Sunday Morning Keynote- Rav Gav & Charlie Convention 2023

Everybody give it up for Yossi Friedman. This morning's program is dedicated by Adele Sara Hornig and family in memory of her uncle L'ilui Nishmat Zalman ben Aaron Dov Ber Schiff, zichron tzaddik livracha. Adele Hornig was a is a early partner of Project Inspire, very involved, very inspired, continues to inspire others and is an inspiration to all of us. The background story on Yossi's very kind introduction of my development etc. is is this. I started to work for Project Rav Noach Weinberg in 2005 as the executive liaison for the Aish branches and that quickly morphed into Project Inspire, baruch Hashem. And a couple of years into the Project Inspire effort, I was doing programming, kiruv training seminars and all of that. We sat down and said, "You know, we have to raise money." Four or five of us. Oh, I don't know what was wrong with me. I raised my hand and said, "I guess I have more experience than than the other guys around the table. I'll take it on." Boy, my wife still wants to kill me. So, I I have the title executive liaison. Do you know how many titles there are for people who raise money that don't say fundraising in the title? There's development. There's institutional advancement. Now, I was executive liaison. But, we learned from Rav Noach that it's a skhus to raise money for any good Torah cause, certainly that of bringing back the Jewish people. And anytime me, you, any of our partners ask someone else to help fuel fuel the jet of Project inspires outreach and special mission. It's a scuss. It's a merit. Someone wants to have that merit and join with us, then they'll have it. Then they're entitled. And if not, then it's not on us. We have to do what we can do. We do our hishtadlus. We do the best we can. So, on that note, if you made a pledge yesterday, today, please redeem it at the pledge redemption table or after the convention. And if you haven't yet made one, please feel free to be part of the team on participation and and fundraising. There's a mission Pirkei Avos that says that anybody's who whose maasim exceed their chochma, then chochmaso miskayemes. Then their wisdom will endure. And Rav Gedaliah asks, how could it be possible that someone's actions and mitzvos can exceed their knowledge? You can't practice what that what you don't know. But the answer is then one of the shonim says, "Naaseh v'nishmah." How is naaseh v'nishmah the answer? When we said naaseh v'nishmah, we committed ourselves to the entire Torah, all the mitzvos, all the halachos, all the Mishnah Berurahs, everything that was to come, thousands of years hence, even though we didn't know what it was. And with that scuss, we have a certain merit of being able to have the entire Torah credited to us. The speakers you're going to hear this morning and Project Inspire have helped many people, less connected and more connected, have a naaseh v'nishmah moment which they recognize that they have to take it all on. We're all part of this mission. Kabbalas haTorah. It's Hashem's wisdom. I accept everything. I not know everything or understand everything, but I'm in. But it's people like Reb Gav Friedman whose wisdom whose humor whose ability to connect whose uncanny way of parodying ourselves, and we see ourselves in his in in his descriptions help us recognize who we are where where we have to go. It's my pleasure to introduce to teach love them no matter what a Rav Gav Friedman. Okay, good morning everyone. Thanks. Shabbat shalom to all of us. Good morning everyone. Thank you so much. So I don't I don't know how to start this. You know, I I always feel like I was I was telling uh highly good steward Hibon just before, if we were to were to go ahead and just take the first uh couple of seconds from every speech that everyone gives at the closing, it's always like, "Wow! Amazing. Inspiring. What a weekend. We've ate so much. We've learned so much. We've learned how to eat so much. And we've ate how to learn so much. I wanted to talk a little bit about the best way to do kiruv. Most effective way, and I saw that I see this in Eretz Yisrael, it's beautiful. You stand by Elon Cholov Yisrael in Eretz Yisrael. And people that dedicate themselves to stand there on Shabbos yelling out, "Shabbos!" They have rocks set aside before Shabbos. Make sure, depending on the car, that's how big the rock will be. And it's just amazing how effective that's been. That's one There's another method I want to share with you. You have no idea how hard this is for me. Every time Michael comes next to me, I feel like I have to turn and look at him. Have some fun. I'm going to fight it. I'm fighting it. I just lost. I want to give a big shout out to the camera man. No one ever sees them. Mikey baby. All right. On that note, let's talk about people that we are meant to hate. Let's talk about people we're meant to hate. So, the Gamara discusses this. There are certain people that uh you know we're just to love everyone, right? Just to love everyone. But that goes against what you thought. It's just just a hate the guy. What do you mean find something which is good about him? What's going on over here? And there is a Gamara that discusses that there are certain people we're supposed to hate. This is this it's it is a reality. I in sham. Where is the sham? Kuf Yud Gimel Mem Bet Psachim. But that's not what I want to talk about really. I want to talk about the concept of a Russia, of a person who's a wicked person. And it's easy to love people that are not like that. Somebody who's not like that, it's easy to love. And and it it's it's it's interesting when people say a line along the following lines. They say, "I get along with most people. You know, I I like most people. There's just some people that I don't like." Now, have you heard such a line before from people? You've heard that? I get along with most people. There's certain people I don't like. I'm going to suggest something. I'm going to suggest that that means that you don't really get along with anyone other than yourself. Because if you break it down, who are the people that we really get along with? And who are the people that we don't get along with? I get along with everyone. There's just a few people I don't get along with. Well, well, why don't you get along with those people and you do get along with the other people? And essentially I think that we'll find that the people that I don't get along with as much are those people that don't really think like I think. They're not aligned with me. And even if even if some person's not the same as me, but at least, you know, we're on the same page. Not the same, but we're on the same page. And I can get along with that person. That means to say that we're getting along with ourselves. So I'd like I'd like to extend ourselves just a little bit. I'd like to extend ourselves to where we can actually get along with other people and and there's always you have to know we have we just have to back ourselves up a little bit. You have some people that get up and give a nice speech and it's nice beautiful and it's a beautiful stories, but maybe it's against khazal, right? So that uh So so we'll get we'll get to the theoretica stuff. Don't worry. We'll we'll back it up. Blin neder. But at least let's understand this concept. Who do we try to help? Who do we go out of our way? Well, we know that the Torah teaches there's certain people like to stay away from them. You know, just just just just don't just leave them alone. You see what I'm saying? Even hate them and and go against them and whatever it's whatever we want to say over there. Are they really going to change anyway? I mean, there's certain people the way that they behave like what's the chance of them actually turning around? There's people there's hope. You look at them there's hope we could change them. There are other people like what's the chances? I want to I want to repeat a story. I think I I also I'm definitely repeating it. I just don't remember where I said it. But I do know that he himself said the story I think in this very room a couple years ago. This is a a student of mine. I probably say his name because uh because he said his name. Now, I have to ask mechila because if anyone was at my talk yesterday and I spoke about how students come in with one name and they change it to a whole 'nother name. You guys remember you know what I'm talking about? If you don't know what I'm talking about, thank you for coming. But uh for those who who came, you know, it's between us. You know what I'm saying? You guys missed it, you know? The boy's name is Elliot. What's his Hebrew name? Anyway, so Elliot comes to uh comes to Aish Torah a couple years ago. More than a couple years ago. I remember when he came in. There are certain people that you don't forget when they came in. Usually, it's an outward appearance thing. Elliot, it was very clear. He walked in the room, tattoos. I don't know if it's called sleeves on your legs. I'm not sure how it works. Maybe it's called pants. Leggings. Okay. He had legging tattoos. And uh is that really what it's called? I think you're just talking about pants. But anyway, yoga. Point is he had tattoos on his arms and on his legs and the whole thing. Comes in, he had ear piercings and and the whole spiel. I I remember I remember this so clearly. It was it was in in the Aish building. It was on the second floor on the room on the right. I think it's called Rickless, the Rickless, I think. I always get confused. I've only been there for 17 years. So, it's it's like on the right side. And he came in and he sat down and I looked at this guy right away. I was like, "I this is not the guy I want to meet in a in a back alley." Or anywhere. But, uh it worked out then. And slowly but surely, he spoke here a couple years back. He uh he baruch Hashem, I think he's living in Borough Park now. And uh now he has tattoos on his face also. Uh that's not true. I think he got them removed. He went through the whole process, the whole thing. And he spoke about the following idea. He was living in a in a a shtetl. Like I'm talking about like I don't know. There's a very far away land called Brooklyn. And when he was living in Brooklyn, he's living in a place which those who live in Brooklyn, he's in the in the heart of everything. And what happened? When he became religious, he went back to visit. He couldn't go to his home because he had visitors. He could visit family, but he couldn't stay there cuz they weren't religious, the food wasn't whatever. But there was a Yeshiva on the block where he went. So he went to the Yeshiva and he went and he says, "Is it possible that I could that I could learn here and maybe maybe get some food? Is that okay? You know, when