Becoming an Elevated Jew - Rabbi Paysach Krohn

[Music] [Applause] [Music] so I want to begin by telling you a very interesting story I have a daughter-in-law her name is Mrs gendel Crone she's married to my son Abraham and she's a teacher in the third grade grade in a school in Waterberry Connecticut now all of us know that the school begins in September and that's right around the time of elul so she waited the first three days you know till she got to know the girls and then on the third day she said to the girls I want to show you something I'm going to take out my cell phone now usually a teacher does not take out a cell phone and class and she said but I want to show you something I'm going to put it on speaker so that everybody can hear the call that I am about to make and she put the phone on the desk and she dialed the White House and the operator says this is the White House can I help you and my daughter-in-law says I am a teacher and we are here with 30 girls in Waterberry Connecticut in the BET Yakov and we would like to speak to President Obama so the operator says you can't speak to President Obama he's very busy so she says but we have 30 citizens of the United States isn't he the president of the citizens of the United States we would like to speak to him well he's very busy I could give him a message maybe she says well what happens if we would write him a letter do you think that he would read the letter so the operator says well President Obama gets 10,000 letters a day and we show him 10 of the letters so my daughter with all the children listening says so what you're telling me is that we have citizens here of the United States who cannot speak to their president and even if they write a letter most likely the president is not even going to get to read it is that true she says yeah well he's very very busy I can't promise that he'll get your message or your letter she said okay thank you for your time and she hung up the phone and she asked the girls to go back to their seats and she said to all the girls I know someone who's busier than President Obama you see President Obama is only President over 370 million people in the United States but I I know someone who takes care of over 7 billion people in the world and you know something he's always available anytime you want to speak to him he's available you open your s and you start talking and he'll listen Daytime Nighttime Shabbat middle of the week he's never too busy to listen to any Jewish prayer anytime now the girl was so taken by this it was such a genius idea how she presented this idea I didn't even know she did this a few days later in the month of el last El I was in Toronto and a man comes over to me and he says Rabbi Crone I want you to know my granddaughter is in your daughter-in-law's class in Waterberry it's almost a week since she did that and the girls are still talking about it what an impression she made made on the children that Hashem is always available and that's the thing that I think that we have to know first and foremost tonight no matter what we have done in our lives no matter what we watched and no matter what we said and no matter where we went hashem's door is always open we can always ask Hashem for forgiveness we could always ask Hashem for favors Hashem is for us he is our father and all of you that are fathers and grandfathers and mothers and grandmothers know that when your child talks you listen you don't always say yes Hashem also Al always doesn't always say yes but he listens and that's the thing that we have to learn tonight tonight we want to find out what can we do that Hashem should answer our prayers as we said of course we're praying and we say toim for ad basa but in general every day we are asking AEM fora we ask for we ask for wisdom do you know that every morning if I have to give a speech later that afternoon or at night I pray to hasem you give wisdom God help me I should say the right thing I should say something that's going to make an impression I should express myself properly if you have a business meeting and you want somebody to be impressed with you to give you the job to give you the raise to give you the commission then you pray in you pray that Hashem should give you the right words and you should have the right wisdom to say the right thing so what can we do to improve that is going to listen to us and I'll tell you something that the says that it's so remarkable that every single one of us every man woman and child here tonight in Great Neck and every one of us that's going to be watching this whether it's Tor anytime.com and it's going to go all over the world by tomorrow every one of us can change in this thing and I'll give you an example the example that the uses he says imagine that some Builder has built a beautiful Community right along a beach front and the water is crystal clear and what happens now the people they want to drink water so they've got to get pipes but what happens if the pipes in these new homes to the fresh water of the River or the ocean whatever it is is corroded and filthy and dirty so even if the water is clean and even if the houses are new if the pipes are corroded then the water is going to be spoiled then the people are going to get sick from drinking that water so the says the Tora is Holy every word of