Project Inspire Tisha B'Av Talk Show 2021 - Iron Faith

da what's new behind the iron wall in this letter i'll write to you of life as a free benefit the day begins rather early sweet sounds of children learning is [Music] whose faith shall never die soon great [Music] walls [Music] you could be here my poor and lonely brother oh my father [Music] my dear father the anguish of your children knows now welcome to another tish above here we are another year what an incredible day what an incredible time the most powerful maybe time of the year is happening right now as we've been through an entire day tons of room tons of films i think many of us i think in our hearts believed we wouldn't be doing this again after the years that we've been going through these past few years our sense is that maybe this is wouldn't have happened but we're here again and we've got to take something new from this tish above we've got to hold on to something and try to adjust and readjust in order to begin the process of making sure that we start to end tish aboves in the future so what's missing we've done as much as we can do we could always do more in our actions we could always do more in our speech in our te filos but maybe the area that we need to focus on in the words of the necessa our heart maybe what hashem is waiting for is to make sure that our heart is focused on the prize our heart is focused on yerushalayim heart is focused on the iron will of our heart to be able to want one thing to not settle for just a little bit of an easier gullis to not be satisfied with just a little bit more comfort for our fellows to not be just allow us to survive with little more ease maybe what's next is for our nation to gather together and demand that god takes us the next phase of our history to strengthen our will to strengthen our desire and to set our sights higher than it was before today's show is highlighting iron faith throughout our history we have met people that have lived in very challenging times and they've expressed and shown us what it's like to live with strength in your faith with a strong heart they've gone through challenges they've done things that would make most of us wonder if we were them would we ever do half this the film this this year from project inspire was about iron faith and the people that we have today are people with iron faith and the reason why we have them is because maybe by listening to their stories we can tell ourselves and we can show ourselves that with all that we have in our lives with all the freedoms that we were granted maybe what we need now is to match and to marry the freedoms of our time with the strength of yesteryear maybe if we adopt and understand how to activate the hearts of those that have really struggled for judaism as we come into our lives today we can now put the final piece in the puzzle and have a direction for the year and maybe by next tish above we can be filming this live from higher bias so thank you for joining us stick with us we have an incredible show we have incredible guests and i hope that you're with us all the way to him we're going to go with god's help all the way right up to marv so stick with us and i know that i hope that you'll be inspired to know that the people that we have have inspired me and i hope they'll inspire you as well and of course i am joined as well always with the one and only yasi friedman the executive director of project inspire yes it is an honor to be with you again jesse we have been together nine years for nine years nine tisha buffs it's an incredible thing this started as a radio show if you remember in the knocking seagull studio we would hang out over there lower east side lower east side a lot of props lower so my wife is from the lower east side there's a lot of props how much food to break your fast down but there's a little there's there are phenomenal jews in the lower east side that's for sure and uh and it is it's an honor to be with you as well it's an honor to be able to be back with you yes tell me a little bit about the film what you've been thinking what's been going on so the truth of matter is that you know people ask me um you know year to year like you know how do you come up with these ideas and you know the films seem to be getting better the truth of matter is that they come from different places and different inspirations different uh angles maybe we'll maybe we'll uh later on we'll take a sneak peek as to really where the inspiration of this film actually came from but i did want to preface it because many people have been emailing in you know you know that so-and-so made a trip to russia you know this one that one this film doesn't even touch on the fringes of the of the people and the amount of people that went out there and they did you know people mentioned that who was mentioned in the film you know was out there through thick and thin in the form of soviet union there was so many so many more there are many people who unfortunately aren't alive anymore who made tremendous sacrifices to go out there this film just touches on the concept really on the concept um in just a few interviews that we were able to that we were able to gather but i think the concept is and you mentioned this in the in the onset which was you know in my life the extent of having to hide us being jewish and being afraid was you know when you have to daven in a european airport and you're wondering like is is this enough to the side you know and then of course the muslim rolls out his carpet in the middle of the airport all right i guess i could dive in here right but we're talking about people who lived in peace time for the most part in peace time this was their life yeah if they practice judaism openly they could risk their lives and their families and and who knows what could happen and so i felt that it was it was a type of message that we should feel at a time where like we're basically free you know what would we have done you know what what do we do when things become a little bit you know uncomfortable and i knew it was an inspiration to me and i guess there would be inspiration oh my gosh i absolutely loved it i when i was watching the film all i can think about is how do you make these people they're telling stories about i mean the story about the person we had on the show going to jail and still not violating his judaism and the the learning groups they had undercover and i'm thinking to myself like it's hard enough to get people to come to an uh a shul with a huge star of david on it right these were people that were under persecution fighting it was unbelievable it was unbelievable and the courage and what they were up against and then you know on the flip side there were people who made trips yeah then you didn't even know if they would go back i mean you know in in the film robert gold tells about how he had you know he got to get his his directions and his orders from this undisclosed office and from this unnamed i mean this is how this is how they operated so it was really it really gives us an idea of what people had to endure in order to keep their faith in order to be able to go strong and the courage and i have to tell you the thing that struck me the most is that when you speak to these jews of the former soviet union it's almost they wonder like why you're speaking to them it's like totally what do you mean totally this is you know this is what we had to do like yeah we risked our lives to keep shabbos but it's not what every jew does isn't that our is now and i think that sitting in jail for three years for shabbos that's a that's a big deal exactly yeah you know i should mention and we have to get on we have our first guest coming up but i just mentioned you know when i was when i was a child some of you viewers might remember this there was a fellow of yudkin who used to come collect money he had a yeshiva for russians and kirit malachi and my father once was not a wealthy man sat him down and he paid him for his time so that he could tell us in yiddish so that my father could translate about how he would never kept yom kippur in prison and it cost him another year in prison you know and how they tried to force him to eat he just wanted me to hear from a man who endured this you know because it's amazing like they said the expression goes they don't make them like they used to like them no these people they don't i want to share a clip with you charlie about of the film is this a story about you know they're all gathered together they're learning you know and the kgb bursts in and you know we we might be like you know petrified like here they are they're bursting in like you know let's roll into the police cars and rabbi esses who was teaching the class he had a different message which was appropriate for that time i want to share this club with you hanukkah class of 1980 about 30 40 people were sitting in the room one of my friends was sitting right near me when the bell rang so he came to open the door and there was a big bang like he was like flew to the opposite wall and a second later we saw police storming the room don't move hands on the table you're under arrest it was a scary moment i remember how my soul seemed somewhere and remember if you don't follow the orders we will use force against you and they said this really oasis and me the kgb expected us uh to have a discussion and debate about should we go willingly or should we allow them to use forced investors and instead essays quietly said to us let's continue the class let's continue the class and people were very quietly listening to what he was saying like i said you know these people outside the door they like ancient greeks who came to stop us from learning torah and the same way we overcame the greeks we will overcome this darkness as well and one day we'll be all in the land of israel learning torah together that was a very powerful message so we're now joined with an incredible rabbi just to give everybody a sense of what what's happening right now the iranian jews if you go back lived in relative peace under the shah but in 1979 the revolution came and with the revolution came the ayatollah khomeini and the entire life for the iranian jews has changed at that point judaism became illegal and studying judaism became much more complicated in 1980 the war broke out between iran and iraq and young young people were being accrued recruited into the army who didn't even want to go and so at that moment after decades and in in years and years and years of relative peace in iran the iranian jewish community between the war and between the ayatollah experienced an incredible people our next guest is rabbi shub he came to america in 1987 from iran he went to nary srell for baltimore then he went to philly he's now married with nine kids and live in brooklyn rabbi thank you so much for joining us on the show it's been an honor to be here um what question yeah thank you so much for being here and for for being a part of this um i know that when you were in iran it became very difficult to study torah tell us a little bit about what you had to do to overcome the fear of getting found how did you study during those times when they beca when they are working the first thing that they are lucky that the rural immigration that the jews cannot leave the country so that made it fair to everybody we had the jewish school that it was from kindergarten all the way up we did everything we dive in there we landed once they came to the picture they wanted to take that away from us which means that we had to go to school and shabbos which we never did the learning we did whether it was very early in the morning or very late at night so during the day you couldn't learn no we could not we had early in the morning or late at night we only had one set of mishnayots one set of gemara that we made a copy and we had to do with the fair like uh everybody wanted to love torah and lentura but they had to be like in a scary face you know we had to go to school very very early in the morning or late at night so we use when when when you were learning torah was there a sense that we can get discovered we can get found out we can get into trouble if they would find out he would get in trouble yes but what was the feeling like because i'm trying to capture in my mind how old were you by the by the way when i left i was 18. so you were you were very young yes so you're 15 16 right you're in that zone i had my cousin which was 10 years when you know we escaped together we grew up 16 people it was a family of six and another ten people six boys and four girls so it was a very very scary time the only the only thing that they had was the ammuna that the parents and grandparents they gave it to us the insta dogs with that ammuna we were able to escape you is escaping your country over the mountain you don't know what's the next step is going to happen to you so what tell us a little bit about that escape at some point what happens your parents come to you and say we're leaving so the escaping started from 83 which my brothers they came 83 and you had to go over the mountain to a different country and from that you come to vienna then united states is is a ten months journey i can't tell you everything in three minutes half months to stand from the day that i left until i came to united states was 10 months but i tell you just tiny little bit of the first night that we escaped over the mountain this driver was going 100 miles per hour without the light in hoshi over the mountain it's going is spinning out you're in a jeep where are you you're in a jeep with your family 17 people 16 people family eight people were laying down and on a drug and other people were sitting and the smugglers said nobody is allowed to even breathe forget about talking and it's going and going all of a sudden the shootings start and they're shooting on us and next minute we saw like we're hiding some birds we didn't know where we are what's happening we just the opening of hashem he said nobody's allowed to talk until i tell you which was another five hours oh my gosh sunrise came in we look it's a big truck big jeep backed in a cave it was a cave he know where he is and what's he doing we didn't know that was like the most scariest thing in your life imagine 18 years here people go to camp for two three weeks they have visiting days we left our parents behind our country behind our language behind just to come and reestablish and that was from the dole they thought they saw it they said there is no reason for young people to stay there and be finished why you want to go to the army and get killed no you have to escape come back and re-establish bor hashem you see i went to an israel my other friends they came here in new york they went to hein berlin bar hashem everybody grew whether they said yeshiva whether they rabbonim or the doctor lewis hashem it was just that that we had this is like uh you know it's like almost the same era you know like but but you know you touched on it you said you know half jokingly we go to camp we have visiting day you left everything behind what is it you know not to take it for granted that you're able to practice religion freely and openly and what does that do to our commitment you know sometimes we sort of like take things for granted whereas like you're able to hold on with so much faith and energy you know through these travels sometimes you know when it's easier we sort of take it