Rabbi Rubinstein Toronto 10 14 15

I love coming to Toronto not just for project Inspire but whenever I'm here there's always it's always exciting the first time I came to Toronto to speak I got off the plane and I along with everybody else from New York went straight through and everybody had no problem going through but it was a bunch of Security Guys cops with guns I mean machine guns even and everybody got through and one of them looked at me and went like this I said pardon he said Mah I said French um so I was put into the the immigration Hall and it looked it was about an eighth of the size of the of the hall here and they had one of these snaking things you know one these when you go to the airport they got one of these things you snake in them and there was all these immigration officers sitting it looked like a bank it's like glass you know um with the the tailers behind but not in fact it was other security officers and they had guns and bulletproof vests although I'm really quite harmless and there was one other person and the other person looked as they came from Pakistan or India or somewhere like that and we stood there and the security people just totally ignored this immigration officers and eventually a young lady looked up and said to the Pakistani fellow come here and he went forward and the fellow next to her signaled to me and said come here and I stood next to him and then they both went back to playing on their computer and totally ignoring us eventually the lady turned to the fellow from Pakistan and said sir uh it's I'm an officer of the Canadian government and it's my duty to assess people's rights and legitimacy for being in Canada I've made that assessment in your case and it's my duty to inform you that I believe you can no legitimate reason for being in Canada you're therefore being sent back to New York and he said I'm not going you can't make me go I refuse to go and stay she said sir I don't think you heard what I said I'm an officer of the Canadian government I decide who enters the country I made a decision in your case you're not entering the I'm not going you can't make me go I'm refusing I'm staying right here now she must have pressed a hidden button but a door to the side open and two of the largest human beings I'd ever seen in my entire life came out it was quite obvious to me that Canadian immigration gets their offices exclusively from The Lumberjack community and each of them grabbed this fellow underneath the arms and started to pull him backwards with his heels dragging on the carpet I'm not going I'm not going I'm not going he went and then my guy looked up and said what's your reason for being in Canada and I said I'm here to give a lecture and quick as a flash he said on what topic and I said marriage and he said are you for it or against it and I said well I'm married said so am I are you for it or against it and we both laughed and he stamped my passport and in I came and about 6 months ago again I was in Toronto and again this time it wasn't a little sort of uh uh security room but rather it was straightforward like you normally arrive here and there are immigration officers in little glass booths there was three there was aort of Indian fellow not not the same guy from before uh there was a white fellow and there was a black lady and I was put into the line going towards the white fellow and so I approached and he said because I'm used to the Spiel by now what's your reason for being in Canada and I said I'm here to give a lecture he said on what topic I said Judaism he said are you Rabbi I said yes he said I'm a Russia sorry a Russia you know the haod the four Sons the the the I'm a Russia and he started to tell me his whole life story of course now of course we you you know there's thousands of people trying to get into the country there's whole big line behind us his grandfather came from Liverpool in England and he came over and here was a rabbi but they didn't treat him very nicely in America and then he ended up in Canada and this guy he's no he's a Russia and know he keeps nothing and probably his kids keep nothing and as we heard today the tradition continues I arrived at JFK and they told me my ticket had been cancelled I've got half an hour to get through here and there's going to be apart from the Blue Jays thousands of people you know Sitting Waiting uh what am I going to do so I phoned robbi irons and he's phoning isra who made the booking through a thing an organization called orbits have you heard of orbit and uh so the phoning and they cancelled the ticket what am I going to do the robbi says you're just going to have to book any ticket just get a ticket so I got a ticket $870 ouch one way but it turned out to be a first class ticket so whenever I come to Toronto please B my tickets through orbits I'm loving them so it's always lovely to come here uh so tonight's topic is a very crucially important topic we all know we've just heard exactly what we're here for and what we're trying to achieve and so I have to tell you just in case you don't know because looking around here you're all rather religious um there is a massive and enormous difference between PRS and nonpr you've got to be aware of that and you see that particular particularly acutely when it comes to animals and particularly when it comes to pets see F Jews tend not to have pets I'm not talking hamsters and goldfish we have them but nonreligious Jews often have pets and often have dogs now if a Ked person sees a dog then the first thing they do is to reach for the nearest lamp poost and start to climb it as as quickly as they can but non-religious Jews love pets love animals and I mention this to you because um uh I was just recently uh in in Florida for for Cirus at a very Posh hotel called Hawk key in the Florida Keys I'd never been to the Florida Keys before and it was really very enjoyable try time there and there a beautiful large sukka it was lots of from Jews 200 K Jews there and I was sitting at a table with had four couples at my table and from behind one day K there was a huge as they say Gish and I looked around and there was a teenage girl who' leapt into the air followed by about three or four other teenage girls forgive me um now you all as soon as this happened I knew exactly why I used to teach naak of school in Manchester in England and particularly rukus time if the girls were in the class and a bee or a wasp flew in which of course just through circus time that's when they're very Troublesome the girls would go berser they're running about the classroom you trying to teach to screaming all little one of the teachers a Mrs stefansky very very brilliant lady she solved the problem she invented something called a sponsored bee what's the sponsor be anybody hear a teacher this is genius she told the girl that if a wasp or a bee flies near them and they don't panic then they can go home to the father and say I want a pound for sedoka and suddenly the girls didn't panic when there was a wasper a bee it was the most amazing transformation and so when there was a huge scream at the table behind I naturally assumed it was a wasper or bee as teenage girls started to LEAP all over the place but it wasn't it was in a Anana do you know what a iguana is it's a large lizard how large that large and the girl was sitting at the table and suddenly she felt something touching her leg and she looked down and there was a monstrous dinosaur and she Le into the air followed by a lot of other girls as well I think the girls had a point in this case my sympathy was entirely with the girls and and not only the girls but suddenly the men everybody's leaping into the air screaming like crazy and the whole Suka went completely a sugar people are running about and eventually when they C down uh they the Iguana had got to a wall and it was cing there and interesting thing about iguana I don't know if you know this when they are threatened they puff themselves up do you Noti this so the 4ot Iguana became a 5ot iguana that's quite big and everybody and and and