Pre Shavuos Ohr Naava Insane Speech

Okay, thank you very much for that. It's an honor, it's a schuss to be here. It's very humbling to stand in the spot where Zachariah Wallerstein should be standing. And I hope I do justice to what he would have wanted to be said now. My name is Hillel Eisenberg. And it's a schuss to share with you some words of chizzuk before Shavuos. I have a very simple question. And that is do you care about Shavuos? These are days that are filled with anticipation and excitement or they're supposed to be. In fact, we are so excited during these days that we literally count every one. Day after day after day we count. That's how much excitement is filled these days. So, my question to you is are you excited? Does Shavuos mean anything to you? Does the fact that we're getting the Torah another time, does that mean anything? Are you going to say the bracha of she'asani with any more kavana on Shavuos? Let me ask another question I like to ask. Are you slowly assimilating? Are you happy that you're Jewish? Or are you happy despite the fact that you're Jewish? We have a very passionate front row here. >> [laughter] >> Except they're 70, so they've lived a long life. Oh, I'm sorry, 50. 30. But what about the people still living their lives, waiting? Are you a happy person who happens to be Jewish? Are you an American who happens to be Jewish? Or are you a Jew who happens to be an American? Does the Torah get in the way of your lifestyle or enhance it? I had a kid in my class growing up who was a gear from Korea. He was adopted by his Jewish parents at the age of 1 week old. And we learned together, we learned Mishnayos together, we grew up together. And when it came time for him to turn 13, the halakha is that you got to go in front of Beis Din again and reaffirm your interest in remaining a Jew. He walks into the Beis Din, they ask him, "Hey, you want to continue as being a Jew?" He said, no. And he turned to the door, took off his yarmulke, put in the garbage, and left. And I remember thinking to myself, when he didn't come to school the next day, am I only here cuz I'm trapped? Am I only not him because I'm stuck? Am I only a Jew because it would be completely socially awkward for me not to be? I want to offer a perspective that will hopefully enable you to unequivocally tell yourself that I am interested in the Torah and the mitzvahs and all that comes from it. And I am happy about it. I'd like to begin with the following. I think it's safe to say that the single most talked about topic in all of American Jewry the last 5 years, maybe the last 10 years, maybe the last 50 years, is anti-Semitism. It's in the news, it's in every podcast, it's in every speech, it's in every article. We love talking about it. I'd like to share some slightly politically incorrect ideas, which I think can lend itself to this discussion greatly. I'd like to begin with a story. When I was growing up, I would often play basketball in the local Rochester JCC where I grew up on Sundays. One day I'm playing basketball there and a group of around five or six 19-year-old non-Jews come in and they're playing on their side of the court. Not a problem. I'm on my side of the court, they're on their side of the court. After about five or 10 minutes I hear from the corner of my ear, "Hey Jew boy, get out of the gym." So I think I must have misheard. No normal people say that, right? So then I keep playing. But then I hear again a little louder this time, "Jew boy, get out of the gym." So now I'm thinking to myself like you're I'm as welcome here as you are if not more so. This is the Jewish community center. I'm a Jew, you're not. So I ignored him. But then a few minutes later I don't just hear out of the corner of my ear, I see right in front of my face he comes out to me and says, "Jew boy, you better get out of this gym or I'll make you get out of it." So I made a quick mental calculation. I'm 4'3" and 11, he's 6'4" and 19. According to the laws of physics, I should leave. So I left. And I remember thinking to myself as I'm leaving, what exactly is his issue? What did he see in me that I didn't see in myself? What I'm wearing a yarmulke? That's what bothered him? And then the more I thought about it, the more I started asking this question on all the Jew haters throughout the years. Pharaoh is working us to the death? What is wrong with you? You're the arguably the most powerful emperor, king, czar ever. Go get some slaves, raid some country. You want slaves? We are literally destroying your country. Do you not see Maccos flying all over the place? What is wrong with you? What did Pharaoh see in us that literally drove him to the brink of insanity? We walk out of Midian, we get attacked by Amalek. What is wrong with you people? We have nothing, zero. We are pathetic. We're refugees. What did Amalek see in us that bothered them. Goliath wants to just annihilate the entire Jewish people. Haman, let's slit every Jewish person's neck. What's wrong with you? Antiochus is hunting down random innocent 6-year-olds learning in a cave. What is your problem? What did he see in us that bothered them? You have random seventh-grade girls in Brooklyn get punched in the face cuz they're wearing a skirt. You have a girl at the University of Colorado who barely knows she's Jewish gets shoved to the ground cuz she's wearing a Magen David necklace. What is wrong with you people? What did the Egyptians and the Babylonians and the Persians and the Syrians and the Greeks and the Romans and the inquisitors and the Cossacks and the Nazis and the Bolsheviks and the Iranians see in us that bothered them that we don't even see in ourselves? Not long ago I was on J- I was in JFK Airport. And I'm waiting I was flying to Hong Kong and I'm