Project Inspire Convention 2026 Daniel Gibber - Ascending Through Life’s Inspirational Moments

So, it's a pleasure to be here at the Project Inspiration Conference where uh not only do we uh do we get the ability to inspire, but most of all, we come here and we get inspired. An incredible opportunity. So, just over two decades ago, 22 years ago, let me set the scene, we were in the Max Stern Athletic Center in Yeshua University. 2,000 screaming fans in a night that I will never forget. To use a basketball terminology, our our point guard stepped up to the free throw line with 2,000 screaming fans. He had practiced this shot thousands of times. What was riding on this shot was our team had not lost a game all year. You see, I was the basketball coach at the time at Yeshiva University High School, MTA, and I had been the JV coach, the junior varsity coach for a few years before that. And every single year, we were very good. We always made it at least to our league semi-finals. And every single year, the same thing happened. We'd come down to the last minute. We'd be one game before the championship. And each and every year, we fell a hair short. Years of successes and failures and crying and tears and laughs and ups and downs culminating in this night. March 18th, 2004, at Yoshi University. Our point guard steps to the free throw line. If he makes this shot, we would conclude an undefeated championship season. the first time in school history that had ever been done. If he was going to miss this shot, well, we would spend the rest of our lives thinking about how close we got to our ultimate goal. 2,000 screaming fans. Here I am, the coach. I can't do anything. I'm sitting at the edge of the seat, my seat, like every other fan in the gym. And upsteps the point guard. He squares his shoulder to the rim. He bends his knees. Everybody's holding their breath. He releases the shot. It arcs high into the air and the moment was frozen in time. We'll come back to that. Daniel Day Lewis once said, "I must have wanted to make my mark, but there was never a defining moment." I love that quote, but I think there's something missing there. You see, I believe very strongly that in life, Hashem Baru places potential defining moments all around us. The question is, is our antenna up? Is our ears listening? Do we take advantage of life's defining moments? Let me share a remarkable story. I have a friend named Adam Meerson. There's a true story. Adam Meerson grew up in the far end of Long Island, not in the five towns, not in anywhere near an Orthodox Shmer Toritzos community. And Adam Meerson knew nothing about his Yiddish kite, knew nothing about Judaism. Adam Meerson graduated from college, got a good job, and as he himself describes, one day he was sitting in a country club in a restaurant with a group of friends. He and his friends were making a good living. They were making good money. And he said the conversation turned to who was buying the latest sports car, who was buying the latest greatest this and that. He said he doesn't know what happened, but as his friends were talking about sports cars and money and jobs and careers, Adam Myerson said his eyes noticed a banana sitting on the table. And he doesn't know how this happened, but he just started analyzing this banana as his friends were talking about sports cars and money, etc. And as as Adam Meyerson described it to me, he said, "I looked at this banana and I started analyzing it here. It has this cover, this peel on the outside and it's green and it's talking to me. It's telling me that it's not yet ripe. It's not yet ready to be eaten." And on its own, without anybody telling it anything, a few days later, it turns yellow. And you peel back this cover. There's this delicious fruit on the inside. It's nutritious. It tastes good. It's good for you. And he starts analyzing this self-contained package, this banana. And Adam said as his friends were talking about great sports cars and money and all these different things, all of a sudden this banana, it dawned on him, that banana is brilliant, and there has to be a creator of that banana. At that moment he realized, "Holy cow, there's a God in the world and I am missing the purpose of everything." Adam Meerson from one moment of looking at a banana changed his entire life. Transformational moments are all around us. The question is, are we noticing them? Are we noticing them in a way to inspire ourselves? And are we noticing them in a way to inspire our family? Are we noticing them in the way to inspire other Jews who are not yet connected? Let me share a remarkable story and that's why I printed this out right here. About a month ago, I was in Israel and I was reading the Jerusalem Post. Jerus Jerusalem Post is not known for its sports section, but I'm a sports guy. So, I ended up going to the sports section of the Jerusalem Post. And as I'm looking through the article, I noticed something that caught my eye. I