Project Inspire 2026 - Rabbi Chanan Gordon - The “Overwhelmed” Epidemic and the Shabbos Cure

Okay. So ladies and gent welcome to project inspired 20 26. So I want to just give you a little background as to why they asked me to talk about this particular topic. So we all have to have a context. I think most of you have got a sense of my background. For the last three and a half four years I've been the strategic adviser for a person whose name is Jimmy Donaldson. So young people name is Mr. Beast. So, I've been your sort of adviser for several years. For those of you who don't know who this is, this is by far the biggest YouTuber and and content creator on planet earth. So, our average tweet or sorry, our average on main channel, our average post gets between 105 and 106 million. That's our average, right? So, it's 105 to 106 million images, meaning people mean it's got a huge following. >> Mr. beast cuz you're not Gen Z. But I will tell you, you haven't heard of him and that's part of what I'm going to talk about. Hopefully this he'll never see this particular. But what that meant is there's nothing that happens by coincidence. So I'm scratching my contact lens and I'm in Greenville, North Carolina with the biggest guy on planet Earth and I'm thinking to myself, why did a bunch put, you know, South African Jewish rabbi in the middle of, you know, the sticks? They actually sent me by Uber from from uh an hour and a half away from Greenville the only kosher food. The whole thing's like a pudding spiel. So what happened was while Jimmy again the most famous content creator and YouTuber on planet earth is focused on doing his stickick which burying himself alive throwing Ferraris out of helicopters. I realized that there's there's got to be a reason why Kajalish Bahu put me here. And it dawned on me that our major target audience is Gen Z. That's the target audience of Mr. Beast. So it gave me a front row seat to the most anxious and the most depressed generation ever. So let me give you a sense of why Gen Z is an is a generation in crisis. And I want to explain why after speaking to a lot of big people. Why are we at this tufa in history which is the biggest global pandemic in the history of the world? I want to tell you some statistics ladies and gentlemen for the cameras for the 2,800 people here if you can hear me. Okay. The second big the second the c the second cause of death in Gen Z is what? Suicide. This is a generation that's in absolute crisis. There is never in the history of the world has there been the amount of increase in bulimia anorexia which we'll talk about. Why is it that teenage girls have it? They are the biggest victims because they're objectifying women. And I'll explain to you what the algorithm is doing. And the amount of kids that are living lives of quiet desperation is off the charts. So I said there's no question that the Bron put me there. As a speaker and as a person who runs around with all these conferences, there's a reason why I'm here. We did a number of focus groups. Okay, hold on to your yummy maker for this. So I did focus group number one. This is going to literally hold on to your shadel for this. Number one, in a whole group of a control and a f, we asked these kids, what would you rather what would you rather be? Rich or famous? And you can't make this up. I can give you the rich or famous. This is a room full of hundreds and hundreds of Gen Z in enough to be statistically significant. What do you think they said? Kimat, every single kid sitting in that room said, "I want to be famous. Let me ask you the second question they said. And we asked them, would you rather be famous or happy? What do you think they said? Everyone said famous. I want you to know where Jenz is holding cuz you live under a rock. But the average person, right, these kids are on social media for an average of 3 hours and 12 minutes a day. This is their world. They're living in virtual reality. So we try to figure out what's their number one pain point. What's the number one pain point of the next generation? And why is it so important? And why was every single cure of organization after me? Because we are on campuses, we're in high schools, we're speaking to these kids. What's bothering them? Cutting through all the methodology. At the end of the day, the number one pain point of Gen Z in one word is nihilism. No meaning. there's no purpose in their life. Okay? Every single person came here to project inspire 2026 understands that there is a rabi shalom. Every single person who walked in here understand this is an instructions for living. And every single person who walked in here understands that there's going to be a a day of calling and a day of accountability when you're down six feet under and you're eaten by worms. That's not the end. That's just the beginning. These kids don't know this. I'll tell you as a sub as a just as a a subtext of what I want to discuss with you guys today is there's been a conscious movement a very conscious movement to take God out of the equation. So I guess we I don't mind if we record this. So I sat next to Barack Obama for Harvard Law School. We weren't that close. We were slightly different. I want you to know that him and he and his whole had deliberate deliberate cheetah of take of of of lord becoming a four-letter word because if god's out of the equation then you have to rely on this big government. It was a conscious deliberate thing. So think about it you got millions and millions of kids that have no sense of rhyme or reason why are we in this world. We I work for one of the top business management companies in America. We represent some of the most famous people in the in the pop culture world. If you can Google my name, you'll see you'll see their names. And I can tell you these famous people are dysfunctional and unhappy. And these kids are putting these so-called pop culture icons on a pedestal. They have nothing to believe and understand why we're in this world. And what's happened, and I'll explain to you how it's happened, is as social media has become more viral, as the I'll explain to you how the algorithm works. As the algorithm has become more robust, there's been a precipitous increase in anxiety and depression. If you look at the charts and we've tracked this, it started in the year 2012. The year 2010 was the beginning of the smartphone. 