THE POWER OF COMMUNITY (kindness from strangers)

there's a saying that goes a photo is worth a thousand words but this photo right here to me is worth a lot more than a th000 words let me walk you through how and why I want to tell you a story that happened to me a little more than 48 hours ago I was in New York for some important business meetings and a speaking engagement when the time had come for me to return to Texas I drove the rental car which I had rented to Laguardia Airport and from there I was going to be hopping on a flight to Texas I dropped off the car got into the shuttle which took me to the terminal checked in went to security then through to my gate and then onto the plane things were going great I got onto the plane I had a big bag of kosher food with me I ate a little bit I DAV chakis prayed the morning prayers and was enjoying my flight in fact I was enjoying my flight so much that I didn't think I deserved that much enjoyment like I was having too much fun on this flight I had a great seat there was no one sitting next to me there was plenty of room and it almost seemed too good to be true shortly before the end of the flight I realized that I had left my laptop in the rental car now with the laptop in the laptop case there was also a hard drive that I've been using for the past 12 years along with many SD cards filled with footage that I've used when I've been filming my videos over the past couple years some of them which have not yet been backed up I can't even describe to you the pit that formed in my stomach when I realized that my laptop the hard drive and all of this information was gone I was beating myself up for not being more careful with my belongings for not backing up my files properly and most of all for the fact that there was so much content that I had just lost I knew that there was a possibility that the rental car company would find the laptop but I thought that was unlikely because my laptop bag is jet black and the seats of the car that I rented were also jet black and for whatever stupid reason I had taken my laptop and put it in the back seat of the car so my laptop was in this black bag on the black carpet on the floor in the back of the vehicle I know really silly but that's where it was and I did not think anyone would find it my fear was that the next person who rented the car would possibly find the laptop and if the person was not honest I knew I would never see my laptop or that information again to make matters worse if this hard drive or the laptop got into the wrong hands God forbid it could be very problematic for me there's a lot of private information on there and I was terrified the first first thing I did was start to pray begging God to help me to bring my laptop back to me I knew it was unlikely but IID figured there was no one else who could help me so I'd have to talk to God then after I got a little bit more clarity I reached out to the rental company I filed a lost item report on their website and I immediately got an email from them saying that they would get back to me within 48 hours to me that sounded absurd because I have just lost an item that can literally impact the way way my business runs for the next few years and they're only going to get back to me within 48 hours is there no urgency there's no phone number you can call to talk to a live person unfortunately the answer is no to make matters more complicated it was a Friday if it hadn't been Friday I would probably land in Texas jump on the next plane back to LaGuardia and go straight into the rental place myself trying to find a way to find the laptop but as an orthodox Jew I cannot do that because we don't travel on chabas and we don't work on shabas and I would simply have to wait it out but I was so nervous and so uptight and so terrified that my computer and all that information was going to fall into the wrong hands so I reached out to my network I sent out a message on my WhatsApp status and I basically said I need somebody to go to Laguardia Airport immediately it's an emergency to my great surprise even though it was only a couple hours before shabas a few people responded and said that they would head immediately to LaGuardia Airport one of those people drove 40 minutes to get there I asked them to call me as soon as they got there and I was hoping that whoever would get there first would be able to somehow find a way to find the laptop about 40 minutes later somebody called me and told me that he'd arrived at the airport I asked him to run into the parking lot of the car rental company where I had rented from and go straight into the lot trying to find my vehicle I gave him the make and model of the vehicle as well as the license plate number and I asked him to go try to find that vehicle the reason I did this was because I figured that if he'd go into the office they'd start asking him for paperwork and ID in the meantime the company may have already put this car back out onto the lot and every minute was precious because if they were able to find this car before someone else did this could mean that perhaps we got my laptop back so this person started running through the lot looking for my specific car he went through every single car but was not able to find the one that I have driven early that day at this point I had landed in Texas and I was taking a shuttle back to the parking lot where my car the car that I actually use every single day was parked and I got to my car and this person calls me he says listen I did not find it in the parking lot so I said okay if you didn't find it I guess we have to go in to the car rental agency so this person went in and explained that he was my friend even though we had never met before I have no idea who this person is but he went in and said that that he was my friend and that he was looking for an item that I had left in the car the staff at the car rental agency were very helpful and they tried to help him locate the item they even found the laptop but it turns out it wasn't mine I was on the phone on the line with this guy the whole time listening to his back and forth dialogue with the car rental