Rabbi Alon Anava is going live! Sharing is personal life changing story!! Don't miss out

Hello. >> Okay. So, let let me give you the backstage of all all this, okay? Because I think that it's very funny really. So, I think that on Thursday I was in my office. It was like 3:00 or something like that and suddenly then if you know Jennifer is our executive director and Marcy is the secretary. Okay. So, they knock at already they didn't knock at the door because the door my door is always open. Okay. So they didn't knock at the door. I'm going to make this more dramatic. Okay. So everything that happened in one minute. I'm going to say like in because you know why? Because I'm getting ready for my sermons, high quality sermons. So whatever you can say in one minute, you can you have to say like in 20 minutes, right? Okay. But for sure you're you have everything that you're going to be saying the hour or hour, hour and a half, it's going to be like worthy every minute. You're not going to make it long. >> Okay. So let's go back. Sorry, I'm I'm giving you money. You know that angels they don't have backs. So okay. So they entered my office and they said, "Okay, there is a someone is calling, a woman is calling and they are saying we need a rabbi or apparently they are saying that a rabbi wants to come here to to speak or whatever." And of course the executive director and the secretary they are very loyal to me and they said immediately we don't need another rabbi with you it's more than enough there is no need for another rabbi okay so I said okay so imagine they were here is the door they were here and they were doing like this and leaving my office and then suddenly like a a a message from heaven came as what's the name of the rabbi by the way what's the name of the rabbi and and she said, "I don't know. It's like a Hebrew name. Whatever. Alon, maybe Alon Alon. Rabbi Alon Anava." I say, "Maybe." Are you kidding me? Rabbi Alon Anab is calling us to come here. Okay. Do Do you have Do you have Do you have his phone number or something? Maybe. I don't know. I I wrote something in a sheet of paper, but I think that I threw the sheet of paper already. And now and Miguel Miguel that is here you know Miguel. Okay he threw it and it's in the dumpster. So we went to the dance >> and we went there and we went looking at everything and said that's not true. >> They have the sheet of paper there and it said Rabbi Alona Nava and he said call him immediately immediately call him. Okay. So they they called come the who who Juel maybe or Julie Julie they called Julie and I said yes please of course when is he coming okay and Rabbi Alona Nava is here with us it's a great pleasure really I have been following him for I don't know for a long time really on YouTube all your lectures and everything that you are talking about and Jewish mysticism and Kavala and everything it's really amazing for sure you're going to enjoy his lecture a lot a And this is a perfect time really before the holidays. So travel. Thank you very much. [Applause] Good evening everybody. And we don't only have you local here. We have a few other people online. So we're going to have a very very special night tonight. And I know that because I wasn't supposed to be here. If it was ba planned then I would say okay it will be another lecture but since it wasn't planned for me to be here and I see how Hashem moves things around that I know that it's going to be a very good lecture more than that I have a gauge how I measure a good lecture or not it's not by the quantity of people who show up or not by the applause at the end is how much difficulties I had to come here if it was easy for me to come here then it's going to be an okay lecture but if It was difficult and there was a lot of obstacles on the way and many things that stopped me that I know there's there's at least one soul here that needs to listen to an hour and a half to hear one word that will change one little thought in their mind that will take them to a completely different place in their life. So that's really the aim. That's why I'm here. And I know that Hashem invited me here personally also you. So pay attention. You might be that lucky soul. As I was driving here, I came from Miami. Then uh I uh stopped to put gas and as I coming in to put gas, I see the lottery sign and I asked the person there, "How much is the lottery?" He told me 815 million. I was like, "Okay, give me a ticket." You know, I'll never know. Told him if I win, I'll come and buy you a car. He was very excited. But why am I saying that? Then he started telling me how much he loves the Jews. The Jews are bas offer you a car. Then of course the Jews are the best. So, but nevertheless, uh I I mind my saying that cuz sometimes you you can win the lottery. You all it takes is a $5 bill and you might win the lottery if Hashem wants. So tonight, you never know. You might going to win the lottery tonight. The lottery is not money. lottery is that you win some blessing in your life that will make you a millionaire in the spiritual level, in the emotional level, even in the physical. Nothing wrong with money. But nevertheless, the story that I'm going to share with you today is very long. The lecture is very long. I want to get straight to the point with a very quick introduction that I was born in Israel and I was born to a very secular family and lived in a very secular town. And the education that I got in Israel was a very secular education. Uh I would even dare to say not only that the the education was secular, I was also educated to dislike the Torah and to dislike Hashem and to that it's all fake. And you kind of see what's going on now in Israel with the fight between the Orthodox, the Kared and the liberals and everybody's fighting with each other unfortunately. But I was like that. I didn't like the side of Hashem at all. I resented that. I went to the army. I I I was the Israeli that hates the religious people. But the one who has the last laugh is usually the one who's has a better laugh. Hashem was the one who laughed last and down the line. I I changed my path suddenly. Tonight I'm going to share with you my story why I went on a different path. Now today I'm actually going to share with you a much better interesting puzzle piece from my story because for 20 plus years I've been lecturing all around the world. The story that caused me to become observant and in a twominut uh uh introduction. I lived my life as a secular individual. Tonight you're going to hear what lifestyle I lived. And when I was 27 years old as a result of using too much drugs I had cardiac arrest and I dropped dead. I had a a clinical death. 7 minutes I was flatlined. They're resuscitating me and my soul goes up to the heavens. Leave the the world leave the body go to a a rendevu in the world above and comes back down here. That's the story that I shared last night and if you missed it then you can find it online and I highly recommend to watch it because it's just goes to show you how amazing Hashem is. But for 20 plus years, I've been giving over my life story and missing a big piece of it to a point that my wife used to tell me for many years, you were saying the wrong miracle. The miracle is not how you came from the heavens into this world. The miracle is what came out later. And for many years, I held myself back from sharing it for many different reasons. And I think tonight, you're going to understand what some of the many reasons. But the sad fact was that I came from Israel when I was about 20 21 after the army and I had one goal here in the United States. I came here to make money. I didn't care about anything else. Money. There's a phrase in the Talmud that says if you come and you step forward and you want to do chuva, you want to repent, you want to come closer to Hashem, then they will help you from the heavens. there's going to be help. The phrase continues by saying if you want to be impure then they'll open all the gates of gay for you. Whatever you want you want to be impure we'll give it to you. We'll cater it to you. You don't have to come to us even. So I came with a distorted thought into this country and Hashem says no problem. You want to go on that path, I'll take you on that path. And very quickly, and this is what you're going to hear tonight, a part of it. Very quickly, in a matter of two years, I went downhill to a point that I used to abuse drugs and I used to deal with drugs. I was a drug dealer and I went to the lowest place that a person can get to and that's where Hashem decided to make the U-turn. I I couldn't reach more no more lower than that. And that's where Hashem kicked in and did all the changes. So for many many years I've been sharing my near-death experience which is very very profound deep experience. I've been sharing it for the last 20 years and many have taken a lot of good a lot of good things from it. But really there's much greater miracles that Hashem does. There's a big question. I shared yesterday my story how it happened on Pes on on the night of Pes and I gave the whole explanation how Pesak symbolizes a person going out of his state of limitation out of his mit. Mit in Hebrew it means a state of limitation a state of the consciousness. So going out of mit is you go out of your limitations. And your limitation can be an addiction to something physical. It can be a certain character trait that you can't seem to control anger or or jealousy or whatever it is. It's not you can't put it under control or even your state of mind, your consciousness, and you're stuck where you are. You can go for years and years and you're stuck. There's no growth there. And of course, it bothers you. When you're stuck in your mit, you start being bothered by that. What I'm referring to is going out of that state. This is called this is the concept in Jewish mysticism of going out of Egypt is not only going out of the country is going out of your state of limitations that you broaden your horizon you think different you see things in a broader light so my change was on that day on pes but the the when the kadb who wants to change a person's life doesn't matter who you are or where you come from Hashem has ways to do everything in the most colorful way. So for many many years I've been sharing my story how I changed my life and affected people. But really the ultimate miracle was not what Hashem did to me personally because really he did it to my to me. I can I can sit here for hours and share my personal story. It's not the same. It happened to me. But the story you're going to hear tonight that I believe is much more powerful. That shows really the power of Hashem. when Hashem wants to intervene and change something how he kicks in and then the the reason why I was talking about the the going out of is because when Hashem wants you to go out of your state of limitation he will present to you different situations and see if you what what you choose to do. So uh without further ado, the story is very long and a lot of the stuff is very personal. So if I skip or stop certain things then bear with me. But really what I want to show you is the power of Hashem. Because you know there's a big question. How come we all the time mention in our prayers and in many different ceremonies the commemorating the going out of we do we say we constantly talking about going out of Egypt and the question is okay going out of Egypt is a big miracle but there are other miracles why why aren't we commemorating the creation of the world that's a much greater miracle or receiving the Torah als also the same level miracle. So that's the concept that a person needs to recognize which state of consciousness he or she is in recognize the faults or if there's something negative and know how to go out get out of it. So that why am I saying that? Because for many years I understood that the miracle is what Hashem did to me. But really the miracle is what Hashem did later on which this is what I want to share with you and needless to say like the rabbi said not more appropriate than now to say it on when everybody has to get ready for. So I believe that this will come at the right time. So the story starts I was about 20 years old. I come to the United States and uh like I told you I had one focus is to do money to make a lot of money and I didn't care what's in my way or who's in my way or what I need to do for that. Now I have to say one quick disclaimer before we start is that for many years I didn't share this part of my personal story because it is a little bit embarrassing which is good that it's embarrassing. If it wouldn't be embarrassing to me, then that means the chuva wasn't done right. But it's embarrassing to share a lot of what I'm telling you. But please don't judge me that bad because uh I had enough of that. So, but I have to share some of the the bad things. Like if you remember the story with Ysef that he was in jail then when paro had his dream and they couldn't figure out what's the dream they called all their dream solvers and finally one guy stands up and says listen I'm sorry I have to remind everybody today my sins but I sat in jail with some young guy who solved my dream. Remember this part in the Torah. So he says there the Torah is emphasizing that the translation is I'm going to remind you all now my sins. So sometimes in life a person has to stand up and say I have to confess something that I did a long time ago. Please forgive me. So it's so as I said I had one goal when I came to this country to make a lot of money and I was always wheeling and dealing. I was always doing business I knew how to do to make money out of air. Not because I'm Israeli. Maybe that helps a lot. I think the combination of Jew, Israeli, and a few other elements. Good recipe how to make a lot of money at the time. I used to I used to produce big parties. That's what I used to do in Israel. And then in