Aleinu Conference (London) - B’Yachad N’Natzeiach - Rabbi Efrem Goldberg

all those working Ines thank you for your kind words and thank you for your inspirational words it's hard to follow up after such a topic such a uh comprehensive inspirational analysis of but there is so much to say about it because it is the issue of our day I believe it's the issue of our time it's no secret anymore now it's come out through a lot of sources and in a lot of ways that October 7th the horrific attack the worst attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust happened because our enemy sensed within us a perod a makus a division a divide they've been explicit and they've said hostages who will return shared that they heard from their tormentors that would motivated and what inspired them to strike October 7th when they did is because on October 6th the world world was describing that Israel was on the verge of a civil war that the Jewish people were about to turn on each other the debate over judicial reformar Isel the fight between the right and the left the religious and the not yet religious it had reached such a low the Venom the tension was so high that our enemies understood that's when we are the most vulnerable that's when the time is to strike we had a hostage speak in our she described that she heard the horrific terrorist who was holding her captive was watching the news following the October 7th events and saw the way CL Isel am Isel came together in Israel all those divisions and all that tension and all that hate and all those so strongly entrenched positions they went to the side anyone who went to Israel in that time I was privileged to go many many times over the last 15 months saw Amel that woke up and they remembered what matters and what's important and what comes first and came together and put to the side those differences and this member of Kamas commented remarked that they never anticipated what the reaction would be they attacked the way they did because they assumed that if indeed we were on the verge of a civil war then this attack we would unravel we'd come apart at the seams we'd blame one another we'd hold one another accountable we'd point fingers we'd abandon one another and they'd be able to march all the way to yush they would continue from the south and from the north until they eliminated our people and took over Israel alt together and boy did they have a surprise boy were they surprised because our enemy so grossly underestimated us but it wasn't only our enemy that underestimated us us we underestimated ourselves I don't know that any of us believed or knew if on October 6th if on October 6th this August gathering this conference met and we said you know in a week's time CLA is going to drop everything and come together we'll be there for one another we'll go to the ends of the Earth to protect to take care to show up for one another you'd say impossible can't be can't be and yet that's what happened sometimes it takes our enemies to bring us together and they did makes a comment on the last night a group of us I mentioned anti-Semitism that's the we don't welcome anti-Semitism we stand up and we fight it but if there is a silver lining to it it's that it reminds us who we are what is the thing what is the thing what is the thing that stood for us is that when the Jews are in danger of assimilating and disappearing we can always count on the non-jewish World to remind us who we are to hold it against us and I was mentioning last night I think it's a moment to leverage to take advantage of anti-Semitism at least even while we fight it and seek to eliminate it to take advantage of it to tell our people if they hate you and they want to kill you for being Jewish lean in and look into and learn about why be Jewish let's take Billboards let's take advantage let's invite and Inspire the people who are living with the panic and the fear the people who are covering up or hiding people who are worried about what will be to be a Jew let's at least look into our Judaism but the SP has a different comment and he says you know what it is that threatens Us in every generation that alone not being having makas being divided being at each other's throats sitting in Judgment of one another marginalizing looking down at feeling Superior to being hypocritical of sh being broken in pieces not being united in one that [Music] alone that alone threatens us and we lived it and we've seen it on October 6th we were low but by October 8th we came together with tremendous and unity with a sense of billboards and posters and bumper stickers all over ER Isel and Beyond calling on the amet the people of Eternity we will win we will prevail we will Triumph because we will be together together and those artificial lines and those divides that had kept us apart different communities in Israel I don't even need to spell out for you you know well they dissipated they disappeared for a time that was done was mindboggling the love and the Loyalty for one another the care and concern for each other despite different backgrounds and political positions and where we were from the same groups that were shutting down yipper literally a few weeks later we standing up and showing up and helping each other in unimaginable ways it was a beautiful thing to see and for those who were there to even experience but my dear friends I'm incredibly worried and tremendously fearful that here we are 15 months later and the akas is already fraying and instead of being October 8th and Beyond too many have gone back to October 6th to that divide to those differences to that Brokenness to that judgment to that criticism to that superiority towards one another that has always been and that will be our downfall shal and the beauty of today and I'm in awe and I bring this energy back and the challenge to the organizations in America so many of whom are doing the same work but doing it in their own silos and doing it in their own spaces and doing it without collaboration and coordination like you are today to come together because ALU it's on us it's on us and we're all in the same Mission we're all