Heros of the Generation: Eulogy for Rabbi Moshe Shapiro - Rabbi Menachem Nissel

[Music] today's presentation is a little as they say off topic because I want to talk about my spiritual father my my my ready remove Shapiro excitedly from the Bronco I just found out about him that he used to hate speaking at áliveá because he never felt but you could actually in commit encapsulate who a person is in just a couple of hours after person passes away you need time used to like to speak at the end of a week and the last week for me has been literally it's a river of tears every single day listening to piss paid him to obituaries about a person who literally for 37 years held my hand in every small little teeny-weeny little step both spiritually and as part of my family and seeing my kids being born permit said and married off every small little thing he was part of that I said to give him a tribute I had to think a lot um Thursday night online I spoke to my male students and I gave him over what he did to me in terms of being a tourist udents in terms of being his time with holcomb my methodology of teaching and learning today I want to speak about something else I want to speak a little more about who he was as a human being and how a little bit that you and I can learn from him so I want to begin with a incredible observation from this week's passion from reversal of the mirror so this parsha we meet two of the most awesome women of all time who there we go you'll have ed and miriam without question they would be female leadership during the time of the Exodus and the Torah says we'll follow again we just quotes the Torah says the young man malkmus rhineland you'll receive Rios the king of Egypt said to the Jewish midwife a shame record Chiffre the shame haircut poor so the first ones called Chiffre and the second one is called poor Rashi says who is Shiphrah and puah though you said so shift fries you said she Mischa Paris is a lot because what is their expertise so the split second your bone your kind of disgusting-looking so i not to say this nicely this is like green slime called vernix to cover view and sometimes you have little bits of limbs that are not fitting in here and there and there's this midwife a nurse and she with her magic hands within a couple of seconds because fix you all up can wash up all the gunk and the muck and the slime and turn you back to your mama within seconds looking all pretty and all here and this is called the Chiffre the Chiffre misha paratus a flood blog this was your heavens professional name this was a nom de guerre as they say this is her professional name that she went out as Chiffre the one that clean babies who was poor so poor says Rashi and Khedira kanakam I'm a face Tina kabocha now women who know how to think to a child when the baby cries to his Kokua apparently so what we call a lullaby because he's a la la la la she was those days was like a poopoo by the way they used to sing was like poo poo poo poo poo poo poo poo poo and those who are British so you know how all are horrible horrible nursery rhymes Rock a bye baby on the treetop when baby shall fall that baby shall rot and one of the things that made my nation great and powerful through the 19th century but the point is is a Leah of Miriam she was the pupal Queen no-one could sing to a baby better than her so if you're welcome ask the following question this question sticks out we all know the first time you meet something in the Torah you find its essence is the rule the beginnings are crucial I don't want to scare you people but when you go on the dating scene so they know most people and by the time to get they'll tell you that 90% of what they needed to know they got him the first few seconds it was moments of the foundations the beginnings the open impressions for the terror so to speak gives us the secret and the essence of who a person is in this expression we find out what leadership is all about you study the opening stories of Moshe a band of Moses the same way over here we meaning these two incredibly amazing women Schifrin and pour your kevin and miriam they defied pero now again if you look at this through the lens of the Holocaust imagine that you're being intimidated by the Gestapo and they can do anything they want to you and to your children to your family and you defy them normally that you could die knowing that terrible things could happen to you and your family you don't care you do not care you do what's right you do what's necessary you are a true hero you have at Miriam well the great female heroines of the Exodus Miriam especially goes out the Tara tells us that she was so to speak at the time of the splitting of the sea she was the leader of the women she told them how to sing I actually think that she's insanely cool because she played the drums I don't know what it is is something I always pictured coming out with a drum set out of Egypt I mean it's probably one of these like tambourine types of things but the point is is that Miriam is and in the language of the Kabbalist she looks called the scene of her shovel pass she's the essence of the oral law the air Miriam Miriam's well that said the Jewish people for 40 years with water when it came to land of Egypt to the Land of Israel it was hidden in the Sea of Galilee in the Kinneret and the IRAs all tells us that when he wanted his student required the towel to taste from the thousands of wisdom he would take her take him to the Sea of Galilee the found the exact spot and make a drink and after that his mind was opened this was from Miriam so when you stop and think about it kind of strange that the first time that we meet these two women we find one is the one they used to clean babies and the one that used to sing babies but this is the vase you guys are kind of like the wrong crowd but sometimes I would say this over in a college campus a girl would come up to you say to me rabbi I find this at ten cents and you know you laugh but it's true it is offensive you don't want to be remembered it's a goal that things to children when you are the most powerful most famous person your generation someone they're going to write up about you when they do your obituary when you're 120 so you know how to clean a baby from the muck and the gunk so if you reckon says and I'm going to share with you his words because these words could be at least for