PIC2024 R' Joey Haber-The Time Is Now-Act Out & Bring Moshiach! Closing Keynote

but I'll tell you the truth I walked in today and literally walking into this room I was inspired I was inspired because often I cannot leave my community on chabas so most times when there's big events I don't come for shabas so I'll come sometimes on Sunday so I've been in this hotel a number of times on Sunday and never ever no matter how big the event is is there an audience this large and this interested on Sunday morning so the fact that you're still here after what was an incredible inspiring informative weekend is literally inspiring to me and it means Rabbi olowski is really good and the truth is that was very enjoyable and entertaining I mentioned before some of the things I do I want to just give you a drop of background in terms of a small right to be able to speak on this subject I was never really involved in K struggling I'm going to speaki Yes you heard ashm the whole weekend let's do a little for a change okay so I am not really so involved in I have many years of experience with meaning people that are sh Shabbat that are basically observant we've worked with them day and night and I think that that can give us some insight in terms of dealing with what project Inspire is about they want us to go home and when we see something say something they want us to go home and see a person that's a good ring and see a person who has who could use some K that could use some inspiration and us to take the responsibility to deliver it now again this is very difficult for me to talk about because you've had a whole weekend hearing the exact same subject sometimes when there's a weekend like this they have a unique subject for Sunday morning some okay I'll speak just about that subject they never heard about it before but you've been hearing about this and every speech every everything that's happened throughout the weekend you heard about the exact same subject so honestly I'm not saying this humility and I have a whole answer I honestly was really unsure what to share with you so I'm going to take a stab at it I'm going to try and give you three steps that I think will be very helpful the next time you're sitting on a plane and you realize the person sitting next to you is Jewish the next time you're on a long line in the store and the person cracks a little joke they call it bageling that hints to you that they know that Passover is coming the next time you're in your office and there's a co-worker who seems to show a little interest I'm going to give you three steps and these three steps are going to be based on a trip that I took a few months ago two months ago I took about 25 boys from our organization keser boys that are observant basically sh Shabbat not Yesa boys but sh Shabbat and we went to Israel for an incredibly intense four days we landed Sunday afternoon and we flew out by Thursday night and we crisscross the country we saw ranam we saw hostages we saw parents of hostages we saw places where Terror attacks took place we saw army bases and hospitals and in the process of seeing and meeting so many people these three ideas were born here's the first the first thing is that when you meet someone and they're not as observant and they're not as religious as you they don't know as much as you share in their pain the pasuk says about mosenu he saw their pain when was in bondage in Egypt and says he gave his eyes and his heart to feel their pain it's not just heart it's your eyes you need to see and witness and feel their pain so display this to display this point I'm going to share with you some of the pain that's going on in am Isel right now in Israel I don't know how many people in this room have been to Israel since and if I asked for a show hands I wouldn't be able to see them so I have no idea then amam writes when you visit a sick he gives a few reasons why you do and he says one of the reasons is to dve in for them and the question is if I'm going to dve in for you why do I got to go to your hospital bed I could diving more at home I don't have to waste time driving parking driving back going up finding your room why can't I just di in it home says the because until you see it and feel it your diving changes everyone he has heard as was mentioned before at nauseum about October 7th but there's nothing like seeing it and feeling it and I'm going to try to describe the pain that's happening in Israel today I'll give you a few scenes the first one is we went to beeri beeri is a kibuts in the South I believe 98 people were killed in that one kibuts alone and about 10 hostages were taken and we walked through and you've never seen more mangled metal and destroyed brick and we then get to a spot where there's like a villa house and Bar is regular Like Houses they're attached but they're houses and we're standing on the rubble and you see it's just destroyed bricks you go into the room and there's two a thousand bullet holes in one room shattered glass you see the Israeli soldiers already written things on their houses how many bodies they found how many body parts they found it's written in different colors it's a very intense scene but what was most intense to me is standing on the rubble with the boys and