The Extra Mile- Rav Nota Greenblat ZTL- Tisha B'av 2023

I never met ramnata greenblatt I never walked through the shul that he davened in I never walked through the hallowed doors of his Day School I've never even been to Memphis Tennessee and my friends I believe that that is a great advantage why because you and I have something in common most of you not all of you but many of you have also not heard of remote to greenblatt many of you have not walked through the shoe that he doesn't never seen his day swallow never been to Memphis Tennessee either and therefore we can relate we can relate together to discover to understand about one great man and the power of one great man and what one man set out to accomplish on his Trek through the extra mile that's what we're going to see today I'm going to see it together because today is Tish above yes it's another dish above still in golis yes another film another Tish above another message another attempt another try to get all of us together Claud Israel and the keywords of course are obvious Israel and the key words are can we make a difference can we make something different this year that will actually transform the things that have happened over the past 2000 years to wipe out the synesthenum replacing it with avastinum you and I both know that that is the purpose of today and that's why you're sitting there and that's why you're watching and hoping that something will touch you I believe that this man has the capacity to do that when you watch him and you see what he accomplished you will say maybe maybe there's a piece of nutta greenblad in me that would be something that's the beginning of change that's the beginning of accomplishment that's how we make a difference so watch together as we go together today and take this walk on the extra mile and learn about one extraordinary human being and the possibilities and the things that he can accomplish and did through that through that inspiration we can make this Tish above truly very different let's walk my parents grew up in Russia in a town called chernovitz they came to America in 1976. my youngest daughter was five years old my boy was 13 and we came to Memphis Tennessee the possibility came up for my father to open a bakery they needed a loan he tried to get a few people to help out so it wasn't one person giving such a big sum of money he went to all his Russian friends and a lot of people told him no he went to Rabbi NATA and Rabbi Nazi didn't even think twice he just provided them with the money with no questions asked just here's the money and when you pay me back you're going to pay me back after they open that bakery downtown many years later they opened up another Bakery it was a kosher bakery and a kosher restaurant revnata gave them a heck shirt used to say Gregory in that Bakery and Shoppers even my fly not supposed to go in my parents had a huge account with the restaurant in Memphis called Steak Escape these baguette rolls for their steak sandwiches so Thursday night they would be working really late then they would deliver the bread after work hours however a hiccup happens a major one Thursday night came and when's and Friday the workers just didn't show up my wife came home and said Greg gear up your workers didn't show up and we in big trouble we need to make the rolls because if not he gonna sue you that night my father came and he made the Rolls on the way home they saw Rabbi natal walking and realized that somebody I was watching the bakery and drove to Rabbi nata's house to let him know that we were open on Shabbos not to shut them off made them close their Bakery so everyone thought that's how the story ends actually That's How The Story begins because the next day Renata goes over to them and says I want you to know this is so not personal what can I do for you even after we lost our hashkaka he still was there for us and that's just that sincerity that he had of just being who he was there were no stick with him he was just a genuine person who cared and loved every single year no matter where they were in their lives I [Music] think thank you [Music] foreign [Music] Blatt was born in 1925 in Washington DC his father Rebecca greenblood was RAV of the vulner shul in Washington DC but my father was about six years old my grandfather decided to move to Eric's role they moved to shalayim and my father was put in with not even as a child distinguished himself as a very bright talmud he was considered at the top of the class in 1939 they moved back to America he then went to learn by Abdullah labovitch in Williamsburg the original rashiva of yeshivas gave him a directive that if you go on the right path then your airlift he'll succeed and that really drove him for the next uh many many decades of his life he left and joined Michael Feinstein's in Boston no no my father then was 15 or 16. he attached himself to a missile and they became close afterwards romicho came back to New York to his uncle to ramosa and he brought my father with him and that was the start of a lifelong relationship my father had with ramosa he learned by ramesha for a good number of years and all the while he was growing going in the area of londis but it became a tremendous Bala as well someone upon whom Moshe came to rely the answer the shylist that people will call hermosia with [Music] over tonight I know things you see and this is but I I