me they're the most important words at least so me personally reviewer who says many famous things but this could well be the most powerful thing for me at least and it's a teacher if I had to teach you one big idea which is the opposite of everything that the culture back home taught you it's this incredibly powerful unique idea from eurosam you reckon says and I quote gave it exact words he says Canberra Bria lady varm katana blade varm Godot Liam Alicia and non-sugar dalam vanishing katana there's no such thing as big events and small events big things and small things there's only big people and small people which means that a person who's big is someone that does everything that's big if you're looking explains there's no way there's no way you can know when you're in touch with greatness when they're doing big things there's no way you can know the true nature of a person I remember when I wrote this up distribution was just after 9/11 I call this the heroes of 9/11 this is America asses their way we're celebrating the hero the guide is not afraid to go into the fires and bring out people and I'm not belittling alene the teeny weeny bit but the word hero what's hero in Hebrew anybody know a giver just means the person has give or coming in strength as well the greatest giver of all time was Yitzhak Athena who's a blind man that stayed in his home her eyes a different connotation I'll tell you though it's it's a it's it's untranslatable into Hebrew there's no Hebrew word for hero because the concept of here is not a Jewish concept when you think of a hero I just was in America the end of December they took about all the great heroes it's always about things that they did in public america's obsessed the people that do things when you go to american asking what do you do so you're expected to say your career and if you answer you know mom mommy so my gosh to give you that look they roll their eyes at there you got a set way to this university and i'm doing this and i'm and last month a famous orthodox jewish magazine covers great women what did will have in common they all did something when i say did something a thing in inverted commas in the american culture they build schools they changed the wall a little there it's not a jewish concept it's not a jewish concept you want to see greatness you got to see to that that man that went into the fires of 9/11 you got to see what he's like a home you got to see how he talks to his wife and his chosen when no one's around you have to see what he's like when he's having a hard day if he still remembers to be gentle and sweet to the cleaning lady that's there and every other person that's around him but when you see greatness then you see them when he went in it was all part of what makes a person great wasn't a moment of grayness wasn't a mom the grayness person is a great person the person is a great person he's always a great person and you only really get to see it when no one's around you only get to see it with the small little things I want to teach my friend replace the Crone a piece of Cronus you don't know it was oddly the greatest speaker and writer of stories I tease from the following way the year 2000 I used to have a website called gem Sam those days are thousands of young ladies I was giving little shivered by asking all my friends to write and sending them you know ideas from Jerusalem jeomsun sent from Jerusalem seminary experience whatever is something something and a very well-known organization in North America asked me to do a survey amongst my readers Wow who was the greatest woman of the 20th century who was the greatest woman of the 20th century so I politely declined I made up some excuse why I couldn't do it and I'll tell you why I didn't want to do it because I know exactly who was going to win who would win who was going to be the greatest one of the 20th century what it the founder of the Beit Yaakov movement there we go so she changed everything she changed he did a huge big revolution in in everything that today every single one of you are certian eras students in a sense well part of what she did there's no question that she was an incredible woman but then I asked her face a Crone in front of the group we were there and in Krakow in her in her in her seminary I asked a piece of phone I said who's who would win the greatest man of the 20th century signal each other and says the Hoffa client for sure the carpet crime was the greatest male of the 20th century then asked another question I don't really know of any of these things the truth doesn't matter I'm just trying to make the point so who is great hop it's climbing with a certian era I know probably the hottest time I'm in Hawaii why we say these things but he's for sure much more famous his impact what he did how he changed the world and then I asked the following question who was greater the coffee climber his wife ah got you now okay so I don't know what you want to say but I'm assuming ish toka gufo equal they were equally great and then I turned to Revit clone this was such a nice thing because I still love this man I just tell you he called me last week for the first two three minutes of the phone call he which is crying because he knew that my Rebbe had died he was uncle he was crying said he waited a few days because he knew how much I was in pain it's a really great person he's a really great friend about this a little teased him I said every Crowns tell me a great story about the koffice times wife and he was like you know didn't have one it's a that's my point that's my point I see the conference client's wife was just as great of a cup it's why we haven't a stir is about I happen to have stories about her they're not so incredibly amazing you want an assertion air with a great woman because on the day when they dedicated her seminary in Krakow she was Noah to be seen there every teller write so eloquently about how she was in the corner clutching of to Helen she so did not want to be in the limelight she so did not want this job she just wanted to help Jewish their girls just what she wanted to do she was the right person at the right time in Judaism we never look at people and say wow what you did we look at people say who are you what are you all about and you want to know what person is he got to see them when no one's looking and then you find out the real person and