The First Ever Tuesday Night Live in Jerusalem!

areva Israel national TV and or Olam the center for biblical Zionism present Ari abramowitz and Jeremy pal the world only hears an Israeli voice we want the world to hear a Jewish voice we're all part of the same body and that body is Israel I chose Israel despite in spite because this is where God hangs out Hashem is with us he's protecting us he's brought us to the land of Israel and we are here to stay Tuesday nights in Jerusalem are never going to be the same again Live From The Heart of Israel welcome to Tuesday night live in Jerusalem [Applause] Shalom everybody and welcome to Tuesday night live in Jerusalem the first ever israel-based Jewish TV show broadcast to the world this is the part I'm supposed to introduce Ari but one second who here knows Ari raise your hand all right you all think you know Ari let me tell you a little bit about this guy right here the guy is a Visionary he's a revolutionary this entire TV show it's his idea one second I'm not done he's a sharpshooter in the Armory he's a warrior and a poet he's a Torah scholar he's the funniest guy I know right thank you Jeremy and he happens to be my best friend can we give it up for Arya [Applause] brtz the one the one time we've ever scripted anything and Jeremy has to start off totally ignoring it so let me give a little bit of background Jeremy and I have been best friends for years and while many of you know he is my commander in the Israeli Army he's really my best friend our basis of our friendship is our love for Torah for learning it for teaching it and really although we don't know that much the little bit that we do know we really try to share with the world now this this has led us on quite a journey I personally just came back from a speaking tour in the United States I hear myself say that speaking tour in the United States in which I received received a silver embossed Kenyan Lions claw of Jewish leadership from Chief Ronald's screaming eagle of the Kea tribe in Oklahoma wait I'm sorry I'm sorry we said that the show wasn't going to be political it was just going to be Jewish so let's not go political one second we're not going political I just want you to say what the chief said about land for peace what he said not us we're a we're apolitical what did he say I'm sure they know what the chief would say about land for peace so let's not go there let's just keep it a at least for the first show let's not go political all right [Applause] okay let me explain Jeremy and I we will speak to anybody we speak to Jewish and non-jewish communities we speak to schools and universities we speak to a crowded eged buses and packed elevators wherever we can get a captive audience that is where we speak and by the way the doors to the theater are locked from the outside you see we travel through the entire world and we're trying our best like I'm sure so many of you are to share the beauty of Jerusalem but one thing we've learned from our travels is that no matter how hard we try it is impossible to share the beauty of Jerusalem without the holy Jews of Jerusalem without you it's important that you all understand this this TV show is not about me and Ari on our Radio Show in our articles on our speaking tours Ari and I will rant and Rave about whatever is happening in Israel developments in the Middle East this show isn't about us this show is about you guys this show is about the Jews of Jerusalem coming together and speaking to the world now I just want to say that if you look around the room right now and we got to walk around and see who's here you will see guys with long hairs guys with beards and pis that guy right there who is one of the coolest looking Jews I've seen in my whole life you'll see girls with eyebrow rings and nose rings uh Mayra thank you for coming you see every Jew we so different we're different in our perspectives and our philosophies and our opinions you know what they say two Jews three opinions we're so different but really in the end we're all part of the same body and that body is Israel you see [Applause] Judaism human away Judaism is is not an abstract series of of rich rituals and observances We're a nation we're a people born of one family and we have a long long eventful history and a beautiful shared Destiny so whether we like it or not no matter how loud our differences are we must Overlook them we must come together because in the end we're one extended family that's what we are Jews all over the world we're one extended family and we've been praying for 2,000 years to return to the land of Israel and God has brought us from the four corners of the world back to Israel and in essence that's what Israel is a family reunion really when you think about a family reunion let me tell you when I understood that it was a family reunion when I finished my service in the Israeli Army I went to New York for a brief stint in which I severely burned my entire arm now the interesting consequence of this burn was that I had to wear a tight spandex glove over my full arm for an entire