2012 the smartphone was now loaded with social media. These kids are watching and believing and I'm going to explain to you what's happening to the brain. What's happening psychologically and the most important we're going to answer the question that has been posed by the hanhala our project is quiet is the soul's antidote to the digital age. And by the end the time we leave here after the standing evasion you will understand why most people in the world are walking around like zombies and why lava at the end of days where we living now we write art we right at the end of days why would a kesh bar throw something that's sticky that's why it's called the web into the world and why would millions and millions of people get derailed and what are we the people at Project Inspire supposed to do about it? So we said the following just to set the tone. I'm coming from a place where years and years of working with the biggest content creator on the planet and watching and seeing which gave me access to a huge sort of built-in focus group of Gen Z. I realized that a college rocket didn't put me there to become, you know, another one of Mr. Beast's groupies. There was a much bigger picture. And so I spent two years together with people at Harvard Business School researching this. We just launched something called Lighthouse Enterainment which is based on our research and I'm backed by a very famous billionaire who interestingly I didn't even know it at the time. He lost a child. He lost a child through addiction. And I'm going to explain today why social media is an absolute physiological addiction. It's a real addiction. Okay. So, that sets the tone. Let's start off by saying the following. This whole thing about the advent of social, did it just happen or was it or are these big tech companies deliberately trying to do something? Is Google and Meta trying to do something or are they just innocent beautiful engineers that just trying to entertain and have a neutral platform? So I'm here to tell you and again this is all Mina Shamim. I spent I covered in Silicon Valley when I was at Morgan Stanley. I know a lot of the at the highest level in a lot of these companies and I know a number of people over the years who've literally resigned from Google from and and and these people are I'm close to and they said they can't do this anymore. They know what they're building is causing kids to be addicted and they cannot live with themselves knowing that they got blood on their hands. It's a completely deliberate thing. The way the algorithm works is every 7.2 seconds there is a trigger. There is a trigger on the on the algen which is going to give you a dopamine hit. A dopamine hit is a rush of something that's really addictive. Okay, those of you who run will understand run is high. Okay. The feeling of or a moment in your life that where under the hook or whatever you're just in the zone that's the feeling that is being over 7 and 1 half second in increments is happening on social media. What do you expect these kids if you ever try to take a smartphone away from a kid that's they will shake. It's a real addiction. It's it's something very real. So here's what they've done. The way a keshbuer created the brain is the back of the brain the amygdala is fight or flight. It's pure emotion. The social media knows that they that they focusing purely on emotion. Okay. What what happens with the way a hashim created the brain later on in the the process of the the brain developing the prefrontal cortex develops. The prefrontal cortex is where you get rational thinking where you get logic. So you you're targeting they know they're doing this. They're targeting pure emotion and they've and these kids, they've neutralized the ability to stop and think. Everything that's going on there is playing on their emotions, right? You you don't fit in FOMO. And for women, excuse me, for girls, they're saying you got to look like this. You got to do this. Do you understand? during the formative years of a person's life and it's playing on the the heart and soul and emotions of these poor girls. The second someone says, "But one second, you don't look like Do you understand what it's doing to them?" This is a conscious deliberate thing to hypnotize and brainwash an entire generation. I will tell you they're using similar techniques that gobles may he rest in pieces used in the with the Nazis mushroom it's it's pure emotion I don't know if people understand the history of the Nazis but before 1938 before Christn the Nazis flooded Germany with pornography flooded again because you're a Russia doesn't mean you're stupid it's all placed on things that are tyvers and emotions when you stop and Think for example I'm counseling a number of young guys that are addicted to pornography when I speak to them do you think they feel say rabbi yes I feel they feel shame they feel they feel terrible about themselves they feel that it's an impulsive thing and I'm not here to judge anyone but it's not thought through if you think it through they would come to the conclusion how could I possibly have the most special relationship in the world with the only person I k is giving me the other if I'm exposing myself. So it's obviously not thought through. So you must understand there's a deliberate deliberate conscious thing to focus on the emotions. We know kazal has told us that every single time there's there's something that's put in the world always creates the antidote before you create the so-called maka. My case that I'm going to make now as a as a recovering lawyer is that the antidote for social media, the antidote for everything that these, you know, billionaires sitting in Silicon Valley are trying to do is shabas. 