Israel, I also got in trouble both with the law and with the mafia. So I had to flee Israel. But I used to produce these big parties very similar to the type of party that unfortunately we saw in the terror attack in October 7 in the Nova festival. That's the type of parties that I used to produce. Big parties in nature. Two, three day festival, five six thousand people, a lot of drugs and that's basically it. Amazing parties, but uh but unfortunately 99.9 people% of the people there are high on drugs. But that's the parties that I used to produce. And very quickly I understood, okay, it makes good money. It's a lot of fun. But that's not the money. If I want to make real money, then in that particular niche, what will make money is selling the drugs. So very quickly I had to figure out, okay, I make the parties, I bring the crowd, let me enjoy the entire cake. So like I said, you want to be impure, no problem. Mashem says, "I'll open all the gates of Goono for you." Very quickly, I'm talking about in a matter of months, uh, I got my hands on a big shipment of drugs and the bowl started rolling. And as they say in Hebrew, I don't know how good it sounds in English, but in Hebrew, we say, "With the food comes the appetite." So when things start rolling, then you your appetite grows. And before you know it, I was I I was all over the place. At some point, I hooked up with a certain gang of of criminals who their specialtity, they had people in all the official offices, social security, DMV, whatever you want. So for a nice amount of money, you would be able to get from me whatever document you want real from the actual agency. And bear in mind everything that I'm talking about this is pre 911. After 911 the country changed. Before 911 this country was basically you can do whatever you want here. The only two things that you don't want to mess with this country is their taxes, their money and their drugs. That's it. Other than that, do whatever you want. So it was really like that. So I had my connections and I was able to bring workers from Israel and send them to the right places and with a very small amount the person comes into this country and goes out. He has a real ID, real social security, real driver's license, everything real from the actual agency. Well, of course fake. With that, like I told you, with the food comes a lot of appetite. The problem was that I had to start moving the drugs from one place to another. I wasn't a drug dealer that stands on the corner of the streets and sells a little baggie. I would run the show. People will come and I'm talking about these size parties. Sometimes we would sell 10,000 pills in one party. That's how big it were. It wasn't like a little operation. And the trick was that that's how how I decided it from day one is that I'm not going to brag about it. I did it in a very sophisticated way that nobody knows what's going on. Even the people underneath me, I built it in a in a I built it in a way to last, not that down the line some link will break and that's it, the whole thing goes to shame. So I built it like a sophisticated army intelligence that there's an operation running and nobody knows what's going on, who's in charge of what? Nobody knows nothing. And I needed to find very quickly a way to move the drugs from place to place. That was the hard part, not the the the distribution in the local places. So I found a loophole that and I don't know I think the law has changed but for many many years if I would come to your house as a mover and I sign you on a invoice and bill of lighting and all the documents that I need to sign you and I'm moving you from whatever from Tampa to Miami or from Tampa to New York. I don't know what's in your boxes. I have no responsibility. You signed. That's the biggest loophole in the industry. I can move wherever I want in my trucks and I have no responsibility. So very very quickly with all the fake documents rose to the world, a few fake moving companies and very quickly everything was done very quickly. I had an entire operation of moving companies all over the states running tractor trailers from west to east. that was making millions of dollars and everything was frauds and all sorts of bad things. Nothing was kosher. And very very quickly I find myself and I'm 24 by the way. I'm not like 40. 24. I lived in South Beach, drove a Lamborghini, had beautiful cars, parties all day long, and I'm running a sleek, smooth, dangerous cartel. Now the thing is why dangerous? Because when you deal with such stuff, you don't deal with doctors and engineers. It's not very gentleman people that you deal with them in a nice meal over a good wine. You know, you deal with people in a very rough way. And I know I look now a little bit more refined, but if you have a moment, look at your phone and write Rabbi Lona Nava and then write before, right? And then Google and look at some pictures how I looked 30 years ago. A lot like this. long hair, earrings all over my ears, piercings in my nose, lips, eyes, tattoos all over my body. I didn't look such such a nice guy. I def actually looked like not somebody you want to meet on a dark alley. And really, again, I remind my sins I wasn't somebody to mess with. I was rough, violent. I was really nobody to mess me. Nobody wanted to talk to me. I created myself a reputation, a very rough reputation. That's how I ran the show. I was so rough. My friends, my Israeli friends used to call me boom pitom cuz boom is a punch and p is suddenly you talk, you say run one word and the table turns over. So I was like a hotheaded psychopath. And that's how I ran my show. Everything was tight and it ran like clockwork. It came to a point that very very fast I was living the life of most people. Well, I don't know if to say most people but at least young men would like to live crazy life, money everywhere, parties and but nevertheless all day long was but chaos because when you're dealing with all these types of people, there's always problems, violence, fighting, it's it's you know, every argu there's no argument that ends with let's sit and talk like two human beings. Arguments are settled in a violent way. It was a very extreme type of lifetime. I mean, needless to say, the whole time I'm abusing my own drugs. I was on drugs, high all day long. And I'm talking about severe drugs, not marijuana. I was high on cocaine and many other drugs all day long for six years. I don't think there was one day that I wasn't high. And only when you high at that point, that's how you able to operate in such of a way because you don't you don't have a normal way of thinking. It got to a point that it became very very extreme. Very extreme to all directions, the good and the bad. But it was a lifestyle you have to understand. Every two months I had to run somewhere and hide somewhere because I don't know who's looking up behind me constantly carrying weapons, constantly with people around. It's not a good normal lifestyle. It's fun for some part and that's it. And then suddenly at the age of 27, out of the blue, I'm living my life in a certain lifestyle. And then I get hit with this whole near-death experience in one of my own parties. I go to the party, boom, take too many drugs, get a heart attack, drop dead. That's it. And the experience is that my soul left my body, went to a real quick visit in the world above, saw everything from beginning to end, and came back here. And now I wake up when I'm 27 years old when I know that I need to start changing my life because the entire experience in a nutshell I was brought to the heavenly court. Simple as that. in the heavenly court. They showed me my entire life and I saw my life again in a way that it was so weird that I lived my life again but it was slow motion and I was standing outside of my body and watching everything and everything was pointed out and what was pointed out by the way a lot of people try to protect me in I mean I'm going to lectures and they're telling me yeah but you grew up to a secular family how can you be held accountable and you didn't know this and you didn't know that and all this is true because when they showed me my behavior in life in the heavenly court they didn't show me that I put or didn't put fill in that they didn't show me but they showed me how I treated other people between one person to another the entire show in the heavenly court they didn't show me oh here's on Shabbat you ripped letters you're not allowed to whatever I didn't really know then it wasn't shown but listen I grew up in Israel it's not that I grew up in some little rock Arkansas when I never saw a Jew in my life. I grew up in Israel. You can't say I don't know. I never heard of such a thing. But really, what was shown to me in my own court was how I treated other people and the the sins that one does in front of another person, stealing and many other things. But the fact is the story of the near-death experience is very long. I'm not going to share no points with it tonight. But if you don't know the story, then go on YouTube, just write Rabbi on another near-death experience. You'll see a three-hour video. It will be very interesting for you to watch. But to fast forward, I wake up. I'm 27 years old. And now I have to change my path. Now for a normal person to change their path from being secular to observant, that in itself is a big mountain. First year I had to get rid of all the junk. Instead, I before I even start putting even a yamako in my head, I wake up. I'm 27 years old and I'm saying waking up. I'm waking up from my near-death experience. I was flatlined. I wake up and I know clearly that I need to change my life. Now, forget about the long journey of becoming closer to Hashem and observant. That's in itself is a journey. I need to first of all live my lifestyle. It's getting rid of all the bad habits. Now I'm talking about drug abuse. I'm not talking about the criminal lifestyle. Just drug abuse. That's one challenge to start with and then leaving your lifestyle. This is not a lifestyle that you tell tell people you work with. By the way, I've came to the point that I'm going to retire. Please find yourself somebody else that will traffic your drugs. Now, in the beginning, I I would operate by myself. But very quickly once I was out there, I became the name in the industry that moves things from place to place. You have a problem, I'll move it for you. There's a price for everything. And I would move for other people's stuff. I don't even know what's in the boxes. I don't ask questions. I know it's drugs, weapons. I don't know what's in there. But I went, I'm telling you, I went very, very far. If I would tell you some of the stories in the wildest movie, you won't find stuff like that. But nevertheless, get to get rid of such a lifestyle that's not so easy. The people around you, people I'm I'm connected to and I would be all my co-worker co-workers, the people I was dealing with was all criminals. So I had to literally disappear like I would lived in New York. I moved to Chicago. So for the first whole year, the change was not an easy change. I practicing religion. I didn't do nothing. I would I just started eating in kosher diet only meat and dairy. I was not mixing meat and dairy. That was my big change. I would put fillin on every day. And on Shabbat I used to do kush. That was my religious change. My acknowledge Hashem I know you exist. I can't do nothing right now. It's way too much for me in the future. Now I need to take care of my own junk. So the first year was very very difficult, very hard. But this is where the whole story takes a big change. One day about a year after my near-death experience, I live in Chicago. I'm slowly slowly I'm a much different person. First of all, after the near-death experience for like half a year, I was physically very ill. Half three months, my half my body was paralyzed. And finally, I'm getting, you know, a little bit cleaner, clearer. I'm thinking better. And I'm thinking that I'm already going on a better path. One time my mom comes to visit me from Israel. And after many years that she used to come and visit me and see like this junky son. Suddenly she sees a normal adult. I cut my hair. I shave. I look normal. No earrings, no piercings. I dress normal. She sees a beautiful home, beautiful cars, big business. She doesn't know what's the business. She just sees a little a lot of success and she gets a lot of nat on that day a lot of things changed and that day I go to sleep 5:00 in the morning I hear strong banging on the door. Now living this type of lifestyle you right away get ready for okay what what what's what's behind the door? who found me? I go to the door and I look in the hall. I see about 20 men outside my house, all wearing vests, FBI vests. Behind them, a lot of guys armed, machine guns. I run to the other side of the house to see if they're only in the front. I go to the other side. Now, being a criminal, drapes are always closed. Drapes are never open. I go to the back of the house, move some of the drapes. The whole house is surrounded. The whole house is surrounded with marshals, machine guns, dogs, helicopter in the air. I go to the other side of the house. Same thing. Go to the other side. The whole house is completely surrounded. And not with two or three cops, dozens. Marshalss, FBI, DEA, they're all there. Now I have about 3 seconds to think, what am I doing? I go look again in the peep hall and I was like, "Okay, I can't let them take me down." I run to my bedroom into my closet. I move all the clothes that are in the closet and I grab the first two machine guns that are on the wall and I go to the door. And in my mind, they're not taking me. I'm not going out of jail. And as I'm standing like this, like a complete psychopath, thinking like, "I'm not going down." I remember my mom is in the other room and I quickly and everything is seconds. And I'm looking