year and believe me when I tell you that I do not look good in spandex now the upshot of the whole thing was that I was able to pick the color so the doctor said I should pick something like beige you know it Blends in with the skin and you know it it would it's like camouflage but I didn't want to pick beige because I don't want people's pity I don't want want them to feel bad for me so I picked the brightest blue and it stuck out like a sore thumb who remembers years ago a guy walking down the streets of Jerusalem with a crazy long blue spandex [Applause] glove you see but what I saw from wearing this glove is that when I was in the United States people would glance and people would look and when I caught them they'd quickly Look Away we all know that feeling of getting busted when we're staring and we're not supposed to but in Israel there was no such thing everyone would come up to me what happened to you what's the crazy glove about particularly Israeli women between the ages of 65 and 75 personally my favorite demographic they would come up to me and say you know what happened to you and I would say I burned myself they would say yard take a CH take chocolate and Eucalyptus and and almonds and rubb it on your own that is what will make you feel better you see they weren't worried about being impolite they were worried about me everybody everybody had their own homemade recipes for how to deal with the burn but everybody would share it because deep down we all recognize there were one mishak we're one family that's why the Torah starts off with Abraham Isaac and Jacob to teach us that we're all different from Every Other Nation we're not just a nation because of a Common Language or a common culture or some Geographic barrier We're a nation and we're a people because in the truest sense of the word we're all one family now that's a word that the world never hears the world only hears about the challenges of Israel the world only hears about the terror and the corruption and the economic struggles the world never hears the real Israel the world never sees the beauty of Israel and the reason why all of us have chosen to make our lives here in Israel the world never sees the dancing that goes on at a wedding here in [Applause] Jerusalem Tuesday night live in Jerusalem its entire purpose was for the world to hear the voice of a new generation in Israel 2,000 years ago the Jewish people were scattered across the world exiled from the land of Israel 2,000 years every Force known to humanity tried to extinguish the flame of the Torah and the Jewish people 2,000 years have passed but not a day has gone by that the Jewish people didn't pray three times a day to return to Zion and rebuild Jerusalem if you lived in America you faced the East if you lived in Australia you faced the West if you were North you faced South all of us like a magnet being pulled to Jerusalem knowing that one day God would have mercy on us and bring us us home you see the world never hears that part the world only hears an Israeli voice of politics and pragmatism we want the world to hear a Jewish [Applause] voice we all may be different but right now we're a unified people and our voice will now reverberate throughout the world so I want all of you to stand up tonight and to get involved and to share your personal stories share your own experiences and through your personal example people around the world will be inspired Jerusalem Yus is the epicenter of the universe now in Hebrew we all know a word ends inim when it has an equal and exact opposite it has a pair a duel one hand is a Yad and two is yadim one leg is a Regal and two is rug it's a pair now kazal or sages they ask why does y and inim and the answer is because it's a pair it's a duel there's yam Shalala and yam shalata Jerusalem of the spiritual world and Jerusalem of the physical world the physical and the spiritual worlds come together in yusal that's why Isaiah our prophet he says for from Zan the Torah will come forth and the word of God from Jerusalem only in a place where the spiritual meet the physical can the true Jewish voice go out to the world now since this is our first show this is our first introduction to any show it's the introduction really to the entire concept of what Tuesday Night Live is about I want to tell you all a quick story I was invited about a year ago to speak in a synagogue in South Carolina and that Sunday I was invited to speak to a university and all the kids came there all the students came and there was a diverse group all of them connected to Israel for one reason or another and I said the format of the talk is going to be I'm just going to start talking and when anyone wants to comment has a question raise your hand and the dialogue will begin at the end of the talk a guy came up to me and he said Jeremy I want you to know I've never met a Jew before I myself am not Jewish I've never met anyone from Israel before and I didn't want to ask this question in front of everyone I didn't want to embarrass myself I didn't want to embarrass you but I have a question