for granted so i tell you story my my brother is the calling in aries trial a few years ago he the rebbe's son was getting a bar mitzvah and my brother had a knock at the door and the red baby bass when he came and he said mordechai i want to speak to you said rebbe what's the matter with one phone call i would come to you said no next week is my son's bar mitzvah i want you to come and tell him the story of escaping and tell him the mesira nevis that you did how did he come to lentura here the boys they have everything on a silver platter they don't appreciate but they have no i wanted to come tell them exactly what my brother went 31 days even jail nobody knew where they are my mother fasted my mother my father fasted satan had him 24 7. for 31 days nobody knew where they were so that's oh my brother said the story and the arabia i appreciate it so much he said look i want my kids to know where he is in gan eden in shiva near australia everything is there so you have to enjoy and have every second you have to use it how does it work how do people have so much faith is it natural or do you feel that each and every one of us has this ability and when when someone is pushed it'll come out so i believe this is my message today for the whoever is watching that emunah that was transferred from my great grandparents to my parents and they gave it to me with that moon up shooter that inspired us and gave us koya to live it's not so simple unless you have a moon hashem and you know that hashem is the one who is controlling and is above with that muna you could do anything in the world that you want it's in you you just have to bring it out in every jews that has that ammuna depends how strong you are that's why our foundation was in iran my family borrowed hashem that was inside of us i would not said anything anything to go against i was born i believe with you and you know admirable stream and i asked my rebbe one time can i say you see at iran by pesach night instead of you know yeah you're supposed to say he said aderaba you are in it you were in it you have in your hand so my daughter asked me about i'm telling you have to write on a book that they should know the children grandchildren the great grandchildren they have to know where did you come who are you what you have done to just reestablish you as a jew and what you're saying that i want to make sure is clear because that's what the show really is about and you're you're opening up with this which is so perfect which is the ammuna the faith the strength that we have we all have it if somebody grew up the way you grew up where at such a young age you had to go through so much you relied on it but someone who's living here in this country who may not have had that background they have it too they have that faith too and if they can just realize that with what god gave them in this country in today's day and age who knows what's possible it's exactly what it is they have it in a silver platter they just have to appreciate it and they have to bring that they have to light into it every single jew has it you just have to light it up and i'm example look i'm here four years 87 to 21 bar hashem children married and grandchildren and hastation rabbi thank you so much we can't hide you know there are messages coming in we know the shoes they're amazing people who love so obviously your inspiration is going far already people are chatting again thank you rabbi much appreciate it thank you so much and thank you thank you for we can get a little bit of the inspiration just you know sitting next to hopefully we'll be able to bring that out and our families in our communities thank you thank you thank you for joining us you know charlie we always we always uh mention that uh or sometimes i forget to mention which is why i'm reminded to mention that uh you know we're here doing this show and preparing for it etc like our wives and families are back home you know getting to the end of the day so kudos to them yes special shout out to our families for enabling us to come here and hang out right anyways so thank you back at home of everyone who's there watching uh you know we speak about endurance we speak about you know making you know thick and thin and and being able to come out holding that candle at the end i don't think there's uh somebody in our time that personifies that the way robert lao does the former chief rabbi of israel h.com is a beautiful clip of rabbi lao's upbringing through thick and thin let's go to that clip from h.com [Music] link [Music] um [Music] my abba [Music] tech [Music] what you did we're back over here what an incredible message from rabbi lau really understanding that the the power of the soul of the jew and what's really going on over here it's unbelievable what we're seeing here and the strength of her by lao when we're allowed our presents yeah i mean this is this is our story yeah you know and and you know we which really you know i i think it's scary maybe even to touch on this but like you know we're living in a time where we described and i described davening in a european airport and trying to find the right corner but we live in a bit of a scary time yeah just yesterday there was a story in flatbush and we're hearing some of these stories anti-semitic and hate crimes and it's creeping up on us you know for sure and so you know all these these stories that we're watching and that we're seeing about um you know people having faith through thick and thin all of a sudden you know it's it plays it applies here too absolutely and you're absolutely right there's there's definitely unfortunately we're living in a time of an increase in anti-feminism here in america and you're seeing it and it pops up and it goes away and it pops up and it goes away and we hope and we pray you know and the american jewish community doesn't want to really look closely in the eyes of anti-semitism we don't want to actually see it because if we see it too closely it's going gonna it's gonna ruin dinner um but it's happening and in fact our next guest is a victim of it um you know if you remember just a few weeks ago we had the story of that heinous anti-semitic attack in boston um let's go to that clip and we'll just really look at what happened and we'll bring out back to guest just 72 hours after he was attacked by a knife-wielding man in brighton a jewish rabbi gave his first-hand account of the ordeal today rabbi noginski is russian born and came to this country from israel two years ago to teach he speaks very little english but wanted to share his story saying the only way to defeat evil is by exposing it to the light bayan this afternoon rabbi naginsky described how an attacker tried to stab him dozens of times on thursday and through a russian translator marveled at still being alive it was a miracle that he was able to only get him eight times he was outside the shallow jewish day school in brighton when police say suspect khaled awad approached brandishing a pistol and demanded he climb into the school's van with him he wanted to get him into car and kill him inside of the car but he also knew that he has a gun and he also had the knife but when the suspect saw others nearby and tucked the gun away rabbi naginski made a run for it when a wad chased him down with the knife though the rabbi fell back on his black belt in judo something his mom got him into after hooligans beat him up as a kid still rabbi naginski says his survival was more than martial arts he knows that a lot of times strong people can get you know you can get hurt but what really helped him is the you know the trust in that with his numerous wounds now on the mend helped by countless stitches rabbi naginski is thankful that none of the kids he teaches were nearby when this happened in fact after telling his story today he surrounded himself with his own 12 children the best best way to fight evil is to bring more light at this point khaled awad is not charged with a hate crime in the attack his motives still a mystery but the rabbi is not without compassion we always pray that you know the person will get better and will will become better it's not always happening it's not always possible rabbi naginski says he offered a wad the keys to the school van several times but the suspect was insistent on the rabbi coming along as a driver maginski says he knew he couldn't do that and still expect to survive incredible yeah this is this is happening in america today right i love the fact that i think the the assailant is not charged with a hate crime just yet they're not sure unknown it's unknown at this time because also as you look at pictures of robin against it's not clear that he's jewish so you know wonderful it is our pleasure and i and especially last minute i called really an honor to have on robert naginski from uh from boston live with us right now on our program of robin naginski thank you so much for joining us and first and foremost how are you feeling [Music] gets you doesn't speak english well so i'm going to uh we'll do it together i got this i got it he said he's feeling good right again he's feeling good barak hashem he thanks everybody for the two listen keep on praying for him that that was the key keep on diving we're rocking and rolling that was that close that was close that was a good translation already against you did you okay on that one yeah it's amazing okay if you want to tell us it mentioned i know that uh your fallback plan was your black belt in in judo because of right yeah was that what is that your mom your mom got you into that because back as a child you had you had some run-ins do you want you want to let us know what that was and if that was the fact that you were a jew as well i never met [Music] right okay so just for our audience saying that his his mother was a famous composer in uh in the form in peterborough where we grew up and they would get threats they people the anti-semite didn't exactly love that fact so he had to be trained in self-defense that went on terrorist israel learned in yeshivo's and uh now i understand robert ginski you're in boston spreading torah and yiddish out in boston ok so saying that the last two years barack hashem his family now of 12 came to spread torah that as he was macabre the host of the rabbi of lobavich to everything he learned to be able to spread uh too claustro uh and now he's learning living in boston spreading torah over there i'm reading against let me ask you the question the following question we're talking today about iron faith about being strong in your ammuna being strong as a jew not being scared you mentioned a moment ago the the stories you grew up on are stories of people that were willing to speak to spread torah with serious nephesh with sacrifice somebody who's been through so much and you're here in this country and then you've been through this attack and you're continuing going to be spreading light can you share with us how people can grow in their strength in their fortitude and their ability to continue on um with mysterious nephesh for what they believe in [Music] today this is mentioned in the back in the form of soviet union his grandmother his grandmother would take would take them for his beautiful take his wisdom is your cousin you're a cousin for bruce mila for bismillah and it was it was you could be punished by death and you used a doctor from the army in order to be able to to manipulate that naginski hold on let me ensure transit yesterday yes he asked him was you think that in in america you'd have these situations so so rabbi you think that you're here like you know this isn't the former soviet union like you know getting stabbed outside of school typically doesn't happen in america he obviously did not expect this to happen i i have a question because there are people and it's happening on college campuses and it's happening among secular jews for sure and even amongst religious jews where the situations and these stories such as your story lead people to somehow hide that they're jewish sometimes not come out as forward as they as they once did that they are jewish and to do the things that they did in public what's your message to those people having gone through what you did for being a jew and for being in public what's your message for those people based on the question of did he expect this to happen is that no he didn't expect it but it had the opposite effect there are more people in his kegel in his in his community that are signing up to come to the jewish schools to teach in the jewish schools and uh he told a story about a fellow uh who uh in albany that was standing on the street putting on phil and he met an 84 year old man who had never put on phil in his life right and he said yeah and he said i don't do it anymore somebody they did it that day and for the first time first time and now he says and that was and that was the message that was a continuing i see that we were just we had some feedback the the people in your house are watching the are watching this live in his house right is that they're watching it on the computer no no we're hearing the feedback a little later this is this is the message i think that is so critical for everyone to hear um and it's really the message that is what makes people strong which is i think what you're saying which is first of all to tell over these stories to each other so that it reminds us of who our people are when you hear a story of a a cousin an aunt a grandparent putting their life on the line for brismila when you hear stories of jews willing to do whatever it takes and that they're not scared because their judaism is so critical to them as we tell stories like this to each other and as this becomes normal in our homes and in our conversations it'll make us stronger and in addition what we're hearing you say which is so powerful is and i've heard this i got to tell you um i remember there was a a killing in i forgot where it make i think it was in india and mumbai maybe there was a chabad couple that was nev i think it was in india maybe like five six years ago do you know where there was a chabad couple in whom i think it was like 10 years ago they were killed so they had i'll never forget this and this is exactly what you're saying and just to highlight it for a second for everyone listening and god bless because they they across the board they say this so this is just but really really i was watching the they had a clip of the family of this couple on like the today show which is one of the big shows in america and they asked him what are you going to do next i think it was right around hanukkah time and they said what are you going to do next and he said well we're going to build more centers and we're going to send more people out and we're going to continue doing and the lady said wait why aren't you don't you want revenge don't you want retribution don't you want someone to pay the price and he said to her the way we fight darkness is with light and this is what you said also is the way that's how we operate we don't start beating people up and it's such a powerful lesson for us today which is when you hear about an anti-semitic attack the the the approach is not fear the approach is not let's go out and do something the approach is more light more pride right more strength and that's what you stand for and that's what you're seeing around you with that basically for every stab in which there were eight they're opening up new