I'm here I I and he says to him, "What's your story? What you did?" He says, "No, I came back from Yeshiva and you know, I had I just I don't this is I don't really have a place I could ever." He said, "Do you do you need to sleep?" I said, "No, I have a place to sleep. Just if you don't mind that I learn have a little for the bachur." No problem. You know, bakasha. But he's looking at the guy he's like, "I don't know tell you, you really look familiar. Have we met before?" And he said, "No." He said, "Where are you from?" He said, "Brooklyn." So he said, "By the way, I'm still here. I know some of you are confused. But I'm still I'm still here. This is like the age of technology, you know, so something goes down. Did he die? He's not on the screen. So ladies, I'm still here also, you know, I didn't So in any event, he goes, "Yeah, I grew up in Brooklyn." He goes, "Brooklyn?" He goes, "Yeah." "Where?" He goes, "Well, you know, on this block." He goes, "You grew up on this block?" He goes, he he goes looks at him he's like, "Did you used to have a mohawk?" And he said, "Yeah." "Green mohawk?" He goes, "You're Jewish?" He goes, "Yeah." He goes, "I had no idea. I remember seeing you and I was very scared of you. But I never thought even thought that you're anything. And even if I would have known you're Jewish, I was very scared of you. Let me give you a hug." And he goes he gives him a hug. And he's like, "I had I had no I had no idea, but even if I would have to be honest, I don't know if I would have you know, if I would have approached you. Cuz what are the chances of a guy who looks like that that he's interested at all? The chances are one in one. So he's living a religious life in Borough Park now. Because somebody did reach out to him. Somebody eventually did help him. It did show him the way. And all of a sudden he's a totally religious dude. You look at a person, yeah, but the guy's a Russia, the guy's off, what are the chances he's negative, he's bad, he's against. I live in I live in French Hill. If I had Sarafite in in Yerushalayim. Those who are not familiar, there was also an event that happened here a couple years ago. There was a panel. And I'm not going to say who it was although I want to. But on the panel, person sitting next to me, I was giving an idea about Kiruv and about the influences and whatever. So the guy who lives not in Yerushalayim turns to me and says, "Easy for you to say living in your little bubble in Yerushalayim with all your religious folk." And I was like, "Have you heard of French Hill?" Now most people when I ask them, they say, "Where do you live?" I say, "French Hill." They go, "Oh, that's like by That's the German Colony?" I said, "Yeah, yeah, French Hill is the German Colony. 100%." I said, "No, it's it's it's not the German Colony." "Oh, Ramat Eshkol?" I'm like, "Yes, French Hill is the German Colony and Ramat Eshkol." They said, "No, no, it's not Ramat Eshkol." "Oh, but it's right next door." I said, "Well, I mean, it's it's closer than here, you know? You have Ramat Eshkol, then you got to take Paran and chill, have some nice coffee, some whatever. And then you got to hit Giv'at Hamivtar and then you got to go through Giv'at Hamivtar then you have to cross over a highway and then once you cross over the highway then you have to enter French Hill." "Oh, so you live like right in the beginning?" I said, "Well, I live you have to walk 17 minutes into you get there. I live in a Now it's changing but where I still still where is a predominantly secular neighborhood. Jews, Arabs, Christian Arabs, couple religious Jews and that was literally couple, me and my neighbor the Elbazes, that's about it. That I am living in a predominantly secular neighborhood. And when I was walking when I was moving into the neighborhood, I was looking for a place. Nobody wanted me. Rabbi Weiss mentioned the book on Friday night. I felt like that book, like Are You My Mother? Are You My Mother? And then I knocked on the door and there was a scary snort. Only the mothers know that one and one father. The rest of you never read a book to your kid. In any event, so so I'm walking by, nobody wants me. People are spitting at me, people are yelling at me, like what are you doing here? We ran away from you in Ramada School. Stop following us. I was like, they're following us? You know, like, who? Back a life. So, eventually I get to the block where I'm going to buy my place. And I and I'm walking down the block and I see some woman there. I'm like, do you know anyone who wants to sell something? And she says, oh yeah, this house right over here. She's living on the block. She says, right over there. And then you saw the fear in her eyes. Like, wait a minute. You're not going to move in here and then tell me like I have to start keeping Shabbat, are you? I said, come on. Not at first. You got to give it some time, you know, get to know each other. You know, then come for a Shabbos meal. Those scary words, you know. Truth is I left her alone. But but point is, people are scared, they're anti, they're against. How could you impact them? So I want to share with you a story and I want to tell you the name, but he actually asked me not to tell you the name, so I'm not going to tell you the name. You know him probably. I called him up and I said, Charlie, and the guy said, that's not my name. Cuz it wasn't. Anyway, so I called a friend of mine. I said, give me your story. I'm talking about something. He's said, "What are you talking about?" I'm like, "This is got you." He says he's living maybe I could drop some hints. He lives in Rehavia. Maybe Sha'arei Chesed. I don't know the difference. It's like French Hill. And uh he said to him when he moved into this block, there was one guy who was like an an Alter Rehavianik. Totally anti the whole religious takeover. Just let go and let Haredi. Come on, you know? But he's against it, fighting it. And he would come in in his shiny BMW. And the guy would when he got to the block like like a rip it and come through, go into his house, go up, and that was it. And then people when they're singing on Shabbos, there's one family and their windows are open and they're singing Shir Hashirim Shabbos so nice and beautiful, the guy knocks on the door. He's like, "Who do you think you are coming to my neighborhood and you're going and singing and whatever? Shut your windows. Enough of this Jewish stuff." So my friend, we'll call him Charlie, says he says to himself like, "Okay, like let's just stay away from this guy. You know, he's clearly unhappy, clearly anti-Rishon L'Tzion." Stay away from the guy. Comes Purim time and as they're setting up the Mishloach Manot they're going to go and give out, as we say in Yeshivas Ashkenaz, a Shalach Manos. As they're getting Shalach Manos ready, Charlie's wife says it's going to be too awkward. Not Charlie, but Polonius' wife says, "Maybe maybe we should give to to BMW guy." And Polonius like, "I don't know, BMW guy doesn't seem like he's so interested. I don't know if we should give BMW." "Yeah, no no, but this is what it's all about. That's a Purim mitzvah, you know? We go ahead and we give we give to other people. Maybe we should give." So he's like, "Okay, so we'll do it." So he prepares they get him a Shalach Manos. They obviously they get like the nice one with the the bottle of wine like like expensive like Kedem, you know? It's just oh, it's expensive by the way. And then you go ahead. 11% New York State get them red thingamajig. It's for you. He goes ahead he brings it over. He brings the kid for protection wearing a costume. He goes and he's he's like, "Okay." Puts the kid in front. He's like, "Okay, ready?" Knock. Knock. He's like, "Okay, you know? Okay, he didn't answer. Let's go." You know, we tried. We really tried. What do you want? I tried. We wanted to show them I tried. And he's about literally about to walk away. He's like, "I can't I can't do it." So, he stays there. They knock again. He pushes the kid. Knocks again. No answer. So, he leaves the mishloach manos there with a little note that says, "Hello, I'm your neighbor down the block, this house. Here's my name. Here's my address. Purim sameach." The guy a couple days later as they're walking down the street, the BMW gets on the block. It's like ripping by them. And suddenly the tires screech and stop. So, he grabs his kid, puts the kid in front. And he was like, "Uh-oh." The guy slowly backs up. He says, "Are you the ones that left that package at my front door?" It was my kid. I tried to tell it was my I I said, "How dare you?" So, he goes "No one's ever done that for me. Just want to say thank you so much." Oh, okay. They started to develop a relationship. They started studying together a little. The guy what ended up happening we're waiting, right? He became Rav Elyashiv. All right, so what happened? The guy eventually calls up and he says, "Listen, I just want to let you guys know that I'm moving. I'm moving. I want to say goodbye and thank you for all your help." And the guy moved away. What happened to the guy? I don't know what happened. Sorry to destroy the story for you. But Polonie called up his mother-in-law. His mother-in-law's living somewhere in America. Where is he? And calls up and says the story. So, she goes, "You know what? I have a neighbor that's really a nasty, like really just negative. This neighbor does not like the fact that so many Jews are moving in, religious Jews. She's Jewish, but you know, the best anti-Semites are Jews. She's so anti. She's like fighting all thing. And when kids would play ball and the ball landed in her in her yard, instead of like throwing it back, she called the police. Assault, officer. I didn't know what to do with this lady. But because Polonie told his mother-in-law the story, he says, "You know what? Maybe I'll do that." So, she prepares some mishloach manos. She took one of her grandchildren, put her in front of her. It's a minhag, minhag of the family. And goes and gives him the mishloach manos. And the woman melts. She says the same line. Thank you so much. It's so special. I so appreciate that. Started learning together, started selling together. She started taking on Torah observance. And unfortunately, she eventually well, like most eventually, she was nifteres. And this this mother this mother-in-law at the funeral about this woman, how she turned her whole life around from a Mishloach Manot because the fact that somebody cares to go ahead and give some food. I've heard a lot of stories over Shabbos. The moral of the story is just eat and give others to eat as well. That should be the slogan next eat and give others to eat. Some guy like You know, that would be a great a great thing. But understand the fact that you know, sometimes