trying to accomplish the same goals and the we will win when we are invested in eternity and immortality which is our mission and our cause which is our calling card to bring clel and am to a place of immortality and Eternity we're not trying to win for the here and now this is not a dispute over territory or money or power we're fighting for nitus for for eternity and it's only it's only when we're and can overcome the Instinct what for too long was the default of sh to collaborate and cooperate to work together to learn from one another have respect even with our differences which is what I want to talk to you about in the time that we have this morning on we read about the in Theos on Tish we read the same story in the context of the it's about the it takes the form of an elery of Aina for the horrific loss of these non-c contemporaries the GM of each of those Generations murdered by by the Romans why did they meet their demise in such a horrific way why were their lives taken the med gar tells us that the reason the were killed so brutally gum are sadik how could it be the medish tells us that the Roman Emperor came across the story from our paros of Yosef and his brothers how they sold him into slavery a crime that's punishable by death a capital crime and he notes he notes that the brothers were never held accountable there was never a trial for them they were never punished for what they did yoseph sort of glossed over it and he let it go and he made a calculation it was more important to be together a very important lesson and one maybe we'll come back to but the brothers were never held accountable and he took it upon himself says the medish to do so obviously this was much later and he couldn't hold the brothers themselves the closest to it were the gum of that time and he brings them together and he holds them on trial you all know the med I don't need to elaborate we've read it so many times too many times and in the and in theer but something about the story doesn't add up and he puts them to death something about the story doesn't add up when the curtain comes down in this week's comes to a close everybody's getting along there's Harmony there's peace there's love there's the curtain comes comes down there's kumay everybody's together it's a big Kum and everybody's enjoying so what do you mean years later the Roman Emperor is going to hold the brothers accountable because the brothers were never put to death a capital crime that wasn't accounted for it was done it was finished it was forgiven why are they punished and why are we still reading their story of the and he's not the only one maybe the most prominent one who has a very very startling answer and he says he notes that although the text tells us that yoseph reassured his brothers he never fully forgave them and the unit that they created was incredibly superficial and you see that in this week's paraa because the brothers after Yakov die say you know Yosef I don't know if you know but Dad told us to tell you don't do anything even after he's gone and wow is that a punch in yosef's face wow what a realization that even though he thinks he finally broke through and he's one of them they're all together they're Brothers what a horrific and harsh reminder he receives that there still isn't Harmony that the brothers are still afraid that he's going to take revenge and he's going to get even and he realizes it's not all done he never fully forgave them says because they never fully asked for forgiveness and it's a topic for another time an ELO yam Kipper topic about what real SLE looks like not The Superficial gloss over make everything look okay sweep it under the carpet kind but a genuine reconciliation and a genuine working out but here we are all these years later and we're still reading theug here we are all these years later and we're still paying the price for this tension enity between the brothers because it was never resolved and it was never worked out it was superficially glossed over it was swept under a carpet they cooperated they cooperated for the day for a conference but when it was over when the cameras were off when the mic was shut shut down what was left of that collaboration and cooperation was it Skin Deep was it superficial was it for everyone else to see was it for Yakov or was it genuine was it real was it true was it authentic was it practice day in and day out in last week's para ysf and bamin are reunited and Rashi quotes the medish that yosf was crying benyam was crying they collapsed on each other's shoulder in a very emotional moment they're crying together and why they crying rash quaz they're crying B cried for the destruction of the mishan hous in the territory of ysf and yose's crying for the B mikdash that will be housed in the territory of bam they're crying it's a very Jewish moment which should be incredibly happy and joyous and festive instead is filled with drama and melodrama and tears and crying and sadness like we have a way of turning which should be even like somebody has to make that comment or say that thing or bring bring everything down what do we have to be brought down y just lean into the moment just be present just experience this special reunion this reconciliation finally after all this time you have to F it by talking about things that don't even exist yet you're crying over a mish that isn't even built you're crying over that don't even yet exist all to be able to to lose the moment what are they crying about in the first and says the same thing they're not crying about the future and they're not crying about something that hasn't yet happened they're crying about what brought them to that moment and that it hadn't yet both fully solved ysf and Bam that only two sons of both yakob and ra embraced and cried and were Bittersweet tears because they understood that while they were reunited sharing the same father and mother they recognized that what had kept them apart and separated and estranged that sin was not yet solved yes on the surface they glossed it over yes in a performative way they made it look like they were all getting together but that sin