Whatever it Takes | Rabbi Eytan Feiner

A number of years ago, here in the Five Towns-Rockaway area, there was a billboard that featured imagery that a Ben Torah should never be looking at. It was something certainly out of line. Completely inappropriate. A huge billboard on Rockaway Turnpike. Anyone leaving this community heading towards JFK Airport, heading towards Brooklyn. You couldn’t not notice this billboard. And people were calling in Rabbonim, we were trying to see how can we get this billboard down. We didn't want anyone to have to fall prey to this prohibited imagery. And I have to tell you this unbelievable story. One day we see that finally the billboard has changed. How did that happen? I was at a Chasuna in Brooklyn around that same time, and all of a sudden, someone in a sports jacket and pants, no tie, comes in nice, colorful, sharp-looking sports jacket, and somebody who I knew from the past, and he pulls me aside after the dancing and he says, ‘Rabbi Feiner, ‘I got to tell you this. I don't want you to mention my name. ‘I don't want anyone else to know about it. ‘But I saw you here, and I got to tell you.’ And it turns out that this Yid who's going to remain anonymous, don’t worry, that was the pact we made, this Yid noticed that there was that billboard there. And this Yid called up the company and he said, ‘How much will it cost ‘to get that billboard down?’ It was thousands and thousands of dollars. במקום שאין אנשים - השתדל להיות איש. And he spent thousands and thousands of dollars to get that billboard taken down. And he says, even though that person had another month or so, he said, ‘I will buy him out and I'll put up a new message.’ And he went ahead and got that Pritzusdike image taken down. ‘Take it for me out instantly!’ This regular Yid, but Morai Verabosai, he was anything but regular. That's a Yid! That's a Yid who cares about our Shmiras Einayim. That’s a Yid who says when someone's got to step up to the plate, don't wait for someone else to do it. You want to grow in Kedusha, you want to grow in your learning, in your Avodas Hashem. Then you got to follow the lead when you see something inappropriate. Take action. Don't wait for yenem, don't wait for anybody else. You got to be willing to do whatever it takes to save, to be Matzil Klal Yisroel, so we could all together preserve our Kedushas Einayim, and continue to shteig מחיל אל חיל, give Nachas Ruach to the Boreh Olam.