Rav Kook: Kiruv | Rabbi Aaron Goldscheider

a great uh a great privilege and honor to be able to learn together and to learn the teachings of Riff cook I'll just announce the sponsor for our Shear this morning the shear is sponsored for the 2025 academic yearas shom all right beautiful so our topic this morning is a topic that is uh near and dear to the heart of cook and um hopefully something that will be an inspiration for us as well uh when I mentioned uh or my brother asked me what I'm teaching this this uh this morning I said I'm teaching about rook and the topic of kiru of kiru kirim and uh his reaction was well isn't that isn't that all of Riv cook isn't that that is Riv cook so it is Riv cook but uh what what I like to look at this morning are some of the uh the fascinating insight and what is unique what is particular to the teachings of rev cook in this area and the way that I like to begin is with uh two stories that are found in the gamarra that are found in the talmud and interesting you'll see in the next few minutes how similar the two stories are they're found in two different MOS one in Bros one in Sanhedrin and uh let's jump into the following Story the first story is a very well-known story it's probably one that you may have heard in the past and it's a story of bruya and rebbi mayor and it's found the gamar is found BR daud and let me read the gamar and we can look at this together this is the top of page one hanu re mayor there were a group of uh difficult people here translated as Hooligans in the the neighborhood of rbby Mayor bab Kamara and they were causing him a lot of Heartache a lot of pain hav May and they actually prayed for their demise that hem should take them from this world they're acting as R they're acting in a wicked way Hashem should punish them that's what how the gar begins so what did brya what was uh R's wife what was her response to this am brya theas the wife ofor said the following what is it that you were thinking of what's going through your mind m are you basing your idea on the following it says it says that one is to remove or God should remove the sinners from the earth does it say in the the Sinners it says the sins should be removed the not the that's what it says in the if you look at the end of the or in the end of the it says and will no longer be present once the sins are removed then the will no longer be there Ella says Breer to may you should be ding for them to return to come back to do chuv and in that way there will not be R so here we have a very interesting discussion or an argument husband and wife R mayor and brya and brya said no you're doing the wrong thing you're ding for the wrong thing for their demise that's not how we Daven we should DAV for their chuva that they should correct their ways and what happens the gar says so he went ahead R listened to his wife Rya and he DAV for thema and they did do chuva so that is the that's the gamar interesting gamar interesting also the gamar is uh forthright it tells us that she had the right Sak here that she had the right path and she taught her husband rby mayor the great rby mayor the uh the correct way of acting in this circumstance let's look at the words of yes please yes okay good very good yeah you're right excellent excellent so that does not sound like that does not sound like kiru at the at the P seder no the the shot of that is really not a uh it's not a stance that we're in embracing or it's a loving a loving response so we do do see and we'll see that in a moment by the way that's right right yeah knock him in his teeth that's correct so we'll see that there actually are two at least two but we could we could speak about two ways in which we uh in which we respond to rim what is the right way what is the right path what is the right approach so here the gamar this gamar seems to suggest that buya had it correct and other words the end of the story is that they did chuva and that was the right way of responding Ru cook agrees with that and he says the following let's look at the words of Rook this is Ana this is his commentary let's go if you're looking on the page you have number two this is the writing of r at the very bottom of the First Column let's pick it up four or what's that yeah four five words from the end of the line where it says so sayra cook in explaining the position of and now we're on the top of the next column every Russia even an evil person would prefer to choose the good path but why don't they do that it's only that the overcomes overwhelms that person it compels the person it forces the person to some degree to sin unfortunately right he feels compelled and somehow he feels forced and he finds himself following a bad a uh a negative negative behavior but says rook and explaining brya but there is no person who is totally flawed right everybody has great potential as long as you educate them properly and you share with that person a little bit whatever is needed a little bit or maybe a lot of wisdom of the Torah if you share that with somebody else one should never give up for asking for Mercy that you D and that you do what you can to help somebody who has taken a uh a a bad path in life even the greatest Sinners that you have to have faith in them and that's what buya was teaching here in the gar and says rook and here you see The Rook is emphasizing this idea and this is a this perspective is one and which is in which you go beyond just the facade right just the way that it looks from the outside and what do you see in the other person Al that you see the great potential the elevation the possibility that's