how am I going to help them and and they're so far, they're not interested. They're really not interested. The answer is you have no idea if they're interested or not interested. And like I said, we get along with most people, but some people I don't get along with. Who are the people I don't get along with? We get We don't get along with the people that aren't like us. But what about if we were to stop for a second and think is there anything that we're negative about? Is there anything that we that we don't like that we display as a certain feeling of negativity? But if you were to come talk to me about it and have a discussion about it, then I'd be open to having a conversation if it's done properly, if it's done with real respect and with love. So that person is the same as us. So why don't we love them also? What do you mean? You're supposed to It's a Russia. You stay away. Stay away from these things, the mission says. So I want to read to you a Gemara. This Gemara was mind-blowing. The commentary of the Gemara was mind-blowing. I The Gemara itself I've heard before. But the Gemara says something so so wild. I'm going to read to you the Gemara itself. Got to find it. Touchdown. Here you are. The Gemara is found in Erchin daf tes zayin amud beis. Says the Gemara, "Tanya I don't want to extend it too long. Tanya The bris says, Omar Rebbi Tarfon, "Tomeya ani im yesh b'dor hazeh she mekabel tochacha. I I would be shocked if there's anyone who's in this generation alive today that can receive rebuke. That knows how to take it. Someone goes and says, "You're doing the wrong thing." And they can actually receive that and say, "Thank you for saying that with me. I'm going to work on myself." I wonder if there's someone who knows how to do it. Cuz what happens? Im amar lo tol kisa mi bene enecho, if someone says to his friend, "You should take the splinter from from between your eyes." Which means someone did something which is a small deal. It's a small little piece of wood. You you know, you should really remove that. You should stop doing the wrong thing. Amar lo tol kelura mi bene enecho, "You should remove the beam from between your eyes." You know, it's you stop doing big things. You know, it's like we get defensive. Someone goes and says, "You're really a bad driver." You say, "I'm a bad driver? You're a bad driver." The guy's like, "I don't drive." But it doesn't matter. We have an immediate response. Like, "You're not going to give me mussar. You're not going to give me tochacha. You're not going to rebuke me. You're not going to tell me off." People can't handle it. That was Rebbi Tarfon. Amar Rebbi Elazar ben Azarya, Rebbi Elazar ben Azarya responded, "Tomeya ani im yesh b'dor hazeh she yodea lochiach. I wonder if there's anyone in this generation that knows how to give rebuke. You're you're shocked about the fact I wonder if anyone knows anyone who knows how to take it. No one knows how to accept the fact when they're told off they're doing the wrong thing. Well, instead of saying there aren't people that know how to to take it, maybe no one knows how to give it. And if someone knew how to give it properly, then perhaps what would happen? Maybe people would accept it. And that the Rambam talks about how do you give rebuke? How do you give tochacha? It's got to be done in a way is gentle and quiet on the side without them getting so defensive. And then you can include yourself, I also do you and the thing and the who and the what and in a way where it's gentle. Very hard. Now what happened because of this? And this over here, I want to share with you such a beautiful line. If you look on the bottom in the ArtScroll Gemara on note 18 on that daf it says a most phenomenal thing. At the end of the work Avos Chesed the Chofetz Chaim includes a small pamphlet called Marganisa Tava by Reb Yonasan Wolbe who who who who who who has in there ethical practices that the author penned for himself. Number 17 reads the following. It's forbidden to hate even a thoroughly wicked person as long as he has not been a rebuked. It's assur. You're not allowed to hate even a rasha gamor if he didn't get tochacha. Because we have to allow for the possibility that if he would have been rebuked, he would have listened. So nowadays, based off this Gemara since there's no one who knows how to give tochacha it's assur to hate anyone. Do you understand the lashon? Now if you have a Chazon Ish neck, it gets even better. Chazon Ish writes in Hilchos Shechita he brings down this idea and he says, "Therefore, it's a mitzvah nowadays to love even a rasha because he's lacking tochacha you have to look at him as an ones. It's a person didn't it's it's against it's beyond his ability. He didn't know. I I don't know to you, this to me was one of the most phenomenal lines that I ever ever seen. You're telling me that not only am I not allowed to hate them, but it's a mitzvah for me to love a rasha? Because how dare you call them a rasha? It's only a rasha if they didn't accept a tochacha, that the chinuch brings down, right? The chinuch writes, when when you can you how can you go and hate someone So first he says, go ahead, if you are mochiach them and they heard it and they get it and they do it anyway, so then you're allowed to hate them. But over here we're seeing the Chazonish is saying based off the gemara that someone who is a rasha comes to tell us that the person doesn't even know how to do it. Since you don't know how to do it, therefore they still remain an honest person. They did not accept your rebuke. You don't know how to do it. Therefore you have to love them. And what happens if you do love them? What's going to happen if you love the rasha? What occurs? If you treat them with dignity and respect, it doesn't mean you can say what you're doing is okay and fine and right and good, but it means that you can share care and love. And how does it impact someone? There's a story about Rav Aryeh Levin. Rav Aryeh Levin was walking in the streets of Yerushalayim, and there's a few different stories about this. Rav Aryeh Levin says, he sees that there's a yid there and the guy's smoking a cigarette on Shabbos. He comes over to Rav Aryeh Levin, you know, "Hey, Rabbi, tell me, how do I get to the King David Hotel around here? I'm a little lost." So he starts to describe to him how you go, you got to go down there, make a left, a right. He goes, "You know what? It's a little confusing. I'm going to I'm going to walk with you." And he walks with him to the hotel. And when he gets to the hotel, Rav Aryeh Levin turns to him and says, "Well, have a good Shabbos." Or probably said Shabbat Shalom or whatever it was. And the guy said, "Rabbi, you stop one second, wait." He said, "I'm a cold, hard man. Like, I I I don't accept anything from anyone. People have been trying to change me for a long time. You didn't even say a word to me. You just accepted the fact that this is what I'm doing. And you even go out of your way to walk with me." The guy put the cigarette down. He said, "Rabbi, I want you to know being mekabel myself, I'm going to keep Shabbos from now on." What did he say to him to be mekayev him? All he did was he showed him care. He showed him love. He gave him time. He didn't rebuke him and put it down and don't you know it's in the kermis and mish miskilah. If there would be witnesses, we'd get you drunk, throw you off a two-story building, and stone you. You get drunk then stoned? He didn't say that. All he said to him is, "Let me HELP YOU." SHABBOS! GET THE ROCKS. HE'S A RASHA. How do you know he's a rasha? Maybe if you speak to him, he'd be fine and happy to accept something. Did we take a moment to think about that? Reb Majeski was just here. I don't know if anyone knows him. You should. Highly gayed. And uh he shared with me the following vort. Said by Amalek. Who did Amalek come and attack? That we now say we have to destroy Amalek, get rid of Amalek. You got to wipe them off the face of the planet. We're talking about a coming to Purim. Right? We have to go and timche Amalek zecher zecher zecher zecher zecher zecher. Like 12 different readings. You have to go ahead and get rid of Amalek. We become more and more from zecher zecher er. Zech er sh mm. It's a silent shin. We got to get rid of it and destroy it and get rid of it annihilate and etc. I was in a shul and in the shul they they wanted to do a bunch of different readings. They wanted to do Ashkenaz and Sephardic and and Yemenite and they were going like down the list. And the rav of the shul who's a Sephardic Yid he went to go his turn to lein and when he stood up there it was silent. And he's looking at the Chumash. He's looking at the at the sefer Torah. Closing his eyes. I'm not exaggerating. 2 minutes go by. Total silence. After 2 minutes he read it but similar to the one that was right before. So afterwards I said, "Rabbi what were you thinking?" He said "I forgot the tune." He was trying to remember the tune. So we gathered the next thing and did it again. But the point is that get rid of Amalek, get rid of Amalek, get rid of Amalek. Why? Why should we get rid of Amalek? Well, come on. You saw the way that they behaved. They attacked Klal Yisrael. How in the world were they successful in attacking Klal Yisrael? Weren't the Jewish people protected? Weren't they in the Ananei Hakavod? How could you attack Klal Yisrael? They're they're they're the clouds of glory. YOU CAN'T EVEN TOUCH THIS. DA NA NA na na na na na na na na na na na So what are you talking about? And Victor who did they attack? Who is it? Kol Od Nechash Shalom. What what is Nechash Shalom says Rashi? We're going to see two things at once. Ready? They attacked the weak. Who are the weak? He says Rashi those that did aveiros. The resha'im of klal Yisrael that were kicked out of their inner circle and they're standing outside. And they were attacked. Ribono shel olam says of Majeski What's the problem? These are resha'im. SAYS THE RIBONO SHEL OLAM Don't you dare touch my resha'im. Destroy Amalek. You understand? It's a rasha. If they love the rasha. The Ribono shel olam says we have to destroy Amalek because he messed with the rasha. You understand who we're dealing with over here? This is klal Yisrael. It's a powerful thing. It's hard. It's challenging. It's difficult. And all the excuses everyone comes up with all the time. And the biggest ones are not going to want it. They're not going to listen. They're not interested. Give it a chance. We're coming up now to Purim. I'm sure there's a campaign coming up. This is an opportunity to be able to be involved with kiyumu asher kiblu k'var. Perhaps I could pull a homiletical move here. Which means I can say whatever I want on a phrase. What's kiyumu asher kiblu k'var? Be mekayem that which