not making enough money and that everyone is they don't know what they're living for. They don't know what the mission of life is about and they're and they're confused and there's no family structure and they don't have meaning and purpose and they don't have a home and they don't have someone to love them and they don't take responsibility for themselves and they expect everything else to come to them and then it doesn't come to them because the system doesn't work if you don't take at least somewhat of responsibility for yourself. So they get upset. So then they find the scapegoat. Who's the scapegoat? The the CEO, the person who was chosen to at least show the way. And that's why the Jews are constantly doesn't matter where we're holding. If the world is not in a perfect place, we're going to be hated. If the world is not in its place of perfection, we're going to be the ones who are charged as the scapegoat for whatever is happening. And we can never make that go away. The only way we could make that go away is if we do our job the right way. Is if we realize that we have a mission and a job to accomplish, which is not to turn the whole world into Jews, but rather to bring godliness into the world. If we're able to bring godliness consciousness, which means that I live with an understanding that there is a higher power and purpose and that I could live a life based on morals and values. That's what it means. And I'm saying it in a vague way because it means differently for the nations of the world than it means to us. Because not everyone needs to be Jewish, but yes, we need to have morals. We need to have values. We need to understand that there's a creator of the world of the universe who's a higher power than whatever it is that I'm doing it by myself and that is our mission. And if we're not doing the mission properly so then you can't go down from our job and you can't go higher than this job. This is your job. That's what we were chosen for. Doesn't mean that we're smarter. We're not. There's geniuses out there who are not Jewish. doesn't mean that we're better. There's really great people out there. It means that we have a bigger responsibility. That's what it means. It means that we have accepted that responsibility and we're passing that responsibility onto our children. We are responsible for bringing values into the world. That's what it means to be the chosen people. And anti-semitism comes when the world is not perfect. when the world does not reach its completion and it's there constantly to remind us that you need to live on a higher playing field. And when we don't remember that, they come and they remind us that. And what we've seen in the last two and a half years is that it's not because of something bad that we've done. And it's not because we're we're too successful or not successful. But in the subconscious, it's because the world is not in its perfect state yet. And that's really our job. If you were to summarize our if we're the CEO, a job of the CEO is to take his company's mission and put it into one sentence. We call it the mission statement. Many companies, they have it on their website. They have it on the thing. Our mission is to do this. We're here to provide. This is why our company exists. You need to have the one slogan, the one sentence. What is the mission statement of the Jewish people? The mission statement of the Jewish people is in this week's Torah portion. You should be a kingdom of priests. We need to live on a higher playing field of godliness consciousness. We have 613 commandments, not the rest of the world. But it's with a mission of being a kohanim. A a priest is here to service. It's here to be the buffer to bring godliness to the people is to show them that they have a connection also even though they may not be kohanim because they have not taken upon the full responsibility but that in their life they're part of the company. They're here to create a much better world and we're here to be a how do we do it? Vgoy kadosh. We create within our own society a society of kadusha. Kadusha means what is kadusha? This student who said I came to Israel and I didn't find kadusha. I remember not long ago I took there was a group of uh UN ambassadors who came on a delegation with Gilad Erdan who was the former UN ambassador to Israel before the war. I don't know if we would take around UN ambassadors today, but they came on on a visit to Israel. I had the privilege of leading a a mock seder at the UN. I did it two years in a row where they where Gilad Dan, Israel's ambassador, wanted to lead a seder at the White House. He wanted to lead a seder for the UN ambassadors to show them the story of the Jewish people cuz sometimes by just reliving that story and that's what Leila Seder is. So then they get a different perspective. So we sat there, we set up a whole seder and and I we we printed Hagados in Hebrew and in English and you know I'm sitting next to the United States UN ambassador and next to me is Giladan and there was even one time where it was the Russian Ukrainian war that started so like the Ukrainian ambassador was there was but we're I'm here to tell them the story and I led them through the experiential I think for me the highlight was when we were young this is again it's a parathetic within the story. When we were young, we lived in Washington Heights. My father was rashiv and we lived in the same building as David Lifchitz. David Lifchitz the suval karav escaped from the war came to America. He was a rashiva in Wu and we had a very very warm relationship with him and with his rebbitson. Unfortunately when when he was nif so his rabbitson lived in our building by herself. Her kids always came for shabas but we always came down to like to make kdish and to make a ddala by her. And one year she was staying there for Pesak and and her kids couldn't come. So we we had the privilege of rabbits in lift shits being at her pes it was a big we were all excited we were doing pes in Washington Heights in our apartment like the yeshiva empties out it's like she brought her a special cup of leo that she has in her family already from before the war that they still had it. And when it came to denu to denu she said our family min is that all everyone around the table hold hands and we sing denu holding hands du everyone holding hands. So we did it that year and like