Third Yahrtzeit of Rabbi Dr Abraham J Twerski ZT"L

okay so you asked me if I can tell you a little bit about my grandfather who's yourit us today um it's very diffic it's a very difficult task because there's no telling you a little bit about my grandfather my grandfather was many people in one um and it's not reasonable just to say a little bit because you can't just say a little bit about a person that was a big person like him so there were three different people within him first of all he was my Zeda he was my grandfather he was the grandfather of my kids who we loved and we loved to be around him and in turn he loved to be around us um whenever he was by our house he used to literally he was 80 years old he got down the floor played with my kids played with my nephews and nieces built uh uh train tracks with them watch my kids play um he was very into playing with uh with the um grandchildren and watching them play um he was a zaa he was a grandfather like any other grandfather um as far as he was also a tremendous he was a he had he had from many including um he had a very close CER with the stier um he was a person that was that lived for the every day um he his daily thing was in the in the morning was how can I be a better person so much so that he used to have a picture of her mule on a stier and he used to look at his grandfather's picture and say you know when I come up there you know this is my my grandfather what are they going to say about me they wanted much more from me he used to be sometimes the belilla for daving cab shabas I can't I can only imagine it because I can replay it because I've lived through it but if you when he went up to the to DAV kabas was fire Beyond fire um he it was as heart sick as you can possibly get um there was a story a number of years ago he was there was a shabbaton at a retreat there were many Jews many non-jews different people from different religion and were shabas and he got up to they him with with Benin and he got up to say and so on and so forth and he was crying literally pouring out his heart and somebody over there said I don't understand the man is 85 years old all these things that are being said in the probably was was was gifted to him already like what's he crying and asking for and then he figured out that he's crying for everybody standing there there were 200 men and women there not a dry eye in the place he was a a a real a person that put his heart into everything um he was a balagan he made a lot of different songs including which is very famous um and he asked to be brought to burial with that song and he told it to me numerous times he said you know when they bury a person the come to be MRI on the person but the is not going to come because they're going to see people walking around there they're they're dancing is going to think that's a so he asked for it and that's what he got and then he was a probably one of the top psychiatrists and physicians in the United States and the world actually um and his thing was first of all he he he helped many many many many people Jews non-jews every religion every culture tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of patients um he founded Gateway Rehabilitation Center in the 1970s which by now has many more um branches all over the world and his thing was he all he never saw the negative of a person only saw the positive in the 1990s he opened a rehab center in ER called shva and he used to go to the jail and take out um XC and you know alcoholics drugs whatever and bring them to the facility for them to become better and not only that but he also also brought on their spouses so that they can work through and see the um the treatment that their spouse is going through so story has it that um when he opened he had his first group and he was talking to the patients and of course his topic was as always self-esteem and there was a guy by the name of AI who was in jail multiple times and and AI got up and said Doctor what do you why are you talking to us about self-esteem do you know who I am I've been in jail numerous times my family wants me dead they don't want to have anything to do with me I'll come out of jail nobody's going to give me a job because of my history talk about a different subject and my grandfather looked at him and said AI let me ask you a question did you ever pass a jewelry store and look into the window many diamonds did you ever think for a second where those diamonds are coming from what those diamonds were before they were diamonds if we normal people walk in the street and find something like that on theground full of dirt we would say it's a piece of glass and we'll throw it away the diamond dealers take this piece of dirt and uncover the diamond from within which is worth many many thousands of dollars he said AI this is what we do here we everybody has a blemish everybody has dirt I am here to uncover their dirt and find the diamond n from within um story has it that ABI stayed with the facility for a while got back on track cleaned himself up and became a construction worker a few months after he left the facility the secretary calls him and said AI I need a favor from you there's an elderly person who was NE and his family called that they want to donate all the furniture from the this uh person's house to sh to the facility can you please pick it up and delivered here of course obious said no problem and he went and he picked up the furniture as he's carrying a torn couch up the steps of the facility an envelope with 5,000 shekel fell out of the couch and ABI picked up the phone called the family to return that money and he came back to my grandfather and he said I am so happy with myself years ago I used to steal five shekel 10 shekele from somebody to be able to go buy some crack or some dope and now I didn't think twice I am a diamond I am a diamond and you uncovered my beauty and he walked downstairs and put a big sign on the door of the facility Diamond polishing Center and that's how my grandfather was he polished diamonds he found only the Gooden people never judged somebody had an ear for anybody he could have sat down with anybody and everybody whenever I called him people used to call me and say you know I need your grandfather can I talk to him you know I made that phone call there was never a no there were people that flew to air to when he after he retired and he wasn't even working anymore to get to get that um to get that conversation with him and he started many he helped many different organizations um for uh drug and alcohol and abuse and others um open up um so that's that's who he was so what we can all do in this day day of his yard site is first of all look into ourselves and if we ever have a negativity about ourselves it's just the dirt let's uncover the dirt let's let's take off the dirt and uncover the diamond within ourselves as well as if you see another person let's not judge another person let's look beyond the dirt and uncover their diamonds