the waiters are all running trying to get polls so they can kill the poor thing but I am Scottish Scotland the Brave and totally Fearless so I just walked to the front grabbed it and threw it out and there was massive Applause this is on YouTube you can see Rabbi fights prehistoric monster on YouTube it's absolutely exciting how do you think I felt when I had tackled this horrible manting monster and throwing it how do you think I feel everybody's buring into you feel rather good don't you there's a gamorra there's a Gora in in sucus and stuff nun Bas I'm sorry I just thought it threw in a gamorra so you know I really am a Ry uh n Bas Al and it tells an incredibly interesting story about at the End of Time the end of days the mhia comes and Hashem is going to take the GES of horror and check it and two groups of people witnessed the destruction and the removal of the yahor sadim and rashim and both groups start to cry why do the sadim cry when they see the a of horror and it's being killed and it's dead they think look at that it was so was like a huge mountain and they overcame it these are the sedik these are the people who climbed the the mountain and they start to cry but the the rashim they start to cry because they said it was a nothing it's like a hair a hair's bread and we didn't why didn't we do and they start to cry why did the sadim cry because when you grab the iguan and you throw it out and everybody when you've done it or like the Blue Jays tonight I'm rather assuming you know they're feeling rather good about themselves right yes you see it when you're you're in the airport which I spent my whole life on and they've always got TV screens showing basball games and somebody or or football games somebody does this I think it's called a touchdown in America something like that um where I come from football soccer um when they do that every yes they're so well they did it that said he can beat the yor why are they crying what's their problem Robert desler Mio he go a incredibly interesting insight as to why they were crying because you see says Rob deser that sikim were crying because they saw this thing this yah hor this challenge that they'd had in their life life and upset them why well there another famous story of sadic who cried about yor it's in another gamor vo Zora and it talks about somebody called aloa bendoy and Al Lo bendero was a disgusting human being you would never mention his name in poite company and he was a balus and apparently he engaged in every sort of zus and every sort of immorality in the world and once he heard of a particular person a particular woman and he went to engage in his particular and he's just about to do the AA when a wind blows and this woman this Z turns around and says the same way as this wind will never go back to the place that it came from they'll never accept Al Loa if you do to shba sounds a little bit strange now I've never ever met such a person such a lady but I suspect I mean what did you say you can almost hear the thumbs just like this window never go back to the place it came from accept you now as I say I've never met such a lady but I suspect few of them have degrees in theology where did she get that idea from but that was enough that changed Loo's life and he turned away and he didn't do the he ran away and he became a boua and at the end of his life when he died a Heavenly voice called out and said re RAV Lo he's a rabbi and when Reby heard this story Reby cried he another sad crying over the itora you see there are two ways that a person can make a Kos hasem in the world there's the way that the sadic does it the way that the sadic does it is he spends his whole life or Seda spends their whole life learning and teaching and doing acts of hassad so that Hashem looks good in the world and then there's the Bal toua or the Bal toua somebody with no background who's maybe spent their entire life not doing mitus doing all sorts of stuff and suddenly they just have the SE the opportunity to change their life and suddenly everything changes for them and everything in their life which before was not such a Kem becomes AEM and Reby was so jealous of the fact that I have to work my whole life it's a mountain to climb and these people just in a second they get it and if you can think about that I don't know about you but you know you put a lot of work into being a Jun know you know up early in the morning and sers and all that stuff and sometimes people right at the end of their life just what we heard before from robt irons 80 year olds and 70 year olds wow and they get it all rather upsetting there is a way however we could I suppose um solve re's regrets that they are able to do stuff and Achieve stuff that we've not and that is if you help them do that you might have to work your whole life you might have to overcome an enormous Mountain but for such people suddenly it's just a little thing but you know what if you help somebody then you see it through their eyes if you share in their experience if you sponsor their experience if you allow them to to become who they could become then not only have you struggled your whole life and achieved but you've allowed somebody else to achieve that as well that would solve the problem let me tell you a story this is a true story uh a number of years ago I used to live in Manchester in England well I moved to um to a place called Brooklyn uh to a place called Flatbush in Brooklyn uh four years ago I don't know if you know Flatbush um is got the same gatri as ghenam um and if it doesn't it should have uh anyway so we moved out of there a short time ago we're now in the five towns which is nicer um anyway so I we moved to Brooklyn and uh f good but when I was living in Manchester um one day I got a phone call from a lady who's a a social worker works for Jewish Social Services and this lady F me up and she said um she's got a non-jewish friend and the non-jewish friend has a maid and the maid comes from Russia and this maid who's a graduate of University studied French and Spanish um has always wanted said this colleague of mine whom i' worked with has always wanted to meet a rabbi and see a synagogue could I perhaps think of a rabbi that be willing to meet this girl how subtle was this right so I needed this as we say in Scotland like a Lo and cop and uh I said I'm really very busy said no no no the girl's Jewish and when I realized that there was a girl who's a graduate from University so there for 22 or 23 years of age never met a rabbi and never met a synagogue I said yes I'll meet her so I remember her uh her employee employer came to to bring she was called Anna bring Anna to meet me um at 10:00 she was very English lots of front teeth hello and um and she left Anna with me and I knew that Anna had lots and lots of questions so I took Anna into a little folder notebook with all her questions all written down and she said to me um I have questions for you I said I believe so Anna but before you ask me your question I've got some questions of my own where are you from so I expected her to say that she's from Petersburg or Moscow sorry in Canada say Moscow or Moscow mosow MOS Moscow okay Moscow um just learning to speak um anyway Moscow or Petersburg when St you said I come from UT anybody here know where erut is alut is the largest Lake Land lake in the world it's called Lake B and at the foot of Lake B there's a town called Utz it gets so cold in the winter in a CO if you open your front door and throw out a bucket of water it turns to ice before it hits the ground there something I think it's called The Angel's whisper in Siberia that is to say when you breathe out the water vapor in your in your breath turns to ice and it makes a crinkly noise just by breathing out that's how cold it gets anyway okay and I asked her another couple of questions and then it was her turn to ask me questions I said okay let's hear your question now at the time I was the rabbi to 14 universities the official Rabbi for 14 universities in the northwest of England Manchester and Liverpool and other