Torah that we learn whether it's makes no difference every word of that we say is so holy we take those holy words and every time we say them we build malim we build Angels but what is the pipe the pipe is our mouth the words in the Sid Are Holy the words in the Are Holy we want them to go to Shay what is the pipe our mouth now imagine if somebody tells a joke that's off color or imagine somebody says something to his wife or a wife says something to his to her husband that's very negative that's nasty that mouth is corroded if somebody says or somebody makes fun of a child or makes fun of somebody that has a handicap that pipe is corroded so no matter what words of Tor you are learning no matter what words of you are saying they are corroded by the time they get to Hashem so tonight every single one of us must think about what are we going to do to change that our pipes where the water of Tor and the water of come through to go up to Hashem is going to be clean we have to stop lying we have to stop exaggerating we have to stop saying negative things about other people and it's very easy to say negative things especially when you're in a group of people and everybody's criticizing whether they criticize the rabbi or the president of the sh or somebody in the community so you join everybody wants to be part of the group you want to be part of the pack but once you say something negative with your mouth just think of that it's such a beautiful M from the the pipes are roed so no matter what the ocean could be perfect clear water but if it's going through bad pipes it's not going to accomplish so the next time you want to tell an off-color joke or the next time you want to lie or the next time you want to criticize somebody hold back hold back that's cleansing spiritually the pipes and then oh then Thea goes up in Purity then Hashem sees oh this is ding these are words of Holiness this I can listen to this I want to agree to what the person wants so when we want and we beg for or we beg for or we beg for the and we are using clear water through clear pipes of course there's a chance that it's going to be answered more it's obvious you don't need the to tell us that but that's what he's telling us that's the first thing the second thing he says is something so interesting he brings a gamar the gamar is Inus that's 25b in your gamor and he says like this the gar tells us there was a time in is when there was no rain and they went to raber and they said rebi please pray for rain because if it doesn't rain right away the crops won't grow and there'll be starvation and people will starve so Raba got up and prayed and it didn't help it still didn't rain so then they went to RAB aiva and they said rebi please rebi please R doin for us that it should rain because if it doesn't rain the crops won't grow and we'll starve so RAB AA prayed and it did rain so the gamar says everybody started saying oh you see Raba is a bigger sadik than rebelar rebelar prayed and it didn't rain RAB AKA prayed and it did rain so you see RAB AA is a bigger sadic so a voice came from shim a BOS a voice came out from shamayim and listened to what the voice said not because was the bigger sadic then RAB than RAB elzar but there's another reason why RAB aka's answer was his was answered he said AA had that characteristic that he could look away if somebody heard him many of us if somebody says something negative about us we whip back we answer back we get angry RAB AKA if you said something about his family he did he looked away didn't get angry didn't respond somebody who looks away Hashem says oh look at that somebody did something bad to him and he looks away Hashem says you know I'm going to do the same thing nobody's perfect everybody's got sins none of us are perfect but we want Hashem to look away so you learn how to look away if somebody hurts you then Hashem will look away when you pray and he'll say okay listen you're asking me for something I know you didn't do everything right but I'll look away from that I'll answer you now I just want to explain something very important that my rebi rdav Cohen from Brooklyn always tells me when I say this gamar we're not talking if somebody owes you money if somebody owes you money you have every right to get it back that's not what the gamar is talking about somebody cheated you in business you have every right to go after them and get the money when that is not you're not expected to look away when somebody causes you Financial loss we're talking about emotional pain somebody says for I I didn't even want to say out of my mouth what somebody would say about you whatever you know what people could say and you don't answer back you're ready to look away then Hashem says you know RAB AKA did that and it's not that RAB AKA was a bigger but he had that me that's what the tells us if a person has that then you look away when somebody hurts you well when we do a sin it hurts Hashem but he's ready to look away if we look away so that's the second thing that we have to improve tonight the first thing we have to make sure that our mouth is pure that the pipes through which the Torah and the go through are pure and then it'll go to Shay and then we'll get answered better and the second thing is that we have to be able to learn to look away now I brought all of you every man woman