The Happiest Man on Earth: The Beautiful Life of an Auschwitz Survivor - Rabbi YY Jacobson

a man passed away he was 101 years old 101 his name was Abraham jacobowitz he called himself Eddie jaku little easier than Abraham jaob was Eddie jaku he published his first book and last book at the age of a 100 one year ago after his H 100th birthday that's not bad the only one who did better than him was M raenu MO who wrote his book at the age of 120 but Eddie jaku wrote his book at the age of 100 you know what the title is the happiest man on Earth so when you see the title and you see the picture of him on the front page on the jacket of the book an elderly handsome kind man wonderful face a glow you think he lived in Sydney passed away in Sydney in Australia and you think you know he was living in Sydney all his life and the goai of those you who know Sydney in the Guai beautiful Guai neighborhood and region near the water relaxed Serene tranquil and he could walk around at the age of 100 and say I am the happiest man on Earth when you open up the book you see that he was born in 1920 in leig Germany as a teenager his parents sent him away to boarding school and he learned engineer in November 9th 1938 he came home to leik to surprise his parents for their wedding anniversary on November 9th anybody knows what happened November 9th what what exactly the Holocaust went on for many years Christal the night of broken glass he came home his parents weren't there they went into hiding 5:00 a.m. 10 Nazis came into his house there was only the dog Lulu was there they beat him mercilessly Lulu tried to protect him they killed Lulu and they beat this boy a jakobitz Abraham jacobowitz to the point that one of them with his with his dagger started to engrave a swasti on his chest in Blood of course they sent him to banal he got out of there he escaped to Belgium he was arrested in Belgium and he was sent to aitz from the platform of the train he stole a hammer and screwdriver and the 9-hour Journey Back East to ger to France Germany and aitz he was busy with his hammer and screwdriver and after nine hours he managed to create a crevice and he crept under the train and he ran he never made it to aitz he made it back to Belgium France he was arrested again and this time sent with his whole family to aitz in 1943 his parents were killed sent to the gas Chambers he was sent to work because he was an engineer so they can use his skill for one of the German factories he ran away from the death camp of awood very few people did it successfully but in the woods a Polish farmer shot him in his leg and he realized there's no way he's going to be able to survive so he went back to aitz and the Nazis never detected that he ran away so now he went back to AZ and then he was put on the death march at the end of the war when the Soviets were coming closer they took the Jewish prisoners in a death march excuse me most of them did not survive he survived the death march they put him into another Factory he was in charge of 200 machines and they had a sign that they put on his head hanging from his neck if any of the machines break hang me so he made 200 whistles for the Jewish employees that if something is wrong with a machine they should whistle so they'll able to run in and deal with it before he gets hung that's where he met his sister Henny who was also alive in that factory but then he was sent on another Death March most people couldn't survive these death marches you marched for days Days days and nights without food without water and if you stopped you were shot these are people who were emaciated they haven't eaten they were sick they were diseased they were like skeletons if you've seen pictures or documentary IES he ran away from the Death March it's a resourceful fellow he ran away from the death march into a ditch in the forest so the bullets missed him and he stayed in a ditch for six months surviving on snails six months he was so emaciated he couldn't walk he crawled from the ditch to a highway and an American an American solders spotted him and rescued him they took him to a hospital this was June 1945 the war was now over they took him to a hospital they told him that most likely he's going to die he was so malnourished he was so sick he was so diseased he hasn't eaten any at typhus so the nurse told him most likely he won't be able to make it but the man survived he survived and what did he do a few weeks later he got himself a ticket and he went back to Belgium because that's where his family fled to from Germany and he thought maybe he'll find somebody he found nobody but he found a Jewish Girl by the name of Flora and a few weeks later they were married in the summer of 1945 they were married he said but I was a miserable man I was angry I was anxious I was sad I was broken I lost everything he lost his both of his parents and most members of his family besides a sister Henny who survived he and his wife moved to Australia to Sydney where many survivors moved to and then he says in 1950 his first son was born Michael and he said as my son was born and I looked my son in his eyes I looked into the eyes of my little new angel in his words I he gave a speech I heard him say he said my joy has returned to me in abundance and at that moment I made a decision and the decision is I'm going to live a happy life I'm going to smile I'm going to be kind I'm going to be considerate and I'm going to enjoy every day of my life he says today I'm 100 years old this is last year 2020 I'm 100 years old I am the happiest man on Earth I have family I have children I have grandchildren I have great grandchildren I have the gift of friendship I have the gift of community and I have the gift of life you read this person's book he gave a tet talk two years ago 6,000 people gave him a standing ovation and you understand the power of the human spirit you're an a like what is this guy on that I'm not on and the answer is he was just drunk on the gift of life and he turns to the 6,000 people in the room at his Ted Talk and he says you know young people today don't know how to stop and breathe they don't know how to enjoy friendship they don't know how to celebrate life we are so stressed he says for me one flower in a garden is a whole garden and one friend is a whole world then he says I'll never forgive or forget the Germans I will never return to German soil and every day I miss my mother and I would give up all my money to be able to hug my mother once more she was gazed in 1943 and then he says my father told me as a teenager abam Eddie life is hard but if you put the work in you will be grateful one day and remember to be a giver is much much more enjoyable than to be a taker at the end of the day and he looks up to heaven at the age of 99 and he says today I turn to my Father in heaven and I say Daddy I am grateful there was there were very few dry uh eyes in the audience he looked at everybody and he said tomorrow will come but learn how to enjoy today and at that moment I understood what it means that our life is a factory it's not a place where you come in and everything is beautiful and perfect I have my skeletons and probably some of you have yours I have my stress and probably some of you have yours I have my internal challenges and some of you have yours this is not a world we come into for Perfection