start looking at the article and I notice Olami Manhattan, a place that I have the privilege to teach at regularly to do Jewish outreach to cure is mentioned prominently in this incredible article. I would summarize the article, but it's so impactful. It's so meaningful. I'd like to just quickly read the article. It's it's life-changing. The headline of the article is for those who are hockey fans, Stanley Cup, the Stanley Cup bet that brought me back to Judaism. National Hockey League, NHL, Stanley Cup, the Stanley Cup bet that brought me back to Judaism. And here I am finding this in the sports section of the Jerusalem Post. This article is by Abi Dhan. As I mentioned, I see the words Olami Manhattan in here. That's where I teach at regularly. I see that he's from Boca Raton, Florida. So I quickly sent a note to the rabbis from Manhattan. They said, "Of course we know Avid Dhan. He's our student here." I reached out to my brother, Rabbi Yako Gibber from Boca Raton. Have you ever heard of Avi Dhan? He ate a Shabas on my house three weeks ago. And here I am finding his story in the Jerusalem Post. Listen to this amazing story. Writes Abi Dhan. This appeared in the uh Florida Sun Sentinel reprinted by the Jerusalem Post. I didn't expect a Stanley Cup run by the Florida Panthers to push me towards a bait medish base medish in Jerusalem. But Judaism, I've learned, doesn't always knock politely. Sometimes it shows up wearing hockey skates. I grew up in Boca Raton, the product of a relatively short-lived marriage between my Israeli father, who moved back to Israel after my parents divorced, and my American mother. I attended a religious school from preK through fourth grade, then switched to public school. After my mother remarried, our family joined a reformed community. Shabas dinners happened here and there, but without much consistency. I graduated from the University of Florida in 2020, right in the middle of COVID chaos, and soon landed in the finance world in New York City. While working in Manhattan, I'd occasionally stop by Olami events, initially just to meet people and decompress after work. But the more I showed up, the more the learning pulled me in. Those casual drop-ins quickly became a steady part of my week. In April 2024, while walking to a Shabbat dinner with a friend, someone who had grown up religious drifted and then came back, I was hit with a blunt question. quote, "Why don't you try keeping Shabbat?" My answer was just as blunt. "I loved sports, and if the Florida Panthers were playing on a Friday night, I wasn't missing it." "My friend didn't let it go. Make a deal with God," he said. "If the Panthers win the Stanley Cup, keep Shabbat for an entire off season. You won't miss any games, and who knows, you might actually like it." It sounded almost too reasonable, so I agreed. Three months later, the Panthers won the Stanley Cup. True to my word, I went cold turkey. No phone, no TV, no games, just Shabbat. To my surprise, I loved it. When I told my rabbis about the experience, they suggested I try a year in yeshiva. A year felt like a drastic move, so I countered with something I could commit to. Five weeks at a at a in your in Jerusalem. The choice wasn't random. I had visited a during an Olami Manhattan trip back in December 2020. And if I was ever going to try Yeshiva Life, that felt like the right place. Five weeks quickly turned into seven. I flew back to New York briefly in early 2025. Then when I returned to Jerusalem after Pesak, this time for real, where I've been learning ever since. While I was in Israel, the Panthers made the finals again. So, I flew back for the games. They completed the repeat, becoming back-to-back champions. It felt like a wink from above, a quiet kiss from Hashem that only deepened my drive to keep learning and growing. My time at AH has been nothing short of unbelievable. I've been especially involved with a sparty, led by Rabbi Abigail, and that community quickly stopped feeling like a program and started feeling like home. I built friendships with rabbis and peers alike that I expect to keep from light for life. I know that the foundation I'm laying now will shape the kind of Jewish life I want to build going forward. Isra didn't just give me classes. It gave me a reset. I arrived expecting to sharpen a few skills and walk out a bit more knowledgeable. Instead, I found myself pulled into a rhythm of learning, thinking, and living that I hadn't even realized I was craving all along. This gets emotional sometimes. There's something powerful about being surrounded by people who genuinely want to grow. Not because someone told them to, but because they've seen enough of life to know that coasting is a waste. I've been at a for almost a year, and it has already reshaped how I think about my priorities, my community, and the kind of Jew I want to be. I never planned on making a bet with God over hockey, but sometimes growth doesn't start with