the tour gu is speaking I bend down to see and I see all this broken destroyed brick and then all a sudden you see toys in the rubble a teddy bear a little game the one thing that struck me the most I bent down touched it it's a little magneet tile my youngest son loves magnatile just imagine those people in those houses it all began at 6:30 in the morning 6:25 there probably a bunch of kids who came downstairs running around playing with their toys annoying their parents waking up too early NE they had no idea was about to happen feel and see the pain I'll give you another example another little story this tour Guy starts sharing what it was like on that day he lives there he says I'm in my house and the siren sound and Sirens don't mean anything to us like we hear it all the time but we all a sudden they started to sound again and again and we realized this was intense and this was different so I got myself a cup of coffee I got all my kids into the safe room now what's scary about the safe room is the safe room is built for bombs not for terrorists so the door doesn't lock I guess because if a bomb explodes you could run out or something like that so he said I put all my children in a room and I'm standing holding the door for hours and hours he said because it was dangerous I grabed my phone and I see the chat the family chat my mother-in-law also lives in he says writes on the chat D is okay then she writes at 9:30 I think he's going to be okay and then the chat stops he says we would find out that night once the soldiers came they didn't get there till like 4:30 5:00 in the afternoon that they had taken my father-in-law and my mother-in-law and a bunch of old people from from this kibuts and they lined them up on the street about 25 of them made them get on their knees and from behind executed them one at a time my wife he says lost her father and her mother in the same minute you could see the pain I'll give you one other example we went to the spot spot of the Nova Festival so the spot is very large it's a big area of of land and what they did is they put a stick in the ground and on top of the stick they show a picture a picture of one of the kids in the festival that was taken and that was killed and then there's another stick with another picture of another person that was killed and then another stick with another picture ladies and gentlemen there are [Music] 395 sticks pictures and walking through it especially the boys that are with that have partied in their life they're in their 20s they just couldn't breathe going from picture to picture and then there's a forest and then in the forest there's more memorials cuz what had happened so many of the people that were there that night ran into the forest or that morning ran into the forest and the terrorists came from behind and executed them in the back the pain is intense but most of us are not going to have an opportunity that often in our life to be MV people in Israel the reason why I shared all those stories is cuz I believe that here in this country the pain is pretty intense too maybe it's not blown up homes and in Bei we went from one house it was like 130 homes in a row with the same scene maybe it's not blown up homes but there is a lot of pain in the Jewish Nation today what's odd about our time is that physically I don't think the Jewish people have ever had a more enjoyable lifestyle you walk around our neighborhoods people are knocking down houses to build bigger ones people have beautiful cars in their driveway there are more boys learning in Yeshiva more girls learning in base yakob and in seminaries than maybe since the beginning of our Exile people are flying around in private jets people are giving donations at times what seemes very easily life looks great you go to a place like Lakewood you can't get a wedding hall for months cuz so many people are getting married life looks great life expectancy is longer than it's ever been you know how much longer life expectancy is today than it was 100 years ago it's unbelievable life looks awesome yet inside I don't know if we've ever dealt with more more mental and emotional pain that we have today people are struggling people have anxiety the mother of the daughter who's 22 who she thinks is 22 going on 32 the father looks at the cost of living and says this is impossible I make 170 Grand why do I feel poor there's pain there's mental health challenges There's real pain there's so many B in those yeshivas that I just mentioned that struggle don't know if they belong don't know if they fit don't know if they can meet the standard There's real genuine pain in fact this Shabbat I made a retreat in our Kesha Organization for about 150 post high school girls and we had speeches and sessions and Shabbat they danced and whatever they did and I did a lot of speeches and panels I tell you what he did a most of the time I sat in the room off to the side they called the t- room people were Milling around getting their snacks and one girl after another would come over to talk about what's on their mind for 5 minutes I was up till 3:30 in the morning Friday night and 3:15 last night not a thousand girls there was 150 girls each girl comes sometimes they sit with their friend within two