Your Choices Reverberate Forever - Los Angeles Weekend of Chizuk {Yeshiva Ohr Eliyahu For Girls}

It's an honor to be here in uh this very wonderful uh yeshiva school especially in the beginning of the year. It's interesting. I see uh from my good friends, the Weiss family. We actually recently couple months ago, we had this to travel to Bellarus to visit the Kev of the And it's not so easy to get to Bellarus. It used to be to get to Bellarus, you needed a special visa. So, I'm sure you know what a passport is, but it's not good enough to have a passport. You need a visa. So a little while ago to get a visa to go to Barus you just got an app and you applied and they sort of registered your passport number to allow you to enter the country. But recently in order to get into Barus, Barus is between Lithuania and Russia. you need to actually go back go down to Washington and get a formal visa where you go to the embassy and they take your passport and they put this uh hard paper on it and they stamp it and they seal it and now you're allowed to get into Bellarus. So if you live in California and you needed a visa, you need to overnight your passport to New York. It's a whole ordeal. But any anyway it was worth it and preparing to go to the I did a lot of preparation about the life of the and you know you think about the you figure I don't know he was probably born holding on to a gamorra in his hand you know he probably was born a very big sadic but when you learn about the life of you realize had to overcome a lot of struggles to become the he wasn't born the actually was an orphan and as a young boy he was sent to a shul in VNA to learn and in VNA there was a very bright man there who had not a yeshiva but something called a seminar and the seminar was a institution of education for the Hascala movement. The asca movement was enlightenment movement and without getting into too many details this was not a traditional approach to yiddeskite and the head of this seminar was not a shatara mitzv and he was always lurking trying to see if he could snatch a young boy out of the yeshiva and bring him to the seminar and educate him in more modern values so he wouldn't become a sharmat And he was always lurking in the shul in VNA. And he sees a very bright kid. His name was Israel Mayor. And Israel mayor was an orphan. So he figured he's easy prey to try to attack to try to persuade him to come to the seminar. So he strikes up a conversation with um Israel mayor and he's talking to him about Tyra and about science and about other things and he feels he's getting somewhere. He feels you know he might be able to persuade Israel to leave the base medish and to come to the seminar and day after day this man would try to persuade this little boy he wasn't so little he was a teenager to leave the yeshiva and to come to the seminar and one day a water carrier came over to Israel mayor and he said what are you doing why are you talking to this man by the way this man's name was Adam Hako Levenson who is the only person who later in life would say about him. Why are you talking to this guy love and sin? You know, he he he doesn't keep kosher. Even his only his only mission is to try to persuade you to leave the yeshiva. Don't talk to him. And it's interesting the didn't say, "Okay, uh I'm not going to believe what this man is telling me. I'm not going to believe." The was very concerned. So he ran out of VNA and he never came back from VNA because of this report of the water carrier. And the would say his whole life that the water carrier of VNA saved him saved the Mishna Bura save for and saved Kl. But if you think about it, you know the almost didn't make it. He almost he almost fell into the trap of this guy Levvenson Barashem. He overcame that challenge. But you know it reminds us that in this world we always have challenges. Nothing is all nothing is smooth sailing. Every step in life we have to overcome challenges. And one day we'll look back very proudly that if we overcome our challenges we'll say we are who we are today because of the decisions that we made. You know, I remember when I was learning in Israel, actually, I uh sent my first son. He he actually has an older brother, but my my son Mayor went to learn this week in Israel. And I'll tell you the truth, it's very hard for me. I really miss him. And usually I have I don't look at my phone before dabbing. That's my That's my approach, you know, until I finish domining and learning in the morning. I don't look at my phone. But I couldn't do that today because I'm in LA. So LA, you're I'm 3 hours ahead of New York and New York is 7 hours ahead of Israel and my son is 10 hours ahead of me. So I wanted to be able to, you know, wish him a good chabas. So he called me this morning. You know, it was so nice to see him in Arts Israel. But I'm thinking back 25 years ago when I was learning in Israel. I remember one of the first schmuzen that I heard when I was in Israel from a Rebi Rabbi Binyam Luban. He said over a very powerful uh schmuz the Gmorrah tells us and Rashi brings us down that when Bum was standing on the top of the mountain he was looking into Arat Israel he saw at the corner of Arat Israel in a very successful position were the descendants of Israel remember Israel was the father-in-law of Mosabenu he was the first g and Israel's children were the leaders of the Jewish people and they were actually the heads of the Sanhedrin in the Bay Mikdash. You know the Sanhedrin had an office in the Bameikdash and the heads of the Sanhedrin were the children of Israel. And Bum said, "I can't believe it. The children of Israel are so holy. They're so important for Cl. Just the other day, me and Israel were sitting at the same table and we were together and now I'm a Russia and I'm a terrible evil, wicked person and Israel and his descendants are Sadikim. I don't understand how that happened. We were just together a few days ago. Now, does anybody remember where was Bum together with Israel? When were they ever together at the same table? So the garra says that when parro didn't know what to do with the Jewish people, he had a Jewish problem, he called in three advisers. Do you remember who they were? He called in Bum, he called in Yroy, and he called in. And Yroy said, "Don't touch them. Don't harm him. Anyone who harms the Jewish people, they're jeopardizing their life. They're the beloved children of Hashem." And Bum said, "Kill them, destroy them, bathe in their blood." And Eo just sat there quietly. And the Gomorrah says, "Eio for sitting there quietly was punished. I was punished with great punishment. He should have spoken up." Bam. Bum who who advised power to kill the Jews. Bam was killed. And Isra who advised Par not to harm us. He was rewarded that his descendants for all time are the heads of the Sanhedrin. So Bum said, "I don't understand. Me and him yesterday we were sitting at this table. We were together and now today look how far apart we are. I'm the biggest Russia and his children are very righteous." The question is, I don't understand. What couldn't Bum get? What didn't he understand? What was he surprised