Anchored in the Past to Transform the Future - By Rabbi YY Jacobson

ah [Music] she [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] ah [Music] so you know they tell the story about the rabbi the priest and the minister who go into Starbucks and they order a latte for 9:50 they're sipping they're laughing and they're schmoozing what are they going to talk about that will not arouse any conflict any negative energy so they talk about something very neutral namely what would you like to hear people say at your funeral the priest says I would appreciate if at my funeral people talk about my dedication to the Lord if they extol my virtues as being a true servant of the Lord dedicated to God bringing the light of the Lord into countless hearts and lives minister how about you and the minister says I would cherish if at my funeral people would talk about me as a friend as somebody you can trust somebody you could lean on during hard times somebody who was there for his people 24 hours a day seven days a week a real friend a lover of humanity rabbi how about you what would you like to hear people say at your funeral and the rabbi says I would like to hear somebody say at my funeral you know I think he's moving we love life as Jews we cherish life life is holy one of the last verses in the entire Torah the five books of Moses the end of the hummus describes the passing of the great leader of Israel Moisture obey no Moses our teacher the Torah says vayam us from wherever - am I the quintessential servant of God passes away value could be Royce a bad guy Barrett's Moya of mall bass poi they buried him in a valley in the land of Marv that's today's Jordan parallel to the home of the idol known as Paw Paw was an ancient Idol as the Talmud explains it was an idol in which the tradition was quite how do we say this unique people would worship the parietal by evacuating their system in its presence they would defecate in front of the pyre and this was the way to worship it so they buried moisture in a valley the Torah says in the land of mauve parallel to the home to the center of the pure Idol vallejo delicious for Russell yada yada and no man knows his burial place till this very day do you know - they're very contradiction in this plastic in this verse one of the last verses of the entire time first the Torah says moisture was buried and the tire gives us three landmarks to identify where he was buried the first thing you should know was bad guy he was in a valley the second thing you should know was by air it's my earth it was in the land of my off so we already know which land it is which territory it is and we already have a special land markets in a valley and then the Torah gives us a specific location mole base point that big home with the prior Idol was situated parallel to that there's a valley that's where Moses is buried three identifying signs to know the location where moisture is buried and then the Torah says right away below your days just for us a a day a miser nobody knows where he's buried till this very day what do you mean you just gave me three signs to know and if those three signs are insufficient and nobody still knows where he's buried notwithstanding all the songs of the Torah so why do you first give me three landmarks just say moisture passed away he was buried and nobody knows where he was buried no first you tell me exactly where then you say but nobody knows where so why are you telling me where if nobody knows where there's another question Jewish law cautions us of using centers of idolatry to identify places according to Jewish law even if I have to tell you come and meet me at this corner or you're going to find a store at this corner we should not use a place of idolatry as a landmark to identify where we should meet meet that this corner right across say the church and yet here we're talking about the burial place of the great prophet of Israel the giver of the Torah the Redeemer of the Jewish people might remain of Moses and the only way the Torah can identify his burial place is Mull base PA you know where it is it's right against you know that big play that big place of idolatry that dirt and lick my so that's where my that's your Moses my dear friends one of the very moving interpretations to this verse I've once seen is this the Torah is telling us a very profound message by you could be rousai Moshe is buried way she is interred in the ground you know when you know we're if it's a valley in the land of Moya of mul base point if parallel to this place is a base PA there's a center of idolatry deprived of the awareness of the oneness of the universe created by one God who sees the world as one essential reality and all of us United as part of a singular creator creating a unified harmonious world if that reality of that conviction is lacking instead what's thriving in the world is the idea of pie promiscuous in moral idolatry then we know Moses is buried Moses died and he's buried as we say in there Aaron he's deep in the ground however if we manage to change the world and infuse the world with the reality of unity of oneness the oneness of God present in the entire universe then Villa your the interest for us oh yeah oh yeah my said that nobody knows Moses burials play still today you know why because he's not buried his vision and his ideals continue to inspire your humanity so although his body passed away but his perspectives his dreams his teachings continue to live in the hearts and souls of his people and of humanity till today motion is not buried moisture is not dead he's alive we breathe him we live him we transmit him to our children to our students mission is not Barrett the Med which tells the story that a very wise man turned to a child with his fist closed he says child tell me this bird that I hold in my hand is a Dead or Alive of course he wants to catch the child because whenever the child says he'll be proven wrong the child says the bird is alive so the man will just give our Ketchel smashes lands and the bird will die and if the child says the bird is dead he'll open his fist and the bird will fly away so he says chyle tell me this bird is dead or alive and the child looks at him the meddlers tells the story the child looks at him and says sir it's up to you you are the one who has to decide whether the bird is dead or alive this is true about our relationship with all of our loved ones who have passed on it's up to you and me to decide if they're dead or alive if their values their ideal their passions their fights what they were ready to fight and sacrifice for it's gone they're indeed dead they're buried but if they continue to inspire us if their ideas continue to challenge us and stimulate us and inspire us to grow every day of our life and become better human beings better Jews so their lives continue to live in our lives through our lives so the Torah gives us the choice if we're there bists and the valley of myath Mull bass par what the limit what what conquers the world is based by or is division of idolatry the vision of cynicism of the sphere of randomness of emptiness of self-centeredness of narcissism that Moishe's buried but if we vanquish the base pure then nobody knows where my fishes buried till today he's not buried nobody knows where he's buried he lives in our sea lives in our children he lives in every Jewish community he lives in every heart every day we wake up we learned the tour of I need a brush them on when shall I meet God still speaks to Moses and this is true about a Moses in every generation it's true about every person it's true about every leader and it's this idea that the lubavitcher rebbe whose yard site we commemorate this evening globally and welcome to all of you are here with us literally around the whole world it's the idea that the lava never once articulated and it Hasidic for bringing at a gathering at the yard site of his predecessor the altar ever the great master rabbi schneider's almond of Lee 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Lucas beam you heard of the lotion I adore for your future - a hoot sur une autre demo and alleged attack from goggles that ya Delarue now let's examine Sugerman the Nifty can give teacher martin developed do not learn missile the tato a business a Kasai student kemar yield from ahora are viable wholly alien a moment the get left idle a victim of my life team the gang civil to me safeassign should be as mature as each k know the correct manner so mala from all the harbor solely the yella t of a yo-yo [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] came back kindness has easy Harley races hohoho [Applause] came back on their cars easy holy lorries whose forward [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] you know they tell the story about a father who sent his son to study at a Sunday Hebrew school of a particular temple in the United States of America and one day the father goes to visit his boy in Hebrew school and he meets him and he says my dear David how are you enjoying your Hebrew school and David says daddy it's awesome he says David let me ask you a question I'm going to quiz you tell me David who broke the tablets the boy looks at his father begins to tremble and says daddy it was not me it was not me the father is upset David tell me who broke the tablets he says daddy I swear to you it wasn't me I had nothing to do with it I didn't even think of doing it an angry father walks into the classroom to meet the teacher says are you my son's teacher yes I am sir how can I help you I asked my son he tells the teacher who broke the tablets and you know what he tells me it wasn't me I didn't