certainty. Sometimes it starts with a risk you're finally willing to take and a shabas you didn't expect to love. What an incredible story. Avi Dhan, hockey fan, sports fan, never expected to keep Shabas to become a shower mitzos over the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs and a bet he made with a friend. Inspirational moments are all around. His friend challenged him to make a bet. His rabbis challenged him to go to Ashatura. And over the Florida Panthers winning the Stanley Cup, Avi Dhan is today fully Shmer Chabas. Transformational moments are all around us. They're small, they're big. The question is, do we pick up on them? Our antennas up to inspire ourselves, to inspire our families, and to share these stories to inspire other Jews. Let me share a remarkable personal story, one that led to a true transformational moment. My wife and I often like to go in the summertimes to a uh health retreat in the Birksher Mountains. And this particular place has a lot of different classes and exercise classes and tennis classes and whatnot. It's a place to go bring a book, do some exercise, get away for a few days in nature. A few years ago, my wife and I went and when my wife and I my when my wife called to speak to the the scheduling coach to schedule all the classes for the few days, my wife said, "Is there one thing in this retreat that we've never done that you would highly recommend?" Talk about a story of Hashkah. The coach from this wellness retreat said, "Yes, there's one thing I would highly recommend. You can't miss it. It's called a soul journey in our spiritual wellness department." I don't know what possessed my wife. She says, "Okay, it sounds interesting. Sign us up." As the days were getting closer, my wife and I were just were discussing. And I was a little nervous. Spiritual wellness department, soul journey, you know, what is this that we signed up for? Is this something that a from Jew can do? And as the day before, my wife said, "Maybe we should cancel it." I don't know. Something inside of me said, "No, no, let me go. Let me see what this is all about." Well, the day came. We had an appointment at 4:00 in the spiritual wellness department and we show up and I was coming from some exercise classes. I made sure to put my titus back on after playing tennis and I walk into the spiritual wellness department and we're in the waiting room and all of a sudden this gentleman walks out. He says it's time for my appointment. comes out dressed very well, looks like a psychologist, you know, round glasses, very well-dressed, and on his lapel it says Adam. And he brings me into a room. We walk into the room, there's two chairs, a little coffee table, and like a reclining couch. And we sit down and he starts to describe this soul journey that everybody had been talking about. You can't miss this experience of this soul journey. And we start talking back and forth. And he describes to me what this journey is going to be. He said, "In a few minutes, you're going to lie down on this reclining couch. I'm going to close the lights. I'm going to play an instrument to create a little bit of a of a mood." And he said, "You're going to allow your soul to journey. Wherever your soul wants to travel, just let it go and try to remember the experience." He said to me, "This experience, and this caught my my attention." He said, "There's four foundations in this experience. He said the foundations are earth, wind, fire, and water. He said there's no limits. You can exist. You could fly in the air. You can exist under the water. You can breathe. You can ex exist anywhere. There's no limitations. Just allow your soul to travel. And he said, "Do you have any questions before we start?" And I said, "I just have one question." I said, "You know, I'm an Orthodox Jew, but I'm game for this." I was trying to hint him like, "Don't try anything funny on me here." Well, I get in the ca in the uh reclining couch. He dims the lights. He starts playing a little bit of a drum to create this sort of meditative mood and he starts coaching me early in my journey and he says to me as the my eyes are closed and the lights are off, he says, "Where do you see yourself right now?" I said, I'm like in the middle of a middle of a of a forest, you know, middle of a field. And he starts saying, "Great, great." You know, exist exist in the field. And a few minutes later, he says, "Now, where do you see yourself? allow your soul to journey. And you know, I I think in the beginning I might have been playing along with him a little bit. And I said to him, I I'm kind of traveling along along a stone wall along. He says, "Okay, go go go. And now where do you see yourself?" I said, "I now see myself standing at a big gate." He says, "Good. Go through the gate. Go through the gate." And I in my mind I went through the gate. He says, "Okay." He whispers to me, "I'm going to leave your journey. I'll see you on the other side. Just allow your