waiting there with my 4-year-old son and we have around an hour to kill. So, I take a walk around the entire international terminal of JFK Airport. And we're looking at every flight, whether it's going to Vancouver, it's going to Melbourne, it's going to Santiago, makes no difference. Every single one is the exact same except one. There's one gate with additional security around it. There's one gate with people holding AK-47s. There's one gate with German shepherds around it with an additional security screening. And my kid says, "What's up with this gate?" I said, "Well, that's the plane going to Israel." "Why do they need German shepherds and guns and cannonballs?" I say, "Well, well, that's because, you know, they're afraid that someone's going to blow up the plane." So, my son looks at me and he says, "Well, why aren't they afraid about that on any other plane?" What's the answer to his question? Antisemitism is unique in four ways. It's unique in its universality, it's unique in its longevity, it's unique in its irrationality, and it's unique in its intensity. It's unique in its universality. Wherever you go in the world, people hate you. From Japan to Argentina to Canada to Mexico, anywhere you go. It's not a regional interest. It's unique in its longevity. When was the first time the Jewish people were hated? Uh the minute we came into this world. When's the last time we were hated? Right this second, someone getting stabbed in Israel somewhere. It's unique in its irrationality. Nothing about anti-Semitism makes any sense. We're too rich, we're too poor. We own the news, we are the news, we're not in the news enough, we're way too in the news. We control society, we avoid society. We assimilate, we don't assimilate. We're too rich, we're too poor. We're communist, socialist, Marxist, and capitalist together. It makes no sense. And lastly, anti-Semitism is unique in its intensity. You are cramming babies into ovens? You are ramming your car into sixth graders on a street corner in Yerushalayim? What is wrong with you? You're hunting down random kids on a beach in Australia and shooting them in the head? What is your problem? What is the explanation for the Jewish people's unique capabilities of annoying every person we come in contact with? And it's not the answer you're thinking. I believe the answer lies in Shavuos. There's a very obvious question you could ask about Shavuos. Presumably, Shavuos is a celebration of us getting the Luchos, the Torah, 3,000 years ago on on Vov Sivan. But to any thinking person, you should ask the following question. Wasn't that event largely unsuccessful? We got the Luchas and then 6 seconds later we're doing a lot of Azara around the hot ego. Why would we pick to celebrate that one when we could celebrate the second set of Luchas which were successful? Pretty obvious question. I believe the answer could not just unlock Shavuos but really unlock you to strike. Let me begin with a story. One of my odd jobs is to be kind of a tour guide of BMG. A lot of different schools from around the world come to BMG and take a tour. So I give a whole spiel about Rabbinic Cutler and coffee rooms and Louis Shine or whatever. One time I get a call. There is like a very modern pretty anti Tyro anti Lakewood anti me anti everything school coming. Why are they coming? They were supposed to go to Israel. There was a war. So they decided to go like on a cultural enrichment trip to Lakewood and villages around New York to tour like we're Vilna and Krakow. And they're coming to BMG. They want a tour. They want to they want me to give them a little pep talk. I'm like, "Oh, what am I going to tell these kids?" They're like, "I don't know. Figure it out." I walk in there. I don't even make it to the stand there. They have smoke coming out of their nose. They start attacking me like I'm Ben Shapiro. What's your take on women's rights in the Orthodox community? Why do people learn all day? Why do they learn ancient Talmud that hasn't relevant 2,000 years? Do you believe in stony people to death? That's medieval. So I'm like I'm I'm thinking to myself, "Uh you're coming into my Yeshiva and talking like that is a chutzpah. I got to put you into place." So I there goes my whole speech about Rabbinic Cutler and and coffee. We're sitting in the Azri National BMG. We're overlooking a thousand innocent people learning. I say, "Let me Let me you all a question. You see all these thousand people? What in the world are they doing there making less than minimum wage, crammed like a sardine, learning ancient texts? Many of these people could be making a lot of money in Manhattan. What are doctors and lawyers doing in there make giving up half their mornings to learn this ancient irrelevant dinosauric text? Why are there women in this town who have four jobs so their husbands could learn? And not only that, why are they learning an ancient text that is restrictive? The most religious the most restrictive religious book in the history of religion is the Torah. There's not 613 mitzvahs, there's 613 categories of mitzvahs. Each mitzvah has a million zeras and derabonans and caveats and add-ons. They're sticking to it. They're learning with it. They're dancing with it. What is wrong with you people? And not only do they learn with it, they do so just by facing the worst persecution in all of world history. Do you know that there have been 6,000 major religions in all of world history and close to 150,000 sub-religions. Do you know that out of all of them only one has remained unchanged for close to 3,700 years? One. Longer than the Han Chinese, longer than the Eastern Mongolians, longer than the Western Mongolians, Incas, the Aztecs, the Mayans, any African tribe. Us. What? The longest living religion