and child here I brought you some presents tonight and I'm going to explain to you the first one and I want to tell you how it happened that this present came to be many of us certainly remember many of us certainly remember two years ago when those three boys Nai gilad and AAL were kidnapped and for 18 days nobody knew where they were I always wondered Israeli detectives are so brilliant how in the world could it be for 18 days they didn't know where they were why did Hashem make it that for 18 days the whole world especially the Jew Jewish world was in such a suspense what happened with na gilad and I can just tell you during those 18 days I was in Switzerland I will never forget as long as I live Friday night in Switzerland I was in a sh everybody had a black hat with a beard and a long coat and a GLE I was the only one that looked like me and that right before Kabal chabbat the rabbi said now we're going to say toim for the three boys and they said such toim and I tell you the truth it was so powerful you would think that they were praying for their own children I started crying I'll tell you the truth I started crying you know why cuz because I was thinking that these three boys they were not boys they Hadas they lived in areas where theim normally don't live they went to schools where theim don't usually send their children but it made no difference they were Jews they were our brothers and our sisters were all together in this and if that's the case that's why I believe Hashem made it for 18 days we didn't know because there was so an there was such a Unity when we prayed for each other when every type of Jew prayed for those three boys that's why in my humble opinion if you think about it mathematically how in the world is it humanly possible mathematically it makes no sense how could have sent thousands thousands of rockets not one rocket exploded a sh not one rocket exploded a house how in the world is that humanly possible you know why in my opinion because Kal isra had such had such Unity that that was the god protected Us in that way that's why we come tonight to join in unity to love each other and care for each other because when we love each other and care for each other God takes care of us that's why there was no bombs that exploded the Rockets didn't explode schools kids were in school I was in AEL during that time but bem Hashem protected because there was Unity now I want to tell you something that you mamish have to fasten your seat belt as you hear this you will not believe what I'm about to tell you at the end of the 18 days when they found out that neb those three were killed I know somebody that went to be to pay a sh call to Mrs Frankl Mrs Frankle is the mother of naftali an American woman very articulate very well spoken so the person told me that she said that at the end when she found out what happened with her son she had a partial n she had a partial consolation now I ask you how could anybody have a what consolation could a person have who loses a child it's the worst thing in the world what consolation could she have had so somebody said to her Mrs Frankle explain what are you talking about listen to what this holy woman said she said for 18 days I cried not knowing what happened to my son I knew that my son loved doing mitv and the mitvah that he love to do more than any other Mitzvah was wearing his to fill in now I knew that there was no way that those terrorists would have let him wear his tein during captivity but then when I found out that he was killed the first day I said ahem at least my son didn't have to go one day in his life without wearing to fill in could you imagine the Holiness of a lady to say that that that's how she had consolation that her son did not have to go one day without hearing wearing to fill in I tell you the truth when I heard it I felt every single man every single man who has to fill in has to do something special because of that and every woman who prays has to do something because of that such a holy statement and I was thinking what can we do during our prayers that would help bring us closer to Hashem and I thought that the idea should be from now on when we pray we shut not vibrate shut the cell phones because everybody who's praying and has his phone on vibrate is waiting to see if he got an edge from Staples or he's waiting to see if somebody wants to be connected and Linkedin and me and two other fellas we made up a statement disconnect to reconnect disconnect your phone to reconnect Hashem so wherever I went I spoke about it and then one afternoon I get in the mail something a young fellow look at this look at this beautiful poster he made for me disconnect to reconnect now this is a sid that's Safar but it works with ashaz also believe me disconnect to reconnect so you know what what I did I made thousands and I'm going to give each of you labels of this type of poster put it on your refrigerator if you D at home as a woman does or put it in your SED put it in your Stander take as many as you want wherever you pray take one of these these little ones here disconnect to reconnect put it stick it in your SED not only for adabas viiva for yourself if the women here would know how their men behave in synagogue with a cell phone they would be humiliated how many people do we see every day Shalom and then