allow your soul to go." And you know, literally I think Hashem was putting this all in my mind. But I literally started picturing my nishama traveling and um eventually after about 20 minutes, he turns the lights on. He says, "Okay, the journey's over. Come sit on come sit on the chair and let's review your soul journey." He says to me, "Do you remember where you went during your journey?" I said, "Yeah." He says, "Did you did you see people? Did you meet people?" I said, "Yeah, I met people." He said, "Did did they tell you anything? Do you remember what they said?" head. I said, "Yeah, I remember the whole thing." He's getting so excited cuz he's a world-renowned spiritual journey guru. He he's written 50 books. He has students all over the world. And he's so excited, his soul journey, like I met people. I'm about to tell him what I heard. And he says, "And what did they tell you?" He says, "So, who did you meet?" So, I said to him, and he's taking notes. I said, "Well, I met many, many relatives. I traveled back to preWorld War II Eastern Europe." He says, "Wow, wow. And did you meet people there?" I said, "Yeah." And he said, "Who'd you meet?" I said, "Well, I met many former relatives who are no longer alive who died in the Holocaust." He says, "Wow." And he started taking notes. "And who else did you meet?" I said, "I met many, many famous rabbis who who perished in the Holocaust." I was thinking to myself, "The Sas, you know, many Gdolean from Eastern Europe." He says, "Wow." And did these did these relatives and these famous rabbis tell you anything along the soul journey? I said, 'Yeah, they did.' He said, 'What'd they tell you?' I said, 'They told me what my life's purpose is going forward.' He said, 'Wow, on the on the soul journey, you learned your life purpose. He's writing it down. I said, yeah. He says, what did they tell you? What's your life's purpose? I said, well, I said, Dr. Adam, aside from my family and my business, what they told me in this journey was, my life journey is I'm supposed to travel the world in search of Jews who are not yet connected to their Judaism. I'm supposed to help them reconnect. And Adam literally dropped his pen on the floor. He was startled. This world-renowned guru looked like he just saw a ghost. And we continued talking for a few minutes, reviewing my soul journey. At the very end, I said, "Adam, can I ask you two questions?" He says, "Sure." I said, "You don't need to answer them." I said, "How did you get into this field, this soul journey, becoming a doctor of the soul journey?" And he gave me a whole whole story, all the hashka pus that went into it. I said, "Adam, I have one last question for you." I looked into his eyes. I'm sure you know what the question is. I said, "Adam, are you Jewish?" And he looked at me silence for about 20 seconds. He said, "Yes, Daniel, I am Jewish." I said, "Adam, can I share one last thing with you?" I said, "You started by telling me this soul journey is based on the principles of earth, wind, fire, and water. These are the four foundational things that comes from Judaism, comes from Yiddish kite, comes from Cabala. And I explained that to him. I said, "Adam, do you know where this all comes from? It all comes from Judaism." What I want to tell you is the following. There was a moment of silence that was one of the most powerful moments of silence I've ever ever experienced. I was meant to be in that room with this guy that day. I was meant to experience his soul journey. But I could tell you one thing without saying a word I saw in his eyes this worldrenowned guru his entire world his entire emis collapsed when he realize it's all based on Yiddishkite it's all comes from Judaism it all comes from the Torah and all I can tell you is at that moment my spiritual journey continued his only just started transformational moments are all around us the question is Are our antennas up and are we paying attention? One of history's greatest thinkers and writers was Frederick the Great. Frederick the Great was once in a heated debate with his Lutheran pastor about the existence of God. And Frederick the Great, who was brilliant, kept asking the Lutheran pastor to give him proofs that God has to exist. And each time the Lutheran pastor gave him a different proof, he was able to quickly debunk it. Finally, he turned to his Lutheran pastor. He said, "Can't you give me one proof of God that I can't I can't knock down?" The pastor thought and thought for a moment, and he finally turned and said, "I'll give you one proof of God that you cannot you cannot disprove." He said, "Two words, the Jews. The existence of the Jews is the greatest proof of God. Frederick the Great looked at his Lutheran pastor. He said that I cannot I cannot debate. The existence of the Jews is the greatest proof of God. I travel often and have the opportunity to speak in Jewish outreach. A number of months ago, I was in Orsame in Jerusalem. I met a young man