on Earth is the one that suffers the most and has the most restrictive religion. How in the world does that make any sense? Every single day you wake up in the morning and another one of the mitzvahs comes screeching to a halt in front of your face with a megaphone and it starts screaming, you got to do this, you got to do that. No, no, no, wrong, do it over. You're you're that's bad. You got to do this. It tells me how to think of what to think and what to think and it tells me what to pray, how to pray, how to eat, how to sleep. You're going to You're going to celebrate that? You're going to learn all day that? Not just tolerate it, celebrate it? Why would people willingly, voluntarily learn a book that is making your life more restrictive? That was my question to them. Pretty good question. I turn to this group of college kids who are just staring at me. And I say, cuz you're making a mistake." I said, "Arguably the greatest misconception that you can make is that the Torah is restrictive." Hashem is perfect. He needs nothing. We are not serving We are not giving up for him. We're not doing things for him. Says the Ramchal, "The Torah is given for one reason and one reason only, to bestow goodness on us." The Torah is Hashem's definition of that goodness. You want to live a good life? Follow this Torah and follow it well. Says the Torah bafeirish, "D'varim Yud-Yud-Gimmel, lishmoa et mitzvot Hashem asher anochi metzavcha hayom l'tov lach." Every single thing I'm about to tell you, says Hashem, is for your own benefit. "Ki fe'erim rashu ve'eivu." People who don't believe they will be starving in their life. "V'dorshei Hashem lo yachseru kol tov." You follow the Torah, you will miss out on nothing. The Torah is Hashem's definition of a good life. The best marriages, the best children, the best way of dealing with life, the best way of dealing with death, the best way of dealing with happiness, the best way of dealing with sadness. Not the second the best, not the third the best, the best. God is not in the industry of coming in second place. If he is prescribing a way of life, it is the best by definition. You want to know why the people back there are studying all day? Cuz they are learning the ancient art of living the best life. I said, "You don't believe me? I said, "Take any statistical measurement of quality of life, anyone, and the Torah way is better." For example, suicide is up 37% in America. Do you know what it is in the Torah world? A fraction of that number, I told these kids. They're still looking at me like, "What Who is this guy?" The divorce rate in America right now is 51% of first marriages, 67% of second marriages. You know what it is in the Torah world? A fraction of that number. Did you know that there are 40% of children in America do not live with both biological parents? 40% of children in America do not live with both of their biological parents. I'll repeat that even a third time. I don't have time, Jack. Mrs. Betancourt is coming. Over 2.5 [snorts] million children are raised by their grandparents because their children are either addicts, their parents are either addicts, in jail, or both. According to a New York Times article, one in two adults are in a close, severe fight with a close relative. The most sold drug in America are antidepressants. 29% of Americans are diagnosed with clinical depression. Do you know what that is? The number That number isn't the Torah world, a fraction of that number. In America every year, there are approximately 700,000 juvenile arrests. Listen to this. One in three Americans, around 33% of Americans, will have some form of arrest by the age of 23. Do you know what it is in the Torah world, juvenile arrests? Around three a decade. According to a poll done by Forbes magazine, 70 to 80% of Americans consider their homes dysfunctional. 70 to 80% of Americans consider their homes dysfunctional. Here's another thing I told them. I'm looking We're in Lakewood, and I said this, so it's cool. Do you know which city in America with at least 100,000 people has the highest violent crime rate? Mobile, Alabama. Do you know which city in America with the at least 100,000 people which has the lowest violent crime rate according to the FBI? Lakewood, New Jersey. I turned to these college kids cuz I said, "Is that a coincidence? Oh, the city with the highest concentration of Torah learners in America Oh, also happens to have the lowest crime rate." No, it's not a coincidence because that's the whole point. Then I whipped out this. In 2011, the New York Times did a research study trying to discover who are the happiest people in America. They thought it'd be pretty cool if you could discover who that is and take a survey of thousands of people and then write an article, you could sell lots of newspapers. The following is a direct quote from the New York Times, March 6, 2011 weekend review section 1, page 3. The New York Times research staff called thousands of randomly selected adults each day and asked them about their emotional status, their work satisfaction, their eating habits, their illnesses, stress levels, other indicators of their quality of life. It's part of a effort to measure the components of the quote unquote good life. The responses are plugged into a formula called the Gallup Healthways Wellbeing Index. The results show, quote, the single happiest people in America are observant Jews. This shocked the whole world, I said. You know who didn't shock? The people in that room. They are sitting there learning the ancient art of living a good life, a life that sadly most of you will miss out on. And I walked out of the room. When the Egyptians and the Babylonians and the Greeks and the Syrians and the Bolsheviks, the Nazis, the Inquisitioners, the