you were mekabell. What were we mekabell at Har Sinai? Am I my brother's keeper? We were mekabell at the din of Arvus. Kol Yisrael are even zeh bazeh. We're connected one to the next. We're connected. All of klal Yisrael is connected. We have We We We got your back. They got our back. We love each other. Perhaps we could say Purim it's time to be mekayem that which you were mekabell at Har Sinai k'var already. Get it done already. Be mekayem it. When? Purim. Leich knu Kol Yehudim. Go gather all of the Jews. We need them all. We need everyone over here. And this is the mitzvah that we go and we give to someone else. Mishloach Manos Ish L'Rei'ehu. Give it over. Where do you find that lashon? Ko Yisrael Areivim Zeh Ba'Zeh. We have the We are connected to one another. Let's give one to the next and open up and give the opportunity. Some of them are just waiting. They're just waiting for somebody. Give me a chance. Give me a chance. And you give a chance, you never know what's going to come from it. So, what I'm going to do right now is a quick recap of everything we did. End off with a with a Not the whole Shabbos, although Yeah, let's do the whole Shabbos. Not the panel. Let's do the panel. Let's do a quick review of everything we did. End up with one point. And then I have a flight. I'm heading there. Going to Going to the German Colony. So, we started off in the beginning in the beginning. What's the first effective way of keeping Shabbos? We'll take a rock and make the sign OF THE ROAD, SHABBOS, AND THROW IT AT THAT THING AND SAY, "OH MY GOODNESS, you're right." They stop the car. I love Hashem. Is that the first thing we think we have to be another way another way? People just want to be accepted. They want to feel something is going on over here. And really effectively we'd open up the opportunity for them. Maybe they would go and take the opportunity. We're shaim even rashaim. Even the guy with the mohawk with the tattoos and all things. He's not even involved altogether for sure. He's not even interested whatsoever. Let's say maybe he is interested. You have to give him a chance. Give him a hug. He wants it. He sees it. He's interested. We have to give him the opportunity to do such a thing. But then we get a little further. What are we talking about? How far are you going to go with this concept already? The answer is What do you mean? The Gemara tells us based comes and tells us a concept of erech. And in the bottom part of the Torah in the middle of the page over there, it says I'd BE I'D BE SHOCKED IF someone who's NOT ACCEPTED I'D BE SHOCKED IF THEY DON'T KNOW HOW TO GIVE IT. We don't know how to give it anymore. Comes like my cousin said to me note 17 in the back of the office discuss the concept of the concept of the ideal. And that is that is a good thing. A person would say, "Hey, we can't go and hate them because bottom line is that they don't they don't know. They said they even know what's going on. So, how can we go and hate them? So, it's a has an issue with my turn that therefore you have a gift to love them because they're considered an honest The person is honest, what do you want? You're honest with a person. Therefore, they're off the hook and they have to love the year. They just have to have to come over to the party of ideas as well. And you go ahead and what happens? You go and you think and Charlie comes along and he gives the thing to his neighbor and he always goes straight into the things and he said went into the bottom line goes out and all of a sudden maybe it didn't work for that guy, who knows what happened to that guy in the end of the day, but we know the bottom line comes out in New Jersey and all of a sudden it affects the woman in a way that SHE GOES DELIRIOUS. HOW? BECAUSE FIRST OF ALL, GIVE HIM A CHANCE. I get along with everyone that's like me. Well, maybe let's get along with even more people because we also have that little bit inside of us that we know that we have someone just given a little chance and maybe we change it a little bit differently. Understand the concept when we go out and we start to actually impact a person, love someone, give them a show them where it's going, just give them a directions to the thing. All of a sudden he got puts out a cigarette. All the impact that happens is not coming from the intellectual discussions and the back and the forth. It's just like does somebody care about me? Does somebody give me the time of day? If somebody gave me the time of day and actually cared about me and spent time with me, that would change everything. And sometimes you don't even have to give them the time of day, you just have to love them like crazy. And a person who goes ahead and loves them like crazy, it self will have an impact on them. And that's back to the Gamoran Kufid Gimel Aleph Bet. Top right corner tells us says the following idea. Although it's true that there's a concept that a person goes ahead and maybe there's a mitzvah to hate certain people, it's a bad idea to do it and it could be based off the possuk in Mishlei Kima'in Panim el Panim Kein Lev Adam el Adam. And I'm not going through the whole Gamora over there. I just wanted to brought the possuk over there. So, I could have just said the possuk itself. But the possuk comes and says, Kima'in Panim el Panim. I was told by somebody, I don't know if I should say his name this time also, that uh the way they get out tickets is they just love the police officer. That's it. Just love the police officer. I was like, this guy I don't know. I don't know what to say. I was driving to Ramat Beit Shemesh. Ramat Beit Shemesh is like Ranana. I'm saying. And I'm over in Ramat Beit Shemesh and I was driving within the law, legally. I wasn't doing anything which is illegal, but I was doing things that they don't like. I was driving what we call slalom. I don't know if anybody here skis. That's how I was driving, you know, like like that. I'm weaving in between. I signaled every time. I did I signal every time. I wear a seat belt. I always wear a seat belt. I was brainwashed from like my doctors when I was a kid, you know? So, how you feeling? Good. Wear a seat belt. Okay. So, I don't really eat so healthy, but I wear a seat belt. I wear a seat belt. I was signaling. I wasn't even speeding. I saw the cop. I did it around him, also. But, I saw him. I let him know. And the guy starts to pull me over. I'm on the phone with my wife. I'm like, I think I'm getting pulled over. I shouldn't have said that. So, I think I'm getting pulled over. My wife is like, "What? What's happening?" You know? I was like, "I'll call you back. I have this." And then I think of my friend who tells me, "Just love him." So, I start I'm on my second. I love you. Officer, I love you. Like I'm I'm literally picturing he's going to come over. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. Oh, what you're doing is so good. You're just doing your job. You're just doing an amazing job at your job. I love your glasses. I don't know if he has glasses. Comes over. Opens the window. He's like, "Eh." "Shalom." I said, "I love you." I didn't say that, though. Last time I did that, I got arrested. But, this time I But, I felt that I loved it. I said, "Shalom." He says, "You know I was following you? You know that you were driving I was like, "Yes." "You know that you were going like left and right and in and out?" I said, "Yes. Yes." And then there was this awkward pause. Cuz I felt like he was waiting for me to fight back. But I wasn't fighting back, so he didn't really know what to do. He's like, "YOU WERE DRIVING IN A WAY I'M LIKE, "OH." "Give me your license." I was like, "Okay." So I said, "Listen, my license it's in the uh it's in this little thing in the middle. Do you mind if I get it?" He's like, "I don't mind if you got it." I was like, "Okay." But clearly you're not from New York. You know, it's like "If I go ahead give me your license." Okay, so I said, I was like, "No, cuz like in New York they they they'll shoot you." He's like, "Well, well, well, let me see my thing." So everything's I open it up. He takes my thing and he comes back he wants to show me he knows and as he walks away, "I love you." "I just love you." And I'm really thinking like really this guy is just a good guy. He's probably a good guy. Maybe he wants to Maybe he's good. I don't know. And he comes back. And when he comes back, he says, "Whose car is this?" I said, "It's my car. But my wife says it's hers. You know what I mean? You know what I mean?" And the guy tough Israeli cop he goes, You saw like he broke. He broke. He's like like he he started to smile. I thought like a I heard a crack and like and he's like that. And he's like, "You came here in this year and that time." I'm like, "I did." He's like, "Where you from?" I said, "When?" Like yeah, again from New York whole thing. And then he said and then I looked at his name. His name tag was a friend of mine who I grew up with. I I I really want to say his name, but I but I but I can't. And this guy just to give you a little idea, he was having some rough times. I remember one time I borrowed his car. And he says to me, "Don't open the glove compartment." My wife was in the car. She's like, "Why not?" She opened it up, this bag falls out. I think he was a maybe in gardening or whatever. And it's that guy's name. This guy was also a gardener. So when I saw the name, I I laughed. He goes, "What's so funny?" I said, "I got to tell you my one of my best friends growing up was a gardener." He's like, "Oh, I know what you mean." And the guy smiled. I'm like, "This is working. This is amazing." Comes back, he's like, "Okay. So you're going to get uh like six points on your license and uh 500 shekel ticket for slalom skiing." So I was like, "Okay. All right, here. So what does that mean? Like the points, how does that work? I know New York how it works. How does it work in Israel?" He said, "I don't know. Call up the police." I'm like, "Okay, I'll do that." Then he's like, "Writing?" I said, "Listen, can I ask you one question, my friend from America?" He says, "Yeah." I said, "Can you can you give me a ticket? Just can we not do the points thing? Look look, I'm wearing my seat belt. I signaled every time. Look at my car. I have car seats and they're all strapped in." And he looked. He looked. I had like 12 car seats. I don't even know whose they are. But they're all in there. And the guy says, he looks at me and says, "Give me a second." Goes back to the car, comes back, he says, "Okay, listen. I'm not going to give you the points and I'm not going to give you the ticket. Just be Just be careful. Careful with the slalom." And I just yelled out, "Sucker!" And I put into drive and I kicked it. Wrong story. That happened but another