centers new rabbanim corresponding to the eighth stabbing is there a better way to get back at our enemies then every time they try to hurt we just build more and more and we're going to see we're going to see more about this message we're going to move on to our next guest robert neginski i want to thank you again for the last minute for being able to for joining us and we're talking about people that are strong we're talking and they live today we don't have to go back right to stories of 200 years ago unfortunately the the the our enemies allow us to have these even constant stories to be able to you know and they're all over the place but i want everyone to understand this so wherever you're watching from i want you to understand it's in all of us this is this is this is no this is what it means to be a jew it means that when we hit a wall whether it's god forbids what he went through or what they're going through in all these different or it's just something that we just stumble in life the approach is strength the approach is to increase light to do more good the ability to not be scared the ability to not be fearful these are all in a way the the basic ingredients in our ability to become great people and he he's the story of that you know um ladies and gentlemen we're streaming live at yeshivaworld.com at matsa projectinspired.com we're on the zev brender radio channel we're on tour anytime of course i want to thank tor anytime for their partnership as well and if anyone wants to send comments email radio projectinspire.com radio project inspired.com we'd love to hear your comments as well we have just another short clip about sacrifice that we've discussed until now uh from h.com um a special message again for today for the theme that we're discussing check it out it's headlines like this that make me really mad you know hadas malcolm was a 23 year old police woman who was protecting me so i could safely walk around jerusalem and she got killed while fighting off three terrorists right outside the old city thankfully her comrades were able to neutralize the terrorists before they hurt anyone else but this is how the media portrayed what happened what an outrage especially in a generation that only reads headlines it just amazed me how one incident can be portrayed in such a skewed way and you know what it's actually headlines like this that brought about the destruction of the temple and turned the ninth of av into a national day of mourning you see there's something interesting about megillat the book of lamentations that we read on tisha b'av it's written in alphabetical order the first verse starts with alif the next verse bit but what's fascinating is that when it gets to the hebrew letter i in suddenly the letters are out of order the pet verse is written before the iron verse why is it out of order the switch in the letters is teaching us essentially why the temple was destroyed now the initial incident that marked the ninth of ave as a national day of mourning could be traced back to the ten spies who returned back from the land of israel with derogatory report about the land the prophet year meow and his lament over the destruction is hinting to us that the spies spoke with their pet their mouth before seeing with their eye in their eyes they had preconceived negative notions regarding the land and therefore viewed their entire experience negatively without truly observing the land in an unbiased manner essentially they spoke with their pet before they saw with their iron and unfortunately we see this type of bias regarding israel and jews today there are many people that have already decided what they think about jews in israel and it doesn't matter what we do they only see the negativity that they choose to see but how often do we meet someone for the first time and before we even speak to him we've already made up our minds about that person people enter situations with preconceived notions and end up seeing only what they choose to see they're speaking with their pet before truly seeing with their iron that is the cause of sinatrinam that's baseless hatred that is the cause for the destruction of the temple tish above is not just a day of mourning over our lost temple it's a day of introspection and reflection about how we can learn from our mistakes and make this world a better place when we meet someone who's different than us whether he's on the right or left secular or orthodox sparta or ashkenazi it's up to us to choose to first see with our eyes without prior judgment and preconceived notions and only then speak with our pet our mouth let's not wait for tragedy to unite us we can do it now just by opening up our eyes first seeing the good in others and allowing all those stereotypes to fall away welcome back we are back over here with what an incredible interview an incredible video but he's really he's really amazing and it's a total blow away and the truth of the matter is you know it's funny that we learned in yeshiva that the miragum tish above and we're like yeah morocco you know right but but his message is unbelievably teals i just want to point that that there that and this was the beginning of the film for those who still didn't watch the iron faith film it's on project inspired.com yeah you can still download it remember download and watch it it's not a tishbo film it's a film that came out on tisha bub it's really important yeah and i i gotta tell you i watched it i was blown away and it's not something that it's not it's not for tisch above it's just a film for life for life like if you have children at home you play them the film you you give them the the mesora the jewish masora of heroes there you know that in the film this is this we don't even have an outtake of this but in the original footage of shalom gold he says that the past 80 85 years of jewish history is the most profound tokufa in history and he's afraid our youth knows very little about it which is why he wrote his book which is why we made this film so if you could show it to your children they can know that there are people not too far you know this is not a thousand years ago it's not two thousand years ago this is really people that i went to yeshiva whose parents came over you know with this you could sign up as well to learn with a learning partner one-on-one at projectinspire.com and of course those of you who did watch the film you'll know that one of the sponsors of the film was daily giving and they're giving you one dollar a day charlie you're in that video he said like what did you do with one dollar today i'm watching that daily givings what an incredible concept a dollar a day you lose the dollar in the day right you know you lose it you lose it on the most stupidest things in the world it's a dollar more you change in your pocket you lose it you put it together with the rest of claudia's thrill daily giving says just give me a buck just give me a buck a day right and yet they're giving out tens of thousands of dollars to different organizations it's such a no-brainer i got to tell you for me personally there are so many days where i'm doing whatever i'm doing and i stop and i go ha i at least i gave stucco and i don't have anything on me i remind you every day by email this is who you are your money it's really great it makes the honestly dailygiving.org dailygiving.org just go on it be part of it let's have everybody on it and get nick and we can move on from there amazing so go to dailygiving.org project inspire is a proud recipient of the day to go to oregon love it everyone should do it keep giving and i'll give you more and more organizations our next guest is a great guy uh he works in the health care industry and got involved in divorce mediation due to family situations and set out on a mission to help keep peace throughout the challenges you know we live in a world where iron faith is something that doesn't just take place through prisons in russia having that level of faith uh takes place in every aspect of even our daily lives it is an honor to welcome ellie goldbaum to the show thank you so much for being here thank you so much for having us so we have this great initiative that went out everybody saw it uh bowie bashar tell us a little bit what that is okay excellent question what i started realizing is that a lot of people go through challenges i am the agave and shul as well and many people go through different challenges in life it's not only divorce of course people have challenges having children people have challenged bring up children etc etc financial challenges there has to be a way to deal with things in a peaceful healthy way and certainly when we got into the arena of challenging challenges in marriages but not necessarily a divorce we're talking about any kind of marital this discord that goes about there's a way to deal with that and what we're trying to get the message out and the bottom that i've been working with the concept is we're better than that let's go ahead and try to find a peaceful way whether it's people that understand if you watch the the uh clips today which were incredible uh there were obama report talking about this concept of training going through training you know someone doesn't that becomes a hustling teacher a college teacher there's no training necessarily for that i could become a husband teacher there are some places that do but why don't we have some kind of training we have training for our lawyer we're training for a plumber we're training for electrician why not have training for a haas and college teacher as well what we're seeing in the community the issues and the problems are coming about simply because our youth are not being trained properly if you go into marriage with the proper training then hopefully our focus and our goal is to keep these marriages together get people in the community that have the ability to deal with the challenges so that we could build up the couple help them through potentially even beyond the marriage a lot of situation communities we're discussing have someone that keeps them together after the marriage as well right so it's very important to have this to keep the peace and the final step is unfortunately if as we as we all know i said i'll cults are the light of it we don't expect to have these things but unfortunately there are a certain percentage of of couples going through divorce we get the calls every day so unfortunately we know that there's a way to deal with that unhealthy way and that's the challenge we're talking about so what's what's interesting here is that when we think about the concept of iron will when we think about the concept of of of being strong we forget that so much of that really takes place in the people that are closest to us right sometimes it's easier to be strong to the world than it is to be strong in your home sometimes easy to be nice to the world than is to be nice to the person who's the closest to you and one of the things i think is which is special about what you're doing is you are using a strategic approach to saying okay let's create an opportunity so that when things get more complicated we've already thought things out so tell me a little bit about that agreement that you have so we have this hesking class in the column the concept is exactly that the concept is to go ahead and to work with things i there was a fantastic fantastic speaker on the program that actually said that when your mind is in the logic state where you're able to deal with things in logic unfortunately when we go through challenges we sometimes lose that logic and especially when it gets to a point that we take what i call the greatest love could potentially become the greatest hurt and because of that you have to really deal with that in a proper state and we like to go ahead and deal with that when a person is getting engaged they signed an agreement that if there's an issue we should deal with a business system or even a media or whatever the case may be and i think it's important to just make a note of this i happen to be a person who has a nice size office with a lot of non-from or non-religious or non-jewish people period and i have to have a few people in my office that are going through a divorce right now they're not fortunate to have the system that that claudius royal has their system is there's no choice you basically go into court they go into this court thinking that who knows what and i think that's one of the biggest challenges that we have working with uh people that end up going through a divorce that this is not a place to go court is a great place for i don't know who not made for the attorneys and i know your attorney so i guess you could appreciate that but the end of the day you know some cases do end up having to go to court but for the most part we're very fortunate that we have people in the community rabonum mediators other people who give of their time a lot of them do it for free don't don't get paid for for spending hours and hours on these phases take advantage of that most of these people are good people certainly the ones that that know what's going on and we're trying to train more and more of these people to deal with it in a healthy way and hopefully like i said put the marriages together doesn't mean that it has to get divorced because someone calls and there's a problem but you have that ability to go through a healthy way and if you have to go to a business there are good party dinner out there let's find the good what they did and that's the concept this organization is you're basically saying let's take our systems that we have that are supposed to be really navigating challenges should they come up through the proper contracts beforehand and this way if there's issues along the way people are in a position to uh to be successful yeah and i think that you know you know that that's the point is that we you know the more the more we plan things and it's like that with anything with anything that we that we set out to do is the the better you plan the better you uh you know about to sign a contract with the hotel don't you with the hotel now right you don't think we go through a thousand things you know shallow tower right so but sometimes we do things that sort of are life cycle things you know we don't uh a lot of people do it on business they go they sign an agreement an arbitration agreement if there is an issue most of the clauses and in regular contracts you'll have an arbitration clause that if there's an issue you go to that's how you deal with it so if you prepare a little beforehand it's certainly a very important thing and i think talking about the initiative of faith i deal with a lot of these people when you don't have things in place it's a typical thing that people come to me is like where's hashem you know hashem is here hashem is watching over us right but you know when you go through the challenges it's so important for us to get that message out we all go through challenges those people that are able to stand up to the challenges are the ones that really you know go very far yeah okay so people can get involved yeshua initiative initiative.org y-a-s-h-a-r and uh initially what should i share an issue with that the program the body of michelle embroidered is still running after tisha and very very important like charlie said it's not a tissue people you know what's amazing is on tissue it's like you can't drink fast enough the minute you're on your second