at my mom. I see her peacefully sleeping and I'm like, I don't need my mom coming into the living room seeing her boy with 50 bullets in his body, not knowing what's going on here. And this is all in seconds. I'm banging on the door and I already hear them, you know, you know, breaking the door. I have a few seconds before they're coming in. What am I doing? And I put down the guns and I'm like, I I can't have my mom see such a thing. I I I can't do this to her. She can't. And they they open the door. They break the door down. Seconds in the house. I'm on the floor handcuff the whole house. They rip the whole house apart. Da agents, FBI raid the whole place. I was arrested like a bin Laden. You never seen anything like that. Helicopters in the air. And at the same time with me 127 people from my crew all getting arrested at the same time. It was a such a huge raid from New York to Los Angeles, Miami, everybody at the same time and nobody can come and say I'm getting arrested and I don't know what's going on yet. And in my mind I'm like yeah in my with my arrogance okay two hours I'm coming home. Yeah then no problem. Okay. They take me downtown. They arrest me of course and then they put me in front of a judge very quickly. Comes to me some greasy Italian lawyer throws on the table like a yellow pages this big. And he tells me that's your indictment. And I'm like flipping through the pages and can you summarize the whole thing? It's going to take me three weeks to read this. So he only tells me you're in big trouble. Okay. They put me in front of the judge. The prosecutor starts reading the counts in the indictment and I'm listening to the counts. What do they have on me? And all that they're reading is fraud and extortion and possession of illegal weapons and but all sorts of stuff. Nothing but drugs. And I'm kind of having a relief. And then of course they go on and saying, "But we're still investigating the connection to drug trafficking and drug manufacturing and drug dealing." And then and then they dropped the bomb. I was arrested two months after 9/11. They're like, "And we're still connecting connect investigating the connection to terrorism." Once I heard terrorism, I was like, "That's it." And of course, I asked the judge, "Okay, what's the amount? Give me an an amount. 20 minutes, you'll have it here on the table." Judge tells me, "No, no bail. No, no bail to your case. Your case is from New York. I'm going to fly you to New York." I was like, "Just tell me, just bill me an amount. It's going to be here in cash in half an hour." Nope. No bill. terrorism, you have no bail. All this was done on a Friday. I get arrested. I start the process going through the uh reception, the honory reception. Uh when you get arrested, then I go into the floor where all the inmates are with my orange robe with all my junk and I sit down. Big room, a lot of inmates. I'm looking around. Okay, this is going to be my new neighborhood for the next I don't know how long. And I'm sitting like this, you know, I'm still digesting the shock and I'm looking at the clock that's on the wall and I see the hand of the clock. Click, click, click. And maybe a minute or two after I sit down, I'm looking at the clock and tick, it moved and it was the exact time, whatever it was, 7:15 or whenever, Shabbat comes in. And I knew exactly when Shabbat is coming in. So, I sat down where I was arrested literally a minute before Shabbat and I'm looking at the clock and that's when I realized you're going to have a different life from now on, my dear friend. The prosecution demanded 40 years at 49 counts on a federal indictment. This is not something you can uh get a lawyer and sweep to the side. I end up sitting in jail close to two years, no bail. First they flew me to first I was a few months in Chicago, then they flew me to Oklahoma. Oklahoma is the main shipping and receiving jail of the federal system. If you look it up online, do Oklahoma federal prison. You'll see that this jail has a runway. The planes land in the jail. He has a runway. The plane goes into the jail and you go off the plane con air. That's where they got the the the concept for the movie with Nicholas Cage. That's how they fly the the the convicts. Marshalss move the from state to state. You're tied in a chair for 12 hours and up down up down taking off landing and finally you get to your destination. So I end up being being stuck in that prison for a few months. And it wasn't so fun. By the way, prison is not like a little girl's camp. And because I was tagged as with terrorism and drug dealing and all that, I was in maximum security. So I wasn't sitting there with a nice bunch of people. Worse than that in Chicago is somehow but in Oklahoma there's you know the problem is in jail that you need to have a gang. If you're not connected to a gang you have a problem. So the blacks are with the blacks and the Hispanics are with the Hispanics. But I didn't have a gang. And worse than that you know Oklahoma was the gang of the white supremacists. the ones that really don't like the Jews and other, you know, swastikas on their head. So, it wasn't real fun to deal with that. Try to kill me three times in jail. I had a very rough time. They once choked me. I was out of conscious for three weeks. So, every day in jail was a survive survival. When I really in in jail is where I did chuva. That's where I changed everything. Not in a nice yeshiva with a rabbi and a nice book and an air conditioning yeshiva. My chuva was on the floor in jail bleeding to death crying to Hashem to forgive me. And I understood that every day of hell that I went there is for all the junk that I dished out. Measure for measure. Whatever you whatever you give, you'll get back. You can call it measure for measure. You can call it karma. Call it whatever you want. Whatever you going to throw out to the universe bounces back right at you. and usually stronger than what you did. I knew that every punch that I got and every I was in jail. You don't even imagine I went through a very very rough time. Luckily, I was rough to start with. It wasn't that I was some nerdy guy and I was like, "Oh, I'm sorry. I was rough myself, but nevertheless, that's not a nice place to be in." And I have stories from jail. Finally, finally, I got to New York. And in New York was I got a little bit a little break because in Oklahoma I didn't even have friends. I didn't talk for a whole year. I didn't talk. There's nobody to talk to. I could only talk with the guy that was with me in the cell and that's it. And he only will talk to me in the cell. That's it. And really Oklahoma was uh every day was surviving. And the thing is that I started doing chuvine jail. So I eventually got kosher food. Can you imagine sitting in front of 400 inmates, all killers and drug dealers, rapists, and I'm opening food like from llal flight, you know, it's all with plastic. So, and and that's when I really became started to become observant. So, I said, I'm a Jew. Bring me a prayer book and fill in. I would put fill in a in the next in the courtyard. You can pray in the cell. There's a toilet there. And I would walk with my talit that sometimes it didn't work so well for me. But nevertheless, in jail is really when I did chuba. That's really when I changed everything. Now, not in a yeshiva and not with a rabbi and not definitely not on YouTube. But nevertheless, finally I get to New York. And in New York, I got a little break. Why did I get a little break? I'm coming to wherever floor that I am and I come and before I got, you know, accepted to the to the new place. Then I'm sitting there, you know, all the inmates, they bring them from the the bus. The bus goes into the building and they process the inmates. So I'm sitting like this minding my own business and some guy is sitting next to me and uh the one of these officers were coming in and she's like, "Uh, anybody here speaks Russian? Anybody here speaks Russian?" Everybody's looking at each other. So she starts speaking to this guy. She speaks to him in English and he answers her in Russian. half what he answers is curses. That I understood. And and then she she gets frustrated and she leaves. And the second that she leaves and locks the door, he goes to me, he tells me, you see how I'm making a joke of her. Suddenly I'm like, "What?" It's like the donkey of he opened the mouth and this guy a whole year I didn't hear nobody talking. Suddenly this little guy talks to me. So very quickly we got friendly. Some Russian guy in his 80s, I don't even know where he grew up. Somewhere on some mountain in Siberia, probably fought bears and ate nails for breakfast. You never saw such a tough guy. He was like this small. And nevertheless, he he he they gave him time in jail. The FBI came to him. They told him his friend was a drug dealer. They came to him. They told him, "We know you know things." He's like, "I don't tell you nothing." So they gave him two ears. Nevertheless, suddenly I have a friend. I suddenly talk to somebody. Okay. I get to my floor. I go to my cell and I see the cell is a little bit different than the other cells. And I'm sitting on the first floor. There's a bunk bed and everybody kind of looks into the room. Why? Why you sitting on the Why you sitting on the lower bed? Very quickly, I understood and learned who was my roommate. My roommate was the number two guy in the Gambino family that sat with me for a whole year in jail in New York. So suddenly I have two friends. We became very friendly. So we were a very funny crew, an Israeli gangster, a Russian old guy and the number two guy in the Gambino family in the New York mafia crime. And then we're suddenly I sit like this. I get apples every day, coffee, you You know, normally coffee in jail is black water. That's what it is. You take it when you want to throw up. Suddenly I had coffee and I'm jo you know people don't understand when it says I was eating apples. You know you don't have nothing in jail. Suddenly to get an apple it's like uh so suddenly I got a little break. I have friends. I have my little friend Alex and the other guy from the Gambino family. Uh and we had a lot of fun. We had a lot of fun but that at some point also stopped and I was moved to a different floor and and again the problem started. So for about two years went through a very very rough time but that's really where I started becoming observant. Okay. And by the way through all through through this time in my mind I already came to terms that I'm going to be 40 years in jail. Every lawyer that we went to, my parents went to any lawyer possible. All told him, "We can't help him. The case is way too complicated. Even if we take 10 counts down, it's they actually went worse than that." So, I already knew that's it. Hashem wants me to be in jail. Best place to do Chuva. By the way, I was like, I'm going to be like Rabbi Aka. Go to jail for 40 years. I learn Torah from morning to night. No distractions in jail. Don't have to worry about paranas making money. Don't have to worry the food is there. I don't have to worry about a wife, kids, all sorts of desires for last four cement walls and learn Torah. So in my mind I was like great I'm going to be a learn Torah for 40 years. One day they call me to show up in court which I don't even know why. They take me to court. I they come and a new lawyer comes to and greets me tells me I'm you know the other lawyer quit because every lawyer I would they didn't only make problems so I would constantly fire all the lawyers so he tells me okay listen uh by the way they approved bail can you get money and I was like well of course well what's the bail it's like a very difficult bail they want $1.7 million and they want three people to sign and bring their deeds to their house was a very difficult bill and you're restricted. You can't leave here this this and next day I'm a free man. Suddenly I got out of jail. Very difficult [Music] conditions. Couldn't leave the five bars. I have a bracelet on my leg. Had to come three times in the beginning. Three times I had to report every day. Come to a sheriff's office and sign. But I'm a free man now. right away the second that I'm out my mind is okay I'm I'm suddenly I'm somehow out what I do so I had a plan I'm going to sell everything that I have very cheap just to liquidate money and the same way that I knew how to bring people into the country I'll get myself out of the country and I have to disappear off the face of the earth means I can never come back home I'll never see any one of my family I have to literally disappear off the face of the earth it's that or 40 years in For two years, I couldn't sell anything for two two weeks, not two years. For two weeks, I called my friends. I had trucks. I had 140 tractor trailers. I had warehouses in five different locations, offices, nothing. I couldn't sell nothing. Nobody wanted to deal with me. All my friends from the moving industry, nobody just hang heard my voice, hung up the phone. Two weeks later, >> my lawyer calls me and he's like, "Listen, the feds, they wanna they want to ask you a few questions." Uh, I think it's serious. So, I go to my lawyer. He starts asking me a bunch of questions. But but by the questions, I was already Okay, here's here's part two. They take me to the feds. I walk into a big room sitting there a lot of FBI agents, DA agents, the prosecutor, the district attorney, and they start uh throwing pictures on the table. Who's this guy? Who's this guy? You know this guy? No, never seen this guy. No, I don't know. I don't know. Then one of them gets up and tells me Mr. Anava, I know that you know all of them and I know also your connection to all these people and but I saw that they're going to come like this now and very quickly I understood that they they want to know what's going on. They're not happy with just knowing with all the frauds and extortions and they want to