Charlie Harary: Tefilah on Behalf of Cholei Yisroel and the Efficacy of Jewish Prayer

I'd like to begin by recognizing an individual Who has fought so tirelessly for our community councilman David Greenfield is here and he has always been an advocate for us but in particular with regards to the emerging realities of our domestic world of where things weren't as safe as it used to be we talk about security and he actually spe headed funding from the city to put security guards at our yiva first person to take that on himself and has been I mean what he does for our community is unbelievable and and $10 million for the yiva because of one individual's desire for our people thank you so much we really appreciate it for years ago I had the opportunity to go spend shabus at a Sparty sh which I loved for so many reasons and I was sitting I had I developed a cold before chabas and I was so worried and I'm sitting next to the kazin and I don't have a voice and I turned to him and I said I got no voice and the kazin turns to me and says what happened you had a cold with it he goes and he's asking me all these questions and I'm like I had a cold and then this he goes tonight take this mile temperature put some honey in the morning take a a straw blow in it I'm like what are you like a doctor what are you talking about he said to me he said I know every single thing about a voice it's my tool and God gave me a good one and my job is is to make it a great one what's our tool all that we got every single thing in our quiver the number one tool that we got is tilila that's what we use whether we're we have a gun in our hands or we have a pen in our hands whether we feel like we're on top or the bottom of the world what we need what we use what our real tool if the world is is our prayer to Hashem and I would like to suggest just in the few minutes that I'm allotted today is how do we take that tool and take it from a good tool to a great tool so I wanted to share with you two stories about my children two conversations with two different kids that's the whole thing I'll put some meat in between the two buns but that's the whole game the first one was with my six-year-old a few weeks ago my six-year-old came to me to express his grievances with me as his father apparently I wasn't doing a good enough job so I asked him what was wrong he said to me Daddy first of all my brother goes to bed two hours later than me do you know how long two hours is in a night Daddy when I get home Mommy always bothers me about homework and she never bothers the girls his older sisters and whenever I get to eat what I want to eat you always seem to stop me from enjoying the food that I like and then he pulls the ultimate six-year-old move which is the with the core of the logic of every six-year-old the three words that are the core of their argument Daddy it's not fair in every household across the world right now there's someone saying that in Israel right now there's a kid saying aala Z right that's the core so I tried to explain to my child that the reason why he goes to bed earlier than his brother is because his brother is a decade older than him and the reason why his sisters don't get bothered is because they actually do their homework and consuming enough sugar that would kill a small animal would take away one of his greatest you know sort of gifts that he has to the world which is his teeth and that would be a problem and I walked away and I thought to myself isn't that how we doin but Daddy it's not fair we turn to the K and we got a list and we look at the world from our perspective this isn't fair he has more why am I suffering and when finally I have a list of what I want you seem to get in the way somehow Hashem has been placed as the person or the thing that is stopping us from what we want and sometimes it's even more serious sickness cherol aritus these are big things and they're important but they're based on the vision of but Daddy it's not fair but maybe there's another way maybe T isn't meant just to be how we see the world from our perspective and hopefully Hashem will relent his will to our will and give us what we want and how we see the world is supposed to be but maybe there's another way and I want to share with you an approach that I heard from RoR nanal and Erol who builds his approach based on the words of the ne and Sh in the 12th peric it's based on a p Mar that is and here's here's the approach if you look about the first time we really had a tore that got together to do the first time someone DAV for a tore was Moser Reno mosha Reno came out into the world everything was wonderful M Torah and then we started to stumble a little bit and two times Moses mosha stepped up DAV for and saved the day and I want to focus on the second one Jews come in they're about to get there remember the story God goes okay you guys are going to fight they said I'm not sure you're we're Jews you know what I'm saying like we can negotiate for you but we're not going to fight that's for sure and God goes no you'll be fine and they go in they come out remember the story of the maragam the Jews come out and they start to cry they want to go back to himim disaster and mosha goes up and God has enough of the Jewish people and mosha goes up to defend CLA Isel now if you were the defense attorney for CLA Isel and you can pick any argument to stand before God and say Hashem please don't kill them what would you go with have mercy they just came out of mriam they're scared they're Jews they're not Fighters you would there are hundreds of things he would say what does mosha use as his primary defense that saves the day for M sayso you know what's going to happen M's going to hear that you rais this nation they build to Y but you couldn't finish the job you couldn't take him midbar you know why you should save claem because if you don't this is a PR nightmare for you mit's gonna say they couldn't do it canan's gonna be upset and hasem says can you imagine mosha goes with PR really like hashem's like what anyone in MIM still likes Hashem after what he went through for here oh no it's the canani I'm sure the Eternal God is scared about the feelings of some canani who's got like a lifespan of 30 years as if like he's you know waking up in the morning looking at the paper and going oh my gosh the god of the Hebrews what a bust I mean like I picked him first