ones and I'm used to having big questions asked of me but her first question completely threw me she looked at her paper and she said why is Shabbat on Saturday yes yeah it was her accent I'll do that for you why is Shabbat on Saturday now I'm used to Big questions like um if Judaism believes in reincarnation and you're only here in order to put right something you did wrong in a previous life how would you do that if you don't remember having been here in the previous life um or if God knows what you're going to do before you do it then you don't have freedom of choice so therefore what's the point I'm used to these questions but this question completely threw me why is Shabbat on Saturday so I reacted let all good uh rabbis or teachers when they're asked a question they don't know the answer to ah and stumbling and stuff and then eventually it came to well Anna Anna I said it's of course because of the story in Genesis you know in in braet Genesis you know the Garden of Eden I said Anna have you ever heard of the Torah no now I planned to give this girl maybe 40 minutes of my time and here I have a young woman 23 24 intelligent she already got a degree um who's Jewish knowledge is that of a baby so I introduced her to the Garden of Eden and I told her about and I told her that Tav is a meaningless book without the T shal I introduced it to Abram Y and yob and sor Rifka Leah then eventually I was able to tell her how you can have freedom of choice even if hasem knows what you're going to choose before you choose it and how you can put right things in this life he did wrong in a previous life even if you can't remember being in a previous life then I took her to see a synagogue she hadd never seen a synagogue before there was a very old-fashioned big synagogue near where I lived you know with a beamer in the middle and a lady's Gallery oldfashioned thing I arrived there I had the key I walked to the or a CO they on a cish had a big oak door unlocked that pull the door I had to do one door at a time it was very big and then of course there was the the paricus the curtain The Velvet curtain and then I pulled the curtain the curtain parted and what did she she was standing beside me what did she see what did she see see fre Tera now you have to understand that you have to see cfre teror through the eyes of somebody who's never seen them before to actually see them for the first time for yourself you see we take them for granted but SE T are stunning sea are beautiful the works of art with the embroidered velvet and the silver and the bells she'd never seen them before and through her discovery of how they looked I was able to see them for the first time properly myself so I took one of the M we went onto the Beamer took off all the coverings and open and said that's it Anna that's the Torah and then I explain to why the synagogue is the shape that it's that it is it's a copy of the base of mdos as we all know eventually I took her into the car and I took her around the Jewish area which is like the Jewish area here in Manchester I wanted to see Jewish elementary schools and Jewish high schools and usas and seminaries I wanted to take her P Jewish stores Jewish supermarkets I wanted to see that Jewish women shop different differently to non-jewish women non-jewish women go to the supermarket to buy food Jewish women go to Schmo I wanted to see that we were alive and well and it so we were driving back because she was going to be picked up and she said if one more question for you I said yes what she said what do you do I said pardon she said what do you do I said what do you mean what she meant was how do you religious Jews live she had a sister who had gone already to live in Israel she had visited the sister twice still never met a rabbi still never seen a synagogue there are lots of different israels and I got the impression the sister told her things about people at you and I which wasn't so flattering there's a lot of uh misunderstanding between non-religious and religious in Israel she said what she meant was how do we live I said oh how do we live well well we worry about paying our mortgage um we look forward to our vacations sometimes we argue with our husbands or with our wives if we get teenage daughters with cell phones we worry about the bills and uh but apart from that we try and live our lives very much according to the book that I told you about but I suppose we're very like you she said I thought so I just have to ask for myself I said why don't you come and spend a shabbath with us spend a Shabbat with us a Jewish sabbath she said I'd love to but I'm a made it's my busy day I have to work I said okay come from meal during the week and eat some CER food so she said she'd love to and I waited for the phone call and never came bit disappointed instead I got an email this was the 30th of November 1999 and it said the following thing dear Rabbi y y hello how are you I hope you're fine how is England I miss it very much now I'm great writing to you from Russia yes I'm at home now I feel sorry that I didn't manage to meet you once more unfortunately I had to work until my going home I'm sorry for not writing for such a long time I was very busy before I left England anyway I do remember you it's not so cold now so it's not difficult to get used to Russia Russia hasn't changed since I left when I came back one week ago it was minus 33° and now it's only- 47 so it's not as bad as it could be I started looking for a job I'm going to have an interview in some days hope one of them will be successful several days ago my mom took me to our local synagogue for some lecture I enjoyed the lecture very much we celebrated Sabbath's beginning and then she's put in Brackets it was Friday that's just in case I wasn't sure if I have time I'm I certainly planning to go next Friday my mom introduced me to the rabbi he started ask me about England and when I told him about you he was very excited and interested and asked me me if it's possible to invite you to come to UT to give some talks or lectures Rabbi if so could you send to my email address conditions under which you would come summer um I think that would be great if you came from me it would be a great possibility to pay you back for your hospitality hoping to hear from you soon best wishes Anna it was wonderful getting that letter here's a young woman who just few weeks before didn't even though there was such a thing as The Jewish Sabbath such a thing as Shabbat and as soon as she starts to touch it and starts to experience it she wants another one and it's just a word of kindness makes all the difference I think that's what rebi was crying about you can get somebody from a zero background who suddenly explodes with Yiddish kite that's not so apparent to sikim we see as a mountain a whole lifetime's journey and suddenly the it's horor for these people they somehow are over overcome it the incredible It's a Wonderful whoa we could never do that but there is a way to do that and that's simply by allowing such people to discover it and allow them to make that journey by being the sponsor of such a person on such a journey and then you see it for the first time because weend you know the truth of the matter is we don't what's the Hebrew word for world oh l i involve l now as you know Roba talks about this a lot most Hebrew words have got three letter root but I am has got four letters which letter has to go to get to the root it's a v that gives us the root of the word which Ison lamid me what does lamid me mean in Hebrew does anybody know hide or hidden hide or hidden and if hasem wants to create a world in which there is freedom of choice as Rabbi desler Now by definition he would have to hide the reality of his existence away otherwise you would have no Freedom of Choice imagine a Jew goes into a McDonald's he goes up to the counter and he gets his Big Mac and his Coca-Cola the first time I gave this example at university in England I said his Big Mac and his Pepsi one one of my University students said uh They don't serve Pepsi in