found in the nefes of every person sh that God creates every man every woman with a soul that is good and it's impossible for a person to change that right that soul that that Holy Soul that pure soul that a person has the is something that you have to believe in believe in yourself and believe in others as well therefore therefore Brer was teaching that we need to DAV in for such people Reb mayor said no I see evil I see he's taking an evil path that's the road that they've taken there's really no way back brius says no that's not the way to look at things you always see the potential you always see the Holiness of the soul the soul that cannot be blemished and let's look at the following gamarra I said there are two garas that I want to share with you so ruk you see that he emphasized that's going to be that's going to be the path that ruk is going to take in his own life look at the following garanin this the bottom of the first page number three it's l interesting it's the same Lon by the way there were these group of holigans these people that were giving him a hard time that were living in the community in the neighborhood of to have M here we have the word kiru m that's found in the gabar itself he was M right he reached out to them he tried to do K to try to bring them closer that he hoped that they would do chuva look at the next line of the gar and the rabbis disapproved of his actions again interesting we see that there's rebi mayor and brua here we see the gamar rebi Zera and the rabbis took another position they said to you people that are sinners okay let them go their way we go our way let's make our community we have a from Community right let's build our community they've chosen another path and we move on from them and actually the rabbis disagreed with Rabbi zra here that he was too warm that he was too embracing of them but what happened the gar goes on RAB passed away and rri and now this group of people that he was trying to be M these difficult personalities what did they say until this day until this moment before the mayor passed away so they referred to the rabbi here as a rabbi who he was short and he had singed legs that's RAB zra it happened to be that he was a very short Rabbi and and says there was some incident where he burned his legs that's how they refer to RAB Z that this Rabbi always DAV for us but now who's going to Davin who's going to care for us who's going to embrace us and then the gamar ends and very significant ly look how thear ends that they were Mah this group of people that they had a chuva chuva and they did chuva as well so what do we see in both garas right in both garas we have a difference of opinion as you mentioned before you have the opinion how do you act with the Russia that youav right let him know that you're not acting properly but in both cases the gamar the last line of the gamar the masana so to speak of the gamarra is that Chua was done that that embracing and that loving approach is something that made that made a difference and that seems to be the the way the gamar is suggesting we act towards those that have taken another path those that have distanced themselves from the Jewish Community look at page two now we turn to page two and R cook he writes in a number if you go through his writings and I this would not be a surprise to any of us here especially those that have studied R cook and many of you have over the last couple years we've been studying together this is a beautiful safer called This is an entire book that was written it's by harati written a number of years ago and uh it's part of like that the big set what they call the shavan all the the white that they that they published with all the teachings of rev cook this was not written by rev cook but this Rabbi um pulled together made a compendium of all all the different areas in ruk that he teaches the idea of sanoria what's sanoria sanoria is the defender of Amel the protector of Amel famously sanor that's correct what's that that's correct sanor and kator but this is the defender of Amel who is ruk ruk is always defending am Israel does anybody know famously there is a kidish rebi who was known as the sanoria of Amel was also known that's the name that was like the nickname name of bich there's a story that he sees somebody who's smoking on chabas and he goes over them and he says it must be that you didn't realize that it's chabas that you're smoking he said no I I know that it's chabas and then he said well it must be that you didn't know that you're not permitted to smoke on chabas so he said no I know that you're not allowed to smoke on chabas I'm smoking on chabas and he said well maybe you're smoking because you need it for a certain Health reason he said no I'm I'm smoking because I want to smoke on chabas and at that moment R turned to Shmi turned to heaven and said to Hashem look at the honesty of the Jewish people right they could have he could have said anything he could have given any excuse and how honest he was to say that he is smoking at chabas and desecrating chabas but that's what it means to be the sanoria that's what it means to be the defender of Amel and that there's a whole saare just about this one Topic in Ruff Cook's writings in his in his life again and and I want to share with you this one uh one paragraph one excerpt from it where the author collates from actually mostly from the letters of R cook different statements that R cook makes in this area so this is what he writes this is the top of page two this is all this the writing of ruk again mostly found in the letters we have hundreds of letters