do it I didn't think of doing it what type of teacher are you the teacher looks at the father and he says I have now known your son for seven months if he said he didn't do it he didn't do it an infuriated father walks into the principal's office mr. Cohen are you the principal of this lousy school yes I am you should be embarrassed with yourself I asked my son who broke the tablets he tells me I didn't do it I asked his teacher what is going on here the teacher says if he said he didn't do what he didn't do it close down the school mr. Cohen the principal response sir I'm so sorry that you're upset let me promise you that we will compensate you for the broken tablets just give us a receipt and we'll pay you back for the broken tablets I'm very sorry that they broke one of the great questions of our generation is Jewish identity in a multicultural society it's not a secret the mass Jewish assimilation and ignorance that characterizes our people as a result of a multicultural society which often causes minorities to be swallowed up by the sheer embrace of secularism in one country or another country and it's this particular theme critical to an understanding of our past our present in our future that a leader of the stature of the Lubavitcher ever addressed very often and it's one of his central ideas that I want to articulate this evening and doing it via a particular law in the Talmud but a law that must be close to our hearts as a people that is in love with sushi it's hard today to go to a Bar Mitzvah or a wedding or a kiddush if it's a respectable kiddush and that's fine sushi I'm going to talk about a strange observation in the Talmud concerning fish I should say parenthetically the Lubavitcher ever had a liking to fish how do I know I know this for my grandfather my mother's father his name was a blank ellipse cur of blessed memory he lived in Russia and after the war the Second World War he left Russia with his family the Lipski family they came to Paris and France the rebels mother Rebbetzin honish Narus and the wife of the chief rabbi of the appropiate ROVs her husband died in exile during the war in 1944 but she managed to escape the Soviet Union after the war and she arrived in Paris and her son our oldest son Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson who later would become the lab amateur ever came from New York to Paris to greet his mother who he hasn't seen for two decades to 20 years and their ever stayed in a hotel for a few months it was the spring of 47 and yet to eat so my grandmother my mother's mother had the privilege of cooking and preparing the food for him and my grandfather my mother's father a blank ellipse Kerr would bring the food to the hotel so he knew the Rebbe his desires and their ever wanted to eat fish and once he asked her ever what's this thing with fish so the rabbit told them that in the Kabbalah there is a discussion about the significance of food you know orphan human souls are reincarnated into food it's called gill Ghulam and the mystery of reincarnations some human souls are reincarnated into different creatures animals but it says in Kabbalah the lubavitcher rebbe told my grandfather that the souls of subdeacon are reincarnated into fish she says that's why I like fish in the fish our souls of the subdeacon right so it's an interesting thing when somebody likes a particular food because of the types of souls that are reincarnated into the food they're better liking for fish the Talmud the Talmud in tractate need page 51 be dolphin an Aleph Emet base the Mishna says a fascinating thing the Torah gives to identifying signs for kosher fish what the Torah and partial mini and leviticus and impressions ray in Deuteronomy Kol see a slice not pretty because guesses kosher fish have to have fins and scales a fish that possesses both fins and scales the culture fish comes the Mishnah in the Talmud tractate needed non olive and then says a scientific fact namely Cosi Ashley Casca says you Ashley snappy any fish which naturally possesses scales automatically it must be the deficiency has fins but there are fish that have fins and don't have scales now this was an omission a mission it was written close to two millennia ago edited by Bray due to the prints around the Year 150 after the Common Era so it's close to two thousand years that passed since then a few million species of fish have been discovered but they still didn't discover a fish that have scales and don't have fins they once discovered fish that have scaled on their fins but they realized later that their fins were there they just fell off so this is what the Mishna says you can have a fish that has fins but doesn't have scales but if they have scale a little romantically as fins so the Talmud asks a great question what's the question all of you should be asking this question what's the question so why does the Torah give us the sign of fins if a fish has scales you say that it automatically inevitably it possesses fins too so why does the Torah have to give us two signs the Torah could have just given us one sign which sign Cass Cass scales because if it has scales it automatically has fins so why does it turn off to give us two signs the Torah can't just give us the sign of fins because it can have fins and not have scales and it needs scales to be culture but if every fish that has scales automatically as fins the Torah should just say scales and automatically it has fins what do you need two sons give me one sign the sign of scales what's the answer in the Talmud the answer in the Talmud in the name of the rabbi Abajo and the Academy of Rabbi Shmuel it's three words yeah Gil Turner V yeah there it's to make the Torah larger and more powerful yeah good bill turtle van I asked you tonight what does this mean how does this extra excessive superfluous unnecessary sign of fins make the torah' larger and more powerful first of all we are very well aware of the conciseness and brevity and meticulousness of every word every syllable never mind every sentence and verse in the Bible there's not an extra letter or word we never say yeah alternatively I do just add some words add some letters add some paragraphs Tory's very brief suddenly here we say Yaga alternatively either add an unnecessary word but besides this how does this make the Torah bigger and stronger by adding an extra sign offensive what we have one more word in the Torah it says not only it should a fish have scales it should also have fins does this really make the tyre bigger larger more respectable more impressive more intense more powerful more majestic more profound one of the great commuter commentators do receive all the great Spanish commentator says perhaps scales are also a factor that makes this I'm sorry fins are also a factor that make the fish kosher in other words we need this sign of fins even though we know it has fins because of that scale it has fins because the Torah is trying to teach us that fins are necessary to make it kosher there's something about the fins that make it kosher great answer but it's not with the Talmud says the Talmud says the reason it says fences was Yaga Bill Turner he had to make the turret bigger and more powerful but how does it come back to become bigger and powerful the lubavitcher rebbe were saved from Nazi Holocaust from the Nazi Holocaust in 1941 he escaped France where he was living and was occupied by the Germans ultimately arrived in Portugal and from Lisbon he took a ship that brought him to the shores of the United States of America seventy years ago in 1941 he arrived here on the 28th day of 7 June 1941 a little while later a few months later September 11th 1941 ello the rebel wrote a journal but we call it a Shima that remained in his drawer all the years it was only after his passing on the 3rd of Tom was 94 when his drawers were open and all those manuscripts private journals and Diaries and essays that he wrote for himself were retrieved up to and then edited and published so a few months after he arrives there's a published manuscript that he wrote for himself an essay explaining and answering this question on the Talmud and the following idea is based it's based on the idea there ever presents in that essay although he expresses it in different ways in a more abstract form but the concept the nucleus of what I'm presenting now comes from that particular essay you know we Jews are very good at arguing I don't have to tell you what do they say three Jews 19 opinions I once heard from the Lubavitcher ever why is it when two jews meet I tell you Shalom Aleichem and your responses Aleichem Sholem why don't you respond in kind Salaam alaikum peace on to you your response should be shelling my life and peace unto you I mean if I meet you when I say hey good morning how are you you're not going to tell me you are how morning good you'll say good morning how are you here I say Shalom Ali and you say I laid them solemn why don't you say Shalom Aleichem and there Abu had a fantastic sense of humor by the way explain then cities it's very simple when two jews meet they immediately have to disagree even the first greeting arouses evokes of disagreements I tell you Sholem Aleichem and your first response is man it's exactly the other way around what Salaam alaikum it's alaikum Salaam now we can begin smooth and once we got over the fights and maybe the rest of the conversation can be peaceful we Jews have been debating and arguing about everything for many many years but perhaps one of the great debates or maybe the most important debate of the Jewish people has been a debate between two characters and I'm going to call them rabbi scales