is it okay if I ask you right now and I said sure ask me shoot what's your question and he said well what does it mean to be Jewish and I said what does it mean to be Jewish guys never met a Jew before he's never seen anyone from Israel whatever I say now is going to frame the entire Jewish people from Israel for the rest of this guy's life what am i g to say so Hashem just brought a wonderful answer to me I said you know what we should do we should open up the Bible together and I opened up to Genesis chapter 29 where Judah was born Judah the the father of King David the king of all the Jews and when Judah was born his mother said a beautiful prayer haem alen karash Yuda this time let me gratefully give thanks to God therefore she called his name Judah and I said well in English it doesn't make much sense gratefully give thanks and therefore she called his name Judah and the guy didn't really get it he's like what does that even mean and I said well in English it doesn't really make much sense to really understand the tanak you have to know what the Hebrew words are and what it says is is this time I want to give thanks giving thanks is leot Yehuda is Judah so what is the essence of being Jewish what is it all about it's about giving thanks it's about giving thanks to your friends to your family to your parents giving thanks to God for everything that he's done everything that he does and everything that he will do the essence of being Jewish is to give thanks so right now before we really launch the show Ari and I both want to thank everyone here for coming out tonight we also we want to thank the amazing tnl staff that have made this night possible can we please have a round of applause for all of the volunteers let me tell you and I want to wrap up with this concept you know we're living in amazing times very exciting times in last week's Torah portion Hashem God Appears to Moshe in the burning bush and he says that he will rescue the Jewish people from Egypt to bring them to an to a good and spacious land to a land flowing with milk and honey written in the Torah the purpose of the Redemption of the Jewish people from Egypt was to bring us to the land of Israel that was the purpose yet before entering the land we sent in Spies spies to investigate to see what was happening within Israel and the spies came back with an evil report now it wasn't a false report it was an evil report it was a report full of fear and full of doubt they said the land devours its inhabitants the people are too great for us fear is likened to idolatry fear is the belief that something may happen which shouldn't happen but we all know living in yam that life is a dialogue with God everything that happens is sent directly in or rated by God so nothing happens that shouldn't happen fear is just a lack of faith when the Jewish people slandered the land of Israel when they spoke evil of the land when they doubted God that was one of the worst sins of Jewish history and God said this generation of slaves this generation of fear they will not enter the land of Israel in 40 years a new generation would arise a generation with the courage and the faith to enter the land of Israel now we all remember the 67 War The Six Day War when the world fell to their knees in awe as we reunited Jerusalem in a war that the whole world thought would be our end the year is now 2008 it's been 40 years 40 Years of Terror 40 Years of fear 40 years of this desperate need to have the world accept us we're a new generation all of us all of us in this room where's Mrs Walker Mrs Walker 92 years old Mrs Walker you are part of that [Applause] generation it is within our power to conquer our fear with the knowledge that Hashem is with us he's protecting us he's brought us to the land of Israel and we are here to [Applause] stay that indeed this knowledge of Hashem is our greatest joy and our enemies those who wish us harm they're powerless against us if we just heed the calling of Our Generation serve Hashem our god with joy serving God with joy is what the betam mikdash was all about the temple experience wasn't just a place where you would learn and pray when you walked into the courtyard you would walk and you'd see levim you'd see Levites playing Harps musical instruments blowing trumpets there was a musical atmosphere that allowed for a true encounter with the Divine it was with that inspiration that we assembled ruak because we wanted this night to be an authentic Jewish celebration and you cannot have an authentic Jewish celebration without simlu please everyone give a round of applause to ruach [Applause] [Music] [Applause] oh if [Music] do sing it along t Shalom and welcome back to Tuesday night live in Jerusalem now we've hit the part that I've personally been waiting for we've hit the purpose of Tuesday night live in Jerusalem do we have a smoke machine I didn't know we had a smoke machine I feel like a Backstreet Boy now is the time to share you with the entire world world and I ask you a personal request from Ari britz please don't be shy please don't hold back