we it it was a big sim and we went through all the den and from then on it became my family m that at less and we say this is from uh rabbits and lichits that taught us what was her mig from before the war at the UN seder. Somehow it came to me. I'm like, I'm going to bring the Suvalks Minig from ancient Europe from before the war and I'm going to bring it to the UN. And I said, our family tradition is that we all hold hands at this song and all of the UN ambassadors are holding hands and we're singing die. I said it's a very easy song to remember. It's just it. It's like a tune. D and it means that so many miracles has been given onto the Jewish people of survival. And if we just had this miracle, it would have been enough. Another miracle would have been enough. So these UN ambassadors for it was like uh for me it was like such a bringing that into into the one of the one of the ambassadors came up to me. He said, "You know, last year I was in Israel and they took me to Yadvashm and they took me to the different places in Israel and I never got the full story of the Jewish people until this past 2-hour thing. I learned more about the Jewish people in the last two hours at the Machador at the UN than I learned on a 4-day trip to Israel." cuz the 4-day trip to Israel if it starts with World War II and anti-semitism and never again. So then the story is limited. You don't get the whole picture of the Jewish people when you say, "Oh, we were persecuted in Europe and therefore we needed a state of Israel and that's why we have a state." Maybe that's what they explained to this UN ambassador. But our story is is 4,000 years old. And he said in these two two hours I understood what the story of the Jewish people was after the UN seder they came to Israel I'm standing with them overlooking on the rooftop of overlooking the the old city in Harabis and they say wow this is the holiest place on earth the only place in the world that is holy to Jews to Christians and to Muslims what makes this place so holy what makes it so unique so how do you explain that what is the explanation from here the world was created this is the heaven and earth meet over here what does that mean so we could talk so I I mentioned those things like you feel something differently here it's an inner feeling of your heart but what does that inner feeling if you were to give it words I said you know what was the holiest room in the Jewish temple it was actually called the holy of holies so it it the name of it means that it's holier than all the other rooms What made it so holy? What was inside of it that made it holy? There was an arc. What made the ark more holy than the manora and more holy than the than the or the why was that in the hol not just in the holy but the holy of holies? >> Cuz inside the ark underneath the kuim which represent the relationship of the Jewish people and hashem what was inside? >> It was the core values of humanity. The covenant which was given by Hashem himself to his people was a covenant of values. Those are the ten commandments that Hashem is giving the Jewish people in this week's para. And he says, "You will be my people. You are the carriers and the guardians of the values." And that's what it means to be a holy people. Do not kill. Do not steal. Do not lie. Do not covet. Respect your parents. Have a day of rest. Believe that there is Hashem. Don't sway after golden idols. These are core values of how you build humanity. But weren't they just given to the Jewish people? What does it mean to be a I understand that I'm a kadesh. What does that have to do with them? It's just for us. It's the 613 mitzvos. They only have mitzvos. What does it mean to have ten commandments and why is it said over here before? What what's what's our relationship with this says the kakar fundamental which is the one that he says answers all of the contradictions or all of the discrepancies between the first and the second. We all know the famous medish that comes >> [clears throat] >> comes from. What happened? He went to Asaf and he said, "Do you want to accept the Torah?" said, "What does it say? It says, "Oh, it's not for me. Our people, that's our strength." He goes to Ammon and Moab. What does it say? Oh, that's not for me. Our father, our mother, Loaf, we were created because of a daughter and and her father. He goes to what does it say? Oh, our father. That's his culture. That's his tradition. It's not for us. And then he comes to and they say next week's para what is that? We all learned it as kids. He went over they all said no. We said yes. says a clear the first lucos are written in a lashon that is heard by the entire world the Torah was the 10 l not all 613 but the asserbros were written in this week's para in a language that the entire world could and should learn from and connect to that is the mission and therefore it doesn't say it doesn't say you should keep shabas because you're not supposed to keep shabas if you're a god but it says you should remember it says because I created the world it doesn't say because I took you out of the land of mit says that you should keep shabas and you should keep because that was specifically to in a few weeks before in last week's para they given a few commandments in before the mitzvos and shab and which doesn't appear in the but the two that do appear they already got a command that's only in the second the first were you could hear it all over the place the Torah was given we're invas In the beginning of paras we start preparing and explaining the Torah we have a mitzvah when we come into to translate the Torah into 70 languages which represents all of the nations of the world. There's an aspect of Torah of godliness of the explanation of what Torah is and the values that it represents for every single person in the world cuz we're all part of one company to bring godliness and that type of consciousness into humanity living on a different plane of values and of understanding that there's a creator of the world. Our job is to spread it to the whole world. Explains the kakar. The first lus, the way they're written is in a language that every single human being around the world could hear it. And it was intended for every single human being around the world to connect to it. And when went around to every single nation, he was showing it's for you. You're supposed to be the one