25 hours of a spiritual oasis where you detach and you are thinking and you're working with a different part of your brain completely reverses this knee-jerk reaction to follow the masses which are completely lost. So we understand now the magnitude of the problem. Understand that what's shaping our kids, it's not it's not what's going on at home. It's not what's going on at school. It's the algorithm. You know what parents used to say? Parents used to say, "Who who are my my my kids' friends? What are they saying today? Who's forming my child's mind? Who's forming my my kids' mind?" I tell you what I did on my TED talk. I used there's many techniques. I used one technique called the elucory truth effect. I'm on the stage in London. I mean, not thousands, hundreds of thousands of people and I told everyone to say the word silk, s i l k seven times. Let's do it right now. Silk, silk, silk, silk, silk. And I asked thousand people, what do cows drink? Said everyone screamed out milk, but cows drink water. So why is it that they prepare? Because if you hear something three or four times from a credible source, the elucory truth effect is your brain switches off becomes a it's your your your thinking part of the brain is on mute and you basically become reactive. That's what social media is doing. It's reactive. It's impulsive and it's all based on emotion. I want to explain to you and I people who know me know that I didn't grow up in Panra. I'm very much exposed to the the epicenter of the secular world. But I want to explain to you what what's social media doing to the nephesh. Okay, forget the usual. I want to I want you to understand what is going on here. Okay, number one consciously done. It turns your identity into a performance. So all these kids, it's all a performance. It's curated Instagram sites. whatever they can do to get what? To get followers, to get likes and it's consciously done this. Why? Because their whole sense of self there is no there is no intrinsic value in the secular world. They're not told they have a akadesh. They're not told they have an eternal soul. They're not told that loves you more than you'll ever fathom and that you whatever you have to do in this world mosher couldn't do. They don't. They're not conscientized like that. So how do they get their sense of good or it's all through external validation? It's extremely dangerous when your sense of self, your sense of approval comes from strangers that couldn't care if you if you're alive or dead. We believe in a a tame. We have an intrinsic sense of value that that having no intrinsic value has caused insane anxiety because their whole sense of how they measure themselves is but what the public strangers are going to say. So the first thing is it changes identity into performance. The next thing it does it weaponizes comparisons. The way that what the Torah says is when you laning when we laning the Torah, right? and and someone stops often they stop him because they think it's a pussle safetra when what's one example of a pussle safetra if two oes if two if two of the of the letters are touching you cannot lane from that safetra you take a blade and you why because each ice is symbolic of a nama a every single person has their unique nama and and if they touching you saying you're trying to bleed into the other guy don't try and be like isharibo don't try and you are here with exactly the the your parents according to the Gmorian rash were handpicked your mats is handpicked mazal means makum zman and lice the time you were born it's all choreographed don't try and be like the schmenrich next to you the whole the idea of comparison is pumped into social media and it's driving kids nuts the next the whole thing of we start we touched on the fact that they have no purpose. It's all nihilism. Okay, it's I we represent these people. We represent these pop idols that people are putting on pedestals. Trust me, all of them would love to be at a project inspire afternoon lecture with a normal healthy family without 17 kids in rehab, a wife number seven. You don't want to be them. We know why we here. It's very axiomatic. Kazal talk about it all the time. You cannot live without a purpose. It's an existential crisis waiting to happen at some point. And I'll tell you, we represent the top guys from the NBA. The the top guy the most what happens to these I'll give you an example of a very famous basketball player and he said this at least he was honest. He said to me, "Rabbi, for the last six years I've been a Laker. I just hung up my jersey. What am I now? A complete identity crisis. I knew who I was when I had a year and the crowds were going nuts. What am I? You are a yid. You've been given the biggest gift that the almighty gives anyone. You've g me the spiritual DNA of a Jewish nama. What are you kidding me? Nothing matters to these kids. They want to be popular. They want to be liked. They and there's no sense of principle. There's nothing immutable that causes tremendous depression and anxiety because alone at night before you go to Schloff, they know that they are leading lives of quite desperation. What does it do to parents? I cannot tell you how many parents I speak to on a daily basis. They feel powerless. Completely powerless. How do you compete against? Do you understand the godless of those pixels? Do you understand? and you've got 15 or 20 Stamford trained engineers sitting in Silicon Valley making sure how do we hypnotize? How do we cause these kids to be completely and utterly out of their minds? How do you compete with that? The answer is you don't compete. You have to transcend that. Transcends mean we're not here for that. As soon as a kid understands what the rhyme and the reason and meaning is, I'll give you I'll give you something which has shocked me. There's three major milestones in the Baltiver movement. The first major milestone was 1967, the six- day war that started the Boliv movement. Then 1973, the Yonke war with the IDF were told, get thousands and thousands of body bags ready. We thought we it was going to be an annihilation. And then when these behemoths attacked us at 107 was the third, let me tell you the difference. The third milestone in the Bmoon was completely different. It was the biggest identity crisis in the history of secular Judaism. I went back to Harvard a few times and people came up to me and asked me, I don't understand. This guy was my roommate. This guy was my classmate and now he's doing hakafas with screaming death to the what happened to this guy? They scream death to the Jews. I I don't even know what it means to be Jewish. The there's you cannot get a seat in the base marish at