and dr. fins it's too famous Jews and unfamous Jews I know them very very well I know them within myself I've met that many many times wherever I travel there's dr. Finn's and rabbi scales and they have been arguing for thousands of years and they never get bored of their argument they say when Golda Meir the Prime Minister of Israel became the Prime Minister of Israel so she wrote a letter to the Secretary of State of the u.s. Henry Kissinger who's a Jew and she expressed her gratitude and her anticipation for a close working relationship with a Jewish colleague working as a secretary of state of the US foreign minister of the superpower Henry Kissinger a German Jew in origin clever man a a well thought out diplomat politician negotiator writes back a letter to Golda Meir and says I'm looking forward to a nice working relationship but I have to specify to you my priorities number one I am an American citizen number two I am secretary of state of the US number three I happen to be Jewish Golda Meir who was a clever Jewish woman the Prime Minister of Israel writes back to mr. Kissinger and mr. Kissinger this is exactly why I look forward to a very close working relationship with you because you see here in Israel we read from right to left in many ways the quintessential debate of the Jewish people has been whether we read from right to left or from left to right what is the difference between fins and scales scales essentially are the armor of the fish they are the thick skin that protect the fish from climate change in the waters from water pressure from sometimes being attacked by other fish from harsh substances from changes in the environment within the water scales or in Hebrew cows guesses are the shields they're the armor they're the gear of protection their uniform that the fish we're that the fish have they don't wear they possess which protects them it's the thick skin that allows them to hold on to themselves to retain their own and I sometimes difficult and harsh environment in the depths of the waters fins serve a very different purpose fins are essentially the wings of the fish that allow it to advance through the waters that allow it to swim that allow it to cover huge amounts of territory to progress within the waters and and move forward what is the calling of Jewish identity is the argument between rabbi fit rabbi scales and dr. fins one perspective among the Jewish people of thousands of years is the most important characteristic of for us as a people is to have scales thick-skinned Armour that would protect us within a harsh environment that would keep us strong unique with a strong identity these are the Jews who argued that for the Jewish people to survive in harsh waters sometimes in tremendous war pressure and change of climates what we need more than anything else is the armor the scales to keep us protected the thick skin that sets us apart and helps us retain our own in a difficult world the Jewish traditions the Jewish laws the rituals the Torah the mitzvahs the faith the heritage the daily behavior those are the scales that protect the Jewish people who are being lost from being swallowed up there the armor both spiritually psychologically and emotionally that allow us to remain true to ourselves to our identity dr. Finn says you got to move with the times this progress going on you can't remain cloistered in your cocoon of scales behind your thick skin not allowing the secular alien influences of the world to impact you you have to be part of the larger society that's how you're going to be successful that's how you will secure your success your continuity your well-being your relationship with the rest of the world if you're going to lock yourself up behind your armor behind your scales you'll become irrelevant you need things you have to move with the waves you have to move with the trends rabbi scale says no remain etched in your tradition the same filling that Moses put on thousands of years ago put on today the same fill in the same shoppers the same text the same laws the same laws of Cassius and mikvah and mezuzah and shap listen a rivet and sits as what do they say the function of a rabbi a rabbi once got up and he says Who am I do I guess it was this first table see with introducing himself so he tells the congregation I will hatch you I will match you and I will dispatch you all of life hatch matched the spatch and the cycle continues it never changes that's what tradition is thousands of years later there's still those life cycles does the bris Saba mitsuo there's a wedding the cycles continue in circles they go in circles they don't change there's no progress so dr. Finn Stiles rabbi scales that's not what you need for survival the main function is integration with society this is no small debate yet for much of our history this debate had little relevance and little appeal because the Gentiles design it for most of our history the Jews have been isolated whether they liked it or not we were seeing as a unique people as a different people sometimes in positive light and much more often a negative light sometimes hunted down and targeted for persecution if not for elimination and genocide and abuse but always seen as different the walls of the ghetto surrounded us whether physically or conceptually the nations of the world decided that we were different than unique so therefore this question had very very little appeal it was obvious to the Jews they're different and they live differently and they managed to survive and often to thrive and to existent to endure but a few hundred years ago in the 1700s all of this changed with the new era known as the age of enlightenment the age of reason the age of emancipation the walls of the ghetto crumbled and suddenly for the first time in close to 2,000 years of a difficult exile and persecution Jews were given a ticket to enter into mainstream society usually praticed in society in Western Europe France Germany and so forth and suddenly the portals were opened up where they can become part and experience the richness of secular culture the universal trends of humanity where they can become part and parcel of larger civilization and communities and this shook up the Jewish foundation to the core who are we now what should be our response how do we react to this how do we define our new identity and I don't have to explain to you because you probably know that till that point in the 1700s there was only one definition for a Jew there was a Jew who was a Jew who was a Jew today the word Jew comes with the description an adjective what type of Joe are you a few hundred years ago there were no types of Jews there was one definition of a Jew today it's not simple what type of you are you there is of course of the borough Jew all true liberal Jew you have Reform and a conservative and Orthodox and conservative and liberal and humanistic and renewal and Hasidic and ultra-orthodox and ultra ultra Orthodox in Modern Orthodox Modern Orthodox centuries Modern Orthodox facing right Modern Orthodox facing left conservative facing left conservative facing right and it becomes very complicated if you're familiar with the dynamics of the Jewish people group number one doesn't number three only before Yom Kippur group number four speaks the group number six but not the group number five unless it's after a session it's often very very complex what type of Jew because this shook the Jewish world to its core then Lichtman their emancipation which begins in France Germany and England and ultimately we traveled to Eastern Europe a transformed the Jewish world and here the question emerged in its full vigour what is our role are we to be Universalists or RB are we to be particular are we to be part of mainstream society or are we to remain parochial and tribal rabbi scales and mr. scale says our main function is to be Amla but that you screen in the words of this week's portion a nation that dwells alone put on this thick skin and create an artificial ghetto the walls of the ghetto came down politically make your own get up remain isolated entrench within your children the traditions the faith the lifestyle the behavior just like before this will protect us this will allow us to retain our armor our scales you remember the metaphor in Talmud this is really the basis of this I did a metaphor in the Talmud Rabbi Akiva who lived after the destruction of the Second Temple the 1st century after the Common Era the second first and 2nd century after the Common Era used to teach Torah in public and when he was asked by a colleague of his pathless Ben Yehuda why are you defying the Roman Empire whether it be Akiva compared the Jews - he can breathe into a fish in water and the fish was offered by the Fox to leave the water so that it can live a life of serenity and not be afraid of the fisherman I want to catch the fish and the fish that in the water it's hard enough to live you want us to leave the water and experience a certain death Rabbi Akiva said that for Dru's Torah is like water for the fish a fish needs to be submerged in water to live a fish outside of water can't live serebryakova says if even in the water life is difficult if we leave the water there's no life so the Jewish journey in history is compared to the journey of a fish and water so rabbi scale says the main thing of scales and back the fin says now teach your children to become part of the world part of modernity let them enjoy the richness of modernity diversity of modernity the experiences of modernity you can't isolate them and lock them up it's better for the Jewish people it's better for them this is our future to go with the future