bagel you don't even remember anyone did anything you're like what are you talking about there's no programs yeah everything disappears by the way on that note you know if you know i wonder if like god forbid something would happen in israel that was of significance it would come up on the news and yeshiva world like under 40 million things you can't get it happening please everyone keep the rockets in gaza don't fire or anything keep it quiet now because we're not going to get on your list no there's no news fees on tisha but right people need to remember that and this and it's a great week you know i know this is like it's a little quieter you know i'm saying you could still be learning you could still be taking especially the films that uh you know are going to be something that's going to be uh evergreen if you will so please we had tens of thousands of people watching it was just incredible so i'm sure didn't watch it feel free thank you thank you for joining us what you're doing we're discussing challenges challenges of uh of faith challenges that we could come up with in our community we're turning our attention back to iron faith which was the project inspired film that came out for this tish above another clip from the film this one was actually well maybe if we have time we'll take a sneak peek of last year's show which was really the inspiration of this film but here let's go to this let's go to the film now let's see us younger and no no no no we're going to save that i'm going to say that we'll save the comments about my time yeah exactly well let's go back to the film rabbi mendelovich describes what it was like keeping shabbos in prison and what he had to go through to do that i came to understand that educating uh hundreds and maybe thousands will not solve the problem of a complete assimilation for that time we were we had around three million of uh jews in soviet russia so it was obvious to me that the only possible way is to break out to get out from soviet russia and open the gates for freedom of immigration even illegally so in riga in fact a certain man called hill but man of asshola come up with the idea to hijack a russian airplane and try to escape when we arrested red-handed in the airport to accuse us in high treason when being sentenced for 15 years of imprisonment of betraying russian motherland in siberia normally you are not permitted to keep shabbos in a prison you have to work but i discovered a way to bribe a certain prisoner that was in charge one day after several days of this practice i heard the heavy steps so i tried to escape but but my way was blocked by several officers and the head of the prison major fiodarov enjoyed taking me by surprise and he told me in a very mild voice mandela why you don't working you know would you like to eat you have to deserve your food please go to work so i would pretend like i'm going to work but i understood that now they are trying to compass me to wireless sharpest so i answered him with some you know soft voice i told you know major fielder i am jewish just don't work on shabbos what you are in my hands if you don't go to work i will put you under the ground and you will die there i taught him uh very patiently don't yell at me i am not afraid of you i have my commander my lord he doesn't permit you to walk so two russian church surgeons come to escort me to the prison where i know that the municipal loyalty loves people that are being suffering for keeping shabbos so being there uh for for a week you know so what so they sent me to a special prison called vladimir prison the first question i asked the officers they accepted me what kind of jobs they having in the factory to figure out how can i escape violating shabbos and then the officer told me there is no occupation for you like it's the biggest punishment you have to stay in yourself for three years no occupation i thought abolishing what your privilege you know you granted me for the possibility to keep shabbos quality for three years [Music] what an incredible incredible story i have my commander he'll tell me once and you know what's amazing about that story is i mean just picture being in a russian prison with a commander saying i want to bury you and he doesn't even like it's like chill out tough guy relax relax you know our next guest is going to really pinpoint is going to pinpoint this as well but but it's it's some it's so difficult it's so difficult to speak to some of them because they're trying to figure out what it is you want from them like what do you mean we were trying to be jewish like what what do you mean i stared down at a russian guard as he told me i'm going to kill you in the soviet union and i'm like relax i have my commander right this was somehow you know normal and again this is this is what we've been discussing this throughout telling these stories and showing these people makes this real and makes you know if we can you could even filter down a little bit we'd be we'd be in great and i want everyone to know who's watching what they have inside them and what you have inside you is the same stuff right we're made of the same stuff we both have kami we both come from avraham avinu like we both got the same stuff just are we bringing it out our next guest is an incredible individual born in russia came to america in 1979 when he was 12 years old married with nine kids and five grandchildren barak hashem he works in real estate and is very involved in rage he loves to teach give classes meet new people and make a difference people lives rabbi vashovsky thank you so much for joining us on this program it's a pleasure to be here and first i want to thank you you're my role model for everything you're doing for us so nice to underestimate yourself and it's a really pleasure to even sit next to you oh it's my honor thank you for your kind words okay it's my pleasure tell me a little bit about how you came to this country what was it like when you left and just give us a sense of just what your experience was like okay i was born in kishnev and the truth is while i was in kishnev i basically knew nothing about irish guide i didn't know anything the only thing i did know is that my parents went to my grandparents for i guess rosh hashanah for pesach foreign that's what went to my grandparents that was the beginning and the end to my educate in russia didn't know much i didn't fight i didn't like in the films however i believe in about 19 i guess a little bit before 79 78 my exposure to yiddish right was i knew that i was jewish the whole time but i did not know what it meant and i was very athletic don't look at my size today but i was very athletic then and i like sports i was very very competitive and one of the things that i was big into at that time was swimming i enjoyed swimming i enjoyed diving and at one point we had a big not a contest i guess it was a try out to go to see if you could get into ultimately it was a tryout the way they were selling it to go to olympics it was for 1980 olympics but that was that was before and i had a tryout and there was also like two lines i guess so if you go through the right i guess that means you were from the people that have a chance to get in and other people they didn't have a chance so when i came in they told me to go to the right we all sat in a circle i remember the instructor the teacher the swimming instructor was going around asking everybody questions and came to my turn she asked me what's your name what's your last name i guess your address whatever it was and one of the things that she asked was what's your religion who are you and that moment i said to myself what does the religion have to do with my swimming what does that have to do with anything and i wanted to get into this contest so badly so i decided that at that moment i just want to be like everybody else so i said i was russian and i'll never forget how all the 49 people around me they were pointing and says no he's a jew wow that was my first introduction to either that as much as i thought i was like them one of them go to the same school eat the same food dress the same way eat in the same house basically if you would look at us you can't see any difference and somehow they saw something about me that i didn't know existed and i was embarrassed at that moment publicly i remember running out i remember going to my parents and i think a little bit after that that's when they decided that they want to leave the country and i remember what was already i didn't want to go to school i was very bitter at that time and when we were in the gong already out we got permission my father he was uh he was very intelligent he was a pr he was a physics professor he was also a champion in gymnastics we used to go to circus watch him entertain he was leslie was he was very very known there he had very very nice in the russian standards he had very nice living they lived well we had the car many people didn't have what we had and i remember when we went to the train station we were about to leave i was almost 12 years old so all his friends and his students and everybody came and he takes me to a cabin he made an effort to do it and it's something that i guess i'll never forget he tells me look out of the window what do you see and he said i see so many people here the whole place was packed the friends the relatives the neighbors the students everything was packed he says i'm giving everything up this is all for you that you should not be afraid to be who you are wow that was my wow but i myself never knew what what does that mean give up who you are what am i what does jewish mean like my first lesson was tell me who i'm not i'm not one of them i can't be you know i remember one time there was this is something also i remember we had a girl we had school on shabbat saturday and there was a girl there and every single shabbos she never came to school and every single monday she always had to come up with a different excuse why she didn't come she was sick this broke that broke every i don't know how she came up with excuses every single week but she happened to live not so far from us and i went over to her i said can you just tell me the truth what is it what is it she says i hope that you one day will find out the secret what it is it was always like on my mind what is it what is it that she's constantly giving up she's being embarrassed also she's also being every time coming with a different excuse it means something is going on something special is going on and i don't know about it but i want to know about it and that was uh wow i guess that was the first introduction that uh that about judaism who you know take us through this process because it's so it's fascinating how you started i want to almost like i guess skip to the to the later on stages now you're here you've been living here and now you're teaching and you're teaching to a new generation of individuals and you teach the kids that maybe have grown up here and what are you seeing in terms of how people the way maybe you grew up the way your father sacrificed for you the way this girl sacrificed what are you seeing in terms of people with the the need to really be iron their faith and what's happening today and what are you teaching people to make sure that they stay strong in their faiths so so to answer i want to go step before for a second because as i was going through school i was about 16 17 years old i remember and i went to meet at that time i was like a regular guy i was room i was shimmer showers but nothing nothing an ordinary like a regular regular person over here was just you know gone through it and at about 16 years old 16 maybe 17 years old i went to meet rabia kaminetsky i think if there's anyone that made a certain change that from because as i was going to school my goal ultimately was to go to college to get a degree and to do i remember growing up my parents used to ask me what do you want to be you want to be a doctor or a lawyer i said is there any other options those are my only two options that's all i got is there any other options you're a doctor or a lawyer what are you going to be like the garbage man like like they're so that's that's how you know it's okay fine if that's what it is so i applied to go to college and that's where i was going to go and but before that i went and i met kaminsky that i believe was a tremendous change change in my life because he was already the end of his life i remember coming to him in muncie and i was shocked how he took me to the dining room and he had against children grandchildren but he's the one that asked me he went to the fridge himself he brought stuff out and he was he insisted speaking only russian to me wow even though he spoke little english i did not speak english but he insisted only to speak russian to me and i was speaking russian to him and he took out the stuff and they said i feel embarrassed that when she has to serve me he says do you know who i'm serving i said i understand he started me he already knew a little bit about me he says you know why hashem caused you to come here when you came because i believe you're going to be much be on others you're going to be teaching others you're going to have a tremendous hashpoint others and that's why you were from the first ones to come here so you should be able to give back what you got to others and i said to him she doesn't know who i am i got the wrong guy i'm not i'm not i'm not a teacher type i'm shy i can't teach i'm not getting in front of the class but she just does that doesn't know and he kept on saying no you don't know yourself he says hashem knows you hashem caused you to come here and hashem wants you to do this hashem believes in you so you have to believe in yourself and i'm telling you that's what you're going to do so if hashem believes in you and i believe in you ultimately that that's you know that that's i remember after speaking to me was kept on instilling in me my cries to people my cries that i have to give back that that i have to teach somehow when i left my whole thing i was saying to myself maybe this is why i came when i came maybe this one the whole thing happened when i that happened that hashem invested in me what i thought was negative maybe maybe there was something there that could turn around and they could start start giving over we we have our next guest waiting for us but i wanted to ask you you brought students back to russia didn't you no what happened was okay i know we limited my time i could talk forever yeah but i'd love to hear it remember my my grandparents they made their liar they moved to israel when they moved towards israel that's what my grandparents wanted to be they wanted wanted to live there my uncle on the other hand he stayed back in russia and my grandparents might went back to russia to visit him they were already in the 80s in the mid 80s they were in the 80s and happened to be he and my grandfather had a heart attack and died in kitchen at that time when he came back and i was saying to myself he wanted to live and die inherit israel why so i got a phone call and i went to russia and at that time i went to mordecai who was in charge of the vat i went over to him and i said to him i know he had the shiver there i said i'm going huh yeah yeah yeah so it sounded really legitimate i ran the camper over there oh yeah yeah okay i know that you speak hebrew english and yes so i went there so i went over to him i said i'm going