that had kept them apart and left them estranged the sin was not solved it wasn't solved that led to the moment it wasn't solved still at that moment and for Generations it would be yet to be solved so much so there would be a destruction of a mishkon and of a of aik right then they decided says the m to practice the only antidote and the only response to which is that's why they hugged that's why they cried on each other's Soldier they were demonstrating both for the future but also in that moment for the present the antidote they were practicing the response to S is for two brothers to hug and to cry on each other's shoulders They Mourn not only for the loss in their territory rash is very medak they didn't cry because I'm gonna have a mishun in Shilo that I'm going to lose and because I'm going to have in my that I'm going to lose for whom did they cry they each cried for the other that's that's the antidote to in that moment in that moment they weren't simply fering the they were trying to fix it they were trying to model it they were trying to demonstrate it and it's exactly what we need to do is to not only performatively cooperate or get along not only to have one day of alenu but each and every day even if we're not technically collaborating with all of our logos on a particular program it means even if we're not together to cry for one another to feel to be to lift the other's burden so it gets a little bit lighter for them one of the to be to to be what it means to have a conference like this is that we're in it together we're colleagues this is a we are and we need to be no with one another to lift that burden to make it lighter for the other we need to do it because it's the antidote it's the fix it's the response to love to kiss to embrace to hug even to cry for one another but we need to do it also because we need to model it for the very people we're trying to impact it's not only our enemy who knows to strike and who's turned off when they see us apart it's the very people that we're trying to draw close and upon whom we're trying to have this impact there is nothing that turns people off more than seeing religious Jews fighting with one another judging one another hypocritical of one another the greatest chant and the greatest potato cogle in the world the nicest Tish the biggest shabus experience is all the Cure of programs combined cannot make up for a moment that person hears or perceives that organizations that religious Jews sit in Judgment of one another don't get along with one another are at each other's throats practice a sin towards each other we need to live for ourselves but we need to model for others because it's part of the work that we do to draw them close is to show them a Isel the love of a fellow Jew that we have so much more in common than that separates us that we are bound by a history and by a destiny that only that to overcome those enemies who strike when we are weak and we are weak when we are when we are divided ham years later sees the same thing the same thing that just saw on October 6th that made them stri October 7th says the they're sleeping they're fast as sleep they're divided they're at each other's throats they're killing each other they're focused on what's unimportant instead of what matters they're seeing their differences instead of their commonalities they're they're scattered and they're spread out shal they're not one they can't cooperate or collaborate they don't love they don't lift each other up they're not crying on each other's shoulders for each other not for themselves hon strikes for the same reason he chooses that in auspicious moment that Hamas is the same thing that traces itself all the way back to that we are still crying for and that we're going to fast about this Friday what does commemorate so the itself tells us laid Siege the beginning of that siege that lasted two and a half years that was the beginning of the end of that bash that y andam were already crying over we're commemorating the beginning of the end the withdrew you know why by the way because I don't know about you we have many children I never want to be with them more than when they're getting along and I never want to run out of the room faster than when they're fighting with each other and on each other's throats I don't even want to host them if you want to kill each other go find somewhere else in our house if you want to be with us if you want our generosity everyone get along K feels the exact same way you can't get along you can't figure out you can't cooperate and collaborate you can't focus on what you have in common as our as our father he says I'm out of here he withdrew the the result was and so this Friday the only one that could fall out on an air of shabas we're going to fast and every woman will find out Friday night what time sh really ends as all the memes will come out this Thursday and Friday I just memes so I got it in early but the B fish B is a big he's a m and he writes there that he doesn't have a but he believes you know what date on the calendar what happened on the calendar that commemorate what happened in our Torah on that day that we're still fasting for these years later he writes in his b that was the day of this fast this Friday CL around the world will Fast to try to atone and fix and repair the damage that was done and is still being done because of because of that sale because of that tension because of that divide because of that enmity because of that judgment because they couldn't figure it out they couldn't get along Shalom shom what does that mean it's a very clumsy expression if you look at any translation of it struggles to translate the words shom what what is what does it even mean some say it means the brothers couldn't even accept that y was trying to make sh they couldn't even accept says means they couldn't even give each other a you know those people when you're planning your you can't put them at the same table you could tear it's so sad when you plan your simp you have to figure out oh they need to be at they can't be at the same table because they don't even give each other a Shalom