progress fins this debate comes in many forms and many shapes but it still continues till this very day in almost every community in almost every Jewish newspaper website blog in one form or another in one color another one shape or another the Jewish composers lamella Kalba once related that he worked on campus for a number of years in his early career he said you know I would come on campus I would ask a student who are you what is your religion student would say I'm a Catholic I knew he's a Catholic and you I'm a proudest thing he's a Protestant than you I'm a Mormon I knew she was a Mormon what about you I'm a Buddhist and it was a Buddhist I'm a I knew he was a Muslim and then I turned to another stood I said and what about you who are you what's your religion means I'm a human being and I knew he was Jewish I think it was Grich Oh Marx who said I would never be a member of a club that would have me as a member I once heard the story about dr. Twerski it was him or somebody else Hasidic Jews on an airplane docked at worst ski the famous psychiatrist has a nice square white beard and a round black hat and he's on an airplane and a Jewish woman turns to him in addition says the best a Shanda you're a disgrace because of you anti-semitism flourishes in the world if you would only learn to behave as a normal person get rid of those strange garments get rid of that strange behavior start being like everybody else just be normal and they'll stop hating us they'll stop being suspicious of us they'll stop loving us and despising us fit in why do you have to stand out you are making sure that anti-semitism continues dr. Twerski looked at her and in a perfect English she says excuse me ma'am I fail to comprehend the verbiage of your dialect perhaps you're mistaking me for somebody else I am Amish she's oh I'm so sorry I thought you were Hasidic you're Amish she tells him I really respect the Amish he says why that's wonderful body respect the Amish she says because the Amish the Amish are a minority and yet you guys maintain your identity with pride and dignity keep it up it was now his turn to respond to her in Yiddish as he tells her aha Oh a big vault given Amish if I would have been Amish you respect me you appreciate me but since I'm Jewish you despise me I want to bless you that you should appreciate in your own what you appreciate in others but this became a very serious struggle Jewish identity in a multicultural society somebody once said if Descartes said I am in I am I think therefore I am ergo sum' the modern Jewish motto has often become I am incognito I am invisible ergo sum' therefore I am if I'm invisible I exist if I'm visible it's dangerous Phin scales it is here that the Lubavitch Ariba articulated an idea that gets to the heart of the issue namely our great tragedy is that we are pitting rabbi scales against doc defense we are creating here a question and a challenge supposing there's a contradiction between these two realities when an essence it's the other way around and it's here that we will appreciate the depth of that observation in the Talmud for a fish to be kosher for a fish for the Jewish people who are compared to fish to survive in the water for a fish to be kosher which means we can eat it why are there certain foods we can eat in certain foods we can't eat some of the Mystics explain that what we eat becomes part of who we are and the characteristics that the Torah defines as the kosher characteristics other characteristics we must absorb in our life those are the kosher characteristics for the fish to be kosher and we can eat it which means those are the qualities that we want to absorb in our life we need two qualities we need fins and we need scales and for the Jews who are compared to fish to be kosher and succeed they need scales and fins the first thing scales we must be rooted in our Jewishness and our identity we must have the armor that will protect us we have to have the thick skin that allows us to retain our identity even in a world that is so open and multicultural it's easy to get swallowed up and forfeit your identity and certainly the younger generation and yet there's another kosher sign Finn's asks the town would if a fish that has scales automatically has fins why is the tour F to specify fins and the answer is yeah the toe should be big and strong meaning our objective as Jews is not only to remain isolated behind thick skin and retain our heritage and identity with pride part of our mission statement as Jews is yogge to the alternative yada lasat cane a lumber mouth host and a leader to change the world to revolutionize the landscape of planet Earth so that the Turner becomes he acted alone of a yada to take over the world and infuse it with the oneness of godliness with the goodly goodness and holiness of Torah as my manatee specifies in the laws of Kings that the mission statement given to the Jewish people at Mount Sinai was not only for themselves it was to teach all of humanity and all of civilization to inspire them with a higher and deeper morality with a sense of responsibility and commitment to each other and to our Creator in our daily lives yeah be the alternative yada our role in life is not just to have scale it's also to have fins that's also it makes us kosher that's also crucial to Jewish existence but the Talmud says remember you may have fins and lacks scales but if you have scales you're going to have fins if your only objective is to fit in to be part of progress to be part of identity you may not have scales you may lose that armor that protects you on the other hand if you're entrenched in your own identity if you have healthy roots then you could spread far and wide you'll have fins as well you'll be able to win and progress with history and be part of it an impact in a positive way take the example of the chauffeur that we blow on Rosh Hashanah the chauffeur has two sides to it the narrow side and the expensive broadside did you ever try blowing chauffeur from the broad side turn around the chauffeur put the expensive side of the shoulder by your mouth and you know what it's gonna sound like exactly that's what it's gonna sound like nothing it's the best you're gonna get take the chauffeur from the narrow side if you know what you're doing you start blowing from the narrow side with a resonance that goes out from the white side I mean I made circa Rossi konnani by America beauty as we say the first verse before the blowing the server we call out from the narrow side and then it can expand from the broad side if you define yourself as an expensive person a broad person I'm just part of the world I'm a human being ultimately you have no voice but if you go to the narrow side of the ship if you cultivate your scales if you cultivate your Jewishness if you're entrenched in you despite if you're burning with Jewish passion commitment 'l study and celebration and then you blow your Shaffer then it will resonate far and wide throughout all of the oceans and impact the environment and have a ripple effect ultimately globally as well it's fascinating that Jacob's blessing to his grandchildren you remember his blessing today whenever we want to bless our children we say you simply lack in care frying become an Asha God should make like a fry my Menasha friend Menasha were the two sons of Joseph born in Egypt and we bless our children Friday night before Yom Kippur God should make a look at fry my Menasha when the yak of their old grandfather our patriarch Jacob blesses them in Egypt when he crossed his hands famously right the right hand on a friend the left on lemon not sure what was the blessing Kamala hug girl I see me Cara you've Oracle Cenarion The Courier hamish me vishay my voice you have robbed me it's hot we hid Google or any of the care of our heads the angel who liberated me should bless these young lads these lads and they should be like fish amidst the land what did he mean like fish my dear friends 3,500 years ago Jacob was giving us the most important blessing you see a fry my Menasha are the first two jewish children to be born in exile Joseph became the prime minister of Egypt but he was born and educated in the ancient land of israel in the holy city of heaven with his father Yaakov with his ad it's hook but the first two Jewish children to be born in a foreign civilization not in the Jewish community nominal Jewish environment on the contrary they grew up in the Egyptian Palace their father was the Prime Minister there was no show no yeshiva no community where frame in Menasha and Jacob saw them and he cherished them and he turned them into his own children right Joseph is considered as two tribes it's 12 but Joseph gets to a Friday Menasha key removing resuming Ely so my Jacob blesses them fish the secret is we you'll arrive we swim but we have scales to be a fish a kosher fish that we can absorb and make part of our circulation we need scales and if you have scales you ultimately have fins but fins this part of being kosher because our job is not just to be isolated our job is to go out and transform the world and impact the world and affect our environment and every person has the corner of your world that you can influence that you can change both the Jewish environment and even more than non-jewish environment but if I define my mission statement only as fitting in if I decide that I don't have a narrow side I'm just a human being I'm a Universalist what does it mean to be in to be part of the world stop being different ultimately you won't even be part of the world you won't be able to impact the world there are those who scream our main mission is tikkun olam fix the