there anyways i said maybe you could pay for the ticket and i'll stay in a couple switches and they'll stay there and i'll teach the boys okay we got those requests before we had the deal so he he paid for the ticket i went there and i stayed there for two weeks to put forward i'm just gonna i'm not gonna zoom in this but a few years later it's unbelievable a few years later i sit in the house and there's a girl that calls us and she says can i speak to robert and my wife says who is it and the girl says he doesn't know who i am he never saw me he never met me he never heard about me but he changed my life and i want to say thank you to him wow i said wow that's interesting introduction so pick up the phone and she says to me rabbi i said yes you don't know who i am you never saw me but let me tell you what happened when you went to russia a few years ago you took the boys to a park now that park was the place where they had kitchen of pogroms and i brought them there and i started saying to them they thought they destroyed us and we're here today we're learning we're changing we're we're as as alive as anything and she's and i was speaking there in the park and this girl was just walking there minding her own business and she saw a crowd and she saw this crowd was listening so she hid behind the tree and she was listening for a whole hour to to me speaking after i finished i went with my boys and she went her way and she's saying i said to myself these guys are jewish and they know about it i'm a jew and they know nothing about it and she and suddenly something woke up she says and she did the research where there's people from she discovered that they're from this particular school she registered in the school she learned in the school then she left to show dirty's royal and she says and today i'm marrying a boy who learned in trouble in color he says i want you to know me my children and my grandchildren my great-grandchildren will always be adapted to you because you enlighted that spark and i said to myself now i understand this girl probably her grandparents great-grandparents were darwining and that's why my grandfather had to go back to russia to die there so that i should come there bring these boys just at the time that she was walking incredible and she was like incredible you know i ran a camp for many summers in kishnev right in the boys shooter they'd end up building a girl's yeshiva out there under from newstead the uh well it all comes around thank you for who you are thank you for what you do thank you for what you're doing thank you what an honor thank you so much amazing we we actually you know we we've been discussing so many things throughout the day and it is just unbelievable uh again this is this is come on this is now this is now awesome we don't we have to understand every single person we have to understand every time we do something you don't know who you're affecting you don't know what you're doing you tell a story to your kid about your aunt with a bris mila and it's affecting the strength of your of of a cousin who is in boston you you tell you know a teacher a girl behind the tree we don't have any idea who's listening who's with us who's around us when we are strong in our faith when we have that resilience when we're bringing the light we have no clue reviacov kaminetsky is serving a young person because he thinks this way he hops a couple of minutes of being able to not be machben on my coveted is gonna be impacting darus like that's how good dolem think they they think like this and when we start getting this into our heads we make major differences it's awesome it's awesome i mean this to me is amazing and again and again this is for this is that it's you know this is ongoing this is amazing stuff these people in the world we've been discussing we've been discussing faith and iron faith you know both through the film and through many other organization things that have happened throughout the day many of you have noticed the program that was all over the place called asher for the yazar azer to the asha to the utter it's it's an amazing story it's amazing organization we're going to play a little clip and then we're going to be joined by a very special guest via zoom as you'll find that yeah shortly two years ago i was diagnosed with this tumor my spinal cord which i had to get surgeries for and it was a very painful summer and then through the through the this campaign of asha to yazar barak hashem i saw nissan in the flights in my own personal life in which i was able to go to the bathroom on my own which is something that many people take for granted and certainly the spinal cord injury world is you know was a little kind of rare and i was also on the road to recovery in terms of being able to walk on my own i was able eventually progress to being able to walk a mile and a half on the tremble which is certainly something i was so thankful for and was certainly something remarkable to me unfortunately last month i had to undergo my fifth surgery to which the repercussions were the worst i've ever faced the fact that my feet don't really move too much in fact they don't really don't move at all and unfortunately i can't go to the bathroom like i was once able to like many people are able to and certainly take for granted and when my rebbe rabbit dave kielson came to visit me he mentioned to me something that really really you know struck me like a light like a lightning bolt to which the past two years i wasn't necessarily dependent on and now i realize [Music] he's the only one that can heal me and doctors at this point there is nothing for them to do because we're dealing with nerves and nerves the only thing left to do is we wait for them to wake up if they ever wake up and right now i am kuloi dependent on that he is the only one who could heal me he's the only one that can save me he's the only one that can make me ever go walk again and he's the only one that could ever make me go to the bathroom again that was yes he hacked what an incredible incredible story um really really really this i i had the opportunity to actually see yussi in his hospital room when he first had this idea i had no idea this would be what it is and it's the testament to this one individual he is such an incredibly strong person who took an idea that he had in his head just you should know you shouldn't tell you before we bring him on what godless this is a young man who's going through a very scary time in his life and he's in the hospital post-surgery and all he's thinking about is how do i get other people to say usher yasser with morgan his head is cool on other people on hashem on and meanwhile he's going through his stuff and all he and he took this idea really tell his idea and he turned it into like a movement it's an unbelievable thing asher to the on how to appreciate we have it's an honor to bring on yasi to the show yes thanks so much for being here everybody always take it not taking in like any credit but uh really only started it was your idea to make a video if you remember no i don't remember that at all i i remember that you uh had this concept and i said you should do it and what you did was you you killed it like it was awesome and did you have any idea just how big of an impact this would be when you first had the idea not nothing nothing not at all let me tell what's up i'm sorry i didn't catch it what was the other person what's your name jesse friedman here yesterday so i i saw the real search out you don't remember you got a lot of things going on i was thinking about them so i charlie like comes into the room it was a sunday morning you're in your white polo shirt i was in the i was in the icu after my third surgery um and then you told me a nice story is actually it's actually talked about higher faith i'm going to say with a story where it talks about all these pot remember this story about the pilots the pilots in the army that they go there on a mission maybe you say this story because i'm going to botch it up what we spoke about then and really what i want to focus on is not anything that i did because i want to focus on you now and maybe later we'll do another show you'll tell me how all right but i want to focus on you because you're really the person that is inspiring people and the the idea of asha to the uttar which is the ability to give credit to hashem for the things that we don't appreciate and because of what you went through you started to realize wait a second we're taking this stuff for granted how have you seen the reaction to people that are now able to really appreciate things because of your work and i can read you the text today i mean my sis all my sisters and all my family are getting texts like oh my gosh i'm balling i'm crying and like all these specs it's about worthwhile for me to read are we i'm going to read a text it's probably worthwhile um so for example um well like just finished actually that it really is really inspiring should be closer to which lama beautiful variance fine tearjerker he really literally makes the boys on there um that's what i'm talking about i really want to talk about the other people who like this person says um oh i'm not going to attack so i'm just going to say someone i mean cam silk and i'm like learning right over there and a person said i'm scared to watch it i'm always scared to come out of the bathroom you might be catching me right because did you catch a joke i see you didn't catch a joke no i i i it's hard for me to hear you actually clearly over there but i i i just want to just go back to charlie's question which is you know you're in a you know a scary point you're going through a scary point in your life now different tests and and all that and and yet you're focusing your attention on how other people can be inspired by your situation and not take the things that they take for granted for granted really to thank you what gave what gave you that idea to think about other people in your situation um it really didn't there really oops hello again oh the really really started it was because like i was desperate to like i needed i wanted the bathroom so badly so like i i decided like you know we gotta do something about this and i respond to my grab your butt kills he made his cabela about and it worked wonders and i was able to go to the bathroom and then then a short while later um a short hour later i had to i had after two more surgeries that's when charlie came to visit us um i had that's when that's when i i was like i needed i need to do something even more global because obviously it wasn't working so that's why um that's why we did this campaign about the outside but told my iron faith i want to mention something this is the real australia i want to get to so there's everybody's handle with challenges right everybody gets challenges some more than others i'm personally you know i'm posting my fifth surgery i'm still saying cottage for my mother um come why good things happen to bad people oh why sorry why bad things happen to good people and those vice versa like good things happen to bad people you can ask why why why why all day at the end of the day all it can do for you is make you depressed and make you not happy and it's the the eye of faith where that comes in which is such a such a beautiful such a beautiful you know slogan iron faith and talk about these russians that robbie mental evidence how he came out all that stuff is that once you have it it's your choice what to do with it you have these struggles i lost it you have these struggles so it's up to you with what you do with it it's either you could either you could say hashem you know obviously did it for a reason and um and i'm okay with that and i'm going to continue to go with that or it's or you're going to say no and you're going to say i don't hashem why are you doing this to me ask why right and that's a great point because that's really where the faith comes in it's this idea of the recognition that and you're seeing this and what's really unique about what i love about this show is that you have someone like yassie who is here in america dealing with his level of challenge and you have somebody that's from russia and someone from iran and really they're using the same muscle you said this it's incredible when you watch it they're using a muscle of and by the way if we really want to really be tissue of you about a little bit that's even a verb like this is what the maraud went through they had their challenge the miracle was standing and going oh my gosh life is amazing that you know it's 67 degrees and the mud is awesome and like we're good and all of a sudden god's like yeah fortified cities and giants right and like they had to deal with challenges and what we got here is individuals of very different challenges and what we're learning is that these individuals they deal with it differently right when yussi goes through a challenge and he's in his hospital bed and he's thinking i want to teach everybody how to say ushayatsu better what that's the same story as we had a moment ago where somebody's saying i wanted to it's the same idea it's that you light up when you're dealing with challenges amazing yes you have one last question for you as our next guest is waiting for you how has it helped you personally go through this challenge knowing that claustro has taken on your challenge and has gotten behind you what has it done for you um spiritually and what has it done for you in terms of physically it's a great question the answer is when you're so when you're so like i don't want to call it while i'm painting that's not good when you're so um entrapped in pain and struggles like that when first of all it gives you impetus to keep on going that's the first that's the first thing you know people always say how do you keep them going and keep going if people are are looking i don't like to use the word because it makes me feel like i'm like i'm something but if people are looking for you to give them inspiration um or not only that or or or or first of all it keeps gives you a draw of the person alone like me gives me a drive to keep on going to keep put out these videos which was hours and hours and hours of work and and and fundraising and stuff like that which i want to thank the je alpha family for sponsoring and besides for that it's also that you see that one second people are really people really gain me from this this is this is maybe i should continue doing this and in that and with that with that with that in mind keeps you it gives you it gives you not only a spiritual um you know that that people tend to god not only spiritual contagion even a physical and emotional level it gives you impetus to keep on going sure how does how do people find out more about usher to the yazar if they want to find out more calm a-s-h-e-r to the i-a-t-z-a-r-dot-com can't believe the domain wasn't taken yesterday yesterday we love you hashem should bless you with health what's happening what's your hebrew name so we want our viewers to be visited we have no thanks for having me on honor to have you okay you know this is you're sort of you you're speaking about it all along this is the muscle that we're using no matter what situation we're in and we're seeing this with yussi we're seeing this and on the other guests that we had you know we're about to enter a time i know that because americans can't visit israel so we sort of like forget about israel