what happens they open up the cell phone that's praying that's not praying that's terrible so the first thing we said we got to make sure that our mouth is clear the next time you want to lie the next next time you want to say something painful remember the Tor the is going through these pipes we got to make sure that our pipes are clean the second thing we got to remember we have to be able to look away if somebody says something negative to us and the third thing we have to remember from now on disconnect to reconnect every one of the US take this tonight give them out you have my permission make a thousand copies send it out wherever you want this to reconnect then we can reconnect and I'll tell you another thing which has nothing to do with this topic but just parenthetically you know one else you should shut your phones and I say this to all parents when you're eating supper with your children that's when you show your children you know something you are more important than that guy who's calling and they are more important is there anything more important than your child or your grandchild that you're eating supper with that you spend 15 minutes a day with when it comes to supper you shut the phone not un vibrate that's a third thing disconnect to reconnect I'll tell you another thing one of the things that writes about and he talks about doing and I brought each of you a gift for that as well writes he tells us that we need need hashem's we need that Hashem should do us favors every day he writes not one day he writes this in the not one day should go by that a man or woman doesn't learn something certainly the men have more than the women obviously but the women can listen today on T anytime thatc you have so many sh I have my own son Elon I'm so proud of him he for women about the kosher kitchen about all these things women have to know they have to know about the koser kitchen they have to know about when they eat food they have to know about but the men of course have to learn more I understand that but every single day a person should do a for someone else and I'll tell you something else I guarantee you here's a guarantee if you take this little book tonight this is called AED challenge journal every one of you can take one tonight start writing down aad you did for somebody else not a husband for a wife a wife for a husband that you got to do if you know what's good for you I'm talking about out of the house so people said to me what do you mean out of the house don't you have to do at home yeah but you don't become a when you're nice to your wife or your wife's nice to your husband that you got to do if you want to keep your marriage straight right we're talking about outside the house carpooled giving a loan calling a lady in a nursing home giving somebody a a ride who can't walk home from sh during the week there are so many ways that you could do and I'm telling you the pic tells us God is your Shadow if you do good for others you're going to see good stuff's going to happen to you and you'll see your Tas are going to be answered and you're going to be an elevated person because when you love hashem's children hashem's going to love you just like if anybody would love our children and did things for our children we would love them right so when you do to another Jew you're doing something for hashem's children so I want to tell you a story that happened with me it's a little bit embarrassing to talk about but I want to tell it to you anyway because it's one of the greatest acts of that you could possibly imagine what many of you don't realize is that when I was 21 my father passed away now I've had this to do many BR here in sh and many in other shes in Great Neck and I appreciate every time that a family uses me I'm very grateful but I started being a moel and very very difficult situation I'm the oldest of seven children my father unfortunately was sick he was a moel and when we realized what was happening I had to leave school I had to leave the ISA and that's when he trained me I mean he was always training me but that's when I got my training and believe me when you're 21 and you got to support your mother and younger brothers and sisters it's not easy after my father would had passed away you know I would come into a house and a grandmother would take a look at me a 21 year old kid and she'd say oh you're so young I would say well the baby's also young you know so you try to you know break the ice a little bit so of course it was not easy having people use me as a moel when I was 21 so one day a man in a his name was Mr K Israel he came over to me and he said here's an envelope for you and your mother I said what is this he said I know that you could use it I said we're not Beggars we're not poor we don't need any money he said no this is not uh charity this is a loan so I said so when do we have to pay it back he said I will never ask you for it whatever you want you could pay me back I said okay fine I got to ask my mother I wasn't married at the time I was still living at home I said to my mother mom Mr Israel gave us money she said well we're not poor we don't need Stocker I said no ma he said it's a loan she said when do we have to pay it back he said he'll never ask us whenever we want okay we really did need the money and it was helpful it was