Rabbi Daniel Mechanic - The Secret to Keeping Our Children on the Derech

[Music] okay like to welcome everyone to the project inspired his a year and we are living during extraordinary times never in history has there been a magatha you apologize technical difficulties so we are living during extraordinary times when there has been a Magatha an epidemic that has spanned the entire world that has never happened before and as my meaning Benet my meaning we have to do a hedge bananafish ma Isola no Hashem nothing in this world is random what lessons can we learn from this very difficult li saw him what changes can we make in our lives i listened today to a brilliant Shir given by her above Ryan Waxman shalida I strongly recommend that everyone listened to his devrait masseur and masiva there is so much M s there and insights into the messages that we must take away from this painful nice aayah i would like to suggest that perhaps one of the lessons that we can take from this design lies in the area of canal happening the Habanos we are now forced to spend all of our time 24/7 with our children it is therefore incumbent upon us to improve our own kind of skills and perhaps that's the lesson or one of the lessons that a Carrboro who is sending us so over the last 30 years I have had this fuss to visit on an ongoing basis over 400 years she vows and beige ACOs and day schools across the United States and Canada and England and to present hagatha shiron lee i inherit over 300 thousand students these experiences have highlighted for me the indisputable fact that our chemical system has been extraordinarily successful and it has produced and continues to produce tens of thousands of venit IRA and banasura who love Hashem and love Tyra and love Yiddish cart yet I and many others have also come to the painful realization that many of our children are struggling with the most basic issues of Yiddish kite from kite and the recognition of the truth and the beauty of either straight and it is becoming increasingly difficult to produce inspired kids who feel close tosh em who love Tyra who love Klaus our love Mitzvah so simply love being from Jews and I became aware of the magnitude of this problem upon hearing the responses to a question that I posed to these 300,000 yeshiva and basically high school students I simply ask them what will you respond when a non-religious Jew sitting next to you on an airplane or a train or a bus politely asks you why are you showing me tyrunt missus why are you from and the overwhelming majority of these 300,000 kids had tremendous difficulty articulating a passionate coherent and correct answer to this question so let's be clear they were unable to effectively and confidently answer the most important question of their lives so I ask how could we then expect our children in our students to have a meaningful authentic inspiring and close relationship with a cottage borrow clue and Toya and Yee describes how can anyone have a relationship with anybody or anything if they are not capable if they are not capable of articulating the benefits and the reasons for creating and sustaining this relationship rabo say there is an ongoing war taking place in our children's lives the Sutton is attacking our children's neshama and he is armed with nuclear weapons when I grew up when we grew up in the 60s the eighth Sahara conventional weapons bullets once a year a hand grenade today today's 8th Sahara has nuclear and biological weapons at his disposal and if our children are gonna do battle with today's date Sahara without a powerful and a deep recognition of the truth and the godless and sweetness of Yiddish kite then they will be rendered vulnerable they will not be adequately armed and protected for this lifelong battle so my experience has been over the last thirty years my experience tells me that we can indeed armed and protect our children and raise from inspired kids but only if we provide them with the three amudha - over the three unshaken the unshakable realization of three things our children have to recognize number one that they have a Tyra's Khayyam that the Taira is an I'm sorry a Tyra's Emmis that the Torah is true that's number one the second army that they have to realize is is that they have eight iris high him which means instructions for living that they have the most beautiful and spectacular way of life that could possibly exist on this earth and number three the third our mode is that our children must self-identify with the Jewish people with Omni stro they have to recognize that we are the am I never that we are the greatest nation ever to exist on this planet and it is these three a moody acronym that will protect our children and us for the inevitable Messiah noise and battles that they will confront throughout their life so tonight we're going to explore a little bit the first almond Taurus MS Mears Hashem next Tuesday we will do the other two imodium Tyra's I am and that we belong to the Amon if ler so let's go through it the first omelet that we have at iris Emmis means that our children must be capable of articulating to themselves and to others that they know that the Tyra is Emmis that three thousand three hundred thirty two years ago hakodesh bar who appeared before millions of our grandparents and gave them the terrific South with the terrible path and the implications of that are therefore despite any pain they may have in their lives and despite any past painted they experienced