Iranians see us, they don't just see a citizen of the world like every other citizen of the world that's desperately trying to find a way to stop the ache in their soul. They see people who found it. They don't see a citizen of the world like every other citizen of the world that's desperately trying to find a way to live a harmonious lifestyle. They see people who found it. And there is no greater dagger into a soul than seeing the sight of the soul of a Jew, the crown jewel of humanity, because they are living life the way life is meant to be lived. If you take a bird's-eye view of anti-Semitism, you will see the reason Chazal gave is almost exactly the same. The very first time the Jewish people were hated, basically, was when Asav hated Yaakov and he hated him with a passion. Why are you hating Yaakov so much? He's a bookworm, he's time gash in the world. the big deal? What's the big deal? The possuk says >> [clears throat] >> Ya, Eisav hated Yaakov with a passion over the brochos that Yaakov got. What is the big deal? He's going to be a Rosh Yeshiva. You're going to be a CEO. What? Isn't that what you wanted? No. He stole a life of bliss from me because I recognize that an neshama that's dead equals a bad olam hazeh. That's what I want. If you notice, when Eisav is coming with 400 men 30 years later, he raises his eyes and he says, "Va'yisa Eisav einav va'yar es hanashim v'es hayeladim va'yomer mi eileh lo?" He looks at Yaakov. He's got tons and tons of of grandkids and children and wives and wealth and he says, "Who are these people?" Who are these people? What do you think I was doing the last 34 years? Living in a cave? You know what Eisav says? "Yes. Yes, that's exactly what I thought you were doing. I thought religious people are dysfunctional. I thought they live in a cave and eat crackers. I thought they have totally lives. You're not supposed to have wealth and normal grandkids and gorgeous children. That's not supposed to have that. I didn't sign up for that. I'm going to kill you." And that hatred got so rooted into Eisav that it became part of his essence. I don't care how many Nobel Prizes you win. I don't care how many cures that you you discover. I don't care how many illnesses you've managed to avoid. I don't care how many hospitals you build. I don't care how many menorah lighting ceremonies you attend at the White House. I will kill you. You want to know why? Because your neshama's on fire and I can't stand it. We walk out of the Al Mitrayim and we're attacked by Amalek. Who are you? We're not bothering you. Who am I? I'm Amalek. My father's Eliphaz. My grandfather is Eisav. Every cell in your body bothers me. EVERY BONE IN YOUR BODY BOTHERS ME. I will kill you because you accentuate my patheticness. You highlight my dysfunctionalities. All of a sudden, we're walking and Balak, Bilam, Moav want to attack us. What is wrong with you people? We got nothing. The possuk says, "Vayoka'atz Mayah mibnei Yisrael." They were disgusted with their lives when they saw us. What's wrong with you? Live and let live. No. Cuz when we see your house filled with light and life and happiness, we realize how pathetic we are. We will kill you. And so it was. Golyas wants to kill Dovid. What is wrong with you? You know who I am? I'm Golyas. My mother is Orpah. From the minute she let go of Rus and Naomi, she's been a crushed, broken woman. She's been spending the last three decades watching Rus give birth to tzaddik after tzaddik after tzaddik. And she's living a decrepit, dysfunctional life. And you know who came out of that rage? Me, Golyas. I will kill you. Haman wants to eradicate the entire Jewish people. So the possuk says, "V'yomer Haman l'melech Achashverosh, yeshno am echad." There's these people. "Mefuzar umefurad bein ha'amim." They're spread out all over the place. "V'dasam shnos mikholam." They're They're just different. They're different. Ah, that's why you want to kill every single man, woman, and child cuz we're different? Um, last time I checked, you rule the entire world. What about the Lydians? What about the Indonesians, huh? What about the Africans? They're all different. What about them? What about the Bactrians? Why don't you care Why don't you care about them? He cared that we were different. He cared that we were special. He cared that we had homes on fire. He cared that we had marriages that had had a foundation. He cared that we had shabbos mirrors that made his heart melt. That's what he cared about. He didn't care about the Ethiopians. You want to know why? Cuz they were irrelevant. He didn't care about the Africans. You want to know why? Cuz they were irrelevant. He didn't care about the Lydians. You want to know why? Cuz they were irrelevant. He cared about us. He had everything. Haman had everything in his life. And yet he says, "Kol zeh einenu shaveli." All of it irrelevant to me. Why? Because the minute I see their bottom edge rush him and their khalah bakes and their tehilim chats, uh it it highlights my dysfunctionality. I live such a pathetic lifestyle. I will kill them. This has been the only explanation of anti-Semitism you'll ever hear. We our homes have bothered every duke, every czar, every emperor, every king because we are living lives the way lives are meant to be lived and that bothers people. Shavuos is not just a celebration of us getting luchos. Shavuos is a celebration of us receiving the secret to living a good life. The blueprint. The guide to being saved from rek. To being saved from living in a garbage can. So it doesn't matter that we had the chate of 5 minutes later. The secret was already revealed to the world and that's what we're celebrating. The problem is that many people because we're so used to our Jewish community and we're born