know it didn't happen when I was there because I was on a motion day and night with it he was on the first boat back to Eric's Israel after World War II the first boat that was left back it was an older havrusa of Roberta my father attached himself to the world of Torah Whenever there was a Tomah anywhere my father would look him up whenever he would travel if there was someone that he could talk in Terror with he would look him up it was his uh passion and his thrill and they're just Robles full of tamiram and uh my father had relationships with them all after his experience there it's a shell they came back to America he was 23 and a half years old you saw an ad in the newspaper that the city of Memphis was looking for a khasna an automatora teacher and he went there wasn't a whole lot of Torah Judaism in Memphis in the 40s most people even if they came to show they'd go to synagogue on Shabbos day and then they go open their store on Shabbos soon after he got there he understood that toe is not going to survive with the afternoon Hebrew school system and he embarked on establishing a day school the Memphis Hebrew Academy everybody was opposed to them the rabbis of the Town were opposed to them because they had the Sunday school system and to a certain extent it was also their livelihood but he was Fearless he saw that this was crucial this was important and he was willing to put everything on the line to start that up the first couple years they didn't charge tuition because he wanted to make certain that no parent would have a reason not to send their child there and what that entailed the fundraising that went on and all the doors that they knocked on pleading with parents to send their children to the Jewish Day School a lot of survivors haven't come from Europe and from the Holocaust into Memphis and then having their children going into the academy was not the simplest of all Endeavors there was some resistance and my parents were no different but he was very instrumental and they convinced my parents to send my brother Harry and myself to the academy you never received the dollar from the Marvel and Hebrew Academy he started this school he never never was paid he taught as a volunteer in the beginning he thought out of space I was the first class we were not a very Cooperative class he was someone who was a gone and here he was when I looked back he was teaching aqueous alephase and it took him two years even after he stopped teaching there he would come in and substitute he was always involved in the furthering the academy he continued to Shepherd it throughout the years to make sure that the school continued on the Derek that he wished that the robame should be imbued with that Spirit of Torah that the children would see a vision of God in the eye of the rebbe [Music] if not did not do what he did there would be no Memphis there would be no Jewish Community there would be nothing starting the Hebrew Academy saved our family and many families and many many many many families and people are from because of ravanata I found out later that he was asked to start the academy one year later instead of starting it right away I don't know if it was a delaying tactic or just they wanted him to be more organized before jumping in and doing it and he would not listen if he had not that year then I would most probably never have gone to the academy my life would be completely different I can't imagine what it would be there are literally thousands of students and once you start multiplying their children and grandchildren at this point we're all living to our lives and have had Jewish educations and a true commitment and connection to Torah and it all comes back to that tremendous amount of dedication and hard work that rivnata put into founding the day school and maintaining it in its early years and we started in school and one of the meetings for the rabbi the answer is who are sitting next to me I said you know we have to set up some kind of a fund after that point we just talk but it's a mind against the school started so I wrote the first check for the Academy the rabbi was sitting next to me says the required release too much reuses I was making three thousand dollars a year not only a year he says it's too much so I said just imagine and he said he's collecting money [Music] to build a temple of course but imagine and I wrote a check like this when you say it's too much I ask you now it is but the school that we started built is that's why Memphis is Memphis that's why you know Orthodox synagogue remembers everyone conservative because it was not his influence then all these children who didn't come from any place they grew up in a Torah environment and they influenced their parents once you got the parents on board then it then was another growth spurt my father-in-law grew up in Mississippi and my mother-in-law grew up in Memphis they had a strong Jewish identity but they were not from and when my oldest brother-in-law was born so not to came around the house and sort of convinced them to send their son to the school my father-in-law became summer Shabbos from that point Dawn he never obviously learned in Yeshiva he wasn't a learned person but he had tremendous tremendous respect for ofnata and that story repeated itself many many times many people in Memphis kids can do nobody else can do what does that mean that so I pushed his