about $1,500 and this goes back to the year 1967 so now two years later I was 23 more people were taking me I put together the money and I go to Mr Israel and I give him back the money and he says I'm not taking it I said Mr Israel what are you talking about you're the one who told me it's alone I want to pay it back he said of course it's Al loone he said but let me explain he said do you remember many years ago when I went bankrupt that's what he was talking about now of course I remember the whole sh was going crazy he was a wealthy man overnight he lost everything he said a few weeks after I went Bank there was another man in our neighborhood Mr lewenstein who came over to me mosha Lin and he gave me money and I said to him I'm not poor he said no this is alone so I said when do I pay it back he said I'll never ask you whenever you want you pay it back and a few years later I came back to Mr Lin Mr Israel is telling me and I gave him the money and he said I'm not taking it so I said to him what you said to me what do you mean not taking it you said it's a loan he said yes it's a loan and you have to pay but not me someday you're going to find another family that needs the money and you give them the money that's how you pay me back and when they come to pay you you'll tell them the same thing I'm telling you they give it to another family and that's exactly what my mother and I did that's that's when you're not thinking only about yourself and you take this book tonight and you challenge yourself you don't go to sleep at night until you did a favor for someone it could be even a small favor but it's a favor you show Hashem that you care about another Jew then your are answered then your Torah is pure then God sees oh these are my children you know recently I heard something great and I think this is so beautiful because it kind of gives us a perspective what life is all about you know most of us we get up in the morning and we have a cup of coffee most people get up and do that so there was a rabbi in Israel rban who spoke about it and he said what is the muan what is the depth of that that a Jew gets up in the morning and has a cup of coffee listen to what he said a person takes coffee beans very bitter he puts in Sugar that's very sweet he takes hot water and cold milk and he mixes it all together the bitter the sweet the hot and the cold and what does he say everything is from Hashem that's great the guy gets up in the morning and he says Hashem whatever you're dishing out to me Bitter Sweet hot cold I know it's from you now that's a great Declaration of faith in a morning I'm sure none of us ever thought about that when we were drinking coffee right but the point is there's a great lesson here and the question is what happens if we have something bitter or if something we feel is too hot can we change things so I want to tell you a great great story and always remember this this is a story that happened many many years ago in the 1700s and there was a who had two children two boys 10-year-old boy and a six-year-old boy and they were running away from a communistic type of country and every night on a boat at night late at night this boat would take people from this communistic country where there was a terrible leader and try to get over the river to the other side and sneak into the other country that was freedom and many many people tried to get on the boat every night and one night this he has his two children and he's holding on to them for dear life and suddenly people start yelling and screaming that the boat is breaking up there's too many people on the boat and that they're going to have to swim to shore now how in the world these little kids they don't know how to swim they certainly can't swim well they were about less than a quarter a mile away from the sand but how are they gonna make it there and the father listen to this the father has to now make an awful awful decision that no one should ever have to make and he says this children my dear children I don't know what to do there's no way that I can swim holding both of you the most that I can do is take one child and swim with the other hand I can't hold both of you I don't know what to do and the father's crying and the little boy says daddy take the older boy boy he learns Tora he's in the Yesa already he's a sadik you take him don't worry about me and the father kisses the younger child he says how could I leave you go and the older boy says daddy take the younger boy don't worry about me I could swim a little bit I could swim a little bit take the younger boy and the father gets out of the boat that's cracking up and he's holding both children and he decides that he's going to drop the older child because maybe the older child will be able to survive because he'll be able to swim and as he's holding both of the kids and he begins to let go of the older child the older child yells daddy daddy don't let me go don't let me go he can't let him go he can't how can he let go a child like that and he holds both kids and somehow he's able to manage that less than a quarter of a mile and he comes on to shore with both kids he plops on the sand and he collapses and when he gets up he sees both his kids and the little boy the older boy says daddy how could I thank you you saved my life you saved my life and the