share some of you may be thinking I've got nothing to contribute but I ask you to recognize that by very virtue of the fact that you are here right now you have something not only to contribute but that you need to contribute for those of you who are living here you could be living somewhere a little bit more comfortable a little bit more predictable with open post offices Israel is the most comfortable place in the world [Applause] amen but you're living here in the land of Israel now for those of you who are visiting for the same amount of money you could probably be sitting on the beach in Hawaii sipping a martini and instead you're eating a schwarma and drinking some preot pear nectar they're going to be [Applause] sponsors for those of you who are studying here for the [Applause] year you could be in uh you could [Applause] be you could be in the biosphere you could be in brandise you could be studying in The Culinary Institute of Siberia but you decided to come to yerusalem and it is that love for Israel that connection to Jerusalem that we want to share now the first question of the night is for all the people that have made their homes here in Israel we want we want the world to hear what everyone's asking and that's why why did you make the leap why did you leave the comfort of Canada of America of England and Australia and make your homes here in Israel what is your Purp personal story all right I'm just going to remind you that we have not only a volunteer but we have isi fer now that's not dissing any of you here but isi fer is more than just a guy Ari can you tell everyone who isai fer is please yesai fer is not just a guy he's not merely IM mortal but he is the director of Israel national radio and not only the director of Israel national radio but for me personally he's a mentor and he's a hero and I'm so honored to have you here and really it's our hope that you'll be able to join us every single time we have this show and share your wisdom and your vision with us so share your thoughts Isa I'm excited well I got to say first thing that uh Jeremy's question is why am I here in Israel and this might sound like a strange answer but uh it's because of Tuesday Night [Laughter] Live you think I'm joking right you think I'm joking that it's because Tuesday Night Live but I'm not joking it's because there's an in gathering going on and this just proves it there's an in gathering there's a lot of people and we're all Jews and we're here in the land of Israel we could be in America but we're not and this camera is going to show people all over the world that the Jewish people are returning right here so thanks thanks a lot now with regarding to why I'm here in Israel the answer is very simple because I love it here I love it here I love it here and there isn't one day there has not been one day and I'm not just saying this is a platitude there hasn't been one day that I haven't felt thankful that I'm in the land of Israel not just one day every day I thank God but the real answer is that you said something very special you said uh you could or you said Culinary Institute of Siberia or you could have been in a lot of different places the thing about America is that America rocks yeah America is a good place and when people say to me I couldn't make it in America I say all right that's a good level all right you wanted to be in Israel because you wanted to connect to Israel you could have uh we could have all easily been uh Happy in America you know I was happy in America I was making it in America I was making it in New York City I was cool in New York City I like the Subways I was studying the law books on the Subways I was happy it was cool I like downtown I like Uptown I like the west side I like it all and I chose Israel I chose Israel despite in spite because this is where God hangs out and I chose it over a great country I could have been my parents had to run away from Russia from the Soviet Union okay they escaped they got out it wasn't exactly a good place for Jews to live right and there's Ethiopians and yemenites who were persecuted and all kinds of problems but we choose Israel and that's a great Mila a great Merit a great High uh moment for us Jewish people to be able to choose Israel God looks down and says that's that's my boys and girls that's them that's the ones they chose they didn't just run to Israel because Israel is a uh a place of Refuge it's just a great place where God hangs out and we're very lucky so I want to wish you a mazeltov and thank you Tuesday Night Live yeah thank you isi thank you is all right who's next right there Ari please come here while she's on her way youa I want to thank you for that and I want to thank Hashem for finally allowing Yi's voice to come to the whole world because that's a message the world needs to hear I also want to say I love America if I wasn't a Jew I wouldn't have ever left America but I am a Jew and I'm a very proud Jew and it always seemed to me you ask why would you why would you come here if you're a Jew why wouldn't you come here you proud this is