yet right uh is that we're upcoming on a shmita year in israel which just basically means that i won't have an apple for the next two years you know in my house essentially that's what it means and they'll and they're the chocolates they'll cover charlie my my kids know this that they in israel they'll blame everything on shmita like the the air conditioner will break and the guy will come and say you know right right but anyways and on the serious notebook i can't let anybody in how come right right they'll be they won't let you in because but we're in those series that we're coming on a shmitah year and we speak about aryan faith and is there something that personifies this faith more than farmers that literally put down their livelihood i mean it's literally and a law firm would mean you know sebastian yeah that's it drop everything even when you read about shemitah and the torah you're thinking for you to do this right this is the couch bar was like now i know you're real right can you imagine a firm imagine a law from being like guys or off weekend the year right how are you gonna make money and we're gonna we're gonna send it out can you imagine that it's amazing but and they have the promise of the virus and they and they they test right okay so we want to go to a clip of one of our sponsors of this year's film and show is actually karen ashfield which is dedicated towards helping the farmers get through the sweet the year all different types of programs we're going to have uh shia markowitz on after he's the ceo karen nashville let's roll the uh the film about karen the spheres the land is his life from the moment dawn breaks until the shadows fade he's there planting and harvesting nurturing his crop with sweat tears and prayers to him the land is more than just seed and soil it's in his nature a living piece of his essence this land is his livelihood then we ask him to leave it to lay down his tools [Music] to ignore the rain wind and sun when they call to abandon the nature of his land he knows his beloved fields will wither his crop will fail and even risks losing his farm to death yet he submits his land and himself to a command that he does not understand this tests every one of his farming instincts it's greater than his sense of survival it's larger than life [Music] it's above nature [Music] it requires strength and resilience it takes unyielding willpower and faith in the one above are they ready to take it on 450 farmers are still on the fence whether or not they commit depends on our support karen hush vias 2021 above nature wow what an incredible incredible video our next guest is a brooklyn native started a business with a partner and grew into a large marketing graphic business in the tri-state area in 1980 he formed the iran the iran resource committee and for eight years took they took people out of iran housed them in vienna and educated them we had someone on the show that may have been a beneficiary of this that's unbelievable because that was his path through vienna do you remember also uh it was very involved in durham shahram for 28 years which literally changed the entire landscape in sriduchim initiating the right to freedom took took out one and a half million people out of russia in five years founder of yeshiva or ruvin in muncie does us all volunteer started karen schwies in 5768-5775 and became the ceo on a volunteer basis 35 million budget with no government help is an honor wow what a bio holy cow is that six bios it is an honor to have mr shia marquez join us on the show thank you so much for joining us so let me ask you a question so how many hours are in your day um less now that karen leslie is back it's an honor to have you on i think we could have probably had you on the entire show every single time you're going to tell us the different phases of your life um but right now we're in the middle of now wearing a tie because i saw that you didn't accept your very uh your associate there who i happen to know uh he's very formal yeah you're gonna see from a clip later i actually hang this tie here in this shule and wear it every year here so that's uh i always say that half of me comes half of me is sardi there's no ties in my mesara at all that so i'm totally the thai is a new thing for us talk to us a little bit about what this is people that are living here in america don't fully understand it i had the privilege of being in israel during the shmita year and i saw only a little bit of it i didn't even get a taste of what is really going on talk to us a little bit about what inspired you to get involved and what is reason why it's so critical for americans to get involved okay in the tucson bays which was approximately 1952 because it's a jewish year lapsed several years and um yum and mendelson realized that uh schmidt is not really being kept and he made he created this organization called karanashvias and developed a few people to help him to give stipends to the farmer so that enables the farmer to be able to keep schmidt's shmita he realized that without the farmers receiving some kind of funds it makes it practically impossible for him to keep shmita which is why shmita was not really kept seriously until rabinyam mendelson started karanasvias by 1979 the budget had started to grow and he went to rabaishira and asked him to get involved which they did for several days for several shmitahs however by the lash meter five seven seven five seven years ago the budget had grown to 14 million dollars pre-schmitter the year prior to schmitta and having been involved i said we need a broader umbrella we need to be our own people our own organization because people don't see the organization they see the person who's collecting and are good it collects for itself and we need to be our we need to be a stand-alone organization ultimately by the time shmita came around the budget went from 14 million to 27 million dollars government of israel ended up kicking in even though initially there was a coalition made and lapid was involved and that was the time adopter colonel came aboard where they weren't giving money to any jewish any haredi causes and we were concerned we weren't going to get anything and ultimately it was changed there was new elections netanyahu gordon gaffney as a in the area of finance and he helped us get a total of ten and a half million dollars from the government of israel uh that made it that made it livable that we only had to collect about fifteen and a half million dollars uh sixteen we were a hair short of the budget but it was the trying time was the first time ever that karen ashby has ever raised that kind of money and we upped the marketing significantly then we went to see this community which never which never really embraced shmita and they started embracing it now we go seven years later we started shmita really a year ago the staff to gear up and covet hit and covert got involved getting information out of versus role was very difficult um they were busy with covert the person that's uh actually the ceo of karen nashville yemen cohn was also heading certain areas in the parade community about covert so we started really seriously getting involved in january and realized that the budget is growing what was more realistic was that we were entering a two-year schmitta phase which means just like khazal said it cannot be that we have shemitah and yovel his manager that's something farmers cannot handle hard enough to handle ishmita alone well we have it this time around covid has destroyed the business for thousands of farmers many farmers did pretty well but still many thousands of farmers did not do well so this is this is a double whammy for them that is right they didn't do well and they've already gotten a year of shmita under their belt where they've made their money they're in debt and now they're asked to come into shemitah with hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt possibly millions of i'm sorry scholarly and i've spoken to them and it's it's a trying time for them so don't tell me you speak to these farmers i know that i've seen different videos because you've been profiling different farmers et cetera what is what is it about the farmers that you meet that inspires you as someone who lives in america who has to put yourself in their shoes what inspires you about what they have to do you know especially in this coming schmidt year i became really inspired not in five six six eight i got a shmitah i became inspired in five seven seven five when i took over as ceo uh rosh hashanah time shemitah and i traveled the miserable marriage often met 40 to 50 farmers and every time i walked out of the farm i cried i said to myself i know how to learn a lot more than they do why is there a munna so much stronger than mine i couldn't possibly shut down my business my firm for for a week a month who says a year and it's not a year a farmer's year is a year and a half and this year it's a leap year okay very unusual and is and until they grow something posh meter and they are able to sell it is another six months the farmer's typical schmidt is 18 months now it's 19 months and now it's with the year of schmitta so how did i get inspired i felt like a little grasshopper when i walked out and i said to myself how do they do it and i realized the reason they do it is because to them amuna is 365 days a year they're attached to the ground when they plant the seed in the ground is the seed a proper seed is the water coming will we have a virus will we get a frost every day for them is a battle in amuna asking the rewindish lyla to please make their harvest a good harvest amazing when i went to went to my company and i used whatever my computers and i flicked on the switch i didn't say replenish let them thank you for flicking on the switch i didn't when the printing presses went on flick on the switch we're so far away from what their daily life is which is why they're capable at least they're they're not made of the same stuff we're made of amazing and they don't deal with the same things we deal with they're willing they're willing to live through this with the promises of the rewindish layland with the cevicias bakasi which is watered down bismanizer i'm not going to get into a whole difference over here we don't have the time for it but the bottom line is we have a 35 million united states canada budget to deal with right now globally the budget is higher israel will do their share europe and england will do their share we'll get some south america and hopefully meet the budget but our budget is is in unearthly above nature 35 million dollars and the when we go to people and we stepped up the donations people are giving a hundred thousand dollars people are giving fifty and seventy five thousand dollars many have taken on the minimum requirement of taking a farm on as a partner they will partner with a farm for thirty thousand dollars a farm we have we have raised a total of approximately seven million dollars as of now far short of the goal that we need to be at okay i'm not going to go through what the difficulties are but raising this kind of money is not easy in any atmosphere getting other uh competitions trying to sell people four armors by four amis or or a tree here and three there is even debatable if you become the mitzvos meter again a discourse but clearly that's not what the banished leila meant by keeping shemitah the shaft saw at shabbat means keeping eritsi's role which means that you buying and getting something a dollar al dalit is only helping not have schmidt and kaiser because you think you have shmita but that's not the schmidt the reboundish lenin is looking for yeah from shia we have our next guest waiting how do people get involved um with karen nashville's how could they get involved besides obviously visiting farmers the next time they're in the their nurse as well to be inspired by them how how could people get involved the the the first thing is there's a website karenhashville.org.com and make sure to spell it right k e r e n h a s h v double i s dot com.org we also started another division that the women can get involved directly uh with a program and that's nishay karanashvias.org i can't speak about it now not enough time but i was inspired by a specific incident that made me do that and hopefully because hashem is brought there'll be a separate bucket for the women and their children when they're really needy with the stipends of karen ashley is not being able to cover that denisha will be able to partake in this in this great mitzvah when you come to paris this role we have a liaison from america there and where's the sherman's brothers he can get my number he will gladly he will gladly take you around i will not get visas or permission from anyone to come to israel that i won't do someone said to me rashid that if i make aliyah my in-laws can come visit i said yep um i understand that they are moving there is this role for the summit i definitely want to be able to to see these people and i hope that more and more farmers sign up um and what you're doing really is you're you're you're you're strengthening the faith of others you're allowing their internal emotion to come out and when people are getting involved in your organization you're taking a part of that so we really would encourage people to go check this out really this is claudius rel's this is claudius sivoy the farmers are burying the brunt of it it's claustrophobic it's a mistaken it's a misnomer the shafts are already doesn't say like the lav says it says it's passive the mid-space for all and every member of clio's room no matter where he lives solo says the native society in berlin and so says there are from disc into the calcula over 100 years beautiful okay so that's karenasviews.org so two eyes karenashvias.org to get involved to partner to partner with the farm to get involved with karen nashville's this is exactly what we're talking about throughout the day iron faith this is what they have faith this is what they have thank you very much for joining us hashem we hope that everyone gets involved with uh with karen our spheres thank you very much so you know and this is the the other thing this is awesome yeah the other thing that the other thing that hit me about is that he mentioned it probably the women is that you have a farmer who sort of has come to keeping shmita he's got a wife he's got a family they all got a leg behind us it's like hey dad what are you just closing down the law firm like what do you want to think about it just anybody who's listening wants to think about who these people are just for a second go home and say honey or but anyway you say honey whatever it is you say i'm taking off for the year who's gonna how about the mortgage how about the tuition right these that's what they're doing like we don't even understand that's what they're doing that's iron faith yeah that's awesome this is what they're doing there's uh we we have we have uh we have another clip from our film again who those who still did not watch iron faith iron faith is available at project inspire dot com project inspire dot com um and you can watch the film you can get involved with the one-on-one carusa today um and we're gonna show you just another short clip from iron faith here's another there's another show clip from the film the end of the story nobody could believe this group of jews brought down one of the greatest empires in world history it's