named Nick who had a remarkable story. You see, Nick is a Jew from the south, from the United States, who grew up without any knowledge of his Judaism whatsoever. Nick was very interested in becoming an Air Force pilot. So, when the time came, he enrolled in the Air Force Academy. And one day, and Nick told me the story personally, one day Nick was in a lecture and his professor, the world's greatest expert in airfare, in warfare, was giving a lecture about the history of all the different major conflicts and major wars. At the end of the lecture, Nick went over to his professor. He said, "Professor, you spoke about every major conflict, every major military operation. you failed to talk about the 1967 six- day war. And his professor, not Jewish, turned to him and said, 'Nick, you have to understand something. We don't teach and speak about things for which there is no military explanation. He said, "The Six-Day War is the greatest example of a complete divine act. There's no explanation for what Israel did in the in the Six-Day War." Fast forward today. Not only is Nick in the Air Force, but here's where Nick is. He's now learning in Orsame, he just moved on to another yeshiva and Nick is now that moment transformed him completely. He's now a full bala shar shabas. He keeps Torah mitzos and Nick is now waiting to be drafted into the Israeli Air Force. There are moments all around us that can completely transform us. The question is, is our eyes open and are we listening? Let me share a personal story. I grew up in a Orthodox Toro Mitzos background, Orthodox family, went to yeshiva, went to college, university, learned, got married, and over the years I would say there was a time that I started to drift a little in RNA. wasn't always attending minion during the week like I would have liked there was a number number of years where I wasn't learning much until something happened that changed my life my own personal transformational moment was going through a time where there was some nothing major thank god but some some challenges some minor things going on challenges in business or whatnot and I attended the 2012 sashas the celebration of the completion of the dafomi cycle 7 and a half years now. Just to be clear, I was not learning dafomi at the time. I was not learning much of anything at the time. But my father, who's a tremendous based, always liked to go to the sea of Ashas and I attended with my father. August 2012, I believe it was August 1st, 2012, is the night that my life changed. You see, there were a lot of speakers that night. I don't speak Yiddish. I couldn't understand a lot of them. Rabus Fran from Narrell got up to give a speech that changed my life. And my friend was talking about how the Gumarra the Talmud speaks about a bos heavenly voice that is always lurking in our mind asking what are we doing to have more of a kesh or more of a connection to God and Rabbi France said you know in life if something has value we have to have a plan and how to succeed if we want to just buy a slice of pizza we don't need a plan we could just do it but if we're building a house we need a blueprint if we're starting a a business we need a business plan. So he said, "If we're finally once in our life going to answer this boss call, how what are we going to do to have more of a connection with God, with Hashem? We need to have a plan very dramatically in front of 90,000 people where my friend screamed out tomorrow morning daf and braos dafyomi." And then he turned to the 90,000 people and he said, "And if you can't do dafyomi, something that might be about an hour of a commitment," he said, 'Then learny, something that takes about half that time. If you can't learn um he said, "Then learn Mishna brewer a day, something that takes maybe 15 minutes a day." He said, "If you can't do a Mishna brewer a day, learn a Mishna a day, something that takes maybe two minutes a day." And then the line that changed my life, he said, "But something a day." And all of a sudden it hit me. What relationship is going to succeed if there's no effort? I do nothing a day. I don't put any effort into it. How am I going to feel connected to God if I'm not putting the effort in? And that led me on a journey. I said, "That's it. Tomorrow morning, I'm starting Brahos." And I finally managed for the first time in my life to get through Brahos. Made to see him. Started my dafomi. my daffio process. And then a number of months went by. I was a little inconsistent. Some days yes, some days no. Eventually a number of months later, I spoke to my uncle, Rabbi Aaron Gibber from Baltimore, big to big lawyer. He had been giving daffomi for many years. I don't know why. If I really wanted to stop, I think he'd be the last person in my family I'd go to. But I went to him and I said, you know, I don't think it's for me. I'm going to stop. He said, no, you can't stop. You made a commitment, but the difference is you need to go to a shear. You need