The Switch | Eitan Katz

ושים ושים חלקנו שים שים חלקנו שים שים חלקנו עמהם In Shmoneh Esrei, we say, and we say, that our חלק should be with them. And when we daven, you know, we try to have Kavanah, we try to actually, you know, picture who you're thinking about ושים חלקנו עמהם. And of course, besides all of the Chashuv Rabbonim and Tzaddikim of the generation and previous generations, for me, personally, this past couple of years, I’ve zeroed in on thinking about the ehrliche Yidden walking down the street with a flip phone. That's just my Mishekgoss. I can't, I see them walking down, and I see such Pashtus and I see such ehrlichkeit and such a strong stand against where the world is heading to. And over the years of being in the industry that I am, it’s very difficult. People send messages and they expect a message back right away. And it’s ממש a Parnassadik. If you don't see a message, ‘Are you available this-and-this date?’ you know, within a couple of hours the gig is gone. And you think to yourself: Of course I need it. I need a social media, I need this, I need that, and all the תירוצים in the world. But inside, I always had this honest moment of truth inside of me that really to שים חלקנו עמהם. And Baruch Hashem, recently, I made the switch. I wanted to be like them, to be honest. I just wanted to be like those Yidden. Baruch Hashem, because of my schedule where I mostly work at night and the afternoons are for, you know, office work, within the music world, I've always been zoche to have a morning seder in Yeshiva. And there aren't too many Chavrusas that have the same type of schedule that I do. And I had a Chavrusa for a good couple of years recently and we were smack in the middle of Maseches Yuma, when his schedule changed and he couldn't continue with the morning schedule. I was really tzebrochen, I was really sad about it. It was very difficult for me, but I pushed through and I finished the Masechta on my own. And it was a big accomplishment. But then the new Masechta started, and without a Chavrusa, to start a new Masechta is really, really difficult. It was not simple and I fell behind the schedule in the beginning, and it was really just these feelings of ייאוש. The day that I made that switch, the ושים חלקנו עמהם switch, that's what I call it, that day, maybe the second or third phone call I got was from a Chavrusa looking for a morning Seder, the same Limud that I'm learning, here where I live. And I thought to myself, Yeah, the story would have been great if that day I got a call to play, you know, a huge event and plenty of Parnassah and that would be a great story. But an even greater story is that I got a Chavrusa. That's what Hashem gave me, Hashem gave me a Chavrusa. We have to believe that every single thing we do, every big change, small change, middle change we do, HaKadosh Baruch Hu is looking and watching and has Nachas from it. And he gives you what sometimes you don't even know you need. We should be zoche to continue believing that every single thing that we do makes a difference, not just for us and our family, but in Shomayim also.