unbelievable we're empire breakers nations keep coming nations keep going passing like shadows wiped off the earth egypt and slavery babylon crush thee rome led the captive where are those nations mighty and fearsome we were present in the world at the birth of all the great empires and we were also the one who said the hespid at the leviaya welcome back we've been talking about iron faith we're in tisch above if you're still like rocking and rolling you have iron faith i mean this is what we're talking about it's 8 30 on tissue it's the longest tissue of all time by the way this is next year's the next year like this is like where this by the way we were speaking before about with with uh franchevsky about uh kishnev when i was in kitchener the fast ended 10 o'clock at night yeah i think there are places by the way i think like in england and europe there are places where like they go to bed they wake up the next morning it's tuesday it's still still fasting but anyways for those who are watching god bless you god keep should keep you strong we're almost there it's 8 25 and we're almost at the uh i think it's 9 10 whenever it is um but really we're talking about iron faith and and you're seeing it in so many different places russia iran and in people's homes ushered to the outside now karen tries it's unbelievable our next guest is an immigrant of the soviet union came in that from 19 in that he came 197 1979 when he was two he grew up as a secular atheist and he went to public school in 1997 he completed the maccabee games in israel as part of the us teams you and while there his teammates took him to the asia torah you know how the story goes he wouldn't be on this program if it didn't go this way the ones that go to asia tour for a day and go home they don't make it to the program and he ended up going to shoot for ten years right that's how it works on on the on the inspire tishava programs and that wouldn't be enough unless he came back and started the teacher right right that's just enough right then he went to the living beitari elite then moved to america work for great rage and he has brought over 1200 students to israel since 2008. it is an honor to welcome david goldstein to the program thank you so much for being here it's a pleasure thank you for inviting me so tell us a little bit about your background um you came in at two yeah but but give us a little bit of it i feel as if you had the experience maybe hear the challenging experience said you grew up a certain way secular atheist and give us a little bit of of your of your background which and how you've sort of learned what you've learned and become the way you are today well you know as probably most people know at least for ashkenazi russians you know atheism is something that we kind of consumed with our mother's milk you know we came to america and it was it was obvious that the religiosity of the people i surround me was was really this superstition and mythology and you know we're of course above that and better than that and we're with science and intelligence and all that kind of stuff so when i went to asia torah and i saw the discovery seminar and i went oh not only can you be a good person but you could also be a rational person and a truthful person and believe in torah and then i decided to investigate it further amazing what were you just at curiosity what were you in the maccabee games for karate oh wow yeah that's awesome so what's so unique about an excellent about your story really is this idea that you come back you learn and now you start to give it back and so now you're engaged in people and what you're you're in the business of maybe if i can say is really strengthening faith right because at the end of the day someone whose faith is not willing to allow them to put the effort into their judaism really won't have a long uh tenure in in being a practicing jew what are the things that you and in a way i i find however right you're in the middle of two worlds right you came in here fairly young but you had a pretty good grasp on the thinking of the previous if you will the the atheist world of the russian world that people that were sitting in these chairs a few hours ago feels like you know they lived in that world right so you you're like the bridge you lived in this world but you still had a piece of that world and now you're in this new faith-based world and now you're giving it over to other people so it's the way you're standing in the middle of this of this incredible world in which you have your history you have what you have and then you have the future what do you think of how people think today and how faith has either weakened or changed what it was maybe in the past so i think the biggest problem is people don't understand what faith really means you know they take faith what i learned in asia torah is that there's really no room in judaism for a completely blind faith there's a leap of faith but it's really a small little kind of a as used to say it was a kind of a hop skip and a jump it's not a giant leap you know that the the first pillar of faith is really reason it has to have to have sachel it has to make some sort of a sense right you have to you have to know we say in elena first you have to know right right first begin with rationality and reason and then when you when you see that oh like this makes sense now you can begin to act upon it and that that's the other part of faith amunah right also means to practice right to have faith only in your heart but not actually do anything is also incomplete right so when you combine the three things it makes sense you act upon it and then whatever little doubts that the eight sahara is trying to put in front of you you say no no i'm going to be able to leap past those little fates now you've created a whole picture of a munna so when i try to share with our our students i try to give them that whole picture and we're hearing this a little bit if you remember yes we're hearing a lot of these pieces about how when you're in the world of understanding where you come from and hearing the stories of faith you're you're building the reasoning you're building the thoughtfulness of it you're not just waking up one morning and jumping it's part of your history there's strengthening your faith really is a it's it's it's a it's a nostalgia a little bit it's it's it's a it's a progression well it's even more than that because what we're seeing is in this we even saw throughout throughout the film is that the more people knew and the more people learned the stronger their faith became right which wasn't that just you know it means they were eager to know more so that their faith could become stronger and this is what you're saying is that it's not just this like you know what what is it again that we're that we're fighting for here it's like you know this was part of an ingrained educational system and going back this is what they were being robbed of in the form of soviet unions that they were totally ignorant and was you know one story one story um you know that that popped out of me that early cuts in the film you know pointed out is that is that he said you know he went to school and they were teaching about atheism and they and they were disproving noah and the table could even happen he had no idea what noah on the table was so he went home and said to his grandma like who was noah he's like oh yeah yeah yeah it's in the torah where can i find that oh you can purchase it here he said his first exposure to judaism was to the atheist teacher who was disproving noah right but she didn't really knowing it but once they started to know that started to you know that's how they started to grow and the more you know the more you're part of it the more your faith strengthens the more you appreciate where you are that's uh you know how how do you give that back to students now meaning there was an error that you were very much even though i know you you got out quite early you know you you were two years old when you left but but the in in your community growing up this was a concept this whole atheism and judy you know it was all about secular education everything else was like you know secondary how do you give how do you give people students of yours a sense of responsibility to pass this on and to find people who know less and to be able to share it with them how do you can you give give over that type of appreciation you know to to your students it's it's i don't think it's possible to give over uh from from outside to impose upon someone else's sense of responsibility i think you have to first show them that that it's incredibly valuable to them and their own families that they benefit enormously uh that that for them to be on board with this great really epic mission of the jewish people for thousands of years is something that is to their best interest they're gonna get the most pleasure out of life this one and the next one and when they start to sense that and they also begin to live in communities that live it then and only then can they say oh i was so blessed to have been shown this how could i hold back from showing other people right right once it's valuable for me right now because you speak about right that's part of hashem right you want you want to share things that you love right so if i saw a great movie if i read a great book i'm going to go tell my friends that they they should get in on this and so you're saying the same thing is when i teach them about religion they see that it is valuable for them then they're going to want to share with their friends and this is part of what we've been what we've been learning here the whole night which is a lot of people's faith was strengthened by somebody else was the light that they shared when when a time was tough for them really contributed and so then they paid it forward and they paid it forward and that's really like you're saying very big piece of how it works with us right everyone's paying it forward to each other and everyone's strengthening each other along the way people are running to you to russia from america teaching torah and then coming back and they're blown away at what they're seeing and their t and then it's even the concept that someone in america who has no shaikhis to the food of eretz israel really says it's still my cries to be to be part of of shemitah because and then that inspires the farmer who then lives a life who inspires the it's a constant game in which we're either contributing or taking and every person who's part of this whether you're watching whether you're have a great story whether you're a teacher whether you're a regular person and just even your in your life story a regular person who's not a rabbi is inspiring this young atheist kid by just being a good person saying wait these people it's a constant flow of light if we choose to be part of it i think that if a person has real hakora satov to both to kurdish and to the people that have shared with him that will bring to him a sense of a christ it has to it has to come to me in that order a very good concept amazing rabbi thank you so much for being pleasure thank you so much for joining us and yeah keep it keep keep going keep spreading yeah unbelievable amazing thank you so much what did you what did you hear about that goldstein that's amazing what an incredible way to to end and to begin the the i guess the you know breaking fast well we're we're starting the initial descent as you can see forever we're start we're starting you know we're we're getting the cabin ready we just ended the meal service because we're starting the initial descent but what a great way to to do that which is what he just was mentioned which is this idea of a crisis right that's really the next level to this concept of iron faith in amuna is the appreciation that i can't i can't beg out of this religion i'm too important for everybody else and when god throws me a challenge the whole reason why we have tissue above is because we already had a time where we went the other way on the challenge right yeah and again this is this is what we're seeing i think you you coined the phrase that this is the same muscle but like what we're seeing throughout is that we have we have this within us and everybody in their own state their own stage in life is utilizing that muscle of faith and instilling it in people and it was a very interesting point that any point there which is that it's not a matter of oh yeah go ahead go inspire people go you know someone like a friend vershevsky was on like he needed to it needed to be instilled in him but this was like you know that he believed in him that he can he can come to a point where he'll be inspiring other people it's something that you know over time over time developed but rubiaco was correct we're gonna go quickly charlie because we are you know getting towards the end of the fast and therefore the end of the show but it feels it feels like it feels like a long touch above i tell you we're going to go to a video clip a music video courtesy of project witness uh very appropriate for tish above and we'll follow up with our guest coming up right afterwards i'm falling asleep oh father can you hear me [Music] oh mother can you hear me i know you're always there yet i'm lost throughout this journey and life seems so unclear help me grow to see just father hold me closer through the times when it feels hopeless i cry out and i pray shame help and guide me to climb and do help my heart and soul remain alive [Music] do do do [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] oh can you hear me i know you're always there [Music] don't hide your face hold me closer [Applause] [Music] hello please don't hide your face [Music] welcome back unbelievable message also that was a special tribute from project witness thank you for that but these guys if someone like david goldstein someone like a friend boshovsky you know being able to really you know take what they didn't know they had and then be able to spread it it's really you know it's unbelievable and and you know charlie the entire film and to me i told the people that called me about it this this film inspired me the most because as i'm watching the clips of these people speaking it's like you can't imagine that these people are still living it's like this is stories about people from like you know hundreds of years ago and so one one of the one of the lines that hit me which is so much part of what we do at project inspire it's asia torah's message is you might remember that rabbi essis you know like katsin picks up a magazine and he sees rabbi ss writes in it he says you know this is magazine about judaism read it with pride don't put it under the blankets you know i'm saying be proud of it and he puts his name and address he can't believe that a guy would put out a magazine like this and put his name in address it could be out of his mind so he goes to visit him he says i heard you give torah classes on thursday night i want to join he thought for sure because rabbi is going to be like oh sure come on in he says i'm sorry excuse me he says yeah i i don't teach students i only teach teachers and that line hit him so hard because he said that was the first time that he actually felt the pain of three million jews in russia because here he was like romance is trying to teach teachers he says what difference is it going to make if i teach 10 students i need these people to teach and my