Proj Inspire 2026 R' Shlomo Farhi - It's About Me!

Ladies and gentlemen, over the over the many years of the Project Inspire Convention, we've had we've had the great honor of having amazing and world famous speakers from far and near. These days, once upon a time, he was in England and these days he's from near. From the Edmond J. Saffra Synagogue, the rabbi of the Edmond J. Saffra synagogue. a dear friend not only of mine and of project inspires. Ladies and gentlemen, it is my great honor to welcome Rabbi Schlommo Fari. Wow. First of all, Haku Baruk is how we would say it in my to the entire basketball team for your wins on and off the court. That is incredible. As I'm sitting here tonight, um, my main speech is really supposed to be tomorrow, but as I'm sitting here tonight, I can't help but be a little bit overwhelmed by the unbelievable feeling that the Gim describes as arim all of Israel is responsible one for the other. But it's very interesting because there seems to be a little bit of a discrepancy in how it says the mahammar and how it should say the mahamar. It should say one would ostensibly assume z. But why are there two different of responsibility one for the other and one which says zaz? The Maharal gives us an unbelievable answer and that's really where I want to start my words to you tonight. The Maharal explains that the wordim here doesn't only mean that we are responsible but rather the word comes from the word that we are intermingled. We are interwoven. We are connected one to the other. Every time you find in lashon kesh a word which has more than one meaning, we aren't trying to tell you it means this or it means this. We're trying to tell you it means all of these. Our responsibility one for the other comes from the fact that we are indivisible one from the other. Our lot is cast in one with the other. And therefore it is not z it is z. We are literally mixed together. I am a perfect example. My father is Syrian. My mother is a yak shided from Germany zaz. But my friends let me help hopefully drive this message home. In this week's para, we read again and again about creating the v various khim of the mikdash and the raan and theim and others all ask the same question. Why is it that we mention you should do you should do you should do but then one time we say the words only when it comes to the of all of the the holy ark that sits in the shakim that carries within it the does it say the words and you should make in plural and not and you should make in the singular. Let me read to you the words of the holy or is giving us a hint. The essence of Torah cannot exist only when all of Israel is operating together. So therefore there is no possibility of I don't care if you're ash if you're an ili if you're someone who does mitzvot to perfection you could never build the aon by yourself. It is only something that can be done together all as one. One nation, indivisible, undivided, under God. My friends, our Yiddishkite, ours, is not whole without each and every one of theirs. I think most people think that this is about giving another Jew a chance, helping someone else with their Judaism. But actually, what we're learning from the is my Judaism is their Judaism. My fromkite is their from kite and to leave them alone and to let them wander without it is something that we simply cannot do. Project inspire is not asking you to do something that did not already ask you to do in his Torah. So my friends, we are just being reminded of a debt that we already have to ackadu. Recently I took a trip to Poland with uh one of the groups and we walked through the cemeteries in Warsaw in places like Lodge and I mentioned to them something. I've been to Poland more than 70 times. I lived in London and from there it was a very short flight. Almost all of the times that I went were from there. I only went from America once. But my friends, I pointed out, look at the names on the graves and people started coming back to me and I have a list that I keep and I'm going to read you some of the names that I saw in Warsaw and Lodge. Gavika anyone he is name is glea no hapenfeller anyone carbos fleet boy hauaro zaki kovarti a single one of those names is anyone here named that name or does anyone here even know someone who has one of those names so I went to our tour guide spermer and I said I think I know a lot of Jews How come I've never heard any of these names? And he stopped short and he looked at me and he said something to me that took my breath away. He said, "You haven't heard those names cuz those families don't exist anymore. Every last member of those families was wiped out in the Quran in Europe." My friends, when I come back from Poland, I think of that all the time. You see why we lost so many people to bullets and gas chambers. Why we lost so many people to stabbing and starving and sickness and ghettos. We are losing far more Jews, not even to people walking away from Judaism. They don't even know that they have it. They don't even know what it is. They're not leaving. They're just living. Living a life of Knicks games, basketball, football, living a life of college and school, not even knowing that there's anything missing from their life until you and me step in because we have an opportunity to save entire families. And I have met many of these people who will tell me I'm the ONLY ONE IN MY family who keeps anything. If that boy or that girl