into this life we think it's sort of natural. We almost don't see how the Torah had anything to do with the lifestyle that we live sometimes. Some people like to say, "Yeah, the Jewish communities are very kind and compassionate because over the years they've developed that character trait. They're good at developing character traits." But it's a mistake. It's because of one reason and one reason only. That 3,000 years ago we were standing at Har Sinai, we heard the words via haftala recha kamaicha belted out and it burnt us. It went into our cells and it made us the most loving group of people on Earth. People like to say, "Yeah, the Jewish people are very compassionate and life-saving because over the years you've had to deal with a lot of bloodshed yourselves, so you know, you probably figured out a way to just be kind to people." It's a mistake. It's because 3,000 years ago there was a possuk that came out from Shamayim at Har Sinai, and it said "Lo Yisrael tzoak." And it burnt us, and every single year we stand up at shul, and the whole shul gets up, and we say "Lo Yisrael tzoak." And it infuses ourselves. People like to say, "Yeah, Jewish ambulances come in 90 seconds, and the rest of the entire world comes in 9 minutes. Well, that's because, I don't know, you're you're very community-oriented, you know, you're community-oriented." It's wrong. It's because 3,000 years ago we stood at Har Sinai, and we heard the words "Lo Yisrael tzoak al dam re'ah." And it burnt us. And it made us the most compassionate people on Earth. Not long ago I was in Vietnam, and I'm in a remote mountain top in Vietnam, >> [clears throat] >> and I'm there with my wife, my two kids at the time, I had two kids. We're on this hike in Vietnam. And we see a woman on the on the trail, pretty busy trail, passed out, seizure, shaking, white as a ghost, having some sort of heatstroke, I don't know. Guess how many people were doing anything. Zero. So, my wife, who's a nurse, ran over to help her. Quick, quick, somebody get her wa- get her water, get her juice. She needs something, quick. Guess how many people did anything. Zero. So, I'm looking around. I see there's a guy, he has an orange juice stand. He is squeezing orange juice. So, I run over to him, I say, "Tzaddik, rebbe, it man, uh there's someone dying here. Can you just give us some of your juice? No. What do you mean no? She's going to die. No, you pay me. I'm like what what you like juice by Julie you have $19 orange juice cuz it has a lavender extract in it and rosemary leaves. It's halachic. You're squeezing an orange. No money, no juice. I'm like I don't have Vietnamese money. I'm No money, no juice. So I go collecting money down this trail. It's like I'm the meshulach here. The rich the rich American tourist becomes the meshulach going to the Vietnamese people collecting money. I find a couple coins. I go running back to this guy. I get him the oranges. We go to this woman and we give it to her. Would any Jew in the world act like this? In the world? No. Because we're not normal. Because our lifestyle was curated and designed by a Torah. It's not random. We're not normal. Of course, we drive 5 hours to wish someone mazel tov and a chasanah for 5 seconds. Of course, we take off an entire day of work to fly to Chicago to be menachem avel somebody for 15 minutes. Of course, for us it's totally normal. It's totally normal that we do that. Of course, it's totally normal that our 5-year-olds say a bracha before they put something in their mouth. Of course, it's normal that our 10-year-olds daven for people they don't know in countries they cannot find on a map. Of course, that's totally normal. Of course, somebody dies and the next morning there's $1.7 million raised for them from not wealthy donors. Of course, that's totally normal in our community. Right? That's what normal communities look like. Right? Wrong. It's not normal. It's because the Torah came along 3,000 years ago and it screamed "bachar bachayim, choose life. Make sure you choose it well. Follow this life, IT'LL MAKE YOUR LIFE HARMONIOUS and blissful and everything else will be garbage in comparison." We think the life we live is normal, but it's not normal. It's not normal that you have a Russia Shiva come in to his ninth grade dining room supper time. They have 1 hour break and he claps on them and he says "Rabbisai, there's a wedding tonight. There's a boy from South Africa. His mother is about chuva, his father was killed in a car accident. Rabbisai, he has no family. Rabbisai, we're his family." And they get into cars and they're schlepping into vans and they go dance at a person's class and they never met, they will never meet again in their life. We think that's normal. You realize that's not normal. It's not normal. I'm walking on 4th Street not too long ago and [snorts] a meshulach passes by me and I hear a door fling open behind me. I look, I see a 4-year-old fly down the stairs like a rocket ship. She's holding her pink pushka with polka dots tapped on. She keeps it by her mother's Shabbos candle. She puts in a penny every single week. She was watching outside the window, she saw a meshulach pass by. She runs to get her pushka. She comes flying out the door like a rocket. SHE'S SCREAMING "MR. MESHULACH, WAIT. MR. MESHULACH, WAIT." She trips, she falls, she's picking it up. She runs after the meshulach and she dumps her pushka into his bag. She comes marching back into her house with a smile the size of the Grand Canyon and she says "Mommy, mitzvah now, please. Mitzvah now, please." You you You realize that's not normal, right? Of course we have $30 million buildings for our special needs children to feel special. Of course we move medical mountains for for couples who are suffering from