employees and I was just so nervous and so uptight I can't even explain it to you no amount of words or a lavish description could explain to you how how nervous I was at that moment the feelings I had at that moment were a mixture of fear anxiety and nausea I did not know what was going to happen and I was so so nervous after what seemed like an eternity I overheard the kind man who'd gone to the airport to try and find my laptop talking to the guy who was working at the car rental agency and it seemed that they had found a laptop bag that was similar to mine they opened it up I asked them to send me pictures and thank God it was my laptop bag they had found it and I was now calm the next thing was trying to figure out how to get it to me as soon as possible because I have a yish language podcast on a platform called K masser which has between 30 and 40,000 people listening each week and this podcast comes out every month of shabas every Saturday night and I knew that there are going to be thousands of people waiting for this podcast to come out and the files were on my computer and nowhere else so I had to try to figure out a way to get it to me before shabas was over before Sundown on Saturday so I asked this person who had gone to the airport to find my bag to try and take it to a place where it can get shipped to me ASAP as he was leaving the car rental agency he bumped into another Jewish person who had also driven to come and try and find my laptop these two guys happen to know each other they're actually friends and one of them called me and said I want you to know that I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to go to the airport or not but I figured if I couldn't go I would call this other guy because he would certainly do it that's how kind these people are and they know each other and they know that both of them would do this kind of thing so they're incredible people before leaving the airport with my laptop in hand they actually snapped a photo with the worker at the car rental agency who found my laptop and they sent it to me which brought me intense Joy I was standing there in the parking lot in Texas about to get into my car when I got this picture confirming that they had indeed found my my laptop I was literally dancing around the parking lot I didn't care if anybody was watching the feelings of happiness and relief were so great I could not contain myself this is the photo that these two Saints sent to me from the car rental agency with the employee who found the laptop and right here you can see my laptop bag which they successfully recovered the reason I'm calling these guys Saints is because they were total strangers to me I have no idea who they are never met them before but they dropped what whatever they were doing to go and help me out a total stranger to find my laptop again I don't know them but from what I've learned I believe this guy his name is arak and this guy his name is Yehuda Benjamin oh there's a little tag here it says his name is Ben thank you guys thank you Ari thank you Yuda and thank you Ben now that I knew my laptop was safe and would not fall into the wrong hands I asked UDA Benjamin to try and get it shipped out to me as soon as possible and even though shabas was quickly approaching he went to have it shipped to me so that I could have peace of mind over shabas knowing that my laptop was on the way back home so you may be thinking why am I sharing this story with you well number one I think it's important for everybody to back up their files properly if you spend a lot of time working on something you should definitely be backing it up every few hours whether it's music writing photography graphic design whatever it is if it's digital back it up because losing it can be so painful and so difficult but that is not the reason I'm making this video the reason I'm making this video is to show you what it's like to be part of the community I am so fortunate and so blessed and so proud to be part of the Jewish community and in my community it is completely normal for people to drop whatever they're doing and to run out to help a complete stranger there's even an organization called Kim which has branches all over the world and these are simply volunteers who are willing to drop whatever they're doing to help strangers whether it's changing a flat tire or helping somebody who's locked out of their car or helping somebody who dropped their keys into a drain which is the Hebrew word for friends is always there to help you and the reason I'm sharing this with you guys is because if you're Jewish and you're part of this community you should just know how lucky and how fortunate you are to be part of this community if you are not a part of this community I want you to know how important it is to have a community to have friends like this and if you don't have something like this go out and create it find people who share your values and who you know want to make the world a better place because at the end of the day when people work together to help each other out that is what makes the world a better place thanks again to arih to Yehuda Benjamin and to all the other people who offered to go out and look for my laptop especially Kum of Queens who offered to dispatch some of their volunteers turns out that the guy who found the laptop is a member you guys are incredible and I will forever be in debted to you lastly if you like the hoodie that I'm wearing this is the PIN design from candle and strap my new clothing line the pin is the spark that every Jewish person has and since October 7th we're seeing people's Souls ignited searching for Judaism searching to be connected to their Heritage this product is available at Candle and strap. and part of the proceeds from every single purchase go towards United hatah which is an incredible organization made up of thousands of volunteers all over the world who are willing to drop everything in order to run and save a stranger's life thank you for watching God bless you all and as soon as my hard drive gets back to me we will be releasing some brand new videos from my latest trip to Israel see you soon