minutes they burst out in tears they're nervous about their family they're nervous about getting married it's just there's so much struggle and so much pain and there's also a ton of pain in the secular World in this country the world out there secular Jews really anyone who's secular there's so much going on I'll give you some examples that I think are just symbols of this do you know how much money was gambled on the Super Bowl in 20121 three years ago I'm not taking answer I guess no one knows the answer the answer is $4.3 billion in 2024 the amount of money gambled on the Super Bowl was $23 billion the world has lost their mind part of our organization is that I go to campuses and give shman campuses so I go to a lot of local ones I go to baru college and give a sheer to our community Boys on Wednesday afternoon right next to the college there's a drugstore now when I was a kid a drugstore meant a place to buy Tylenol this drugstore has like a leaf on the picture outside so I'm like wow they must sell wonderful flowers in this store they're feeding it to kids begging them to Ed to take it it's legal it's everywhere you walk out in your street I don't know where you live but I know I live in Brooklyn New York I walk out of my house I live in a normal block I walk out of my house I smell it morning noon and night it's everywhere alcohol is everywhere you have people that are addicted to their phone to somehow dull their pain and at the same time create more pain I was once sitting on a plane and some times when I fly I forget to like tell them I care about my seat so I ended up in like row 29 in the middle seat which is not always the end of the world until I got to this row 29 and the man sitting next to me needed two chairs so I was sitting like this the whole flight two and a half hours so I kept watching this man he's like in his 40s or 50s two and a half hours this is what he was doing two and a half hours this is what he did nothing else for two and a half hours he played Candy Crush crushing doing like you got nothing else going on in your life other than crushing candy the world is in pain so here's step one when you meet someone who's a secular Jew don't judge them Don't Preach to them maybe you don't even have to teach them just share in their pain find a way to understand them roll your eyes and say wow doesn't everything cost so much today and they'll be like wow you understand me and then you make another comment don't do it weird don't do it awkward do it smooth do it smart but relate let them feel like you get and you say yeah kids today there's such a struggle and next thing you know the guy will open up and he'll say yeah you know my kid barely wants to talk to me he's 20 years old I did everything for that kid and he never talks to me and now all say you say back yeah kids are difficult and they're all addicted to their phone they can't even look up and now all of a sudden you have a bond you didn't say a word about t yet you didn't say a word about mitv yet you didn't say a word about God yet you just understood what they're dealing with once you understand once you relate you're in because in this world that we're liveing with so many people with so much pain D to sleep most of the issues in the secular world is not philosophical there's not aund Geniuses out there debating God it's just emotional they're is struggling share in their struggle and you're in the door I'll give you one last image from beedi that might stick in my mind the most that I think displays the world we're in today we're walking through so first you see like the place where the kids are is destroyed and the next thing is destroyed and then we're walking to the houses and as we're walking with the tour guard we walk through this space maybe it's the size of this half of the room that's all green grass with trees was fall so leaves have fall into the grass and the T gu stopped for a split second I'm not even sure if anyone else heard besides me he says stop here and look and stopped and looked he says you can't see anything the house over there the walls look fine over there the walls look fine here you see green grass he says if you just come to this spot you would think nothing happened here onat and as I was walking through the grass I said so many people's lives are the exact same thing we're so skilled at showing the world degress we show the world that our life looks phenomenal happy husband wife mother daughter son phenomenal and we're so skilled at making no one see the devastation no one see our daughter who puts her head to sleep every night crying because of her anxiety no one to see our a son who's struggling if no one see our financial struggles because we somehow find a way to put our best foot forward and make everyone think that it's great sit down next to anyone you're sitting next to secular Jew assume they're in pain don't say by the way I heard you're in pain or behav told me don't do it that way do it smart do it smooth but some comment that kind of relates to what they're struggling with and next thing you know you're with them and then you have a conversation and it could go anywhere and you can say the truth is you know what I also have that struggle a little bit but my children you know