your home that's where you come [Applause] I never really understood why people didn't think that I had this idea it's very funny to say when I was seven I told everyone hey when I grow up I'm going to go move to Israel um everyone said you're seven years old what do you know but so I said I said I said when I got to college so I used to say I have to make Alia because all I did for four years in college was tell everyone else why they made aliia so if I would have stayed in America it would have been so unbelievably embar embarrassing this was my goal then it's my goal now to bring half a million Jews to Israel they come neph Ben is doing it which is amazing anyway so here are my two words of wisdom of why I came also I came right after college don't wait okay all my friends who waited they're stuck don't wait just come just do it don't wait till you have $1,000 in the bank just do it who's next who wants to be the next person to share with so much you heard the message don't wait carpet DM shalom shalom shalom to everybody okay hi world this is me talking to you from your shim and if you're Jewish you should be here too I made Aliah earlier this year or last year actually technically speaking in March of 20 2007 right I don't even know what yeah that other alternate time space continuum thing that we don't pay that much attention to here but anyway and I lived in Los Angeles and I was a yay Los Angeles driving is the only way you can get around there better drivers in here but whatever um the point is is that I had a very I came from a very prosperous place there I had a very big kind of high-profile media job there and I didn't come to Israel to run away from my life or because I couldn't make it there I was certainly making it there and I was certainly making it there big time but everything that I was accumulating all of the materialistic things all of the accolades and you know the status and all that was very very empty to me and what I really started to look at was why did the Lord give me these talents and why did he give me these abilities and what am I spending it on like what are we spending ourselves on do we want to spend it on stuff out there or do we want to give it to our own land and our own people and our own Heritage and that's why I'm here and thank you that is beautiful now we have two kashim please stand up very vocal people and we're excited to hear your [Applause] message hi I'm Rachel por and me name safan and May Alia four months ago and we love and I go to [Applause] midan hey thank you for that those with hearing aids please turn down are there any other people who like to share their message please join us sorry Shalom everybody um my name is seora and my husband Jeff uh is over there hey MOS Jeff Moshe um we've been here for one year yay and you know uh growing up I didn't even know that I was Jewish I found out later but I always had a a a feeling in me and and a connection to anything Jewish and I didn't know why and then Jeff and I I start finding out more and more about my Jewish Heritage and then we come here two years ago and we go to Gaza during the disengagement and something happened our Spirits connected to this place to this land to this people and leaving was like tearing our hearts apart we had to come back and you know Baro kashem the door open and thanks to neish Benes and and the Tuesday did see we were able to come back and now we live in yusal and we're here to stay [Applause] so now's the question that everyone wants to know Ari why did you make Aliah why did I make Aliah yeah you know it's really it's inexplicable ever since I remember learning how to think I always knew that this is where I wanted to come that this is what I needed to be you see the land of Israel is so connected with the Nish the soul of every Jew that all we need to do is start learning Hebrew I remember when the moment was that I realized that this is what I was going to make my home that defining moment for me I remember when it was yeah I was walking on Ben Yuda street right downtown and I was walking down and I saw a can of Coca-Cola and I was staring at it I was transfixed captivated and I couldn't figure out why I was captivated by a can of Coca-Cola and then it hit me that growing up in Houston Texas Hebrew Hebrew was really an old Antiquated language black and white no relevance to me it was the Bible was written and it was like Latin and now I'm here in Israel looking at a can of Coca-Cola and it's alive again God has breathed life into the Hebrew language God has breathed life into the Jewish people and he's bringing us home and I realized that is where I'm going to make my life I'm going to make my life here in Israel Jeremy so for all of you that have made your lives here in Israel and for all of you at home that are still waiting to come home join the party and see what's happening right now in Jerusalem as we end our first show of Tuesday Night Live Shalom from Jerusalem everybody [Applause] [Music] wo n n n n n night know [Applause] [Music] it's [Music] give [Music] he [Music] n [Applause]