the Torah and mitzvot Sri main true still remained true and obligatory this ahmud rish on this ailment of Tyrus Emma's parents and teachers must educate themselves and they must acquire the skills to effectively explain to our children the Assad Yamuna the fundamentals of yiddish kite and when that referring here to the myra novel him to learning the marla become a treating or or teaching it with talking about the basic classical hagatha issues that are dealt with decisively in the safe way we showing him a cranium and thus farm of today's good Oldham its The Aleph phase of he describes why did Hashem create this world why did he give us a Torah what's in it for him how do we know that it's true won't it be extremely difficult to teach and inspire our children to love Yiddish cooked if we cannot answer these basic questions in the correct and satisfying way the safer cinema is a safer that was written by a region around a thousand years ago before cell phones before videos before all the alluring tightness that the eight Sahara dangles in front of our children's eyes these days and thus a fresh connect wrote a safer that explains the Terry admits voice he goes through all 613 explains each month so game in the hollow close and then he explains their reasons for the mitzvahs for each Mitzvah and when we come across Mitzvah roof your Zion Mitzvah 117 Cholula hoc Russa are a dvash that we are forbidden to pour honey vash on the MS baya on the altar in the temple says the safe threatened as a thousand years ago Sirach a mitzvah xun the element mode the reasons for these this Mitzvah why Hashem does not want us to pour honey on them his baths are very hidden he writes and I'll translate the you know from the Hebrew to the English stuff from illusion of a dish and he writes however we must tell our children two things he writes we must tell he really doesn't write children it's really in the art of it's really teenagers we must let our children know that the mitzvahs have to mmm this so almost two different things we have to teach them one is the reason the Tom him to is this so all of the benefits it's a completely different skill set we have to show our children how all the mitzvahs each one the reasons for them and what are the benefits why it's good for them to do the Mitzvah and then says the say pretend of a thousand years ago because if we do not teach these two things and use these two approaches and giving over Yiddish kaieteur children he says they're gonna kick them away in their teenage years and they will go off the Dara this is what the tenant says so when our child is going to become a mitzvah the father explains to his child number one here is why how college Borough Hall wants us to put on tefillin number two here's the benefit here's why is good for us he is why we benefit from it my daughter the mother should be able to say this is why a cottage borough who wants us to dress I'm sorry this is why Hakadosh barukh who wants us to dress Sneha stick number two here are the benefits it's a different skill set and this is something that we are told over a thousand years ago to say for a minute that we must do because if we don't our children will go off the dareth this is what the same friend who says so I want to share with you the torus M s when I go into schools or when we do kirov seminars it all comes back to her see my to my name in her sea Knight and I'll tell you a story a true story many years ago at least 20 years ago I was invited to speak in Princeton University rabbi mechanic was invited to give a lecture in Princeton University in Ivy Lee college what was taking place there there was a course being given in Princeton called comparative religion where a professor got in a room together with 50 students and they did research on five different religions compare them this believe this this believe that and then they had a final so let me give you the details the professor was a Gentile a 60 year old man a Gentile and he looked like a uh you know not like a typical professor he had a you know a ponytail he's wearing his you know jeans and I come into this class this is the professor he had two PhDs in philosophy and he was making $150,000 a year this is the professor who are the 50 students 49 Gentiles and one Jewish kid named Stephen a 19 year old boy who knew nothing about you describes what were the five religions they were doing research on Judaism Christianity Islam Harry Krishna and the Mormons for those of you don't know Harry Krishna is a cult there's about 10 million of them mostly in Europe they live and then there's the Mormons I'm sure most of us have heard of the Mormons this is a religion where they live in Utah and they have a very strange men hugs it's called polygamy where the men have many wives and what's the problem with men having many wives it means many mothers-in-law that's the problem with the Mormons and then even at the end at the end of the semester the professor had a brilliant idea instead of having Hazara for the final he decided to invite Ashley uh from each of the five religions to come into the class and prove to the class that their religion is Emmis the other for a checker and they're all going to get em if they don't follow their religion so he invited into Christian he invited in a he invited Meharry invited in a Mormon and somehow I represented the Jewish religion how so there was one Jewish kid in the class named Stephen so the professor goes over to Steve and he says