here I get to my point my ready room oh she should care outside of the phone the rock ah so when we first met him they were new this man was an insane genius mysterious they said about him was like it was just beyond beyond his his knowledge he knew everything deeper than everybody else the stir is about him which is like I'm just saying to you the people that you know some of you know very Hartmann Abraham and people think of him is like the greatest commentator on the Maharal of Prague ever the relation told me that that when he used to every time he said something he couldn't understand he would go to reverse Chaparro wish we would read it and how he read it would already give the answer but how we put the emphasis on different words and another one of my friends of the era of a la pinata told me that he and his friend spent a whole year learning the laws of of how to build a mixer and very very complex it's an insanely complex and they all went to Russia pero the whole group to show what they had done in the year and every single thing that they said over emotion said it beautiful and he said let me take your level deeper and in a third another level deeper and it came out he wasn't even learning those wish knives of mix laws but he was everything he was holding and everything that's a deep level he could always take you wherever you want he was when I go one level deeper regression felt told me that he was once learning with with him there's at the back of the talmud there's always fights going on between commodities during bond in the bottom are either two people with finding it out and he showed there's a book published by one of the big all of the last generations that goes through these arguments and explains them and ramesha said here every single time he explains that he misses the point is another level of debt that he always misses out so we knew that ramesh fair was the deepest of the deepest we knew the he had incredible knowledge we also know that he was a charismatic speaker he used to speak thirty to forty times a week he wants to tell me that he never said the same thing twice very often he would say classes that were very similar but when you listen carefully euro each time he was adding another level of debt another twist and that little thing that would show shine a new light on the subject matter the hit not sit anywhere else you think about that for years after years thirty to forty some classes each so you know we're talking about a whole array of topics including secret classes late at night where you would learn kabbalah with the most brilliant capitalists of jerusalem so we knew this man was a genius but my father always told me beware of genius and beware of charisma by the way this is an important message in America you have these rabbis are ABB is rabbis who are very very brilliant and they know the answer to questions and they're great speakers as well but they're not good people if you see them once snapping at a personal you go into their house and see they don't treat their lives nicely and then took their kids nicely these are not people you should look up to I wouldn't even bother learning from them unless you see that they are consistently great and the small little things they do and no one's around then you can say this person I'm going to learn terror from them in Rob hardly male America lurk in focus if your teachers like an angel of heaven angel have there's no ego there's no agenda he just wants to pass over God's well to the people that's it if that's what you see in that person then you know you've seen greatness so once I asked my Rebbe I used to drive them every Friday they had my moment for over 20 years that was a Friday driver so every time I would prepare my questions or where it was and he would ask me there and then I told it was a big fight going on in our building teenagers every motion heard what was going on he said well come down I'll help you out this is a huge thing to this person every second was pressure every moment was precious and he comes down to my house Melissa you know exactly where it is for paranhos is to help my wife if you ever want to come to us for a Shabbat meal you should know that excuse me Melissa's now headin right her little magic touch is in the food the point is he came down to the building and yeah his genius in the human touch was incredible and he did something that everyone was happy but that's not why I'm telling you the story I live in the third floor and we had a clean eighty lady's name with Sara Sara I think I don't know she was like a little older I think she was Yemenite and she stood this rabbi coming in the officer natee he says it looked igano thank you know neither t and that hole isn't lasted about 15 seconds when the whole thing was over an hour later when he left my house to go to go back to to go back to buy the gum see he walked down two floors with me and when he got to the first floor he looked at me city Menachem Tchaikovsky Matthew I forgot something he ran up to the helm I ran after he said you don't have to come I thought maybe I had an umbrella but I was not gonna read and go into the house on his own he went into the house he started running from room to room until he found the cleaning lady and he said goodbye to her and that's a moment where I saw greatness the first of many many examples where I spoke greatness and so a person who's literally dealing with all the problems of the world people came to him from every corner of the world repeating with all the difficult questions that go on in in Russia and in South America yes and in Mexico Mako the old era wherever Shevlin Moshe Shapiro's no thanks America Europe he loved the French I don't know why has no idea why is it game you keep tolerated up Brits but the point was but he would say thank you to the clean land he had run up to safe tank as a clean lady because she had I don't know because she had offered him a glass of tea and it just was the right thing to do to say goodbye to her just that way that he thought was something guys so consistently that's the moment that has so greatness that's the moment that just like Shiphrah and puah who were the greatest leaders of their generation you don't know they're great until you see how they treat their children that they'll never know no one in this room knows who is the first person to sing to you who was the