Samuel Levy Testimony September 2024

hi my name is Shmo Levi uh I was originally born in France from Israeli Moroccan parents and uh I moved about 15 years ago to um to the United States where I live and I'm married with two children I grew up initially what we call traditional uh so it's a little bit different from uh what people know in the United States uh traditional Moroccan Jew in France which means that uh we knew about mitb we knew about the necessity and not the necessity just obligation to perform mitv but we mostly perform mitv halfway so for example uh when we do Shabbat we did K we went to sh but we would drive to sh uh as far as koser is concerned we we hate essentially half kosher which doesn't make any sense but what that means is we didn't eat meat outside but we ate fish uh and this was in part due to a lack of knowledge of the laws of Kut and also the laws of Shabbat but also a um a willingness to not be fully sh mitv and Sh Shabbat and we essentially grew up knowing what we were doing uh but we just accepted it uh so when we went to show we went to a fully Orthodox show and we knew about the obligations and uh uh the positive Commandments and the negative Commandments but we just choose to leave choose to live our Our Lives a certain way so growing up in my head I always knew this was uh obviously hypocritical as far as T is concerned and I always thought in my mind one day I I have to get it right I cannot just live my life like this this this this would be this wouldn't be right and years went by I moved to America uh I became even less religious as I moved to America and then eventually it hit me when I hit rock bottom as far as the observance of mitv concerned uh one day it just uh hit me and I felt just a kind of a tremendous drive to to go back towards religion and when I got married is really when I uh when Hashem gave me a wife and Sh which was very hard to find initially but uh when I when I did uh what happened is I went to the cotel I was single for many years and I prayed prayed give me a wife and two weeks later I met my wife in synagogue on Shabbat and we were married 3 months after we met so that was my first uh miracle that I witnessed and there was many more later on um and when this happened I decided to become more sh Shabbat I decided to become shv and I really uh put myself into this uh uh put this into my mind that this is what I wanted to do and I was successful in many many ways and there was a lot of challenges along the way but this is really when I discovered and and his teachings and his shim online and um initially I was perplexed because I had never heard a rabbi especially an english- speaking Rabbi talk with such honesty and such a direct way but I quickly fell in love with um his his teachings and the Jewish ashfa the I mean the the the marital laws the weekly parasha study uh uh some some uh I mean really every every uh every series that he's had has been you know has they've all been quite incredible also the movies were quite incredible I I I started by watching his first movie how Hashem took back his millions and this really had a profound effect on me and so over the years I've you know uh studying uh through R Rabbi ruen and watching is shim is really what it's done to me is it really brought a lot of clarity in my mind uh in as far as the the importance of mitv the gravity of not observing certain mitv the reward of observing others and just generally speaking a deeper understanding of of Judaism I think I think what RAV ruven does so well is he really he creates real Jews I mean he doesn't create them but he he brings them to judism and he brings them to Torah and he has such a love incredible love for Torah and and mitvah that it's it's uh it's contagious and you cannot uh as you as as you watch and as you get involved you cannot help but uh but acquire the same uh first of all the fear of heaven but then once you have a certain level of that you understand the importance and the gravity of of of your actions and even your speech and and and and and how you live your life and you start applying mitv every day in your life as ra teaches then that also develops into love love forem a love for the Torah and you really fall in love with it and it's just and and it's just beautiful before before I was B going through one single page of was basically torture for me because I had such a huge Kiper that it was too much you know I was I would open which is tracked and it would take me over an hour just to you know just to read maybe half a page it very difficult uh nowadays it's almost an addiction uh to the the sense that if I don't study for more than three or three days in a row I just I don't feel good I can't sleep uh I I don't function properly it's uh I don't feel right so um so I try to study every day most of the time I'm successful sometimes with work and family I'm not able to for a few a couple days in a row but I but I usually I'm not too late to catch up and thank God this has been Thanks to ravu uh really the the level of imuna that I've acquired thanks to his teaching and understanding of AEM um because really what the Torah teaches you it's not just it's not just worshiping AEM blindly it's it's knowing Hashem it's understanding Hashem and he's and and how he runs the world and of course you cannot grab a full understanding that's beyond our capacity as human being but there is so much uh that you can already achieve uh uh and one life is not enough to achieve everything that you can achieve so understanding Hashem and knowing hasem has really brought a lot of clarity into my life and it's also helped me to literally witness incredible Miracles uh there has been so many times in my uh in my professional life where I had problems for example I would lose a big client I would lose maybe one more than one big client and I would tell my wife if we don't I don't know how we're going to do if we don't have uh nothing happens then we're not going to be able to essentially pay the bills and every time that this happens every time that I have a uh a challenge in my Prof that I had a profession challenge in my professional life every single time hasem made a miracle meaning if I lost a client literally the moment that I needed that money to come back a would just bring me in a new client just send me a new client all I had to do is just do my job and uh and and uh and hasem would just basically take care of the rest uh a few times I had challenge es with um uh other challenges at work uh where literally Hashem saved the day essentially save the day I had times where I had uh difficulties and I would pray and I would ask for hashem's help and Hashem gave me help it was just uh and this happened not to go into too much into the details but uh you know moments where you essentially need a miracle you need something to happen you pray very hard and you and you and you observe and you give to D and really this uh this uh the the miracle happen same in my in my in my life with my wife and the schom issues that we've had in the past there were times that were very very challenging and through prayer and Saka and study uh you realize that really Hashem is is in charge of everything and uh and all you have to do is is observe the mitv and try to and and it's ESS very important to give T and to participate to to the to the study of Torah by helping by helping poor people uh to to uh you know to live a decent life uh it's really a it's not easy at the beginning necessarily to give M which means 10% of your income but once you start doing it it really becomes a something that is a uh almost an honor I call it an honor because if