do me a favor find me a rabbi it happens to be this Steven has a father who is a very very wealthy man and he had made significant donations to our organization so I get a call from the father on a satellite phone err Shabbos clay dish on his yacht he's off the coast of California five minutes before Lisbon Ching telling me I'm going to Princeton at each table now I really wasn't so interested but you know the donations were there and I kind of told them obligation the problem is there is a Halawa that cannot allow to teach you know Gentiles Torah except for the sheva mitzvos bnei know us so what would happen if I would show up and Stephen the only Jewish kid in the class wouldn't be there so I told the father I will come I'd like to be last that's a request but caca VI was last I was on Friday everyone else came Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday I came here for Shabbos kodesh I was supposed to speak for an hour they kept me for about two hours and my second issue was my demand that I told the father that his son better be there I don't care how ill he is get hot Salah hook him up wheel him in I needed the Jewish kid there the caja be and I spoke and they came in and Stephen was there to make a long story short here we are 20 years later Stephen stopped using his English things Stephen long time ago now he goes by his name's Shalom he's about trova he is married kyndall us and he's plowing through Shas and his father hates me kidding he doesn't hate me he's got some gnosis still gives us our donations but he was concerned in the beginning and Bertha she I was happy what did I say in Princeton I said a lot it was two hours but the basic idea that I presented to them is the same idea that our children need to know in order that they can articulate that we have a torus Emmis and it is now the aunt of a pacer her and afterward show us this is the aunt of emunah of passing on the truth of our Tyra and the Miss Ora so this is very very appropriate now I came into Princeton and I had these fifty kids there and I asked them how did the other four religions that we hear this week how do they begin and I imagine that most of our listeners know this and I ask all of you to go and look at the hot dummer of the safer high chemical he says everything we are saying here has a lot of disappear behind him and the Quran him discuss and that is the other four religions and in fact every religion in the world all began exactly the same way with one person one person claiming a private revelation and a discussion with God how God appeared to them or God gave them a book or God told them the other Messiah but no Aidan not a single religion in the world there have been approximately 15,000 recorded religion since Avram Aveeno until today and fourteen thousand 999 and then basically all begin exactly the same way where one person claims that you know God spoke to them or appear to them with no Adium no witnesses and this is what I said and this is what was going on in Princeton and we were discussing this then Noah mommy's making classic of me how old religions are nonsense the kids were making classic each religion says my religion of the true religion my prophets the true prophets until finally I said to them I could have said them well had a Judaism start but I wanted to have I wanted to demonstrate something to them about the professor I wanted to embarrass him a tiny tiny bit why you know the professor's may it has got two PhDs he's making $150,000 a year and the rabbi has no PhDs he owes on 250 thousand and LeFleur he may know more than the professor so the way I presented it to them there in Princeton was what did the professor teach you at the beginning of Judaism because I knew they're gonna give me the wrong answer the cassava a young lady in the audience raised her hand and said well the professor taught us that according to Judaism God gave the book to Moses and I had an overhead projector and a screen and the so Kim had slows with the sukham on them and I just read to them soaking for five minutes read the Basilica and kiba I'm Ashley she arena she lay in a coma our Marcin I cola am NOT Lena Moshe - Emma create an entire nation the next person favorite color army next poster biote Moshe essa on lacrosse hello Kim and I showed them at 50 places 50 so come on nation - em appeared in front of the entire nation and this young lady raised her hand and said are you saying that according to Judaism God gave it to a bunch of people say looked at her and I said I wouldn't say a bunch I would say three million men women and children who happened to be my grandparents and they passed it down to me through a Passover Seder and you know this young lady said to be happy to be a girl from China hopefully without the corona and she said to me yeah boy does the world know about this and I laugh I said no the world doesn't cuz the world has no idea what happened on her scene I how the Torah describes it and this is very important for children to realize the utter uniqueness of Chloe's Rose claim everyone is one person we're three million what's the difference one person is a Suffolk three million is a vadai three million is a historical event we're not a religion we are an a Starkel event just like any event in history just like we know there was a man named Rashi there was a man named the Vilna Gaon in the Baal Shem Tov there's zero Suffolk lament these are historical events Chris they were witnessed by millions or hundreds of