of of Rook called the IGA so let's look at the top of the uh the top of the page my very desire the essence my desire my purpose I always want to find Merit I always want to find good in in the Jewish people and especially the Jewish people that live in Israel I really love them and I want to find every possible positive thing that I can say about those that have come to Israel in a poetic way that those that are living in the the Holy Mountain that is acquired by the right hand of godom should ever say anything negative about a Jew and about the Jewish people living in Israel not to ever say that there's a Russia or an you know one that transgresses of and he that's in that's one statement it's also not my way not my spirit I'm not looking to be critical or to find Sinners that's just just not who I am I'm not I'm not here to point out Sinners I'm not here to to to to highlight you know this one's wrong and this one you know did this that that's incorrect that's not who I am next he says that I am a descendant of Aon what do you mean by that by the way that he's the sent of Aron one that shom he also meant as a Cohen he was a Cohen as well music Coen cook was a Coen and he also he felt that he wanted to emulate our in his life he was all about he was all about making peace and all of the desire ofon and myself I always want to find a way of salvation for this holy nation ver Al to uplift the glory of the Jewish people next statement this is interesting because he says I really have worked hard I've toiled that hem has lightened my enlighten my spirit and he has set my heart straight in this holy way to elevate or to sanctify the name of God to love the Torah those that study Torah that I want to bring that love to others and look at what he writes now interesting again the beginning of that statement is it's something that I had to work at he said it didn't come naturally to me it always when I read rev cook it seems like that that's R cook through and through but here he writes you know what I had to work at that as well to love everyone to see the best in everyone to be M of everyone and again he comes back to especially here in the land of Israel the importance of doing that there is a mishna that is a very well-known mishna and we just alluded to that mishna that talks about kiru the importance of being M and it says the following mishna this is per Al and per think just about all of us are familiar with it h sh they receive the following teaching hon be of the students of Aon o shom shom so we see here in the mission the importance of K that we are to be m l t the son of Rook R the cook made the following statement it's found in the in the next source and that is that you need to read this Mna carefully and that is first you need to be you first need to love other people and then you can be you know some people love others in order in order to bring them close to T They Don't Really Love them but they kind of show them a certain amount of love because I want you to become religious but he says no that's not the way to do it first you need to respect the other first you have to love the person for who that person is for what they chose in life for who they are everybody is different everybody has taken different path number one to love them for that if you love them for that now you can take the next step and you can bring them closer to Torah potentially I'll just read it to you in the Hebrew is in a collection of teachings of R and his son this is number three this something that he would often teach the mishna does not say to love other people in order to bring them back to the Torah that's not the way to do kiru it's not the way to interact with others it's really about loving people first and foremost that is a fake kind of love it's not that you really love the person you just want them to be Shas right so you're gonna kind of like pretend you'll invite them over and kind of pretend that you like them put your arm around them but it's not you don't really you don't really love but you first need to love them says first love the person recognize that they are creation of God that they're loved by God and to love them for that and then with that then you have a desire to bring them because now you want to share the Torah with them but first to love them even more so if they sense the love that you have and the respect that you have for them then then it then potentially that could work but the first step is love yes please yes yes very good very good yes right you first need you first need to love them and it's true for parents as well we need to set they need to feel that we love them that's step number one and then through that love we can uh we can grow from there and interesting in Source number four it says that in the and you can see this today I'm not sure I'm not sure if anyone has been to the home or of cook recently but there is the there's an office where he would write it's still there and his the desk is there the glasses his right everything is there it's really very moving to see it and then there's the main hall where he would have where he would have his shabas meals where he would have sh is so in that room you have a picture of the balat the head the founder of the babage and the vagon is there side by side that's a famous that he has like the Two Worlds coming together and here it says that he would have this hung in that room as well I'm not sure if it's still there and it was there it was said engraved in the uh in the main hall of Cook's home of all the things that was written what did he have on his wall in his house shom shom