time. But, the point is the guy let me off. And I was thinking, this is unbelievable. Kimayin panim b'panim, k'eilu odom l'odom. Do we love them? Do we love these people? It says the Chazon Ish says A CHIYUV TO LOVE THEM. If we love them, then what happens? Kimayin panim b'panim, just like water, you look at it as a reflection, so too is a heart to somebody else. If you love them, then they can't help but love you back. So, very often we leave this convention, we get back in our cars, we leave, then we remember a thousand s'fillin, we call Yossi. He already sold it on the black market. And we have our key and the someone else's s'fillin. My name could be Chaim, why not? Then we go back to life as usual. We've coming up in less than 2 weeks, 2 and a half, I don't even know how many weeks, very soon, Purim. Capitalize on this opportunity. Take the opportunity to love them. Take the opportunity to give them an opportunity. Let them be the ones to decide if they want to or not. Don't decide their fate for them. And if we give them that love and we really care about them, we give them an affection, b'ezras Hashem, we're going to start to see a crazy, incredible turnaround. Before you know it, this person who hated you, you're going to start to hate them. Because they're going to want to come for Shabbos every week. Thank you so much. Have a great day. Bye. Just a couple of years ago, thank you very much, Reb Gav. Jonathan Donath was just a regular, plain doctor in White Plains. Park Kent. All of a sudden, Hashem came to him with a great idea, made him his partner, now he's a superman, Dr. Jonathan Donath. They put me between Reb Gav and Charlie Harary, no pressure. I first want to just want to say um I had this close of being on one of the three-day men's retreats to Tampa. And my wife last year went to a women's retreat. And I really urge you all to go. It's an incredible opportunity. Um this the Shabbos is great and uh you all should experience one of these trips, so I hope you sign up and will join. If I told you all that I could guarantee you a mitzvah every single day and it would cost absolutely nothing. I'm sorry. That's not true. But it would take zero time, zero effort, and it would only cost $1. Would you be interested? And on top of that, if I told you that you could do this mitzvah every single day with 14,000 of your brothers and sisters, would you be interested? That's what we've created with Daily Giving. What it is is we've automated a platform to try to get all Jews around the world to give $1 of tzedakah together every single day. And every single day we give the entire amount to a different incredible Jewish nonprofit across a diversified portfolio of organizations. Last week, we just had it's coincidence, we gave Project Inspire just 4 days ago, almost $14,000. The next day we gave Rage. The next day we gave RCCS, then Relief, then last night we gave Renewal. And the entire If you go on the website dailygiving.org, you'd see every single organization. It's completely transparent. In fact, every single day you get an email telling you where the money's going. And every single day it goes up and up and up as more people join and more people join. And I know a lot of people came up to me over Shabbos and they said they're part of this and it's incredible. And I appreciate each and every one of you. But I also had a lot of people come up to Rabbi Ephraim Goldberg, Rav Gav, I spoke to Charlie about this last week, Rav Chanan Gordon, they all said, "Why do we only have 14,000 Jews giving a dollar a day? Why don't we have 114,000?" And I think the answer is because Hashem gave us a a um a yetzer hara for tzedakah. Right? If it was easy, we wouldn't get schar for it. We work very hard for our money and we give to a lot of different charities already. But I'm telling you the achdus of this, of joining, what more can Hashem want than all his children coming together every day to give to our brothers and sisters that are less fortunate? We're giving over 5.1 million dollars a year and we don't daily giving doesn't take a penny. I don't know about you, but I can't give 5 million dollars myself. But I just give $5 a day, for one for every one of my family, and um and I'm giving 5 million dollars a year. So I wanted to say to you two things. One, as you see up there, if you even if if if if this idea strikes a chord at all, take one second right now with the QR code and sign up at dailygiving.com right now. I'm telling you, we've done this for 4 years. Everyone loves it. If they don't do it right then, they forget. So while I'm telling the next story, you could sign up. I don't mind if you take your phones out. So two quick quick things. One, one day a gentleman signed up for daily giving for a dollar and then a minute later again and again and again, five different times with five different email addresses. And I called him up and I and I said, "Thank you so much for joining. Did you join Did you Did you sign up you and your kids?" And he said, "Yeah." I said, "That's incredible." I said, "How old are your children?" And he said, "One, two, and four." And I was like, "Wow." He said, "Yeah, I already reserved Gmail addresses for them." And in 10 years, 11 years, 12 years, whenever I give them the password and show them they have their email, they're going to open it up and they're going to see only one thing repeated thousands of times, "Thank you for your donation and they're going to know that they did a mitzvah every single day since they were little kid. Chris, can you put the other slide up? This just happened this week. It was so incredible that I just want to read it to you. The gentleman on the right is Rabbi Ari Feiner, our COO, and the gentleman on the left, his name is Charles. Oh, wait. My my right. I'm sorry. How do you know Yossi? Okay. This This post went viral. Like literally it went viral and I You'll see why. Waiting for my flight to Cleveland, I took an empty seat near my gate. Noticing my big yarmulke, the fellow next to me took looked over and said, "Oh, I see that you're Jewish." I smiled and replied, "Yes, how did you know?" He shared that he too was a man of strong faith, and I mean strong. He knew his scriptures like the back of his hand. I was amazed at his knowledge and his steadfast adherence to the word of the Bible. He spoke passionately about his values and convictions and his prayers for the world. "Excuse me for asking, but based on the kind of person you seem to be, I wonder if you might be interested in what I do. Do you tithe?" "Of course I tithe," he said. "10% and more. I'd love to hear more about what you do." I explained the concept of daily giving and our platform of Common Ground Charity. A dollar a day isn't very much, but when thousands of people donate together, it makes a huge impact. I told him we were on track to give out $5 million this year and counting. He had only one question. Where does the money go? I told him we distribute 100% of the funds to nearly 80 organizations that fulfill various important needs of the Jewish community. Then to my surprise, he put his hand in his pocket and said, "Put me down for 500 days." And he handed me five crisp $100 bills. I sat there completely shocked. Did that just happen? He smiled and said, I've been blessed and I know what I'm supposed to do with that blessing. And if the Bible says those who bless the Jewish people become blessed, then I'm going to get that blessing, too. God loves you people and I'd love to be a part of what you're doing. I thanked him profusely and spoke for a few more minutes about life and values. Before getting up to board his plane, he concluded, "Look, we have to live our faith. You see, I'm in for almost 2 years of giving now. You know what? Let's just do it now." He reached into his pocket again and handed over another $300. This is for 800 days of giving. This is not just a story about a gentleman who is excited about daily giving. This is a story about a person who knows what he believes and does not hesitate to fulfill what he knows to be what he is meant to do. "I knew as soon as you sat down next to me," he said, "you were put here for a reason and now I fulfilled that." Being a giver is about being honest to ourselves about the blessings we have and what that makes us accountable to do. It's about anticipating helping others. It's about feeling like we are the true recipients when we give. Charles, thank you for your 800 days of a dollar a day and thank you for lessons that have no measure. Charles doesn't have social media, but you can learn more about it but his business at bigpipemech.com. It took 5 seconds for Charles to get it and he pulled out $800 out of his pocket. So, I hope you all do the same and will join us. And I was thinking over Shabbos all the messages about being makarev people and and being, you know, making that first step. And I think that daily giving can be an excellent and really excellent icebreaker. Right? You want to go up to that guy, you don't know how to approach a guy who's maybe not from tell him about daily giving. Get him to look at it. He'll be impressed. He'll sign up. We have lots of non-frum people that sign up, too. And they are so amazed by it and they're going to learn about these different incredible organizations that we give to, and that might be a nice way to kind of bridge the gap. I just want to thank Project Inspire for all the incredible work they do, and thank you for the opportunity. Thank you so much. The other great thing about Daily Givings once you sign up, it's automatic. You just turn around and forget about it, and it's going up, up, up, up, up. And because of Hashem, it'll get to 114,000 and more. And everybody should take it home, take it to your shuls, bring it to the steeples in Brooklyn. Advertise it. And because of Hashem, we'll create and accomplish myriads of good things for the Jewish people and for the world. Uh there's another Charles here today besides Charles in the diagram in the picture. And uh Charlie Harary has been part of Project Inspire pretty much from the beginning. When I started to work for Rav Noach in a very small, dingy office on I think it was a West 38th, 39th Street. I walked in one day, and who's there? My friend Charlie Harary, who I knew from NCSY. Rav Noach had identified him as future star. And lo and behold, lawyer, businessman, as had the zchus to devote to devote most of his time, to my knowledge, to getting other people to live awesome, to be awesome, and to improve their lives, and to connect to Hashem and to the Jewish people. Pleasure to introduce Charles, Charlie Harary. Thank you, Rabbi. Really honored to be back. It's so much fun to be the last guy. I was ready to go. I want to see if I can maybe share a message that brings