thousands of witnesses who then passed it on an English a history there was a civil war there was there was a president I states they made their Abraham Lincoln these are historical events with no Suffolk so to illustrate is an historical event we are utterly and categorically different than every other claim and how did I Shem pass this down many kids they have difficulty relating to an event that happened three thousand three hundred thirty two years ago I don't even remember what I did where solemn I did with my grandchildren so look with the average to did a college Merkel gave us away that even though the tire was given 3,300 years ago its Kela we were just there and he passed her down to us through a way that no other nation or culture ever in history had that's called the pace of Seder through the pace of said of course besides all the times we say is a Haley TSP trying and mezuzahs in Finland and suka etc etc the Pesach Seder the IKAR of giving over the pin AHA of our Messiah back to her see my and I pointed out the kids a fascinating idea I asked him how many paces Saddam do they think I've taken place in their families between them now and in cs4 I'm an artsy night it's important understand the way I say it how many pesos is armed in their family has taken place between now and it's siesta time and my mate her Cena and the answer is approximately 40 the kids will tell me three thousand two thousand when I tell them forty it's it's it's blows them away to blow us away how do we get 40 around 40 approximately cause were talking generations and I tell the kids and I tell you a story that happened to me when I was four years old which was a law time ago 1964 56 years ago you could do the math when I was 4 years old I was at a seder with my family and my Zadie my 92 year old lady who was a solanum her hostage and at some point through the Seder I was left alone with my Zadie in a room a long time have I assumed it was during rockzo when everybody goes to wash and the Kendall have stay back to steal the afikomen and there I was with my grandfather mais ad alone in the room and my 92 year olds ad with his kit the Linstrom milk walks over he grabs my hand my wrist my right wrist I was four years old and in hit --is-- maze ad said to me the following words is exact words the exact intonation an exact way he pronounced the lotion ha kodesh he said to me Daniel I called his beau who took us out of mitts as I him and gave us a tiger and then my 92 year olds ad bent down and whispered in my ear and when I was four years old in 1877 mais ad from 1795 did the exact same thing to me that I'm doing to you to sadaham and my family really three three Saddam and my family I'm in 1795 and when that Zaid was four years old in 1701 his ad from 1605 did the same thing to him four pesos alarm in the mechanic family I'm in the early 1600s another I don't know five six seven more and we're at the time Arashi there Rajesh brought the Reds will be showing him just take it back it's about 40 Sitaram 41 42 40 every one of us when we were three years old I had a piece I'll say there and that that Seder was an elderly lady Bubbe aunt uncle or an old Haggadah telling us that when they were little kids three years old they were at a seder with their 90 year olds 80 who did the same thing to them so knowing that we have the MS and then we have a tie resentments and obviously I've shortened it tremendously this is a three-hour presentation that we do in schools or in care of those seminars but when our children's know that we have the MS the Taira is Emma's dedication a coach merical said keep Shabbos this is the right way to lead your life it is a major weapon in our arsenal to fight the eight Sahara and the apathy and the lack of passion that we see in many of our kids today and we have to project confidence in Tyrus Emmis in the truth of Tyra we have to project confidence many years ago I had the opportunity to meet with a very famous person in the secular world in a restaurant in California Pat's restaurant on Pico Boulevard for those of you who know with a very very famous person who wanted to talk or perhaps debate with me Judaism a completely assimilated Jew and we sat down we walked into this restaurant he had two bodyguards with him I was getting a lot of attention everyone's wondering him they knew who he was me they didn't know and we sat down me and him and I must tell you even though I consider myself a Ventura sitting with this person took my breath away people would pay hundreds of thousands of dollars sit with him for a half an hour and mechanic sitting with this person it's a long story I'm not gonna get into now and we sit down and as we're getting ready to order our meal but just started he just looks at me and he says so rabbi how do you know God exists just like that it's like nuclear weapon right off the bat the question so we have to show confidence so I looked at him I said how do you know he does not exist he was irate he got so angry he said to me is such a Jew I bring you out from New York to answer my questions and what do you do you answer me with a question so I'm asking you're a buddy how do you know God exist so I look at him and with confidence I say it again how do you know he does not and he's just staring at me and then I said the following argument it's very powerful argument an argument that comes from confidence in the Emmis of Yiddish kite I looked and I said well you have a problem not me in the believing Jews