know what's going what's going on and started which eventually end up eight months of intense interrogations with the FBI. The DA couldn't figure out later on I learned that for three years the DA was investigating me with all my stuff but they couldn't figure out what's going on. Eventually, it was rolled over to the FBI and the FBI just nailed me on everything that possibly that can be like they do to all mobsters. They can't get you for this, they'll get you for that. That's it. Who cares for what? You're sitting in jail. Half a year to 8 months, they were interrogating me every day, five, six hours, and I knew what they're trying to get out. Now, at the time, that's when I started becoming much more observant. Anyways, the situation became very very bad, very difficult and exactly at that time is where I met my rabbi and I met him in regards to Torah. Two weeks after I came out of jail, I was, you know, just imagine my mind was not in the right space. I was and I met a friend who told me, "Why don't you look stressed? Why don't you come tonight? There's a nice party to in upper west side." And I was like, "Ah, leave me alone. And then she said the magic word. She was like, "Maybe you'll meet someone." I'm like, "Okay, what when are we going? I'm facing 40 years in jail. I'm going to meet someone." So I go to and listen, there was a big room, I don't know, 100 people, music, alcohol, and I'm like, "Oh, this is what I need to deal with right now." So I I I ran out of the room. Very classy, of course. Didn't just get up and leave. But instead of going out of the building, I went into the shul and I come into the shul a rabbi stands long table 20 30 people around the table and the rabbi tells me we didn't start. And in my mind I'm like how am I getting great out of that? And I tell the rabbi no it's very late I I got to go to sleep. He's like she okay I don't worry I sit. That was the first night in my life that I ever heard dua. never spoke to a rabbi. Never heard Torah in my life for two years in jail. I had a Tanakh what they give the Israeli soldiers that you need a microscope to figure out what's written there. That's what I had for two years. I read the Tanakh 5,000 times I think backwards and forth already like that. That's what I had in jail. No books, no nothing. First time in my life I hear Torah. I was mesmerized. I couldn't believe what I'm hearing. I was magnet to the the to the rabbi and and I kept looking at the clock. I had to be somewhere the next day. The next day I had a court hearing where I stood in front of a federal judge and in one second took everything that I had. That from everything that's what really broke me. And where I'm talking to you about an amount that is close to $50 million, not 150 real estate, cars, bank accounts, anything that I had, they had their they put their hand on. And in the year prior to that when I was starting to do chuva, I started laundering all the money. So instead of having stashes of cash, it was all in real estate. Everything was taken. And when I asked why you taking my money, what's one got to do with the other? The answer I got is your investigation cost $11 million. I I asked you to investigate me. Are you sending me a bill? Are you investigating me now? You're sending me a bill. Go investigate somebody else. Oh, I'll tell you. Ask me the questions. I'll tell you. It would be much cheaper. So, eight months, every second day was another slap to the face. I was going through a very, very hard time. And when they took everything, that was the last thing that I had, money. Hashem took me to the highest highest highest place and dropped it in one shot like a bungee jumping. That's what Hashem did. And I was crushed. I may shame me made me this big. So that night when I met my rabbi, I became very friendly with him. He inspired me to start becoming much more observant and so forth. But then after a while, I I had to tell somebody what's going on. So I came to him first. I told him what happened to me two years prior to that, the near-death experience, which for that he went whack. We're crazy. He's like, "Ah, you're not in yeshiva. You're not learning Torah. You know what's going on with you?" But then I told him about what's going on in the jail in the in the with the indictment. And he told me it's all a test. Now, you know, when you have a sword here and you're facing 40 years in jail and more, it's the most annoying thing that somebody tells you it's a test. Excuse me. Oh. Oh, why did you said that before that? If you would tell me it's a test, I would go through it like a That's why for 20 years people tell me something I don't dare telling them it's a test. You don't want to hear it's a test. I know it's a test. I need to hear solutions. So he tells me it's a test. Yeah. Okay. And he's with full confidence. He tells me Shabbat fine guard your everything will be fine. Just like that. Yep. That's that. Yeah. I believed him. I believed him. So for half a year, I was super Jew. I don't think any Jew in history was like that. How I was in that half a year. Maybe an hour or two of sleep every night from morning to night. Like a like a ninja Jew. I lived in New York at that time. Every night it was winter. I would go to the Lubavich's grave and read a whole book of tim all night 3 four hours in the snow and pray all day long and learn to within like 6 months I was like zero to 100 from secular to fully fully loaded the whole package. Why? I have a sword here. I can't mess up. There's no 99%. My rabbi told me, "Stare straight out. You do exactly what I tell you and you'll see it will all disappear." I don't know how, but it will. The element that made it work is my amuna that I believed. Few months down the line, about to be exact, eight months down the line, I meet my wife, which came like a a rose in the desert. Suddenly after two or three years of suffering suddenly I see some light and that all that encounter was very funny. First we got introduced we got introduced that night that I'm telling telling you that I went to he didn't even look to my direction. Eight months later when somehow our paths came together I was already I looked a little bit different a little beard and I looked a little bit more brushed up. She did her uh changes that she needed to do and then we were matched and on the first date she said I heard you have some crazy story how you became observant. I'm like yeah. So first date I told her the near-death experience story. She got the long version was like a 9-hour date. Usually it's a two-hour lecture. She got it was a lot of coffee that date. But nevertheless, uh the next date I uh we sat and talked and my legs were crossed and she could see the ankle bracelet. She was like, "What's that?" Nothing. Don't nothing to bother about. Just continue now. What? What? What is this? No, it's something new. It's I mean, I'm starting a trend. Uh now, how do you get away from that? What are you going to tell this woman? So I said, you know, I'm out on bail. On bail? Why? What happened? So second date, I tell her what happened. And again, you're getting the short version. She got the 9-hour date. Weird. She agreed to a third date. So every date I told her one big thing in my life. There was nothing like every day. It wasn't like, I you know, what colors do you like? Do you do you like Italian or with me? was like and then they try to kill me and so every date I'm coming with another like bomb and and then at the end at the end like the fifth or sixth date I came with another bomb. I told her and by the way there's one more very little detail. It's not that important but I'm married. So, no, I was married to some young girl. No, not not not cuz I loved her, because I needed the green card, but nevertheless, but I was still married. So, somehow when I told my wife if she asked her if she she's crazy enough to marry me, then she she agreed. My wife also had that vision. She was like, "No, I see this. This will disappear. Now, how do you physically do such a thing?" Miraculously, a few months later, we actually get married. My wife and me, we get married a month before my trial. We get to the trial and in the entire case, 127 people got arrested. Half of them were sitting for a few months by the immigration, got deported, black stamp on their passport, never want to see you here again. Some of them got prosecuted. I have friends that are still sitting in jail. And then came me. And uh I came to the court with such beton with such trust in Hashem that I'm going out. It was really a process of close to a year that that's when I really changed my life. I'm talking about towards the Torah and I'm telling you with no joke. I was a super Jew for half a year. that half a year, 8 months, I was like like a ballistic missile taking off cuz I knew I need Hashem 100% around me. Other than that, nothing is going to work. And I was so innocent in that respect that I said the rabbi said, if the rabbi said, I just do what he's telling me and and that's it. Comes the court date of course excitement everybody and what's going to happen. The judge starts talking to me and he starts uh you know talking completely nice. There's a verse in the Torah that says kings and and rulers are in the hand of hem. You can see a king suddenly Hashem talk makes him talk like a puppet and the king who is a powerful man can do something that you you can't even believe. There's a very similar story to mine. of course completely different but with an Orthodox rabbi Rabbi Rubashkin maybe you heard the story similar got arrested in Iowa for whatever sat in jail for got got convicted started serving his time and then President Trump gave him gave him a pardon he was supposed to sit in jail for like 60 years or something he said a few years was a serious story and he got pardon me a king can do whatever Hashem can do whatever he wants he can control any governor any president any king. I'm sitting I'm standing in front of this judge and the judge starts talking to me like I'm his friend. I see you did a big change in your life. You're walking on a completely different path. It's very interesting. You see, and now you're married. I wish you well. He's like, "And then he sentenced me to a year probation and $1,000 fine." That was the silence in the courtroom. What? Everybody's looking at what's going on here. A year probation and $1,000 fine. I look at my lawyer. He's like, "Don't get so excited because the immigration is probably waiting outside to arrest you. No immigration. Never. First year of my marriage, every knock on the door. Honey, we're going to Israel. Immigration is probably here." Never. They never came. You know what's the real joke? that after I got married with my wife, you know, the first year everything started coming down, you know, the whole pressure from, you know, thank you, Hashem. And then, of course, we we wanted to to get me legal. So, my wife is American. We went to ask for a green card. So, we show up to the interview. I already have an American wife and a child. We come to ask for a green card. you know, everybody's smiling and she goes through all the questions and the last question on the questionnaire is, "Have you ever been arrested?" And the whole interview, she's very inter. And uh and then she was like, "Okay, one last question. Have you ever been arrested?" I'm like, "Uh, yep." She was like, "Do you have any supporting documents explaining what was going on?" "Yeah, here, honey." And I drop yellow pages from 1986 and everything like this. Now she's looking at the top page of the sentencing. And the first thing I was sentenced to was knowingly and intentionally conspired to possess fraudulent green cards. and she's like, "Okay." And she gave me the nod and that's where it end. And of course, the application was denied. And the second and the third and at some point we we my wife's best friend's father's best friend is some big shot in the FBI. Doesn't matter now the position should know who. We went to him and showed him everything. He looks at all my paperwork and he told he looks at me and he tells me you have some. This is coming from a gentile, not from a Jew. He's like, "If you were, I don't know, a killer, I would be able to help you, but you were sentenced to doing fraudulent green cards and you asking for a green card. I can't help you." So, seven years I was a ghost in this country. No social security, no driver's license, no bank account, nothing. Everything's on my wife. And one day, seven years down the line, I get a letter from the immigration to come and do fingerprints. I call my lawyer. He says, "Go. I don't know what it is." The system generated for me an interview. We come to the interview. I'm already seven years in this country. I have I have seven I have already three kids. We're going into the guy in the immigration. Something similar to what happened with the judge. First he screamed at me for like 20 minutes. He gave me a mish. Wow. Wow. For 20 minutes, how dare you come to this country and rape this country? And oh, he was giving me a piece of his mind. I wasn't even listening to what he's saying. In my mind, I was like, maybe Tel Aviv in my mind like where am I going to live? I already was picturing myself going with handcuffs out of this office. And after 20 minutes of him giving me a rebuke like I don't know what he tells me, but I see you are a changed man. I was like, here we go again with this changed man. And he then he flips over. I see you turned your life away and blah blah blah. And then I by then I was already a rabbi online. But nevertheless, and he tells me, I have great respect for the Jews. I'm going to help you. And then he told me how he was a Shabbat in Bora Park for like 30 years. And he was like, I have great respect to the Jews. Which I was very happy to hear cuz many times Jews don't treat Gentiles in a nice way. And it does such a And I was I was pleased to hear that he said, "I have great respect for the Jews." I was like he lived in a normal area. Sometimes Jews I don't want to say from from where and how treat Gentiles in a such a disgusting way. It's it's actually embarrassing. So normally but happily he was in a normal area and he said I have great respect to the Jews. I was a Shabbat boy 30 years. He tell he told me give me this and this documents I'll help you. Three days later I get a green card. Now, you know what he's telling me? And this is coming from this man. He told me he was looking out for you. That's what he he pointed up to the to the ceiling. He says he was looking out for you. He says your name disappeared from the system. 