about? Of course, him and Yroy sat at the same table. But that's because at that time they were on the same bed. They were on the same court. But BA made a bad decision and he advised that power should kill us. And Yroy made a good decision. So what didn't he understand? Of course, he's a wicked person. And Y Israel and his descendants are righteous because Yroy took the right path in life and Bam took the wrong path in life. What did Bum not understand? And Abbeby brought out that what he didn't understand was he remembered very well they were sitting at the same table. And at the time when parro said what should I do with the Jewish people? You know, it entered Bum's mind. Maybe I should do the right thing and advise Parro not to harm us. And it entered Yroy's mind, maybe I should try to curry favor with Pyro and I should advise him to kill us. And they were both struggling at that time. And Bum made the wrong decision and Yur made the right decision. And that put them on completely different trajectories in life. Because of that decision that Baham made, it led him to a path of being so wicked. And because of that decision that Yroy made, it forever and ever established his family as Bum couldn't understand it. We were together in the same classroom. We were sitting next to each other. From one decision in life, it could make such a impact. It could it could change the course of a person's future forever. That's something Bum didn't understand. But that's something that we all have to try to understand that when we come to school every day, we have to make decisions. Sometimes that those decisions seem very minor to us. You know, how much should I be devoted to my studies? How much should I try to improve my character? How much should I try to my be? How how hard should I try to do mitzvah? And sometimes we think these are minor decisions. But the small little decisions that you make now when you're how old are you? >> 12, 13, 14 years old, those little decisions will change the course of the rest of your life and your children and your grandchildren. And you know, you come to school in the morning, you think, I'm I'm just coming to school. No, you're not just coming to school. How you come to school in the morning is how you're going to grow up to be, what your family is going to be like, and what your future is going to be like. There's a very interesting mitzvah at the end of this week's para. You know, do you know the let's say uh they're walking down, you're walking down the street and you see in the street a dead body and the question who who killed this body and there's a big fight because it it's just it's just there in between two cities and one city says no it's closer to your city and the other city said no it's closer to your city. So the Torah says Bezdon has to come and they're going to measure which city is closest to this person and whichever city is closest that city is responsible. So they measure and once they determine which city is closest the best of that city comes and they wash their hands and they say no no it's not our fault we didn't kill him. So Gamar asks what does anybody actually think the bezden killed this guy? Why would anybody think the bezdon killed this guy? So the garra says something very interesting. No, nobody thinks the bezdon killed the guy. The garra says, you see, bezdon has to make the following declaration. We never had this guy in our house and let him just leave. Any guest we have, we're going to escort him for and only then we'll let them leave our house. The garra says from here we see a very important mitzvah that when you invite a guest to your house, you can't just feed them. You can't just give them to drink. You need to escort them. You know about this mitzvah escorting, right? Iselin. You got to escort a guest. In other words, you you imagine you had a guest. You give them all kinds of good food. You give them the best drinks. And now the meal is over. You say, "Bye. See you later. Adios, amigo." You know, "Catch you later." No, that's not good enough. It's not good enough. You have to walk them four. If you don't walk them four, you're not the mitzvah of properly. Four is about 8 ft. 8 ft out of your door. Okay. So, the question is what is this mitzvah? Why do you need to escort someone 8 feet? Because the gamarra implies that if you escort someone eight feet, they will never be harmed when they leave your house. Somehow when you escort them eight feet, they will not be harmed. It gives them protection. How does walking a guy 8 ft give someone protection? Are there any bad neighborhoods here in LA? >> What is it called? >> Downtown. >> Downtown. Okay, so here it is. The guy comes to your house to eat in Hancock Park or wherever or in uh where else where else do you come from? >> Pico Pico. >> Pico. Hancock Park. Labraa, right? Pico. They're in a safe neighborhood. And now they have to go home. And the only way they they they could get home is if they walk through downtown. So you're telling me that if I walk them four cubits, four Amalo out of my house, then they'll be protected in downtown. And if I don't walk them for Amalo in Hancock Park, they won't be protected in in downtown. What are my four cubits of walking them here in a safe neighborhood? How is that going to protect them in an unsafe neighborhood? There's an amazing Marsha. Marsha is one of the important commentaries on the Gar. The Marsha says that if you walk someone four cubits, four Amos, you know what you're doing? You're showing that you want this person to be protected. Now, you have no you don't have time to walk him down past downtown. You don't have three extra hours, but you do have 3 seconds. By walking them four, you're showing it's your it's your will to protect this guy. Once Hashem sees that it's yours and it's your will to protect him, Hashem will protect them. Why? It's called of Hashem will do the will of those who fear him. So as long as you take four steps and you show Hashem that you want this person to be protected, Hashem says, "Great, you want him to be protected. I'll do the rest of the job." And I think there's a very important message over here in life. Hashem does not expect us to jump to the moon, to rise all the way up to the sky. All he wants us to do is give it a few good steps. Try a little bit. Try a little bit more. We could all always put in a little bit of more effort, a little bit of more concentration, a little bit more energy into the mitzvah. And if you put a few extra steps into it, Hashem will take us the rest of the way there. That is how Hashem operates. If we put our best foot forward, we give it a little extra effort, Hashem will give us tremendously after the So, it's the beginning of the school year. And sometimes it's a little overwhelming, you know, maybe what grade is this? >> Six, seven, and eight. Yeah. So sixth is not like fifth and seventh is not like sixth and eighth is not like seventh. You'll see. You just try a little bit more and then all of a sudden Hashem's going to help you out and you're going to beem very successful. I wish you all. Thank you very much for hosting me. suffer.