office you tell Ben Shaffer to get up in the morning he should come to Schuler he'll kill you yeah but if the kid gets up you know he says I want to go to synagogue they went ahead and realized what yiddishkai was which never prevailed to Memphis prior to that and little by little it became the city that it is [Music] for another felt the Judaism will only exist whether it's Torah and where people are devoted to Torah and were willing to sacrifice for it his avoda to uh karish Barca was going to take place but being convey himself in Memphis and seeing to it that Memphis would become a tremendous makantara he did whatever he had to do whatever was needed he went ahead and he did and he mastered he really sacrificed himself to do the things that he did and he did just about everything a Jewish Community could need with expertise he was a sheikhet he was a cousin he was a male he wrote get in blew the chauffeur Davin just about everything he was into every sphere of Allah and he knew it from a practical Point not just from Allah issue he knew everything it was unbelievable when you were around ravnata you just felt you were around someone who had complete Mastery of Torah and halacha there was just nothing you could bring up or nothing you could discuss with him that he wasn't ready to have a full conversation whatever Shayla there was he was ready the answer was always yeah I've had it or I've had in it like of course of course not those are the basic two answers and then you knew he thought like Minnesota you knew you had spoken to a god of Israel he had just in front of him and he had spoken if you saw him on the street you wouldn't know that he was uh from he didn't look like an old Rabbi from yesteryear he wore a regular sport coat tan pants it dressed like an ordinary person he didn't put on any rabbinic errors so he knew much more than almost anybody else he didn't want to flaunt it and he didn't believe that you had to dress a certain way to impress the people some people are more concerned about the way they look to others but he was more concerned about how he's going to connect and bring the next person up and bring bring their nashama to a higher place he was so strong in himself in his own Yiddish kite that he really was Able by the strength of his personality to really change the whole Community he knew how to build balabatin we've not understood that the nuts and bolts of the community are not the robotic the robotic are the ones that are supposed to be the Emperors the enablers they needed to have Renata who exemplify that ability to be able to relate to people on all levels and he could relate to them and their shylists in their different situations that they were in he knew how to answer them and be with them I asked them once why don't you make an early shot because he says everyone else in the city all the robot and make early shoppers he said what happens if someone has a Shyla what happens if somebody drives in off the highway everybody else out there may Kiddush and they're eating they're eating he says I'm the only one that they could go [Music] wow I'm watching this together with you and it is truly remarkable a man not even married finds an ad in a newspaper runs to Memphis Tennessee before you know it the whole Community is completely transformed it doesn't happen overnight he works hard all the work that's put in reaps Fruit he has a community that's his now but that's not enough that's not enough for him he has to go the extra mile and he finds out about other communities this Phoenix Arizona there's Tyler Texas this Birmingham Alabama there's there's New Orleans there's people there that get need to be Messiah there there's a Reven there's brison there's all kinds of activities that need him and he says that's me I'm going I don't take pride but I take pleasure and then I say it's not enough that is the key watch how one man not only transforms a city but transforms a country and changes yiddishkai throughout America my grandfather's sense of responsibility came from looking at the Jewish people from a big picture perspective he felt a deep Aquarius for claudiuskite in America particularly for communities that didn't have leaders Rabbi Greenblatt came to the south at a time when they were closing the door to Orthodoxy everything was really closing up and going conservative he was really trying to fight the tide it was an unpopular stance he lived in a small town and he impacted small towns throughout the South his entire life and he believed that he didn't just do it he didn't do it because that's where the parnassa was he did it because that's what he believed was something that somebody should be doing and that's the message he gave all of us when we talked about maybe going to New York or going to Florida or Chicago was they don't need us there Lakewood doesn't need another from Jew they have so many of them how about this terrorists should be not just for specific communities but it should be shared with with all American Jewelry with all World jury his mission was that there had to be Tyra and Claud Israel and kedusha in the United States he cared about other Jews it was pretty simple he cared about other Jews that were from Mississippi or from the country of Colombia he was the rabbi of all the Exiles who have not to travel all the likes and breath of America taking care of Jews when my parents moved to