first person to hold you and clean you up some nurse and some hospital out there without a name you know who they were that they did it they took care of you in those first few seconds of your life with full dedication and full love doing their job to the best of their ability those are the real heroes those are the real heroes and I remember when I spoke after 9/11 this turn in college and I said to them you know you have you guys a lot of them went to volunteer to help Graham zero I said I don't really know how to define greatness but I do know the following that the Jewish flawless greatness is a totally different way of looking at things somewhere at 4 o'clock in the morning the baby cries and the mama looks at her husband this basically this beached whale this immovable carcass that's next is snoring away he ain't helping and she's been you know she's a full-time mommy and a full-time job and she's exhausted she needs a seat and she moves her weary body and she moves her body and she goes and she takes the child and she sinks with that child who comes him down it comes her down this was her baby at that moment she's become shiver and poor at that moment she's become Jewish greatness no one ever no child we never know especially for he will never know and but that's Jewish greatness that's what we're all about funny I don't want to talk about this but I can't help but think about it my rabbi rush for used to say that if you want to know a country you look at its leadership a Shem sends you the people who who who you deserve and I want to go into this because so not the point I want to make but your future president is really the soldier country shrimp clearly wanted him in the whole reason how he got in was so beyond anything that makes any sense whatsoever he got in was equivalent to throwing a double six ten times in the row but Hashem says I want you to sit and the most powerful seat the most powerful country of the world was ever seen and again I don't talk about this because it disgusts me so much he wants to mention you can't quote me from my locker room talk remember that I'm not going to say anything wrong stuffing right there but you can't quote me from my locker room talk and I say to you I say to you that in Judaism that the moment will we find out who you are that's the moment when the I close seems here would say that mix the mix of the mix of talk you know just embarrassing you know and then go to Vicks on Friday afternoon for this is now they talk to each other you see greatness to my rabbuna Shapiro wasn't the hey what's up man he never spoke casually every time he talked to - every time you would say hello slightly different summit slightly difference in the next time I know he managed to do it over years and years and years we never once had a trivial conversation how do they fine how's your day fine how you talk to the neighbor have a good day have a good he couldn't deal with that as for mistletoe but one of the great rabbis of Jerusalem says a few days ago he had a pet cutter she trained himself in key matters now was exactly what needed to be said he knew how to make a person feel comfortable he knew how to make a person laugh he had a terrific sense of humor you know to speak to little children he never speak with special-needs kids he spoke also for the most brilliant mind of generation that leaders of the previous generation he knew how to speak to thee this is a story that's really not for now because it's a cool story to be to the president of I think was ever by Jean he was sent there by Rush Steinman's to help out the Jewish community you know testicular to a king of a Republicans bore out country I don't even know what that had we cried that part of the world but he knew exactly the right words the right things to say it's what you see true greatness but Moshe till once told us how he learned to think it's an interesting story normally you don't go up to promotion parents's how come you're so deep how come you search deeper than everyone else but this happens in poems and one of my friends was drunk and he could get away with it he just asked him and normally repair was like you know you would ignore you who would give you like 20 his friendly slap around so he had a way with us we would like you know the Rebbe but he told us a story he thought this was the right response and he told us that he was maybe 11 or 12 he certainly was before the Mitzvah and he was hanging out and was cool the part of achievers part of shiva is pulled today one of the premier he shivers of the world he was a child prodigy he was Lord Kim and his friends and they were hanging out there in the courtyard and there was a blackout when is the blackout so in those days you ran home to get candle we just went home and waited for the black out to write it so foul so the fun of it base--emitter ich emptied out the study hall emptied out sir moshe and his friend said you know what let's go and see what goes on in there it went in there the place was completely empty and there was one old man in the corner on his own who started saying over slowly in the way that the musa giant taught us how to say over a minor HUBZone it's small section of the words of the rabbis and he started to say it over slowly and with passion every single word one after the other and when he finished saying it he said it a second time with the same speed and the same music and the same passion and the same patient he said it a third time and a fourth time and a fifth time and he kept on going he told us after a few times we knew this whole thing by heart we couldn't understand why he kept on going it's 15 times 20 times we were giggling we thought this was ridiculous he kept him going twenty times 25 times sooner or later we started to get spooked out we knew we were seeing something that was beyond belief after a while there wasn't a single one of us there wasn't crying there was kids coming out of our eyes we were little kids and that's the moment I realized that without ever leaving the simple meaning of the words the infinite depth of the words of the rabbi's how you can mine it four layers upon layers upon layers of depth that's how he studied everything that's how he studied Talmud and all the commentaries and Commission all the commentaries and that's how he started with Zohar and all the Kabbalistic coming with so much tabs and this