7 years it didn't exist. Even suddenly you popped up in the system. The system generated automatically the the appointment for the interview. And like this, by the way, this is I'm just pointing a few of the little miracles. All my life is like that. Miracle after miracle. But I want to stop for a second and go back to what was going on in that courtroom because was what was going on there was not a normal thing. This is not something that you can say, okay, a good lawyer was able to maneuver the case or maybe a a corrupt judge that we were able to to bribe. This was a 100% the hand of Hashem because for a whole year I was so innocent in believing my rabbi. I said the rabbi said he said do A, B, and C and everything will be fine. And I believed him to such a level that the amuna that the trust that I had in Hashem that Hashem can do whatever he wants. Well, Hashem opened the ocean. Well, he can't change my situation. Hashem brought food from the heavens. Oh, you know what? Forget forget about these are miracles from 3,000 years ago. You really think Hashem has a problem doing anything? The master of the universe, the creator of all worlds, he controls everything in this world. He can't change a situation in this life. I don't believe that. And if any person says, "I don't believe that God can change this situation." I'm sorry to tell you that's heresy. Jew, non-Jew, observant, not observant, has nothing to do with your religious status. It has to do with your what you understand and what you believe in your heart. I know millions of non-Jews, they don't believe in Hashem how we believe, but they believe in his existence. I'm not talking about believing in the existence of God. That's most of the people in the world believe in God. Jews, Christians, Muslims, everybody believes in God, in his existence. Well, there are some that don't. I'm talking about that you believe in his abilities, that he can do things. I've seen with my own eyes tumors disappear, dead people walking, people on the verge of bankruptcy or millions of dollars, money showing up. If you think that Hashem is limited in any type of a way to do anything in your life, then first of all, you definitely move to the side of a heretic heretic. I don't believe that Hashem can do things. And I'm repeating myself and I will repeat as much as I need to. It has nothing to do with h how where you hold yourself in your observance. A lot of people tell me, "Yeah, but I'm secular. What's what's the connection even if you secular I I eat only half kosher?" One has nothing to do with the other your level of observance. If you're fully observant, you half observant, you're not observant. You hold yourself in. I don't go by definitions. I don't like the definitions. You know, I said that yesterday in all of the lectures when I talk about my near-death experience after I was judged and found to be extremely guilty. They basically told me, you you're a lost case, but we're going to give you three conditions if you are willing to accept to go down to this world. Basically, that's what they told me in the heavenly court. You can either go back to this angel of death that brought you here or you we take you down to this world, but you're going to have three conditions. The first condition, they told me you have to live your life like a Jew. And that's what I'm talking about. They didn't tell me what does it mean a Jew. They didn't tell me, Ashkenazi, Orthodox, modern Orthodox. They told me Jew. There wasn't a definition in this world. There are definitions and I'm in this group or I'm in that group or I'm my level of observance is this. So I I associate myself with that. It's nonsense. You can measure who's more closer to Hashem because you do three mitzvot more than me. So in Shamim they there there's no groups. There's no separation or one is more absurd. is ultra. Ultra. What? You got the two ultras? I I I want three ultras. Ultra. Ultra. Ultra. This is kind of nonsense is that? And then people curse me. They tell me, "You're orthodox." Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Don't use this language. I'm not Orthodox. I'm a God-fearing Jew that's trying to observe the Torah. That's my definition. So very clearly they told me from Shamay maybe here there's differences there no difference the level of your observance that has nothing that has to do with you. You want to pray three times a day in instead of two or two instead of three that's your problem. You deal with Hashem. I'm not telling you what to do. I can recommend but I can't tell you what to do. And if I do more mitzvah than you doesn't mean that you are closer to Hashem than me or that you're a better individual. I don't like all that way. But why am I telling you that? Because everything that I told you in the last 20 minutes doesn't matter who you are. Observant Jew, non-observant Jew, a Jew, a non-Jew, it doesn't matter. To believe in the existence of Hashem, that's not a big deal. To believe in his abilities and know that he can do things, that is already a different level. But when you reach to that different level, Hashem can do whatever he wants with your life. And I'm telling you with no jokes, I saw people with tumors disappear, people on their deathbed, everything changed. People with situations that you can't even imagine. And people come to me with all their problems. I must look to some people like a wall cuz everybody come to me and they blend bend on me and start crying telling me all their problems like as if on the wedding wall in the line putting notes in my pocket with names. pray for Moshe and Kaya and only names to pray never checks just notes. So I I came to the conclusion that I must must look like a stone. So people tell me all their problems and people have problems. If you think you have problems, you don't have problems. You have some challenges. Some people have problems. And I'm telling you, people deal all day long. That's what I do is deal with people's problems. And not because I'm such a nice guy, because I have learned a long, long time ago that when I'm busy dealing with other people's problems, then God deals with my problems. I move my problems to Hashem, you deal with it, and I'll get busy dealing with other people's problems. It works. But I'm telling you that I hear people's problems. You might not hear it, but people are dealing with horrible things, whether it's in the the health department, sicknesses and diseases and operations and suffering and and then dealing with everything that has to do with marriages, bad marriages, Hashem that I mean every department, finance, everybody's dealing with finance and then not to talk about relationships and so many different things. Everybody has their little peck, right? Everybody has a little kavah with something that they have to deal with. The reality is most people they don't have much to deal with and they make a whole big deal out of it. I am telling you there are some people who are dealing with things I don't even want to get close to that. But why am I saying that? Because doesn't matter to what situation Hashem brings you. He's bringing you to this situation cuz he wants to see how much you believe in him. He wants to see how much you're going to give him the keys to the car and say, "You drive. I can't deal with this. I'm going to surrender and I'll do what you tell me to do." The green light that I got from my rabbi is like, "Just surrender to Hashem." But you can't surrender 50% or surrender on your conditions. You have to do it on his conditions. And when you do it on his conditions, you'll see what he can do for you. Because really everything that I just told you now first sounds like a a fairy tale. You know, a few weeks ago I was in a different location and I gave the exact same lecture. At the end of the lecture came a man to me and asked for my apology and he told me, "Rabbi, I have to apologize for you." And I was like, "Okay, fine." And he tells me, "I was sitting for the first 20 minutes of your lecture and they and they got exactly what you got, same lecture." And he tells me, "For the first 20 minutes of the lecture, I'm sitting in the back and all that I can think of is look at that liar, that phony, that charlatan. What a You really think somebody will believe this nonsense?" He he said for the first hour half hour I couldn't believe I was like you are the biggest clown I ever heard you are the biggest phony I was like okay and then he says I couldn't take it at some point and uh he says I called my friend from the FBI and I told him can you run a name for me and he sends him my name and a few minutes later his friend calls him back and all this is happening during the lecture he's in the back and I'm giving the lecture and his friend from the FBI calls him and tells him there's so much on this guy I can't even send you so much stuff I'll just send you his indictment and he read every and he told me I have to apologize I took you as a complete liar now at first when he came and he told me a few details I was like how did you know these details you can't find it's not public records I told him that the only way for you to know what you just said is if you have somebody in the inside. He's like, "Yeah, my friend is in the is in is a federal agent." And he ran your name. And he's like, "I apologize cuz I didn't believe one word that you said." So, I know my story sounds like completely crazy. Lucky that in every place that I went to, there's people that were there. I mean, I don't walk around with the proof here. I don't I don't lie. I don't need to prove myself. You want to believe good. You don't. That's your problem. Somebody once asked me told me I don't believe what you're saying. I said, "Do you think of any reason, a common reason uh that makes sense why a man will drive around the entire world sharing a story for what? To impress people to get more likes on YouTube. Why would I do that if not to come and advertise the greatness of Hashem?" It's only to advertise the greatness of Hashem. Because when Hashem does a miracle to you, you are obligated in advertising that one way or another. Whether you put it on your social media, whether you share it with your friends, Hashem does a miracle to you. You are required to advertise that. And when you do, you know what happens? Then you open the path for more miracles. The reality is that Hashem can do whatever he wants. If you think that you're coming to a dead end in your life and something won't work and you're about to give up, then just know that this is already borderline that you don't really believe in the ability of Hashem. Because whatever you believe and where you believe belief ends, that's where Hashem only starts showing his greatness. He's just waiting for you to invite him. He says, "You have a problem. I'll solve your problem." lawyers won't solve your problems and not the bankers and not the the the accountants whatever problem you have everybody has problems if it's not in the health department it's in finance department if not that it's whatever it is I don't know many people who can raise their hand and say what are you talking about my life and there are a few like that by the way a it starts with their attitude they don't see things as so negative they understand that's life's challenges Some people one little thing doesn't work out that's it their whole life caves on them. So of course it goes with an attitude but some people for whatever reason their life is kind of smooth. They don't have much issues here and there. So they are the exception and I hope that you are one of them. But the sad reality is that the majority are always dealing with something and you might have five good years and then something comes. problem with kids, problems with health, problem with marital status and the in-laws and the son-in-law and the neighbor and a lawsuit and there's always issues because you need what to gossip about. So, Hashem gives you a lot of issues. So, yeah, what to whine all day long and she said, you know what, she told me. But the fact is that Hashem puts all these obstacles in your life. So you will instead of trying to jump over the obstacle, say, "Hashem, can you remove the obstacle?" That's it. That's what Hashem wants from you. Hashem loves when you come to the synagogue and prayers. Don't get me wrong. And Hashem loves when you follow the commandments. Don't think I'm saying anything else, but Hashem loves when you put him number one. When you make Hashem number one. And when I'm talking about making Hashem number one is first of all that his will is number one. I first do what he wants me to do. And it's not always by the way performing mitzvot. Every moment in my life, every encounter that I have, every person that I meet, there's a question that pops up to my mind. What does Hashem want me to do right now? That's the question that pops up pops up to my mind before any encounter that I have because I want to I want to calculate what's the right thing to do right now. Hashem wants me to be silent. Hashem wants me to be aggressive right now and put my foot down and answer and argue and fight. What does Hashem want me to do? Sometimes you have to be zealous. You have to be a go full force and fight