they can't even be in the same Sho sit in the same row they can't even walk by each other and say hello to one another it is so bad they are so apart so divided there is such shom they can't even give a Shalom says it means that that's what happened with ysf and his brothers that sin ran so deep forget sitting at a conference together collaborating or working together they couldn't even overlap they couldn't even pass ways they couldn't even give a Shalom they couldn't even say hello they couldn't even say hello to one another and that resulted in the M that resulted in yose being sold something y later interpreted and understood to mean that it was from asem and that was for yose to choose to see it for himself but we continue to suffer the that is going on today that October 8th we thought was gone forever and here we are coming up on AAR and it's back we have to fast again hopefully there'll be a b we be in by Friday and there'll be no fast but if we find ourselves fasting again it is only because we haven't found the solution we're still having very superficial very one day conference very performative for the camera very superficial to get money from our funders to show the world that we care also to pick up a few nuggets from one another but that's not what's going to solve the problem it's a true it's crying on each other's shoulders it's crying for each other it's it's feeling forever together is the only thing that's going to solve this problem that's going to get us to go where we need to go solution is to be Mak to see the good in one another that even though we have important differences and we're allowed to have those differences and those differences are wonderful said we have 12 12 entrances to the bik the tells us we'll get back to in a moment we have different and no one is trying to erase or make invisible those differences and no one is trying to make anyone conform to the other there are wonderful organizations and wonderful individuals who have has who have a who discovered their path in AEM and in serving the CL and to be to doesn't mean to makes it disappear it means to cooperate to get along the the tagline our our logo in our sh is the mentioned was an interesting question that came up because it's on our logo can any of our literature or Flyers be brought into a bathroom just as we have a mat to wipe your feet when you come in and the logo was printed on it someone objected how am I going to wipe my feet on I looked into the interesting something's been used as a not as a it's not she a separate interesting question but but the other language around our logo The Branding and marketing that we do because we're trying to very subtly drive it home to ourselves to our members to our community is valuing diversity and celebrating Unity valuing diversity and celebrating Unity we once hosted her by Stein out I'll never forget it was in a person's home he was speaking and he was making himself a cup of coffee the little coffee station that was set up before and then such a brilliant man and humble man and he was having a casual conversation he said Rabbi tell me about your shoel what makes it special what makes it stand out oh that's my favorite question so I jumped into my whole pitch about diversity and our unity and our differences ashaz and and young and old and left wing and rightwing and from a stral to someone driving to SCH and all sitting together and the L I drove into my whole thing and I valuing diversity celebrating Unity I gave him my whole pitch our slogan our logo he said valuing diversity celebrating Unity it's redundant there noes I said what do you mean so only the wayin could like casually throw this out he said if you have Unity obviously you have diversity if you didn't have diversity you wouldn't have Unity you'd have uniformity oh oh to have Unity you have to have diversity implicit in is that we're different there's different organizations represented here there are different people represented here just like we look different our de are different which is a beautiful chat by the way what does it mean just like our our appearance part of just like our appearance our face is different so to our deos are different was one thing have to do with the other I once saw you never see someone go over to someone else and get angry because of the way the other person looks I'm angry at you because of your facial features I'm angry at you because the color of your hair I'm angry at you because of your height Eli the other party you realize that's the way they were born that's how they were designed that's the way they were created similarly our deos are not sh if another person thinks differently has a different approach of course with in boundaries we're talking within a framework of Torah but our deos we were also designed differently and we also come differently we also think differently in the same way we make space and entitle people to look different or dress different or have different appearance or facial features similarly we should allow them and make space for them to also think different and be different that's the only way we have obviously it's the only way that we can have peace It's a Wonderful saer setups from he was a in Chicago he was a son-in-law of Frank of the chief RAB of it's a great who moved to Chicago there's many he on it's beautiful beautiful and he writes there he says on the found at the end of that there's no like Shalom there's no CLE that can hold like Shalom if we want we want BR in our lives for ourselves for our families for our communities we have to to be devoted we have to be committed to to Shalom to peace we have to be committed to peace to Shalom so he says when do we wish ourselves that braa the end of every amid three times a day three times a day what do we do we take three steps backward if you want Shalom the first thing you have to do take three steps back backward is make space for others if you are going to be all-encompassing and you're going to make other people conform and you're going to overpower and you're going to demand everyone look and dress and be exactly like you then you'll never