who connects to it. And if you choose to at any point to actually join the Jewish people, you can become a Jew as well if you want. It's not your mission, but your definitely your mission is to connect to these values and to live on a different plane. That is our job. That's what it means to be the chosen people is to help the world live with the understanding of Hashem in this world and therefore live with certain core values that build the makeup of humanity. And the way we spread it to the world is if we're able to create that type of society within our own life, within our own country, within our own people. And for the first time in 2,000 years, we have an opportunity to create such a society, not just as an individual, which is what we've been doing for all of the years of Gus, as individuals and as communities. We wanted to create a society that we could live based on these values. and the nations of the world could see the way we interact and if we do it the right way it's a keshm and they want to interact in a similar way but now for the first time we have an ability to create it on a national level takes a lot of work takes a lot of courage takes maybe changing the way we're running our nation right now but if we do it the right way that is the source of akish hashem and I'll end with this story a story of a small example of what does it mean to be a kadosh? I went a few years ago on a trip to Poland with a few members of the Detroit community. I was asked to come and to give some sher along with that trip to Poland. It was with Gary Turgo who comes to Davin here in our shul sometimes. He's he's a a well-known businessman and philanthropist. One of the stories he told we had long bus rides over there. So he he shared some stories along the way. He said said one of the stories that happened to him is one he gets a phone call as a head of a bank. He he's the CEO and and president of of a bank in Detroit and there's an old Jew on the on the phone somehow got his number says are you Gary Targo? Said yeah. He said you're the head of this bank. He said you are a disgrace to the Jewish people. the way you act, the way you've the way what you've done to me and it's and [clears throat] because of you that's all the tres that come to the Jewish people. He said, "Hold on. What happened? What what he said? I'm a Holocaust survivor and I took a mortgage on my house and the mortgage was through your bank and we've been paying the mortgage every single month for for 20 years." Unfortunately, my wife passed away a few months ago and I got disoriented and I didn't pay the bills for five months, six months. But then when I got the warning, I wrote out a check to pay the the mortgage for the last 6 months. But by the time I sent out this check, they already gave me they said, "Your house has already been sent to foreclosure." He said, "I've been paying every single month for 20 years and now they're taking away my house. What's going on? It's because of people like you who are greedy who take away the this." He said, "Bah." He said, "Oh, okay. I don't know what the story is, but let me go find out. I don't know exactly all the details of the policy of of the bank. I'm sure there's different policies that are signed upon. Let me go down and check." The CEO goes by himself down to the floor. He checks. He finds the clerk. He said, "What's the deal with this person with this ID number with this?" He said, "Yeah, he's been paying a mortgage, but he stopped paying the mortgage and and we sent a bunch of uh notices and it and it's been already half a year. So, at a certain point, we send it to foreclosure." So, he said, "How much is left on the on the house?" How much do they owe? Oh, they only owe $5,200 left. He's been paying for many years, so there's not so much left. And it's a few, you know, another two years of payment. it's a year of payment. So he said, "How much is?" So he said, "Okay, so let's take that off." He said, "No, we already sent it to the foreclosure. It's not in our company anymore. We need to make sure it's it's already in a different company. It's not in the hands of the bank." So he, as a CEO, calls up this other company. He says, "How much money is owed?" He pays for them the check. He pays uh whatever it is, $5,000, $6,000, and he's able to save the person's house. He writes him a letter. I apologize that this happened. And I actually looked into the the bylaws of the thing. I want we're going to make some changes as well, but this was the the contract and they just were doing their policy, but I made sure they won't be your house is back to you. Everything is great. And he writes him an apology letter and you send him again, whatever. All is good. He calls him back. He says, "Gary, you're such a mench. You're such a good guy. Unbelievable. Thank you for doing it. I really appreciate it." Three years go by and Gary tells me I get a call from a Christian lawyer and he says, "Are you Gary Tor?" He said, "Yes." He said, "Um, this man that you may do you know this name of this and this person?" So he said, "Remind me." He said, "Oh, remember there was a contract the law." He said, "Oh yeah, yeah, I remember." He said, "He just passed away. He didn't have any children and he left in his will that he wants you to have the house. >> Wow. >> He said what happened? He said he didn't have any children and he wrote a uh you know a will that it will go to like a local organization but he was so moved by the way you took care of it. So he called me as lawyer. He said I'm going to change the the will. I want to give it to Gary. He'll know what to do with it. So he he said, "How much is it?" He said, "Oh, the house is worth like $90,000." He said, "You see, it was already a good investment. I spent $5,000. I got a house worth $90,000." So So the lawyer says, "So what are we doing with it?" So he said, "Okay, what was this this man's passion? What did he love?" He loved Israel. What else was his passion? He loved children and and to helping young children because he didn't have children. He said, "Okay, these we're going to do a thing. These are the five organizations in Israel that help young children. We're going to send each one of them $18,000 or $20,000. It's going to end up being all of the money that we got. It's going to go to keep his legacy in his name so that his legacy continues in the land of Israel.