so that is that was hung and I believe that it's still there I don't remember I don't know if anybody's been there recently last night the last night you were there is it there is it still hanging is that sign still there you don't remember okay all right yes so this is a famous a famous vort of uh of R cook as well the shom so we say in the in in our we say that we say that should cover us that God should uh secure us with a su so you have Shalom and you have Suka so what is the relationship between the two ruk says that just as Suka there are manyas when it comes to Suka that you don't have to have everything in place ideally you're supposed to have the four walls of the Suka you have all Theos called akum that even and if you have two and a half walls three walls there are all these Exceptions there all these ways to kind of bring a Suka together even where it's not all together at once and that's considered a kosher Suka and Rook says that's true of Shalom as well that's true of making peace between people even where everything is not 100% a little bit more a step closer to making peace like the Suka just a little bit is enough to make it kosher as well and it's true in terms of kiru you know often we talk about kir what's a kiru success you know rabbis or what they call kiru professionals today like what does it mean to be successful in kiru and um you know some say well you have to you know you got to see like the person has has made like you know the appropriate um appropriate steps you know to become more religious but the truth is when it comes to kiru it's little by little as we'll see that a moment that RI cook says little by little and even if you don't necessarily see that there's a you know a trans information that we reach out and little by little a person that person is is touched by that I know that's something personally I was uh I was a rabbi in Westchester New York in a little town called Mount Kisco and again you you know you do your teaching many of the congregant that were part of my congregation were not necessarily shammer shabas and little you know little by little over time and um a few years ago so one of the congregants called me and he said you know I decided finally that I'm not going to drive to Shan chabas but he he lives too far to to walk to Shuan chabas so what he does he hires in advance a taxi that comes to his door on chabas the taxi driver opens the door he sits in the taxi he goes to shulan chabis and the taxi picks him up and brings him home so is that fully sh chabis I don't think so not quite even though there's a lot there by the way even Hally if you're just sitting like a shabas elevator or and there's certain day of shabas buses and things like that so um little by little you never know you know you never know so that's what um that's what it means also sukat Shalom when it comes to the peace and making peace and reaching out to others so even if you don't see that complete transformation kiru is a is a process and we're going to see that right now look at page three the top of Page Three we have as I just mentioned a few moments ago we have a collection of hundreds of letters of Riv cook and that's a whole study of just reading and studying the the letters of Rook they're not just typical letters there's a lot of learning in the letters and uh it's called the IG the letters of ruk this is a letter that came from actually it's 1907 T in 1907 ruk arrives in Israel anybody know when what year does he arrive in Israel 19 1904 I believe it's 1904 you double check Google so he's just arriving just arriv in Israel and a few years it's just a few years he's in yafo you see that it's dated on top ear he writes Ires he's in Jaffa he receives a letter from a rabbi his name is milstein Rabbi milstein milstein he's a sh and he's in Eastern Europe and he writes to rev cook and he tells rev cook that he has two sons that have gone off the Derk two sons that have rejected an orthodox lifestyle and the question to Riv cook is how do I respond to that and what is the relationship that I have with my children and by the way this is a question that's being asked today as well and rabbis are addressing this question today what do you do within a family within children within grandchildren um if you have you know how how do we respond to that and how to respond to friends as well but it's it's very very sensitive when we have it within a family so this is what R cook writes and um let's read a few lines from R cook let's pick it up two lines down where it says do you see that I think I made a little bracket there it's it's one you have the opening line just drop one line right in the middle of the line it says he says when it comes to young people and you asked before about the Seder the ha that we knock out the teeth of so of cook okay there are different interpretations of that but R cook says that's or at least here that's not his approach what is my Approach that we have to act in a loving way with heartfelt warmth with young people and that we should say to them the following this is very interesting the how he's going to approach this and he says let them know that the path that you have chosen which is not the Torah path that there's a lot of good in that path as well to highlight the positive things that you have chosen okay it's not it's not a Torah life but to be supportive of that and what is their mistake this is what you have to kind of try to you know Express to them to communicate to them what they think that they have left the Torah that's against the tor T that you can find that that that really is found in the