have Shalom you'll have you want Shalom the first thing you have to do is take three steps backward and then what do we do we bow to the left and to the right we look at the people to the left of us and right of us religiously and politically and we bow and we recognize I don't agree with you I don't worship like you I don't live like you I don't dress like you I don't vote like you I'm different than you but I bow I recognize your right to be different if we want shalom Shalom we only say shalom will give us Shalom when we first take those three steps back when we make the space for people to be different when we look to the left and the right organizations to the left and the right and people within organizations to the left and the right and we make space and we allow those who [Music] are but express it like a different shave under a different and we make space for them we've taken some steps back we allow them to be we make space for them safe space for them we look to the left and to the right only then can we have Shalom if we have all the money going into these organizations and all the mysterious of your lives that you could have been doing something else much more profitable will get nowhere if we don't have Shalom if we have M the says something astounding the and he brings Z's proof to it he points out that there was only one day that the M didn't fall in the midbar agel the mon still fell we cheated on Hashem on our honeymoon after har infidelity with Theon and the m still fell which day did the m not fall with K says and the has and he says you want parasa this is the school of for parasa nobody's made famous yet anyone's welcome to I'm not even asking for royalties you can share the SCH you want a school of for parasa the school of for parasa for the mon fall is to be devoted and committed to Shalom as a principle primary value where there is M there's no parasa where there's M there's no where there's there's no Shalom the the the mon fell all the other times all the other times we came up short we complained we got it wrong even when we cheated on the fell one day it didn't fall says the SCH if you want you want Shalom want parasa then there has to be obious we have to hug one another like yoseph and B we us to cry on each other's shoulder for the other person help the other organization raise money for them introduce them to a donor give them a great idea refer somebody who you think would benefit more from them cry on their shoulder lift their o demonstrate that Aus and more people will flood and flock and run to want to embrace Torah and MIT sh can only fall when there's a sense when there's a sense of of we don't have to be the same but we have to take those steps back to make room for the others our coll collaboration our Unity our partnership can't be for one day for one conference it has to be each and every day part of the core and Central to who we are and how and how we live ysf has one instruction to his brothers when they leave last week he says Mar quickly go up and get father and bring him down and I'll Gaz I'll I was in New York on the way here I went for a before coming here from New York and there's a a friend I have who likes to listen to the sh who was driving me was kind enough to pick me up and he was so lost in talking about a Tor I had given that we almost missed the exit from the highway I said Al M Rashi yose says quickly I've been away 22 years is more than enough I want to see my father hurry up get him down here don't get arang and learning so much that you're going to be distracted from from missing the exit go get TTI and bring him down that's one but others say something so you so you know what y was telling [Music] them on the do you know how this all started do you know what happened because we're on a different D yose because yoseph says I wasn't like you and you couldn't take it you couldn't tolerate it you threw me in a pit you sold me into slavery because I was on a different D so you're going to be tempted on the way out of here to point fingers to blame to criticize to judge whose fault was it I said bring him home I said stay save him I said we'll work it out it's your fault it was your idea your D is wrong I'll don't beas because somebody's on another D that's how we got into this mess and the only way we're going to get out of it is a is let people have another let them have their other way how can you let somebody have another D another D now the med says by the way if you want to picture this image quite literally we picture yamu as if the yamu split in two but the medes tells us that's not what happened theam each walked in their own lane it was the Super Highway the yamu and the walls of water formed that there were 12 Lanes can have our own D we can walk in our own lane we could walk in our own lane you're allowed to visit someone else's Lane too but we can walk in our own lane we could have our own home address don't be because someone's on another because they believe they live with they're following recognize and respect that there's good and there's virtue and his Merit and his Beauty even in the other organization even in their D even other people and colleagues even in their lifestyle zilberg just saw a sa for he says at the root of it all was even when they come down to not be Mak to not see the good in another he wasn't recognizable to them they didn't recognize him the Torah emphasizes to fail to recognize to see the good you have to search you have to look for some it's right on the surface and it's easy to find and others you need a magnifying glass for others you need a telescope but there's good that in each of us to to be to look and to find and to search for that good points out that when yob sends y to go look for his brothers he says go and look at and bring me back the simple understanding was no your brothers are gone a long time they said they'd be home from now go check on them see how they're doing bring them some lunch make them a picnic go see what's happening which by the way some used to explain why for 22 years or a good part of them yose didn't even try to get in touch with his father