essays later says in the video that he was on a train and he met a student studying mishnays and he didn't know the student that was weird he didn't know who the student was and he found out it was a student of his student wow and then he knew that was a that was a great accomplishment so that's really inspired that's right it's a torah's message used to really you know yell from the room how are we going to reach all the millions of jews we got to get the firm community involved uh it's on this note i want to introduce rabbi kaim sampson the family director of project inspire and rabbi yoni zagotinsky is here with us live in the studio the director of project inspire brooklyn guys this is our message is it not robert sampson is that not the message of asia torah project inspire your mic is not on robbie sampson i don't believe nope we're still not hearing you we're still not hearing you let's throw the ropes again definitely the the message of project inspire i have to ask you just because we have you for a moment here you deal with a community in brooklyn many of them are russian what was their take in general from this from this film okay i'm glad you asked me that question jesse and just today i think i sent you a snapshot of that whatsapp that i got but charlie there's a family that went on our trip that you know that i know that after the trip he decided that he wanted to do a bris and then they they remained in brooklyn for a while and then they moved closer to you okay and that to me personally to my neighborhood your neighborhood and you know it's all because of the one-on-one learning that they had continuity with project inspire that now she she and her husband and the family are completely toro mitzvos you're talking about that she's walking around with rabbi rabbi biederman's you know pamphlets and she's inspiring listen to this she's teaching other russian ladies and that's exactly what rabbi is inspiring that's exactly what rabbi esses was talking about of creating teachers that's his story i saw this individual um he says to me and sure says to me you know i i sit behind you i'm like i know he goes hey you know i'm like what do you mean how do i know i look to you for inspiration right hello i don't know exactly where you are when i start dominating i look at you and i'm like all right i'm ready hey charlie if you only won't kill me i'm going to read without names i'm going to read the second part of this message that he received that he sent me he said we left the soviet union in pursuit of religious freedom but once we came here we lost the concept we got caught up in the mix and thank god we're able to find ourselves again and pursue our religious freedom i felt super blessed and proud of finding the light that shines and paving the road ahead for myself my family to pursue my jewish journey freely and all thanks these courageous jews that made it possible for us today and we only know these are people that came along for the journey through zagatinski and his brooklyn and his broken crew that's right so we recently showed this film to a group here this week and i think the real message they identified you know they're not from their parents were the people who are really struggling they're a little younger so they identified with it but then they came to america and they're at the glitz of america and they say where's the religion fall in but now they're stepping up to the plate and they're saying you know something we have to bring our friends to get them involved and you know and you see you and i experienced it we went on a trip recently to long island and they brought their friends who don't have any kind of affiliation with yiddish with judaism and that's really the message and there's if you if we can create this movement in america so you don't have to be in russia you don't have to take a plane you don't have to have your your arms checked or you have you have you have calendars up your sleeves or or uh dresses in your shoes etc they're right here they're right here and people have to understand and i say this to everybody who's out there there are millions upon millions of jews who are searching for their heritage they just don't know how to get it so therefore if somebody knows an olive teach an olive somebody knows a base teacher base and i just want to say that it's our christmas and it's the firm community zacharias and everybody's our us to really reach out and help our brethren amazing we have robert samson back with samson back samson i was asking you before we before we lost you is that not the message of the torah i just want to tell you i watched it again i saw it before obviously and you know in the production as i was developing but i i i saw it again today and i have to say i was thinking like yasi you don't understand what you did because of noah we were at h and we were like part of this growing sense of we can change the world and we've got to get out there we're going to bring everybody back and rav noah was our hero and he would and he would tell us get out there and you can do it he can make it happen and he used to get up many times and he would say there's a person out there in russia he's getting clandestine groups together of people to teach one to teach another to teach another he's creating a movement all over the ussr right and his name is and i remember thinking wow who could this person be and to have this message which you've brought to light to you and to thank danielle haas also it is an incredible piece i mean it is so profound in so many ways so many muscles as soon as as as as uh as charlie excuse me is is has said are being developed in this but this idea that you know like he said the line which is amazing line it's it's he says it's a criminal act not to share right and that's something that yoni is saying right now but that's something that this is what the bread and butter of project inspire what we're all about is that we have a beautiful torah it's gorgeous and and part of tisha b'av is realizing that that what we have is so beautiful the spiritual reality is so beautiful our relationship with hashem is so beautiful and we saw that come out in this film so beautifully with mendelevich and what a person who wants to be in solitary confinement so we can keep shabbos i mean it's hard for three it's hard to believe three years for three years three years and he's besemka because he appreciate what's it me what a mitzvah means how much do we appreciate but if we appreciate that then we should appreciate that you've got to share it and all the people that don't have it wow how can you keep it to yourself share it right it's a criminal act not to share it so this is what we have to do we have to get everybody here you you have it you love it you want your children to have it you should share it with all of our people and and and and and as as uh nahum sells to the beautiful line you think that there's an iron curtain between you and the non and the person who's less affiliate there's no curtain there's nothing there and you know it was a beautiful line herschel libra said you know there's someone out there when when you care for someone else they feel so special when we share when we just care you know care about other people you have to start teaching them just care notice that they exist and that your brother your brother you there your sister bring them into your home get into a conversation start giving it'll it'll come 95 of outreach is just caring so if if we could take this message and and create the cells and and and realize that there's there's millions and millions of our brothers out there they're waiting for us it's not we're not in soviet russia it's a free country we can just go out and do it if we care enough right and like lapianski said he said if you care you have the talents well i was going to get out i was going to i was going to touch i was going to touch on what he said i just want to take the opportunity i know you mentioned danielle house i want to mention gui ormond of big productions he and his entire team who did an amazing job putting together this film and you know the the the history of it and the footage of it tremendous job but i want to touch on that because there are many people who are watching the film and you only miss the question as well because you're sort of living in the community and sort of get this concept is that you know there are many people watching the film and say like wow these guys are heroic you know like these guys can spread judaism and rabbi lopianski has that line where he says like basically this film and the era the entire era of regular balboa going to russia to inspire people there tells you that you don't need to have quote-unquote anything special but rather quote if you care enough then you have everything you need in order to be able to share is that something that you have found in getting people involved in the community it's amazing to tell you that the car eve to bring close is that you really care about them whether it be inviting them you know to go out to a cup a cup of coffee or to send them a birthday card it's it's not uh it's not making them religious it's about really caring about them as individuals the real struggle that they're really facing is what's going to be with their children let me see they when they were in russia they were reminded that they're jewish over here they're sending to public schools like what and then their kids going to come home and say well what's the matter why can't i marry somebody who's out of the faith how do they answer that so this is what they're struggling with but it's really about connecting them and i wanted to say one thing i know danielle haas was very involved with the with the production of this and she's working with the one-on-one so i just want to give a little shout out and say a little bit of a snippet and a little story and to tell everybody how they can be involved and i think that the one-on-one learning has a tremendous merit and if you didn't sign up for it please sign up for it because everybody could do one-on-one learning and if you need help with it we'll let you know but there's a gentleman who lives in the neighborhood who just wanted to get some one-on-one learning so she called me she said how about you know hooking up with him so i said okay i hooked him up with somebody i ch did you speak that danielle called you about a guy your neighbor a guy in my neighborhood who needs somebody to learn with one-on-one learning one-on-one learning what does it mean he wants to learn a little about jewish history he wants to learn a little about maybe the bible etc he he knows very little about judaism but he lives right in the midst of the flatbush community so i mentioned it to somebody he said absolutely i'll do it but not only that the man needs a bris he wants to do a full circumcision we've hooked him we've connected him with a urologist in lij he's going to have a bris shortly etc what i'm really saying is that you don't know we don't know the ripple effects of what the connections that we have with people and so therefore i just want to say that anybody could do it and if you can't do it then call us we'll coach you we'll coach you through it but there should be a plethora if anybody's watching this move this this this live stream there should be a plethora of people signing up right now for one-on-one learning if you care about claudia sorrell you want to do something this tish above call up sign up sign up for one-on-one learning and the organization will attack attach you to somebody who really needs to be learned with thank you amazing robert samson do you have uh a final message now that we're basically one of the beautiful things that was echoed a couple of times on the film was uh rabbi cutscene that that the whole you know russia will come and go but we will continue and and the way that these jews through what they did they brought this empire they brought it down and the batacon that they had and i think that's a lesson for us all i think that i cuts in so beautifully spoke throughout the thing but when he said at the end he said it's the spirit of this generation that we need to share and he said we can if we do it together we can overcome anything and i think that's the message for us coming out of tisha barb is that with you know to go past our comfort zone a little bit the way they did if we did it if we do it together and we realize you think it's a it's an empire how can we change this all around you know what hashem wants all of his children back and if we just do it together put a little effort into caring and sharing hashem will see mashiach with all of his all of our brother sisters back together we'll be in your line dancing with you you're seeing in wherever you are in your life and and during this meeting it's going to be great and we'll all be there charlie i'll dance with you and i'm so thankful to both of you for what you do in this program it is unbelievable so thank you charlie you're amazing thank you you know i think you're amazing thank you so much thank you for again another time as a co-host we appreciate all that you do for project inspire and it's an honor to be together as well and we're actually we're actually winding down here we're winding down this is the final i guess moments here and uh really just just just to conclude the show the idea basically is that you know we we built this show based on iron faith and the fact that we've seen all these different pieces but they all come down to one puzzle which is each and every one of us has the muscles that we have inside us in order to become the people that we're meant to be and when you look around and you see the people in our past that have managed to put this together it puts us into a place where we can do it ourselves maybe we can end with the final the final thought here as we leave tish above um tisha began with a bunch of jews looking at a challenge and saying we can't and now every single year more and more jews are showing that we can and maybe the the work maybe the message this year is that wherever your faith is make it a little bit more a little bit stronger add a little more iron to the faith if you will wherever you're at to whatever you take is your level of faith your level of giving light your level of overcoming challenge your level of walking with god whatever it is that you're at in your life right now in the last 90 seconds of tish above in the last five minutes before it's over resolve to be a little bit more because you can because the people in iran and those in russia they didn't have anything that you don't have they just were pushed to it and if we take the lessons of the spies and we learn that in every single generation more and more jews are showing this faith me and you have what to do in this world we have what to do this year and it's going to come when we strengthen that faith and then maybe just maybe each and every one of us will do our part and together we'll see next year's show being able to broadcast it live i hope over the the beautiful vision of the harebayes may we celebrate together with the binyan base amigdas from here [Music] what's new behind the iron wall in this letter i'll write to you of life as a free benefit the day begins rather early sweet sounds of children learning [Music] truly [Music] whose faith shall never [Music] is [Music] oh my father my dear father the anguish of your children knows you