Tyler Texas they were conservative Jews my mom realized as well as my dad that if they want the children to be religious and they're learning about religion then they're going to have to start becoming more religious so they started going to Dallas and they met someone when they were in Dallas to buy kosher food who said if you want to be you know religious you want to get more information there's a rabbi named Rob not to Greenblatt and he actually travels a lot and he can help you in your path to becoming more religious they actually called ravnot and ravnot just said interesting and he said that there's three things you really need to be a from home a religious home he said you have to keep kosher you get to keep Shabbos and you have to have you need family purity so appears okay well what does that entail he goes you need a Mikvah and you don't have a mcfun Tyler it's two hours from Dallas somebody and dad said to them okay we'll build a Mikvah but I'm not that was like really they're going to build a Mikvah let me saw they were very serious and it took about a number of trips but they actually built a Mikvah in the house because of ravnata doing that that we were able to have a from home and the kids grew up religious and they kept Shabbos they give kosher in they really were able to develop that path [Music] my grandfather was somebody who took his responsibility to Claud Israel to a level that was unparalleled and that meant that any need in Claud Israel was his personal need he was full he wasn't in for the covet he was in it for Chloe's thrall if you give a job to do and you'll pay him he wouldn't do that he wasn't interested in the money you say can you do me a favor oh yes that he'll do he built me close all over the country he built everything all over the country we built a nerve together in Phoenix I don't know how many times we walked around that area until it got built there was no self he would do anything and everything for another person I said was his middle name he was so famous for helping people with Git in any matter involving Jewish divorce whether it was administering those divorces doing whatever he could to help we're talking about getting in drug cartels in South America we're talking about getting in jails many wild instances that there you have this guy and he's talking to people who you and I might cross the street if we saw them coming and he is sitting there writing getting for them a friend of mine who's looking and he says tomorrow morning I need you to come with me to do him as soon as I get five o'clock in the morning we're gonna meet at the Denny's over on Queens Boulevard they looked at him like he was out of his mind it's like we're going to a drave restaurant for breakfast he says no the woman has no time to receive this gift or she says she has no time she's not willing to do anything to receive the cat but she said that to give us five or ten minutes while she's eating her breakfast in Denny's so one of the greatest rabbis in the United States and tuition who are the Witnesses are going to a trade for us at five o'clock in the morning and in between her pancakes and her coffee and her bacon um you know he he gave over the gut suffered whatever indignity she had to say for him she was very uninterested in it but she did receive the get and you know they signed whatever the accuracy needed to be signed and gave her what she needed and and went off recently I opened the drawers and I see so many torn receipts from the tickets tickets after tickets after tickets and I can't throw any of them away because it's so hush if these were tickets that brought so many people happiness that either they got to get or they got a breath my mother was remarkable and the support that she gave my father my father would be out of town for most of the week very often for the entire week and that's not easy for a woman to be by herself but she respected the sincerity the Erica and the mission she told me many times that she didn't think she would marry because she wanted to make sure that the husband had a fill in in the morning and there wasn't any boy that was from a religious in the entire Jewish area because there were very few show mashavis I asked my father once what did he see in my mom he said she was the only shower Shabbos in town so that was number one and he had heard about her grandfather her grandfather had a dry goods store a little store and he would not open up after the Shabbos until the children would tell him that there were three stars he didn't trust himself my father felt there was an Integrity there they had a very respectful marriage and part of that respect was that they each operated in their own domain he operated completely and totally in the world of Torah everything he did from the morning to the night had to do with learning Torah said Fila that was his whole life and she really allowed him to do that he saved thousands of ashellas also that his interaction with the people he was a master Communicator often when you have somebody who's an absolute genius they can't talk to people who aren't but he was able to communicate and connect with people from all walks of life all levels of religion all levels of intelligence different cultures there are many many young rabbis that were influenced by him gave them a sense of value and a sense of appreciation for Torah for his mission in life and for