because the way it All Began was his father sending him to check on the brothers he might have thought maybe my father was in on this and it's only when Yehuda says our father is distraught and inconsolable and he's already lost one son that yosf realizes yob was not in on it but it began because yob says no go check on them and the simple T is go see how they're doing they haven't been back they're supposed to be home by now go bring them lunch but says the look a little bit more carefully and you'll see what yakob was telling y ysep had brought de what's de he was a snitch he kept tattletail he kept pointing out the faults and the failures the shortcomings of his brothers he didn't get the memo I don't know if they have the saying here but snitches get stitches you can't snitch another lesson as a parent even when your child's done something wrong but when their sibling tells on them that's a no no it's got to be loyalty it's an Unwritten rule sibling it's got to be loyalty snitches get stitches you can't turn anyone in and Yosef keeps coming in and tattling and why does he keep tattling because he doesn't see what's right about his brothers he doesn't see what's whole about his brothers he doesn't see what he has in common with his brothers he brings the he brings a d of he sees what's wrong the failure the shortcoming the difference so his father turns to him and he says the wordom is sh says me a favor go out and try something different instead of looking for what's wrong instead of poking the hole instead of offering the criticism instead of seeing the Brokenness instead of seeing what's missing go look for what is shal among and instead of come back yose let's try something come back and bring me an experiment of try to say something nice try to look for something shelling something whole something working something that you have in common the last couple American presidential debates last couple presidential Cycles the moderators asked a question it was ENT detaining I don't know effective and it threw off the candidates the last question in the debate was can you say a compliment say something nice about your opponent which they struggled with it was pretty entertaining to see what they found it'd be an interesting session in this conference for each organization to have to highlight what it admires and loves and has learned from the other organization what's sh among what's there to learn or admire or look up to or take away from what's something that one has in common with the other maybe that happens or maybe it doesn't need to happen because it's so obvious I don't mean to presume at all but it's something that we can all practice so much more so we don't have to be and for the sale of Y this coming Friday we need a lot more ofh to bring back a good word a good word about somebody else a good referral to another organization a good referral of a donor which will never take away from us it'll bring us moref because the M will rain down the more the the more that we practice you send a donor to another organization who you think is doing a project that will speak to them I promise you I practically guarantee you you'll seef the M the parasa will fall for you to bring back a d to one another to have an eye in Tove to see what's good what's right what's sh and the other not what's broken not what's missing not what's there I'll to not be because someone else has a different but to be and only then because we can be only then will we come together to recognize even within ourselves not only we have what to learn and cooperate from one another but we ourselves should be diverse and Broad and learn and incorporate into what we're doing what we see from from others it's another aspect of of what we try to do in our community that I think and I hope makes it special far from unique I hope it spreads and becomes more popular is to bring an approach in an attitude of this diversity and this Unity diversity not divisiveness and unity not uniformity we're not trying to make people be uniform you don't have to conform dress alike vote alike look alike D the same we have in our sh every shabas morning eight minion each minion is different I like to say each minion has its own character and cast of characters each minion has its own style Kish each minion is unique and each minion has its own we don't we're not a 12 yet we're at eight could always continue to look to grow but the beauty is that we're on one campus and one Kila and one set of raban we have one history of our community and we're fighting towards one one destiny and we're trying to live to mourn and to grieve and to cry together after an October 7th or communal losses to celebrate successes together and to recognize that none of us have a monopoly on the EMS on the truth tells us there were 12 gates to theik says that correspondingly each tribe each shav had their own their own liturgy and their own gate through which Theos Ascend and penetrate and enter on high and almost 200 years later the mag adds magov that if somebody doesn't know his or her shave you don't know your tribe there's a 13th Gate and he suggested when it comes to daving that's the and is what the called the and my personal philosophy how I try to live my life and I think it filters toila is a sh approach to life we're living in a different time thanks to technology and how Global the world is Once Upon a Time a person had their their rash and and their and the world though is much more open and much more available and much more accessible to listen to Toro from all over and to learn Toro from all over and to be exposed to Toro from all over over and to be enriched by those differences it's a terrible terrible thing to tolerate diversity people usually put those expressions those words together we tolerate diversity we're very tolerant Community we're a very tolerant organization we're very tolerant people weberg has an essay where we'll talk about it later today when he meets the is the Mal he's looking for his brothers who says what are you looking for he says and there writes he says a Jew should tolerate a fellow jewo should never be the the