Schlommo. The you must see what's going on in Israel. You must see what's going on in Israel. It's crazy. I had this course of of working with some of the top Israeli people in the Kira world. You can't do this in America, but it works in Israel. They stood up and they said, "We're here for a seminar for the next 3 days. If I can show you beyond a reasonable doubt that this book could not possibly be written by a person. It's obviously a divine. Will that change your life?" And the people that said no said, "Get out. What's this? A stand-up comedy? It's it's tough as this." But these rays are amazing, by the way. It's it's amaz on on on woman, married woman on a Friday, and by Tuesday they ring a shetle. It's insane. That's it's just a different world. But it's the understanding of there's a rhyme, there's a reason, and there's such a sense of comfort because we're not hamsters on a treadmill. That is literally you living like that is going to live on a on on living on trends trying to pate people. It's completely connected the way I see why us. Let's talk about Shabas and let's talk about why Shabas is the antidote. Why Shabas and I've seen it at my house I don't know how many times. Firstly, it restores manuka. There's a terrible thing that they've been told in this generation. You got to hustle. Come on. You got to hustle. What are you talking about? You got to hustle. There's no great idea that's come excuse me from people trying to outpace. You know where the greatest ideas came from with let's talk about the secular world where Steve Jo in the shower when he's got manu. That's the way kadesh created the creative juice. We work with the biggest creators on the planet. The way they come up with ideas, it's not hustling. It's not they they're alone. They're by themselves. They go for a walk. That's the way the brain works. That manuka is something which is incredible. And I want to prove this to you. Feel tell me how you feel tonight. A couple of shabas. Tell me just your heart rate, your sense of and tell me how you feel. A half an hour before people are freaking out. Oh my gosh. I'm going to open and the mortgage and we see y and I have to speak my cousin. I I know as a volunteer recovering guy, I've taken I did it just to prove this as a speaker. I've taken blood pressure people. the systolic and dystolic on the night of tonight Friday night galdic co it's going to be and just before halala people are freaking out I've got to get out of the spiritual shell and face the world it's so one thing that shabas does in terms of the antidote to social media restores number two shabus restores your identity there's no comparisons it's not about performance we love you because you you we love you because you showed up and you've been handpicked. 8.8 billion people on this planet. 0.02% are Jews. You were handpicked to hold a torch. Watch the Winter Olympics. They could gold, silver, it's garnishment, garnished. You are the people that are running this world. Every single thing, an earthquake, it's all up to you. Do you understand? God's not playing games when the chosen people are the people that are the yard stick and barometer of morality. And if people really understand, if people understand who are you know you know who understood who we were, who we are Adolf Hitler, we had to read mankind. Mank says in a in in a nutshell, it's the message these people are saying ethics, morals. I want to follow our ters. You know what we're going to do? We're going to get rid of the messenger. That's what mine comes. That little mustache piece of manuvel. At least he understood what our tough kid is in this world. We're different. We're different. I can't tell you how many times over the years I've been asked to break up a engagement between I remember the late I went once with rebungas was a beautiful thing to see. People tell me, you know, Rabbi, you get involved in all these things. And I hear parents saying, but the Holocaust, people don't hear this. There's one thing that Tim, every case that I've been involved in, it always seems to work. I've always said to these people, I can understand. Listen, she looks she's a lovely girl, but I'm just telling you as a rabbi one thing. I only wish happiness for people. But I can guarantee you, 100% guarantee you, and you got to be careful saying the word guarantee when you're working with in the soul business, but I guarantee you this is not your soulmate. And they get very nervous. It's impossible. It's impossible for you to say that is going to get you connected with someone who's out of his chosen. It's impossible. Next, Shabas restores relationships. Do you understand what's happened to this generation? Do you understand this idea of Facebook friends? Have you Have you ever seen a mat a tombstone? Here's Joe. He had 2.3 million friends on Facebook, 7.4 followers. When you stop and think for a second, a real friend is so sanken that according to you have to pay money. Why? Because a true friend is a person that knows you warts and all and loves you all the same. A true friend is a person that comes up to you says, "Rabbi Gordon, before you speak, you got a booger sticking out." That's a true friend. He's going to tell me what I don't want to hear, but what I need to hear. What you think a Facebook friend is going to tell you things that got to be growth oriented. It's all khanifa and isa disser. It's flattery. It's not a friend. So when you sit down and let me tell you something in Sha Bay's classes I do this all the time. The difference between a husband and wife that have a conversation looking each other in the eyes versus not is a different world. This is the window to a shamar say. It's very difficult to look at person that you made a commitment to in the eyes and say I hate you. I I despise this person. It's very easy to walk away or be in a car on a cell phone. That's the way our kishb created. You can see a reflection of the persons in the shama. That's a real relationship. It's not a a virtual friend. What else shabas does is it restores thinking there are people in this generation that will they would rather die than think. I did a seminar recently and I and I asked these kids who the top top kids from Ivy League schools and I said here's what we're going