world or like I am in the words of the Prophet or your Ligurian is such a light to the nation's that means you have to deal with the nation if to be part of the nations but here's the deal you if you want to be a light to the nation's you have to have scales and the reason is very simple two reasons reason number one is it's like the chauffeur if you blow from the white side you have no voice if your whole identity is just mimicking others being part of others you don't have anything to contribute when you're I eat when you're entrenched in you disguise you have something to tea you have a voice that Korres innate and will resonate there is something substantial there's something novel you're giving over the message that you're in at Sinai thousands of years transmitted there is a voice there's something to hear there's another reason and that is we respect most people who respect themselves we are affected most by people who are very confident within themselves if I see that your whole objective is just to be somebody else then ultimately I lose respect for you I can't really look up to you it's much easier to trust people who know who they are and they're not trying to be me they once asked a 104 year old woman what is the best thing about living till the age of 104 you know what she said no peer pressure when your whole mission statement and life is to copy others to conform then ultimately people don't even want to embrace your identity so the more we have scales the more we'll have fins the less we have scales the less we have fence now you understand the talent if you have scales the more scales the more fins if you're really interested and tailor in a healthy real meaningful inspiring way you can change history you will exchange history you will illuminate the world around you asks the town with why is that a kosher sign what is after there with Judaism because the Yaga built out of it yeah that is part of our mission to change the whole world I was a child at the time but I'll never forget that moment when was one salad gathering a public gathering in 770 Eastern Parkway on the 19th of Kista love you Tess kiss love honoring the day of liberation of the alter rebbe rubbish in his Amon of the idea the founder of Chabad Lubavitch her ever share a story he wouldn't tell us so many stories in his talks and once in a while he wouldn't tell so many stories certainly not contemporary stories but he shared a story and the story it surface was but seemed like an insignificant story but that was the value of the story that in a simple insignificant conversation a typical conversation that can happen so many times a day the rebus saw in it a microcosm of what it means to be a Jew in the world there was dual ahem is original commit against iranian organic marriage given on the ethnic market each versary togehter photo Sakuma receiver was void the tale guna nazis are bleach would be shown Azul a savanna yonder is inerrant mother co-efficient mtv's a meanie basis for the reverse Leviton keychain meat on meat and hosam so vicious a raging temper nuisances on trade our chief Oh version a Medina yard David liebe midnight and repelled as a doves of measurement the Mitra cells are either highly yay me yay Oh neat neat shaman need foreign channels of neat vomiting Chamizal miss Vanitas Delta song endorphin as a birthday wish our cells are raised differently dark abysmal is monopoly and authority from the near favorite of Zion are vicious vacuum smart fellow Telugu star the chillers move - that fillers are needed the others I'm fond of little shall I tell you daft visvasa give in such misery shall be basic I'm working a guava save of mizrachi's Josif artificial lava the recent the elder strength Dominator selfish ministry rusev entered the third missile today as I'm fond of Lelouch alive as a human disease given enough iodine d kappa yog it won't burn it when you name it occasion of suffragan button captain by the brazier Havel under yard music Oh Theresa's editor chassidut on a memo or device state that Menahem of the captain Jemaine a dossier me Chronicle hesitantly villaviciosa me sir fractured our business process BAM diffract in walnut retinal not written mo album in flat versus Matano an interracial hey whoa effeminate Jamal of Nettie malignity mattress Wilma gave with the Smithers this Vision+ in the yard needles I mean the students either honking Phil as a lachemann a homily on the hafiz' Ibanez hotness at MIT MIT was jamming the other rabbit was a gurgle angel of meat behold indoors or challenges Ogden L as a Xavier dub dominance the neighbors the dominant asanas all gained world make a beautiful I'm talkin base-emitter for survival shall I'm a cadet the damages and with me attended as I'm fond of little I encountered the captain Ibanez activist Mukunda have drew Sidora Matsui Rena sake not the caja de recherche Lieberman mishali distancing curve so trust me the green abrasion drywall at all the RTD curve and neatness system attractor nor that Telsa havoc maps is recalling you know Wilma Harvey signed up keep on of Lamesa they did Phyllis as I meet Reba Dava Eva's a doctor and better in certain attraction in the marriage they be had as yet McLeish innovation toleration sign given as annotated national player over attracting the Mishnah Shana Priya do ricotta Darren hobby beautiful Hayden equivalent of ten a common issue arose in their velocity Rosie on a MacArthur lab sorrowful and relatively can you love better dark a vicious madhab dominant as I'm fond of misery the hotel that net was Simon is given upon easily filter logic order Hannity Rosa de una race betrayal those are far will the meeting middle miss Nevada Sierra Nevada Zara but was there any fish ever miss elephant a shamisen tener without a mitzvah hot initiative a mitzvah generous Mitzvah is as if ELISA Hadas with ricotta Hampshire but the Bremerhaven bottom card who's a philosopher Isaiah mrs. Knopf Lang worst ban possible Asia Hilda Muhammad worship in time there's a hellacious ninja - al-kahf approaches for guitar part and the neat in that the Malaysia hero dose was their leader Duncan flag who is misra Auto Santa Brock to attract to thank the neighbors for the far um she actually said they'll get the National Action Association and remembers that he was the name of Estrella Mountain estimate was a dream it was both afraid of leaving between non-jews and [Applause] I'm guy who has been in therapy for many many years and then he finally afforded himself he gave himself the gift of a vacation in the Bahamas he goes to the Bahamas and he sends a postcard to his therapist and the postcard reads like this I'm in the Bahamas on vacation I'm having a wonderful time I'm feeling unbelievably great and I wish you were here to tell me why the issue of identity is of course critical to human society collectively and individually one of the most painful things in life is when you don't know who you are what your roots are what your core is when you know who you are you could make peace in your life when you don't know who you are so then you go with the flow the cuts Kariba once said in Yiddish oh it's been a while do bees do and do bees do well it's beneath beneath any station do business do a beret bit beneath my lip in Econ do bees Deauville do bees do anything Boone do bees do you understand if I am I because you are you and you are you because I am I then I am NOT I and you are not you but if I am I because I am I and you are you because you are you then i am i you are you now we can begin to schmooze it's very painful if i am i only because you are you it's a response to you and this is true collectively as a people as discussed earlier one of our greatest challenges as a people is when we don't know who we are and we try to mimic others in order to fit in and it becomes a neurosis it's also true individually when you're not rooted in a strong identity when you don't give your children a strong identity they don't have a holistic identity that defines them individuals as human beings as Jews which allows them to navigate the harsh waters of reality because if you don't have scales and you only have fins it's very hard to survive the harsh waters of reality and for this I want to share with you a story it's a story I heard from my late father of blessed memory who heard it from the man himself I also read the story in his work and I'm referring to the second president actually the third President of Israel his name was Zalman shazar his full name was snair Zalman shazar actually from the home his name was Shanaya Zalman rubbish of he was from Russia Lithuania but later when he came to Israel he changed it to shazar which was more Zionistic more Hebrew and shazar is an acronym of Schnee Azam Nehru Basha he served as the president of Israel for 10 years from 1963 through 1973 and he passed away a year later in 74 on suckers at the age of 85 Zalman shazar was a very interesting person he was the President of Israel but before that he was the Minister of Education and the first government of Israel he was a poet he was a socialist he was a great orator he was a riot II was the editor of the socialist magazine newspaper d'Ivoire he was a mop I Nick if you're familiar for many many years there was one more aspect to his personality and that is he came from a Habad family in fact his name is schnell schnell Amin he was named after his grandfather he was named after a relative of visit was named after the alter rebbe of the founder of Habad rubbish and his Amin of liad Sneha Zalman shazar was born in the year tofranil 1890 he grew up in a home his father his mother's father at Michigan's Berg was a strong kebab