McDonald's um people are nudging and oh off her from one non-jewish friends um but anyway I just want you to know how I know that it's Coca-Cola and McDonald's anyway so the fellow goes and he sits down at the table and he takes a sip at his Coke and then he puts his big MC to his lips and suddenly there's a great big white shimmering Angel standing in front of him and the angel says Cohen Coen goes the angel says kosa the Angel takes the Big Mac throws on the floor picks up corn slaps him in the face don't do that again Coen and disappears it's good isn't it yeah thank you you can come to all my sharim um now I want you to imagine that you were Co gentleman would you buy a second Big Mac don't be shy would you buy a second Big Mac no no sorry it's a non-jewish answer all Jews want a second opinion I think you'd be saying to yourself I've been working too hard I've been drinking too much not beginning enough sleep it can't possibly have happened your Big Mac is on the floor your cheek is smarting but nobody else is seen this so you laugh at your stupidity you go and buy another Big Mac you sit down you take a sip of the coke you put your Big Mac to your lips you hesitate for a split second then you laugh the clearly imagination you open your mouth and suddenly are you de Cohen the Angel takes the big mic turns it into crumbs picks up going punches them in the nose don't that again Coen and disappears now if you've been listening very carefully you'll now know that when an angel appears it goes beep and when it disappears it goes but leaving that aside would you buy a third Big Mac no because the consequences are so obvious to you if AEM is going to give you B he would have to hide the reality of his existence away does that make sense and our life we sikim we fumers is a whole life of as it were that big mountain of as that we're seeing Hashem in our lives and the more you look the more you help you know that he's there after all it's like hide and seek and we call him a Venom volcano he's the father how does a father play hide-and-seek with a kid so you got four or fivey old so what happens is the father says okay I'm going to hide my eyes and you go and hide yourself I'll count to 10 and then you go so what happens is the father counts very slowly to 10 and the little boy who's 5 years of age runs about looking for a place to hide where is he going to hide behind the couch so he hides behind the couch with his legs sticking out 10 and the father looks and there is the little boy with the leg sticking out going so what does a father do he goes where is David I don't maybe he's in the closet and he goes over to the closet no he's not there maybe he's Behind the Chair no he's now the little boy jumping up and down you can see the head going up where could doid be eventually he says maybe he's behind the coach there's David now he changed the rules now the father's going to hide and Do's going to count to 10 dads tend to be better at hiding than 5-year-old boys so Dad hangs in the closet behind the courts do it counts to 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 9 10 he looks no Dad where is Dad behind the couch Doby goes and looks behind the couch no dad in the closet looks in the closet dad's behind the clothes no dad the chair no behind the chair then what does doid do c eyes what does Dad do yeah Dad sneezes dad just finds that he simply can't control the loadest sneeze the world has ever heard right dou behind the into the closet there's Dad's feet T if a person is trying to find Hashem he'll give you the the hint the clue that you're on the right track it'll be a sa and that's the general rule of things but rabid Desa says something brilliant when it comes to shabbat when it comes to shabas Hashem ain't hiding anymore or he's hiding much less what does it say and he rested from everything he did what did he do during creation created the world where he's hiding where he hidden he stopped doing that sh you can feel you can touch you can see Hashem on chabas in a way you'll never ever otherwise see him except of course you brought up from if you brought up from you might just take it all for granted you just do it because everybody does it unless you've got a pair of eyes there who've never seen it before and then you start to see shabas the way we all should see shabas because we rumors we take it for granted because we were brought up that way but you should have seen anim Mara's eyes when I opened that and she saw C Tor for the first time I saw C Tor for the first time and when you get somebody standing beside you who never experience shabas and they touch shabas you start to it's a gift to yourself you start to touch shabas and feel it for the first time in your life or rather more perhaps than you've ever done before and that's a madri is something completely new how do you do this stuff well I have to tell you that Robert Aon sent me the um the the guide the the Shas guide that helps you to feel confident enough to invite somebody who isn't from to join you in shabas I honestly have never seen such a well produced and having spent a lifetime uh involved in K hokim or 50% of my time involved in kirim I've got a bit of experience in this I think it's absolutely fabulous it's a good advice like make sure you take the person you've invited to a show that's friendly to a non-friend person starting off you know the makit as a ladies shouldn't be too you know barbwire and electrified and all that sort stuff it's got to be a little bit more gentle than that it says they make sure the Cedar's in English I'll give it I would add to that make sure that the cedar that your guest's using is the same Cedar that you using the art scroll CED so they can simply copy the page number let them feel good about this and I have to tell you I got a very close friend called Rob by Professor Dr doid got who teaches at ARS he's an absolute genius and about 10 years ago maybe 15 years ago I can't remember exactly when the association of Jewish Outreach professionals the organization for people in K of rum all over the United States and Canada come together for an annual gathering in Baltimore and when they got there um he was the scholar in Residence so they spent four days with various big lecturers and all sorts of all sorts of organizations AA and or and everything you can imagine and they swapped ideas successful programs successful techniques and of course the brilliant idea of people working in campus and this trick and that idea and they took them here and he did this and did scuba diving and skydiving and what whatever it was do you know what they discovered after four days was the most successful tool in kirim a Friday night invitation a shabas invitation all the greatest kir of Professionals in North America and further of f the most effective way to enjoy get somebody to to be turned on that spark to turn into flame is just a shabas invitation that's all and in that instruction book it gives you all the answers you need all the approaches you can need in order to be able to do this and you should realize that if somebody comes along who's not room very often they will be absolutely terrified absolutely terrified when I get married to my late wife Al shom um when I was 40 years ago um 40 so years ago U I come from Glasgow in Scotland which you probably heard from my fabulous accent and um and and Glasgow is not a particularly religious place and there was cousins who were coming to the wedding there was one lady I remember cousin of my lady wives and she wasn't from but of course they had to come husband was forcing her to come do you know she was in valium for two months before the wedding it's absolutely true Valium is that sort of like stress relieving drug for two the thought of coming to a from event terrified her Valium for two months and of course when she came she had the time of her life brilliant fabulous but don't forget a lot of people will be coming will be really scared how do you do this how do you get them to sort of like want to come well the rman famously says