to do. I'm going to ask you for one one one thing at the end of our seminar. where wherever you live, get back in your car. Don't touch your phone. Don't touch your radio. I want you to drive home in silence. They told me after it's one of the hardest 10 15 minutes of their life because you have to face yourself. You have to think about, excuse me, what's going on. And the way social media works when you when you understand what dopamine and cortisol does is it keeps you on a treadmill. You don't have to think. That's one of the reasons why there's been such a spike of of even sleeping medication. Bomb yourself out and the next day pump yourself as long as you don't think. Keep going. And when you stop and ask them, we all know the very final destination. No one I can't help anyone. It's going to be the but I but but if instead of going the popular culture way which is you live and learn which is insane. We believe we don't believe you live and learn. We believe you learn and you go out and you'll have a much more successful life. You don't have to recalculate and go through 17 wives. You don't have to go bankrupt 15 time. If you understand that the instructions for living very clearly says this is how you overcome adversity. This is the best relationship you can have. This is how you can be successful in business. This is what you should do. And when one of your kids goes off the deck, it's all there. Unfortunately, the average American stops for for a male at the age of 13 and a woman at the age of 12. And they think it's fairy tales that zebras and kangaroos went up a and had them flood and shine. That's that's what they think. The most brilliant minds in the world has spent their life studying this. I went to Oxford University. I went to Harvard Law School. These are supposed to be I learned zero wisdom zero wisdom at the most sacraan schools in the world. It's it's not about life. It's not about thinking it's about getting this magnaum laada. So what has sh how can we make shabas a a a mental health sanctuary? So here's a few thoughts that we've done which are very important. If you got young kids, there's got to be an anticipation. There's got to be a sense of anticipating shabas. can't be this pressurized thing and you run in from the you know off the out of the mikvah squee you put some put put isha on there's got to be the sense of yama knows it's coming into a spiritual cosmological change it if you spend a few moments before it'll change the whole of chabas because it shifts from performance to presence the second one is all about performance we are here about just be you you intrinsically are worth something I always tell parents the best the best gift you can ever give your kids the best gift you can ever give your kids there's nothing better is shalice that is the biggest gift you'll ever give your but I also tell them don't try and make a perfect home doesn't make perfect people we we don't mahim make a peaceful home it'll change you you change you it'll change your kids so what would I say is The message firstly to people are in the Gen Z world. There are people that I know personally. I mentioned yesterday Mark Zuckenberg gave test me in Los Angeles. They fighting for the minds of your children. Yama is fighting to live fighting for you. Akaresh Baru has put deep inside embedded in the DNA of every single Jew the understanding of why we in this world. How many times have I taken tours to Israel with people that I've got don't know the difference between a Frisbee and a muza and they show up at the kilo and the guy's balling his eyes out. Where did this come from? How many times have I got people into a any one of the concerts that we go to and people are swaying and I'm and he's balling his eyes out. This guy's got 75,000 tattoos, 15 earrings. Where's that from? How many of the hostages have we gone around from the school to the school? people. I can tell you stories that I'm involved in. Mohawk, three earrings covered in tattoos. Shame Shabas now from the tunnels alone dark with these animals and kept Shabas in the most and just made a promise more than one of them. They made a promise to Hashem at the at the festival. If you let me get out of here, I promise you I'll keep Shabas. And there's a few of them that it's uncanny. It's a real deep understanding that's that's covered with a tim with layers and layers. That's why we keep kosher. By the way, when people say the reason why we eat kosher is because it's healthy, it's there's a spiritual tim. If you eat trae for a long time, you you desensitizing your soul. And I'll tell you a cure of 101 uh facts that people won't tell you, but there's such a thing as triage. That's why we we deal with younger people because when you're 57 years old and you've been eating shellfish, the chances of you being able to break through is much less. And we've got limited resources, limited. If you're going to if you're going to try and help a person ignite the pins, you're going to try the 17-y old, not the 57y old. I want to take question. I want to take thoughts because this is not a this is a discussion more than anything else. But I want you to tell you my friends, I for reasons that I hope I'm starting to realize clearer than ever. Hashem put me in the epicenter of Silicon Valley working with the biggest biggest content creator and YouTuber in the world. And I'm seeing and I'm watching them drug and neutralize an entire generation that they can't think and that they're living a life of comparison. And they are desperately anxious and they're desperately upset. How do we the way that that we kick that we push back the way that we fight back is can can Shabas save our children? If we protect Shabas, my friends, Shabas will protect us. If you have a proper Shabas, if you if your kids see, if people see, it's not about the Super Bowl. We represent a few people that are in this year's Super Bowl. If you speak to these people one-on-one, what they what they wish that they had is some sense of unity, wholesomeness in their family, and we want to be like them running around with makeup and and being a Bull Vun saying steroids. What happened here? Shabas is Hashem's way of of us fighting for our souls. The underlying theme of Project Inspire is that