Torah itself what you have chosen as a path outside of Torah is really you can find that in Torah that that's that's what Ru cook says other words not first of all not not to be negative number one and number two the path that they have chosen to try to highlight that there's a lot of positive there and a lot of positive that relates very much to the Torah itself you're actually not rejecting a lot of the Torah in choosing you know XY or Z lifestyle Al and he writes the following he says I think it'll be it's very wise to take this approach now we're reading this today and we're not I don't think any of us are kind of you know shocked by what Riv cook is saying here but many many rabbis and going back certainly to the early 1900s you can go back 20 years 30 years 50 years and you'll find that many rabbis took the position once you have have left the community right once you're no longer shammer chabas that you're really not welcome back home you know you're not welcome back into our Sho that way and that was a that that was an approach I would say it still is an approach to some degree as we read stories of children of Kim that enter the Army and choose a different lifestyle very often they're not welcome back to their Community even rabbis taking that position as well so it's not something that is uh that's obvious it's not an obvious point at all and ruk is emphasizing and again it's a bit of a novel approach that ruk is saying to show them love to embrace them and also to highlight what they're doing to to try to highlight the fact that many or it could be that many of the things that you're doing are very much in line with a with the Torah teachings so let's just read read to the end here [Music] as I said before it's a it's a slow process to have that patience to have the love not to allow them to fall any further not to feel that they are being excluded and let me read one more line he says and in the end maybe as they get a little bit [Music] older sometimes that happens as well okay they're young at this time he's talking about his young Sons these teen teenage sons are in their 20s Sometimes they come back you get married you have children and all of a sudden you see the world differently than you did when when you were 18 years old and he writes one more line here which I think is very important and he says not only are we concerned with the children but how about their children as well in other words let's not close the door on them in any way let's be loving let's be embracing and even if they don't come back maybe their children the grandchildren seeing that love and seeing that warmth and they we maintain that close relationship with them so that can have an influence and impact on the grandchildren so it's a long process CRA cook he uses those words when it comes to kiru and to have patience andem that people we can bring them closer yes yes well the 1907 when this one's written yeah it's a long time ago yeah over hundred years thank you very much yeah thank you yes we heard we we uh it is revolutionary we have all heard that we have all to sit Shiva for a child that has left the F that's correct so or or inter okay or intermarrying right intermarrying yes okay okay so that's yes okay good maybe that's only right maybe that's only where there's an intermarriage but we see to the extent that our community the reaction to it and Ru cook is suggesting a different reaction I think his reaction we're reading it today as we point out many times Ru cook was ahead of his time and today I think we're more we we we we are more and more sensitive to this idea and more much more accepting and this has become I would say more of the standard in the Jewish Community this would not be surprising if a rabbi were to get up and say let us be more loving and embracing of our children not there's uh YY Jacobson who talks a lot about this and family he he's emphasizing this all the time but it's interesting that he needs to emphasize this to the from community that he's speaking to it's not something that it's not an obvious point and he keeps coming back to it again and again with children that have chosen a different path in life in a different religious path that he keeps emphasizing we need to love them to accept them to to bring them into our home to bring them around the shabas table to be accepting of what they're doing to show them love and it's not an easy thing and even within our tradition within our sources how did we start today we start with two sources that rebbi mayor and the ranan both were critical both did not accept the idea of being that embracing we needed brya and we needed RAB Zera to to to show us another way to show us that the way to chuva is that okay we go now to we're looking at two more two more sources together and this very this fascinating the laab rebbi so the previous laab RAB never visited Israel an interesting fact of his life um he was in Crown Heights for whatever reason you have to ask kabik why he never chose to come to the land of Israel but his father-in-law the the rebi before this rebi rebose yerson he did come to Eric Isel he came to erel in 1929 and Ruff cook had a meeting with him now at that meeting there was a lot discussed at that meeting you can imagine these two giants coming together the discussion that they had there was somebody at that meeting that escorted Ru cook to that meeting and that was who RAR lvin that R cook said I want rivar lvin to be there at the meeting with me the sadic of Y so here I have from the um from his book of sadak in our time or the book about his life and I'll just read this paragraph