we don't have a problem but you have a problem and let me tell you why because one of us is right and one of us is wrong there is no third possibility either I'm right is a knavish de who created this world and therefore there's a touchless assigned as a purpose in life or you're right class for Solomon and there is no every surface Rajaram and when we and and there's no purpose to life or nothing and we've always been here he goes yeah I go when are we gonna find out who's right and who's wrong he understood when are we to find out who's why don't you present who's right and who's wrong the second we die so we're gonna live till 120 I said to him and then we're gonna both die either I'm right passed away 120 and there's a bra it's hook jaco's way sherbe no my bubby or you're right I said to him and we dog at 120 and nothing the whole thing was nonsense we worth let's Jews were wrong he's like listening and I go let's look at the consequences of who's right and who's wrong let's say I and all the from Eden we turn out to be wrong again cos Rizzo I said what did I lose out in life I spent an entire life absolutely convinced that I'm right and Tyra's Emmis and had structure in my life and meaning and purpose and spirituality and and chalant so what did I lose that does a few have a verse I didn't do but let's take a look at you you're gonna live out your whole life as an atheist and then you die and let's say you're wrong and there's the age there's a sham what are you gonna say for eternity oops if you make it if you're wrong the consequences are catastrophic you can't judge me the total Teaneck finish but knows nothing that's fresh end but he missed out on life he missed out on the purpose of life you missed on a relationship with Hashem so I told the consequences of you being wrong a catastrophic the consequences of me being wrong are yeah so a few sins I didn't do I said in therefore here's the point because this doesn't prove anything it just proves to him the following point therefore since the consequences a so catastrophic for you if you're wrong you better do your research you want to know if a sham exists and I pulled out a few books that I brought along some books famous books no permission to believe and if you were God but I've already captained some other third book and I issued a challenge I said you read these books if you could read these books and you find the flaw in Judaism and we finish em I'll go after there if you could find the floor that's a real powerful challenge and it came from confidence I met with him a few more times until his wife convinced him that I'm some type of cult and he no longer met with me but this is something that we have to do we have to always be confident in an indifferent and from kite in the belief in a sham and believeth IRA you know I go into schools and many many years ago I went into a school for boys who were from the parents were from the former Soviet Union so I'm about to speak to these boys for three hours you know I think they would rather be at a dentist having a root canal then listen to revving mechanic talked IRA for three hours so I came in there I told him a few stories about her son had them in the palm of my hand because the tire is about like an MS but the principal had warned me about one boy one boy named Michael a twelfth grader six foot four 240 pounds where the principal told me was a nappy klaris and him eally real happy curse so you have to be confident so I gave my whole presentation showing the truth of Torah I waited for the Epicurus to ask me questions he didn't ask me a single question when it was all done he came at me with his friends and he walks over to me and all the boys walking back in the room they're all surrounding us they're waiting for this moment World War three but three grab a mechanic and their local atheists the 17 year old boy and he says to me rabbi and listened to everything you said and nothing was true you're not telling the truth and there is no a beach that's not sure that this whole thing is not true I said so who made the world then where the world come from see he says to me yeah it's always been here I said that's fascinating would you like to have a debate about this he goes but I like to have a debate I've been looking for a guy like you for years I said okay let's have a debate so I kicked everybody out there sent back the boy to the room because I'm about to embarrassing and you don't embarrass a boy in front of his friends and they pulled him into a room I said so tell me you don't believe in a shammy goes not do you believe in the tyrant now do you believe in Allah muhabba no Isis a don't believe in anything I said okay do you mind if I'm gonna have a debate with you but I need to ask you a few questions first and then we'll have our debate so you are claiming to be an atheist and I be clara's did you ever read anything from the Aristotle greatest non Jewish philosopher of all time the romba mentions him Lemuria Vulcan did you ever read anything from Aristotle wrote books about God's existence he goes now I go you never read anything from Aristotle he goes no I go what about Socrates and Plato he's like no I said to him maybe you just like you know the Jews there was a man named the Rambam he wrote a saber called the mower in the book him it's translated to English it's called the guide to the perplexed this occurs did you ever read anything from there from the murder of him though did you ever read the first 40 