No Room For Compromising | Yaakov & Eli Langer

I run something called Living Lchaim and every single year, we put out a film for Tisha B’av. It's a free film. And the goal is for people in Klal Yisroel to feel the pain that other brothers and sisters in Klal Yisroel are going through. This year we were doing a production together with Shai Graucher and Shai knows so many people that have been affected by the recent tragedies since October 7th, and he connected me with a few very special families and people. Two days before the film comes out, Yaakov sends a message, Guys, we have a problem. One of the people featured in the film isn't as Tznius as I would like. I wouldn't want my Rebbe watching it. I'm not comfortable watching it. I spoke to an editor and it's going to cost some money to make it Tznius. I said: How much? Somewhere between $3,000 and $3,500. I said: You're serious? I was so torn, because here we have this woman who just poured her heart out, describing everything she's been through and how she's going to continue on working on her Emunah and Bitachon and trust in Hashem and... and growing spiritually, but at the same time, we wouldn't be able to air this film to our 1.6 million subscribers. So myself, Yaakov, Yoni, we looked at each other on the video chat and we said, We'll figure out a way. We're doing the right thing. We don't have the money right now. Let's just go for it. And what happened was my brother, he was just making a lot of jokes on his WhatsApp status, and he was just very upfront, he said: We're trying to raise money to help cover the costs of the... the editing for this, so we can make sure that everyone in Klal Yisroel gets to watch this and it's done in the most proper and most Tznius way. All of a sudden, you had to see it, I have it here. The first donation that came in was $5. Then... People from across the world. Someone said: I'm in for $500. I'm in for $200. Kept going and going and going, until someone messaged Yaakov and said: How much are you short? I got it. The hardest part about it was still coming up. I had to give this woman a call and tell her what we were going to do. You know, we're manipulating this video and I want to make sure, you know, that she's comfortable with it. But I also... I don't really know her. And I give her a call, I am so nervous, and she starts laughing and she says: For Tznius? Of course. If this is the right thing, then of course, this is what we need to do. And we put out the film and... and Baruch Hashem, over 150,000 people saw it. It was an unbelievable lesson to us in that sometimes you're uncertain about how you're going to accomplish something. You know the risks involved, but you don't have the tools necessary to complete the task. What we did was go in with somewhat of a blind faith. We don't know how we're going to get this money, we don't know how we're going to accomplish this project, but we're going to have Emunah. When you're faced with a decision and you could either do the okay thing or the better thing, we could have gotten away with it if we just used the footage as is, it wasn't so crazy, but it feels so good to stand on your morals and do the right thing, and I wouldn't trade that for anything. I think there is a cultural shift going on because of Vayimaen, whether it's guys my age or even teenagers and people younger than me, that there is this focus on ensuring that we're looking at the right places and even thinking differently. We all go through challenges in life and some are bigger and some are smaller, but when you go through those smaller decisions and make the right move, there's nothing better and more empowering than that.