the tah speaks in language that we understand when it says Hashem saves CL with an outstretched arm guess what Hashem doesn't have an outstretched arm or when the T says M went up to Mahar and saw Hashem wearing to fill him saw the not at the at the back of hashem's head guess what Hashem doesn't possess to fill him nor does he have a head and sometimes the Torah talks about hasem in the masculine Elohim and sometimes it's in the feminine the is a feminine word I remember at Manchester University many years ago I had to go to a a meeting of all sorts of priests and nuns and stuff and they were discussing one of the one of the priestesses was discussing the fact that when she prays she doesn't pray to to God the Father I find that offensive as a woman I pray to God the mother so I walked in there like trying not to roll my eyeballs and somebody said and and and Rabbi in your tradition because you're not allowed to have a religion anymore Rabbi in your tradition how do you handle this I said well in my tradition it's really not a problem because we get some words that refer to Shem in the masculine some in the feminine but of course the whole thing's nonsense isn't it MH I said well if you have a physical body and a certain sort of physical body you're female if you got another sort of physical body then you're male but if you don't have a body at all you're neither male or female so it's all things a nonsense they want didn't quite get that but the point is that the Torah speaks in language which shall evoke a response that we relate to the idea of a father Elohim that God's being strict Elohim the mother says you wait till your father gets home doesn't she because the mother's the gentle one and the father's the the bully and the thug and that's the way they're work so when Hashem speaks as Elohim he's letting you know I'm angry with you when it's thein is letting you know that I'm I'm loving and kind because to evoke a response and the Torah has to speak in language that we understand and as from Jews we have to be able to relate to people in the language they don't they understand some people come to my Friday night table for the first time I don't quote tus at them it should just be fun I don't know if you saw or you heard in the radio I don't see but I heard in the radio when I was and actually saw when I was waiting for my plane first class um to come here tonight uh somebody called Hillary Rhoden Clinton have you heard of her yes I don't don't she could be worse much worse than Obama um nothing could uh anyway so basically uh what happened was when Bill Clinton that's her husband uh when Bill Clinton was President of the United States of America if you remember he ran against a sitting president of the United States that was George Bush Senior he a successful first term he beat Saddam Hussein in the first Gulf War he was respected he was a clever man he had a great reputation but Bill Clinton thrashed him in the election and there was a sign above the campaign office of Bill Clinton and it just had four words three words sorry three words over there to remind people of a very important fact and that was the three words were any know the economy stupid the economy stupid because people respected the president but at that stage people worried about their jobs in America they worried about the mortgages they were worried about how they were going to get bu the economy stupid and I say when you're going to have Jewish kids when that stage of your life comes or has come you should sign over the uh over the nursery make it fun stupid Judaism is meant to be fun Solomon on my great rebies pointed out many years ago when we've read read from the sa I'm putting it back in the ores the words we see in the procession are noan the ways of the Torah are Pleasant and if you've read from it and you don't get that take it out and read it again you've missed the point it's got to be enjoyable so when you invite somebody to your house for Friday night which at the age conference princess said was the most effective tool of all it wasn't to bombard them with Jewish Ideas it was just a pleasant enjoyable experience of a Jew with a smile reaching out to another Jew and a KES cup know many people I know became from him just because of the twinkling of candlesticks and the actions the interactions between us and our children and how the children wow do you know we sing in our homes there was a time when the whole world used to sing but we actually sing together families used to sing together we still do not only that we actually talk to our children we sit down with their children at least one day a week and ask them how they're doing in school and they're allowed to contribute that doesn't happen out there in the non-jewish world which non-fr Jews are a part of And when they see it they're like a dying man or man dying of thirst in a desert that comes upon an oasis it's fabulous and that's all have to show them it's just AET it's just a warmth and a friendship come and enjoy a shab meal I don't ask you to do stuff just come enjoy us can make all the difference have you any idea how many lives You Touch without knowing it tell your story how am I doing P time I'm I boring you to death um I have a sister-in-law um who works in an iner INF infertility Clinic uh in Israel in fact my daughter-in-law who's an embryologist she works there as well I said to her yesterday today how many babies did you make today 30 babies anyway so basically there was a bunch of rabbis who whose special speciality is medical knowledge now they're not medically qualified but you'll find they probably half here in Toronto some rabbers are just incredibly interested in medical stuff and they know all the Specialists they know all the doctors they know the best treatments and the latest treatments often more than the doctors themselves for the very simple reason the doctor is tooo busy curing people to keep up with the research and there was a group of eight of these rabbis who are absolute medical experts being shown around this this infertility clinic and the fellow in charge it was a fellow Co Dr Brooks and uh so in natural fact what happened was that one of the fellas asked a question my sister-in-law heard his accent was speaking in a and thought he was American at naturalight he was English so Dr Brooks the head of the of the unit turned to my sister-in-law talk to the guy and said my my assistant Mrs Sher um she'll answer this question for you she's like you English actually she's Scottish like me and so basically uh she answered the question and she said as a matter of fact my brother-in-law organizes a big conference for 2,000 people in Manchester and he wanted me to come and lecture on this subject and the rabbi said and who's your brother-in-law and she said um why why Rubenstein and the rabbi said why why Rubenstein yes Rabbi YY Rubenstein yes the Rabbi YY Rubenstein yes then he turned to the other rabbis and said I want you to know I am everything I am today because of Rabbi y Rubenstein now do you know who this Rabbi is nor do I haven't a clue if you thought this was an eagle story not at all I Haven a clue we had the rabbert aons involved with ncsy which I think which I think is a fabulous organization um but in England it was called J ysg there was an equivalent there and I used to lecture there at their summer school and their winter School and I could give you a whole list of young men and women who became rabbis and rabbits since who were close to me I haven't a clue who this guy was but he was sitting there and he was listening and something impressed him and it wasn't anything I was teaching from myself it was I just teaching Robert Esters or the AL but he was listening I don't know who he is but he saves lives you can touch a life which saves other lives just by being ni Parish just by dispense dispensing with the nonsense that non from Jews are un friendly or we don't care well in natur fact we care a lot and it's an astonishing thing that the F of CLA who suffered in the Holocaust more than anybody else