home Hashem's help. Just what this whole achrayis thing is all about. You know, it's amazing when you're the last guy. In in Yiddishkeit, everything's a circle. So, the last is really the beginning. I want to begin with the beginning. I share with you one idea that I hope when I saw it and I I understood it from the Chofetz Chaim, it it really shifted the course of how I saw the world. I hope it does the same for you. You know, it's amazing when you think of the Torah. First story really doesn't make a lot of sense. Hashem Baruch Hu creates a world. Adam HaRishon. Everything's beautiful. Like the first Hashem is the first of everything, like the first Jewish grandparent. Don't work, don't eat, it's all good, it's in the house. No problem. The best part about grandparents, they're like parents with amnesia. I love when my kids come back from my parents and they call me, they're like, "You are the luckiest guy in the world. Bobby and Papa are the best parents ever." I'm like, "Those people are not the parents that we know." They're like, "We were up at 11:30 and we wanted ice cream." They're like, "No problem." Like that never happened until 5 years ago. Grandparents are awesome. They get to be parents and forget anything about parenting. It's an awesome gift. And the Kadosh Baruch Hu shows up and goes, "Adam HaRishon, it's on the house. It's good. It's all yours. Eat. Relax. Don't work. It's too hard." And he gives him like the first Jewish parent. Adam HaRishon is alive for 1 day and he comes to him and says, "Adam, what about a wife? I'm not getting any younger, you know. Grandkids wouldn't kill you, too, by the way." And if I can say like the first Jewish mother-in-law, lo and behold, nobody is good in the entire world for his son. So he has to do what every mother wants to do for her son. He has to take a woman from her son himself. Which is every mother's dream for her son. To fashion a wife from her own son. And he goes, "It's one thing. Just don't eat from the from the tree." Remember the story? The Nachash, the wife, eats from the tree. But it's broken comes over and says, "What did you do?" And Adam does the one thing that no man should ever do in the history of all humanity. He blames his wife. And Hashem says, "Oh, no you didn't. I can't even save you from that. The two of you, out." Remember the story? Two problems. Number one, since when is Judaism a one-strike policy religion? You ever see this before? Klal Yisrael shows up, one strike and you're out? New Year's Eve for the rest of the world is some party, or if you're crazy, standing outside for 17 hours to watch a ball drop. And it ends with a clink, "Happy New Year," a resolution you never keep, and hasta luego. New Year's Eve for New Year's Eve for us is 30 days of I'm sorry, followed by 2 days of you're nothing, it's him, 10 days of I'm sorry, and a 24-hour fast of I'm sorry. Our whole life is I'm sorry. Our mothers are made in this world to remind us every day, "You should be sorry." Jewish guilt is so famous, the Most High has a unit called Jewish mothers. If everything goes wrong, somebody out there in some cell is being guilted to tell them secrets. We're always saying, "I'm one strike and they're on the street?" Number two. The Kadosh Baruch Hu has got a problem with the Etz HaDa'at. It's not really apples, depending on the sheet. Let's call them apples. Apples, why did he make the guy eat them with the apples? If you have such a big issue with Adam Harishon eating from the eight hadas, don't put the eight hadas in the garden. I'll tell you a funny story. I told this a long time ago, I don't know if you remember this. This is one of my favorite stories. It's an old day. There's a woman in Lakewood. I don't you guys know this story before. It's about eating. There's a woman in Lakewood who was on line at a restaurant at a grocery store. You know this story? This is great. In front of her is an African-American woman. You know what the end of by the supermarket where as you're boxed in cuz they're all industrial psychologists, as you're boxed in at the end and your wallet is open all the candy is right there. They know that one kid's going to pull it and what are they going to do? You're boxed in. So, in front of this from woman in Lakewood is an African-American woman with a kid. And like every kid, he's at the end of the line. And she's checking out and what does he see? Candy. And she's going, "Leroy, put the candy down." Not listening. "Leroy, put the candy down." Not listening. She was, "Leroy, put the candy down." Not listening. Cuz she was, "Leroy, it's not kosher." Kid put the candy down. From woman goes, "I can't believe it. It's a from I didn't know." She follows her out of the store. She goes, "I'm sorry, you're Jewish?" She goes, "No." He goes, "What? I just heard you tell your son to put the candy down, it's not kosher." She goes, "You know, I've been shopping in this supermarket for years. I watch you people. You people have kids, they don't listen to you. You tell them it's not kosher, they put it down. I'm going to try it on my own kids." TALK ABOUT JEWISH contribution to civilization. I don't understand something. If he's got a problem with the eight, I have an idea. You're the architect. What's going on? Okay, so let's delve a little bit. We got just a few minutes. Just a few minutes left. Just stick with me just a few minutes, may it should shine. Cuz I want to share with you something that shifted my life. I think it's going to answer this question. Time's up. We love miracles. We feed on miracles. We love them. You share a story about a miracle, but you went somewhere and you met somebody and that person went this place and they missed the bus and the bus came late and the thing whatever whatever, you put it on video, it goes viral. You tell a story, it goes viral. Everybody loves hearing a story about some miracle. And when all of Israel first came as a nation, the Kadosh Baruch Hu knew this. And so the Kadosh Baruch Hu did in the beginning of our history was he built a system of miracles. He introduced himself with miracles. Moshe Rabbeinu could have been sitting in Midian and he could when he was walking with the sheep and he saw the burning bush wherever he went. Hashem could have been listen, go down to Mitzrayim and here's what we're going to do. There's a There's a plague called Choshech. The way it works is after a few days nobody moves. Well, Moshe could have came down, told the Jews just chill out. By the way, Tuesday afternoon the lights are going out. We're going to be sitting in Mamilla Mall before the lights come back up in Mitzrayim no idea where we are. The whole game between Mitzrayim with Paro and Hashem, that whole game was there totally irrelevant. We don't do any of that. Hashem didn't need the permission of some guy who he created in a land that he created take out the people that he ruled. Kadosh Baruch Hu didn't need to play any of those games. The whole way was Hashem showing the world himself and he did it through miracles. We had plagues and miracles and we loved nature changing. We walked through seas and we got manna from shamayim. We could have had the seeds grown in the desert, but Hashem didn't want that way. And through the entire period of time when all of Israel came out, they were overwhelmed with with supernatural miracles. But as the normal the normal the normal milk says, supernatural miracles are only there to clue you in to life's miracles." And maybe the biggest miracle the entire period of time when Klauser came out of mitzrayim was a miracle that is the most relevant to us that we totally miss. And in my opinion, it is the most important miracle that happened from the time Klauser met Mosha Rabenu until they got into Eretz Yisrael. What miracle is that? It is the miracle of the Mishkan. What took place in the Mishkan? Mosha Rabenu shows up. Luchos the second luchos and says, "Okay, here's the deal from now on. There's a new plan. I understand it's difficult to find Hashem. What we're going to do now, according to the Kodesh Boruchu, is we're going to build a Mishkan. Hashem is going to dwell his shchina in this world. And we have to build it. And it's not going to be It's not going to be some shotty thing. It's got to be real and beautiful and gorgeous. And so here's what it's going to look like. Everything's going to be exact and it's going to be gold and everything's going to be done in a certain way and it's going to be ornate and there's going to be goblets. And it's going to be embroidered. And it's got to fit so it's got to be perfect. And the nations in front of them looking at Mosha Rabenu probably thinking, "Who's doing this? Like who's actually doing this? We just SPENT OUR WHOLE LIVES IN EGYPT. My grandparents survived the Holocaust. Like I I mean Egypt was Nazi Germany. We think Egypt was like they worked hard and nothing happened. We worked hard and didn't get paid? Egypt was Nazi Germany. If there were no bricks, they pulled the babies out of the hands of the moms and put them in the walls. They were sitting in in in in camps. Egypt was concentration camps before Nazi Germany. My grandparents, when they came out of the Holocaust, they didn't have to do anything. They were just surviving the whole time. They were just trying to to to eat and live. They had to come back to America and learn stuff. They didn't go to school. They didn't become architects. They didn't become designers. They just survived. What do you think K'lal Yisrael was doing for 210 years? They were surviving. They were used. Now they're sitting in the desert. Just a minute ago they're running away from their lives. They're just trying to work it out in the desert. And Moshe says, "By the way, we're going to build the most incredible, intricate building for God." They're looking at him going like, "Who's going to build it? Like who's actually going to do the work? This is incredible." Moshe's like, "I don't know. Should I tell them I So, what happened? Watch this. Vayavo K'lal Ish Asher Nasa Libo. Some people had They're inspired. Nasa Nasa Libo. Their hearts raised. You know what happened? They just stepped forward. But watch how this worked. B'chol Ish Asher Rucho, L'maleches Ohel Moed, U'v'chol Ish Asher Nasa Libo L'havia Korban Hakodesh. What happened if you can picture Just picture this for a second cuz this is going to feel very, very familiar. K'lal Yisrael. Moshe Rabbeinu going, "We're going to take Hakadosh Baruchu and bring him into this world. Basuli Mikdash V'shachanti B'socham." Which means bringing Hashem to this world. Who's going to do it? It's too hard. It's too intricate. You don't know how to do it. You haven't been trained or raised. Who's going to actually help me? And K'lal Yisrael is going, "I can't do