Hashem gives you the money uh to make a living uh that mean he gives you you it's it gives you the ability to become a partner in his creation by giving back 10% which is a commandment even if you only make $100 a month you should still give at least $10 a month to Sedaka but if you make more most people obviously make much much more uh and the more you make the more you can give uh meaning the more uh the more you can affect positively affect other people other juice and so it's very important and what I love about Ren is you know before I I I knew about r I would give money it was never too difficult for me to to give Sak but I didn't really know where it was going I wasn't sure and you know it's it's important that the money that you give really goes towards the towards helping the Jews whether whether it's to study Torah so helping is helping or it is to Simply help families that have challenges that have problems um or that cannot put decent food on the table for Shabbat or for theim so with he's very what I love about a is they're very very clear on where the money is going there are various campaigns for various specific things you can sponsor shim you can helpim in Israel or also also possibly in the United States uh you can help families in need you can help families that were affected by the war and there are many many of them and there's nothing more beautiful and there nothing more amazing than helping other Jews uh and every time you help a Jew even if it's just uh putting a bottle of wine on their table because they can't afford a decent bottle of wine where they're going to do kou on that wine they're going to bless that wine and it's and you are part of that Mitzvah and it's it's such uh it's one of the most beautiful thing I would say and it's uh it's not simply beautiful it's an obligation and it's something that really everyone should should should get a should become a part of and so uh you should really be specific about calculating your M based on your income and uh and help all the Jews and if you can give more than M you can go all the way up to which is 20% of your income there's has amazing where he teaches the benefits of giving but also the the incredible benefits that you that you get from simply giving KES and even if you don't necessarily eat those benefits right away you will yield them later on in your life if not in the next world uh but simply the the the the beauty of Performing the Mitzvah is enough if you know that you're helping other people that's that's already plenty of uh plenty of of benefits so yes Ron has really helped me thanks to him I can go through many many pages of gar uh without struggling now I really love it it's almost like it's like drinking a a a beautiful beverage of of of sweetness you know it's just there's no way to express it uh whether it's studying or studying weekly parasha or or you know the of Shabbat or the various teachings of of throughout the throughout the years it's I think what does is it makes you into a real authentic Jew according to the Torah not some reinvention of the 20th century not some reinvention of the 21st century the Torah is 300 sorry 3,300 years old that's a long time and there's there's a lot of teachings uh as far as obviously the written Torah but also the oral Torah that we've acquired uh uh back then and and this is this is the law this is what if if you learn those those laws and if you understand them you will become authentic Jew uh you know and you will perform mvat the way hasem wants you to perform mvat and your life will be more beautiful than uh uh than all the money in the world essentially uh it's uh because once you understand Hashem once you know Hashem and and and you understand why things happen happen in the world why things happen in your life uh this is the biggest wealth that one can require and this is the kind of wealth that no money in the world can buy only the performance of Mitzvah and the study of Torah can buy you that uh that wisdom essentially and uh you don't have to wait late in your in your years to to acquire it you should acquire it as soon as you can and as soon as you as you you know which means uh immediately essentially and uh uh grow into Torah and the more Jews you know has has made thousands probably of of I've myself met people randomly in synagogues kids that told me that their lives was affected by his movies that their friends lives were positively affected and some of those kids are they're not like just secular kids some of them are already religious but they were able to correct and to grow into their performance of mitvah into the the fear of Heaven their love for their love for the Tor and and you know and really this is the army of asem this is the real army of hem it's the Jews that that go and perform the mitv and this is how we this is how we get through all of our troubles and so that's the one other thing that has taught me is to you know I used to obviously struggle like everybody else whenever I had challenges in life I used to waste time and waste money on the wrong uh on the wrong remedy now I know that the right remedy is study of Torah observant of mitv helping out the Jews uh and uh and that is the ultimate and only remedy it's and this is how am Israel gets through uh challenging times as individuals but also as a nation so I hope this helps everyone now it's elul which means R is in about less than 1 month it's a very important to uh time uh before the Judgment Day and the sealing of the judgment on it's a very important time to do to give extra additional if you haven't given M throughout the year perhaps it's a good time to catch up and um and to and to participate there are many many campaigns um whether it's the campaigns for tunit to help other Jews stop wasting seed or the campaigns for poor people or the campaign to help or sponsor or sponsor series or help build AET in Florida there are countless campaigns that are available and I really invite everyone and uh and uh ask that everyone participate for their sake and for the sake of is and obviously the sake of the world this message finds you doing well and preparing for the big holidays of and if you've learned to with us over the past decade you've also learned that we hate lies empty promises and any statement without a source so this year we ask dozens of our donors to tell you themselves what they've received as a result of partnering with us and having us pray for them during this time of the year in the conclusion you'll see our donors receive Miracles cured from cancer having a child after 10 years of marriage without kids financial success and protection and impossible situations finding a z special Satay in Torah learning and countless other the Miracles that you could read and watch these special tell you themselves after a decade of nearly 14,000 feeding hundreds of thousands of poor Jews widows and orphans in Isel Distributing nearly a quar million books and 2 million USBS CDs and posters for free setting up multiple colos Hashem has decided to continuously accept our prayers and blessings to help our donors get Miracles and this R and yum Kip we want even more of you to get your personalized blessings and miracles by donating generously and becoming our partner you'll have the opportunity to help us feed 10,000 poor Jews this holiday be a partner in nearly a thousand aim learning the entire sh in a single day and even get a special blessing with your name in one of our new books coming out this year our donors receive unbelievable Miracles join us by donating and getting others to donate and be you too will receive and be part of the next Miracle story