Jewel Thief Gets Caught. You Won’t Believe Who He Robbed!

During the roaring 20s, there was a jewel thief by the name of Ar by the name of Arthur Barry. He was a very interesting thief, an unusual one cuz he was very picky about who he who he stole from. He only went to the top of the people of the richest people on the list. They always knew what stores and what type of people he would only rob for. He was a thief who was a snob. Gabriel, he would never take just the lowest of the jewelry. He only went for the best. And he was so genius that he completely succeeded for a extended period of time. After one serious theft when they were on his heist, they actually got caught and got shot three time. Got caught three. He got shot three times. He had glass in his eyes and he cried out and said, "I am not going to do this again." Even though he was already a wealthy man for the immen the tremendous amount of uh robberies that he had, he made a commitment not to do it. He was prosecuted in court and was in jail but somehow managed to escape. Eventually he was able to get away but eventually someone who caught him turned him back in and he ended up serving 18 years. He was he was prosecuted with 18 years in prison. and he got off a little bit early for for good behavior. But I'll cop him that was this incredible genius that was known as Arthur Barry, one of the top thieves that was uh in in the United States of America. Alopan what was interesting is when he came out of jail after his whole experience over there, he definitely kept to his word. He actually was a very good citizen. He went to some place in New England and he was upheld over there as a very high standing citizen until they actually found out who this person was. They realized that this was the original Arthur Barry, the notorious Arthur Barry and many people came to interview him, newscasters, etc., etc. came to find out different things and ask him different questions. But one penetrating question that was asked to him, which really brings out what we're trying to bring out today is they said, "Mr. Barry, you stole from a lot of wealthy people during your years as a thief, but I'm curious to know if you remember the one from whom you stole the most. Who is that person that you stole from the most? Barry, without any moment's hesitation, immediately answered, "Well, that's easy." The man from I stole the most was Arthur Barry. I could have been a successful businessman, a baron on Wall Street, and a contributing member to society. But instead, I chose the life of a thief and spent 2th3 of my adult life behind bars. That's right. Arthur Barry was truly a thief. But the biggest person he stole from was himself. And I think that's really literally in what we read in the time. When we read during the we go ahead during the and from all the sins that we could have we could have spoken about that we do specifically we end we ender with one specific sin that should make sure that we're not we're not stealing and we all know shabas and you know yum kipper eating ones are a lot heavier penalties than they are for stealing. Stealing is a very serious offense and we know it's bad. But why of all the wrote to pick out would they would the with would the wouldal dava pick out the idea of being a gazl and it seems to be and this is written in the that's the druss of of the the balkel one of the big dolead and he writes basically the idea behind it is a similar idea khalen he says that the biggest person that you steal from is yourself that story which I just mentioned to When you go ahead and do something wrong, all the sins that we do, bottom line, is just taking away from who you are. It's not appreciating the person that lies behind the scenes. And it's because you're not appreciating the greatness of the of yourself. When a person does that, he ends up going ahead and falterating to the sides and he ends up doing things which are, as they say, pnished, inappropriate for such a person to do. for you to be able to do it. The more you go ahead and realize and appreciate who you are of the we come from a tremendous lineage and we have a pint that loves us so much then you don't come to doing sin and that's why you're able to be purified on yum kipra that's why in the special day you're actually able to be purified you know like those shabas lights where it's dark and all you have to do is turn around the outside part of it and suddenly you see light. You don't turn on the light. The light's already there. You just remove the ma. You just remove the par what's what's what's uh separating between you and the light. You go ahead and remove all the barriers and suddenly the light that already exists you let it appear. That's the Jew and that's what's so special about every single one of us. So we have to go ahead and take this message to appreciate the art to during the especially during the when we're finishing and starting the ne the rest of the year to go ahead and understand that this is the way we're going to be able to carry it through and go on because the only way you're going to protect yourself next time from a sin after yum kipur when it's all over is only with this to go ahead and realize how special you are how unusual you are and not there's not that many people like you I'll end with a quick misv person who's a balchuva. He was a kilon who was not religious and he became a buma very close to his rv and you know the rv told him I guess he was close enough and he told him here in Israel people are not so into dogs the person had a big German shepherd and he had a big dog and he told him you know maybe it's time to get rid of him in the end of the day he is a kaya he is a tummy animal why should you wake up in the morning and see him the first thing in the morning maybe it's time that you've already reached the level that you don't need to hold on to him so the guy thought for a couple minutes and he told the rv he said one second I have an idea Yep. Why don't I take the dog and throw him in the mikvah? You told me that the mikvah always takes anything to and makes him tummy. That's what we do in yum kipper. It purifies you. So maybe I can go ahead and throw him in the m I'll dunk him. He won't die. Don't worry. And then I'll be able to purify him and he won't be a anymore. Good question. I like the question. You know what the rabbi answered? He said the is intrinsically tauto is essence is is an essence of of tum he's something that is not kosher intrinsically the mikvah can't save something that's intrinsically impure the only thing the mikvah can do is when something is pure intrinsically pure such as a person and he has on him some dirt and he has on him some external kipot some peels which need to be peeled away he has which didn't affect his but they are externally on top of him. Throw him in the mikvah and he becomes pure. That's the as we say in the end of a mikvah. In other words, just like the mikvah removes external problems, so to takes it away. He purifies us on this special day of yum kiper. That's what happened in why because you're a pure soul. Because you're great. Because you have so much within you. You just dirtied yourself up over the year. If a person would realize this, so now right when comes in and we're saying and we're at the end, we know to stop being a gulin. You're not like Barry. Go ahead and appreciate what you have and don't steal your potential from what it's meant to be.