to pick a shear. Make that part of your day. And I'll never forget this because in those years I was coaching basketball at night. I was traveling for business. I can't really do this at night. I decide I'm going to pick the earliest shear in my town. 5:30 in the morning and I'm going to go to that dafomi shear. True story. Two weeks later, my wife turned to me and she said, "You know, you don't stop talking about this 5:30 shear, but it's two weeks into it and you haven't gone yet." So she said, "Your choice is either you go tomorrow morning or don't ever talk about it again." Rabbi France speech the comment from my wife changed my life I went the next morning became another morning now I'm already there I stay for shakras minion I start seeing my friends who god forbid are saying kadesh and I think why don't I have to wait someday to say kadesh start going to mka start going to marav connected to this rabbi this year that year my life completely changed one moment of one word rabbi France said transformational moment can literally change a I want to share one or two last stories before we wrap up. Incredible story of Aam Ber. Many people might have heard this story. Aam Ber was a hostage in Gaza for several months. I don't know what her connection to Yiddishkite was to Judaism before the October 7th tragedy. I suspect it wasn't extremely strong. When Aam Burgerer came out of Gaza when she was when she was came out in one of the hostage deals, she gave many interviews, Wall Street Journal, many other publications. She told the following story. Aamburger said, "The winds of Amuna caught her sales in Gaza. You know, they didn't have a calendar, but they believed they knew when Rashana was. And after Rashashana in the dungeons beneath Gaza, her and her fellow hostages counted the days in their mind until Yum Kipper. And the day they believed was Yum Kipper that morning, ironically, the kamas monsters brought them the nicest meal they had been given all year. That morning, they turned to him, explained, "We're fasting today. It's Joan Kipper. We're not going to eat. Kamasnik took the meal away later that evening at 7:00. They brought the meal back to them, but Aam Burger and her fellow hostages believe the fast is not over for another hour. Can you imagine? They waited another hour to eat. When Aam Burgerer was eventually taken out of Gaza, what the IDF would do is they would give you a whiteboard in the helicopter and ask you to write a message to Claus, a message to the Jewish people. True story. I have the picture, a gamberger in the helicopter with her parents on either side. And here's what she wrote on the whiteboard. Beder amuna barti. It is with the path of amuna that I chose. That's from Tahillim. But this part isn't amuna shaft. And it is with the path of ammuna that I'm now returning. What an incredible message. What a transformational moment. Not just for Aam Ber, certainly for me and for all of Claudia Straw. A gam ber in the greatest depths beneath Gaza found her amuna found a kales barak ammuna bakarti amuna shafti I want to end with a story it's a story about somebody I know you see there was once an incredible painter an incredible artist he had a great life he loved his wife he loved his children. But there was something missing. He felt something missing, a hole in his life. And one day, he left a note on the kitchen counter for his wife and his kids. He said, "I love you very much. I'm coming home. Please forgive me. I need to travel for a little while. I'm in search of the perfect masterpiece, but I'll be back soon, and I love the family." The next day, he leaves. He sets out on a journey. He's traveling in the countryside. Eventually gets tired. He sits down at the side of the road next to a forest. He looked into the forest. He saw a beautiful koopa, a beautiful Jewish wedding. The most amazing scene, the perfect scene of a hava, of love. He never saw this type of love before. He took out his canvas from his bag. He's a painter. He's in search of the perfect masterpiece. He said, "This is the perfect scene of Ahava." He paints this unbelievable scene. He paints this picture of a Jewish hoopa. He puts the canvas back in his bag and my friend continued traveling. A few days later, he encountered encountered an old yid, an old Jew, numbers on his arm from the Holocaust. He's wearing talis fillin, wrinkled face. He was dominating with the most beautiful ammuna. He says, I've never This is the perfect picture of Amuna. He takes out another canvas. He paints this gorgeous scene of this old yid with the numbers talis and fillin davening perfect scene of ammuna. He now has this perfect ahava perfect amuna. Couple days go by. He realizes Shabas is coming. It's Friday morning. It's time for him to go home. He heads back towards his town. And as he approaches his town, he sees an interesting scene. He sees a lot of these soldiers all together celebrating, hanging out. He says, "What's going