his Kira I learned a tremendous amount about about the title from him about placalaja I asked him thousands of shilohs he was someone that was very confident and that confident didn't come from arrogance that sense of confidence came from he had spent a lot of time sweating away toiling on whatever it was that he had learned and felt that he had mastered and if he had arrived at a position he was confident that he was seeing that correctly and he wouldn't back down he always knew who he was and what he was he never questioned his mission he never doubted himself he never thought maybe I can't do this we're outside of the shiva's walking the rav and he tells me yana-san I'm gonna open up uh Yeshiva from mitsuyanim I said Rabbi it's it's a it's a really good idea now at the time rebby was already 90 or a little bit over 90. a lot of people would think it's too late to start Yeshiva I mean he's like 30 40 years too late but uh to him it wasn't a matter of whether it was going to succeed or fail to him it was a matter of you just do you do it it wasn't about him it was never about him he came with the same straw hat that he wore his whole life to say this year every single day in nijiva and it was never about what I'm doing it was like what a country and his Nation need my father-in-law Larry Brown grew up in a traditional home he went to an afternoon school at talmotora but was not an observant Jew at that time did not keep Shabbos I was a typical teenager running around town with with my buddies my father befriended him and my father asked Larry why doesn't come to the show on Shabbat my father-in-law said Rabbi I have a paper route says and how much do you earn and from your paper routes for paper routes I earn a dollar fifty every Saturday he says what should be if I give you a dollar fifty to come to synagogue on shoppers he said you're willing to give me a dollar fifty to give up my paper route on Shabbos I'll come I'll come to Shabbos this meant to my father-in-law that there's something more valuable than entrepreneurship there's something more valuable than a paper route there's something more valuable than money my father did give up that paper route and he did do some learning as a result of it he set my father on a path to Yiddish kite and to this very day my father-in-law he lives and breathes rapnata rubnazzo is his source of all the cheers of all the joy that he has in his spiritual World they have generations of Benet Torah of educators of Scholars of Tamir khasame and children grandchildren great-grandchildren thank you we have so many things that we do that many don't know about or many have participated in and for a dollar fifty or whatever it would be or for just caring and being involved with these neighbors and friends we can interest them in our wonderful lives and you'd be surprised what an impact you could make one small deed can have major Ripple effects and it can affect generations and generations to come his whole life was impacting Jews every person they came across it and it wasn't big things he was so selfless and he was so loving so kind and so courteous so courteous [Music] Jeff Addis never had issue of background every shot this afternoon after milk between milk and Myers from nothing would sit there and he would translate it and then they go on to the next place and you know the status would would read the Hebrew he would translate the English that was the Seder when you're talking about somebody who was a gullible Terror and he had at his fingertips and he made time to sit down and learn with somebody who just blacked that Yeshiva education but really sincerely wanted to learn foreign [Music] so many times people sell themselves short you know like what can I do I'm just one person how can I impact ravanata is really an example of someone who just really cared he cared for Jews he cared for other people and he really wanted people to be closer to Hashem he could have said you know I have so much Torah learning and so much knowledge why am I going to waste my time with these simple people so to speak but he didn't he sat there and he learned with them because every nesham and clients are all so special [Music] how we inspire people one person at a time one conversation at a time you need to love hashem's children you need to care about a Jewish boy who delivers papers on Saturday you need to have patience for a man that comes to your minion on Shabbos every Shabbos for years and still holds the sitter upside down [Music] you could have so much impact just from the strength of his personality he was a role model he was a role model in you know in every possible way I felt like he was my father I could name hundreds of people who can say the same thing because they really felt that way and the love that they felt was reciprocated [Music] I felt that Soul connection to it was everything he was just [Music] his legacy was don't make it about yourself whose demand and requirement of you and make that your only drive and determinant in what you do in life find the need find something that you can do to promote you this kite to help claw Israel in your own unique type of way and if you know what you're doing like used to say you go with the confidence you go with an erlich kite and you're for sure going to be successful like um [Music] if you're going on the right path and you know where you're going [Music] and