does not come on a Shabbaton, listen to a Torah class, was not given a pair of Khan candles, had no one asked them to put a pair of tilene on, that is one more name to add to my sadly growing list. So my friends, I ask you, what do we want to do about that after being inspired over an entire week? The Torah gives us the answer to this. The greatest leader the Jewish people ever had, his name was Moshe. Not Zevi, but Moshe. You're close, by the way. And Moshe's WHOLE JOURNEY, WHERE DOES IT START? It starts with one Jew. It starts with him seeing one Jew and thinking to himself, I don't know if I COULD SAVE ALL OF THEM, but I could save this one. So, how could I not save this one? Moshe's efforts actually almost cost him his life. He is saved by a miracle. My friends, I believe that inside every single one of us and Raman echoes my sentiments lives a Moshe Rabenu capable of caring about one Jew. But I will end my words with a story in triplicate. Please don't kill me Yasi. My friends, there's another layer to the meaning of theuli. Make for me an Aon. On top of the Aon sits the two kiruim who have the face of children. And my friends, we always think that when we are helping somebody else, we are bringing Judaism to them. But I have a question for you tonight. Raise your hand if you are having no troubles whatsoever in of your children. Raise your hands if you have no issues. Anyone? I don't see. I mean, there's lights, but I don't see one hand. One hand in the back. Oh, he don't have kids. Yeah. I don't know. By the way, I can't see anything. I'm like blinded right here. Unless you were just randomly saying hi at that perfectly timed moment. Hi, [laughter] my friends. You know why Kinuk is so hard? Rev. Burkowitz just told me, I saw him last week, that in our world, one year is the equivalent of an entire generation. Think about what our world looked like just one year ago. where AI was like the various changes that happened in society. What's going on right now in the city that I'm a rabbi in New York City with Mandani changing the rules of the game day by day. My friends, I need to ask you this question. Does anybody in this room not want a magic pill to take care of their children? The puk says you will rejoice in front of your god. says the Levite, the convert, the orphan, and the widow. Four, God says those four belong to me because they don't have anybody. And Hashem says, I am the father of I am the Dian Alman. Those are mine. your son, your daughter, your workers, those are yours. Hashem says, "I promise you, you take care of mine, I'll take care of yours." We don't know what AI is going to do. But I can tell you one thing, one person who knows exactly how to deal with AI, and that is Hakadosh Baraku, whose name is Adon- AI. He is the master of everything, including AI. He is the master of whether or not there will be war with Iran, whether the DSA stands for Democratic Socialist of America or dementia society in America. My friends, can we not let him drive? Will we not let him drive? And the only way we can do that is by taking care of his. My friends, when I was growing up, my father would all the time do this to me. I don't know if any of you have had this. I'd be walking along and my father would take my face and he would go like this. Schlommo, look over there. And invariably, there was nothing interesting. He was always shoving my face into a bush, into a tree, not literally, but and I didn't know what he was doing. And I said, "Aba, what are you doing?" And my father would say to me, I I will not forget this as long as I live. My father said to me, Schlommo, someone from our is driving their car on Shabbat. And if they see that the rabbi or his family saw them, then they'll be embarrassed. And if they'll be embarrassed, maybe they'll hesitate to come to shul for the shame. So look over there. This is the childhood that I had. My friends, I always wondered where my father got that. And at the yard site for my grandfather, my uncle told the following story. He was walking through the streets in Halab Aleppo in Syria. And all of a sudden, there was a little alleyway and his father, my grandfather, who I'm named after, Schlommoari, shoved my uncle into the alleyway. And my uncle said, "What'd you do that for?" And he said because there's someone from the shul he had a grocery store who owes me money and every time he sees me he promises me he will pay me back next week next week. Next week I know he doesn't have the money. So why should I let him see my face and why should he be embarrassed to see mine? Suddenly I understood that that had come not from my father but from his father. And only last year as I'm walking down the street of Madison Avenue where my synagogue is right off the corner of 63rd and Madison, my son Yitzkak turns to me and says, "Aba, look over here." And I looked and I said, "What do you mean?" And he said, "Someone from our just got into a taxi cab." And I knew that you wouldn't want him to see that you had seen him get into a taxi cab. I am Schlommo. He was Schlommo. My son is yet. My father is yet. My friends, you want those values in your kids. Take care not to embarrass another Jew. Take care to raise up another Jew. And the dividends will not only play off in your obligations to the Torah, but and you will make your children the angels will be growing up in the because of what you've done for Hashem's for. Thank you so much.