Rav Shlomo Katz and Rabbi Sam Shor - Opening remarks - Torah Efrat

Okay, [Music] thank you everyone for coming. Thank you so much for coming to our second annual Torah Ephraat in conjunction with the OU here in in Shirid and Ar. I want to extend a welcome and an invitation to those that haven't yet had had Shabas with us or spend any time with us. The doors are always open, the hearts are always open and we should have many good times together for us and all of Israel. I also just want to mention it's um the the the wonderful teachers the rabbim and the teachers we're privileged to learn with today is um it's a very very big and it's a humbling from the side of being here in Davidid of working together with our dear from the U and I want to thank them for working so hard on all that they do specifically this evening as well and to everyone also a good big yes to all the from the for helping to put everything together and I also just bring mak to it's a very big for me to have Rabbi Le here in the shul for the first time Rabbi Le has been my wife's family's RV for probably over 30 35 years in in mat so it's a tremendous we have infinite and wishing blessings to the family for many more years in good health baser hashem something very quick just very quick before we we dive into things. Sometimes you hear as much as you could be into those votes, but sometimes you hear a vort and you say, "Yeah, they kind of took it a little bit too far this time. This is a little bit too much. What am I referring to?" Everyone knows that it brought another I think the is suitable for a person to be the that we in right now is to be that it's suitable for a person it's right for a person to really be concerned and hurting hurting over the period that we're in right now. And then I saw in a safer I just got recently by the Tna Rebi Rabbid of Tala. This is comes from the tradition of Chernobyl from the Morbavid of Ta was a very big sadic. the firstb. And it says there that people that would spend time in his court during this period of time would walk out saying it's a little bit exaggerating. You know whoever was never privileged to be in tala during the time of the nine days they never saw sa in their life like the lion that the garra uses regarding the mission uses regarding what kind of a sim what what what are we talking about so I want to say on a pim level and this is what in the I saw they were trying to make a point how is a person if we know what we know from that led to and we're trying to do a tick by the of that is a way that we are we are making sure that our we're on top of our game. What's the avod right now? The avod that we're in right now that are involved in these days is exactly what we're seeing in front of us right now. Yidden from all over it's Israel coming together getting together to open our hearts in Torah and to hopefully build a bignyan together of aur and therefore and when that happens when happens there is a vision of a bis there is there is some level of just by being together and opening our hearts to words of Torah and the simka could be an inner thing it doesn't mean dancing and singing. It means that inside I know that this is the way that I'm by taking my time to open my hearts, my heart and my soul for so I want to give us all a should be the last time that we ever have to be because there should be and until that moment happens coming together being together fills our heart with the inner sim inside that this is how we're spending our time. This is what we're doing during this and not just sitting in isolation but coming out and being together. On that note, I'd like to introduce one of my dearest someone that's been we've been we've been partners in crime for for Kimat more or less like I think 25 26 years already. Um, I want to open up with inviting my dear Kab Rabbi Sam Shaw who's the director of Torah initiatives of OU Israel to come and and and share some words. Thank you all for being with us Rabanai. First of all, on behalf of Israel, I want to thank first I want to welcome you all here and I want to thank our our dear hosts in here in Kat and Ephrat as mentioned he and I go back a very long time and it's a great and it's a for me to be here and see everything that you've built here together with your beautiful here in Ephra. So, thank you for opening opening your doors once again. I want to also thank especially our incredible U Israel team, my incredible UO colleagues who put their heart and soul into everything we they do for KL and it's a great skill to work with every single one of you. I also want to thank especially thank our dear friends the fund family for the past number of years Mishbak Fund has partnered with us in dedicating and enabling these incredible community summits to happen where literally hundreds of people are gathering in communities across Israel throughout the year to come together be inspired and learn Torah and it's a great to be able to dedicate these programs every single time and we run one of these in memory of your beloved parents, Mr. David and Norma. So, thank you to Mishb. I also want to just mention that our theme for this evening is every year that we do this, you know, Shom and I, we go back and forth with ideas for for the theme. So, kadash kadash, we are not the same people we were two years ago. Not as a not as a community, not as a seabore and not as individuals. So much has changed. The world has gone through so much. We as claws have gone through so much. We as individuals, our families have gone through so much. But we know that we're in a tufa the nine days leading up to tishab and we know our khazal teach us the garton the famous garon we all know are familiar with that the city of was destroyed because of the story the situation of Kama Ubaramsa a a a horrendous story where Baramsa was humiliated in public he begged the host of the party to please let him pay his way. Let me pay for the entire party. But still the host insisted on having him ejected from the party. He's humiliated but Barabim and most most tragic we're told that theim were there at the party together and that they stood by and said nothing. My friends, for many many decades, we we, you know, we experienced sadly a reality of sitting by and doing nothing. We'd see we'd see our friends, we'd see our our our brothers and sisters going through whatever nionos they're going through in their lives, whatever challenges and pain they're facing their lives. And for far too many of us, we sat on our hands. We sat sat in the side of the room and said nothing. But now I'm kadash kadash. The world has changed. We have changed as a people. We have changed as individuals. We're no longer going to be sitting on our hands. We no longer have the luxury to sit on our hands. The world needs us to come together to show our our love and support for every single member of Kalisel. The world needs to be who we're meant to truly be. So my brah for us as we prepare for tishab looking at the tishab of course we recall everything we've lost we also have to think about and acknowledge we are not the same people we are not the same nation we are not the same as individuals and we have to take that to heart and we have to be there for one another to introduce our keynote speaker RV Rosvita of course is the distin Distinguished Rav of Moshab Matahu and founding Rashiva of Yeshiva Gdullah. He is one of the most beloved Torah educators in the English speaking world today. His writings are literally read by thousands of talidum across the world. I have the every week to receive Rabbi Le's notes on his various sharim that he kindly emails to me every single week. And Rev's keynote address this evening. M a Yamto how can we change the nature of tishaba is dedicated by our dear friends Vivian and Dr. David Lukans in loving memory of Vivian's mother Otoi Alam on her yard site this evening is an incredible to introduce Moreno Arav Zevle