father says I didn't save your life you saved your life he says me he says how did I save my life you carried me he said no don't you understand when you cried out to me Daddy don't drop me daddy don't drop me you gave me a strength that I never knew that I had I never thought that I had that strength but your prayers you're crying out to me gave me a strength that I never thought I had and that's how I was able to save you but it was you cuz you gave me that strength and you know something the gamar tells us something so amazing the gamar tells us if you pray to God and you see that you didn't get answered you know what you should do Pray Again never give up and the tells us a that all of us know we say it in pray and hope to God a second time never give up and I say this to all the young girls that are looking and I say this to all the young guys that are looking for jobs and I say this to all the couples that are looking to have children never ever give up that's what the gar is telling and that's why tonight even though that we know that chemo is going to be started for adasa next week as the father told me this afternoon you never give up just because the child has Kemo doesn't mean that they can't survive and have a wonderful life we all know stories like that but we have to pray we have to be better we have to make sure that our mouth our pipes are clean we have to make sure that we're able to look away when others hurt us we have to make sure that we do every single day we have to make sure that we disconnect our phones to reconnect to Hashem and when we reconnect to Hashem then hopefully theot will be answered so how we're going to change how we're going to change I'll tell you a great story and then one more story and that will close listen to this fabulous story and you know what I love about this story it's not only it's not only the story is so beautiful as you'll see in a second but it's how Rim kki the gor the greatest tamic scholar today how he understood the story this story happened a couple years ago and it happened to a fellow let's call him nman and nakan was a regular Yeshiva boy in America he learned in a for a few years then he went into business he became very wealthy and he moved his family to Israel now every few years he would come back to America and he would do business in New York and then sometimes he'd go down and visit his nonreligious Israeli cousins in Miami Nati and zahava now Nati and zahava they left Israel because they were not religious they had no use for Israel they came to Miami and when their cousin came to them he couldn't eat in their home right because they weren't kosher so they would go to one of the kosher restaurants in Miami or else they would take out food and eat on plastic dishes or paper dishes and a couple years ago two years ago nman comes into the house and you know when you see a guy that his yam is sitting on top of his head you know like a triangle you know he just put it on five minutes ago sometimes we see like that you know at the cotel and usually that's how it was he would come into Nati's house it looked like he just put on the yamuk a few seconds before but now the yamaka looked comfortable looked like he always wore it and then he looks around and he sees a muuza on every doorpost and he says to him hey wow did I notice a change here he sees a safer on the table he says boy you picked that up real fast yeah we became balich Chua we became religious he says wow that's great that he hugged him he said how did that happen he said I'll tell you how it happened he said you know a couple years ago my wife and I we were sitting it was late afternoon in Miami it was very hot and we were sitting on the porch and we noticed our many well-dressed people and shirts and ties and they were all going down to the water now in Miami if somebody goes down to the beach they're not going down you know with a shirt and a tie and I looked at my wife and I said oh my gosh it's r these people are going to Tash right he said I remember Tash as a child I hadn't gone in a long time he said I don't know what possessed me I went into my house I got my Cupa I put it on my head and I said you know something I'm going to go with them and I'm following all these people and of course everybody's looking at me because I'm dressed so differently than everybody else we come down to the water everybody takes out their everybody's saying what they say and the guy comes over to me says excuse me you read Hebrew he says do I read Hebrew I'm Israeli of course I read Hebrew he says you want to say what they're saying he says I know what this is I remember as a kid T yeah I will say it fine he said I was getting ready to go and a guy comes over to me and he says excuse me sir did you hear chauffeur today he says today I haven't heard chauffer in seven years he says you know my name is mosha Catz and he's thinking like who cares what your name is like you know I'm not your friend you're not my friend he says I'm the btoa here I blow I got a little Sher in my pocket would you like me to blow chaer for you he says you got a chaer in your pocket he says yeah I could blow even a little chauffer he says wow that would be nice so he blows for him 30 col out everybody turns around like you ever hear they told mashia here right and and he's blowing shaer and