and what Ru cook said to the lababa rebbi again I'm referring to the not the past but the one before um what he said to him about kiru and that's what stood out for Rari living when he heard that that really he took note of that in 1929 the rebi of laich yers had ofab the father-in-law of the present rebi of laich well he's no longer the presid this is written a number of years ago even though some kabad would say he's still the president rebbi alage um came on a visit to the Holy Land and he was put up in quarters in the old city of Jerusalem cook the chief R land of Israel wished to visit the renowned figure and he asked AR lvin to accompany him R AR later related how R cook explained to the rebi his approach his idea of clausell and the Reconstruction of this people in its Homeland the chief rabbi's words were as radiant and Illuminating as the Torah given atana so he spoke to him about what it means for am Israel to come back to rebuild the Jewish people land of Israel and here is the key paragraph that I wanted to share with you at that meeting said rabar lvin I learned the fundamental law that prevailed in the thought of his master of cook when it comes to rescuing our Brethren members of jury meaning reaching out to others rescuing those that are far from Judaism the concept of M's nephesh dedication Readiness for self-sacrifice cannot be limited to giving of your physical self of your work energy effort or your money your property or for the sake of others you can't just give money to a kirb organization what does it mean m nees it has to be in en large expanded to include even the Readiness to sacrifice your spirit meaning your own Yiddish meaning your own spiritual level that you're willing to give of that and even if it means lowering it to some degree you're of your soul even if you think that the matter will cost you your life and the Hereafter even if it means that it's going to affect the reward that you're going to receive Ina your Eternal reward you must go ahead and work to rescue your brethren that's what Rook said to laabi that when it comes to kiru when it comes to reaching out to others at times and if it's necessary misus nees m nees in the sense that you have to give of your own religious of your spiritual level for somebody else now I find this interesting because when you think about kabad now which Community by the way took the idea of kiru and made it like the the Mitzvah of the Torah I mean the the Paramount the the what what Judaism is all about who did it kabad that's it right that's what kabad is doing doing took this one Mitzvah K and they said that's it that's there's nothing more important than that and by the way are they most their nephesh for kiru absolutely that they're willing a husband and wife and the children are willing to go out to Alaska they're going to buy a home they're going to sit on a street with gim and they're going to begin to to open aabad house and your m nees spiritually what does that mean it means that that Rabbi is not doing with a minion he doesn't have a Kusa you're raising children without a Yeshiva without other Jewish friends are you willing to to affect your own spirituality are you willing to be m nees for another Jew's Judaism and kabad says yes and they're doing it every day that I'm willing to lose a little bit of my own for somebody else now I don't know if that's true I think they end up gaining much more and they become they they're great in what they do but the initial position is the posture is I'm willing to be M my nees I'm going to sit in Utah I'm going to sit in Alaska I'm going to sit in Hong Kong with my family with my children without Manan without what to learn without a day school I'm willing to be moer neish interesting this is what Ru cook told the laab chbi now I don't know if laab rebbi learned that from him or they just agreed you know they agreed with one another but that's what with arier live in what he heard and what he uh what he wrote about so that is when it comes to kiru it's not just a Mitzvah and something that is appropriate to do but how far according to R cook in this meeting how far one needs to go in order to uh to help another Jew in the time of that re it's it's a good question I I don't know I don't know enough I know that reaban nakers in the previous Reby really took it to but it's a good question I don't know enough about the about the movement of the two rebies where it started like where where like did it begin with the previous rebi or uh with uh with raban yes yeah so I'm not I'm not sure it's a good question okay so we see certainly in the so this is the teaching of ruk we see this how kabad interesting the world of kabad how they took the idea of kiru and uh and they ran with this idea how about in the Lish world how about in the in the Yeshiva World world like our what is our what is the position of the Yeshiva World so I'm not sure if you're familiar with this I have this in the last Source RHA Feinstein Z he was considered to be one of the greatest of all the pokim I would say one of the most important leaders of of the litvish of the Yesa world living on the Lower East Side of Manhattan and um he was famous for many many things and the following about kiru so in 19 this is you can look on the Note number three 1973 he gave the following a uh the following talk which was then printed in the Jewish Observer I don't know if you remember that magazine I'm not sure if it's around today and he speaks about the obligation that every Jew just as every Jew has to give 10% to Sedaka every Jew needs to give 10% of their time for kiru that's what he