most of the people that that come to our convention every year understand that we've been bestowed with the biggest gift that any human being can ever get. And that's understanding of why we're here, a rhyme and a reason. That the Torah isn't an antiquated history book. It's not even in sequence. It's the instructions for being a great person and being in s succeeding in all areas of life. And Hashem didn't give us because he's sitting it on a cloud saying yes, yes. It doesn't make a difference to Hashem. Hashem does these things and pushes these things because he loves you in the most benevolent, selfish way. We're here because there is one thing that's even more important than speaking to Hashem. What's more important than speaking to Hashem? I'll give you a clue. When Abra was speaking to speaking to the creator of the world, he said, "Hashem, one second, put Hashem on hold because he had to be Mish in because these came into his tent." So, what does the Kazal say? What's more important than speaking to Hashem? Being like Hashem. We live in an entitled generation. We live in a narcissistic generation. It takes nothing. Show a tiny bit of mention kite, you'll shock people. It's just being on an airplane and saying, "Excuse me, can people are not used to the idea of benevolence thinking about another person." Every single person in this room, you might be just one person in the world, but I guarantee you every single person in this world in this room is the world to at least one person. Think about who that person might be. When the sun sets on Sunday, when we go our separate ways, hopefully we'll do a recalibration and think you don't necessarily want to be Taylor Swift. You don't necessarily want to be Tom Brady. I know these people. A life without meaning. A life without dedicating yourself to your your other part of your soul. A life without continuing the your the legacy through your progyny means nothing. The turning point was this and I'll take questions. I was in the middle of an incredible situation. I got a 911 call. There's a very wealthy family. I was told, "You're the only guy that can get through to them." I had no clue. When I walked into this house, when I walked into this palace, I thought I maybe they want to talk about philanthropy or I walked in and I within 5 seconds the woman started crying and I said, "You're the you know, you're the kind of relatable rabbi we can speak to." I'm waiting for the shoe to drop this huge house from the out said beautiful cars. So her voice cracked and she said, "This is all not real. We're living on credit cards. It's borrowed money. She's dying inside because she's maintaining an image. And people bought into this. She's getting tom Shabas at a mansion. So obviously as a rabbi, I need to do everything I can on a practical level. But then I had to give them the opportunity to say that maintaining this image, you're mortgaging your whole life. Hashem gave you exactly what you need to fulfill your tough kid. And as I was with this couple, someone who's a very well-known person tweeted, sorry, sent me a text. Out of the peripheral vision, I could just see what he sent me. It's incredible what he sent me and the timing. He sent me a tweet from Elon Musk. Elon Musk tweeted this last week. You saw it and I got millions of calls. Money doesn't buy happiness. This guy's net worth is more than the GDP of almost every country on the planet. Money doesn't buy happiness. I shared it with him and I said the story that I've told some of you Sam Walton who started a little company called W Walmart. Sam Walton's last words as you look at his disenfranchise his strange wife and kids that wouldn't even speak to me and he said I blew it. So you should know what kazal say before yan shama leaves this world petira means separation before there's a separation between the body and the soul there's lucid sense of exactly why are we in this world and just before he left this world he understood that life is not about collecting toys he missed it I'll tell you the one only good thing about harvard is that just they've done the biggest longevity study on happiness it's the longest study ever done on happiness I'll give you the conclusion and then I'm happy to questions. Basically, the conclusion is that the things that make you most happy are not things. They're people, they're relationships. That's doing things. When you overcome your bodily instincts where you have the jockey being the shama, being able to harness that big bull van of a horse, which is your body, that's when you feel good about yourself. Rao, I bench each and every one of you in this really in this milama that we're fighting in a world of nihilism, in a world where anxiety, depression, and the amount of teenage suicide is off the charts. Every single person in this room, by just being a mench, by understanding that these kids are walking around with a hypodermic needle in their pockets with a little screen. By helping people understand there's a rhyme and a reason, you have no idea the ripple effect. and the will give you sayer. Welcome to project inspire. I'll take any questions. Thank you for listening. Questions, thought? Yes, sir. >> Oh, sorry. >> Okay. Yeah, sure. >> Thank you so much for taking time to speak to us. >> I appreciate it. Thank you. >> And um >> can we get that on Sorry, Tom. Please just echo it. Kidding. >> You mentioned the meaningless life that social med seeking from people and I was wondering how you thought this phenomenon has most affected the Orthodox Jewish world. >> It's a very good question. You got the question. I don't know if you meant to ask this but it's but the question is if you heard me throughout this unbelievable lecture I kept talking about Gen Z. I spoke about this at the GA convention. It's specifically your question is that the Orthodox Jews are not impervious to the penicious impact of what's going on. I I'm very loathed. I'm not sure if I should say this on I don't know if I should a recording. Um let's just say one of the big one of the biggest rashivas in our country today of America. I've been very close to for many many years. So a few years ago I was asked to speak pes at gateways and they gave me and I've been doing this for a long time. They gave