Hassan his great-grandfather of Scholl Ginsburg was a student of the alter rebbe and is actually a photo of him as far as I know it's the only photo we have of one of the disciples of the alter rebbe Hazare's great-grandfather of Saul Ginsburg but as so many young Jews of that generation this is the 1890s in the early 1900s early twentieth century millions of Jews have left the Wellsprings of Judaism exploring other ideals and isms that seemed so much more appealing and attractive and potent and relevant and shazar was a fiery socialist a passionate idealist and a deeply committed Zionist and thus he describes how he had all of these debates with his grandfather of Mercia Ginsberg who lived in Meereen Luther Way Nia the famous mirror yeshiva and all these debates and friction and a family because his grandfather was religious and he has left the religion in this but I mentioned before the Enlightenment and the era of modernity and millions of Jews have left Judaism in Western Europe and in Eastern Europe Shazzer describes his alia when he decided to ultimately make alia this is when he's a young man he's 21 years old in 1911 and he decides that before he goes up to the Israel wasn't called Israel was Palestine then he's gonna go for one last shoppers to be with his grandfather the Hasidic kebab drew his grandfather grab Michigan's burger his mother's father and he goes for that chop is to Mir a small city many of the young Jews left and he goes to visit his aid is aid is very happy that he came he's about to go to Israel he may never see him again so he wants to be with him the last Shabbos and treasure describes you know the city as he remembers it very nostalgically from his youth but he says now that hibachi Stiebel wood they used to pray burnt down he didn't even have the Stiebel and most of the young people left and many of the people he knew have died there was a certain melancholy in the year you know a certain deadness there was like there was no future there he felt and the Chabad minion was in the home of one of the Hasidim eid lapid dated home a deprived home and he went dear with his grandfather to pray but he says my grandfather's prayer that kabbalah Shabbos it was so passionate there was so heartwarming who was so filled with ecstasy that he forgot the melancholy and the dreariness of the environment he was uplifted by the energy of his grandfather and he said a whole Shabbos we had the most magnificent inspiring Shabbos because we stayed out of theology we didn't discuss family issues and we didn't discuss my philosophy his philosophy all were doing is we were talking about Tyron hasidism his grandfather was sharing with him ideas with him and with the students who came to visit him Friday night in the house and they were learning together Hasidic works and they were schmoozing about Hasidic works and he said it was just it was just heartwarming and inspiring and an educational and he really loved that even though philosophically he was in a very different place than his grandfather and he says he was very thankful that they both understood that this is the time you know to emphasize what what come what bonds that what binds them together not what separates them and Zalman shazar who was very poetic describes in detail what that Shabbos did for him Sunday morning he says I had to go to the edge of the city where the coachman would wait with their coaches with their wagons and you would pay them some money and you would get onto the coach and they would take you to another city that had a train station we will you get on the train and start traveling and my grandfather decided to escort me to the edge of the city where the ballet our goal was the Wagoneers were waiting to take people where they had to go to their destination and when we reached the coach and I'm ready to say goodbye Salman shazar says my grandfather turns to me and he says howlman I want to tell you something I want to tell you a tradition that I have heard in the house of the rabbit that I went to he went to the liad Arriba this was one of the descendants of the Tomas ethic something I heard yet in the house of their ever about the melody of the outter ever one of the most famous Hasidic melodies is the melody that was composed by the altar ever rabbi schneider's almond of lee adi the author of the tiny the founder of Chabad it's known as the endowed bubblies the melody of four stanzas and it corresponds to the for cosmic spiritual worlds of a sinless breed sericea the world of intimacy of God with God the world of creation formation and action implementation it's four states of consciousness one of the most central doctrines of Kabbalah and Hasidism and the song of the Alta Rebbe it corresponds to these four worlds and my grandfather tells me sister Islam and I want to tell you something there are three types of songs in the world there's a song that you heard you liked you loved you sang it many times you always knew it and there comes a point you want to sing it but the song is not coming to you you want to remember the song but it's not coming to you it's just eludes you and as much as you try give me even a can give me the melody it's not coming to you it's gone there's another type of song it doesn't stop coming into your brain like a mosquito it's just like a broken a broken well we used to say a broken record today you have to say a scratched CD and it just keeps on repeating itself the song just fills your brain you want to get rid of it but you can't get rid of it it's just always playing and you're bending you don't want it and then there's a third melody a third type of melody he's telling us graphs and the third type of melody whenever you need it it's there for you whenever you need that song to give you entertainment to give you pleasure to give you the light to give you depth to give spirit and richness to your life the song is waiting for you it doesn't disappear from you and it doesn't bother you it's a they're waiting for when you need it and we heard from Kassadin that that type of song is a song in which your soul is rooted your Shailesh under some is in that song and that's why it's always there for you if the song is not always there for you it disappears it's not your song and if it's bothering you it's not your song but if it's always available to you so your soul is rooted in that song and he said sneers ah man I want to tell you something we have a tradition by Habad Hassidim that the source the root of every soul of a hobbit cos it is rooted in the song of the altar Abba the Shirish on the summer of every kebab constant is in the Altai Rebbe is naked if it's a kebab faucet so he's connected to the outer air but the founder of Chabad so his soul or her soul is somehow organically rooted in the melody of the out there because every soul has a melody every soul is rooted in a melody and his soul is rooted in the altar Abbas [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] since dis Melanie his grandfather set snares Owlman since this melody is interconnected with the soul of every closet it means the melody must be available to you because if you and the melody are not deeply connected then either it can elude you or it bothers you it feels like an intruder but if a melody is you it's part of your neshama your soul is connected to it it can't disappear from you because it's part of you and it can't bother you coz it's who you are therefore my dear grandson he said I want you to know before you leave that throughout your life if you ever want to sing the alte rebus song and it's not there you can't get it it may mean that you're somewhat detached from your own soul you're somewhat detached from your own source from your own root because you are rooted in this song and if you can't get this song it means you're somehow your branch has detached from your root you're named after the alter rebbe originator Zalman you're from this branch or from this tree you're from this house see this if you're searching for this song and it's not there you have to go back to your source you have to re-examine where your life is saumensch as our continues the story in his book he said my grandfather who was a Halak Jew and the Talmud says another nifty mahavidya limitations Varela he don't say goodbye only from a discussion in Jewish law he asked me a question in Rambam hillcrist room ice in my manatees the laws of tithing which applied to Israel he gave me a fast answer and he blessed me goodbye and he bid me farewell as I went onto the wagon and I departed for the last time from this old small city of Mir where I was raised by my grandfather in michigan's burg and I moved on to my new life he was one of the colored sim went to the new Palestine I was part of building the shoe in an environment that was somewhat alien from tradition and religion and he says a few months later I received notice that my grandfather from the mere passed on but Shazzer said he passed on but that last message never left me and throughout my life as a socialist as a Zionist as a Minister of Education as a president of Israel when I have to come when I reach a critical point and I have to make a vital decision in my life I'm standing at a fork I often start singing the song of the alter rebbe if the song comes to me I'm smiling I'm Kubelik I know I'm in a good place I'm one with myself and if the song eludes me then I know that it's time for me to go deeper and examine where perhaps I have betrayed my own essence my own core my own soul and when I read this story I realized that I once read a letter from the Lubavitch a repetition as our in 1968 and their ever writes to him about an event