for the honor of Hashem or whatever it is. But in all situations that I get into my life, I question myself, what should I do? What does Hashem want me to do? Because you know, you bump into many situations in your life and sometimes a moment of you not caring of what you're going to say. You say one word, that's it. That word can never be taken back. >> So in many situations, I know how to close my mouth not to say anything. I don't want that word to go out because when you're angry and you're disappointed or upset or whatever, you throw out a word or two or a sentence, true or false, it doesn't matter. Not to say that word is much much harder, but you prevent a lot of problems. Says in the Torah, if you know how to guard your tongue and your mouth, all your problems will be taken care of. All your problems is your mouth. What you talk, how you e talk to people, curse, cheat, slander, lie. A lot of people are very conscious what goes into the mouth. They look on a leaf of a of a lettuce with a micros looking for a bug this big. Husbut, I'm all for it. I also check everything that I eat. But some people are so extreme on what goes into their mouth. There's no guarding of what goes out of the mouth. So what good is your mouth? What is good is your kosher diet if whatever comes out of your mouth is just lies and deceit and arrogance and curses and foul language. What good is your mouth? And you really think Hashem is going to hear you praying when that's how you talk. So I can tell you already that when you want to impress Hashem is when you put Hashem number one and when you don't take his abilities from him by saying I don't believe Hashem can work this out. So next time that you facing some challenge in your life don't come and say what can I do to make this challenge pass or what should I do that question should be very simple what does Hashem want me to do ah Hashem wants you to make room and say Hashem yours your problem. One of the ways of doing it is that you have to be occupied with other problems. So my recommendation is to be occupied with other people's problems. Then Hashem says, "Okay, I'll take care of your problems." Taking care of other people's problems is very easy. Just be be a little bit considerate, a little bit patient, and look for the opportunity where you can change somebody's life. That's it. Do that every day. You'll live a very happily, healthy life when you care about other people, other people's life, putting other people in front of you. And I'm talking about it can be your spouse and it can be a stranger in the supermarket. But when that's what's in your thought, how can I be the person that makes another person's life a little bit better? Even if I just smiled to the cashier, how you doing? I hope you have a wonderful day. That's it. I made her happy. I'm worrying about other people's well-being. Hashem is going to worry about your well-being. But the reason why I come here and spend hours and hours and talking because I have experienced on my own skin time after time after time that when I move aside and make room for God, he steps in and he takes care of everything to a point that everything in my life is not even doesn't even sound real. These are miracles that only Hashem can do. For 22 years, I've been giving my near-death experience lecture. And when I got to that point, I would tell the crowd that somehow I found myself back in New York. If you go to any of the recordings on on the internet when I'm sharing my story, you'll see the same sentence and I say somehow I got back to New York because I always missed those two years. First of all, it's embarrassing to sit in front of a bunch of people and tell them once I was like this and once I was like that and I used to do this and I used to do that. Somebody once when I apologized to a crowd, somebody told me it shouldn't be embarrassing. It should be the biggest honor that you're able to say I was able to get rid of it. If I still have it, that might be embarrassing, but to able to say I got rid of it, but I was able to get rid of all the negative in my life. You know why? Not because I'm great or because I'm special. Because I let room for Hashem to come into my life. You know how I quit quit smoking and I quit everything. Basically, I was addicted to anything existing in this world and I was addicted to severe drugs. I'll share with you quickly how I quit smoking and then we're going to wrap it up. And why am I telling you that? You'll you'll figure out at the end. Maybe a month after my near-death experience, I'm not I'm not a I don't know nothing about the Torah. I wake up, I ask my friends, he tell me, don't eat meat and dairy. Put fell on in the morning, do this and do that, and that's it for me. That's it. I'm a Jew. But there were certain things that I was like, I'm not going to give up. About a month later, I moved to Chicago and I moved to a new home. So, I knew a Jew needs Muzot on the door. Very simple. Don't have to be a genius for that. So, I asked my friend, he refers to me to the store. I lived in Chicago. I go to the store where you buy Mizot. And I counted. I was so particular. I counted 13 doors. And I was like, okay. I walk into the store and I tell them I I need 13 Muzot, but I need the best you have. Like, give me like the Rolls-Royce of the Muzot. Don't give me some cheap stuff from Aza or something, you know? Give me like the Anyways, they're all looking at me. Who's this guy? And I walked in. I didn't look observant at all. I had a short shirt and my tattoos on the arm like all picking. They're looking at the tattoos. And I'm like, anyways, I buy the best mazot they have there and I drive uh back. Now, it was Friday. I don't know why I didn't want to move in on a Friday. I It's bad luck. So, I called the management. I told them, "Is that okay if I move in on a Sunday? I don't want to move on Friday." Yeah, no problem. And in that phone call, they tell me, "Please bring the first month rent and the last month rent in a money order." Money order. Okay. I stopped the car in the first uh Western Union I see was some neighborhood in Chicago that I was the first Jew ever stepped foot in that neighborhood and I'm standing like this in line. Friday afternoon everybody's coming to cash their checks. 300 people there. Okay, I'm waiting in line and this guy in the back is screaming, talking loud and I look back. Who is this guy? So he looks at me and he's like, "Shalom." He runs up to me. He picks me up like this big 6.8 guy picks me up. Shalom. I'm Jewish. And I'm like, "Shut up. You're going to get killed here. What?" And he starts convincing me. Oh, I did a bar mitzvah. My grandmother's Jewish. And I was like, "Who cares if you're about your grandmother? You tone it down." And in my mind, I'm like, how does he know I'm Jewish? I mean, I know the nose is pretty big, but I forgot my yarmaka on the head. I went into the the the Judaika store and out of respect, I put a yamaka on my head. I forgot to take it off. So, this guy screams to me, "Shalom." Okay. After we talking to a few minutes, he tells me, "Do you smoke?" And I'm like, "Yo, you want a cigarette?" He's like, "No, no." He tells me, "Do you want to smoke?" You know, he tells me, "Do you want to quit smoking?" I said, "Yeah, why not?" Happens to be that a few months before that, I was driving one day and I started getting pains in my heart, but strong pains. I thought I'm getting a heart attack. So, I was already okay, I got to get rid of that. All my family has heart problems. I was like, I got to if I want to not be dead, I got to quit that. Okay. So he tells me, "Come tonight, do this in this hotel, you'll quit smoking." I'm like, "What? What is it about?" So he tells me it's hypnotism. You heard about hypnotism? I said, "Yeah." He says, "Come tonight, you'll quit smoking." Now you have to understand, I'm completely secular. I have no connection to the Torah. But I tell him, "Is this cost anything? Cuz I don't want to deal with money on Shabbat." He tells me, "Give me 40 bucks." I give him $40. That night I walk to the hotel where he told me was a long walk like three miles from the where I was and I walk in big room maybe 50 60 people comes a person gives us like an hour two hour lecture then the hypnosis guy comes on the on the stage and he puts us out. He wakes us up. He says to everybody, "Don't look at your watch. How long you think you were out everybody?" 5 minutes, 6 minutes. An hour and 15 minutes, we're all out. And I walked out of that door that night and never smoked in my life ever again. And it's not that I even have a craving for smoke. I You stand next to me with cigarettes, I want to throw up. And I walk out of this room, I sit, if you remember, 20 plus years ago, they had smoking areas in restaurants. I sat in the restaurant in the hotel. And I have a cigarette in my hand. I'm not even turning it up. I was the type of smoker I would used to, you have to understand, I smoked two and a half to three packs a day of Malro Red like this all day long like an average Israeli. I think the main profits for the tobacco companies is from Israelis. So, and I used to sit in bed before I fall asleep, smoke three, four cigarettes, wake up in the morning, I wouldn't even open one eye, already a cigarette in my mouth. The next day I woke up. I wake up. I don't want to touch the cigarettes. Now I know on the surface when you hear this you're saying, "Wow, amazing. What a coincidence. You stopped at that Western Union and the and he no coincidence, my friends. I stopped there at the perfect time when that guy was there. I forgot the Yamaka. Everything was orchestrated by Hashem." And why? because I as a completely secular man went co the whole nine yards with the muzot I was like okay I have to do some mitzvah okay I'm not really religious I'm not really observant but I'm commanded to do a mitzvah I I hold myself as a Jew I need to do the mitzvah do it the the right way it was important to me that I get the the expensive muzot and the nice muza house and not to move into the house on a Friday and all these little things. And bear in mind, I don't even know one mitzvah. I'm not even observant to any level. But I was like, if I'm doing already a mitzvah, I'm doing it the whole way. If it's for Hashem, 100%. And like an ATM, I did this act. Whoop. Hashem says, I'm going to give you the at present in the same level. And wh I quit smoking like that one second corporately. That's my old first few years. I saw how I give up something. I put a sheem number one. Boom. I get it straight out like a bagel from a hot oven. Hey, take fresh ATM. And I'm no different than anyone. By the way, it's not that I'm some superstar. I just know how to do it. And that's why I'm here to tell you that you also can do that. You only need to make space for Hashem. Now, if you are the extreme rare species that everything that I said in the last hour and a half has nothing to do with you, that you're like running seven miles a day, the bank manager calls you all day long, tells you, "Stop depositing money. There's not enough place in the bank." And you're like happy from morning to night, healthy like an A. If everything in your life is beautiful, then I don't know why you're sitting here. Since you're sitting here, your life is not like that. So, there are rare PE individuals that can say everything's fine. I don't know what you're talking about. Since you're not one of them, I'm hoping that you are, but since you're not, then we all have struggles. We all have difficulties. We all have what I like to call speed bumps. You drive fast and you have to slow down and you go easy. So all these challenges in your life are speed bumps to slow you down because you might be going the wrong path. Hashem slows you down. Relax. Take a deep breath. No need to run so fast. Hashem puts challenges in your life because he wants you to look up and say hi. That's it. And a little bit more than hi. Saying h that's it. You need to understand no. And then believe that whatever Hashem placed in your life as a problem can be removed. The one who placed the problem will remove the problem if he needs to. Lawsuits, indictments, tumors, you name it. Hashem has no problem. And I actually get upset when people say, "No, no, no. That's way it's beyond Hashem." Excuse me. You're limiting Hashem in any type of a way. Hashem can't do A, B, or C. And that doesn't matter to me how observant you are or not. Jew or not. It doesn't matter. You're limiting the master of the universe. So if you limit him, then you're that that's what you're going to experience. You giving Hashem all the credit, all the options. He's not limited. That's why I bother to drive around the United States because I see people struggling with a lot of problems. Many of the problems you struggle with are not even problems. It's your exercise machine to become a greater person. If you go now to the best gym in this town and you pay $500 a month and you get beautiful clean towels and a personal trainer, everything beautiful best gym in town. But if you sit like this for half an hour three times a week, what will happen? Nothing. If you go to the gym and you don't do nothing, then there's not going to be any growth. Even if you go like this 5,000 times with no weight, nothing will happen. There's no resistance. You need resistance when you push or when you pull or so the muscle will start working. That's it. That's it. The challenges that you have in your life are this treadmill that is causing you to become closer to Hashem. That's it. Hashem puts challenges in your life because he wants you to to deal with it. And the way to deal with it is to let Hashem do it. Is to understand Hashem is the one who puts this problem. When you go and focus on trying to find solutions to the problem, you won't find. The only solution is the master of the universe. What is the solution? To do what he wants you to do. That's