me the hardest topic I've ever been given in my life. The Orthodox Jews, we as Orthodox Jews have never had so much money. We've never had so much broa, right? Um, why so much unhappiness? Dot dot dot. I knew by the way in that room in gateways there were three billionaires that I know personally and I'm going to stand up behind a podium. So I had to be very very careful. So I went to the rashiva and I said what do I say to them? So this particular rashiva said I've got to be careful how I do this but I'm going to repeat this anonymously. He just said that if Aaron Cotler was alive today, he would leave Lakewood. I didn't say this. The person who said this is one of the biggest Tommy Deami in the world today. What did he mean by this? Of course, Lakewood is a spiritual bastion of America. Of course, if not for Lakewood, we wouldn't have killed him. What he meant is that the backbone of BMG and what what iron cart built after the war has unfortunately the last several years a lot of young people have made money very quickly through cash advance and all this and they pulling down houses to build these mon what do you think it's doing to people it's it's hurting people in terms of jealousy makana everyone's trying to outfit each other with the I was asked to speak in Tom's River I didn't even know that this is the person and and the the Vir of Tom's River's wife came up to me. I didn't know it was his wife. I spoke separately to the woman. She said to me, "Rabbi, I want to ask you a favor. Can you tell my husband?" And I had no clue who I was speaking to. "Can you tell my husband we don't need another penthouse in the Waldorf? We don't have to fight private. Can he just come home a few hours a week so we can have That's a tragedy. It's a tragedy. I promise you. I promise you. I promise you that our clients are richer than any Orthodox Jew and I know who the Vic Vim are. We're talking about people who got 70 80 billion. I went to Switzerland. It's an ex South African company just went public. The day I saw him his net worth was 57 billion. Now for you guys, the guy like you is a jug 5 but yeah I mean make it an hour. So I I've never been in you know introvert stuff really didn't work for me. So, I had to have this mo. Everyone's dead scared of this guy and I'm going to ask you a question after this. So, I took a piece of paper and I drew like a half circle and I gave him the pencil. His wife went to school with me in South Africa and she was freaking out. No one speaks to this guy like this. I said, "That's your tombstone. What do you want to say?" He went white. It's the reality of when you stop the clock for a second, people realize it's a joke. It's is affecting the Orthodox world. It's affecting the Orthodox world in in many many ways. For the last 25 years, I've spoken at PESO programs, all these pro. It's insane what's going on. It's insane. I'm speaking at a program this year. It's $28,000 a room. I mean, it's worth it to, you know, but whatever they get. It's insanity. That would never happen if there wasn't a thing such as spiritual materialism. You know the lead sing of the police Sting said it very clever. We are spirits in a material world very material world and it has affected it's affected everyone. You got to be you got to realize that it takes a lot of strength and courage to be an individual and to be a leader and not to follow where we're holding right now. You think 10 years ago in the you had to have a Rolex watch. Yeah. Are you what's going on here? And it's causing I I believe me I do this day and night. It's causing pain and it's causing huge people to live in debt because they have to keep up with the Goldbergs. That's us craning and getting whiplash looking at the other world. I'm telling you with his sense of humor put me straddling both worlds. the the level of unhappiness, whatever, in a world where you're aspiring for to things that are transient. They all eventually ascend up the ladder and they realize it's leaning against the wrong wall and it's too late cuz they're 71 years old. The I'm not saying you have to be like the guy in Bern and you know three crumbs in your heads. Be normal. But I can just tell you from the amount of credit card leverage and people who are doing crazy things so they can be seen at this program it has affected us and that's why the biggest people of this generation when I speak to them say this is the biggest challenge before the mashiach comes if you really want to know what what the what the what the you know people who are holding by the cabala and the mystical that real people before the mashia comes is the final test and the other side the sitra which is the other knows that the biggest weapon that biggest weapon they have is social media and the message that pop culture is disseminating through all of these platforms it's killing our kids in yeshiva it's killing I how many how many seminary girls have I spoken to over the years say rabbi I can't go because I don't have the right clothes I I it breaks my heart how many times have we had to raise money for someone to give something that's appropriate in the because of Biz and Busha. That's what's what's what's trickled into uh it always catches up when a Keshbaku does something in in in the world. It's a pedagogical lesson for us. People ask me about Bernie Maid off because he happens to be Jewish. I mean, he's a sick person and whatever, but he thought he wasn't going to be caught. But the Musl catches up. There's no one that gets away with this. If I tell you I walked into a house that was ivory this and the the parents are saying to me they can't put food on the table but they don't have the intestinal fortitude to say we can't afford this we downsizing we're going to because why the husband said this to me because what will people think I said plenty what people think of what other people think is none of your business and there's a sickness that people think that other people are think of them all the time I promise you other people are not thinking about you they their own they have their own petra. It's such a phenomenon. It's such an amazing thing when you in my the position that I'm in because I see guys come up to me and say, "Rabbi, just between you and I, I wish I was married