infertility, of course we donate more kidneys than any other group of people on earth. Of course we give more charity per capita than any group of people on earth. Of course we think it's normal. But it's not normal. It's because 3,000 years ago we were standing by Har Sinai and we heard the words "bacharta bachayim". Choose life. The further you get away from the Torah, the further you'll get away from a harmonious blissful life. The closer [snorts] you get to a Torah, the closer you'll get to a blissful harmonious gorgeous exquisite life. That is what we're celebrating on Shavuos. Here's the problem. The problem is that it's hard. Is there a clock in here? The problem is that it's hard. The problem is that it it's hard to live this way. There's no question. It's hard to spend $25 on one piece of lettuce. It's hard. It's hard to go to a mall with your checkered pleated skirt looking for a pair of shoes. Everyone's wearing $15,000 articles of latest trend clothing. You're eating a soggy tuna fish sandwich out of a Ziploc bag. Everyone is eating these delicious tacos from Taco Bell. You're trying to get your flip phone to work. Everyone's walking around with screens the size of your dining room table. They're FaceTiming people in Fiji and in Hawaii. You can't call your mother down the block. So you start thinking to yourself like maybe we're the crazy ones. It's like my wife works in a used to work in a psych ward. And there were days when there was just someone talking into a banana. And there's a woman who's banging her head into the wall. And then there's another person who's just casually prancing down the hallway wearing no clothing. And sometimes my wife comes home and says to me "Look, maybe we're the crazy ones." >> [laughter] >> It's tempting to look at Yiddishkeit because we don't always know what's in the whys and what are we doing. It's tempting to look at that that way. And so, on a slightly subliminal, suspiciously quiet way, we pick and choose the things we like. And the things we like, we say, "That's what Yiddishkeit's really And the things we don't like, we say, "That's not for me. It's extremist, Neturei Karta does I'm not married to a Reish Kallah. I'm not married to a Yeshiva, I'm not a Rav, I don't have heebie-jeebie spirituality floating in my challah. I'm a regular person, I'm living in America 2026. Don't bother me because I'm I want money, I like big houses, I like fancy clothing. Have a nice day. Here's a perspective. A couple summers ago, I had the great privilege of going to Spain. And Spain has a territory called Tarragona. And I got to learn a lot about the chief rabbi of this territory called Rabbi Yitzchak Arama. He was one of the great Rishonim, he lived many hundreds of years ago. The Akedat Yitzchak. And he was the chief rabbi of this region during the time of the Spanish Inquisition, a very difficult time for the Jewish people. And one day he gets a knock on the door that a whole group of Jews of people in his kehilla are there and they say, "Rabbi, we are becoming Christian. We're not asking you, we're telling you. We have one question for you, though. When we become Christian because it's just way too hard, are we like still Jews and we're going to like be held responsible for all not doing all these things or like once we leave, we leave. Basically, what they were asking was is in is Judaism is Yiddishkeit an intellectually subscribed religion where you subscribe intellectually and then you could unsubscribe and then sprinkle some water on your head and move to the next religion and voila, you're part of that next religion. Or you're stuck. You are genetically a Jew. You could run, you cannot hide. So, he looks at them and he says, uh sorry, Charlie. You could run, you cannot hide. He says they So, they turn to him and they say, "Excuse me. Why is that fair? We never agreed to any of this. It is way too hard. Our great-great-grandparents were at Har Sinai at the first Shavuos and they [clears throat] agreed to it. We never agreed to this." So, Rebbe Zalman Auerbach, he turns to them and he says, "Um you're making a mistake. You were at Har Sinai. Your neshamos agreed to this." So, they look at him and they say, "Yeah, we also were in first grade. Our neshamos were there. What right does my neshama have to accept Yiddishkeit for me? What does my neshama know about me in my physical world? Me in 1492 and me in Berlin in 1933 and me in Czechoslovakia in 1666 and me in Lakewood, New Jersey in 2026. What right does it have?" So, he looks at them and he says, "You're making a mistake. He said your neshama stood at Har Sinai and knew everything there is to know about you. It knew all about your upbringing. It knew about your neighbors. It knew about your parents' divorce. It knew about the miscarriages, the doubts, the struggles, the infertility, knew about the pain, all the nights you would cry yourself to sleep, knew about the struggles, the battles, the things that you're dealing with that nobody else in the world knows, the time you did the thing you should not have done. It knows everything. And it said na'aseh And at that exact minute that it said na'aseh v'nishma, it was injected with a holiness that's tailor-made for you and your life. You in 1492, and you in 1666, and you in 1784, and you in 2026. You with your life and your upbringing and your siblings and your psych medications and your your your school, your teachers, your abusive parent, your everything. It knew everything and it was perfectly tailor-made for you. There is no such thing that I am not someone fit for the Torah. It's impossible. It makes no sense. You got a dose of holiness at Har Sinai that was designed for your lifestyle to make it the absolute best, to inject it with meaning and