language that we use you tolerate slow Wi-Fi he doesn't say that you tolerate the side effects of a medication you tolerate a bad rash you tolerate things that you wish weren't there but you could live with you don't tolerate a fellow Jew you love a fellow Jew he's writing to reform and conservative he says don't tolerate me and I won't tolerate you we need to love one another we need to love one another we need to find what we have in common with one another we need to see not only the but the before how much we have in common our history and our destiny we don't tolerate one another we love one another we love one another so that sh that says I can take a little from here and a little from here and I'm not not threatened by it I'm enhanced by it and I don't have to abandon my home base my home base David lonstein the host of headlines podcast a fascinating individual he's a friend of mine he once said to me his mush for this which I really appreciated he has a driver he has his own driver so his driver was a former policeman New York city policeman he's his driver SL security so his son once was going had to go to Toronto and he asked the driver he didn't wanted to fly for whatever reason wanted to make sure he'd be able to get back he asked the driver I need you to take my son so the driver said I can't so what do you mean you can't he said I don't have a passport said you don't have a passport you're 60 something years old you're a mature man you're intelligent smart you were a member of the police force but do you mean you don't have a passport I don't have a passport I never left the country I've never left America and he couldn't believe it mean you don't have a passport and the Nim is we have a home base our hash our our shave that's our home base wherever you're most comfortable whatever a person's whatever a person's home base that's our home base our home hashkafa but don't be afraid to have a passport and travel and what happens when you have a passport in your travel and you go to you check out you've been to Italy you've been to Switzerland you've been to London you've been to America you've been wherever you're going wherever you're traveling LA dka are you moving there and LA dka are you going to change your accent La daa you're GNA learn that language La daa you're going to embrace the whole lifestyle but EP maybe you're going to come home with something maybe you brought something you're going to put on a shelf maybe you picked up something which was a good Min hug maybe you learned something that's going to enrich your life have a home base but the Torah is not afraid for us to have a passport and to travel is described by the Torah as an doesn't say oh he's an is others say why was he because tell us that a person who's only Lade in one B Med won't be a person who's so locked in that they're not willing to be exposed to other D to other ways to be enriched and complimented to have a passport to travel in the yam of Torah that person will not see a Sim yov the quintessential mmid didn't sit in one tent he wasn't Yos o he was yosal he was yosal we have nothing to be afraid of to learn from each other to cooperate together to draw from each other to admire and compliment if we want to be the people of if we want to to accomplish if we want eternity and immortality which is why we're doing and in what we're in as I said and I say this with admiration and gratitude gratitude I don't know who I am I don't want to be presumptuous to speak on behalf of but to the people in this room to those who are working in AES the mysterious is unbelievable and there's not a doubt in my mind that every one of you and everyone in this room could be making more money and have less stress and a doing something else and the only driver the only reason you're doing this is for a taste of immortality to shape eternity but the only way to get there is be when we're broken we fast onom we can't even give when there's a very superficial cooperation and collaboration we still have to read we still have to read because it was only on the surface it wasn't deep so this year let's take it deeper let's go deeper with the alenu my Challenge and charge to you is don't just be together for one day a year alenu it's on us not to have a conference one day a year but to collaborate and communicate to hug to cry on each other's shoulder to care for the other to refer and to help and to support and to celebrate the success of the other to have a passport and to travel into each other's organizations to learn to draw to extrap the best and to become better for it and because of it we're in this for and the only way that we'll be is if we will be be so let's not allow ourselves to become October 9th Jews October 6th we're on the verge of a Civil War by October 8th we had an akas I never experienced in my life I came back on fire I was an Artis shortly after October 7th and went six times since and army bases and and uh Highway Junctions and intersections where incredible stations have been set up and billboards and just omnis what you felt what you were together with the connection the AAS mindboggling who was tying tias for each other everything that's happened this past year we so quickly forget but we can't allow it to be forgotten we can't allow it to stop and everything comes from the top and so if we want to go and continue that October 8th Aus we can't allow October 9th to have gone back to that sin that's what our enemies know from they know they can strike us when we're alen it's on us it's on us if we want the to fall like the M it's on us not one day a year but to go deeper not like the brothers in ysf who the curtain came down and it was very superficial the day was over they got along they learned a little something they nashed a bit and they moved on let's take it deeper this year let's do more together than we ever have before let's practice a greater AB Isel let's Dem demate to all the people whose lives we're trying to change that we're changing ourselves to be different in amiram this Friday we won't be fasting in London and bokeh but we'll be together in y thank you so much [Applause]