then finally he finishes and the guy says thank you he says listen let me tell you don't forget my name is mosha Catz he's thinking like this guy's a nerd who cares who you are he says no I just want to tell you I saw where you came from you don't live so far from the synagogue if you ever want to be in contact with anybody in synagogue you could call me my name is mosha Catz or else the rabbi he comes home he thanks the guy he comes home his wife says n how is everything she tells him he tells her you know they were praying and then uh you know uh they asked me if I could read Hebrew and I said of course I'm Israeli he said then this guy mosha cats came over to me and and he blew schaer for me she says what who blew schaer for you he says mosha Kats she says mosha cats blue Sher for you he says yeah why she says I don't believe it that's really his name yeah he told it to me three times she says you know my grandfather who died many years ago his name was mosak cats and he was the Balan baso in Europe there was a big synagogue a very holy synagogue my grandfather mosha cats he blew sh with all those people I can't believe that today a guy mosha cats blew show for for you well both of them couldn't get over they got the chills just like I have right now every time I tell the story they couldn't believe it so for three days you know they just talking about it finally they decided to go to the synagogue and they asked the rabbi and he's telling his cousin nak the rabbi was so wonderful he was so nice he was Mish like Rabbi Baki he didn't say that but he said he was just so wonderful and so special and he was the one who brought us to chuva well he was so happy he embra raised him and he told everybody the story finally comes back to Israel and he goes to R kki and he says rebi I got to tell you this unbelievable story he says you believe it he tells him the whole story I Told You So R says of course these things happen every day but you know we don't always understand them but they happen every day he says rebie I got to ask you a question listen to this great question and listen to the answer it's even better than the question he says rebby I got to ask you a question if God wanted my relatives to become religious why didn't he send them cats 10 years ago nice question right if God wanted that these people should be religious he could have said the mosha cats 10 years ago says kki God waits for someone to take the first step as soon as he put on his Kip and he said I'm going to Tash with them God said now I can send the mosha cats what an answer what a great lesson for all of us we want to change tonight you can change take the first step do the first be careful the next thing that comes out of your mouth when you want to say something negative one step one small step and God says you know something you're taking the first step I'll send you mosha cats if God sends you a guy named mha cats call me right away you'll be in my next book okay but the point is you you get the idea what I'm trying to tell you so I just want to end with this fabulous story and also a great great lesson because we're talking about change tonight every one of us can change I feel we're all good but we can be better I don't like to come and tell people you know it's so bad we're all good if you think about where we came from we're great but we could be better and it doesn't hurt to be better we feel more connected to each other we feel more connected to Hashem we feel more connected to to Judaism to yish to Y that's what we got to do and and we can all do it every one of us and we'll be better elevated people because of it so I just want to end with this thought I remember many years ago the first time that I was in Manchester in England and I was about to go in and give a speech for about 500 women and somebody came over to me and said you know something on your way you got to stop into a woman's house she never has Ms and she's paralyzed she's in a wheelchair and she's asking that you come visit her for 2 minutes and I was thinking you know first of all how could you say no to a woman who's in a wheelchair so I said okay good I'll go in but just for two minutes cuz there's a big crowd that's waiting I come inside there's 25 women in that room and they're all waiting for this woman Mrs wsha re kav wsh to give a sh she a brilliant woman but she wasn't yet in the room and then they open up the curtain between the living room and the dining room and they wheel her in and my my heart almost falls out she's not even 40 radiant woman and she's in a wheelchair and she's paralyzed and she says to me Rabbi cron thank you for coming I need a favor from you and I'm thinking no matter what she asks how I'm I GNA say no in front of everybody here so she says I'm writing a book about my situation she says you know every day I get weaker and weaker and there many grp great rabbis who have come here to give me to give me encouragement and I write it down R the Manchester rashash from Israel and I've read many secular sources also about having strength in difficult times please write me a letter for the book and I said you know you need somebody somebody's a sadik to write a letter I can't write a letter for a book she says no please I listen to your CDs and I I know your books please it would mean so much so I figured okay