purpose, harmony and bliss, with kedusha, with a sense of meaning. People I don't know how this came to be. But people like to say that the reason the Jewish people are still here was because of basically one reason, mesiras nefesh. We were moser nefesh over the years over the years moser nefesh over over the years we were moser and you hear things like "Yankee, Zaidy was in moser nefesh his whole life for you to sit on the couch and watch movies." "Ricky, Bubby was not moser nefesh her entire life every second of her life for you to be a couch potato." And we look at Jewish history as this one giant dark moser nefesh. Thumbs up means I could keep going or I just have to stop. That should be a thumbs down. >> [laughter] >> Oh my gosh. What am I throwing out here? Should we Should we take a vote? >> [laughter] >> I'm just joking. I'm just joking. Okay, I'll be quick. I'll be quick. Because Okay. People look at Jewish history as this giant long tunnel of grief, darkness, pain, blood, and mesiras nefesh. And there's no question. There was blood. There was pain. We're not sugarcoating anything. But if that is your understanding of Jewish history, you missed the boat. The Jewish people have lived the most magnificent lives of any group of people in all of world history. I'll say it again. The Jewish people have lived the best, most magnificent lives in all of Jewish history at any point in all of Jewish history. What are you talking about? We were hunted. We were crushed. We were in caves. We were we were we were banged on and That's only if you look at a very superficial level. Because who had the best tables? Who had the best houses filled with light and laughter? Yeah, they weren't always the biggest. We had Shabbos tables that made kings look poor. Yeah, we weren't always rich. We were rich in other ways, in the real ways. We actually knew who our fathers were. And if you didn't have a father, the entire town raised you. We had community events you couldn't find parking at. We didn't need to treat loneliness. We didn't need to invent industries to treat loneliness. We have safer to hellum guiding us. We had the most harmonious lifestyle out of any period of any time. And yet we like to say it's all mesiras nefesh. It's a mistake. If you are telling yourself that you just created the world with mesiras nefesh, you're selling yourself short. And if you're telling that to your kids, you're selling them short. No one is saying that keeping a Jewish lifestyle is not hard. No one is saying that. All I'm saying is that it's harder not to. Yes, it's hard to keep Shabbos. It's harder not to. Yes, it's hard to keep all of hilchos tznius. It's harder not to. Yes, it's hard to watch what you say. It's harder not to. Yes, it's hard to watch what you look at. It's harder not to. Yes, it's hard to be careful with how you treat other people. It's harder not to. Yes, it's harder to keep the Torah and to defend the Torah and to live by the Torah AND TO DIE BY THE Torah and to be proud of the Torah, but it's way way way harder not to. Life has two types of hard, the hard that will build you and the hard that will crush you. The Torah screams "Bacharta Bachaim, choose the hard that will build you." For some reason we bought into this lie that a Torah lifestyle you're missing out. You're missing out on what? YOU ARE MISSING OUT ON WHAT? ON CHASING validation from people who are about as shallow as a kiddie pool? What are you missing out on? You're missing out on a life that's exciting for 5 minutes that's empty for 50 years? You're missing out on nothing. Today is a celebration. Shavuot is a celebration of living the best lives on Earth. Proud, unapologetic lives. I'm going to skip a story. I'm going to skip a quote because she's giving me the look. How about a quote? A quote? Huh? Yeah? I'm intimidated. I >> [laughter] >> I want to read you a a I'm I'm I have you know I'm going to wrap up, don't worry. The following is a depiction that I read that will blow your mind. A depiction that I read of a non-Jewish worker who worked outside of the Warsaw Ghetto walls. This man worked outside of the Warsaw Ghetto walls and he wrote the following. I found a crack in the Warsaw Ghetto wall the other day and I stole a glance. I'd expect to see humans in their lowest state, riddled with hate, violence, and abuse. I was expecting to look at the poles outside the ghetto wall and I'd see light. While inside, I'd see darkness. What I saw shook me to the core. I stole a glance, and I saw light. I saw love. I saw virtually zero domestic abuse. I saw virtually zero domestic violence. I saw children loving their parents. I saw families holding on for dear life. I saw homes filled with wholeness and purity. I saw the sanctity of their Sabbath and the joy of their Sukkot. I saw the purity of their Yom Kippur and the sheer happiness of their Purim. I saw people maintain their respect for human life in one of the most horrid places on the face of the earth. I walked away from the crack in the ghetto wall back to the supposed brighter side of humanity. Back to the streets of Warsaw, now rid of all its Jews. Back to the homes with not even half as much light as the Jews behind those walls. Back to the domestic violence and abuse. Back to the city where utopian bliss was been promised to us by the Third Reich. I am not sure what true happiness looks like, but the Jews from even behind the ghetto wall seem to be a whole lot closer to it than we are. I am not sure what true happiness looks like, but the Jews from even behind the Warsaw ghetto wall seem to be a whole lot closer to it than we are. We don't keep on keeping on because it would be socially awkward for us not to. We don't keep on keeping on as the Jewish people, the longest living religion