on?" They told him there's been a peace treaty. He says, "I I didn't know. It must have been traveling for a while. Yeah, there's a peace tree. He says, "You know what? It's almost Shabas, but this is the perfect scene of Shalom. I've never seen this image of Shalom before." He takes out his last canvas and he paints this beautiful scene of Shalom of these soldiers celebrating. He puts it in his bag. He starts running home. He gets to his home moments before candle lighting. He looks through the window. He sees his wife lighting shabas candles. He sees his kids. His wife pulls out all these love letters that he had written to the family. I love you. I promise I'm coming home. Have faith. Have a with a tear coming down his eye. As he sees this serene scene of candle lighting and his wife and his family, he drops his bag of his perfect Ahava, his perfect amuna, his perfect shalom. And with tears streaming down his eyes, he walks back into his house to return to his life, realizing he had been search of something he traveled the world looking for. He had it in his own home the whole time. And this, ladies and gentlemen, is a story of our Yiddish kite. I'll speak for myself. I told you I know the person in the story because this is my story and it might be your story. Now, to be clear, I'm not a painter and I'm not an artist. But what I would say is I've spent way too many years and way too much time traveling the world in search of something that I had inside me inside my own Yiddish kite the whole time. And this is a story I share so often with Kier of audiences who have everything. They might be making money. They might be doing well, but I always say you can't fill spiritual holes with physical things. We travel the world in search of what we're missing for. Little do we realize we have it in our own home the whole time. Before I conclude, let me return to where I started. March 18th, 2004, if you remember, 2,000 fans in the Asha University gym, championship night. What's riding on the line? One shot by our point guard. He had practiced this thousands of times. We were moments away from a lifede-defining moment. If he makes this shot, we break the records. Undefeated championship season. Had never been done in our school history. For high school boys, that's all that matters in life. If you were to miss this shot, we would spend a lifetime knowing how close we got. And we missed out. Well, the ball continued towards the basket. The fans were going crazy. And as a saying goes, nothing but net. The ball went in. Complete pandemonium. Undefeated championship season. But there's something I learned that night that I've carried with me for 22 years. And that's why I'm telling the story now. You see, in the end, after all the years of failing and getting back up and laughing and crying and success and failure, I finally realized it was never about the championship. It was never about the trophy. It was never about standing on the mountaintop. And it wasn't even about being called champions. You see, in our greatest moment of glory, I realized that in a life well-lived and in a path well traveled, the journey itself is the reward. You see, life is full of potential transformational moments. Adam Meerson sitting in a country club knew nothing about Yiddish kite. His friends are talking about sports cars and money. One simple banana brought him back to a kadesh baru. The soul journey that I had with the world's greatest guru in soul journeys. He had written 60 books, thousands of students around the world. In one moment, his whole MS collapsed and he realized it's really all from Judaism. It's really all from the Torah. Avi Dhan never expected to keep Shabas. never thought he'd become an Orthodox Jew. He made a bet with God over the Stanley Cup. That led him to Asia. Today, he's a full Shmer Chabas. And he writes about his story. Nick, who I met who attended the Air Force Academy, whose dream was to become a US Air Force pilot, a non-Jewish general who told him the 1967 war was impossible. It's all divine. It's all divine intervention. There's no military explanation. Today, Nick is in Israel. He's a Baltua and he's waiting to be drafted into the Israeli Air Force. A gam ber in the dungeons below Gaza. She found a kadesh bari amuna shavei. My friend the painter traveling life in search of the perfect masterpiece, realizing he had it in his own home the whole time. and my experience in front of 2,000 people in Shiva University championship night shot goes in we thought we accomplished our dream only to realize in your greatest moment you realize it's the journey itself it's a lifetime of finding transformational moments of failing of getting back up of getting knocked down and climbing again and looking for those moments we can literally change our own lives we can change our family's lives we could change Claudius's lives those moment moments are all around us as long as our antenna is open. Thank you very much.