to that woman with a blonde shel." So, I know that woman with a blonde sh is a maka shaer that he won't last 20. It always looks like that. The optics on the other side. So, I've always been the person in my whole career who tries to talk about the white elephant in the room and tell it straight. I mean, I don't want to ever harm people, but rabbis, but we should be speaking about these things and it's it's it's not it's not within the spirit of sorry of why we here. Anything else? >> Yes. >> Question. >> Sure. >> Mr. Strategic. Yeah. >> So, I'll tell you what happened. I started with him as as a person who does that. I said to him, there's a thing called key man insurance, right? I said, you're one person. If you get hit by a bus, you forget being a YouTube influencer. We got to make you into a brand. So, we started festivals and we made festivals kosher. I also said we got to be disruptive. We got to we got to shock the world. We got to make giving cool. And we started beast philanthropy. So, I my my is is to be But I will tell you something else. that there was an article I don't know if you saw in the forward newspaper that said Mr. beast rabbi whatever six months ago I realized that that's where I started our discussion today that Hashem put me there for other reasons. So a few months a four or five months ago I said to him as an Orthodox Jew we believe there's no coincidence that everything happens very obviously close enough to him so he knows that I care I wouldn't I'm not you know he he's he's the child of a terrible divorce horrible um so I sort of became his I don't know big brother father it's a big responsibility so I take it very serious I have a ficious responsibility so I said you know the Jimmy there's there's it's an obligation Sorry that nothing happens by coincidence. Think about it, Jimmy. With with all due respect, we know each other. You're not necessarily the best looking guy. You how is it that you've got the biggest following. If you go if you tweet out now, go buy Q-tips, CVS is sold out in two hours. I said, with that comes an obligation. I'll tell you a true story because the the the thing's off. I took a letter Harvard trip to Israel to go after the to see Farazza, etc. We land up with the president. I knew this was going to happen. So I'm uh with President Herzog, president of Israel. I turned around after doing whatever and he said, "Can Anthony speak to you?" I knew exactly what was coming. So I said, "Can I So I said, "Mr. President, can I preempt what I think the president wants or he wants to talk about?" So I said, "No, he's the president of Israel." I said, "Um, I believe that we can beat them, our enemy, our nemesis in the tunnels, but we're losing the PR war. We're losing in cyerspace." He said, "Bingo." I picked up the phone. I called from his what what's he called? The president's house in Israel. Whatever. There's people around me. My wife's there so she can vouch for this. I called Jimmy Barashem. He didn't pick up because I thought about it afterwards. I have a fiduciary responsibility to this guy. He's looking to me for direction. I should tell him to come to Israel. He'll lose. They'll they'll cancel him on the spot. So, I happened to I called the CEO. We obviously we understand the algorithm more than anyone else and he agreed confidentially to work with um the IDF uh the social media team. You'll see in the months ahead a lot of changes but I realized once Jimmy said to me I can't do that. I can't my my I'm an entertainer. These are the kids that I can't suddenly become this you go do you know all that fancy stuff. So I start that's why I launched this company called Lighthouse Entertainment and and I mean I'm friendly with him. I still give him advice but I've left officially as his adviser because I realized that my true calling is if I can as a observant Jew and people around me who are very famous make a dent in the mental health global pandemic. So firstly it's a huge keshm and you're standing on a stage with Justin Bieber and he's telling you it's a guy with a Frisbee on his head that it's I don't know those are the cars that I've been dealt. So I've left him again not no on very good terms because I realized that he'll never and I'm not saying he should he'll never be this person who talks about meaning and about he's a kid and he also so I realized when I when I hit a certain point there was no reason for me to be there anymore but by the way he's a good kid he's a genuinely good guy and his mother is a deeply religious person she she literally she says she's Christian she says Psalms the whole So he got it from somewhere. You know, I'll tell you one last thing. I was at a pace program a few years. I got a 911 call from him. He said, "What do I do?" I said, "Jimmy, what happened?" He said his biggest his biggest star on his show was going from the blue team to the pink team. Okay. He wanted to sit on the other side of the mitzer. Now he said, "What should I do?" He's got no clue how to handle this situation. But it was a very sweet thing cuz he he had no clue what to do. So I couldn't get into this whole woke thing with him. So I just said, "Think about it, Jimmy. We're a family show. We if you endorse this guy, just what's me?" And I said, "There's the message here. He's got nothing to do with transgender, whatever. What about honesty? What about you took this guy from the streets? He's a multi-millionaire today. He came up to you. He promised certain things. He promised his wife. He had a child with his woman. and suddenly he wants to be on the other side of mitzah. So we the way we did it was was we didn't get into woke smoke stuff. Um but I think that he he's got a very good opinion of orthodox Jews. He launched beast burger at the American uh thing. So Don was there. Don Mason was there and when this whole thing happened I flew with him to sit down myself, him and Ben Shapiro and we walked and we we spoke him through this whole thing. So he has the impression which is a big kishm that you know the guys with the schmut on their head care about him. I've never asked him for merch. I've never asked him for guys we should have a beastly Shabas. Thank you for being here and I'll be around the whole Shabas. Thank you very much. Thank you.