it. I go completely the other direction. I don't go to the problem and start dealing with the problem. I do what's needed or required in this life. What is called if it's concerning health then you deal with doctors. If it's concerning legal issues, you have lawyers. You have to do something. But that's just the nature how Hashem will dress to maneuver what he needs. But nevertheless, the rest is for Hashem and it doesn't require much. I know a lot of people say, "Oh, it might only work if you're like fully observant and Hashem loves you." Hashem loves you either way, whether you're observant or not. I love all my seven kids. I have seven wonderful kids. They're here with me. They're traveling with me. I'm here two months in the United States traveling from one city to another city. Each kid completely different. They look different, behave different, different different personalities. I don't like one more than the other because one is more a better student than the other is less or the other one resembles me and the other one. No, I love them equally. The good and the bad. I don't see difference between them. I see them for me. I love them the same and each one is different. So I understand from that very clearly that's how God looks at us. He loves us all equally. Doesn't love you more. Maybe you more. But Hashem does love us all together. It doesn't matter what color you dress or how you fix your hair. So basically everyone can do what I'm telling you. I'm not different. You just need to know to make space to for Hashem. And when you make space for Hashem, he does wonders that you don't you won't even believe what Hashem can do for you. It doesn't take much. It's just taking a moment to believe that I understand that everything comes from Hashem. The good and the bad. The good, thank for it a lot. The bad is no bad. The bad in your life is your workout. That's your personal trainer. There's resistance. Like I told you, you go to the gym, no resistance, no growth. Hashem wants you to grow. He gives you resistance. The resistance is the challenges in your life. If you get angry and upset and bitter over the challenge, you lost the the test here. Accept the challenge. Understand. Thank you, Hashem. I understand. You want me to work on my patience. That's it. Rabi Vital, famous student of the Ari Kadosh, the holy Arial. It's Rabbi Isaac Laura teaches in one of his books. The book is called the gates of holiness. The book is this thick and really the book is that's what it is. You want to reach toesh is very high level of divine inspiration. You can get have prophecy from that and many other things. He tells you what to do. Very simple. Has everybody ever reached that? Not too sure. I think in chapter two where that's where everybody gets stuck. But if he says you follow everything that I tell you there, you'll have in his introduction to this book, he says how important one needs to follow the Torah and the mitzvot and perform the mitzvot. It's nourishment to my every mitzvah that I do enliven a spiritual organ in my soul. But as much as the Torah and the mitzvot are important, he says the main reason why we came to this world is to refine ourselves. And he calls it refinement of character. Hashem brings you to this world with a few bad character traits and you need to refine them. So you come to this world with a character trait of anger. You're quick to anger. So work on it. And you're quick to judge and you are impatient. So if you are impatient then Hashem is going to give you very annoying kids. That's it. And if you are quick to anger then Hashem is going to give you a very annoying wife. That's it. That's how it works. to make you angry all the time. And instead of getting angry at the wife, you have to tell her, "Thank you for showing me who I am." Cuz my wife, my kids, my everybody around me are my mirrors. That's it. Cuz Hashem wants me to refine myself. So he puts in front of me the right people to press all the right buttons and whatever I need to work on. If if I need to work on my jealousy, if I'm a jealous person, then Hashem is going to put me in a very wealthy area. Everybody has money and I'm the only one who doesn't. Yeah. Everybody's with Mercedes, BMWs, Range Rovers, and I'm like with some Honda Civic. Why? Work on your jealousy. >> If I need to work on my patience, whatever it is. And the ultimate level you can reach is refining yourself that you say, "I was here, now I'm here." And we all have bad character traits. It's nothing that's not a defect in you. That's how we were created. refine yourself. And that all comes when I know how to make Hashem number one. Now comes the big question. What are you doing with the information I gave you? You sat quietly here for an hour and a half, very patiently. Now what? Now we're going to say goodbye. I'll go back to Miami. You can follow me online if you want. But now what? Now it depends on you how you walk through this door. You were all invited here privately, personally by the master of the universe. You didn't come here because the rabbi sends you a flyer or a message or a WhatsApp or exactly how you said, right? I wasn't even plann to come here. I just said Tampa's not even on the route. I'm in Miami right now. I'm now concluding my two months tour. Started in New York. I was all over New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, all that area. Went to the Midwest, Detroit, Denver, Vegas, all over. Now, finally finishing in the sunshine states. So, I'm focused on Miami. And somehow the lady who's helping me book all the lectures called a different rabbi, booked a lecture, not knowing that rabbi is from Tampa. She thinks he's from Miami. And they're talking and and suddenly they get to the to the to the address. She's like Tampa. Rabbi's in Miami. No, no, we're in Tampa. You called us. Can you imagine? So very quickly and what are the odds? Two days are free. I'm with my family. Let's make a a road trip. Yala, we're going to Tampa. And this is all in the last week. It's not that it was planned four months ago. So each and every one of you here be very happy because Hashem loves you and he brought you here. There are some people who wanted to come today couldn't make it. Some people came in the beginning I saw and left. Some people came late but each and every one of you was personally invited here by God and everything was decided where you going to sit, what you going to wear, how long are you going to be in the lecture, how much are you going to listen? Are you going to listen? Are you just going to hear? Everything was already this. Hashem says, "Okay, I'm bringing you all the way. Now, what are you going to do with it? Are you going to leave the door the same way that you walked in?" If you did, then you wasted an hour and a half of your time. You could have stayed home and do something other than that and definitely something more productive. Our sages will call it your reward for coming and not doing nothing is that you lost what you could have earned. That's it. Or you go out of this door and you understand that the master of the universe, not some vice or some extra. The master of the universe invited you, moved everything in the universe that I will show up here that you will be free. Exactly. That you're not going to have anything on your schedule today because you see the empty seats. These are the seats for the potential people that didn't obviously had the merit to come here for whatever reason. So consider yourself extremely lucky. Now that I added that, what do you do with this information? I told you when I drove up here, I I bought a lottery ticket. Not joking. I can use $800 million. I'm sure some of you, too. I can do a lot of a lot of good deeds with $800 million, >> but I feel the lottery not for the money. And I telling you that not for the joke. You can sometimes do one little act and you win the lottery. >> So, we should go buy lottery tickets. >> I highly recommend to buy lottery tickets tonight. And I saw I don't know if it's different between Miami or Tampa, but I saw already 900 million. >> So, yeah, go buy. It's $5. And like I promised the guy from the gas station, please, if you win, I want a car. I have a very high standards. I don't drive Hondas. We'll look at a Lamborghini or something. But I'll give you the blessing to win. You buy me the car. I love the people who tell me, "Rabbi, when I liberate the lottery, I'll donate so much money to your organization." Never have it happened. A lot of people tell me, "Rabbi, give me a blessing to be rich. I'll donate a lot of money to your organization." Thank you. So, back to what I was saying. Yeah, you consider yourself extremely lucky because Hashem brought you here and he wanted you to listen to a story that doesn't make sense. That if you need the proof, I'll prove that every word that I said is true. I'm not here to sell you something. But Hashem wants you to hear what I have to say. Now I'm rolling over the responsibility to your hands. I'm done. I'm going back to Miami. The question is, how are you going back to your home? How are you leaving this door tonight? Are you leaving the door the same way you walked in? Or are you leaving the door with a big or small change in your mind? And the change is very simple. Whatever struggle you have in your life and the future struggles that are going to come and whatever challenge that you deal with is now understand that that's Hashem telling you I want your attention. I'm going to throw some difficulty because I want to see how you juggle it. I want you to see if I want to see if you're losing your hope, if you use foul language, if you start blam blaming the entire world for your misfortune. I want to see how you deal with it. I want to see if you put all your anger on your spouse or you go into depression. What do you do with that? All the challenges in your life is Hashem is giving you a harder step to climb because he wants you to earn it. He wants you to do it so you can come and say I did it. One more story and and I'm going to conclude. I know you all want to go. When I was 15 years old, I was a pretty hard, difficult boy to say the least. My mom has a very special plot in Ganedin. She may she live a very long life, but when she does go there, they're going to welcome her with red carpets for the hell that I put her through. I told my parents, you have a very cushioned place in Ganedin. Every time that I tell my father to do some mitzvah something, he tells me I'm going to go up to Shama and I'm going to tell them you're my son. So, okay. So, you can use that pass. But nevertheless, uh I was a very difficult kid and I, you know, during the time of me being a little bit the fuke and not right in my mind, I never understood. I come from a very normal family, by the not coming from like some uh bad family. My father's a general in the Israeli army. He's a businessman. He's wealthy. My mother's a a very polite, soft-spoking Australian. I mean, I grew up in a normal environment. I grew up in a very upscale neighborhood in Israel. I went through the whole system. I'm not coming from like a bad place. It was always for me. How did I become not a black sheep? This is like a very black sheep. It's not even a sheep. It's probably like a dog. But nevertheless, I understood 20 years later why Hashem took me down that path because now I'm able to share my experience with ones who are in that place. So I know how to talk to almost any individual and I can reach out to the ones who are very far away. I abused drugs for many years. I know how to talk to drug addicts. I was a wild teenager. I know how to deal with teenagers. A lot of people think Rabban Nava is a teacher on YouTube. I teach twice, three times a week and we post it online. I do many other things. I have a lot of programs in Israel. I have a Shiva women's program, a learning center. And one of the things that I do, I have a youth program. We have 60, 70, 80 kids, all 15, 16, 17. They're all on drugs. They're all crim like little criminals and all from good families. And who do they listen to? They think they're going to listen to you. They listen to me. They want to talk to me because they know that what they did and will do will not even come to 1% of what I did. All I need to do with these guys is take my shirt off. That's it. So I understand why Hashem took me down a path, a certain path. Now I can reach out to certain individuals that probably nobody can reach out to them. But why am I saying that? Because when I was 15 years old, I used to have a bad habit. And every night I used to steal my mother's car. She had a nice sports car and I used to seal it. I would come and disconnect the engine from the garage and then slowly slowly pick up the garage door so it wouldn't have any noise. Then put the gear the car in neutral, push the car down the driveway because it had a strong engine. I would turn it on. So I push the car down the one block, start the car and take off, go pick up my my friends and drive off. 15 years old in Israel. you need a license when you're 17. So half a year I would steal the car every night and go have fun with my friends. And of course one time I got caught and it was a long story. Uh the police in my town they started seeing me driving all the time. I probably looked to them underage. So every time they would see me they would try to reach me. One time they saw me started driving after me. I started driving off and a high-speed chase in this little town and uh and I was able to to ditch them, go into some uh culde-sac and park the car, turn the car off and go like this and and I see them going backwards and forth and looking for me. And at some point I see the car going and coming back and then stopping and backing in. I'm like, uhoh, I was so under the rush of the adrenaline, I forgot my leg on the brakes. So the bad the the brake lights were on. Anyways, long story short, I get