but it's also not a world that's made to break people this is a world in which the human soul the human Spirit has that power to be a partner with God who created the world and allowed there to be darkness and created the light and we are the partners who take every moment of confusion and use it as a springboard for awareness we take our anxiety and we see it as an alarm clock waking us up to who we are next time you're feeling anxiety don't get upset at your anxiety do you get upset at your alarm clock in the morning I do but it's not very logical right your alarm clock is just trying to wake you up to reality the sun has risen the sun has risen yes you get to go to Future Care in 45 minutes don't all laugh at the same time but your alarm clock is not a bad guy alarm clock is just trying to wake you up to reality you know it's time to wake up your anxiety is an alarm clock it's an alarm clock don't get upset at it and don't just press snooze it's all it's a Jewish thing to do snooze we numb our anxiety some of us through binging that's why I'm as skinny as I look some of us through other interesting things but everybody has distractions through which I press snooze so I silence the alarm clock but snooze does not silence the alarm clock so some people break the alarm clock I don't know if you ever had a brother who did that in Yesa but probably ask him we break it you don't break your anxiety and you don't snooze it you listen to it it's telling you something it's teaching you about yourself it's telling me what I have to work on it's telling you what you have to work on it's not your enemy it's your friend it's a friend that's telling you the truth you know there are friends who just say hi company excluded but then there are friends who say hi but then they say I want to share with you the truth those are real friends your anxiety is your friend and you're telling me with such friends who needs enemies right but that's the truth my anxiety is here to help me become the person I'm supposed to become it's here to wake me up to my insecurities my fears my pains my traumas my unresolved stuff it's a an opportunity to transform it into light so what is our world our world is not a place of initial light or Darkness our world is By Night followed by day where we take every experience of Darkness whatever it may look like and we say how am I going to become more empowered through this many of you sitting in this room belong to a nation known as the Jewish people right I have happos to be Jewish my mother is Jewish my father is Jewish what's the name but this really applies to everybody all Humanity it's one of the great stories in the Hebrew Bible what was the name of the father of the Jewish people Abraham Isaac and then Jacob but Jacob didn't stick his name didn't stick he has a change of name and it becomes Israel Israel interesting his name doesn't stick there's a transformation from Jacob to Israel that's why Israel is called Israel Jewish people are called Israel isra Isel Isel in English is Israel when did he get that name change so if you remember the story it was one night and he was battling a strange adversary and the strange adversary wanted to kill him but he couldn't so he maimed him and he dislocated his sciatic nerve and now Jacob was limping and now Jacob turns to him and is holding on to him and the man says send me away it's Dawn it's more morning I got to go and what does Jacob tell him I will not send you away until you don't bless me what a strange response imagine somebody attacks you in a dark alley and they're trying to kill you all night and finally in the morning they're leaving you wait wait wait wait I need a braa I need a blessing really call 911 punch them in the nose run away for your black belt even better you going to ask them for blessings what what's the meaning of this and you know what the man says instead of blessing you I'll change your name your name shouldn't be Jacob your name should be Israel is with this response Jacob was teaching his children and all of humanity forever one of the profoundest lessons in life and that is when I'm facing adversity of any kind it's not just enough for me to say get me out of this place if that's the purpose get me out of this place why did God put me into that position initially there's something much deeper I have to be able to look at my adversary whatever he or she looks like and say I will not let you go until I do not come out from this encounter more blessed The Secret of Jewish the Jewish people The Secret of Eddie Jau The Secret of all of us from time IM Memorial until this very day is that when we Face adversity whatever it looks like my response is not OMG oh my Google I mean oh my god get me out of this then who needed it in the first place why would a good God put me here my response is I was put into this difficult relationship in order to come out more blessed more wise more deep more vulnerable more real more authentic more kind more refined more Divine more tic more honest yes yes if my personal trainer is asking me to bench press 295 why is that so funny it happened it happened and I got hurt so I quit but uh that's a separate subject there also an alarm clock you're lifting weights and what happens you're tearing the tissue of the muscle it hurts but that's how the muscle rebuilds itself and becomes more powerful the seed is planted in the earth it decomposes but only after it decomposes can it morph into a tree so Jacob says I met you not just to get out of you but to come out of you more blessed to transform the darkness into light to trans form my anxiety into a blessing to realize that every trauma you're dealing with in the past and in the present was not here to break you even though it feels that way it was not here to paralyze you it was not here to put you into a depression it was not here to make you freak out and make you miserable even though it feels that way you know what it was really made for it was made to ultimately allow you to become the person you're supposed to become to be able to give the world the light that only you can give the world through your unique personality unique contribution unique energy it doesn't always feel that way but think about anybody who really changed you in a real way anybody who ever looked you in the eyes and told you something that touched you in the deepest way and it will usually be somebody who went through crisis because it's only those people all of you who ever had a conversation with such a person know exactly what I'm talking about those person who change people's lives because they can empathize because they were because they know what the darkness looks like they they have smelled it they have tasted it they have touched it they know what it means to allow night to become day that's the secret of the cycle of Judaism why our days don't begin with Sunrise they begin after Sunset and then they develop into sunrise sunset and sunrise merge the sun sets but the sun setting is just a preparation it's not the end by your Sunset is not the end of the day it's the beginning my sunsets and that becomes the Catalyst for a new sunrise for a new awareness for new Sun for new Shine for new daylight this class is brought to you by the yeshiva.net please help us continue the classes make even a small contribution at w.the usa.net donate