that was his Pak it's found in the igas mosha as well and here um I just have it I have it here on the page from a book which is called reaching out which is a book that was published that was written by RAB Arya Kapa I'm sure many of you have heard his name and he wrote up this talk of rosha Feinstein so he writes the following this is the bottom of page three the same is true of our own Torah needs when it comes to our Torah study there's no question that a person's primary obligation is his own study own studies one can never say that he's a master enough to his personal needs for the Torah is longer than the earth and broader than the sea in other words when it comes to our learning so we have an obligation to continue and to be very much dedicated to it one must therefore give his own studies precedence but this must not be absolute a person must also act on behalf of others and he writes in the case of Charity one must give a tenth of his income to the poor you have to give Myer Ura 249 likewise one must spend one tenth of his time working on behalf of others bringing them close to Torah mosha Feinstein gave aak and he said that every Jew should be giving a tenth of their time to outreach to kiru I'm not sure if I do that I have not done that but this is something to think about and according toosha finstein this is some that kiru again forab it's something that became part and parcel of their of of their of every single day of their life um rosha says at the very least one should think think about this in a very serious way in terms of their time management how they spend their day and spend their weeks are we spending some time reaching out to others helping other Jews this R Noah Weinberg who was the founder of Asa Torah he always made the point he said it's not going it's not enough for the rabbis there's no way that the rabbis what they would call the Outreach professionals that they can do it and he believed that every Jew needs to think about this in a serious way how am I reaching out to a neighbor how am I reaching out to a family member somebody down the block right how do I reach out to them and if everybody took this seriously and interesting here in Israel we have the opportunity to do that because we're meeting Jews right everybody that we're meeting is another Jew how do we how do we relate to them and meet them in a way that we're bringing them a little bit closer to Judaism three three short stories and we'll uh we'll come to a close so Ru cook took this very seriously the idea of kiru and one great example beautiful example of that is what was called the Mas Chiva when he invited a group of rabbis very prominent rabbis one of them Rabbi Kap one R zanfeld they made their way up North and they went to visit all the new settlements and one of them one settlement was Poria which was near to varia one of the new settlements and there you have a lot of beautiful stories of his meetings it was on Mo chabas they were all dancing together after chabas and as they were dancing the circle Ru cook took two of the two fellows two men aside and these were they were the guards actually and they were wearing like the Kia in those I guess in those years they were wearing that they had a rifle over their shoulders he took them aside and he said can I put on your Kia and I can I put on the rifle then he came back to the circle and he was dancing with them um wearing now Ru cook was no longer wearing his kidish hat he was wearing theia and he was and he had the uh and he and he had a rifle around him and he said he turned to them and he Saidi very very proud to wear this because you are building the land of Israel this represents the Builders of the land of Israel right the pride that I have in you and I'm proud to wear it as well and he said I'm going to give it back to you right now but I want you to do the following and that is just as you're wearing this to guard the country and to guard the Jewish people I want you to guard your PIN as well I want you to guard that you have inside of you a holy Nisha that you have a that's connected to all of am Isel to Eric is I want you to guard that Nish and he gave back the uh he gave back the Kia and the rifles to them Story number one story number two what's that I'm sure I don't know I didn't say but I'm sure they became from you know that moment um and one of my favorite stories is uh we just spoke about Rin I always think about this when I'm walking in the back of the by Yehuda by the shook where you you have the alleys if you ever it's worth walking back there the beautiful alleys the way that they they look like they they did hundred years ago when Rari lvin was there and R cook was there it hasn't changed much they're making their way with the million dollar Apartments but not yet they they still still have the the ancient Alleyways so one of uh one afternoon Rari Lin was walking and he saw a fellow who was a student of his when he was a mashki that's what he did he was mashki in an elementary school here in Y which is interesting that was his main job and that's right the Yesa and he saw him from the other side of the alley and he noticed that this fellow like ducked away as Rari was coming to him so Rari kind of ran to to meet up with him and he met met up with him and he said like what did I did I do something wrong do you not want to see me so the man he said you know what I'm not uh I'm not religious any longer I'm not wearing a k and I was embarrassed to to meet up with you that you would see me that I'm not wearing a K on my head so RAR Lin said you know I'm a very short man RAR Lin was a very short