incredible death that he had spilt out with his power of speech and how he dealt with the human world with the beauty he had this mouth of sadhana we had this royalty about him he know how to speak to everybody there are some things that he would tell us where we could see that he picked up on things that regular yoona beings don't pick up on the most important influence in his life was a man called the brisker of the vietze clock zest olive a chick who lived here in your shoe line and during those in 40 years your late teens in the early 20s I read II was hanging around it was part of the entourage he learnt a lot from him but he said probably the most powerful message that he ever got from the brisker out was when Shabbos was over Shabbat was over Briscoe would come home from his prayers and they used to like to have garlic handle and everything was prepared for a ball pulled up the cup with wine and the brisket always just stare at the Abdullah set for 20 minutes just for 20 minutes now again you and I can do this after 30 seconds we get like ants either check our phone like you know it's a Greek on recon since he did not want Shabbos to be over he wanted to connect Shabbos to have dollar unleveled that you and I can't understand remission was one of what was going through his mind during those times he once told us equip he said there was Kinkos Tara and they were he was in the hovering of Shiva that's what he was studying and two of the senior rabbis of the cavern yeshiva was sitting next to each other and smiling at each other and one said to the other you throw on Korova the nation of Israel who's close to God and the other one said ah yes well I'm Kroy hood and they looked at each other and they were just smiling and my Rebbe said I watched these two giants of the Spirit and I knew that what was going through their minds was something that I could never ever comprehend to see simple words that we are the nation that Shem feels close to and they would look at these words and just a whole different a whole different perception and that's the way the relation was everything he saw he would see in the deepest of the deepest he would always come out with lines and no one else to think of once made a comment I was actually there when it happened 19's 1990s when did cassette recorders go out in a cassette recorders they were no I'm talking about you know cassette recorders our ass to Grandma so we accept cassette recorders so I remember there was a cassette recorder in front of him and every time he was paused to think he had like a click and the cassette recorder would stop and then we Karen talking click whir and it would carry on going and he's watching this and you could see was very distracted he had not heard of what the cold voice-activated technology he did not know the thing existed and eventually he stopped the class like I can't this thing is driving me crazy whose is it so you know whatever I said it's mine what is this it's a voice activating whenever you stop so it knows to stop that way it saves space on the cassette real sort of motion either side is correct as I said once upon a time the whole class was understood from those silences the whole secrets was there when everyone was quiet and those who you get a chance which I can't explain now you go to the first Rashi inve Achra but it says that Shem gave Moshe a gnat time to think between every word that he said and that thinking is something that remotion felt was so crashes he so wanted our generation to be able to think he was so terrified that we become a nation that every time as I could quiet then we would just like check our phones nervously I also do it don't feel embarrassed once upon a time people would have a few seconds of silence they would think and then it would carry on they would go back and they remember what they were thinking about before and and go back and think and that's how people became great and he's so much wanted that for our generation I need to tell you a few stories about the beauty of the man all these stories I just heard in the last week some of that I had heard before but this now the people involved he's all my friends with all my friends telling these stories the friend of mine lives here turn off and he told me he's going to let Pesach Crone I asked I told this story to very basic role in the conversation is because I want to write this in my next book okay so I went up to this person and he said yeah I'll tell her the story too early Conan always details and I'll let every Co write it up in the next book the first story is going to be the story but I'm going to tell teachers an abbreviated version just to get make a point the friend of mine was childless for seven years and his father-in-law the person was a well-known community figure his father-in-law after they should come give him a blessing his blessings were intensely powerful there's something about he had this holy mouth so we make sure have I given a blessing for children I have to go to the house and have to speak for the wife as well and he comes in there's the young couple after seven years of marriage he says in this house you will hear the reverberations of laughter emanating from from your children and it would exact words he said coil Solly's simcha you have only bites as there will come from this house so it's a great Bravo and of course a year later they had a baby girl but they were already living down in America so it wasn't exactly a great fit it wasn't you know like your the great third they had a kid after years on the Block Allah he said in this house will be the sound of simcha he fast forward 20 years later this girl gets engaged to an Israeli boy and the story is a true story that they needed to rent an apartment in the holy city rush lime and they went all over the place back and forth until he finally got one apartment he could move in would guess what it's the same place that they had rented 20 years earlier and that's where they made Lahaina and that's what the sound of laughter but it wasn't exactly the birth it was the engagement but there was emotions promised that the cool part of the story is that when my friend said it's over two Moshe so we should roll his eyes insist don't tell it to the newspaper they'll make this into a miracle story I'm sorry he said he so did not want these serious to come out he so did not want these