you see that you are on the right path there is no way that you can fail there's no way to fail I just really never afraid trying and trying look at the school you look at Memphis and you look at all the impact that he's had on many different people you see it spreading so beautifully one man could make a flame that is so powerful that it continues all over the world and I think about the responsibility that we have to take what one man began 70 years ago and to bring into the future ultimately we hope to be able to greet mashiach [Music] I think you've just seen a remarkable film I know I have I look at this film and I understand that you probably have two choices right now one choice is to say oh that was a nice film you know let me call my friend let me text him and tell him to watch also that's a great thing but there's a second choice and the second choice is far greater the second choice is what impact did it make on you can it really move you can it really help you change can it really motivate you to do something something a little bit out of the box something a little bit different that's the second choice and I believe that's the real choice you just watched the man was a talmud Muslim he was an incredible human being and he had a tremendous breadth of knowledge in all aspects of Tyra and yet it was not beneath him to teach aleph Bayes was not beneath him to sit and explain simple translation he did what he needed to do he knocked on doors he never said oh I I'm not I'm not for this this is not for me this is for somebody else to do he's a man who took realaharayas are you that person you have that as I mentioned earlier that little piece of ramnata in you is that inside of you where you could say you know what I could do something like that no I'm not going to Birmingham Alabama no I'm not going to Tyler Texas but am I going next door am I going to meet somebody in the mall am I going to get out of my comfort zone like I finally do like I've promised myself so many times before but just never did it is this going to be the time that I say he inspired me and I'm going to do something that for me is the extra mile that's the question that's the challenge that's what I'm asking you today can you take this film and say oh wonderful we enjoyed it so much that doesn't matter the question is what will it do to you what will it do for the Jewish people what will you do for the Jewish people and you can do a lot more than you think look what he did don't say that I can be him just say I can be me and me means that I can do something that can change the lives of one person of two people not the entire country that's how you build that's how you make change that's how cloudy as well comes together that's the promise you can sign up right now with project inspiring you can say I want to learn with someone I want to speak with someone oh but I don't know what to say will help you we'll teach you we'll hold your hand we'll take that trip together when we go together we have so much power we do one by one by one that's how we build the bricks that's how we change a community that's how we change the world and that's how we rebuild the base of miktas that's Tish above and doing something that will be memorable will change their lives and by the way change your life as well this is your chance don't let it slip by it's a strong appeal appeal for you to become the greatest person that you can be and to walk that extra mile and with that you'll be able to actually rebuild the basement down from shamaim together but is [Music] one summer we were visiting in Memphis over Tish above and what I saw on Tish above my father-in-law I've never seen before and I've never seen since I I saw a man sit on the floor and mourn the base of miktas in a way that I've never seen anybody more in the basement I've never seen a person who lost a loved one mourn in the Deep way that he mourned fast forward a number of years my family has had the privilege of going in the summertime to a kirif program Sinai Retreats we've been going for many many years One Summer it came out that the retreat was going to be over Tish above there's probably close to 25 secular young Jewish women most of whom never even heard of digibuck before so after they read the Magilla after they read so I took the girls and we went into a corner of the dining room and we sat on the floor and I explained a little bit about Tish above and tried to capture a little bit of what we've lost and then I shared with them my visit to Memphis on Tish above and what I witnessed of my father-in-law morning for the base I make that the program ended many of the girls went to Israel some didn't one girl in particular stands out from that program who went to Israel became mucho Maris mitzvos married parenthetically a student of my sons at Arizona and has a beautiful family now and I met her sometime later and I said to her when did you decide that this is something that maybe you really need to pursue in your life and she said to me it was tishop of night when we were sitting on the floor and you told us about your father-in-law crying for the best I make that and I said to myself of a man who's a scholar thousands of years later can sit and really mourn and cry about a building that was destroyed more than 2 000 years ago then I better find out what that is and that was her Turning Point [Music] foreign [Music]