most of the German Jews the assimilated Jews most got out but it was the F Jews who didn't get out and yet and the astonishing thing is by 1967 which is the beginning of the kiru movement we had and or and all these other places mushroomed in the wake of the Six Day War well the gas chamber stopped in 1945 so 22 years later this decimated helic of clur is reaching out did I get it right yeah reaching out to other Jews and bringing them in what a k as we heard the professionals like myself who were doing this only were a Dro in the bucket but if all of us can come together and reach out unbelievable and one last idea particularly with a situation as it is in I don't know about you I have at least I've got two children there I've got grandchildren there we've all got M there but I want you to know that the points out that it says in the world stands on three things How does it go the says it's the wrong way around isn't it shouldn't it be that the world start stands on well what came first AB was first and he was CED and then there was and he was a voer and then yob he was ter so it should say the world stands in three things which is AA and Torah why is it Torah A and G time for a quick story I was in Manchester I had to get down to see sh in London Lon and I drove down and I made the the terrible mistake the no Orthodox Rabbi setly a gat head Rabbi like me can ever do and that is I left my hat behind you can't appear in public without a hat um and gate said we shower with our hats anyway so basically I got to London and I was living I was staying with my some my MB in gold is green I said where's the best place to get a barcelino barcelino and they said Stanford Hill that's of like if you know if you know Brooklyn there's flat Bush and cor park right so we're talking gold is green and Stanford Hill so I phoned up the shop the store and I was I said to the guy I'm looking for a barcelino size 7 and a quarter such and such a model do you have it you said the casid shat salesman and so I drove over to Stanford Hill takes an hour and I arrived there and I knocked I thought it was closed I knocked on the door and he pulled back all the bolts because he was in a bad area of town he' been mugged a few times and he took me in and he bed the store again uh he said you're the rabbi that I said yes he said I'll just get you some hats uh I said thank you very much so he come out with a bunch of hats he said can I make you a cup of coffee I said no it's okay you're you're busy in your business robbi let me make you a cup of coffee I said look you don't please let me make your cup okay so offie disappeared I tried on a hat first hat fitted perfectly out came with two styrofoam you call the styrofoam Canada poyon in England uh cups of coffee and we start to Schoo so he says what do you you do in Manchester I said I'm in the religion business and um and we started to talk and I discovered something very interesting about my little hat salesman nebuch he and his wife about five or six years before had had a little baby who had absolutely everything wrong with the baby that you could possibly imagine the baby was born blind and not only that there was some condition I don't know the name of it where the Senus and the tendons in the body which of course are like elastic bands and stretch and contract to allow us to move our limbs instead of being elastic we're rigid so the Babb was born completely paralyzed now there is a way to treat this because uh a tendon is a bit like a ribbon and if you cut a zigzag then it gives it elasticity so they could help the baby but this would mean that this poor little baby would have to go through countless surgeries countless surgeries and so they went to see the doctor and the doctor assessed the baby and said he's too young to have the surgery no but we could start when he's 2 years of age and so they waited and 6 months before the surgery the first surgery was about to take place there was a doctor from Chile a Japanese Doctor Who used practice alternative techniques and he was in London and somebody told him that uh this guy is uh is able to he works in this field maybe he could help and so the kidish Hat sales with his wife and the baby phoned up the doctor the doctor said look I'm only here for two weeks it's hardly enough time but you could make a start and if you see see success then you'll come to Chile and after two weeks there was remarkable change and so they decided they would go to Chile so the little city hat salesman went to see his travel agent who was a travel agent and said he wanted three tickets for chile and the travel agent said Chile beasty michig Chile gavon Michigan G where you going to get C food and Chile and and you they kidnapped people off the streets in Chile and you crazy so they weren't going to Chile and then one day he got a phone call just like mine from a from a rabbi who said he needed a hat um he was looking for a hurg you know the rush rush sha type hat did he have them yes he had them he'd be there in an hour he came pulled back the boats in came a rashba with a a frog coat and he said I'll bring you a bunch of hearts and he brings a bunch of hearts and then he said to the the rashba can I make a cup of coffee and he said you don't let me make a cup of coffee and so the rash tries on the hat comes out having a cup of coffee sells on the hat and start to Sho where you from raat be shamish in Israel forgive me asking how come you came without a hurt while the taxi was late and they rushed out because it was touch and go whether he was going to get in the plane and they drove off he'd forgotten his heart but it was too late to go back and get it so he would get one when he got to London what you doing in London collecting for your yiva yes he's collecting for his yiva and after that going to New York and after New York going back to Israel no no he's going to South America where Chile the ref from Jews and Chile the from Jews and Chile he tells them the story but his child it's not a problem takes out his little collector's notebook with all the names of his victims and uh and he said makes a couple of phone calls within just a couple of phone calls there's a place for the for the family to stay for up to 6 months no problems whatsoever completely costree etc etc so he went to Chile they came back a week before the surgery the doctor wanted the surgeon wanted to see the child no to appraise the child before the surgery and after he examined the child he said what is this child doing here what is this child doing here I don't know what you're do in Chile but you should keep going he doesn't need me and there was other crisis back to Chile and that was that and he said my little K shahad salesman I think that he thought the reason why he'd forgotten his heart was because the plane you the taxi was late I think Hashem made the taxi late so that he would forget his hat and he would come into my shop and I would hear the story and my child would be saved all the agony of all these operations as would myself and my wife and I think he's right but that all happened because of the kindness of a cup of coffee and a styrofoam cup what s ofid is a cup of coffee and a star of one cup it's a garnished it's a nothing but that little CID was enough to save a child countless operations and surgeries save the parents the agmus Nish that when clol fails in tah and cl fails in tah Avo as long as G is at the end of the line the the last insurance policy for clol is if we're still doing it and what we have here is an incredible opportunity to do it for people whose lives unlike ours have not been blessed with an opportunity to to discover what being Jewish is but more than that maybe we're making a huge mistake maybe they'll come to us for shabus and give us so much more it's a partnership a partnership between us and the rest of clis and the r paskins why when you come when you made Kish and shabas if somebody comes who hasn't had KES why am I alone hly to make KES for you the language of the Russ is because if that person out there hasn't heard