theories to come out my carissa never told me the following I found this out this week mr. Brewster told me then he always had one son and the son had permit sir so he begged revelations my only son please come to the mixer and we shall try and he missed it and when he met America Russa he said I'm sorry but you know what I'll come and come to the next to mitzvah so so he said Riviera I'm not sure it's going to work out that way I'm not sure we're having children anymore she says whoever Hashem will come to the next time it's a year later they have a baby girl this was exactly fitting in but that changed everything at a baby gone he told to relation who says I'm not sure you'll be dancing at the permit sir but thank you very much whatever you said you had a baby girl unless I said what's the big deal I want a dancer with the Mitzvah and two years later they had a baby boy and burn Hashem he added to it so just two three years ago and it's just incredible the power of his mouth but when we she told us many many times he wanted to miracle stories he doesn't like all these things they don't impress him so how the story doesn't end exactly the way it's supposed to I have a she's actually a cassette announcement we made her up and she lives in st. Louis he wants to stay with us over here names Donna whatever it is and her husband is Gershon and he's one of my best friends and he was part of our group going back 30 years ago try to remove shapira's group so 30 years ago 37 years ago and that old lady's 37 years ago he's part of that huh borough Haley's Gershon and them five years ago my good friend passed away to cancer but the years before that obviously he lived in st. Louis and he turned to my Rebbe for strength so I got this email two days ago from Donna and he wrote the following when Gershon got sick among other things or Moshe told him was to learn Torah so the tour if you don't know the Torah the Torah is the predecessor to the Shahana it's massive many many many volumes and it goes through all of Halawa in every single opinion is brought as a massive compendium that literally shadows he told Gershon in unequivocal terms that he would come to the sim and also that he would dance with him at his children's wedding and Erica thrall we were pleasantly shocked but what we considered an amazing I've talked on an amazing promise brackets I never knew whiter in particular but not having curses level of the talkin of simple faith and since it seemed like a very long set us farm I told Gersh to learn the tour very very slowly that the scene would take a long time so it happens Gershon was completely at peace with his illness from the moment but moshe told him these two things His perfect devotion to his Reber meant there was no question of worrying adapting his words you knew Gersh was a warrior so this was remarkable in so many levels his Amira and revelation was unshakable with Gershon passed away I had a hard time understanding where Moshe spoke so specifically he didn't say I hope he will but very emphatically that they would make a Sam on the tour and they would dance at his weddings after five years and after the bacteria for motions I realize what a precious gift is relegated with those words he gained the security that remotion had it all under control that he could focus on his learning on the Torah and living his life my husband Gershon used to described with moshe as having big shoulders that he was able to carry the burdens of his tongue meet him but Moshe took the burden of illness from gracious shoulders and took it on his own although I'll never know where emotions words really meant on a deeper level they gave us four years for appreciating each and every day and until the very last few weeks it never occurred to either of us that he wouldn't live and you didn't she writes and another note one of the first things Gershon talking about remotion was that he had a really cool wild big wide brim hat he couldn't wait to get one I remember him buying one a bear upon just like promotions I know that we'll never make it to yet today on our article but before I know how much of his rebel was and he had an awesome sense of style gotta laugh at something when my granddaughter was born Princess Connie sung as you know she is so she has downs and I knew that remission girl had a special place in his heart for special needs kids the like a really special place new car and I went to him my momma cotton was asked the question is it appropriate to name your granddaughter after your you know your your your your grandmother who'd passed away if she's if she has downs there was the question that he asked you know yeah she's named Connie honey is named after my son and well you're welcome and father's mother so is it appropriate so remission tell me so tell you my cotton that you cannot have a greater blessing River Nucky is the word in you it's an absolute gain gain it's a win-win situation why because you need someone after someone else so you're hoping that this new person will somehow during his deeds and actions will be and face cus as a merit for the person that passed away anyone that's named after someone the pressure's on ladies you're supposed to be able to give merit to that person we said it down kindred child is not capable of finishing but she is a pure and undiluted generator of credit of kindness all around us and by the way if you see are you the first thing you do is you smile right do you've seen her you kind of she's like boo cutest thing ever I'll show you pictures but the point is that it generated good things so she's just everything about it is goodness he wrote a letter to a friend of mine rabbi Rabinowitz and in them in Far Rockaway when he had his son enough mother and told him that even we know that least people have very high souls from very high places it's important to treat them like any other child the word special he was like he said every small teeny-weeny little improvement in the child you should see it as something as a source of great joy and you can't take care the child should feel good about him or herself he can't let him go with his shirt hanging out and stuff like that build him as much as he can and he should he should celebrate every small little development that the child has well two days ago they said yeah see Colin told me a story who he heard this from the right targets mill in