they read the Bible and they study they study the Torah and so it gives us you know Common Ground and morals and values that go from generation to generation say know really what's it like they'll say I heard of Shabbat then you'll tell them what Shabbat is like and say the truth is life is so hectic you'll tell them it's so chaotic and we have a million emails and whatsapps and text messages and meetings all happening at the same time and then Friday night whether we like it or not Shabbat comes in fact I have someone I know pretty well who was a major real estate person in the Syrian Community we'll call him Freddy he says one time he had a meeting with a man who is the head of a real estate company called Blackstone I believe Blackstone runs more real estate than any other company in the world he said I sat with this man let's call the man Tom I forget the name and Freddy tells Tom you know we make sure it's kulture and Tom says you still do that you care about that so Freddy says back you want to know if I care about that he says you you have you you involved in real estate right you have real estate all over the world he says yeah that means you get a call from one day from Moscow another day from Madrid another day from France another day from New York the next day from La the next day from Las Vegas he says yeah and everyone's in a different time zone he says Tom you are a slave he says me Friday afternoon in our archaic laws I turn off my phone not cuz I'm ready not cuz I want to because I have to I have no choice and I turn off my phone and I become I'm free and I sit with my family and we talk about a Saturday night a Friday night dinner and we have highs and lows of the week and we sing together we can sit at the table for two three hours he says I go Saturday morning I go to synagogue I talk see my friends I get inspired I give a little Charity then Saturday afternoon I come back to have a lunch with my children and we're smiling the weather's beautiful then I'll go to a friend's house in the afternoon I'll go to a lecture I get inspired he says Tom you're a slave I'm free Tom says wow because Tom was Jewish too the next year Freddy and Tom had another meeting together and Tom says to Fred I have to tell you he says I'm not as religious as you but I started having Friday night dinner we put away our phones and we have Friday night dinner Freddy you've changed my life that's a way of sharing and what they're feeling with in a cool relevant way not like oh what's your life like you must be struggling it must be terrible that's awkward do it smooth but get in the door that's number one number two which I'll take shorter than number one took is when you go to Israel if you've been there in the last few months you will see our nation has an incredible spirit the pasuk says has told moso and the Jewish people at the burning bush he said I will be that I will be what kind of name is that I will be that I will be and as she explains but explains it even further he says what it means is is that Hashem says I'm making a promise for you I will be with you now and I will always be with you go through the land of is go through that country today and is and you will see there's an literally oozing out of the people in that country and I'm going to give you a few examples I went to one of the most incredible places in the world T has hospital and I'm not sure if you're familiar what T has hospital is it's a hospital where injured soldiers and people who were affected by Terror attacks are taken care of it's near Tel Aviv and we went to the hospital you ever walk on the street and see someone in a wheelchair and then all of a sudden realize they only have one leg and you automatically reflex it's like turn away and Tas Hospital everyone's missing legs and somehow you don't feel like you need to turn away there is a happiness in that place that's crazy to see we went on a beautiful day the weather was wonderful so a lot of the patients were sitting outside Soldiers with injuries and we saw one soldier one man actually wasn't a soldier a woman was sitting there she says I want you to meet my husband she clearly did not look very religious but I want you to meet my husband husband comes out with a keep so what's your story he said here's my story he says I was driving to pray one afternoon in a few weeks ago and we heard a siren he says I jumped out of my when you hear a siren you're supposed to do is park the car jump out of the car and you lie down on the ground flat so I lay on the ground and put my hands on top of my head and I'm lying right near the car and a few feet away a bomb blows up and a piece of shrapnel goes underneath the car and blows up the car and with it it blew off my arm and he has a smile and he believes in Hashem I know students that if they dve in shakas and they don't get what they want by the afternoon they're doubting this man lost his arm on the way to DAV and he has no questions there's a spirit so so one soldier say he's standing there without a leg he's got crutches one leg missing the other what's your story he says my story is that my unit we went into Gaza and we went into a house and we didn't realize it was booby trapped he said and the house blew up he said on that day we