that happened 20 years earlier he says we both merited to sit at a for bringin by my father-in-law by the six laboratory rubra and to sink together the of the alter rebbe this is what the rebel fascitis jaws are and I wondered why did he emphasize this point and a few times when shazar came to visit the lubavitcher rebbe as a president of israel and he came to a fab ring into a Hasidic gathering and at the end of those gatherings Lubavitch remember will instruct and request for mysticism to sing this song of the alter rebbe the ecstasy and the emotions on the face the body language of president shazar were palpable were very evident but very few people knew what was behind those emotions and so as his life progressed even though he was a secular Jew and I'm a PI Nick and a socialist and belonged to the left camp of the State of Israel his relationship with his background with with where he came from grew strong and he became very very close to Baba forever one set of a bring in tom was the 12th of thomas 1973 who was the last era of his presidency he sat throughout the entire for bringing and just melted he melted away in the melodies and in the talks and in the conversation [Music] [Applause] [Music] so you see my dear friends everybody has a song everybody has a soul and the root of your soul is rooted in the same root as a particular melody and to be fully alive you have to know your Melanie you have to be in touch with your melody you have to be anchored in your song in your melody and when you're not when you forget your melody it becomes very painful you must know what your melody is and you have to be very loyal to it what that means practically is there's certain things you have to know that without it you're going to lose your soul if you forfeit these things you're going to give up your soul a Dru when the morning comes you have to connect to your melody or drew wakes up in the morning you need to spend some time with your neshama with your soul you need to connect to your melody in prayer in study in meditation in doing a mitzvah putting on tefillin spending some time with the creator of the world with your own essence with your own consciousness when you're anchored in your scales when you're anchored in your roots in your essence in your faith in your heritage then you can be ambitious then you can develop fins and swim through large large territories and the more the scales the more the fins there was a beautiful insightful manuscript or journal that the Lubavitcher ever once wrote in his private journals that I mentioned earlier some of those journals he explains ideas in science and mathematics according to Kabbalah explains the spirituality of certain ideas and science and then one of them he discusses that mathematical concept known as the pie which basically teaches that our circumference the circumference of a circle is approximately six times the amount of the radius right the radius is that space between the center of the circle the center inside the circle and outer circumference of the circle we have the diameter so the famous mission attracted a driven says that the circumference is approximately three times that I Adam the diameter the diameter is the entire width of the circle and the radius is half of that the radius is the space between the center of the circle and the edge of the circle the circumference so the circumference of the circle this is the circumference is always approximately six times the amount the radius which is the space from the center of the circle till the circumference that's a principle that everybody who studied knows and we can't get the exact number which is a well-known fact and Maimonides already discusses it in his commentary on mush niacin tracted Iravan but in this particular manuscript elaborative explains the spiritual idea behind it then he says the week you know time and space are very interrelated so just as we have this truth in space it's also true in time the week is comprised of a seven day period six days of work and one day Shabbos Shabbos is the center of the circle it's that spaceless timeless time it's an island and time it's a transcendental oasis a transcendental cocoon it's the scales of the jewel which you retreat into the essences a day which today I would say you shut your BlackBerry and it's a Blackberry it's a wonderful experience or iPhone or iPod a laptop whatever it is and you go into yourself if you spend time with yourself with your with your spouse with your children with your community with your God with your soul with your loved ones and anybody who does it knows how vital it is I know when Friday night comes with vengeance I shut down my computer and my cell phone that have driven me mad often throughout the week right some things you can't live with them you can't live without them so Shabbos is a blessing and the only reason we do it on Shabbos is because it's etched it's etched in tradition it's what God wants if it's just a voluntary thing if you decide once a week voluntarily I'm gonna shut myself up they'll always be an important call they'll always be an important email but when you know it's Shabbos this is what I someone's it's Shabbos the world stops then there's more chances that you're going to retain it you're going to keep it so Shabbos can't just be a cultural thing a traditional thing it's nice but the power of Shabbos for those who keep sharpest is that power is rooted in an absolute source this is what God wants from you so Shabbos is the center of the circle the six days of the week are the circumference of the circle and that's the meaning that the space speech of the radius between the center of the circle and the circumference is multiplied six times in the circumference which surrounds that essence of Shabbos that six times the radius which are the six days of the week but here's the catch the smaller the distance of the radius of this between the centre of the circle and the circumference the smaller the circumference the larger the distance between the center of the circle and its outer surface its circumference the larger the circumference which means the closer the proximity between Shabbos and the days of the week the less scattered we are it's more concentrated it's more focused the greater the distance between Shabbos in the days over the week the more scattered we are Shabbos is our anchor Shabbos is our melody the more you rooted in Shabbos the more your Finns are focused and therefore more effective and more powerful the less I'm rooted in Shabbos the more distance from Shabbos then sometimes I'm all over the place because I have fins and I don't have scales so to be a Jew is to know your song and at those crucial times in your life you can always sing that song and it's there for you it's available to you because it's your melody it's your song [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] you [Applause] well Khayyam lehayim paya debris don't fester loci in my dear friends hi in villarica let's bless each other with all of the blessings of health and happiness and prosperity for all of us for the entire Jewish people for all good human beings around the world may we experience only peace and health and excessive blessings and redemption mcian lehayim I want to share with you my dear friends a beautiful story a story that we could glean tremendous insight from a bit of history is necessary to appreciate a story the second drebber of Habad is known as the mythical Larrabee the middle rebus his name was rabbi Joyce bear he was the middle son of the alter rebbe revolutionaries Amon of Lodi he was born and he passed away on the same day in the Hebrew calendar the ninth of Kislev teske Slav and what's interesting is that he was liberated on youth kissless which means on the tenth of crystal of a day later it was a year earlier obviously but it was a day later so he died he's born and he passes away on the same day the ninth of kisum and he's liberated on the 10th of castie whenever the ninth of Kistler fell out on the day of Shabbos the lubavitcher rebbe would customarily leader for bringing in a public-house city gathering Shabbos afternoon in fact one year in 1961 he gave over three Hasidic discourses three my miriam on the same for bring and usually there was one three of them three intense Hasidic discourses on test kissed all over the yard site of the Mittler above the second above Chabad one-year Tufts in LA mid hey 1974 astonishingly Shabbos came it was the ninth of Kislev and Labov acaba did not hold any gathering did not give any address in honor of the day some people thought he's waiting for the next day Sunday the hag Aguilar the day of liberation of the Midler ABBA but again no address whatsoever and the crowd was was astonished people were wondering why this never happened before such auspicious days in the Habad cassette a calendar and it's on the day of Shabbos the rabbit never avoided holding of a bringing on such a day but something happened what they didn't know but then the story came out and it has some background there was a boy a black boy an African American whose family converted to Judaism and this boy lived in Brooklyn and he studied in the United Labov Ochiai Sheva then located on Ocean Parkway in the Flatbush neighborhood in Brooklyn but I don't have to tell you how kids are especially New York kids those of you are New Yorkers you know New Yorkers are intense and they're not always they don't always time for everybody right there's a famous saying that there is a prayer in New York a serenity prayer to God a guy in New York is praying to God and it goes like this God give me patience and give it to me