how am I going to say no I said to her you know what Ritson you know I can't write a letter unless I read the book so when I get to New York you send me the book you know then I'll read it I fig it over the phone 8,000 miles away I'll tell her no she was one step ahead of me she said I printed it here it is and she gives me the book she had printed it already typed it all out okay now I read it I started reading it on my way back to New York I couldn't stop crying I think the saddest part of that book is the day of her daughter's eth day graduation all the women can relate to this The Eighth Day gradu the eighth year graduation is such a special graduation and the women look so nice and the and the daughters look so nice and everybody is so radiant and so happy and she says I came in with a wheelchair and my daughter standing next to me she's so embarrassed about me and I'm embarrassed for her because she's embarrassed about me was just awful you know we don't even take it for granted we take it for granted that we can walk and talk and drive and run and sing and shop and do all all these things and we get so upset next time we get upset think of kave wsha in a wheelchair in the at the graduation of her daughter it'll give you a different perspective what life is all about anyhow I keep reading the book and then I read one sentence and that sentence is a lifechanging sentence the truth is that wherever I go even right now wherever I go I always carry these yellow highlighters because if I ever read anything I always just underline it even though I'm going to throw it out I just underline it because it makes an impression on me my Sid is underlined my gar is underlined my is underlined you see something that makes an impression on you underline it next time you see it it'll awaken you again and when I read that sentence I highlighted it I checked it off and I called her and I said Ritson let me tell you something this is not a book this is a safer this is a holy book I'll be honored and humbled if you allow me to write a letter and of course I wrote the letter you know what the sentence is listen to this it's not her sentence she got it from someplace else but it teaches us a great lesson in life she writes any fool can count the seeds in one apple right you don't have to be a big you go home tonight you open up the refrigerator take out an apple you count four or five seeds but only the highest power Hashem knows the apples that are in one seed and that's brilliant who knows how many apples there are in one seed only Hashem you put your arm around somebody somebody's looking for a job and he's so embarrassed to come to sh and you put your arm around him said listen to me I know what you're going through I that was me a couple years ago you're going to make it come to us for Shabbat a girl is looking for a and another woman comes over to her says listen I know what you're going through I went through the same thing don't worry you're going to get married you're going to build a family and you give a seed of encouragement or you make a call for somebody to get a job make a call for somebody to have a sh or you pray for somebody else and that person is healed all the apples that grow from those seeds that's what we came here tonight to plant seeds to plant seeds of Tora to plant seeds of to plant seeds of and that's what it's all about as the rabbi mentioned before it's the beginning of the three weeks the culmination of the three weeks is Tish and the gar tells us what is the reason that the second was destroyed they had T they had but they didn't they had they didn't get along with each other and that's what we need toat is and what a beautiful message that we sent to Hashem tonight that a whole community in the middle of so many things going on in our lives we just dropped everything and we came hereas saiva what a beautiful thing that alone is a great that all of us have done tonight that we come here to help that family that family the mother sent a message that's why I walked out before she had sent a message with Mrs Cohen and she's begging everybody she doesn't want to lose her child she knows that we can make a difference we can make a difference with our Tora with our without our let's do it for her let's do it for the child and let's do it for ourselves because when we pray differently and we're Unified will be different people I'll just end with this thing you'll never forget this my father Shalom he told me this I don't know where he saw it maybe he saw it in the read his digest I don't know but he once said something so great he said the word United and the word untied are spelled with the exact same letters United and untied the only difference is where you put the eye if you put the eye in the right place then a community is United if you put the eye the selfish eye in the wrong place oh then it's untied tonight we put it in the right place Rabbi Baki and his family should be blessed for helping organize this wonderful Kus Hashem should bless with and hem should bless each and every one of us the greatest that you could ever give to anyone is that we should each fulfill our potential in Tor in in said and everything that the talents that Hashem gave us in life we should fulfill the potential and see only good thank you for inviting me and thank you for listening