on my God fantasy league like he didn't even make it through one year and God goes you're right as if PR because we got a stock he's got to worry about why in the world is Moser Abu going with PR as his primary defense for CLA is so I'll share one last story and then I'll conclude so I was traveling a few months ago and my wife had a tea so no one was around to babysit the family I've got a bunch of kids which is why I'm here now and I'll be here all week by the way I told my family and we asked my son do you mind she coming home early from Yeshiva and taking care of the family he said no problem we G my wife gave him like a list of things to do this go this kid goes to B here and there and miss and this and we got baths and showers and homework and watch out for this one it's a whole you know whole protocols so my son agrees he comes back home early from from yiva so that's taking care of the kids and everyone's supposed to be in bed by 8:30 I'm traveling I walk into the airport my flight to JFK my flight to LaGuardia is taking off in a half an hour I look at the board there's a flight going to JFK leaving right now I'm like H this is the benefits living the five towns I jump on the plane I get him JFK and I end up Landing in 2 hours before I was supposed to land I come in around 9:00 till I get the cab the car I pull into my house it's a qu to 10 and I'm expecting my house to be silent you know where this is going because it happened in your house I walk into my house and it is pandemonium I mean there's ice cream out the kids are rocking it's like forget no bass there's no homework it is kids I think there are other kids that came into the house just I think we created kids mad sadness so I got to go into like disciplinary Daddy Mode which I hate I like being the sugar daddy and I come in and I got to take care of this and this and yell at this and take this and you got everyone's defensive and after half an hour of cleanup and cries and it's not fair is and whatever it is finally the house calms down my oldest son said something to me that I'm telling you it was worth all of that sorus just for that one line out of my one sa one of the greatest bits of nakas I've ever got in my life from him he said to me at the end he goes Daddy I'm sorry I said it's okay he goes no I want to tell you why I'm sorry you once told me that whenever you travel you hate coming home and being a disciplinarian I hate being that guy when I'm traveling I don't want my kids to ever hear the key in the door and be like uhoh I wanted to be daddy's home so I hate coming home and having to discipline the minute I come home from a road trip because you once told me that you hate feeling like that guy and because I didn't do my job you had to be that guy I'm sorry for you and for the first time in my life my kid was sorry not for himself not for the stuff that he wanted he understood that my natural inclination is to give if I'm not giving it's because there's a problem that may not just be me and my son was sorry he worried about me moshu turns to cl to KES and goes wait a second second wait a second you know what the problem was we were worried about going to ER to St because we were worried about ourselves it didn't work out we were scared we were we were scared there was going to be too many people that were going to kill us we were worried that we were going to make it we looked at the entire prism of er as how it looks for me and it's not fair that we can't just roll into a country it's not fair that I have to fight it's not fair that I have to have tus and we approached you Hashem from the prism of how life looks through me and what I need mosha said I am coming in front of you Hashem I'm not going to argue more for me you know what this is for this is for you we're here for you don't worry about us you know what gives us the greatest Nas when we represent you when we're a nation that binds together so that you look good in the world when something happens to ER it's not that we're upset for ourselves because we love Israel this is God's land it's abush to Hashem that they got a security Council resolution against us it's AEM that anybody is sick the Holocaust isn't just a problem in our families it's AEM that the world has to say Where's God that I that we have have to walk around and say the word of God and someone has to raise your hand and go what about the Holocaust when sorus happen it's a that we have because us everything that happens to us reflects on him and motion for the first time realized I'm not doing for me I'm ding for you don't save us for ourselves just don't make AEM let the world bless you let the world just see how great you are and the Kish BR says you finally got it you're here for me you are my nation we are together ask a mom about her whole life trying to raise to get her daughter married the daughter doesn't get married for her when she gets married the whole family gets married when that kid gets upset when that kid gets thrown out of school the whole family gets thrown out of school and so moshu taught us you know what I'm going to do I'm going to start doing for you the bone shom because if you win we'll win Fila according to the it's not for us fetching of our own sins of our own sorus we got to DAV forem we got to do is still look up to The KES and say listen of course you can D for andaras of course I can ask KES for my own things that's all fine 5-year-old kids we can turn to the K and say Daddy help me and that's the beautiful thing about hashm he's our father he'll help us in anywhere we want but the true true Essence ofila the waya becomes great when we look around that Soros and clao you know who we D for also we D that the world understands Hashem we D for Hashem we D that hashem's name is Sanctified in every person who becomes healed we D for hashem's name that gets to be Sanctified when clol wins and when CLA can DAV not just for ourselves can DAV for the the BR and the Kad of Hashem if we worry about our dad then for sure he'll worry about us and my Braha to all of us is that in each and every one of our Tas we don't see him as the block to what we want we doen for ourselves but we doen for him and I BR is that the K's name is going to be s ified through us then we can be sure that it'll be Sanctified through us and merits hasem through good things and peace and Rua may come soon in our days [Applause]