KES there's a bit of you that hasn't heard Kish because we're all one family called Israel a raven zaz there we have brothers and sisters literally out there who've not had the broas that we've had this is a chance to give it to them but we might be surprised in that little kid theim that it could flow to us immeasurable not just in 10 years time you have produced the rabbi or rabits and someday saves lives and you didn't even know the truth of the matter is they might be giving us by coming to us for shabas giving to our children who comeing to us for shabas much more than we are giving them and as I said always great to be in Toronto project inspires preparation events for the chabas project which is this coming chabas par October 23rd 24th so you're probably wondering why am I coming to Bas Yakov Elementary on a Wednesday night to learn about how to prepare for shabas and if you ask that that's a good question so I want to start with a story that that happened to me and my wife and uh we got a call from my Rosa R Noah Weinberg Z and he asked he wanted to meet with my wife and myself so we we went with him and I don't know if you know R Noah had a had big vision of a global kiru that was his vision his idea was how do you tackle assimilation in the world you need to start a Grassroots movement you need to get Manpower from a Grassroots movement so what was his first logical approach he went to the fir community that was where he started so we came into the meeting and and by the way when you go into a meeting with r Noah it was always interesting because you never knew how you were going to come out I mean you'd go in one way and then you'd come out you don't know what you were committing to and and what you vision and he had you convinced and you were buying into it you never actually knew so we were a little bit nervous and we walk into this meeting and he started to explain a little bit of his philosophy of kiru and he said that you know when he he really believed that the way to tackle simulation we need to create that Grassroots movement and when he first started out he went to the fir community and he said he was somewhat successful he got some people to to buy into it he got some people to actually go out and and work on kiru but he said at the time it really it really didn't catch on it really didn't resonate at the time for whatever reason it was years decades ago so he decided at that point that if he can't do that if he can't get if it's not the right time and he can't really it doesn't really resonate with the from community at this time what's he going to do he's going to create a Grassroots movement through balich Chua he's going to M of Jews he's going to M of them and they're going to go through the whole process and by going through the whole process they'll realize that it can be done and they'll be his Manpower for his Grassroots movement and that's how he started AA Torah so that's what he was explaining to us and we were saying well so rinberg started ASA Torah only after he first wanted to work start on the fir community and I we thought that was a we that was an amazing statement uh from the rosh Shiva and he and he said to us and and he basically looked Us in the eye and he said even though back then at that time it perhaps it wasn't the right time for some reason now is the right time we have to start something now and that's when they started ASA Torah began and put together the plan for project Inspire and R Noah really believed in the fir Community he really believed them he felt they were the key to really helping battle assimilation so reminds me of a v Tor that I that I saw that Rob desler said in the M of mahu so if you ever wonder why is it that there's billions of people in the world and they all have different faces they're part partsim everybody has a different face different Nuance even twins they have a even twins after a while you could tell the difference between Twins why is it that a Kish who created the world with every single person there's no person who has the same face so revler he quotes and he quotes the the medas he quotes and he says just like everybody just like everybody's faces are not the same says so too their thoughts are not the same so R desler goes on to explain about that that every why is everybody created with a different face it's to reflect the fact that everybody was given a special potential to bring to reveal hashem's Beauty and real reveal hashem's covered in this world everybody has that potential and that's what we have to believe that's why it's not up to the kiru workers we think kiru is up to the kiru work workers everybody has that their own special potential that they were brought into this world too that they can reveal they can reveal that beauty to somebody else and R Noah used to call it the sleeping giant Awakening the sleeping giant that's what the name was before it turned into project Inspire because we are the Giants we each one of us we don't have you don't have to be the kiru professional we each have that potential it's all within us to make that difference make that impact and that's what no taught us and that's what project Inspire is all about that's why we're having this event tonight this preparation event as well as one on Sunday as well up north with Rabbi Elie Mansour it's all that we to help us have the to energize Us in order that we can really reveal hashem's Beauty and his coved in this world we all have that ability to and for this coming chabas project and that we should feel the the confidence to reach out to invite somebody over for a meal for the shabas project not as an end and of itself but as a tool to create a relationship so that's what we're doing here tonight that's what project Inspire is all about so now I have uh the honor now to introduce Rabbi La IR rabbi irons is our director of community activities for project Inspire and since we brought him on and he also works for ncsy and Torah high and does an amazing job with them he has really energized project Inspire he has been a leader he has he's helped he's worked with our partners and he's really he's put everything else everything together and he's working amazingly and we're looking forward to continue with his leadership as he energizes our community and we work together and and create partners and really have and how have an impact on the Jewish Community as the fir community so without further Ado I'd like to introduce Rabbi irons so I'd like to thank you all for joining us tonight for this evening of inspiration with project Inspire the title of tonight's presentation is preparing for the shabas project how to inspire yourself and Inspire others project in Inspire arrived on the scene some eight years ago to fill a widening Gap barem the Ty Community is growing by Leaps and Bounds and demographers have taken note of the new Jewish landscape with an increasingly strong fir Community you could refer to the latest Pew report on the Orthodox community at the same time the non-firm community is is becoming much more assimilated by the day and as we know no MV is going to bring every Nish back but as a joint effort with every from person we will together make an incredible difference and as well as we know in order to inspire others we ourselves have to become inspired and as the Dubner maget says that there are two ways to fill up a cup either you take another cup that's full and you pour it into the next cup and you pour the next cup into the next cup and eventually they'll all run dry or you could take that first cup and you could keep on filling it up and filling it up and it'll flow over and it will fill up all the other cups and hence the topic for tonight's presentation I'd like to thank Mr heightman who really is the driving force for project Inspire and unfortunately our administrator is away but Mr Heyman has stepped up to the plate to to be our administrator in the meantime I'd like to thank all of the volunteers the SCH Representatives the shabas hosting committee and everybody who's really come