man he says I'm a very short man he says what I see is just the heart of the other person my eyes just see the heart of the other so I only see your heart I'm not worried about not worried about what's on what's on your head okay that is uh Story number two the uh the last story is uh this is story we were talking about rosha Feinstein the Lish word world so I'll just share a story from that world as well there's a a great Rabbi of Aon leyman I'm not sure if you've heard that name he was considered to be really the gal hador here in Israel and throughout the world he lived in benra uh he passed away about seven years ago it was 2017 he passed away around maybe maybe around po I thought it was December y maybe maybe a PO time so here's a story there was a uh a family from benab uh they live not far from Ron leyan and one of their sons decided to leave the Orthodox world uh he moved to Tel Aviv Tel Aviv is not that far from Ben NE but it's very far in terms of the the different approach the different way of looking at life and uh and religiously and uh he really gave everything up and he actually he met a non-jewish woman this fellow and he was ready to marry this non-jewish lady so it was I think a couple of weeks before the wedding and he decided that he would spend a chabas with his family maybe like one last time to be together with his family came home for chabas and spent chabas together they were having chabas he was doing his thing he was on the Mir peset he was on his phone he was doing whatever he was doing on chabas they tried their best to have chabas together towards the end of shabis his father always went to the sheer RAB Steinman and he asked his son if he would come to the shear with him come to to the class that chabas afternoon and he did he came to the class and after the class they went up and just wished a good chabas and Raman said g chabas to this fellow and the fellow said just I just want you to know I'm not you know this isn't really my thing I'm not I'm not a religious fellow and riman said well how long have you not been religious and he said it's been about 10 years now that I'm not religious and he said the rabbi said over those 10 years did you ever have any Hur Chua did you ever think about possibly coming back to uh to Judaism and to an orthodox life and he said there were probably like three times for about 10 minutes each that I maybe thought about coming back to uh to a Jewish to a religious life so ran said I'm I'm envious of you that you had that kind of Hur Chua to think about coming back to Judaism to to observe Judaism again I've I've never thought about it in that way I've always been religious and the gamarra says that a person who thinks about just here huray Chua alone a person has reached a very very high level so I'm envious of those 20 minutes that you had of your Hur Chua and he wished him a good chabas and and that was the end of that a few days later the father called the son and he said you know I I just want to thank you that you went to the shear that that Shear I know that wasn't easy for you to go to the shear with me and uh so the son said well let me just tell you something about raban when when I was young when I was in third grade so we all went as a class to Rabbi schinman to his house and which they do sometimes with elementary schools you bring it to a gador and he asked some questions and we were all there together he was asking questions and uh you know it's a chance for AER and the great galador asking questions and he asked very easy questions to everybody in the class to make sure that they got the answer right and when it was my turn and he asked me my question I did not know the answer and then he asked me another question and I didn't know the answer a second time so at the end of that meeting as we were making our way out so all the children went up to ofman to shake his hand and he gave a candy to every child so he gave one candy to every child and when it was my turn he gave me two candies and he said the following he said when it comes to learning Torah it's not about how much Torah you know it's about the effort that you put into to Torah study and I saw when I asked the first question the effort that you put in that you tried and if you didn't know the answer that does not make a difference then I asked you another question you tried another time to answer that question it's about the Torah it's about the effort that you put into Torah that's thear that's the reward of learning and therefore you receive two candies and everybody else receives only one candy so he said I remember that story that's something that always stayed with me and when you invited me to go and here a she Froman so I was happy to go along with with you so the end of that story is yes a few days later he called his father and he said I've called off the wedding with this Gentile woman and I'm gonna try to make my way back to uh to Yiddish kite um so this is Rook R cook over a hundred years ago Ru cook is teaching and he really has uh has set a beautiful path before us as a Jewish community and he said how much more so in errell that we need to do this it's true everywhere in the world but all us need to be closer to one another we need to bring each other closer those those that are a bit distant that we find a way in a loving way as his son said first to love them that's number one it's not about the kiru number one is to love the other person and then through that love to bring them closer and closer to Hashem and to mitzvot all right yes wish everyone a good day and a pleasure to uh pleasure to learn together