this. There's no way." And a few people are inspired. Nasa Libo. Watch. The Ramban. Vayavo K'lal Ish Asher Nasa Listen to the Ramban says. Taam Asher Nasa Libo. Why does it say Asher Nasa Libo? L'korban L'malecha Ki Ki Lo Haya Bahem and some lockers and I'm a llama. Nobody taught them this. They didn't get a degree in architecture. There was no so they didn't have the knowledge. So the liberal is it can't be in the mall walk. They don't know it. Omi Sheenie been by him yet of cloud who someone who trained their hands. There's no apprenticeship. I've a muscle listen to these words. I've a muscle but they bow. She gave the asses came. The yield below but they are here a sham. What happened was the crowd said I can do this. I can't do that. But I can do this. I don't know how to embroider but maybe I can help with sewing. I always had it in me that I can use my hands here. Get slap. They didn't just wait to raise their hand and go I'm in. They said I can do this. Hey, when I did this last week feel pretty good. It's the one thing. It's scary. When I hear that that little kid last night that incredible boy I don't know if he's still here from Tara Vadasi. How do you I can do that? I heard the story about the rabbi who who gave a dollar fifty to a guy to get off his route. I can do that. I heard a hundred stories this week about ways to get involved and maybe I can't tell my co-worker but I can show up at a Shabbat tone. I can come to a thing. I can get maybe I can do anything but I can put my hands in my pockets. I can tell my kids to do it. I can sit in my house and when they when everyone's hawking about the guy who's on from be the person to say stop. You don't even know him. I can do that. You see what happens is that these people that were there something in their table muscle but they bow. They found something that was in their teva that said, "I can get this." What happened after that? What happened was the greatest miracle that nobody talks about. Kilio lam chasto, the normally melk says, you know, we say all these things say arm gedolim kilio lam chasto because we say harim gedolim to remember kilio lam because in the everyday life is chasto. Watch this the chofetz chaim. Kheim metzino chane shalom mishkan the chofetz chaim says, this is great. This is life changing. Metzino mishkan shalom mishkan mesam libo. See what the mishkan the chofetz chaim says, whoever put their heart, not their hands or their head, their heart. U chuk asola aso samalacha mishkan. Whoever put in their heart to go do something for Hashem, build this mishkan. Hayak boruchu nosen lo dea usvunashi yeida ech laasos. Hashem made a miracle. It was a miracle. The person did not know how to embroider the curtains. They didn't know how to make the the the goblet work. They didn't know how to make the clay. Nobody knew how to make the beged work. They didn't have it in their heads. But their heart said, "I'm inspired." They they mutzo betivo, they felt like it was something they could do. When they stepped to do it, the kodash boruchu made a miracle. And the miracle that he made was he put into their that one person's ability. It wasn't everybody got it. Once a person stepped up, once a person was moved by his heart and not his head, once a person said, "I don't know how, but it should get done." That step that went from from I can't to I will anyways, I don't know how to I should anyways, that step created a miracle and the miracle was Hashem then saw him and put inside that person dots that was not there before. We think that the way the world works is that if I have ability, I need to take responsibility. A cry is comes after capacity. We look at people that do great things and we assume they do great things because they have great things. They have smarts and they have charisma and they have money and they know how to say and they play Jewish chess and they know how to say the right things and we look at them and go I can't, I'm too old. I'm too young. I'm just a kid in high school. I got I wish I would have done that when I was that age, but you know I'm already I'm 80. I I wish I would I want my guy I'm a We look around and the people that are doing great things all look to us like people that have things and we assume the way it works in life is that those that have have to give. Ability leads to responsibility. And the office guy says you're getting it wrong, it's backwards. And everything good you have to put your heart to do it. Once a person says I'm doing it, I don't know how. I'm taking responsibility because my teva tells me I can. I'm not doing it indiscriminately. I'm not coming out of a like I'm doing it and then I'm sweeping and calling and carrying. I'm not doing it like that. I'm not just randomly taking responsibility. I am pulled somewhere. I feel it. When the guy got up, that person didn't move me, but that person moved me. I heard that story. I heard that story. I can do that. That person is threatening me because I felt like I really could be that way. That person might not even be paying attention. Everybody has that moment in their lives. Whether it's a cure or not a cure, you have that moment for cloud Israel. Where you look around and go, I could set up people and they get married. I could open my home a little bit more. I don't have to be so stick such a stickler. I could give I could I have time now. My kids are all older. I can volunteer a little bit. I'm going to scare them to say but I can show up. Everybody has moments. I hope you're at shabbos but through your life where your tava says, ah you you could do it. And we're held back cuz we're held back cuz that voice called a molech says, nah you really can't. Maybe you shouldn't. There's plenty of people. What do you know? You're too firm. You're not firm enough. I don't have the ability. And the Hafetz Chaim said, you have it backwards. You see in life ability does not lead to responsibility. Responsibility leads to ability. You want to find every person on that stage and in this room that has done anything good, walk up to them I guarantee you almost 100% time believe that they believe shua they took responsibility and then something happened. It's a miracle. It's called Kodesh Baruch Hu's way of bringing his shina to this world. He waits for some Jew to step up and say, I don't know how but I should and Kodesh Baruch Hu goes, for real? I got more of them. I thought they were only by the mishkan. I got more of nussle leebo Jews. Watch. I'm going to put in the daas and the shuna to make it happen. You can go a whole life. A whole life and say I can't and you'd be right. Cuz you can't. But Kodesh Baruch Hu goes, that's not how I built the world. You can't. But if you try then you can. And we live our lives and we are so convinced that we are much less than we are. You know, yet you guys have been in a bubble for the past what probably feels like like a month, right? You know what I'm saying? You know all these things? Like time just stops, food just comes out of nowhere, there's no clocks. It's like, you know, it's like the Jewish Vegas over here. In the rest of the world, there's something called national hate day. Did you guys see this thing called national hate day? Everybody from what you know I'm talking about? If you're not, here's what happened. On Arab Shabbos or this week, there was a post circling around by our our cousins Amalek that yes to actually Shabbos is was dedicated national hate day. And the if you should read it, it's really fun. This new idea called killing Jews is growing like, you know, hating Jews. I I I There's a kind of You know what's funny? When you see people that don't have Jewish history in their blood, they're like shocked. You know what I'm saying? You know that somebody hates us? I'm like, yeah. Yeah, I do that. So yeah, Shabbos was the day that they called all people to rise up against the vermin the Jews. It's a It's a post. I don't know if you guys saw this before. It's awesome. There was cops in front of the shuls. You're supposed to walk together. I walked all my kids to shul back and forth. It was like this took place yesterday. Amalek. Mamish Amalek. Just now. We're about to read about, you know, Xero. Mamish It was like Xero. I was just thinking like is this Xero without a lot of the teeth? But still. So I'm walking to shul with my son and he's scared. This happened yesterday. He's scared. He's a little kid. I'm telling him, what are you scared about? What are you What are you scared about? You know who you are? Yeah, I'm I'm I'm a little kid. I'm like, you're a little kid? You know who you are? You know that Koresh broke created the world? You know what he did? Created the world and first he made Malachim, but they all they'll kiss up. They're all good. And then he made animals, but animals don't pay attention. Then he created man. Especially everyone's beautiful Kulam Avuvim, really. Every person that Klal Yisrael is important. But there's something about Bnei Yisrael and Hashem. He raised man on his two feet. And he took a piece of himself. Do you know what that feels like? Do we ever once stop and for a second in our day realize that the Kadosh Baruchu Hakol Yachol took a piece of divine itself and put it inside me and you? Somehow along the way in history, we took the Kadosh Baruchu and we moved him up there. I don't know how we did this, but sometime we did this. And we're here and he's there. And we pray up, you know what I'm talking about? And we expect things from him, you know this deal, right? You've heard this from me before. We're expecting from him, we look up. He needs things, I need things. I need health, happiness, and some extra money. Kids get married, everything should be good. He needs prayers and clothing and all that other and foods. And we have a deal that us and Hashem make. Right? It's called amazon.god. I order from you in the way you want and you deliver. And if I've been doing the right thing, I heard a school, I did it like 10 times, I made the stuff, nothing's happening. Like Amazon has Prime, what's taking you so long? Hashem, me. Did you know who you are? It's not Hashem, me. You know where Hashem is? He's in everything. Which means you know where Hashem is most to you? He's in you. You're built with a piece of Hashem. You're scared of some guy? You have to be safe, you have to be smart. You can't be tough. You have to know who you are, but you walk around, you're a Jew. You know what that means if you're a Jew? That means you have more spirituality in you that you're ever going to need for the rest of your life. You don't have to become spiritual. You have to reveal spiritual. You need koach? Koach? You have more koach inside you than you'll ever need your whole life. You don't need koach. You need to reveal koach. You