together for this cause i' also like to thank all of the shs the schools the community organizations who really recognize the very important need on behalf of a and because our mission really is across the board and our mission is to help every single mid develop a stronger avas ra I must say that it's really amazing that across the board in Toronto the schoes and the schools have all become Partners in spreading the mission of project Inspire so I really want to thank everybody I'd like to also just thank Mrs Dena Balman I don't know if she's here tonight she's probably isn't she's been working very very hard on giving the message of shabas and keeping it going with her incredible work with the Shabbat project Toronto and I like to thank a myriad of volunteers who are helping out at the kalalake which project Inspire sponsoring next week about 2 months ago we gathered In This Very Room and we heard the powerful words of revlo schita and reim alio Shapiro about the importance to reach out especially in regards to giving out the gifts on rashash Shana to inviting for suus and for inviting for the chabas project for and just out of Curiosity has did anybody participate in any of that did anybody give a gift for rashash anybody did anybody invite for sukus okay well for all the hands that didn't go up it's not too late because this coming chabas not par not this chabas but par we have an incredible opportunity to really reach out and in this week's Community Link which came out yesterday or today there's a guide to being a shabas host that could be very helpful so I urge you to read it and to check it out it's not our complete guide but it's pretty thorough and we're really here to help you along you could also outside we have for sale it's not really for sale it's really we're giving it away because it's very heavily subsidized but these are shabbach this is a shabus in a box actually had a dream of doing this last year and barem there were people in our New York office who put this together it's amazing and it's kala grape juice Kish cup candles a shabus guide and even a Kala cover just so you could give if it's too hard to invite somebody or you have way too many people to invite or you're not comfortable for whatever reason there's no excuse just go outside it's only $7 for a small one $20 for a deluxe one which comes with a real kalala board and a real Kish cup it's actually a bargain but that's why it's not meant for us so we also just started just to give you a bit of an idea of what's going on with project Inspire we started an inperson kabusa program in Thor Hill on Tuesday nights and we're doing many many different initiatives across the board to really reach out and to bring all of CLA together just a short ver before I introduce Rabbi Rubenstein so this week sedra ends with ab and his family going to and next week's par is obviously par and as we know eventually AB goes there and together with his wife Sarah they left with and Rashi writes it refers to the people who he was M along the way and the g of tells us It quotes that human history many people are familiar with this gumar human history is divided into three Aras of 2,000 years each so the first 2,000 years is an era of O emptiness the second period is the era of Torah and the third is y mashia and that's the time that it's most mugal for messiah to come that's our time now so thear asks how's it possible if you do the math the T was given in 2448 so how could you say that it was a full 2,000 years of Tyra it was missing the first 448 years so the answers that it begins with that when was 52 years old that's when it happened that's when the Tyra was considered to have been given and so abam was born in the year 1,948 so plus the 52 years years with so that's the 2,000 years of the founding of the Tyra and T did not begin from the time that people started studying Tyra from the time of of sh a and so and the others it only began when there was har When Ty is being taught to others and to True Tyra is meant to be learned and to be passed on to others and as we know this pus would have been the time for hak following the year so sometimes someone I'm sorry who could hear but is unable to talk is putter from the Mitzvah of hak because the Mitzvah is to study Tyra for the purpose of teaching Tyra and every week we say explains that it's the that you learn to teach to others that's the that then T becomes a it becomes a tool of kindness and that's really what we're all about over here that we have been privileged to study so much Tyra and we have been Z to give it to our children and our immediate community and project Inspire enables us to walk in the footsteps of Abu and to reach out to those who did not have the privilege to learn on their own thear tells us that someone who teaches the childhood inra is held in the highest esteem that even if hasem then the person has the power to anull that decree That's The Power of teaching a child of an amarit Tyra now I'd like to tell you a story that I was involved with this week that I was called to help officiate at a funeral at this levia of a lady who was 78 years old who passed away and she herself did not grow up for him her children are totally not religious and so I asked my friend what's the story so he said that she lived right over here in the apartment right down the block and the neighbors she moved in when she was 70 years old and neighbors used to send over things that they cooked and baked for chabis the cookies the cakes the cougle the Fila fish they would bring her danishes and they arranged when she wasn't feeling so well they brought her food from B her they would bring her sandwiches cut up fruit and many of the families invited her for chabas meals in fact this past chabas before uh well before she passed away she spent chabas in a Suka and it's really incredible that this lady at the age of 70 she started on her path of Yiddish guide in which she was nifter at the age of 78 because of her neighbors in the Meadow Brook fraserwood area she died being a sham shabas which is unbelievable that here are people who are not there even I don't think to be marar of her necessarily she actually somebody taught her Hebrew and she started going to shurm but they were just to care for her so if you have anybody in your building who's under 78 years old don't tell me that there's no hope left because it it's unbelievable and what's shocking is that at the Laya you have the family who unfortunately many of whom are not even Jewish and you have an entire group of kyalite of rabam of so many others who were there as well it was really an incredible sight so that's just the message I'd like to introduce Rabbi why why Rubenstein Rabbi rubenstein's a world-renowned author and speaker whose Tyra insight and humor has enabled him to inspire tens of thousands around the globe I had the privilege to spend this past Tish abub with him in my father-in-law sh to West Mount sh in Thorn Hill and it was an incredible if you want to say an incredible Tish abub but it was definitely a very meaningful Tish above like none other it was pretty incredible as well so we're delighted that rabbi Rubenstein has agreed to take time from his busy schedule to join us for this important Gathering and I want to tell you how important it is that the suan and the just like when AR went for the alada the suon in the last minute decided to cancel his ticket so in the airport when he's about to get to get his ticket he calls me that they had canceled his ticket but no worries we got him here on a first class ticket and he's flying back also first class so he'll come back again so what's interesting about Rabbi Rubenstein not know if he knows this even and it's not a but the in tells us that it's that you can't compare somebody who learns 100 times to somebody who learns 101 times and the difference is that somebody who learns 1001 times is considered that inem and it's quite fortuitous that our speaker tonight Rabbi Rubenstein his full name is Ruda y Rubenstein and Yehuda Y is the gatria 101 a true IID Hashem