pages of the hybrid cell above it's what's called a char a hood a very powerful proof of uh shams existence not tell me did you ever read the crews ariram who that lady wrote a say for a book demonstrating the authenticity of her machine I know did you ever read Camus Nietzsche Spinoza David you special some other words I came up with he never read anything so I put my arm around his shoulder I said it Michael you are not an atheist you're an ignorant don't know anything you know you can't even be a good at because you don't know enough to be not because I told me you should have told me you hate your rebellion okay you have a relationship with me you like ripping tell me aboard shabbos your board come to me for Shabbos he won't be bored tell me you don't like Dominic you go to the best seeking minion buy the clothes old boy you love domine but don't tell me you don't believe in Hashem when you know nothing about it you call the bluff because 95 98 percent of the time when people say I don't believe I think this is ridiculous I think this and I think that is wrong they've done no research and that's how you demonstrate confidence in Taurus Emmis okay so we have five more minutes you know I was at a um I was once on my way back from a trip from California to New York and I was stopping through they had to stop through Denver but there was a snowstorm in Denver and I was redirected to Salt Lake City so this is many years ago there I was you know there's no phones there was though there's no food and so like sitting with a know you wanted there was I was there for hours I was stuck in this Airport and I notice you know some Mormons Mormons giving out their literature and they finally they come over to me they start up with me and I told them the following I showed confidence I said let me in and I heard this story for a loja Weinberg does it solve from of Yaakov Weinberg that's how the regime the Israel both of them told me that this store they saw in a safer and this is a story that I told to the Mormons the missionaries and it shows the confidence that we have in the Emmis of Tyra I said like this there was one surface it is Arriba he had 50,000 followers one day the rebel was suddenly NIF there and for whatever reason there was no savoir there was no will and the problem was is that he has three sons and it was very unclear in the community who should be the next Reba so thousands felt that the Behar it's appropriate the Behar should be the next Rebbe others said yeah but the middle son is a humongous town accustomed everyone knows he knows color Torah Kula he's the appropriate one to take over as Reba others said yeah but everyone loves the younger son he's the most charismatic he's about ASA he's has common wisdom he should be the next Rebbe so genomic locust broke out you know and uh after a Shiva one day the youngest son summons everybody to the base mattress this is the story I told over to the Mortons I changed it a little differently so they'll understand they don't know what a base member is so one day the youngest son summons everybody to the basement wish and he says I know the next baby's gonna be it's gonna be me because I had a dream last night the rabbit came to me and told me then on the next row me so I asked these missionaries what could they say that would logically disprove what the son is saying he's not lying he had his dream but we cannot rely on him and he may realize well it would make more sense if the reven heaven had appeared to all three sons and then a is what would have been the best way of all and it took them a few minutes and they realized the best way wools if the rabbi would have appeared in the calamus of all fifty thousand I'll see them then they were no vada you've supposed to be the next Rebbe it's the only logical way to do it and that's when I said you just disprove your religion of Mormonism where you claim that God appeared to your prophet why would he do that it would appear to all the Mormons to all the mass revelation and these are things that we have to have in our arsenal to be able to demonstrate to our children and pass on a messiah that we have a Taurus Emmis that it's true that a crossbar who gave us a Tyra and if he initially is on offense and it's scoring points as they say the outside world won't have a chance our children must know what the absolute conviction that we the AMA nefler we have a Tyrus ms I shall both her bonhomie : I'm in and we have to show it to him through armor so Rebecca her sea Knight and this is what the moon up shooter really is as a rebuke of Weinberg once told me and what it means it's posit my father at a seder and his father to say they're going back 40 52 darm tyrosine I am Essaouira and this is what we have to give over to our children and then we need to dive in a lot a lot of Dobbin against cassavas and if we do all that we can be assured that bad recession at our children will love a sham love Torah and love cloudy Stroh and I invite you all to come again a mere touch them next week on Tuesday where we will talk about the second Almudena which is Taurus higham and demonstrates him the beauty of leading her from lifestyle - all beside her that our children remain on their higher shine we should all learn from this tremendous the tsiyon that we are all going through together and learn our lessons from it I'm one of them is when we're with our children to improve our tennis skills and that is with these three I'm Moody thank you good night