lost four soldiers and an additional six legs he says and I wish I could go back in so what there's a spirit there's a spark inside of our nation that is incredible there are some people that it's hard to find but in most Jews it's not so hard to find I can't tell you how many kilon soldiers legami that we met with and they just were happy to see a smiling face we brought some food we had a barbecue with them they were just so happy to talk there's a spark we met one man on this one last example of that P person in t sh hospital he was standing tall he was a colonel he was surrounded by his family when we met him in the hospital he was shot right through his Adam's apple and he's talking and he's playing music with us so the next time you meet someone you need to realize that our nation has a spirit like no others and every now and then you'll meet bump into a person who's like as cold as ice and you leave that to the professionals but 80 90% of people are normal and regular and they have a spark inside that they're waiting for it to be ignited which leads me to step three you see I was quicker with that one step three also we're going to try to end by 12:45 hard stop not try we're going to end step three is this if you could share in their pain in their struggle that everybody has and you could recognize their Spark that you could feed them belief with love you share their pain and recognize their spark you could feed them belief with love it says we say DAV goak Hashem is a redeemer that is strong what does he mean he's a redeemer that's strong the answer is standard gah Redemption usually happens to people that deserve it they earned it they dve in they were a good person they were sick they di in and Hashem said you're a good enough person I decided that the right thing for you is to come out of that sickness and you get a g that you earned sometimes even great people don't earn but sometimes great people earn but why is the word kazak kazak means that even sometimes people that don't earn it and don't deserve it Hashem brings Redemption for them too I'm going to conclude with three examples of how you could feed people belief with love people that you might say ah this guy doesn't deserve this guy's not holding you can I give you three examples one of the people we met when we were there as he went up north and we met Rabbi grman anyone here familiar with Rabbi grman good okay you could clap Rabbi grman and it's incredible to see his operation but he shared with us and the Bo his story it's called the Disco Rabbi here his story what's his story his story is that in 1967 Israel went to war and for the first time since the country's ex Inception they got the cotel back Shabu they opened the Cortel for the first time and the first time really in a very long time that Jews could really go there in Freedom he says and I went to the Cel that day and I was standing there s and I was crying now just so you understand Rabbi grman grew up in MIM there is no more sheltered town in the planet Earth than masim you've been there you know what I mean it is its own sheltered place he grew up in MIM his father was a he wrot so he's standing at the Cel and he's crying he says hem you gave us this gift of the cotel being returned to our people so I owe you a gift how can I pay you back back and he's thinking and he says what does Hashem love most he loves his children so he says I'm going to try to help Hashem with his children he looks on the Israeli map and he sees he says let me find the worst town in Israel and he finds the worst town mdal and he goes up he's a young man from Asim and he goes up to migdal and he arrives in the town he goes to the local school he says where are the young boys they said the young boys on SCH mcdc mcdc had the worst crime rate the most drugs the most alcohol in the entire country the boys you know where they are they're they're in the Disco he says I don't know what a disco is he says this a Yeshiva called disco his hat his long Jack jacket from Asim Rabbi grman walks into a disco I have no idea what took place on that day here's what I know today 40,000 students have gone through his system and changed their lives because of him how do you do it the answer is if you understand their pain and you believe in their spot AR you can feed them belief with love all he went in with no skill set no training no sophisticated books he just walked in with love he says in fact one boy was sad one day he says why are you sad he says because my brother's in jail he says if your brother's in jail it means my brother's in jail and through that Rabbi grman set up shur and jails across the country he said there are two towns on the planet that are completely sh shabat and MD crime went from 100% to zero now if I was talking to Rabbi grman on that day in 1967 I would have told you want to help hashem's children why don't you go back to Mas sit in some there find four bam that want to learn B mitah and teach them B mitah that's that's what you're trained to do but this man had a heart that was bigger than that not a skill set not a training just a heart and he walked in with love and but that said if I could feed them love feed them Bel with love I can change anyone now let me give you my next two