Break the Silence

Missiles falling on Israeli cities, soldiers fighting multiple fronts, and we're running into shelters this week. Yet tonight, across Eretz Yisrael, Jewish families are sitting down for their pseudo for Shabbos Hagadol. Flowers on the table, candles lit, children singing. That's not a contradiction. That's who we are. Shabbos Hagadol commemorates that moment in Mitzrayim when the Jewish people made their first [music] act of public defiance while still being chained. This is who we were, and this is who we are. Elie Wiesel survived Auschwitz, survived [music] Buchenwald, survived the death marches, survived the murder of his entire family. He watched [music] the world do nothing. He wrote about it in the book he originally titled in Yiddish "Un di velt hot geshvign." [music] And the world remained silent. But Elie Wiesel did not remain silent. He came out of the ashes and became the voice of 6 million who could no longer speak. And when he accepted the Nobel Peace Prize, he said something. "I swore never to be [music] silent whenever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. Silence [music] encourages the tormentor, never the victim. The world was quiet in Egypt. The world was quiet in Europe. And the world is [music] quiet today. We are still here." For every person watching this who's trapped in their own Mitzrayim, be it addiction, [music] abuse, trauma, pain that you could never speak about out loud, hear this. Do not [music] let silence be the thing that keeps you there one more day. You are not invisible. You matter. [music] You are the future. And to everyone watching who knows someone in their own darkness, do not be the world. Do not be quiet. Pick up the phone. >> [music] >> Show up. Because sometimes the most dangerous thing in someone's life is not what they're going through. It's the silence [music] of the people around them. Break that silence. From Eretz [music] Yisrael, this is Turning the Wheel. Because the road to healing isn't straight, but no one should have to travel it alone. Wishing you a wonderful Shabbos and a Chag Kasher v'Sameach.