Gateshead and went to try and tell the story without crying it's a little hard for me because I'm still getting the goosebumps from the story Misha Pierrot my Rebbe was was asked to fly into America just for one day to speak for the parents of these children I don't know which organisation it was but he flew to New York and my Rabi would all his genius knows he's a very passionate and very very very very emotional person and as he walked into the hall and he saw all the parents of these children he almost fainted and he had to go back outside and he said I can't speak to these people this is hard for me it's too hard to me so they begged him and the Kajol's me said we flew in for this it was too hard for me eventually he tells speak for a few minutes and he came in and I just I'm telling you now this is like classic because whenever you figure you know what he's going to say he always says something deeper but something more profound this is what he told his parents he told all the story the story must go back to the 50s but a young man his wife got sick and he had to take care of the children so let's just pretend that he had like you know five or six kids and he's playing mr. mom and is useless at it and he's taking care of the children to hurry with that and his uncle walks in and sees them you know doing laundry and changing diapers and making dinner and he's made a following comment he says how will your kids ever be able to pay you back so it was taken aback by the question and he gave which I think is the answer I would have probably given he said you know I just want my kids to grow up as good healthy Jews and they should pass it on to the next generation I will get Malthus I will get Jewish joy by seeing them doing good things for the next generation that's all I need and that was the end of conversation and that night this young man was thinking over what he said he wasn't sure if you get the right answer he said you know what tomorrow I'll go in after bris corral remember the brisker of my rabbis Rebbe my rabbis Rebbe went to the brisker walls and he said the birth grew up that's what my uncle said this is the answer that I gave what do you think the risk law says I really really do not like the question and I really really do not like your answer when the British club said that was like whoa he was like you know I'm fire solid a chick style this is that he did not did not like the question did not like the answers what do you mean he says the Jewish Hall was built on me I'm a Brahmin Sara another was Sara when they didn't act to charity xs/s it yes it was pure hazard nothing to do with what you get back nothing to do with what comes out of it you do it because it's the right thing to do period you don't think about how you feel about it you don't do about how how you know what you get back or what it makes you do at this is irrelevant you do because the right thing to do the question is illegitimate well you do for your children you do because the right thing to do care you do have that the due to credit sri of misha looks at these parents and with tears in his eyes he said to them the following words he said myself and all the other people i know we don't really know what it means to do the jewish home because when we raise our kids it's always for something boy is picturing one day we take them out of the Hopa one day we see our grandchildren and we can get to play with grandkids to do it from that we get at the end it looks kind of a novice that we get at the end but you of your kids you give and you give and you give and you just give that's it without wanting to get anything back in return to these kids you just give and you said that you people you are the real real real continuous of Abraham and Sarah you are the ones that are building the Jewish home the way that Abram and Sarah used to do facet Mackay pure Hazzard unadulterated offensive when someone came to him from South America they had a shire a question in Brazil of an androgynous in English is called an androgyne and androgyne is someone who never has two has two genders double gender so in Halawa in the world of halakha this is an incredible case person comes out to you he's both male and female in one body there's all kinds of halakhah situations that come up fascinating english knives in the talmud most rabbis would relish having to deal in real life with him and drogon us with an androgyne but when a person came from brazil had a story about a jewish person who was then drugging us the first thing my Rebbe did was burst out crying then afterwards he dealt with a logic thing the first thing he did is he cried because this is a real person who's suffering this is a real Jew that suffering and I remember how many times in my car when I drove him on Fridays when I told the hence he is like it and the struggles they had with their parents and what they used to do to be able to keep Shabbos and keep kosher you could see his eyes going moist and it meant so much to him every single small little success that they had and the pain that he had when I told them I remember I was the one as a merit of teaching him that the following phrase crack square run mile away from the Kotel he was shivering when I told him that this thing exists he was so differently so painful him to think about Jewish kids what they go through he can't tell much with every single one of us last night I heard a Hesburgh from her be honest and David Sleater probably the only person left of the great thinkers of our generation here in Acadia clock three minute walk from here he spoke to a packed audience or what valishia studied in history at him and he threw in something that I suspected this for many decades but he threw it in he said we all know that relation the relation would he would regularly fast for his students that they should succeed now I knew there were mush there was a chronic faster I always thought he did it for religious reasons for the spiritual reasons you know whenever I was asked him you know we're confident there that you wouldn't drink he was you never touched food homeless I never seen a came out did not eat he once said he'd ever drank coca-cola because he saw a sign that said coca-cola taste of life and said okay that's what they call I'm not touching it but he used to fast for us used to fast for people people used to come to him with their pain and