examples the next one is in t hospital we went to a cafe in the cafe someone said to me right over there in the corner there a girl named mem you know mem is she's pretty much the most famous hostage in Israel so I said I want to say something that the entire trip was going over to random people I said I want to say something he says you're not going to be able to she's always on the phone it's like her way of like hiding I said okay we went inside saw more patience came back to the cafe she wasn't on the phone I said you know what I'm going to give it a shot worse comes to worse she walks away she's getting a cup of coffee I over I said I just want to tell you the entire nation of Amel is inspired from you oh I said this I said I am a rabbi which is a negative from America which is a positive from New York big positive I said I want you to know the N our nation is inspired from you and everyone is praying for you and Hashem should give you and give you strength and give you health she says can I get you a cup of coffee I said no I don't do coffee I said Hashem should protect you and guide you and watch you in everything you go and you should get married and have children and she says if there's one thing we learned on October 7th is that Hashem is running the world now I don't know if there's anyone more irreligious than this girl her fiance I believe is the person who ran the festival but even someone with that background if you come with kindness has a spark and here's my last example and I'm going to conclude one of the things we did is we went to an army base and a r in New York told me that the best part of your trip is going to be when you go to the army base and you have a concert with Kobe parrots anyone know who Kobe parrot is in between okay Kobe Paris is one of the Superstar singers IR religious singers in Israel so I come I'm like Yeshua he says don't worry it's going to be the highlight of the trip so we get there and this all these soldiers are there Kobe stands on the stage which in this army base basically was a chair he stood on a chair and me and my boys are behind him like these celebrities who came from America and he starts singing his song he has a beret noie starts singing his songs and there were even some female soldiers in the front I'm like what am I doing here like I got to get out of here fast this no place for a rabbi to be Al up within two minutes Kobe says stops the singing he says we have a rabbi here for America with boys from and they sponsored tiil who In This Crowd which Soldier wants to start wearing tiil for the first time in his life and ALS son a soldier comes for and says I want to and Kobe gives him a hug and the one of my boys gives him the tiffine and I give him a and then another s Soldier comes forward says I want and then another one comes forward and another one comes forward before you know a dozens of soldiers I want tiffine I want tiffine I'm like am I watching this and then Kobe takes off his Beret he goes to the person next to he says give me a kipa he puts on his kipa and he starts chanting this army base that had about a thousand soldiers it was a big event he start ching and the whole place is chanting and I'm like watching this and they're all chanting it and then the soldiers start dancing with us and hugging us one soldier came over to me he was so excited about his tiffine he says I can't thank you enough I had to give you something he goes pulls me to the side open opens up a box he says we have fresh Army jackets I want to give you one as a gift our nation is incredible the respon this is not a responsibility to inspire people this is not a job this is an opportunity because when you take this opportunity you will see that there's a beauty in our people that us in our little neighborhoods sometimes never recognize that person sitting on the plane or on the aisle in the store or your coworker that you think is as an irreligious Jew share in their struggle and then see their spark and with love they start to believe and it's an incredible thing to witness you came here this weekend cuz you believe you have it inside of you you came here this weekend because you believe that you can help change the world close to a th000 people here of every person goes out of here from Project inspired and leaves here in inspired leaves here with a spark and an energy and you do it in a wonderful smooth comfortable way you will start changing lives all over the place and one turns into two turns into four turns into eight and before you know it you can't believe where you are and collectively it's incredible what we can do and the world we're in with the technology we have makes it even easier all say you could keep in touch with someone just by sending a text message or putting them on a little chat send them a little voice note and all of a sudden you're changing lives we're at a time that is difficult beneath the surface but beneath that surface we're at a time that is incredibly beautiful and opportunity has never been greater if we can have have the belief inside of us if we can walk around inspired inside of us then the next person we meet we shake their hand and we share their pain we see their spark and with love we Inspire them to believe thank you