need da'as, you need seichel, you need smarts. What do you need? You need resources? Whatever this world has is nothing compared to ruchniyus. And you have more ruchniyus in one second of a piece of Hashem than the WHOLE WORLD TOGETHER. WE WALK AROUND, WE'RE MISHKALIN, we're walking around with mikdash mikdash mikdash. WE WALK AROUND LIKE WE'RE NOBODIES. I'm not this but and we and we think that like because I don't know shas or I'm not this I'm not a rebbitz and I'm not a rebbitz and I can't ask you. We all have a hundred reasons why we are not the people that can actually tell somebody, "Do you want TO PUT ON TEFILLIN?" OR DO YOU WANT TO COME FOR SHABBAT? CUZ IT'S SO hard for us to say something to somebody else because they may reject us. You know why? Cuz I'm so small. And any level of rejection is so to me someone who's so small is so hard. What's inside us is a piece of the kodesh baruchu. We have to just hold ourselves back. Tell myself like, "You know who you are? You have a lion inside you. A piece of the kodesh baruchu inside you. We're Jewish people. What can't we accomplish? Where are we going? Nobody can take us down. Kodesh baruchu says, "I built you this way. And here's what I'm going to do for the rest of history. I'm always going to build a mishkan, which means you're always going to have a standard to bring you in this world that's higher than you can do it. You're always going to feel like slaves with a mishkan on top of you. You're always going to feel like you can't make this thing. The way I come down to this world is always going to be a higher standard than you can do. On purpose. It's going to be hard to ask somebody to do something. It has to be hard because not worth it. HOW CAN MY SHCHINA COME down in this world if it's easy? Cuz I'm waiting to do the thing that I always do, to make the miracle of creation, which is I'm waiting for Jew to have nuss seliba. To stop worrying if I can't do it. And if there's a Jew with a chiyus? A chiyus is the only way you can bring out your neshama. A chiyus isn't like I have to do this. A chiyus is the mechanism to take the soul from the inside and bring it to the outside. That moment of I don't know how I can do this. That moment of my heart says yes, but my head says no. That moment of what am I going to do, but my teva my teva is saying you could do it. Come on. That voice that says you can do it. The story of the Mishkan is the miracle of how Hashem created the world. Childbirth is a miracle. Even if it happens a million times a day across the world. Greatness is a miracle. It happens the same way all the time. Great people have the same thing in common. They take responsibility before they have the ability. They see the Mishkan and say, "I'll do it." Cuz their teva says so. They're not dumb. They're not being indiscriminate. Their teva says you can do this. And they do it. Kodesh Baruch Hu says, "Hmm. Here's the miracle. Now I'll put it in you, and you'll see that you actually can do it." Always need to start with it with responsibility. Hashem Rakhi Anokhi Achrayus That's the path to godliness. And it's available for me and you every day of our lives. It just takes a little bit of courage to get there. How come Adam Harishon was kicked out for for one thing? What did he do? One strike? What happened? I heard a beautiful Torah from Rabbi Jonathan Sacks years ago. Baruch Hu turned to Adam Harishon and says, "Ayeka?" What did Adam do wrong? Well, if you think about it, Kodesh Baruch Hu comes down and says, "What'd you do?" And what did Adam Harishon do? He said, "Not my problem. I can't. Not my Achrayus. You know why I did it for? Cuz you're you're a highest on you, Hashem. The woman you gave me. The Reb says, "Really? You're supposed to be my shutaf in creation. You know who you are? You know you're godless? You You hit a wall and the answer is it's not my responsibility? You fall and your answer is not a lie? You see a problem and your answer is not I got this? Your answer is not not so liberal? We'll fix it. It's on me. I take a highest for my stuff. I take a highest for my sons. I take a highest for my wife. I take a highest for the animals in this kingdom. My fault. I'm going to figure out a way to inspire my family and the and the kingdom to be able to serve you, HASHEM. YOU HIT A WALL AND YOUR FIRST reaction to me is it's your fault. I don't have a highest for it. Ayeka. He didn't tell them what what did you do? He didn't say masita. He said ayeka. WHERE ARE YOU? You kidding me? YOU KNOW WHAT I BUILT you as? You know what you are? How'd you fall down? How'd you become this? The Reb says, "My question TO YOU IS HOW'D YOU FALL DOWN FROM YOUR AYEKA? You were shutaf in creation a minute ago. I'm putting the world through you. I bring my shina into the world through people that bring the mishkan that step up. Now you're blaming somebody else. You know people like this? You see them in a room, they're always blaming somebody else. You know these people? Always it's someone's fault. They walk into project inspire then the wrong table, did the wrong thing, did the wrong room. It's this person, it's that person. Their whole life they're victims. You know these people? They're victims always. Always somebody saying something wrong and it's like that's how they breathe. How could you become great if you're always a victim to everything? Cuz if you didn't kick Adam out of the a gun Eden, Adam kicked Hashem out of Gan Eden. He kicked his salaam alaikum. His ability for achrayus. His recognition of his place in this world. You know, it's interesting, if you look over at the the person who really in many ways represents the leaders Moshe Rabbeinu, I'll land with this. Moshe Rabbeinu Moshe Rabbeinu says, when he killed the mitzrayim even kova kova arkinish, when he killed the mitzrayim. You know what's amazing the Hamikdover says, listen to the Hamikdover. The Hamikdover on this parshas on this pasuk says, the yachas a mitzrayim, listen to this. The makam she'ain ish hishtadlus ish. You know Moshe Rabbeinu's gadlus was? He just stepped up. The the the the Tanya the Baal Tanya says, that every day of our lives the Kodesh Baruch Hu says ayeka. Every day of our lives Hashem looks at us and goes, ayeka. Do you know how I made you? Do you have any idea who you are? You're 100 years old, who cares? 100 years old, who cares? Do you know what you can accomplish? The issue with us is hearing that. We're entering into right now one of the craziest times of our lives. It's the Amalek that's inside us, the nachash that tells us you're nothing. And Purim is coming now, we have the opportunity to try the timche zecher Amalek. But the battle of the nachash versus Adam is the battle that still rages inside us every single day. In many ways, the story of the nachash and Adam is the story of our lives. The story of that voice that says you can't. The story of that teva that says maybe you can. You know, when you come out of a Project Inspire conference, at least I get so last night I just just being up there for I just got here at Saturday night and I was like blown I couldn't so blown away by the all the credibleness here. What's going to happen is if God said another person says you're going to go back to life. And nothing's going to look like this. Trust me. There will not be a paper guy. There will not be a kid on a on a bike going, "Hey, Rabbi, how are you? I got a paper out it's a dollar 50." And you go, "Oh, I heard this before." By the way, stay right here right here. Most of you not going to school with the social studies teacher. You're not going There's a million stories you've heard. And I'm guaranteeing you it's not going to happen for you. That's how God runs this world. What's going to happen for sure, let's make it easy between now and Purim. Purim was a minute ago. It's a minute from now. I'm guaranteeing you what's going to happen between now and Purim is going to be a moment in your house, in your work, in your life, where there will be something where your teva says, "I should do that." You can be driving home and you should go, "I should call him." By the way, the person could be from You can call him and make them feel good. Doesn't have to always be you're trying to make somebody from. Physics is also a mitzvah. You're going to go through your day. You're going to see somebody and you're going to say, "I can invite them. I could do this stuff. I could do these things. I could say something to this non-religious Jew. I could give them shalach manos. I can carry five shalach manos with me on Purim day after Purim and hand them out to people that I know. I could do that." Your teva is going to tell you to do something. Something that will bring the Mishkan into this world. But not the Mishkan that was in the midbar. V'shachanti b'sochum. The Mishkan that is in every single Jew walking around right now. At that moment in the next 2 weeks before you the nachash convinces you, stop. Relax. You're not a cure for Relax. Relax. You're only here Stop. And remember that your our goal in life is to be part of that small group called nos'ei libo. The greatest group of people in the world. Can you imagine what it must have felt like to be the ones to bring the Shekinah to the world? Can you imagine what it must have been like when you came back from your work of the Mishkan and your wife said, "How did you How did you do that?" And you said, "I I don't know." Imagine those few people that walked Klal Yisrael during the inauguration of the Mishkan, how the pride they had. To be chosen in this small little group of nos'ei libo just requires when that nachash speaks to be to to be to erase that voice. To say, "Even if I can't. Even if I don't know how to. My leiv says, 'Let's do it.' I'm relying on the miracle called greatness for Kodesh Baruch Hu to put in the daas and tzuva and I know that he will. And if all we do for the rest of our lives, if all we do for the rest of our lives is working on getting rid of that voice, that nachash, and working on just taking the opportunities that are right in front of us, we will become today's generation of in my b'nei Yeshayahu of nos'ei libo. We will bring the Mishkan into this world in our way. We'll be living with achrayus cuz we will know that is a Horaius that is the mechanism of greatness. And together in our own way, at our own abilities, we'll be able to give Nachas to the Kodesh Baruch Hu and tell him that maybe one day he will look down and say, "You know what? As opposed to the Mishkan and the Migdash first and second, look at this group of people that are trying so hard to step out into the darkness to do what's right." May he come down and fill the rest of it for us and bring Mashiach's kingdom sooner in our days. May he arrive in our days. Amen.