on earth, because of mesirus nefesh. And I'm not trying to downplay mesirus nefesh. We are here because we have been blessed with the greatest lifestyle on earth, and second place is in another galaxy. I want I leave you with a story. I have a friend who works in outreach in Eretz Yisrael, and he told me the following story. There's a Chilony boy who learns with a younger man in Eretz Yisrael. And one day they're learning, this sweet eighth grade boy comes in sad. He's depressed, something's wrong. So his chavrusa, this younger man, this Kyle younger man, he turns to him and says, "What's wrong?" He says, "I don't know what's going to be with the next year. I don't keep Shabbos at my house. My mother's not going to agree to send me to Yeshiva. I don't know what's going to be." So this younger man, he says, "Okay, well let me just call your mother." He's like, "No, no, no, no. My mother is a CEO of a large company in Tel Aviv, feminist, liberal, I own a company, do not talk to me type of woman. You cannot just call her up." "Well, I'm going to call her up anyway." So he calls her up. And just as this boy suspected, the minute she hears the word Yeshiva, the the the phone is slammed down so hard it needed therapy afterwards. So he comes back, he says, "Yeah, you were right, that was not a good idea. You know, I have a better idea. I'm going to go to her in person." "In person? You have no idea what you're talking about. She works in her company on the top floor of a skyscraper in Tel Aviv. She will throw you out the window." He's like, "No problem, I'll go." He calls up the company. He speaks to the secretary, says, "Hello, I'd like to make You're an investment firm?" "Yes." "I'd like to make an investment." "Okay, I'd like to speak with the CEO tomorrow." Um "She has no availability." "Well, I have a really big investment." "Well, she doesn't do investments lower than $100 million. I have an investment 10 times that amount." So all of a sudden he could like see the dollar signs in the secretary's eyes coming through the phones as she's dreaming about how she's going to remodel her kitchen after the reads she gets from this investment. Suddenly, we have 2:00 appointment tomorrow. Oh, [screaming] okay. Suddenly. He shows up at 1:55. He's in the lobby of this billion dollar investment firm. They're in this giant magnificent glass lined lobby overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. The secretary at 2:00 comes into the lobby looking for the 2:00 investor. She sees a Korean man over there, CEO of a big car company. She sees a banker from London in the corner over there. She sees there's a CEO of a venture capital firm from San Francisco sitting there. And then here is our young man with his payess flying all over the place. He's got his sombrero hat on and he is sitting there next to a woman who's the owner of a fashion company from Paris. She's got a $15,000 Prada handbag. This guy has an OshKosh shopping bag with bomba sticking out of it. This There's bags of milk poking into her handbag. He's sitting next to a banker from Frankfurt. The guy's hand The guy's cufflinks are worth more than this guy's life savings. His suit is worth $10,000. This guy's suit looks suspiciously like his bar mitzvah jacket and he's 37. Okay? She says, "Who's the 2:00 investment?" Up jumps our young man. Um it "Are you the 2:00 investment?" "That is correct, ma'am. That is me. Yes, ma'am. Yes. Yes." "All right." So, she comes He's She brings him in and she sits He sits right across this CEO woman. And the CEO says, "Are you the investor?" "That is correct, ma'am." >> [clears throat] >> "We're talk You said 10 times a $100 million investment?" "That is correct." "What are you talking about?" "I've come here to discuss the greatest investment you'll ever make. It's the greatest investment, the greatest business deal, the investment that will give you the greatest dividends." She's like, "What are you talking about?" He leans in. He says, "Yiddish guide." "Your son." Yeshiva, mitzvahs, [clears throat] Torah. That's the greatest investment." So, she takes a sigh. She's like, "You know what? I got to tell you something. I see a lot of whack jobs, but you're special. Because I see that you mean business. I see the genuine element. I know that you're learning with my son. You think I'm an idiot? I built a billion-dollar company. You don't think I know who's learning with my kid? It hates me to pains me to say this, but I'm in. You could send your kid I see how he comes back. I see how he's the most refined out of all his kids all his friends. I see how his heart melts of gold when he wants to learn with you. I'm in. This boy, fast forward, is a mitzvah in the Yeshiva. This once liberal stomp on all things Torah and mitzvah woman is leading a completely Jewish Torah lifestyle. That is what we're celebrating on Shavuot. I leave you with a quote, 10 seconds, 10 seconds. A quote. It's a quote that resonates with me. If people aren't laughing at your dreams in life, that means your dreams aren't big enough. I'll say it again. If people aren't laughing at your dreams in life, it means you aren't dreaming big enough. No one in all of world history has been laughed at more than the Jewish people. No one in all of world history has been the the recipient of more jabs, more sneers, more snickers than the Jewish people. No one in all of world history has been crushed, has been stomped on, and kicked, and spat on more than the Jewish people. You want to know why? Cuz no one dreams bigger than us. Shavuot is the day we celebrate our dream, our way of life, the the receiving of the nuclear codes to living the greatest life on Earth, a life that no one will convince us to step away from. I thank you all for listening. >> [music]