arrested. I I I got in a lot a lot of trouble. Somehow I got out of this trouble. Uh but two years later when it was time to do a driver's license, the custom in my house was that my my parents were you get to 17, you get a drive pay for the driver's license. Came 17, I got a watch. I want a driver's license. I want a car. No. Why am I telling you this story? I was 17. All my friends had cars and then a license. I went and worked the entire summer hard while all my friends are in the beach and I earned money and by myself. I put myself through the driving school and I got did myself a license. I called my mom one day out of the blue. Do you need a car tonight? She was like, are you starting already with your nonsense? I told her, no, no, no. I got a license. She was shocked. I I called my father. Can you add me to the insurance? He's like, "What? You pulling a joke on me?" I told him, "No, I got a license." They were so proud. They were so moved that I just took the whole summer. I didn't tell anyone. Took the summer, went to work, saved up the money, did the license by myself with all the the little money that I had. I felt so special that I was able to do it by myself. Nobody helped. Nobody did that for me and that's how I was my entire life. I don't ask for anything from anybody. I do it myself. But why am I telling you all this? Because that's what is required from you. You need to do something. It's not going to come to you as a gift. Hashem is going to place the situation in your life to see your reaction, how you behave, how you talk, who you blame. If you take responsibility, don't take responsibility. If you lose your mind, lose your pay. That's the first test. But then he's waiting for you to see how much room are you going to give him to go and interfere. And instead of saying the word interfere, I should say the word intervene. That Hashem comes in and says, "I'll take care of it." The second you give Hashem the keys, he solves all the problems in ways that you can't even imagine. I have thousands of videos on my YouTube. Half of them are miracles that Hashem did in my life. I'm not exaggerating. Half my lectures are situations in my life that was an unbelievable challenge or a test and I did whatever action and Hashem wal and saved the days. And I'm talking about situations with money and so many different things. So I know how the miracle business work. I came and told you how it work. You need to surrender to Hashem. You need to understand that Hashem is the only source of your salvation. Not money, not lawyers, no doctors, no connections, nothing. And I'm telling you, I can sit here now for another seven hours telling you miracle after miracle in my life. You wouldn't even my whole life is from one miracle to another. And again, not because I'm so special, because I know how to invite the miracle and I know how to make space for Hashem. And that's really what it boils down to, making room for Hashem. Giving Hashem the keys. You the driver. I don't know how to drive. I'm all drunk. You will drive Hashem. I will just do what you want me to do. That's it. And now, as I told you before, what do you do with this information? Do you walk on out of this door and you're saying very inspiring lecture? I will come to see him next time he's in Tampa and then nothing happens. Or you walk out of this room tonight and you make a change in your mind by understanding, wait a minute, my life is actually pretty good. Wherever I can thank Hashem, then I need to thank Hashem. Thank Hashem for everything he gives to you. You have teeth. Thank Hashem. Some people don't even have teeth. You know how how hard it is to eat without teeth? I'm not joking. By the way, my wife started now recently to bless people should have healthy teeth cuz she's going through whatever she's going through with teeth. It's a big headache. Who needs that? So everything that Hashem is doing for you, it's only for you. It's how you look at the situation. It's how you look at the challenge and then of course how you behave. So when I telling you it depends on you how you're leaving this door. Like I told you, I'm rolling the door the the the ball to you. You decide. You realize if you have difficulties and challenges in your life where you need a miracle. And there are times that a person might say, "No, I'm fine. I don't need a miracle." Good. So help other people and do good as much as you can because will come the day that you will be challenged. And I don't believe that you can say that everything is good in your life unless you're super duper attitude unbelievable of attitude that everything is great. The the fact is everybody has challenges. Doesn't matter who you are. The question is what you do with that. And hopefully today from this short encounter you have one more reason to understand know and believe that Hashem has control of everything in your life. And when you need something to move more towards your way. Yeah, I just told you what you need to do. And the first thing you need to do is to believe and know that Hashem can change any situation in your life to the extreme. Hashem can find you, your husband, from the other side of the world. Yeah, you might need to wait a few years, but he will find him. You don't need to do much. You don't have to bend backwards. And same thing with your parasan. Same thing with everything. Not everything in your life will go how you want. But when you go on the channel of Hashem, then everything by default is what you want because it's what Hashem wants. The point that I hope that you take out of this room is that you understand that doesn't matter who you are, where you are, what you did, or in what situation you are are stuck in. If you make room for Hashem, he will come and it will change everything for you. But you have to do this act. You have to initiate it. You have to invite Hashem and not fake knowing that he can do whatever he wants. Nothing can stop in the hands of Hashem. What I went through, I'm telling you only God can do such a thing. Switch a verdict to such an extent. I'm telling you, I have friends who are still sitting in jail. And from 127 people who got arrested, the only two that left this case like how I did was me and my friend. The only two who went back to Hashem. I have a friend who came out of jail a few years ago. Same way how he went in. I told him seven 17 years in jail. He don't even believe one ounce in God. He didn't do one little act of chuva in jail. What were you in jail for? To become a painter. He can now he's an artist suddenly. An artist. Yeah. You didn't do nothing. 17 years you sat in jail. Didn't change nothing in your perception. no merit. So don't use or I should say misuse the opportunity that Hashem gave you. Consider yourself extremely lucky that Hashem brought you to here. Why? So you can hear it firsthand and act. And if you don't act, then Hashem also gets disappointed. I brought you. I gave you the opportunity. Why aren't you doing anything? So when you leave this door tonight, you need to have a switch in your mind. And the switch is very simple. And there's nobody but Hashem. Doesn't matter how I'm dressed right now. Hashem doesn't get impressed by how you are dressed. Hashem likes actions. Talk is cheap. Actions. Show me actions. And you know what's happening right now in Hashem comes down to the world. I'm sure you heard the concept. The king is in the field. What does it mean the king is in the field? You think Hashem is a farmer now. He's going to plant tomatoes. No. A field is a place of work. You are the one who is required to work, not Hashem. The month of Aun is a month of spiritual growth where you are required to work on yourself. Become a better person. Refine yourself. Look inside yourself where you can change bad habits. You have to work. And why do you want to work? Because now the the king is in the field. He comes and he sees what you're doing. like the CEO he comes down he wants to see the workers. Hashem is looking right now in the next month. What are you good? What are you doing? And if he finds you to be a very good worker, then on he has what to bless you for. Now you think Hashem is expecting excellence. Hashem wants you to show up first. Show up. Even if you're not such a great worker, you show up on time and you do your best. That's what Hashem wants. You have a whole month now. The king is in the field. He wants to see what you're doing. your transformation. What are you willing to take on yourself to become a better person that I can be a better husband? I can be a better father, I can be a better employee or a better employer or a better a better stranger. If you don't have in the front part of your mind, how can I become a better person every day? You're missing the entire picture. By the way, it's not about fame, money, power, success. It's about how you become a better person every day. that today you look back and say today I'm much better than yesterday. Why? Because I reviewed all my behavior today whatever is positive I enforced. Whatever is was negative I worked on. And when you do that every day you're constantly growing, growing, growing spiritually, physically, emotionally. That's what is required from you. By the way, Hashem just says just show up, show me effort, show me sincerity, show me you care. The result I'll decide, says Hashem. Whether you're successful or not in this battle, I'll decide. If there's something that is predestined to fail, Hashem says you will fail. But then I want to see how you get up and I want to see if you give up and I want to see if you complain or whine. So you have to understand the rhythm of Hashem and all he wants to see is how you're working on yourself to become a better person. If you wake up in the morning and you don't ask yourself this question, how can I become a per a better me because I have workers, I have kids, I have a spouse, I don't need to be t marked as a bad husband. I need to be marked as a good husband. So I need to think and be thoughtful of my wife needs and not to be arrogant and selfish and blazy. That's how you grow. And this is one department out of many. I need to work on my patience, to work on my anger, to work on my everything. So Hashem puts all these challenges in my life. So I hope that you have enough information to leave this door that will make a strong impact in your life. And the reason why I hope because you already made the effort. You already came. You already showed up. Don't lose the opportunity. You buy the little you you already bought the lottery ticket. Well, you didn't buy the lottery ticket yet, but you might win the lottery. All it takes is one little switch. And you make a little switch in your mind with your attitude. Suddenly you go to a completely different destination. So I want to thank you for your patience. I want to thank you Rabbi for inviting me and opening the shul and that I can share my story with this wonderful crowd. And I want to wish you well. I want to wish you should be blessed with a good healthy sweet new year. And I want to bless you that Hashem should open your eyes that you should see all the kindness and good that he does for you and be appreciative to him. And Hashem should bless you that your challenges won't be so difficult. I am not going to tell you that Hashem should not give you any challenges because I'm taking away from you your spiritual growth. And the same way that on Shai is decided who's going to live, who's going to die, who's going to be rich, who's going to be poor also is decided on Shah how much challenges that you're going to have in the coming year and how hard there will be and which one of them you're going to be successful. So you want to do a good job in alul that the next year you don't have to deal with much challenges. And I'll bless you that your challenges should always be very small and minor and that you'll very easily overcome them and and they should constantly grow spiritually higher and higher. Thrive to become a better person, thrive to become a better individual and always rest for me to wish you is great success when you walk out of this door before the amalik grabs you and cools you down from your excitement. Take on yourself already some good thought, good decision before you go out of the door. I'm not joking. A Malik waits outside. The characteristic of a Malik is to cool you down. He cools you down. You come here, you all know all excited, you go out, all the air goes out back to square one. Don't don't let that go straight from the back door and take on yourself a good decision that you are going to make a shim number one. And I guarantee to you that when you make Hashem number one in your life, everything in your life will go exactly how it's supposed to and you'll be blessed with whatever you need and you'll be guided to go on the right path. All is required for you is to do the good in the eyes of Hashem. So I thank you for your attention. I thank you for your patience and may Hashem bless you with great success on your new journey. [Applause] On your way out, I want to just take your attention for a second. On your way out, you'll find on the table some products that I have from Israel. That wine that you see on the table, that's my wine. Wine that I produce in Isel. And you'll find some other products there. I don't charge for my Torah and we don't collect money. Just know that products that you buy from us go to support our organization. That's how I travel around the states. That what runs runs the organization. And specifically the wine, that's wine that I make. It's my personal wine. It's healthy, no sulfites, organic, blessed by my rabbi. But what just did you know that whatever you purchase that goes to support our tour and pay all the expenses and again I wish you great success in everything that you do. You can follow up online for many other classes and hopefully we'll see you very soon in Israel.