now or as they say in New York you can get a taking a ticket for double parking when you're traveling 50 miles per hour so the kids in the class we're not very nice to him you know there's always bullies and they pick them kids and they bully kids unfortunately and this kid came from a different background and from a different type of family and for different experiences and they bothered they bothered his mother wrote a letter to the lubavitcher rebbe about the situation they Reber responded to her but this is the responsibility of the hon Halle of the leadership of the school the principal the teachers she should meet them and tell them was going on and they should correct it some while later she wrote a second letter to their ever and she said she spoke to them but to no avail nothing happened I mean perhaps they did something but it just didn't work it wasn't successful or whatever it was the situation is still the same her son does not feel comfortable they make fun of him they bully him they bother him whatever it is he's not integrated well and he's he's hurt he's hurt he's paid so the lubavitcher rebbe a cold in his chief secretary rabbi hiyya Mordechai Isaac had a cough and asked him to get in contact with the leadership with the principal and the educational leadership of that Achieva of that school the Karla Bhavan school in Flatbush and give them over this message and say you must take care of this situation you must mend it you must correct it let me know if you could correct it immediately good if not I will come myself to the school and I will deal with it I'll talk to the children I'll go to the classroom just let me know if you cannot deal with it if you don't have if you're inept if you lack the ability to deal with it let me know their episode I'm gonna commit myself to the school and take care of the situation no they heard this I guess they were very excited about the prospect of the rappers showing up and making a system over there in the school so they put their minds and hearts to it and when there's a will there's a way and they got it straightened out sometime later while later the child was having his Bar Mitzvah so dudes the Shabbos kiddush right after domine you make a kid dish with some herring and sponge cake and then there's the official party time it's the party when was his mum it's his Bar Mitzvah was Shabbos the ninth day of Kislev where was it in a small shul called Franco shil for those who know the geography of Brooklyn and Crown Heights Franco sure is a synagogue a shul on President Street between Utica and Rochester that's a very very very remote location in Crown Heights the shul was called the Frankish rule because of its leader abhyasa Franco a blessed memory and I should mention that his wife Rebbetzin Franco just passed away recently his wife a very elderly woman very elderly woman Rebbetzin Franco small so very very remote and that's where the kiddush was so the Obama never told his secretary my father who he said I'm not going to make a fur bring in this Shabbos why it may be that somebody who's at the kiddush of the vomit store will leave early in order to attend my gathering in 770 Eastern Parkway or somebody who would have come to their kiddush might not show up because he wants to come to the for bringing it and this child suffered enough there's not going to be any if I bring in today even though you have to understand Frank Loesser was a small Schiller was very far many of the people who pray dear didn't come some did but many did not come to the fore bringing it and the kiddush happened right after Dominick and the bringing of the river was 1:30 p.m. but there may be somebody one or two people who won't show up or who would have stayed an extra half an hour and did not because they want to come to the lab average rep as a dress I'm not making off a brain sunday is the official mom it's me even though there are mitzvahs early in the evening and the rebus gatherings would begin at 9:30 p.m. but again somebody who would have stayed may leave early and somebody may not show up the child endured enough anger Guinea in his life I'm not making up a brain and that year there's no address of the rabbit not on the ninth of kiss I'm not on the tenth of kisses now I want you to think a bit moment about the story the day of the birthday and the passing and the liberation of the middle Arriba are essential celebrations and day of commemoration among Habad Hassidim the Mythili Reba was the son of the outfitter but the second lever of the dynasty of Chabad many years even during the weekdays that ever would speak those days especially when it was Shabbos but that year 1974 thousands and thousands of Kassadin were deprived so to speak of a fabrini in' commemorating the hag ago EULA the day of liberation the arts and the birthday of the middle ear but why not to offend the dignity of an african-american young Bar Mitzvah boy who converted to Judaism who may be offended even slightly as a result of the fabrini in' so in order not to touch his feelings not to tarnish his feelings and not to compromise his dignity there ever was ready to cancel the hours of training that he would teach to thousands of consider on these tremendously auspicious days to retain the dignity of this 13 year old boy who was having some small kiddush in a remote role and i know the show on unit cut between on present in unit Conrad Chester Shabbos morning after darvany thousands of Siddim learning and for bringing and being inspired by their ever and most of the people they don't know franco shoulders are the many people even if you live in brooklyn you don't know what franco shoulders of course you don't know it but all over them did not have it because this boy suffered enough and i'm not going to add any anguish which reminded reminds me of another episode I grew up in Brooklyn I grew up in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn there was a man from Israel who would come visit every year he has a terrible illness his whole body is very disconfort those of you who grew up in Brooklyn like myself perhaps you remember him because he used to come once a year to collect money to fundraise for himself I'm going to identify some of his features so that you should appreciate the episode and we might know who I'm talking about this person it looks like his whole body was burnt he's blind and his lips are inflated and his entire body is dis configured his cheeks are inflated his his lips are clean I remember as a young child it was very scary for me I would run away I would cross the street it was very scary to look at him because of a terrible illness terrible illness that he has I heard that he got married and he has a family today but then he did not Lubavitch Ariba would come out 315 every afternoon to davin minister with the crowd this was familiar with seven seven Eastern Parkway upstairs a small show that's called the Zhou and he would come in there sit on the bench by a table and daven after kedusha by the repetition of the Amidah Hazara shots he would sit down and face the crowd and every day there ever always had the same the same day we'd do the same gesture right after adieu she would sit down on the bench facing the crowd and he would place his hand on his forehead like this and look in the prayer book like this I mean I saw this many many times he would sit like this and look in the cinder and follow the repetition of the Amidah until they until its conclusion my dummy would stand up do my day every single day one day the rapper comes in sits down from Anoka and his hand stays down he doesn't pick up his eminence for something he's been doing for years years I believe for decades I sought for many years probably for decades so sad like this he's not doing it next day yes and then the next day not and for a few weeks it was on and off some days he did it some days he didn't do it and you know the people the the students who were there who would like you know to follow their eben and scrutinize his public gestures were wondering what happened why why sometimes yes sometimes always doing it he always had his hand on it's for it that's how he would follow the repetition of that mean that everyday Biman every single day what happened what was the difference so one of the students decided he's going to he has to figure this out he asked one of the secretaries who did not know he dismissed it he dismissed the question he has to figure it out why isn't it have been not going and this is maybe there's somebody he wants to see and then he noticed a pattern it's hard to say if this was the reason but it's a speculation but I think it may be an accurate speculation he noticed a pattern I mentioned to you this person is wounded veteran who who had a very bad disease with very inflated lips and was very difficult to look at him and he noticed that whenever he was in the room Foreman ha the rebel would not put his hand on his forehead perhaps not to give their impression that maybe he's putting his hand on his forehead because it's difficult to look at this person whenever he was not in his room he went back to his regular customer both of these episodes have the same theme and they teach us something very profound and that is the vital need to be sensitive to the dignity and respect of another person's heart and another person's soul because as this type of respect that can either build a person and allow them to live a successful productive meaningful life or sometimes god forbid denigrate a person destroy which I am [Music] [Laughter] [Applause] [Laughter] [Music] [Laughter] [Applause] 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