I wish period to Colin what to do when they left without anyone knowing without anyone knowing he would take upon himself as fast for that person that's Jewish greatness that such thing that you never get to see that's a thing that I as a student after 37 years I have to find out the things to see what my Gregory was really all about things that he did with no one could see him behind the scenes well my good friend ray you're clearly okosan when he was your age was invited for say tonight to remove shapira's house I've never seen a person so happy was like a puppy dog wagging his tail we wanted to slap him today's the Russia Shiva and Tara simcha but he goes to rush to his house and he's expecting to be taken to the heavenly realms he couldn't wait to see what say tonight look like at the Shapiro house he was convinced that he would see angels appear and all kinds of mystical things happening well guess wha those days his son Shlomi was 5 years old the whole even English did not last long all British fur did was tell stories like a kindergarten teacher teaching a five-year-old describing the Exodus that's what he did he stand and told stories and they ate and he told most stories to his little five-year-old and ignored everyone else and it was over in no time and then remoter went to his room and he started learning and he came out for donning the next day how much should we like to know what happened in that room when the doors are closed and he sits there studying all night long the secrets of the Exodus but that we never get to see we never got to see what he did when he used to disappear for days at a time it's just one or two books and therefore he used to have needs to study and study but that was it and publicly he was like the most normal friendly person you know what to say to everyone I took I took call for him I took navei go to him he knew exactly what to say but the true person will never get to know my last story to you I once went with Yeshua Hartman some of you know any of the Brits over here a very hard man I mentioned his name earlier the great mast of the morale we went to East Europe it was actually with a busload of seminary girls we were their rabbis and it was Forsch audition his son and when it was over we came back on special pisaq we went to visit already it was every young turf there was a time when he used to give us a tour class and we're most for asked us what what fast could you have during that time than your width you know the Gulf what did you think about any profound ideas you want to share with us he always used to push us to come up with our own ideas and I said I told him I said I had not really a deep thought but it occurred to me the following when I went to the shore of the Roma and there there was a sign in this place we have a tradition that the remotes to pray the Ramar was the father of the halong system flash cannot Jews I felt tremendously connected to the Roma when we were in Prague and I saw a sign this is where the morale of Prague used to pray in the outlay show I felt tremendously connected from Rolla Prague I said Rebbe how can it be that in Cracow I feel close to the room all and in Prague I feel close to the Marah but when I go to the Kotel and your Shalimar caters I go to a place where everything happens so the world was created for the icater happened at so Yaakov had his dream that's where you know governor Malick was and King Solomon built the temple it's what of Hanukkah story happens it's where as you know the Babylonians and the Romans came to destroy the temples for the Jewish people came three times a years with the Rambam walk so there are a high McCulloh walk this is the place where everyone was bad I never felt the same way that I felt in crack on in Prague so I was sure that I knew he was going to answer I wish I look at me same enough let me get used to anything you know you get used to the fact that your initial I we just you've been living it to know what he says ramesha as I told you would always say something deeper than what you expect and these are the words you said and these words changed my whole appreciation of what it means to be living your shrine and you lady should remember this because you're here in Jerusalem for a reason he said to me the all in menachem when you look directly into the thumb you see nothing that's it when you look directly into the Sun you see nothing meaning you shall I this city is so intensely holy it's just like rule you missus I have my own theory that's why people go too fast fast is where the shadows begin he goes fast in a mystical but really shrine eyeing everything is hidden and I went to look for my Rebbe during the Gulf War and I said to him you know I wanted to know if I could travel to my sister's making a wedding so his wife said I don't know what my husband is he's off with these Jerusalem catalysts they're doing strange cocooning strange things to try and you know make sure that no one gets hurt during the war but that was my Rebbe the hidden one he was true greatness and the more you go deeper and deeper is what he wanted to do the more you find layers upon layers of what makes that person special so I want to finish up by saying to all of you two things number one you date make sure that your husband has a ready it's so important those either you know you're going to enter the dating scene maybe should be connected to a massara connected to a tradition of grayness and the second thing is to remind yourself every so often how fortunate we are to be the Jewish people that these people existed these people exist until a week ago we can as ago you could go to remotion pair of my ready and you can see a person who was this giant of the human being that no one else can produce these people don't exist anywhere else they never ever existed anywhere else these people of spirit the deeper you go the layers and layers of death the more beauty and more holiness and the more specialness of every single word they say and everything that they do and act and speak you throw I'm cravin Claro we are the nation that coach merical chose to be called to him a Shriner how happy we are and I'm happy we are now that relationship mine was looking down on us together with all the 2d King Ghidorah and we look forward to be reunited with all these people with the coming of machete hair via Maine and thank you for listening